The story of us - part 1

Today, 8 years ago H "abducted" me from my riding lesson to Dullstroom, our trout fishing "capitol" - a sleepy and picturesque little town. I knew that he was getting ready to pop the big question so on arrival at our little cottage next to a dam, I immediately spotted the lovely fireplace and thought that he would do it later that night while relaxing in front of the fireplace. At 4 the afternoon he surprised me by asking me to get ready to go for a ride on a neighbouring farm. And on the escarpment, overlooking what looks like half the world, against the setting sun, he got down from his horse, helped me to get down and on his one knee asked me to marry him. Off course I accepted and he put a beautiful diamond ring onto my finger, and we were engaged.

We met 10 years ago this September the 5th in a coffee shop over breakfast on a Saturday morning. I was unexpectedly in Johannesburg for the day - my dentist, an ex boyfriend , has his practice there and I had some emergency dental work done very early the morning. So I thought it would be nice to meet some Jo'burg friends for breakfast and the first friend I called, Joe, was so happy to hear from me that he asked that I meet him in 15 minutes time - but he added that he was already meeting a friend of his and I would join them. And there he was - I can remember seeing him for the first time as if it happened yesterday. Cute! We chatted away and when Joe phoned on Sunday night to ask if he can pass my telephone number to H I was not surprised. What did surprise me was that a guy so much younger than me wanted to date me - I later found out that he is 4 and a half years younger than I am. And that was the very last time that I was stressed about the age difference.

Things didn't start off smoothly as he cancelled our first date ( he was injured in a rugby match the night before) and when he called for a date the next weekend, I already had one lined up. But eventually by the third weekend and after a lot of emailing and phoning, we had our first date - and I instantly fell in love. He said he knew when we met that I was "The One" It took me a bit longer, but boy I was smitten!

We lived in two neighbouring cities and saw each other over weekends, and sometimes a week night, and he moved to Pretoria to be closer to me after about a year and a half. After a very relaxed and enjoyable dating period of just short of two years, he asked the question. And the rest, as they say, is history. My sweetheart, although you don't know that this blog exist, I love you as much, if not more, than I did on our special day 8 years ago. You are my everything.

Keep your eyes peeled for part 2 etc. in future.