proposals

My husband-to-be kept the secret from me for two weeks.  He had asked my mother and my father (they are separated) and explained to them that he wished to ask for their blessing prior to asking me.
 
The night he asked me he had, unbeknownst to me, been off work from 12md on the Friday (he’s the Manager of a large company so this is a real effort).  He then proceeded to make the preparations.
 

My partner and I are apart of the Henley on Todd here in Alice Springs.
On the big day we were down in the river bed along with almost 4000 people. We were getting the boat ready, and all dressed up as pirates we decided to go down to the middle of the arena and cause some trouble (as pirates do) 

We had been dating for a good 7 months and from what I had noticed about my little man is that he is very good at planning and keeping things a secret!
 It was coming up to the weekend of my 26th birthday, we hadnt planned anythng, and I didnt expect much all. I wanted something nice and quiet. He had picked me up from my house on a Saturday and I had packed what he had told me. I hopped in the car and we were off. :)

Jake and I had already been together for 7 years and I'd given up on him ever proposing! In 2007, we travelled to the Falkland Islands (a remote group of islands off the coast of South America) as he'd accepted a 2 year contract working for the tourist board there. Soon after we arrived, we were enjoying a weekend break at Sea Lion Lodge, an amazing hotel on a very remote island (population 4 humans and approximately ten thousand penguins!).
 

David is a firefighter here in Alice Springs, and also works another job that requires him to work night shifts.  Generally a firefighter works two days on, two nights on then four days off.  During August of last year he had worked 12 night shifts in 14 days, and I was starting to think that he was trying to spend as much time away from me as he could.