How crazy has the last week been for me?
Let me explain.
No, there is too much. Let me sum up.
Turned 40. Had a facial. Flew in a helicopter. Watched some frolicking dolphins. Threw a Princess Bride Party. Oh, and I’m now engaged to a Rodent Of Unusual Size.
So yeah, been pretty busy.
But okay, I can imagine you’re probably going to need a bit more detail. Particularly on the last one.
It was my birthday last week. The big four-oh. To be honest, I was so busy trying to figure out the logisitics of throwing the accompanying party that it never (and still hasn’t) occurred to me to be worried about it as a milestone. The only point at which I suffered any kind of age-related angst was when, looking around the kitchen/dining area which was strewn with party supplies including speakers, boxes of wine, and decorations I wondered if a forty-year old should have a slightly less chaotic living environment.
Anyway, my birthday started well with a pancake breakfast and relaxing (if someone squeezing your blackheads could be considered relaxing) facial. The Silver Fox had a “surprise” organised for me but which was weather-dependent and might not go ahead, depending on wind. My mother was enlisted to babysit and I asked relevant questions like “Am I suitably attired? Will there be photos – should I put on makeup?”
Yes, maybe I should.
As we drove out towards the west of the city, close to the airport, I hoped very much that I wasn’t going to be forced to jump out of a plane. Because I’d had quite a big lunch and pancakes and I just couldn’t see that going very well.
So you can imagine my relief when we pulled into the carpark of a helicopter tour company. Helicopters. Yay! Never been in one. Always wanted to. Is that the Magnum PI theme music I can hear in my head?
As it happened, a Campbell Live crew were there filming for a story at the same time, but anyway soon we were getting in an actual helicopter. This is me being very happy about that.
Wheeeeeee!
Helicopters are mad. One minute you’re on terra firma, the next there’s nothing underneath you and it feels like there’s nothing but a curve of plexiglass between you and gravity.
It’s also a very strange thing to be familiar with a city but to suddenly see it from a completely different perspective. And it’s sobering to see the vast swathes of the city that have been denuded of their built adornments. Lush and green by the river, dusty and barren in the city. Oh yes, and there are some roadcones. Of course.
We flew (Flying! Wheee!) south, cresting the Port Hills and continuing over Lyttelton Harbour and Port Levy to a grassy outcropping overlooking Beacon Rock. And voila, a picnic hamper appears from under a seat and it’s off for a little walk to find a nice spot with a view (which would be all of them, actually).
And out comes a bottle of something bubbly and, truth be told, things were starting to feel a bit “stagey” a that point. So what happened next wasn’t a massive surprise, though the manner of the proposal was.
The SF produced a handmade box fashioned to look like a library catalogue drawer complete with a little pull handle and label with my name on it. Inside were a series of index cards which would have said “will you marry me?” except, because that wouldn’t have been in alphabetical order they said –
Marry
Me?
Will
You
Sort of like being proposed to by Yoda. A tall, handsome, not green Yoda.
At the back of the drawer, in a velvet-lined, handcrafted compartment was a diamond ring.
The SF has much been in the garage of late slaving away on some mystery project and this was it.
Well. Obviously I said yes. I’m only human, after all. The man wooed me with alphabetical order and archaic library paraphernalia. He knows his stuff. His stuff being me.
And as we finished our wine and tried out our new vocabulary of words like “intended”, “betrothed”, and “fee-on-say”, from a clifftop we watched Hectors dolphins swimming about far below. And then we got back in the helicopter (I love typing that phrase – it makes me feel like a rockstar) and flew back.
The party went well, and the SF’s Rodent Of Unusual Size costume was universally admired. Here he is –
Sorry, ladies and gents, he’s taken.
Originally published on Stuff, 09/12/2014