Getting Married

Well, this is how it all happened......

It was March. We had already decided, one spur of the moment Thursday evening, while strolling through a river bank in Elwood, that we would leave Melbourne and head back home to Ireland. We had a plan and this was it...
We would fly to Perth, spend a few days there, then on to Kuala Lumper, travel up through Malaysia and Thailand over through Cambodia and along the coast, all the way up through Vietnam until we got to Sapa in the north. Next, we would cross the border to China, going to Kunming. Making use of the extensive train network we would go to shanghai, hong kong and up to Bejiing, see the wall and head east to Uduximi, in far western China. From there we would cross over into Turkmeinistan, travel on to Kasikstan, into northern Iran (to see the most beautiful lake in the world), next, up to Turkey, turn east into Russia, back through Poland, Germany, Austria, France, England and finally fly from London to Eglington Airport, Derry, Ireland.

So, we had the map, we had the plan, I strolled into work and quit the job I hated....
Then the plan changed......

Paddy proposed. He was never one for quitting and leaving seemed a lot like quitting our life in Australia, so he said something along the lines of ... "lets stay on here, the Irish economy is fucked". I had to agree that things were only getting worse back home and my employer wanted me to stay. I hated my job at the time, I really did, but staying meant that we could work through that and that things could get better.

So, then Paddy turned to me and said "Would you like to get engaged? I've been trying to save up to propose for ages now and I've just been made redundant, so I can buy you the nicest engagement ring ever". I said a big YES!! (and the ring is beautiful, but I would have been happy with a pink, plastic ring with a love heart on it if it ;) We called our families and friends and jumped around for a while in glee.

and we stayed in Australia.....

Things picked up for us too! Paddy, who had been made redundant, got a new job in ANZ. Me, who hated my job, got a wonderful new one in the World's Best Company Ever!!!
We moved house to the vibrant, lively suburb of Balaclava, took a trip to New Zealand, paraglided and began writing a novel (which is almost completely typed out by now, almost ;)