An engagement story

It seems only fitting to end the year with the news which has defined my 2019. In fact it seems a nice way to end the decade as I have spent the whole decade in this relationship. I do like it when things go a full circle and are tied up nicely.

Back in October we took a trip over to Northern Ireland for a long weekend with some friends. We had an almighty Causeway Coast road trip planned, showing our friends all our favourite places and discovering a few new ones along the way. We landed in Belfast around 9am, picked up our car and went on our way. After ticking off a few places we spotted a sign for the Torr Head scenic route by Cushendun Caves. We'd seen this sign a few times but never done the route so thought it would be lovely to do something new to us and new for our friends.

We followed the long and winding roads up to the top of Torr Head. It's not a route for the faint hearted! Those roads seem extremely narrow when you spot a car coming towards you and you have to scoot over... We parked at the bottom of Torr Head, took a deep breath and began our climb up. Apart from a group of four people coming back down, the area was completely deserted and we soon had the whole area to ourselves. The one thing I adore about Northern Ireland is that you often have the sights all to yourselves. We trekked up to the top, had a look around the rather grimy derelict house at the top before wandering around.

After noticing that Connor was wandering off, I decided to follow. I've always been someone who is scared to miss out on the good stuff so when someone wanders off I follow! I looked behind me and noticed our friends had stayed at the viewpoint. Thinking this was weird, I just assumed they had had an argument! I climbed over the wire fence to be greeted with a gorgeous view of Scotland. Connor carried on walking but I called out that I was going to sit on a rock to admire the view. He came back and took a seat next to me. From now it is all a bit of a blur, he cracked a joke then grabbed the ring out of his pocket and asked me to marry him.

Obviously never one to keep it cool, I had to sit for a good few minutes with my head in my hands to take it all on. I'm not very good at receiving surprises (and a surprise this was!) so needed a few minutes to get it all together and process what exactly was happening. Not the best situation for Connor to be in! The girl he just asked to marry him sitting there with her head in her hands exclaiming she may have a panic attack... But I said yes!

Connor really couldn't have chosen a more perfect place. It is a place which means a lot to us both and we go back fairly regularly to. Connor's dad and family are from the country and I just fell in love with it from my very first visit. Ireland really does make my heart happy. I love the fact it's a place which is just an hour from where we visit Connor's family so we can frequently go back. Maybe even take our children if we ever have any! I'm a sucker for sentiment and adore the fact the ring is an emerald. Pretty fitting for the Emerald Isle!