On Saturday, my beloved Dohn asked me to marry him.

I said yes.

The ring had been a while in the making. I am a ditherer. I am not good at making decisions. (When it comes to work I am, but when it comes to my life? Fuggedit.) First I had to choose a jeweller and settled on the remarkable David Taylor Master Jeweller in Cairns. Then David did some searching according to the criteria we’d decided on, and I had to select a diamond. (I has me standards, I does!) The diamond took two or three weeks for me to decide on, and then had to be imported so that added another week. There was much excitement when David told us it had arrived and was stunning. In the meantime, he had made a silver draft of the ring design I wanted, with a cubic zirconia. This is his fail-safe way of making sure the customer is going to be super-happy with the end result, and he will make as many adjustments as it takes. We drove down to Cairns to approve the diamond (as if I’d know if it wasn’t what it was professed to be! But the GIA certificate was also there) and try on the draft.

The diamond (which David referred to as a “stone” and we called “the rock”) was so white. Which it should be, with its D colour, but it really was very bright and sparkly. The silver draft was ok but I wanted a few adjustments, and later graphics of variations were to fly thick and fast between us. David was wonderful. Believe me, that man has the patience of a saint. He never let me feel for a moment that I was causing hassles or wasting his time with my dithering and chopping and changing. Such a professional.

A total of three drafts later, I was finally happy with the design and David, who may perhaps have been more relieved than any of us, made up the engagement ring and we picked it up on Saturday, 13th October, 2012.

It is exactly what I envisaged. The man is a genius.

Most importantly, though, Dohn and I could now tell people. We have been so happy together and we are looking forward to building a future in this “strange new land” in which we find ourselves. We are not sure when the wedding will be (both of us want to be married but the thought of a wedding fills our hearts with dread) but we do know we intend to spend the rest of our lives together.