Hello internet! I am back in London! I am extremely jet-lagged and feel all floaty and weird, but am trying to stay awake for the rest of the day because I have to go to work tomorrow and I think they’re going to expect me to do more than just stare into space and drool for 8 hours. My life is HARD.

More stories about our lovely holiday to follow when my brain feels slightly more connected to my fingers. In the meantime, here is the story of the lovely J’s lovely proposal. Aw.

It was not actually a very choreographed one – no getting down on one knee or hiding it in the cake or anything. J had mentioned a while ago that he had a present he wanted to give me when we were on holiday, and I had vaguely responded that he was a sweetheart and I looked forward to it, but not thought anything more of it. So on Friday evening we were getting ready to go out (for what was a delicious steak dinner at the Four Seasons) and J asked me if I wanted my present. I was in the vestibule of the hotel room checking the mirror and I said ’sure’, and he came over to me, put his hand in his pocket, and brought out a ring box. At which point I promptly screamed, hugged him, and then said ‘I can’t believe you’re proposing to me in a hotel room vestibule’.

So it’s a good thing there was a ring in the box, and he was proposing, or I’d have looked a bit foolish. Luckily I had assumed correctly. We went back into the main bit of the hotel room, and he actually got to open the box, and he asked me if I’d marry him, and I said ‘well of course I will’. And that was that really. I kissed him a lot, and then we both sat down on the end of the bed and looked at each other in a sort of ‘huh, this is new’ kind of fashion. And then we pulled ourselves together and went and had dinner.

The ring is beautiful, and exactly what I had hoped for. Although this is because I have been dropping very specific hints about it for ages. Actually not even hints. I’ve basically said, verbatim, ‘I would like an engagement ring that is three round-cut diamonds on a yellow gold band’ and J, sensibly, didn’t try to stray from this. I never expected it to be quite so big though, or so sparkly.

So that’s how he did it. It was lovely, and I’m delighted he did it in America because mutual love of the States has always been a feature of our relationship. We’ll be getting hitched in the UK though, at a date and location to be determined. Man, I have to plan a wedding. This is just beginning to dawn on me…