15th - 18th May:
** Photos in Gallery on right hand side of the page **
On Friday night, we arrived home from work, loaded food and sleeping bags into Sven the van, and drove South-West to County Kerry. This time we managed to cook a nice hot meal on the burner in the van (this was better than peanut butter sandwiches for dinner!).
We woke in the van Saturday morning to a very misty, rainy day. After having 'timed' showers in the campground facilities, we made our way out of town to Killarney National Park.
We stopped into the information centre, where a very helpful lady explained the different walks and gave us a map of the walking trails. The walk was going to be around 2 hours, and we donned raincoats and shorts as it was pouring with rain.
There weren't many other people silly enough to be out walking around Muckross Lake. It was beautiful scenery, very similar to New Zealand with mountains surrounding the lake. Different forest though, and different wildlife - we saw a red squirrel rushing up a tree!
About halfway around, Maneesh pointed out a little track leading down to a clearing near the water, and said we'd go for a snack down there. I thought it looked a bit slippery, but was keen for chocolate! Out came the chocolate from the backpack (along with the ring box, unbeknown to me). Maneesh said we'd do a bit of videoing - as we usually do - to talk about the day so far. I was worried the camera would get damaged in the rain, but he brushed it off. He set up the camera on a little tree-stump and we stood under a tree and chatted to the video camera about the walk so far. (Unfortunately the sound recording didn't work, but in the video you can easily see what's going on).
We were talking about the things we've enjoyed doing, and then Maneesh's comments got a little bit more formal, and I realised he was making a speech. After saying a string of lovely things (all I could do was grin at him) he got down on one knee, took my hand, and produced the most beautiful ring from his raincoat pocket, and said, "so, Emma, will you marry me?". I didn't keep him waiting at all, and said "Yes! Of course!!" and then he tried to slide the ring on my finger. My fingers were a bit swollen from the walking in the rain, so he had a little trouble, and I encouraged him with "Push! Keep pushing, it'll go on!" I was pretty keen to have it on my finger, haha! And on it did go.
After kisses and hugs, we started shivering from standing still in the cold, so we decided to keep walking and celebrate back in the van. On the rest of the walk, I heard lots of stories - how Maneesh had designed the ring and ordered it to be made in Australia and delivered to Ireland, how he had phoned my father the day before to ask permission, and how we wouldn't be camping in the van that night - we would be staying at the Riverside Hotel, in Killarney!
We stopped in at Muckross House to use the facilities. As I was drying my hands in the bathroom, staring at my ring, two Irish girls exited their cubicles. They saw me looking at my hand, so I said "You're the first people I've told, but I just got engaged!" The girls were really excited, and gave me a hug, saying "Wow! that's the best news ever". They then ran out into the foyer, and gave Maneesh a hug, saying "congratulations! Well done!". When we all walked outside, their boyfriends were waiting. The girls said, "These two Kiwi's just got engaged!", and in typical Irish humour, one of the guys said "What, in the toilet??"
Back in the warmth of the van, we made a nice hot cup of tea and had some lunch. This was followed by more presentations - Maneesh had made a story book for me (fully illustrated and coloured-in) "The Adventures of Milko and Rosie" - the long-awaited sequel. It was full of all our adventures since the year we met - I had made the first volume for him back in 2006. This story book even included Maneesh proposing, and me saying 'yes' - the picture is uncannily similar to the actual event, and we had never been to Killarney.
We pulled out the map of the Killarney walking tracks to mark 'X' on the spot where it happened, and the map was sodden. To get a new one, we walked all the way back to the information centre. The same helpful lady was still on the desk. She looked at us funny when we asked for another map. Then we said "Remember that walk you sent us on this morning? Well Maneesh proposed half way around". She was delighted, and made all the staff come over to tell them. They said it was the first proposal they'd had there (which we found hard to believe given the beautiful scenery). They gave us a new map, and date-stamped the back to commemorate the occasion. They also gave us a copy of the park guide book to remember the scenery.
Now slightly less in shock, we took Sven the van down the road to the Riverside Hotel in Killarney, and tucked him up in the hotel carpark. The hotel was really beautiful. We checked in, then wandered into town, had a little look around, and bought some bubbly to celebrate.
Back at the hotel, we went to the very nice restaurant for dinner, me wearing the clothes that Maneesh had secretly whipped out of my wardrobe and brought for me to wear (better than sneakers, shorts, and a raincoat!). I couldn't help telling random people we had just got engaged, so When the waitress asked how our day had been, she heard the news too. We were given a free bottle of wine with our dinner to celebrate, which was very nice.
By that stage, it was finally getting close to being time to call New Zealand and Australia, as everyone was waking up on Sunday morning their time. We set up the computer, and our wine glasses, and began calling or Skyping everyone in our families. This was a really enjoyable job - it was so good to share the excitement with the people we love! My parents were sitting on the phone waiting for us to call after Maneesh spoke to them on Friday. They'd even taken the phone to bed with them! We finally had to stop calling at around 2:00am from sheer exhaustion, but we made a few more calls on Sunday morning before, and after, a lovely breakfast in the restaurant downstairs.
After a late 12:00pm check-out, we packed back into Sven, and headed toward home in Limerick. Lucky I wasn't driving - I kept getting distracted by the sparkles on my hand.
At home, we tackled informing everyone else by email, preferably before they found out impersonally via Facebook!
On Monday there was lots of excitement at both of our workplaces - my boss brought in Champagne and strawberries to our team meeting in the morning! The Irish women do a special thing with engagement rings - they take your ring and put it on their ring finger, they turn it three times towards their heart, and make a wish. You are not allowed to wish for a man, or for money, but you are allowed to wish for a Mother in Law! I think nearly everyone in my office wanted to have their turn inspecting the ring and making a wish this way. The girls in Maneesh's office said I have to go out there, so they can do it too!
And here we are, engaged and very, very happy about it! Thank you so much for all the lovely emails we've received - you have made the occasion even more special.
