I think it’s about time I blog again and what better reason to do it than that I am the happiest luckiest girl in the world because Branson Blackburn proposed to me? I know most people know the story already but I wanted to make sure to get it all down for myself at least, so that I do not forget the precious little parts.
Branson came to Scotland to visit me on March 6th after two months apart and I was only at the airport two hours early or so, I was so ready. Watching him walk out the gate and knowing he was actually here and finally getting to see and experience everything I’ve been living and telling him about for months now was such a relief and so exciting at the same time. Mind you, his excitement wasn’t quite enough to combat the exhaustion and the kid missed every bit of the scenery on the train to St Andrews because he was passed out with his mouth wide open the whole ride. We took a taxi from the train station and collapsed in the flat doing nothing for a little while so that he could have some recovery time. That night was his first flatmate dinner, which was a wonderful multicultural feast, thanks to my wonderful roommates. We had French foie gras, German potato cakes (kartoffelpuffer), Canadian mashed spuds decorated with maple glazed carrots to look like the Canadian flag (because I live with a mad patriotic Canadian), a British main of beef soaked in beer and topped with baked baguette then my layer cake courtesy of marthastewart.com of course. I thought Branson would be overwhelmed at first but he settled right into the ridiculous dynamics, throwing in his misogynistic jokes much to Paige’s chagrin. At one point that night, Tom pulled Branson aside and the two of them disappeared somewhere quite suspiciously, which I assumed was Tom asking Branson if he needed a photographer for the proposal since they knew as much as I did…that the idea was it was going to happen at some point in the week. I cannot tell you how hard it was not to go digging around for the ring. Not to see it, just to know if it was there. The two of them came back after apparently discussing Aristophanes, which makes perfect sense. I had sent out an invite for a huge bonfire that night for everyone I knew and anyone they wanted to bring so after dinner we went rummaging about for palets and caravanned down to the beach Castle Sands to destroy some palets for fire wood. Unfortunately, the beach had been claimed by some juvenile delinquents, one of whom almost nailed Tom in the head with a bottle unintentionally which just riled him up and meant we weren’t starting the fire until they left. This did not happen because the dang mongrels never left. Branson and I climbed up on the cliff over the sea that is a part of the castle fortress and sat there with our feet over the edge listening to the waves and looking up at the wonderfully clear sky and it was perfect. The bonfire was a huge success with people none of us knew came just because they saw a bonfire and heard a guitar and next thing we knew they were singing along with songs Tom had written and helping people who had never had s’mores to make them. It was the perfect introduction to the ridiculous but endearing community that is St Andrews.
The next day we were supposed to go to church at St. Salvator’s but Branson wouldn’t have survived getting up and sitting on one of the old fashioned wooden pews I don’t think, so we had an independent devotional and prayer time with each other and I made English muffins with fried eggs and Canadian bacon and yogurt parfaits, so we got to have a wonderful Sunday brunch, then walked the pier and had the most beautiful view of St Andrews, with the castle and cathedral at sunset and I could watch Branson start to fall in love with it like I have. The best part looking back now is that he spent quite a little while walking around the castle just looking at it from the outside since we weren’t going in yet. Little did I know he was actually scouting it out in the daylight to plan for the proposal!!
That night, a bunch of us were having dinner because our friend Tai was in town and made us a delicious pasta dish. We’d been sitting around for a while talking about sneaking in to the castle ruins that overlook the sea near my house. I’d told Branson that we could sneak in one night if we wanted to and we’d decided to do it that night. While we were sitting there, Tom asked Tai if he wanted to come have a smoke on the “porch”. Then he asked Branson if he’d like a smoke, at which point I definitively rebuked him and told him to stop trying to corrupt my boyfriend. Branson laughed and said no and so Tom and Tai headed out. This was their code, developed at some unknown point in the day, for signaling that Tom and Tai were going to go sneak into the castle and position themselves at a good vantage point for photos. Soon after, Branson and I went to put on warm layers to go sneak in ourselves, and I changed out of my cute outfit for comfort’s sake, not guessing what lay ahead. We dashed off to the castle, hopped over the little wooden fence and ran across the riskiest of expanses, the rolling green that was mostly in the light of the nearby street lamp post, and darted through a little archway into the grounds of what was once inside the castle. It was wonderful running around in there like children, holding hands until Branson decided to scale a wall like Spiderman to see if he could get up on the tower. I was frustrated with him for this until I walked around the castle and found a perfect little staircase, unblocked so that I was able to just trot up there. The view of the sea from the tower was beautiful and the night was moonless so it took a while for our eyes to adjust, but it was like being in another world. I wanted to take pictures but was so nervous about getting caught by someone spotting the flashes that I only got a few. Then I heard something. A distinct footstep just below us in the main opening of the ruins. Very close by. I began to freak out, crouched down and got into a corner, trying to pull Branson down with me. I was a tad irrational, saying things like “We’re being hunted,” “We will just have to camp out up here since we have the obvious advantage of higher ground,” and “There’s only one entrance for them to get to us by”. Since I knew that whoever was down there had heard us but hadn’t said anything, it was very unnerving and suspicious to me and I obviously wanted to exercise extreme caution. Instead, Branson pulled me up into an alcove of the tower to look out over the sea and I began to question his line of logic, since obviously this meant that whoever was hunting us had an easy view of our silhouettes against the night sky. I was about to explain this to him when I leaned in and felt his heart beating very rapidly. I was suddenly amused at the idea that he was just as scared as I was of this unknown predator, but didn’t want to admit or show it. With this in mind, I smiled up at him smugly and asked why his heart was beating so hard. All I remember of his response is that his eyes got really big, he backed up, then went down on one knee and took something out of his pocket that it was too dark to see. I started shaking and thought he must be joking, but then he said to me “You’re the love of my life, will you marry me?” I started breathing again when I said “yes, of course!” and nothing else, because in that moment, eloquence evaded me. I think the moment spoke eloquently enough for itself. He picked me up and we hugged and laughed at me for being so scared as he turned around and called out to my flatmates that they could come out now. At this point, I told him he better get back and put that ring on my finger, so he took it out of it’s box. Then I heard a musical “clink, clink, clink!” of the ring falling onto the stone. We managed to find it, so my first glimpse was in the starlight between stones of the castle tower floor. I think it was perfect. I was ridiculously giddy and hugged all my friends and they had brought a bottle of very nice champagne, so they all climbed up in the tower and we sat around and celebrated and took pictures. It was the best night of my life to this point and I will never forget it. Pure magic.
