Bourton on the Water

Now that I am older though, and also because I am a photographer, I am coming to realise how great these places we went to really were. I want to revisit the places my parents took me as a child. Recently, I had a week off work, and Lorraine and I headed to one of these places. We flew over to Bristol, hired a car and drove up to the Cotswolds fo a few days. It was brilliant, to just relax, with no plans, and appreciate the beautiful area of England we were in. We made the most of the car hire and unlimited mileage, we stayed in Bourton on the Water, and visited Lower Slaughter, Burford, Stow on the Wold, Stratford Upon Avon, Oxford and Bath.

Punts

Radcliffe Camera

As always, Lorraine has all the ‘normal’ photos, and I spent a lot of time behind my SLR.

Old Buildings in Stratford

Bath Abbey

There are a few more photos on my Flickr

Blog closed until further notice. See ya in a while.

I was going to post an embarrassing photo of her, but that would just be mean.

Happy Birthday Lori, lots of love.

I am at a stage of my life where there are lots of areas changing, and quite significantly.

In the past I have gone through various transitions, going from primary school to high school, from high school to university, moving out of home (mostly), my family moving away from where I grew up. These have all been fairly significant changes in my life, and the next year is going to be full of even more significant changes.

I have just graduated from QUB, which means the end of full tine education. I find this bizarre, because up until this point in my life, full time education has been what I do. I have been in school since I was 4, so that’s 19 years of education at an end.

I recently started a job, and it’s a full time, permanent job, not a working in a shop on weekends job, but a real job. So far I really enjoy being in the working world, I have a lot to learn and get used to, but in time that will all come.

Probably the biggest change is one that is happening in a little over 6 months time. I am getting married in January. I know quite a few people think that I’m too young, and others don’t understand why I am getting married, but I am, and I’m really looking forward to this new stage of life. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a little nervous about the whole thing. If I’m being honest I will probably find the transition from Belfast student,  to married life in Ballymena difficult at times.

I wouldn’t have it any other way though, I’m excited about getting married, and I couldn’t have anyone better to go through it with. I love Lorraine and am so thankful for her. I know that this next year will be challenging, but it is going to amazing, and I am looking forward to embracing this new phase in my life, with my fiancée, then wife by my side.

More specifically, this day last year I was in Adelaide, South Australia. I was with the guys I was travelling with, a friend who moved to Adelaide a few years ago, and my then girlfriend, Lorraine. Adelaide was a lovely city, see my post about it here. It is also Lorraine’s favorite place in the world, so when it worked out we would both be there together I decided to propose.

Adelaide, South Australia

Most of you guys know I am engaged, and are probably wondering why I am talking about it now. Well it’s exactly a year since we got engaged, and I don’t think I ever told the story of the proposal. Today seems like a good day to tell it.

DISCLAIMER: I am a guy, so I probably won’t tell this as well as Lorraine would, so you can ask her as well.

We had been out and about in Adelaide all day. I had told Lorraine that it’s not often we’d be in Adelaide together so I was going to take her out for dinner.
I got our friend Shel to drop us off in Glenelg, and we headed to Cafe Esca. A lovely restaurant overlooking Glenelg jetty and beach, although it was dark so you couldn’t really see much out the window. We had a lovlely meal, and towards the end of the meal I nipped off to the loo, to practice what I was going to say, and to try and calm down, I was really nervous. I also phoned my friend Steve back home in Belfast, I don’t know why, but I did.

Lorraine and I went for a walk along the waterfront, and out on to Glenelg Jetty. When we got to the end of the jetty there was a bench, which I got Lori to sit down on. At this point I dropped to one knee, but here’s the funny thing, Lorraine was looking the other direction at the time, so when she looked around and saw me on the ground she assumed, not that I was about to propose, but instead that I had gone to sit down on the bench and missed. I reached into my bag and pulled out a Haribo ring, I will explain, and asked Lorraine to marry me. I also assured her that I was serious, and not just having a laugh. Her response was a giggle and tear filled yes.

On Glenelg Jetty

Now, the Haribo ring (gummy/jelly ring). I had been planning the proposal for a while, and months before we got engaged Lorraine and I had been joking that there was no way I could afford a proper ring and she would have to make do with a Haribo ring, jokingly she said, sure that’s fine as long as it is a red ring. So I posted a stack of red Haribo rings to Australia before I went.

Haribo Ring

After the proposal I then gave Lorraine a bag of about 45 red rings, one for each day until I saw her again. I was catching a flight to Sydney the next morning, and wouldn’t be back in Ireland until August 13th.
We spent some time just enjoying the moment, before going to The Dublin bar. Some of our friends were waiting there with champagne to congratulate us. It was really nice to have some of our closest friends to celebrate with, even though we were on the other side of the world. A few phone calls were made home, and that was the evening of July 2nd 2008.

Later on in the summer, near the end of our trip the 4 of us were in NYC. We were walking down 5th Avenue one morning, when we walked past Tiffany & Co. Alan suggest we go in for a laugh, to look at all the expensive crap we would never buy, or so I thought. We were directed by a big security guard to the engagement rings on the 2nd floor.

Tiffany & Co.

As we looked at the rings, one in particular caught my eye. I knew that it was exactly the style of ring that Lorraine wanted. With no intention of buying it, I asked the price. Last summer the exchange rate was pretty good and I was really surprised by the price. After a few days of deliberation and some phone calls home, on my last day in NYC I went in and bought the Platinum Solataire Princess cut engagement ring. I arrived home in Ballymena the next day, and gave the ring to Lorraine.

Photo by Emma Boyd - www.emmaboyd.co.uk

It’s now only 6 months until we get married. Hopefully we can continue to travel around the world together, including many more trips, and maybe even a move to Australia.

No doubt Lorraine will comment on this post with things I may have forgotten so keep an eye on the comments as well.

Photo by Emma Boyd

I’ve had a really busy week, with lots going on… Last weekend I spent up at the Uni of Ulster in Coleraine, for MAD10, a youth weekend run by PCI, I was helping out with the technical side of things for the weekend, its my 3rd year doing it and I love it, its always a great weekend with lots of yound people coming from all over Ireland to meet together, it was also cool to meet paul and ruth in the real world for a change.

After MAD I was lucky enough to catch Snow Patrol at an intimate gig of a few hunderd people in The Empire in Belfast. Having heard ‘Take back the city’ ad not really liking it I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I have to say the new material sounds pretty good, I haven’t got the album yet though, will get it this week. They played both new and older songs, it was a pretty good night…

I actually saw Lorraine quite a bit this week, which was really nice, normally I will only see her once during the week, but it was her 21st birthday yesterday, so we were out for a meal with friends on Monday night, then out for a meal with her family last night… both meals were pretty nice, and ti was great to celebrate with her… Happy 21st Birthday (for yesterday) Lorraine!!

I’m gonna be pretty busy the next few days, with uni, work, photoshoots and gigs, so either expect a lot of posts, or not very many at all…

Lorraine had been talking about getting a mac for a while, and she got her student loan last week, so i went down to the apple store with her on wednesday of last week, and she got herself a macbook, along with a free iPod nano and a free printer… pretty good deal…

Let me introduce to you, Lorraine Fleming… my fiancee…

Lorraine and I got engaged last Wednesday evening in Adelaide, South Australia… pretty exciting and cool…

I have just discovered that this internet cafe wont let me upload photos so I will post again when i get some photos uploaded, maybe when I get to Coffs Harbour later in the week,