Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

Underground > Conversation >

Ring a ding

Page: (1)2 3 4 5

22:10 / 16.03.05

Hello all, and good evening.

I've been ring shopping today. A very special ring to be specific. An engagement ring for the woman that I love.

As some of you may be aware from previous posts, Mrs the Ball (TBC) lives in LA, I'm in sunny London. Anyway, this moment has been building for a while. She comes to visit next week, and in the short time that we have before life resumes and planning for the next visit starts, I am planning on dropping to one knee and asking her to be my wife.

I'm nervous in a perfect way, not that I may be making a bad choice, I have never been more certain, a thing has never been more clear - we are meant for each other in every way - no, I'm nervous as this is a big thing for me.

I'll keep you all posted as to how things go.

22:12 / 16.03.05

Oh, good luck! May no Hugh Grantian mishaps befall you!

22:12 / 16.03.05

what's TBC? to be continued?

22:15 / 16.03.05

To be confirmed.

Kind of stuck after a conversation about significant other euphamisms.

I'll make sure that I don't mention David Cassidy!

22:47 / 16.03.05

Thank God! I thought it stood for Tuberculosis! Phew!

Good luck and that, I'm sure it'll all go swimmingly.

23:03 / 16.03.05

This is sooo cool. It seems only yesterday there was a thread on the efficacy or lack thereof of long-distance relationships. Way to show the doubters!

Regrettable Juvenilia

07:57 / 17.03.05

Well, the doubters might want to wait a while before considering themselves "shown".

Tryphena Absent

08:36 / 17.03.05

Well to be honest with ya chuck, I'd feel happier if you'd lived together but good luck, I hope she accepts and you're together in the same country for the next 40 years.

09:04 / 17.03.05

It seems only yesterday there was a thread on the efficacy or lack thereof of long-distance relationships.

I don't think anyone ever said that long distance relationships are always doomed to fail. Just that they are difficult to maintain and that perhaps it's good to live together - or at least see each other regularly - before making a commitment like marriage.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

09:44 / 17.03.05

Nice one, Mr The Ball.

10:01 / 17.03.05

Yeah, congrats.

Benny, where do you plan on living?

10:15 / 17.03.05

More to the point, what's the plan, Benny?
Now that I know you look like Errol Flynn, I imagine you in tights, swinging into her boudoir with rose between your teeth. But maybe you're planning something more exciting.

10:26 / 17.03.05

Thank you.

The plan for life is to live over here for a while (I have nice house at the moment, my lease is longer, pound is stronger - blah blah blah) then when we do marry to move back out to LA (she has more family to move, so a wedding over there will be easier to arrange, plus my Mum hasn't been to the States, and she hasn't had a holiday since I was 8 or something stupid).

As for proposal plans - I was going to go to the OXO tower and then drop to one knee on the south bank, o London, my London etc... but the place just didn't give the right feeling. I was thinking of a picinic, best friend poo pooed it, but then I spoke to Mrs The Ball (TBC) about an unrelated matter and she said that when she comes over she'd love to go on a picinic somewhere. Looking like the plan. I have a room booked (a suite actually!) at millers residence in Nottinghill (very befitting of my Errol Flynn-ness) the Keats suite, so the plan is, picinic, proposal, night in hotel, morning breakfast and a wander on Portabello market.

Tryphena Absent

11:57 / 17.03.05

I'm not accepting marriage from anyone who doesn't propose to me on the South Bank. Luckily I am not Benny's potential fiancee. It's that dystopian, lavish, cultural, geek, cool that does it. It's clearly the most cheerful place on earth.

12:19 / 17.03.05

It's particularly great at the moment with all the renovations going on.

The plan was to kneel by the skate park

When she said yes I was going to grab one of the skater-kids boards and do an ollie into the thames, setting of fireworks that would have ignited the entire river into blue flames...

If she said no, I was going to hit her with the aforementioned skateboard.

Another great option is the Roundabout near Wandsworth Bridge, at rushhour. It's all about the feeling a place has...

12:31 / 17.03.05

Benny, does your GF know about Barbelith?

13:27 / 17.03.05

ha ha. No, she has seen me looking at it once or twice, but drifted off when I clicked onto the comic book forum. She doesn't even have a television, let alone access all day to a computer - she's more of a sleep and read kind of girl.

22:10 / 17.03.05

So not the top of the London Eye then?

23:07 / 17.03.05

Nope, I get really bad vertigo.

01:32 / 18.03.05

The skateboard trick sounded nifty, but shouldn't you kiss her first?

21:12 / 18.03.05

Ganesh proposed to me on bended knee in front of the Brabo fountain in Antwerp at midnight on Valentine's Day but maybe that doesn't translate. We had just had a romantic dinner at Sir Anthony Van Dyck's house and it was snowing. Worked for me. :-)

22:50 / 18.03.05

Aww.

Whisky Priestess

23:25 / 18.03.05

Fuck dat romance shit, I want to know about the RING! The ring is make-or-break.

Is it beautiful? Is it expensive? Please reassure me for your and Mrs. BtB's sake that it is one or the other, speaking as one who was presented with a ring that was neither. Did you spend at least a month's salary on it? It's not the resale value, you understand: it's just that cost/beauty is a subliminal indicator to her of what you think she's worth.

Sorry. Forgive the paranoia. I'm sure it, she and you are both valuable and lovely. But a good ring is desperately important. If anyone doesn't believe me, watch Sex and the City and weep.

Lilly Nowhere Late

06:33 / 19.03.05

My illusions are shattered WP! I would have never guessed.

The ring is the thing though. I never would have thought I'd care about that but then I got a plain little one which altho the intention was good, the presentation was not. I found I am a base, diamond loving, elitist materializer. But I did find this out in Paris so la di da.

Congratulations Mr.Ball. Do be mindfull of the time of year you bring her to London to live because I know from personal experience that it is very hard on the relationship moving from LA to London. Go for spring and move by autumn.

07:06 / 19.03.05

It is a very nice ring, and it is more than I can afford, so by that reconing it is expensive. I got it from a second hand place that my mum suggested (so I was able to spend more and get a ring that was valued at £300 or so pounds more than I paid, which was a lot anyway). 18ct gold with a 1/3 ct diamond. But it was more the feel of the thing rather than anything else. It just looked right. I had a few rings out to compare, but this one, the daimond looked really nice, the ring had the right vibe or energy and that was that.

Whisky Priestess

11:14 / 19.03.05

Well, there you go. That sounds gorgeous.

And Lilly - don't worry, I'm not married or anything ...

20:30 / 19.03.05

Benny: pictures of the One Ring, please.

04:55 / 20.03.05

Lilly, WP;

Oh come on, this the Twenty First century, fer Krisake's. What's wrong with a Hula-Hoop, if it's presented with feeling ?

07:39 / 20.03.05

That's one huge finger!

08:53 / 20.03.05

okay - here goes;

and here's a nice one with shine!

13:08 / 20.03.05

It's lovely, Benny - well done. Good luck!

08:00 / 22.03.05

sorry Benny- forgot to add congrats- so well done old bean-is she over now?

Weathers gone shit- are you still planning the picnic- if so where? Heath or Park...

Good luck dude

09:32 / 22.03.05

~Hi Benny. That ring looks like the business.

So, is she kinda expecting this then? Or is it more out-of-the-blue-shit-your-pant-cos-she-might-say-no thing?

Good luck anyhow.

09:39 / 22.03.05

Picnic is still planned, I kind of like rain, but hopefully it won't be happening on the day.

She arrives tomorrow, just after one!

And although we have talked about this in the past, she has no idea, gulp.

I have spent the last week training myself not to plan a speach so that when I do it I'm not just going through a motion, but rather seeing what comes out.

Thank you all! I won't be asking her as soon as she lands, but I'll let you know how it goes.

Whisky Priestess

18:02 / 22.03.05

boooooooooooooooo

I can't see the Ring!

Page: (1)2 3 4 5