No, he's not duxup although I love duxup as much as the rest of you, and as much as he loves all of us ;)

It happened in Venice, and wasn't entirely surprising as we'd been ring shopping a couple of weeks previously - it was pretty obvious he was going to ask me at some point on holiday, I just didn't know where or when.

He got down on one knee here, near San Marco square, in fact right after that picture was taken.Unbeknown to us, we were having our own photograph taken by a pair of American tourists, who afterwards approached us and offered to email us the pictures. We now have them, and they're pretty sweet, although I'm a little embarrassed.

He even asked my dad beforehand, which he says was scarier than asking me. Do a lot of guys do that? It seems so old fashioned, though not in a bad way. My dad, of course, gave his blessing and was pleased we were finally getting around to it.

The ring's real pretty - white gold with three diamonds, and ever so sparkly. Although who would have thought it was so hard to get the size right? Fingers shrink and expand all the time. It seemed like a reasonable fit when we (well, he) bought it, and when I first put it on. Then we got back from holiday, the weather was suddenly colder, and it started to fall off. I didn't want it falling down a drain or something, so I took it straight back to the shop, where I got measured properly and we agreed to take it down two sizes. I picked it up today and it seemed a little tight in the shop, but now I've had it on a while, it seems better. I'm supposed to be flashing it around later on today, as nobody else has actually seen it yet.

So I am to become Mrs dgym. Not just yet, despite the flocks of cooing female relatives eager to buy new hats. It's taken us seven and a half years to get engaged, why rush  things now? Probably in 2007, as we plan to be travelling for a good portion of next year. Apparently I'm in charge, as he's done his bit. :)

Oh yeah, and the cooking thing - it was the second night in a row, and both turned out really well. I like this...

Anyway - I have an awesome holiday to babble about, and many other thoughts re. work and future travel and other stuff... but I'll save that for later.