The beginning - picking the ring

I remember being quite scared the day of the ring purchase, suprisingly so. But it was the first time I'd done something like this and I was taking the bold route of buying the ring without Soph's input. I had a limited window of opportunity, Soph was away for a hen do for the weekend so I picked the Saturday to go ring shopping in Hatton Garden. I'd roped my best man to come along to provide a second opinion and, bribed with a promise of bacon sandwiches and coffee, he arrived only 20 minutes late and we set off at the ungodly hour of 9.30am. London transport worked seamlessly and we were there by 10am... way too early but some shops had started to open up.

I had in my mind a no nonsense approach, go in, check the prices of a few rings at a few shops, haggle a little and then take the plunge with whoever could give me the best offer. We walked the entire length of Hatton Garden checking out windows and trying to select the "right" shop, partly on the look and feel and partly on the price of the rings in the window. In the end we were snared by Beverley Hills London - and we didn't leave until 90 minutes later and a few thousand poorer. The sales guy was brilliant - he taught me everything I needed to know and pretty soon into it I knew I'd be buying my ring from them. In the end it was a choice of two - Soph's fingers are pretty small so I didn't want to go for too big a diamond - so it between something that was pretty much perfect and another one that was actually perfect... then a voice in my head said it had to be a perfect diamond for the perfect girl - and I didn't have any choice anymore. Choosing the setting was a bit easier - I only liked one and it didn't seem to affect the price. And we were done except for the setting but I had no way of getting back to the jewellers mid-week and I doubted I'd be able to find an excuse to come back the following weekend without Soph getting suspicious, so there was only one option, wait around in a local pub until it was set...

Fortunately it was Man Utd Chelsea and the game was one of the first 3D games - we managed to find a pub closeish to the jewellers which was showing the game in 3D and started on the second half of the day, celebrating by drinking all day... the game was a suitable distraction, 2-0 to Chelsea and looked very good in 3D. Four or five pints to the good we returned to Beverley Hills London to pick up the ring - and race it home paranoid all the way that we'd get robbed or more likely lose it somehow. Back home we grabbed another beer and looked at the ring - it wasn't as sparkly as in the shop, no suprise as they have a gazillion spotlights in the shop to ensure maximum sparkle. Then it was upstairs to tuck it away in a place that Soph would never look, but that I could still get to relatively easily without Soph getting suspicious when we were packing to go away for our anniversary weekend in two weeks time... which is where we pick up the next leg of the journey