Deep down I knew Kimberley was always the one. However there were a couple of pre-requisites she needed to fulfil before I popped the question. First she had to visit New Zealand to see what all the fuss was about. Secondly, she had to meet my extended family and friends, mainly so I could prove to them that she was actually real and finally she needed approval from my great Uncle Barry, who is the ultimate eccentric in my family. And is very opinionated when it comes to girlfriends!
My big challenge in the proposal process was asking her father (Alan) for his permission. My plan was to try and ask when he was on holiday and relaxed, in order to hope for an affirmative outcome. This all took place during the Stone-Wigg family fishing week, when I managed to “catch” him alone on the river. With a lump in my throat I managed to get the request out and thankfully he gave me his and Jane’s blessing! The only reason I think he said yes was so for the rest of his days he would take great pleasure in taking the mick out of my New Zealand accent.
I wanted to make the proposal memorable so I needed to come up with a good plan…
It all came to me in a blinding flash one night several months earlier... Our flight to New Zealand was with Emirates, who stopped in Dubai both going out of Glasgow and coming back from Auckland. The company I work for has a factory in Abu Dhabi, which is very near (1.5 hour drive) to Dubai. I organised an extended stopover in Dubai on the way back from New Zealand so I could visit the factory and also have a few days at the end to “see some of the sites”. Kimberley was none the wiser, that I had changed both of our flights! It took some email sabotage, a few phone calls and help from a Kiwi travel agent in Dundee but I managed to make it all work. With the bones of the trip sorted I just needed to work on the filling!
Fast forward to check- in at Auckland airport on our final day in New Zealand. The lady asked how many days we were stopping over in Dubai. With a wry smile toward Kimberley I said “Oh just a few days…” It took a few minutes for the penny to drop for her as we left the check in desk! So then I finally had to help her try and fill in some of the blanks. I explained that the trip was a surprise birthday gift. She was over the moon! Little did she know of my real intentions…
The flight to Dubai was long and uneventful apart from one priceless moment. During the flight changing saga I discovered that Emirates offers a free special occasion service on their flights. So I requested it for this flight. You should have seen the look on her face when 7 flight attendents marched up the aisle like a ‘police hit squad’. And said “Excuse me, Are you Kimberley Stone-Wigg?” A rather shocked Kimberley meekly replied... “ Yeess”. Then they produced a Birthday cake from behind the lead attendant’s back and launched into a full song of “Happy Birthday”. Kimberley turned bright red!
I think my toenails grew a full cm in the time it took to get through customs in Dubai. Not what you need after a 15 hour flight! Afterwards we were met by a South African work Colleague Pierre who kindly got up at 4 a.m. to pick us up from the airport and drive us to our hotel in Abu Dhabi. As we stepped out of the airport the first thing you noticed was the heat! 37°C at 07:00 am, definitely a shock coming from a New Zealand winter. Pierre expertly negotiated us out of the airport then gave us a commentary about life in the Emirate’s as the desert and high rises flashed by. Meanwhile Kimberley was sweltering in the backseat.
The scenery changed when we crossed the emirate border into Abu Dhabi, immediately there was a tree lined motorway with fences and different street lights. However at about this point we hit a large traffic jam which we later found out on the radio was due to an accident. We finally arrived at our hotel the Yas Rotana at around 09:00 am.
The hotel overlooked the Yas Island F1 circuit with a Ferrari world theme park just down the road. We checked in then went for Breakfast, the food and service was amazing! After breakfast we kipped for a couple of hours then went to Ferrari World, via Taxi as there was no way we were walking in 45°C heat to the theme park. The whole place was a bit cheesy and way over the top! Everything was Ferrari Ferrari Ferrari! However the £45 entry ticket was justified with a ride on the world’s fastest rollercoaster! 0-100 mph in 2.4 seconds! Kimberley opted to pass on this ride. The g forces were the kind which ripped the stomach out of your body and put it back into your mouth! The rest of the afternoon we spent the time lazing round the pool. That evening Pierre picked us up and took us out for a meal at an American bar. The food was average, the staff outnumbered the patrons and the singer needed a bullet! It was even worse than bad Karaoke! The never ending day finally ended.
The following day I had work commitments. I was collected by Pierre at 07:30 and it was a 40 minute drive out to our factory which was in the middle of nowhere. I won’t bore you with the details of work, but I did find it a worthwhile trip. Meanwhile Kimberley was sunning herself and relaxing by the pool all day. A hard life! I got home by 17:30 and went straight into the pool to cool off! Later that evening a dinner date with the Abu Dhabi Plant Manager and his wife fell through so we dined in the restaurant. We enjoyed a very nice curry!
Friday the 7th of September, Kimberley’s birthday! Plus it was the added bonus of being the weekend as it occurs on Friday’s and Saturday’s in this part of the world for religious reasons. We arranged a late check out so we could have a very relaxed morning. After another sumptuous breakfast then we had a gym session followed by reading and regular dips in the pool. Our driver arrived at 13:00 for the desert safari. Nice enough guy but his English was a bit rough. We drove for 2 hours through Dubai past all the high rises and out into the desert. We were along way ahead of schedule so he drove along at a snail’s pace along the motorway. We stopped at what at first seemed a quiet convenience shop off the motorway for an Ice cream. It was noticeable how much bearable the heat was out in the desert as the humidity had dropped right off. It was interesting watching the rich Emirates pull in to the store, in their black tinted hummers. They had a certain swagger about them like they thought the sun shone out of backsides! Then they would accelerate off like men possessed! I guess they don’t need to worry about the fuel cost’s when petrol is cheaper than water! Anyway, I digress... So back at the store after icecreams we waited patiently resisting the urge to buy headscarves when tourists by the bucket load started to arrive in SUV’s. As it turns out this was the meeting point for the start of multiple company’s offering 4wd Desert safari’s. So we jumped into another “Net Tours” 4wd with four other German tourists, they let the tires down to help with the traction in the sand then we travelled by convoy into the desert! It was great fun as the 4wd’s ripped up the sand plunging up and down the dunes like Tonka trucks in a giant sandpit! There were lots of moments when our heads hit the ceiling of the vehicle. I only wish I could have had a drive! There were convoy’s of 4wd’s everywhere, like ant’s marching toward a honey pot. We had a couple of opportunities to stop for photos as the sun sunk lower in the sky. The convoy carried on and we finally arrived back on a road. Suddenly we pulled back into the desert and drove for 10 minutes until we reached a Bendouin Campsite.
Before we headed into the campsite I said to Kimberley “Lets go for a walk in the desert?” I wanted to catch the last rays of sunshine before the fiery ball sunk into the dunes. I also explained that I wanted to give her her “birthday present” in private away from the hustle and bustle of the other tourists. We walked over a couple of dunes away from the camp. Then we sat down on the top of a dune and I instructed her to close her eye’s so I could retrieve her present from my bag. At this stage my heart was thumping loudly against my chest, my stomach was doing somersaults and I broke out into a sweat completely unrelated to the desert heat. I whipped out a small box, filled it with sand and carefully placed a ring on top! Dropping to one knee and presenting the ring I asked her to open her eye’s...
Time stood still.
“Kimberley Stone-Wigg, Will you marry me?”
She said... “Yes!”
We both choked up, shed a few tears and hugged!
So many emotions were swirling around inside me, relief, euphoria, optimism, joy but ultimately an overwhelming feeling of love for the girl sitting beside me on the sand dune.
We sat and talked excitedly for the next 30 minutes until day faded into night. Then we headed down into the camp for a BBQ and organised entertainment. The entertainment consisted of professional (and unprofessional) belly dancing and a man whirling around in a skirt, with lights and cylindrical objects which seemed to multiply with each rotation. It was good fun. Kim also had Heina done on her arm and we both went for a camel ride. This was a first for me, and when the camel stood up I thought we were going to tip over the front. When the show ended everyone disappeared! Of the couple of hundred people who came to the camp we were the only ones who stayed the night. Our guide looked after us and we slept on the stage on the carpets in the middle of the camp. It was quite an experience that as a newly engaged couple we slept under the stars in the desert! The whole day had absolutely drained me and I pretty much conked out as soon as my head the carpet. I think Kim fell asleep looking at her big rock! Sometime during the night Kim shook me awake and said “Hamish, Hamish... There is a giant donkey eating out of a rubbish bin!” I am pretty sure she made this up, as I couldn’t see a giant donkey through my half closed eyes! When we woke up we were surprised to find out we were not alone that night... We were surrounded by the Caterer’s / organisers who were strewn asleep all over the camp. We decided to go for a walk to revisit the proposal spot and take a few photo’s. Back to the camp we forced down a less than gourmet breakfast before departing for our hotel in Dubai. I wanted our last day of our holiday to be the most luxurious. So I booked us in at the One and Only Royal Mirage, supposedly one of the most romantic hotels in Dubai. We were staying in the Arabian Court. We arrived and were blown away by the opulence. Arches, courts, fountains filled with rose petals, and pleasant smell of incense drifting though a cool, ornately furnished interior. Our room was as you would expect, spectacular! The guest services team had even organised a large bouquet of red roses to celebrate our special occasion. The room also looked out over the pool and the lush green grounds. But before we could think about relaxation we had some news to share with the outside world! We rung and spoke to as many of our immediate family as possible, who were very, very excited for us! We spent a couple of hours down at the pool, Kim played the “we just got engaged card” to one of the attendants and we got the use of a private gazebo! Late that afternoon was my next exciting activity, a trip to the top of the world, literally. we caught a taxi to Dubai Mall, the largest in the world! Then we caught the fastest elevator in the world up the highest building in the world. I guess you are catching my drift... Dubai doesn’t do insignificant or small! At 828m high, it is the largest man-made structure in the world and was finished in 2010. We had timed entry at 17:30, so we got to see the sunset. The vista was memorable; you could even make out the islands of the world! We descended after spending an hour up the top, trying to pick out some of Dubai’s landmarks with the aid of virtual binoculars. At the bottom we went through a private entrance to catch another elevator back up to the top of the building. I had booked us a table with a view at the world’s highest restaurant, Atmosphere. “Flash” was the understatement of the decade. The setting and food was amazing, and they even gave us a special congratulations dessert! (How did they know?! ;-)) Seeing the lights of Dubai was a completely different experience to earlier, but what impressed me the most was arguably the world’s best view from a bathroom!
At the bottom of the tower we viewed the world famous Dancing fountains! A spectacular show of powerful synchronised water jets, lights and operatic music! It definitely provided a few “out loud” wow moments!
The next day we had fruit for breakfast, then and spent the rest of the morning at the pool. We didn’t want our amazing holiday to end so we were trying to savour the last few hours. I even managed to challenge the Sri Lankan pool attendant to a game of table tennis, It turns out the Sri Lankans are much stronger at cricket than table tennis! Our flight back departed at 14:50 so we departed the hotel around midday.
As I mentioned we were sad our holiday was drawing to a close, but at the same time very excited to get back to the UK and tell everyone about our engagement!
