Blog Post Fail or "Of All the Gin Joints..."

So along with the rain this weekend came a chance to go back to Oxfordshire for an engagement dinner with my new in-laws. We went out to this cosy little 14th century pub with my youngest sister- and brother-in-law, the parents, and my fiancé's paternal grandmother. It was quite a nice little group in an empty pub on an overcast afternoon. Of course, having decided to dress smartly, I wore the wrong shoes for 1300s ceilings and stooped over the whole way to the table.

The rest of the afternoon and evening were lovely with some preliminary wedding planning with the parents and a visit to Tim and Rachel where we not only celebrated our engagement, but the propensity for great minds to think alike when Sainsbury's puts Schloer on sale for £1 a bottle!

In spite of being absolutely knackered by the end of it all, it was a very good day. Sebastian had run a race called the Grim Challenge before we got to dinner which involved 8 miles of running, crawling and slogging through waist-high puddles and wet, muddy sand. I had just been uncharacteristically sleep-deprived of late and after two consecutive bouts of 6-hour nights, it took a will of iron to stay awake in order to keep Sebastian awake for the drive home. But we made it safely and unscathed.

The long and trying Sunday now firmly behind me (though with some lovely bits thrown in, like Angus singing during Jake's temple prep lesson!), I've moved on to the week ahead. This requires some very intensive paper writing and paper researching, but most urgently the writing. My Advanced Skills for Historians essay is due come 5pm Friday and it is, to my initial indecision and frustration, a practise dissertation proposal in 4000 words. I've finally settled on my topic, which involves Emma and William Hamilton and a sly innuendo in the title, and I'm well on my way with the word count. I only hope I can alter the balance of the paper in favour of the annotated bibliography in time!

This bring me to the day's "blog post fail." Arguably, this is the best such Fail I can ever hope to see in my lifetime. Of course, it can't be said that it will hold the same humour for others, but still, I must share. My justification is that if the party in question was willing to let the faceless internet masses read the anecdote that follows, I beak no rules of decorum in relating my experience of it.

Needing a break in studying I resorted to my current favourite time-filler: TheKnot.com. A lovely website for brides-to-be who need help and inspiration in planning their weddings. In an article entitled, "The Worst Proposals of 2009," brides-to-be (and one groom!) shared their mortifying proposal faux pas. In the comments section at the end, one bride shared her own particularly compromising engagement story - one she admitted she could never relate to her future in-laws. Her user name intrigued me, and struck me as too much of a coincidence to possibly be true. But, lo and behold, I clicked the link on her comment to view her public profile, and what should I find, but that my hunch was worn out! The future in-laws in question were none other than the parents of a childhood friend of mine! A friend who I had just heard was getting married from a mutual good friend of ours. As a courtesy to the couple, I let our mutual friend know about my discovery of this unfortunate internet confession, with the note that if I happen to be a whole ocean away, and haven't even met my friend's fiancee, and I found and recognised the players in her extremely personal proposal story, her in-laws would probably have no trouble either. Just goes to show that you can't be too careful with where you admit your dirty little secrets.

I admit now that I've been laughing with abandon at this coincidence all afternoon. How grateful I now am that my own proposal story is set in a public place, and thus is G-rated and appropriate for all audiences!