Itai & Rufaru

Where to start
My boyfriend ( Itai) lives and works in Joburg and I have the great privilege of living in Cape Town. we have been dating since November 2005 and he moved to Joburg in January 2007. We see each other every 6-8 weeks on average, sometimes less, sometime more.
I spent most of January 2009 working in Joburg so we got to see quite a lot of each other. In February i was on leave studying for my accounting board exam in March. So we had decided we were not going to see each other till after my exam.

One week before Valentine's Day, Itai called me to ask me what i was doing on Valentine's Day. When you have a big exam ahead of you and your boyfriend lives in Joburg, the answer is easy " Nothing". it was also a strange question for him to ask because he doesn't believe in Valentine's Day and i usually have to beg and scrimp (almost) for a rose on that day. he tells me that he wants to do something for me and asks how much time i can take off. A couple of conversations later, we agree on 4hours ( 12pm to 4pm). My mind starts ticking ( i don't like surprises)...what could it be? And then i figured he would never fly down from Joburg for a 4hour visit so it couldn't be that. Maybe a massage or the like....

I soon put that to one side, not having time to dream about a surprise that might disappoint me ( yes, i am a cynic). Valentine's Day morning arrives and i have this feeling that maybe he IS coming down to visit me. So i think , let me call him and if his phone is off, then he is on a plane and if he answers; then its not that. For some reason however, i get distracted and don't end up calling. The anticipated 12pm arrives ( i have been told to dress comfortably - so have a long argument with my sisters about why i will NOT wear a dress and heels). Itai calls me and asks if "they have picked me up". Who is they I wonder? I say no and he sounds panicked " they must be running late".... He hangs up and calls me a few minutes later to tell me that "they " ( whoever they are) are on their way and will be there at any moment. Soon after my door bell rings and a man in a Cape Coloured accent asks me to come down to the gate. i go down to find Itai downstairs. completely surprised.

I don't surprise easily so that was a feat to pull off......
We spent the rest of the day hanging out..... we went to Llandudno beach ( the first beach we went to after we started dating). At this stage i was in a complete blur...so happy to have Itai around and didn't care what we did. And ofcourse i was not expecting anything else, i just thought it was an elaborate Valentines Day Surprise. After Llandudno, we went to Iziko Museum to see the Wildlife Photography Exhibition and after that he suggested that we go to the Gold of Africa Museum because " they have a new display and we haven't been there in a while"

The Gold of Africa Museum is significant because we tried to go there on afternoon in November 2005 but bad weather, power cuts etc... prevented us from going in and we ended up having coffee at a lovely little restaurant nearby where he eventually couldn't take it anymore and asked me to go out with him.

So we were walking around Gold of Africa museum ( which is basically the history of gold through Africa and hence FULL of gold rings and artifacts).....get to the end and itai wants to go back to look at some map. We go back into one room and itai says" i think we missed this display the first time round". So i looked at the display and then suddenly i recognised the ring in the display as one i had seen when i had been in Joburg with him and liked. And i said " isn't that MY ring?" itai says" i don't know" So basically i spent the next couple of minutes looking at this ring from all angles saying - "yes, it is the same, no, it only looks like it, how strange that i would see it both in joburg and cape Town? what is it doing in a museum? " Itai responds " why don't you take a closer look?" And i (with my nose to the glass cabinet respond " what do you mean, take a closer look?" And then itai, pulls out a key, opens the cabinet, takes the ring, gets down on one knee...and the rest is pretty evident.

So 3 years, 3months and 3days to the day that he asked me out, i agreed to be his wife.