Day 25: Y is for Yes

I do burble in my head when I'm exercising. Today I was cycling along (quite hard - I got a record time!) and thinking about 'Y' and I got all romantic and thought of the time when Mrs Badger became Fiancee Badger instead of just Girlfriend Badger.

We were in the Lake District, in March 2006, and I had decided at Christmas that I was going to pop the question. I nearly did it at New Year, but there was a certain amount of red-wine-sick-unpleasantness in a hotel room in Brussels so the moment didn't seem quite right...

So I hatched a plan to get her to the top of a nice big mountain where she couldn't run away and do the deed there. I selected Helvellyn, and after taking in a huuuuuge breakfast in a cafe in Windermere we set out from the foot of the mountain in bright sunshine.

Striding Edge to the Summit

Part way up, we reached the snow line, but it was still warm so we pushed on.  Then cloud came over so we put on our jackets.  Then we reached the base of the ridge known as "Striding Edge". This is a ridge with a sheer drop of 600ft on both sides. And it was covered in snow. Most of the other people out were wearing crampons and carrying ice axes, but undeterred I pushed on.  Mrs B hid her fear gamely until about halfway along the ridge where we stopped to watch a big yellow rescue helicopter come and rescue someone who had fallen all the way to the bottom.  Then she started to lose her sense of humour. It took a lot of persuasion but I coaxed her across and then up the steep snow field to the summit with the threat of a 200m slide straight into a lake if we lost our footing.  A few metres below the summit, the cloud came down and we were enveloped in mist - everything was white, and the wind was rising.  We found a little shelter of two stone walls and I was revving up to do it right there when a party of about 5 other people came and huddled in with us so I was thwarted.  Eventually after eating our provisions we headed off to find the actual summit, and there at the summit point I grabbed her and blurted it out.

Her reaction wasn't what I'd hoped. She started getting narky at me for grabbing her!  Obviously in the howling wind she hadn't heard me, so I ended up shouting "WILL YOU MARRY ME?" into her ear.

I don't think she could have looked more incredulous if I had suddenly produced a lobster from my trousers and asked her to teach it to speak Spanish.

I asked her again (well, shouted).

"YES OF COURSE" she shouted back "BUT YOU DIDN'T GET ON YOUR KNEES".

I got on my knees in the snow and shouted again.

"YES" she said, and dragged me to my feet. "NOW GET ME OFF THIS BLOODY MOUNTAIN".


Janathon Stats:

Today:  Bike 13.24km / 36:04 min, Total cals: 380

[Run equivalency calculation: ]

Today: 5.96km / 3.71 miles

Total: 147.83km / 91.85 miles