It's A Love Story...

Last Tuesday, my friend Miranda's boyfriend began talking to me on facebook about her expectations when it came to a marriage proposal. Miranda and I, being the silly girls that we are, had been talking about engagements and weddings and the sort, and she conveyed the conversation to Daniel (her boyfriend). I was a little perturbed at his pursuit of the topic, so I asked him if he had anything in mind. It turns out that Daniel has contacts here with whom Miranda was supposed to meet yesterday. Daniel said, "So she thinks she's just going to meet these friends on Sunday..." and I finished the rest with, "But you're surprising her here? Are you proposing?" It turns out he was doing exactly that. He planned to propose to her at a nice restaurant, but I pointed out that it was too public, so I suggested Hampstead Heath instead. And that is exactly what happened.
I spent yesterday morning catching up on some much needed sleep. When I awoke, I helped Miranda put an outfit together for the evening: she was told that she was going to be eating at a nice place, so she knew enough to dress up. I lent her a top of mine and some jewelry, and I took pictures of her all dressed up. All this while she was ignorant of the plot to surprise her. I saw her walk away and knew that when I next saw her, she was would be a different person. I was barely able to concentrate on my homework in anticipation of everything that I knew was happening at that moment about a mile away.
I managed to get all my homework done by 8.30pm, a little after which, I heard a knock on the door. I opened it to see Miranda beaming and Daniel behind her (bear in mind, I had never met him and yet I had had a very intimate conversation with him). I congratulated them heartily...oohed and aaahed over her ring, heard every single detail of the proposal and could not but be excited that I was a somewhat integral part of it all. Miranda was completely blown away, needless to say, Daniel was ecstatic that she said yes, and I am happy for them both.
As part of the surprise, Daniel is going to be here for the next 2 weeks until it is time for us to leave...which is great for Miranda, but not so great for me. It is a very romantic gesture, but I'm going to miss my friend a little bit.
Today was all about classes. We discussed the positive and negative aspects of Romeo and Juliet in theatre. We talked very, very extensively about 18 different narrative techniques in Jane Austen. It was very tiring. To relieve ourselves from that, then, we went on our second pub crawl on the Dick Whittington Ale Trail. This time we followed the Theatreland path. I was very experimental- I tried Belgian Strawberry Beer (Fuhli, I think it's called) and Belgian Chocolate Beer (Floris, I think). I also had Pimm's, which is this crazy mix of cucumber, strawberry, orange and lemon with club soda and the Pimm's liquor, and finally a Stella Artois, a very light beer. Needless to say, I was, and am, pretty affected by all this, but the night was great and my friends looked out for me. Theatreland is a lot more happening than Westminster/Piccadilly was last week, and I got another shirt in the process.
Tomorrow I plan to go to the Changing of the Guard, after which I'll tour the Drury Lane Theatre and watch Oliver the musical at night. Updates to be expected then.