02/08/2022
Dinner started and the waiters were hilarious!
When we were on the train, I asked Glen if we were going to The Fat Duck. There was a cab already waiting for us at Maidenhead. In 10 mins, we arrived at Bray and checked into The Waterside Inn. The place was absolutely pretty and I was blown away. I didn’t know they had little cottages and rooms on top of the restaurant, and was really surprised when I found out we were staying there for the night!
Glen passed me my fourth envelope. We met again 9 months after the costume party at Denise’s yearly NYE house party. This was when we exchanged numbers and this was the start of our friendship.
They started congratulating us after serving each dish. I gave Glen a funny look, to which he said “I really don’t know what they’re talking about”. I laughed because I already knew what was going on.
Glen handed me the fifth envelope. He told me he liked me after two months of hanging out and I didn’t know quite what to say, which Senior Sizzle reviews explains the title of the letter. He was leaving for Beijing for 6 months, and then London after for 3 years. (well, I guess it turned out to be a lot longer)
During his 6 months in Beijing, we kept in touch via MSN Messenger. His msn nickname was (glen.) and I would look forward to speaking to him at the end of each day after school. He sent me a postcard which read “Wo Hen Xiang Ni” (I miss you in Mandarin) and came back to Singapore with a huge bag of Mao related goodies for me.
We continued to hang out whenever we could for the few months he had in Singapore before he had to leave for London. We went to Victoria Concert Hall for a concert one weekend and he told me after that he still liked me.
Towards the end of the meal, I received the eighth envelope. Glen came over to my place one evening and spoke to my mum about us. It wasn’t easy at all. We are complete opposites, have totally different hobbies, and we were gonna be half the world apart.
Glen wrote me a green letter and only gave it to me a month after, with only one week left before he had to leave for London. So with some luck, lots of praying, and a leap of faith, we decided to get together. In his words “And the rest, as you might say, is history. At the basement fountain of Raffles City Shopping Centre, I asked her in the clearest terms whether she would be my girlfriend. And in the clearest terms, she said yes.” I did so by agreeing to hold his hand, haha.
He told me to stop guessing so I knew I was close, heh!
I was expecting a tenth brown paper envelope but that did not come. Instead, Glen took out a dark purple Ted Baker watch box. I gave him a Ted Baker watch four years ago on our first Valentines Day and that was the box which the watch came in. It is shaped as a book and the tenth letter, together with a little brown box, was inside.
The last letter made me really emotional. I don’t know how to describe how I felt because I was feeling and thinking so many things at the same time! When I was done reading the letter, Glen was in front of me on one bended knee, and he asked me in the sweetest most serious way ‘Gloria Ong, will you marry me?’. I couldn’t wait to say ‘Yes!’ and I must have said it too soon because I remember my brain telling my heart to slow down because it hasn’t registered the moment and I said “Can you do it again please? It happened too quickly and I really want to remember this forever…” and there he was again, on one bended knee, and the whole thing did a very slow replay. The rest of it was a blur, I just know I was dizzy with happiness (jetlag, and a very full food tummy).