MY ZIMBABWE: 2017

Here is an extract from my newsletter of two years ago after my first visit to Vietnam:

“.......Unfortunately I wasn't there long enough to find a bride. I'll have to start saving for a second trip.....”

As it happens I saved up much sooner than I expected and this August I did go back to Vietnam and came back engaged to be married!

Two years ago I speculated that it could be one of these:

But it turned out to be this one:Katharine Sutcliffe(Kat), an amazing Yorkshire woman.

We first met on a package holiday to Iceland last year. I first noticed her at Heathrow Airport before we even boarded the plane. However she only first noticed me at the Reykjavík airport baggage reclaim carousel! I had to change my aftershave!

In Vietnam this year I had a lot more traction. All the way from

Saigon

to My Tho

to Hoi An

to Da Nang

to Halong Bay

to Hanoi

The same theme prevailed. By the time we got to Halong Bay I had answered all the questions I had and felt there was no point in waiting any longer. So underneath a beautiful sunset aboard a boat on Halong Bay I popped the question and she said yes! The rest is history :-)

We kept it secret for a while until after I had phoned her father. I was naturally apprehensive but we got his blessing much more easily than I feared. Then the search was on for engagement rings in the hustle and bustle of Hanoi.

As a schoolteacher Kat is committed to a class that she has to see through to July 2018. That is why our wedding is only in August 2018. The anticipation and excitement is already electric, to put it mildly :-)

Kat has agreed to move to Zimbabwe after the wedding. She seemed unfazed by the goings-on in Zimbabwe in November 2017! She must be brave or crazy or both:) I’m glad she is anyway.

Needless to say the above dwarfed the rest of my news for the year.Here’s a photo gallery just to prove other things did happen during the year:

Gwatamatics were still made