Aren’t we all in need of some good news and as usual, cometh the hour, cometh the blog?  For anyone who missed the announcement in yesterday’s Times, my younger son is engaged to be married.

He rang me on Monday to say that he had collected the ring from Hatton Garden where, it goes without saying he has a mate (Henry’s motto: Never pay retail) who had made the most beautiful diamond and sapphire ring.  Furthermore, and possibly even more gobsmacking that the actual news, H had asked her father’s permission the week before.  Is he turning into Jacob Rees Moger before my very eyes?  The time and place of the proposal was still a work in progress until, something less than 24 hours later, tormented by the thought he would loose the ring, which based on his previous was inevitable, he popped the question.

And the most extraordinary part of the story is that this lovely, talented girl said yes. (Bear in mind that at this point I am the only one of his family she has actually met – an unusually wise move on H’s part).  From then on it was like an avalanche.  By Thursday the venue and date had been chosen, dresses had been tried on and guest lists were a work in progress.  The groom has decided that, along with everything else, his father can buy him a Gucci suit which from the photograph appears to be made of satin in a large floral pattern. The happy couple appear to be floating about three feet over the Earth like Winnie the Pooh, held up by invisible balloons.

My own week has been a little more down to earth.  Having read an article by some interior designer declaring that halls should be painted in dark gloss colours I rushed round to the local paint shop to get something to match the dark gloss floor tiles, handily already in situ.  Passing the beauticians I spotted my friend having a manicure so I went in to share the news with her.  (About the paint; she’d already seen all the engagement photos).  The rather dour young Swedish man in the paint shop talked me out of the gloss, persuading me to settle for a rather more subdued ‘sheen’.  Me!   Trying subtlety!  Within 45 minutes the first wall was transformed and I sent my friend a text saying ‘I’ve just done this and I bet you’re still waiting for your nails to dry’.

Never put off till tomorrow etc.  Seize the day.  That’s how I roll.  And maybe that’s where my son gets it from …  I hope he is as happy as I am.