Part one here.

So where were we? Yes, I gave up everything in Kuala Lumpur and moved to Sydney.

The Big Move

It was scary to move to a new country knowing only one person there. Okay, I lied. My ex-boyfriend sister, Nita was living there too. Yeah, awkward. But we’ve always been close and she put me up for the first week or so while the carpet in studio apartment that Nick found for me was getting chemically cleaned. It’s in a newish apartment block right on top of St Leonards Station.

It was also the very first time I live away from home, besides the odd few months here and there in Singapore and Hong Kong during fashion weeks. The first few months was hard. I didn’t have a job and school hasn’t started. Not school, college. I realised the word ‘school’ might be misleading. I was after all, already 24 at the time.

Anyway… I spent most of my time walking around my neighbourhood and taking the bus to Manly or the city by myself. At night, I would listen to canto-pop songs and sang my heart out. It reminded me of my friends and family in KL. I was homesick.

Nick, of course, helped me to settle in as much as he could. He would come over once or twice during the week and we would spend all weekends together. At times, I felt like a kept-woman, except I wasn’t getting paid.

Things got a lot better when college started and I moved into an apartment in the city with a classmate. It was walking distance to the campus and I wasn’t alone all the time.

I held many odd jobs at this time to support myself – a receptionist at a marketing company (I wasn’t very good at it. I couldn’t undertstand the thick Aussie accent and used to connect calls to the wrong people, all the time!), server and sandwich assembler at a cafe (I loved this job, we get to eat whatever we want!) and sales assistant at Christian Dior.

After 2 years, I graduated and started working and climbing the corporate ladder.

The Second Move

We were holidaying in Paris when Nick received an offer to work in Singapore. We didn’t think much about it until we got back to Sydney. After a looong discussion over dinner and wine at our friends’, Chris and Fong Yee, Nick decided he would accept the offer.

I supported him, although I didn’t know where that would leave our relationship. I mean, I had the whole living abroad experiences many times and with him having lived his whole life in Sydney, moving to Singapore was exciting.

I wasn’t planning on moving at this point. I’ve finally settled in Sydney, have my own friends and I loved my job being the Assistant General Manager at Sydney Tower, looking after events and outlets operation.

Nick left Sydney on September 2007. I still remember we sent him to the airport and his family dropped me off at work afterwards. All of us – his mum, sister and I were sobbing in the car. I was very distraught and my eyes so puffy I avoided people most of the day. Luckily I had an office to myself. I think I may have bawled and totally lost my cool when my staff asked me how I was.

After 9 months of late nights phone calls and MSN messages, I decided to move to Singapore to join Nick. I sold all my furniture on Gumtree, moved the remaining boxes of books and winter clothing to Nick’s family’s place and bought a one way ticket to Singapore.

The Proposal

One day, Nick told me he was going to Bangkok to meet a supplier and asked me if I’d like to come along. There was a promotion on Jetstar for two to fly with the price of one. Well, of course I’d go!

As usual, he made all the plans and I just followed. I should have known the moment we got to the hotel. He had checked us into the luxurious high-floor suite at Lebua at State Tower and made reservation for dinner at Sirocco, the world’s tallest Mediterranean restaurant. Yes, the same one you see in the movie, Hangover.. 2nd or 3rd, I don’t remember. But hey, swanky!

You see, at this time, he had left his job at investment banking and was starting his own business. In another word, no income. I hate wasting unnecessary money but he told me he managed to get a good deal for the hotel. Okay, whatever you said dear.. who doesn’t like fancy stuff every now and then?

Anyway…

On the second day, he booked a two hour massage for me at the hotel spa. The catch is… he wasn’t joining me! He wanted to go to the gym or so was his excuse. You see.. sneaky, sneaky Nick had planned to use the two hours to get some flowers, champagne and set up the room for proposal!

I didn’t make it so smooth sailing for him though. I decided I didn’t want such a long massage and told him I would find him at the gym after an hour. I also cancelled the dinner at Sirocco because thoughtful me wanted to save him some money. So poor guy had to rush to the concierge to find out where the nearest florist was, set up the room within an hour and book a new restaurant for dinner.

I returned to our suite an hour later and found him sitting in the living room with a bottle of champagne. We had a toast and I headed to the shower to get ready for dinner. I was almost done with my makeup when he suddenly came into the bathroom, literally dragged me out, while saying something along the lines of ‘there’s something I just need to see’.

To be honest, I was tipsy at this point and couldn’t register what was happening. Yeah.. I’m a cheap drunk.

He led me towards the balcony. As we passed the bedroom to get to the balcony, I felt something pricked my feet and the first thought that came to mind was, “Why is the room SO MESSY?”. Nick had the room strewn with stalks of roses all over the bed and floor.

We were at the balcony. The view was beautiful, overlooking Bangkok and the river. It was almost sunset. Everything was perfect.

I didn’t notice any of it until afterwards.

Nick held me close and mumbled some promises. I can’t remember exactly what he said but it’s something like he’s happy when he’s with me, he saw us having kids together and looking forward to build a future together, blah blah blah. All the while I was thinking in my head, “What’s going on? Why is he so emotional?”

Err.. yeah, I can be slow like that. To my defense, I was drunk.

It finally hit me when he pulled out a ring in a box, got on his knees and said those words – Will you marry me?

Oh.. shit! Yup, that was exactly what I said. Very classy, Michelle, very classy.

I cried as he put the ring on me. Next thing I knew, we were on the phone telling my dad – his daughter is getting married! Turned out, dad already knew. Nick with his limited Mandarin ability had managed to get my dad to understand what he was trying to say when he called to ask for permission to marry me, weeks before our trip.

Right after the proposal. He needed that drink after I ruined most of his plans.

This photo reminded me we should take more couple selfies 😛