Christmas is that time of year where you spend it with family and loved ones. My partner’s son was spending it with his father. So we decided that we would book into a hotel for a few days to that S could take her mind off of L not being there.

We had looked several years ago at booking into somewhere for Christmas but those were quite large affairs and seemed to cost a significant amount of money. However, S did some careful looking around and discovered that MalMaison was doing a special offer over Christmas. Check in on Christmas Eve; checkout Boxing day. All meals included, just pay for drinks.

So we signed up.

COVID-19 had other plans.

Luckily neither of us have succumbed to the virus, yet. Scotland luckily came back to Tier 3 that meant that we would be able to go to. Then the bad news hit. Scotland was going back into Tier 4. This meant that no stays at hotels were allowed unless it was for essential workers. Phone calls went back and forth between the hotel and ourselves. Mainly the hotel contacting us to give us updates on what was happening.

Initially they thought that we would be able to come on the agreed dates, but Sturgeon was having none of it. The Tier 4 restrictions would come into effect at midnight on Christmas Day, meaning that we would have to leave the hotel before midnight (or we would turn into pumpkins – probably not, but I feel we are living some strange fairy tale at the moment so anything is possible). So MalMaison gave us some options. Cancel; come on the 24th and leave the 25th with the missed night to be used at a future date, or come on the 23rd and leave on the 25th.

We opted for the latter. So we packed up our bags, made sure our presents were wrapped (this break was our present to each other so it was only small token gifts), and headed off to Dundee.

The hotel was fantastic. We had decided to book a suite. Mainly because we would be spending all of our time in our room, it made sense to pay for a decent sized one so that we could have space and not crowd each other. Usually we book somewhere that isn’t so fancy, due to the fact that we don’t spend much time in the hotel room other than for sleeping.

As part of the deal that we had chosen we were given a bottle of champagne on arrival (this was left on ice in our room). So once we settled in, I popped it and we settled down to relax before dinner. While S was getting ready for dinner I slipped something into her second glass. Don’t worry it wasn’t anything ominous, it was an engagement ring.

I handed her the glass and we chatted and drank – for almost 25 minutes she didn’t notice what was in the glass – then she did (when there was less than an inch of champagne left in it). At first she thought it was ice, but then she realised what it was. So once she finished her drink, she took the ring out of it and I asked her to marry me.

She said yes.

We spent the next few days relaxing in each others company. We only left the hotel room to go for meals and a walk on Christmas Eve.

The staff at the hotel were fantastic and we really enjoyed ourselves. Although COVID-19 had the chance of ruining our Christmas, it didn’t, and who knows if it wasn’t for the virus maybe I wouldn’t have plucked up the courage to ask her.