Ladies and Gentlemen.

Today, the most important person in my life turns 27. It is a milestone to be sure, but not usually an important one. For us though, 27 is THE most important. I explain why further on.

I gave Paya a small gift, with the following inscription (well, a similar inscription, this one slightly edited)

-------------------

Today is a special day, of a special month of a very special year. Today you are 27 years old. You have never been 27 before, and never will you be again. This birthday is special not for the number of those years, but because we celebrate this anniversary for the first time together.

I have so many plans for our future. So many things I want to do, places to visit, people to meet. I can only imagine doing them with you - and no other. You are my world.

Before I met you my life was like an unfinished jigsaw puzzle. All the pieces were there, but there was no order or pattern. When you came into my life, you gave these pieces order and purpose. You painted for me a picture on those pieces that is more beautiful than I ever imagined my life could be.

Our lives together are going to be an adventure. It will be one of which even the greatest storytellers could not conceive. Ours shall be a romance of epic proportions. How long will the story span? Who knows! But what I DO KNOW - is that I want to find out together.

Miluji Te My Darling.

Yours forever

-----------------------

I actually wrote the original version to this - along with a number of other blog entries on the plane. I visited Paya in the Czech Republic in August 2010, and these were my thoughts on leaving. Reading them back now, would I change anything? Not a chance! I could certainly write more. I could make you all sick with the soppy romance of it all - thankfully there is still enough of the reserved Brit in me that I will not lay my emotions on the table for all to see. But at the same time, we live in a world of war and greed, a world of distrust, of the disenchanted and the disenfranchised. So no matter how much you may tire of hearing it, I