Girlfriend popped the leap year question

Taking advantage of the leap year tradition that allows a woman to propose to her man on February 29, she whisked Mr Turner off on a mystery trip to a luxury hotel.
What the 43-year-old didn’t know was that Miss Allen had won a competition that enabled her to pop the big question in the lap of luxury.
Encouraged by friends, she had entered a contest organised by a five-star resort in South Wales to find someone prepared to propose in the hotel’s sumptuous Presidential Suite.
Miss Allen, a self-employed dog walker of Kennet Close in Thatcham, submitted the most romantic story and, with the help of resort staff, was able to smuggle a ring, wrapped in a large gift box for disguise, into the suite to surprise her boyfriend at the Celtic Manor in Newport.
As Mr Turner opened the present and discovered the ring, she popped the question and to her delight, he said, “Yes!”
She said: “We only met last June and didn’t start dating straight away. My competition entry was very slushy. I told them how perfect we were for each other and how we were soulmates.
“It just feels so right and, when I saw it was a leap year, it was as if the heavens were telling me something. Then when a friend told me about this competition it seemed like another sign and I kept my fingers crossed I would win because I had no idea how I would have proposed otherwise!”
Although Miss Allen had asked him to keep the special date free in his diary, Mr Turner, who lives in High Wycombe, suspected nothing until the moment of the proposal.
He said: “I was taken completely by surprise. When we arrived in the Presidential Suite, I wondered how on earth she had managed to afford it.
“I hadn’t really thought about the date and when I unwrapped the present and found the ring in the box, she had to spell it out to me. Once I did understand, it didn’t take me long to say ‘Yes!’”
He added: “Heather is everything to me. She’s my best mate who I can have a laugh with and we love just getting out and walking her dogs. But then, when she dresses up, I remember she’s also the most beautiful girl you’ll ever see.”
Miss Allen said the couple may marry on another iconic date this December – 12/12/12.
The origin of the leap year tradition is lost in the mists of time.
In 1916, The Elevator magazine informed readers that February 29 marked a date on which “hopeful ladies are supposed to take bold steps,”
Some say that this custom originated in fifth-century Ireland, where St Patrick allowed women to take the initiative every four years after St. Brigid complained to him that they were having to wait too long for husbands.
Others credit a Scottish law enacted in 1288 under the unmarried Queen Margaret, which allowed a maiden “liberty to bespeak ye man she likes” during leap year.
The knave who refused to marry her and could not prove his engagement to another was supposedly fined.