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Shirley Lau

Hanny Cheung landed the girl of his dreams yesterday after he proposed in a weekly horoscope.

Some may dismiss it as superstition, but the stars worked for the 28-year-old conference organiser when he offered marriage to girlfriend Irene Lee.

Ms Lee, who celebrated her 30th birthday yesterday, read out the prediction for her star sign Pisces from the Post Magazine horoscope in Mr Cheung's office, where he was pretending to work.

The column started unremarkably: 'With intelligent Mercury entering your birth sign, and a Piscean new moon on Thursday, anything you start this week stands a good chance of success. And that will be the case particularly if it happens to be creative or romantic.'

But then it read: 'A lady by the name of Irene Lee, celebrating her birthday today, has the chance to make a dream come true for Hanny. He takes this opportunity to ask her, 'Will you marry me?'.'

Ms Lee, who teaches English, looked over to her boyfriend and said: 'Oh, I see my name in it.'

Mr Cheung then got down on bended knee and presented her with a diamond ring. The delighted couple then kissed and laughed before a tearful Ms Lee uttered the long-awaited: 'Yes'.

Mr Cheung said: 'She took ages to say it. It seemed like an eternity. It was nerve-racking.'

He said yesterday's innovative proposal had taken him a month to prepare. First, he bought the ring. Then, inspired by a man in the United States who proposed to his girlfriend in a crossword puzzle in the New York Times,  he sought assistance from the Post Magazine last Wednesday.

Despite having already designed the horoscope page, staff at the magazine created the message with him.

'I knew she would read that page. We always read it religiously each Sunday and we normally have to fight for it,' he said.

'I handed her the magazine and I asked her to read my horoscope. Funnily enough she said 'I bet it will be horrible'. I said 'I bet you a million dollars it isn't'.'

Ms Lee, who met Mr Cheung through friends five years ago, said she appreciated his romantic move. But he confessed: 'I'm not really romantic. This was the most romantic thing I've ever done in my life.'

shirleylau@scmp.com



Marry me, Irene: it's written in the stars