The Story of Us
Today is Valentines Day. Given that everybody gets a free pass to be as sentimental as they want today, I thought I might share how I met my other half.
Enjoy!Back in the spring of 2000 I had just moved into my own place, and found myself at a loose end most evenings. I didn't know anybody nearby, and wasn't interested in heading out to bars every night, so ended up posting my details on a dating site on the internet. This was back when nobody met on the internet.
I ended up chatting with a girl via Yahoo Messenger for a few evenings, and we kind of got on, but somehow went our various ways. Over the course of the next month we both went out with other people on some spectacularly bad dates, and pretty much got nowhere. Then one night in the early summer we both ended up staying in on the same night (who am I kiddingI always stayed in), and bumped into each other again.
A random conversation via Yahoo Messenger turned into a “meet for a drink at lunchtime” in Oxford at the weekend. I didn't know this until much later, but she had been meeting people from personal ads in the paper (ah, the days before the internet), and always had a friend call a few minutes into the dateher “exit plan”. She had no plan for meI was the first person she had ever met without her friends knowing.
We met in the “Cock and Camel” in George Street, Oxford, one Sunday lunchtime. I can still remember her looking up from her magazine and smiling as I walked in the door.
We talked, and talked. After having something light to eat, and another drink, I said I would love to see her again.“Definitely”.
And we said our goodbyes.
That was 13 years ago. Almost every moment of that first meeting is etched into my memorythe sunlight pouring through the windows, her dress, her haircut.. everything.