In a previous post "Things I Love - a Valentine post" I listed 5 things I love - although I could have listed a load more, like; dogs, coffee, travel (especially California), all things London, Apple products...
If I had written that before July 2005, it would have been a completely different post, I say completely, the spice girls would have still been on there.
Back in 2005, when "My Space" was the main - perhaps only social network, it wasn't for another 14 months until Facebook was launched, and we had to wait 5 years for instagram and 6 years for Twitter to join the social network revolution! 2005 I was still in my teens!
I had been studying at college and working in a hospital as a health care assistant when I made the decision - I was leaving the country! I was off to work a summer on the Greek island of Corfu in the party town of Kavos, now, I use that word WORK in the vaguest sense. this was to be the summer of fun and frolics, care-free living, an entire summer dedicated to partying! Once the summer was over, the plan was to travel the world as a free-spirited singleton.
ITS PARTY TIME!
I started my journey with a group of people I’d become friends with just a few months before - a group of crazy individuals - just like me, yet all completely different. We arrived in Kavos early May 2005 and by July it had been decided that the partners of the friends were to fly out to Kavos, that was fine! more the merrier I guess... that was until the night before the partners were due to arrive. I finished work (at the time i was working behiund the bar at a restaurant) I finished at about 11:30pm and took the long walk home - it took about 40 seconds to my appartment! I got back to the apartment to freshen up and head out to party, it was then, that my friends broke the news... “we are having a quiet one tonight”
A QUIET ONE?!? WTF?!?! We're in Kavos to party, be free, have fun!! And from the moment we arrived, right up to this moment - that is exactly what we had done! It’s no secret that I have a somewhat, capricious character, and this time it showed - I told them that love had ruined them, and it was not going to ruin my night, I told them that this was the exact reason "you would not find me falling in love" saying things like “all I’ve known from love is heartache and pain” (that sounds like a song lyric). but their choice to be in love and be a complete and utter bores was not going to stop me having fun, hell no!... I came here to party!
The Road Less TraveLled
I made my way from my apartment and headed down “the strip” - this is a long road full of bars and clubs. It was July, peak season and to say that it was busy would be an understatement. Hordes of Brits filled the strip, all dancing, singing and drinking to the point of oblivion; without a care in the world!!! Every bar and club packed to rafters, girls and boys,gender-neutral, gender-queer and everyone in-between spilled out onto the street; It was the so busy I could hardly make my way - where i was going I'm not too sure.... that’s when it happened! From across the road, a slim, handsome and shirtless guy stumbled to the curb to light up a cigarette and chat to a gaggle of girls, ( it may be worth pointing out that I was not “out” and only a handful of close friends knew I was gay)
Anyway, let’s get back to my story. We have shirtless hottie sitting by the road having a cig. I’m not sure why, but something compelled me to hide my lighter, so I stuffed it in my shoe! why I didn’t just keep it in my pocket we will never know! So, I approached this guy and said those three beautiful words "you gotta light?" - and he did! (but then I knew that) the guys name?, Ben... and it was then he lit my cigarette; but that wasn’t the only flame that had been ignited.
On the 18th July 2005-
I fell in love!
I wasn’t sure how everything was going to pan out and despite having declared that “all I’ve known from love is heartache and pain” something had changed – I was willing to give it a go.
Ben and I are as much alike as we are different. He has changed my life in ways I cannot describe. He sees me in a way no other person does. He makes my world a brighter place (mostly), he picks me up when I am down and accepts me for all that I am, for all my weird and wonderful qualities - flaws and all. I embrace all that he is, all he has been and that he wants to be. That’s why on 18th July 2013 (8 years to the day we met) I asked him to marry me – not only was it 8 years since we met, July 2013 Legislation to allow same-sex marriage in England and Wales was passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom, alth
ough it wasn’t brought into force until 13 March 2014, As Ben and I like even numbers we got married on 18th July 2015 – 10 years to the day we met.
Right...although we don’t celebrate Valentine’s day, (it shouldn't take one day to show those you love how much you care) I thought that today would be a good day to post this soppy story about me and how I met the love of my life.
Fast forward to 2018: 13 Christmases, 2 new nieces and 3 new nephews, a niece or nephew on the way, bringing up the total of nieces and nephews to 8, 3 wedding and a funeral. a mortgage (we brought a flat in the former home of the 2012 athlete’s village) and that’s just for starters... we have only just started, many more stories yet to be written!
Maybe it was a coincidence that on the day I vowed never to fall in love, I met Ben. (but I don’t believe in coincidences). Perhaps it was fates way of showing me that love is more that I thought it could or would be? Maybe it was just meant to be? Whatever it was that caused me head out that night on my own, to hide my lighter, to approach a hansom stranger, what i do know is that it changed my life … and as it is valentines day I thought I would leave you all (my 6 readers) with a little poem that was read at our wedding:
The One
When the one whose hand you're holding
Is the one who holds your heart,
When the one whose eyes you gaze into
Gives your hopes and dreams their start,
When the one you think of first and last
Is the one who holds you tight
And the things you plan together
Make the whole world seem just right,
When the one whom you believe in
Puts their faith and trust in you,
You've found the one and only love
You'll share your whole life through.
