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How'd you meet!

On the internet
314 (44.4%)
Not actually on the internet, but through the internet
99 (14%)
At a bar
56 (7.9%)
At University
45 (6.4%)
At work
39 (5.5%)
At camp
14 (2%)
Through friends
55 (7.8%)
Through family
15 (2.1%)
As penpals!
13 (1.8%)
other
58 (8.2%)

Total Members Voted: 638


Topic: How Did It All Begin??  (Read 95665 times)

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Re: How did you meet your British beloved?
« Reply #30 on: February 14, 2004, 12:29:13 PM »
I met my DH in Virginia.  My mom and step-dad were friends with his dad and step-mom.  We both moved to Virginia, him from Glasgow, me from Texas, within 5 days of each other.  I was newly separated from my now ex, and he moved to live with his father whom he hadn't seen since he was 2 (was 24 at the time).  We didn't like each other at first, I thought he was too skinny and ugly, he thought I was too fat and ugly.  Then 2 months later we "met" on our own, and the rest is history.  That was almost 17 years ago, and with the exception of 2 months, we have been together ever since.


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Re: How did you meet your British beloved?
« Reply #31 on: February 14, 2004, 01:24:18 PM »
I met my husband while on an exchange year at Glasgow University.  That said... the year was over and there was only a week left before I had to leave.  One and a half years later I was back to live with him and eventually to get married.

So I guess I am a kind of mutt.  Met at university, but got to know him online.  :)
'Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not.' - Emerson


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Re: How did you meet your British beloved?
« Reply #32 on: February 14, 2004, 03:17:01 PM »
We met online too through a mailing list for the band All About Eve. One day, he mailed the list asking for someone in the US to buy him a cd (new solo album from the guitarist) from a shop that wouldn't ship to the UK. I emailed him privately to offer my services  ;) ;D as I was buying it too so I could just add one more to the order. Yadda yadda yadda.....Our wedding date is the date that I first wrote to him privately.  ;D

Like Krissybelle, I wind up saying 'mutual friends' to most people as it's none of their business.  And it is rather true because I'm quite good friends with a lot of people on that list. I'll tell friends the whole story after I get to know them and they always think it's so romantic and great.  :)


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Re: How did you meet your British beloved?
« Reply #33 on: February 14, 2004, 06:32:08 PM »
We met through a mutal friend in Barcelona April 1998 when he came down for his Birthday...I thought he was a bit goofy and funny and nice but that's it....I made him and friend a nice dinner as it was his birthday (my best friend was visiting from the US too) ...wrote back and forth for a year or so sporadically and then more often and then in September of 1999 I was drinking a glass of wine and writing and I just up and called him.  He then said he'd call me back and between lots of letters (he did not have email!) and calls the rest is history.

We got engaged in August of 2000  and married February 2001.

The wiring in our brain is not static, not irrevocably fixed.  Our brains are adaptable. -Mattieu Ricard

Being ignorant is not so much a shame as being unwilling to learn. -Benjamin Franklin

I have long since come to believe that people never mean half of what they say, and that it is best to disregard their talk and judge only their actions. -D.Day


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Re: How did you meet your British beloved?
« Reply #34 on: February 14, 2004, 08:08:52 PM »
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I actually think my mom would have been happier had David & I met online... but no, I was one of "those girls" who picked up men at bars! THE HORROR!!!


Well if we get technical about it, we went out the night we were introduced to a club in Glasgow called Destiny, (on the count of three....  gag now!).  I think I might have let that little fact slip when I told my mother how we met.  

I think the phrases church and bible study might have come into her version...   Just kidding! ;)
'Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not.' - Emerson


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Re: How did you meet your British beloved?
« Reply #35 on: February 17, 2004, 12:03:18 PM »
Well....I had been coming to England for work reasons...met a nice man but he was just not the ONE...but his mother and I ... well we I am sure have spent many lifetimes together....she has become my English MUM....anyway..she has a gentleman friend who told me all about his son Guy...in the Royal Navy...was coming back from the Antarctic and would be stopping in New York on his way back home... said if I'd like...he'd talk to him and Guy could give me a DELUXE tour of his ship the HMS Endurance and I could show Guy around NYC since he'd never been to the states....well..I wasn't over the moon about doing this...but....I did it...he met me in a pouring down rain.. looking like a drowned rat...we spent 2 days together in NYC...we started talking and haven't finished yet...hope we never do....

The best part tho...when I came over in June....he took me to a beautiful little chapel on the sea cliff in Worth Matravers....got on his knee and asked me to marry him...now....I was a widow from a marriage of 27 yrs...the last thing I had been thinking of was marriage...and along comes this wonderful man...who by the way is only 38...oh MY GOD.....and I said yes....we got married on November 1st in that beautiful chapel.......awwwwwwww

That of course is the short version....hmmmm....I could go on and on till you are all sick......


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Re: How did you meet your British beloved?
« Reply #36 on: February 18, 2004, 03:01:21 AM »
Watching an Elvis impersonator on Beale st. in Memphis on the 25th anniversary of the kings death!  How cheesy is that?
So, I can tell you where careless one night stands will get you.....ENGLAND!
I was only there the one night passing thru by myself, I didn't think anyone would ever know. Hmph!


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Re: How did you meet your British beloved?
« Reply #37 on: February 18, 2004, 03:37:51 AM »
I met my Scottish boyfriend online... he lives in Glasgow and I go to college in Boston. We actually first found eachother a few years ago and enjoyed chatting but lost contact, then reconnected and spoke daily for months both online and on the phone, for HOURS -- we just LOVED talking -- and finally met when I was "on holiday" in Glasgow. I have never met anyone who could possibly be nicer or more compatible, not to mention tall, dark, and handsome -- he's 6'3! Thank god for the internet, or I probably would have gone through life having never found my soulmate!   :)
Plans on hold 'cuz Brexit


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Re: How did you meet your British beloved?
« Reply #38 on: February 18, 2004, 11:04:14 AM »
hmmm....well....Meeting Guy part 2.....

A little background is...after my 1st husband passed...I was diagnosed with vaginal cancer...struggled with metastatic tumors and the like for almost 5 years....on my first visit to England...went to Glastonbury and the Chalice Well...on my return to the states I had my usual checkup..for the first time in all those years...there were no suspicious cells or tumors....following checkup..same thing...3rd and final checkup....I was officially declared in remission...March 10, 2003

Now...I have been using holistic and homeopathic medicines, reiki, therapeutic touch..all sorts of healing methods...I even was able to get my 48 lb. quartz crystal Oscar through customs to live with me here in England...do I believe that it was only Chalice Well....don't know I think a combination....

Now...the reason I tell all of this is my husband Guy is the bonus...I had decided to move to England before him...he is just the icing on the cake so to speak...for a very responsible old lady...meeting this beautiful man that rainy yucky day in Staten Island was the first day of the rest of my life....he has made such a difference in my life...I was happy...but now am ecstatic!!!!  So..are you all thoroughly sick to your stomach yet at my enthusiasm????

Anyway...Guy and I plan a trip to the Chalice Well on March 10 to celebrate my gift of life.....on November 6, 1997 I was told by 6 doctors in Roswell Park Cancer Center in Buffalo, NY I had 18 months to live....and here I am thriving and deliriously happy in Bournemouth England starting on the next adventure in my life....go figure.....

And thanks all for listening.....


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Re: How did you meet your British beloved?
« Reply #39 on: February 27, 2004, 11:45:10 AM »
We met online in 1999.  I had logged onto ICQ for about the second time in my life and searched profiles for "UK".  He popped up and we started talking...the rest is history.

We tell everyone we met while I was in the UK on a college trip...but that was in 1998...nobody seems to do the math!  

:-)


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Re: How did you meet?
« Reply #40 on: March 06, 2004, 08:56:31 PM »
My family and really good friends know "the whole story" about how we met but when people like taxi drivers or the girl washing your hair at the salon asks...I just say we met through mutual friends, which is true because we are friends with the same people on the mailing list we met through (granted, I had never met in person those people either!). It isn't really because I'm ashamed or anything but to be honest, I just can't be bothered with all the extra "polite" conversation that would follow. Call me anti-social.  :-/

Most of my friends and family think it's really kinda cool that we are an "internet success story"....at least that's what they say!  ;)


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How did you know?
« Reply #41 on: March 10, 2004, 05:18:14 PM »
Been doing a lot of thinking recently well really since HG and her daughter decided that living with me is just about bareable.  My mind has been wandering about love relationships and the like and I was just wondering how you guys knew you had found the right one.  Well as I asked the question I should try and answer it so as not putting all the pressure on the first reader.

A bit of background I have known HG for over 6 years (no doubt she will tell us at some point exactly how long) she has a daughter of 14 who is growing into a startling young woman but in the way of most teenagers she can't see it.  (By startling I mean spectacular not when you see her you scream and hide.  She is smart way smarter than me and as soon as she has the experience to back up her thought processes I won't get away with half of what I do now).  Her Mum my spouse to be has the same qualities except she has the experience but luckily isn't anywhere near as stubborn as I  ;D .

I have lived alone for 10 years and have over that time built up a nice collection of gadgets cd's dvd's DD 5.1 DTS EX 6.1 amplifiers with more speakers in my living room than walls and seats combined.  This was a system to be proud of and I was proud  ;D but yesterday I sold it off part cash part swap for a much smaller system that gives me more floor space to put seats.  I am spending hours talking about the new boiler and what I would like to do in the dinning room when I used to talk about films and music.  I want to change my life to make HG and CG feel more comfortable and enjoy Britain.  And not because I am being nagged to do it and not because it is the right way to be.  But because at this point in my life I can't think of anything that I could want or ever have wanted more than the two of them living here enjoying life.

So how do I know hmmmmmm I guess I think it is because nothing makes me feel happier than the thought of them being here.  I only hope that I can be as good for them as I know they have been for me.


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Re: How did you know?
« Reply #42 on: March 10, 2004, 06:04:19 PM »
How did I know.  Hmmm.

For years i was the typical Man-izer.  I was a seriel dater.  I dated men for days, weeks, months and rarely years.  I would date a couple at a time, valuing my independance and living the life i wanted to lead.  I loved being single, but i also loved being part of a relationship.  When i fell in love i gave my all, but sometimes it wasn't enough.  I was always looking for bigger and better, trying to find the 'perfect' fit for me.  Once, and only once I was completely crushed by an abusive relationship.......and it forced me to look at men in a new way.

Before i met David i dated a wonderful South African man who showed me the true value of a nice and caring person.  The jerkface guy before him had crushed any ounce of dignity i had in me, and the SA built me up to trust men again.  We dated for a short while, but i don't think i would have had the faith to withstand 18 months of being in a LDR without meeting the SA first.

I met David, my fiancee, while on a work trip.  We had one fun, crazy night together in New orleans, talking and lauging and loving till the sun came up.  ;)  That morning he had to leave to return to London but mentioned he would be in Boston at the end of the month for a business trip.  (little did i know he hadn't scheduled one but DID once he met me!)  I had mentioned to him i was stressed about a big client event on a certain day, he had been emailing me every day, a few times a day since our first night.  After the client event he called me at the hotel to see how it went...and that was the first hint of his character.

Over that month we communicated via phone and email.  HE offered to stay in the hotel across the street for the week if need be (another indication).  As i awaited him at Logan that first night since we met i prayed and hoped we'd be attracted to each other again.....and were we.

That weekend i knew he was going to marry me.  He took me to a B&B in Maine and we learned so much about each other.  I looked at myself in the mirror and said 'this man is going to marry me' and believed it ever since.

David makes me want to be a better person.  Never in our 1.5 years together have i wanted to run.....wanted to find something 'better' because i know there isn't a soul better for me.  He is my partner in life, i look at him and see little kids with his ginger hair and freckles.  David doesn't care that my parents are loaded (like so many of my suitors loved to drool about).  David wants nothing but to make me the happiest person in the world.  He is the calm in my storm.  I've never felt this stress free and relaxed, even when the distance and time change gets hard.  He's offering me his world, his love and his life and really, i couldn't ask for more.  His love keeps me warm in the night.....and lets me dream peaceful dreams. Never have i had so much trust for someone.  Never have i let myself be this open.  Never have i cared so less about myself, and more about someone else.  That is how i know.   [smiley=love.gif] [smiley=love.gif] [smiley=love.gif]


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Re: How did you know?
« Reply #43 on: March 10, 2004, 07:48:48 PM »
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The thing is I don't know if it is all Brittish men or just myself but I have great difficulty in saying the "Love" word.


It's just you, deary!  My Brit has no problem with the "L" word.  As a matter of fact, he uses it more than I am comfortable with.

Quote
it is warmth it is security it is hugging lessons (yup I have personal space issues to (why does she bother with me  ;D ))


Crikey, you sound like me and my husband, but in reverse.  I'm the one with personal space issues, and I'm not a huggy-feely kinda gal.

But in answer to your original question ... 'How did you know?' ... I knew because it wasn't one of those all-fired, can't think straight, gotta-have-it-now, kinda loves.  I've had those before, and they often burn out or are with the wrong type of person (gracious, have I attracted some real winners).  But with hubby, it was a slow build up to a more comfortable love.  A more secure kind of love.  There were no hitches, no gotchas (unless you count living in two different countries).  And when I sat back and thought about it, I realised our relationship was built on more than just some all-consuming passion or sex that would likely burn out in five years or less.  That's when I realised that he was the one with whom I'd spend the rest of my life.

Now, I know the above doesn't sound overly romantic, and I make no apologies for that, because in the long run, I have a man that I love and loves me in return, we have a happy life with shared interests, and a very strong marriage.  Personally, I couldn't ask for any more.
« Last Edit: March 10, 2004, 07:49:21 PM by Caitlinn »
Insert wonderfully creative signature here …


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Re: How did you know?
« Reply #44 on: March 10, 2004, 08:01:57 PM »
awwww....this is so lovely!  im almost in tears already and i doubt i can match the previous two stories, but we will see what i can do-

I met my DF at club night at our university that I went to by myself.  There wern't many people there and I felt uncomfortable being by myself, so I saw him sitting there and went and sat near him and asked him for a light.  I had been in England for a week, which was a hard and stressful week full of tears and lonliness, but I was starting to gain some confidence in trying to make friends.  We struck up a conversation and he was there with a female flatmate of his and the three of us talked and danced and drank until they threw us out and we went back to their flat.  We had what I thought would be a one night stand, but obviously it didnt work out like that  ::)

We hard a rough start - he was younger than me and I didn't want to rush into a relationship with the first guy I met in England.  I imagined myself with some older, sophisticated and well-travel guy, not a young, northern guy who liked heavy metal music, wears the same clothes he bought when he was 16, and had never been on a plane.  We struggled at first, he wanted a relationship and I wanted it to remain casual, but the physical and mental attraction remained strong.  I would try to pull away, but wouldn't be able to go far before I was attracted back.  We first fell in love on a day trip to London about six weeks after we met and we went to art galleries and kissed while we waited on tube platforms.  Since I was unsure about the relationship I did not want any public displays of affection - this was the first time we kissed in public.
The second time we fell in love was on a weekend holiday in Amsterdam about a month later.  We had an "off" time of about a week until we went away together for the weekend.  Just after this holiday, he went home to Yorkshire for a month and I missed him miserably.  We had cute conversations on the phone and I longed for the day that he would return to Colchester.

When he got back we got serious and became "official" - this January and three months after we met.  Everything progressed along nicely, until he went home again for another month in April - I had three long essays to write in that month when he was away and i busted my butt to get them done so I could go up and visit him at home for a long weekend.  We had a lovely weekend and spent a lot of time with his family and got a peak into his life at home and how he grew up.  We fell in love all over again and I cried as the train I got on pulled away from the platform and we waved to each other until we were out of view.

The summer was amazing, it felt like we were more in love with every day that passed.  We couldn't keep our hands off each other and always had to be holding hands or with an arm around the shoulder.  Just looking at him would make me smile uncontrolably.  I would miss him when he would go to work for 6 hours.  When I would meet him at the bus station after work and I would see him walking up the road a big smile would break onto my face and it was like we were seeing each other after having been apart for a week, but it was only 5 or 6 hours.  Except for when he was at work, we were inseperable and every day was amazing.

The summer turned into fall and we talked about what would happen when it came time for me to finish my MA and go home to America.  A small family crisis evolved at home and we got on a train and went up to Yorkshire.  It was amazing to me that during these times of intimate family troubles that my presence was not only welcomed, but seemed to be greatly appreciated.  I have never been a involved in such intimate family moments with someone elses family and I have never felt so close and welcomed into someone else's family.  I wanted nothing more than to be able to be there and supportive to my sweetheart and his family and so I knew this would be longlasting.

The time came for me to leave the country.  My dissertation was finished, I had to leave my housing, my visa was up in a month, i had exhausted my student loan and savings, and my sister was having a baby.  We pledged that we would stay together despite the distance, though we had no idea what to expect would happen.  The options in my mind were that we would give it a good try and find the distance to be too hard, or that we would make it work, he would finish his degree in two years and move to America, where we would get married.  At the airport we hard a terribly tearful goodbye and I could not stop crying on the plane.  I felt like I had left a big part of me in London.

Being apart was hard.  we would talk on the phone every day for about an hour, but it never seemed like enough.  We both felt like we were in total heartbreak to be apart and sometimes he would get very emotional and break down and tearfully ask why i had ever left england and would i please please please come back.  we worked through it and i knew i couldn't.  i didn't have any money and i didn't have a visa.  

He came to visit me for two weeks here in Florida over the New Year - we both wondered what it would be like to be together again.  It only took hours for it to feel just like it did the summer before - we were madly in love and felt so comfortable together.  At the airport we held onto each other until the last minute.  

We started talking about me visiting england in March.  I was madly appying for jobs in New York and intended to move to New York to start my career in February.  I applied to 45 jobs and got one interview and was hanging on to the idea of the job and was devastated when I found out I didn't get it.  I began to seriously reevaluate my life and my purpose and my goals and realized that there would be no point in me moving to New York to do random temp work when I could go and do the same thing in London and be with the love of my life and sublimely happy in London.  I realized that I am so young and that I don't want to have any regrets in my life, especially not the regret of losing an amazing love.  I realized something important for me: my career is not the only thing that defines me as a person, what is important is my hapiness and my love makes me happier than anything in the world.  This realization was a defining moment in my life and in our relationship.

Within the week we decided I would move to London and we would get married and we would do it as soon as possible.  Here I am a month later with my fiancee visa, a one-way ticket, and plans for a wedding on the first of May.  I never would have thought in a million years that six short months after I left england i would be returning, and though there have been overwhelming moments, I don't have any second thoughts.  In three short weeks we will be starting a new and amazing life together.

I know because never before has someone made me smile uncontrollably when I look at him, or just look at a picture of us; because without him my life feels dull and uninspired - it is the difference between living in black and white and living in color; because he is one of a few people in the world who i feels like really knows me and understands me; because i know we can face harship together and make it through and support each other; because we are young and have so much growing to do and we want to do it *together*; because i feel fulfilled by this relationship in every possible way imaginable, i could never imagine being in a better relationship - this is it; because we have amazing communication and i know that if there is ever trouble between us we can talk openly and honestly about even uncomfortable topics; and because for once in my life i am willing to give up everything that is familier to me to go and be with him and start a new amazing life that is no longer just about me, but about us.


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