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A Chance Meeting - 19yrs on
19 years ago today, my wife and I met for the first time. It was a chance meeting, but one that changed both our lives from that point onward.
I was invited by friends to the 1989 Sydney University end-of-year party. I wasn't a student, but hey, cheap alcohol and a night out was okay by me. I was actually sort of seeing someone at the time. We'd been out a few times but nothing much seemed to be happening. Either way, she wasn't interested in coming to a Uni party with me and my mates so I went on my own. I caught a train to Redfern station and was met there by my friends. They had a few other people with them - other friends, other students - that I did not know. One of them caught my eye immediately.
She was fairly tall, with long dark hair. A nice shirt, jeans and tasteful boots. A finely sculptured face, pale but with red lips and eyes that danced with intelligence and joy. She put her arms around one of my friends and walked back towards Uni. Oh well, I thought. She's taken. And I followed.
At Uni, the party was in full swing. Weddings Parties Anything were playing and students were everywhere. When the band finished a dj played. I stood against the walls with a few of my mates, drinking and watching girls dance. I didn't dance. Couldn't dance. But I enjoyed watching and listening.
And then I saw her again, on the dance floor. She lifted her arms above her head as she danced and the curve of her neck, the bunched muscles of her shoulders, the tilt of her head... it just took my breath away. She looked across the room and locked eyes with mine. She smiled.
Me? I panicked and looked away. Dorky, geeky, teenager! How could I possibly have any chance?
Luckily for me, she was a little more persistent.
Over the course of the night I noticed her more often. She was around more often. Not dancing, but hanging around with us guys. Moving in next to me. Asking questions about me. Telling me about herself.
Her name was Kylie, and I am so damn glad she had more courage than I did. Who knows where I'd be now if she hadn't?
I'll admit I was a little slow to catch on, or maybe it was just the inability to believe she could be interested in me at all.
Eventually, when the Doug Anthony All Stars began their main act, she wanted to get closer to the stage. I said that would be a good idea and looked across the sea of people she wanted to traverse. I couldn't see any way through. I just stood there and stared like a dope.
Then Kylie took my hand. I felt her palm, her long fingers entwining mine, and she dragged me into the crowd!
I went with it. I didn't have a choice. I didn't have a chance.
After DAAS we left the party and wandered the streets of Newtown. Both of us talking. Both of us listening. Exchanging thoughts and lives and hopes and desires.
How strange to find a person that made you realise you'd never been whole before. Someone who made you realise there was a hole in your soul and that they were the one who could fill it.
We've been together ever since. We talked about marriage three days after the night described above. We told her parents and mine.
Strangely enough, they actually seemed to believe it as much as we did.
19 years later we're still together. We are married with two wonderful boys. She's still my best friend and the person who makes me whole.
I also know that will never change. That sort of certainty is a comfort in this strange world and it drives me on through life.
We we're 19 when we met and now it is 19 yrs later. We've known each other for as long as we were alive before we even met. But, it is hard to remember the time before that night. Hard to remember what I was like without her. I could never go back to being an incomplete person again.
Now, I've got to rush off. I've written much more than I intended to and I still have a story edit to finish and an anniversary dinner to start cooking. And, as I'm doing a slow-roasted Greek lamb leg, I've only got an hour of editing time left! 5 hours might seem like a long time to roast a leg of lamb, but it will all be worth it by about 7.30 when I dish it up. :)
I was invited by friends to the 1989 Sydney University end-of-year party. I wasn't a student, but hey, cheap alcohol and a night out was okay by me. I was actually sort of seeing someone at the time. We'd been out a few times but nothing much seemed to be happening. Either way, she wasn't interested in coming to a Uni party with me and my mates so I went on my own. I caught a train to Redfern station and was met there by my friends. They had a few other people with them - other friends, other students - that I did not know. One of them caught my eye immediately.
She was fairly tall, with long dark hair. A nice shirt, jeans and tasteful boots. A finely sculptured face, pale but with red lips and eyes that danced with intelligence and joy. She put her arms around one of my friends and walked back towards Uni. Oh well, I thought. She's taken. And I followed.
At Uni, the party was in full swing. Weddings Parties Anything were playing and students were everywhere. When the band finished a dj played. I stood against the walls with a few of my mates, drinking and watching girls dance. I didn't dance. Couldn't dance. But I enjoyed watching and listening.
And then I saw her again, on the dance floor. She lifted her arms above her head as she danced and the curve of her neck, the bunched muscles of her shoulders, the tilt of her head... it just took my breath away. She looked across the room and locked eyes with mine. She smiled.
Me? I panicked and looked away. Dorky, geeky, teenager! How could I possibly have any chance?
Luckily for me, she was a little more persistent.
Over the course of the night I noticed her more often. She was around more often. Not dancing, but hanging around with us guys. Moving in next to me. Asking questions about me. Telling me about herself.
Her name was Kylie, and I am so damn glad she had more courage than I did. Who knows where I'd be now if she hadn't?
I'll admit I was a little slow to catch on, or maybe it was just the inability to believe she could be interested in me at all.
Eventually, when the Doug Anthony All Stars began their main act, she wanted to get closer to the stage. I said that would be a good idea and looked across the sea of people she wanted to traverse. I couldn't see any way through. I just stood there and stared like a dope.
Then Kylie took my hand. I felt her palm, her long fingers entwining mine, and she dragged me into the crowd!
I went with it. I didn't have a choice. I didn't have a chance.
After DAAS we left the party and wandered the streets of Newtown. Both of us talking. Both of us listening. Exchanging thoughts and lives and hopes and desires.
How strange to find a person that made you realise you'd never been whole before. Someone who made you realise there was a hole in your soul and that they were the one who could fill it.
We've been together ever since. We talked about marriage three days after the night described above. We told her parents and mine.
Strangely enough, they actually seemed to believe it as much as we did.
19 years later we're still together. We are married with two wonderful boys. She's still my best friend and the person who makes me whole.
I also know that will never change. That sort of certainty is a comfort in this strange world and it drives me on through life.
We we're 19 when we met and now it is 19 yrs later. We've known each other for as long as we were alive before we even met. But, it is hard to remember the time before that night. Hard to remember what I was like without her. I could never go back to being an incomplete person again.
Now, I've got to rush off. I've written much more than I intended to and I still have a story edit to finish and an anniversary dinner to start cooking. And, as I'm doing a slow-roasted Greek lamb leg, I've only got an hour of editing time left! 5 hours might seem like a long time to roast a leg of lamb, but it will all be worth it by about 7.30 when I dish it up. :)
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If you tell anyone else that I got mushy I'll kill you all!
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I know exactly what you mean about the 'filling the hole in my soul' - that's how I feel about my man.
HUGS to you both.
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My wife and I celebrate our 18th wedding anniversary next February so I know exactly where you're coming from. We first met as young 'uns in Spain (our little brothers went to school toghether), but she was in the year above mine at school so that was a chasm in kid years. Hardly saw each other.
Her family emigrated to Australia from Spain in 1982, and my parents followed with my brother and I in 1983, when I was 16. Spain had compulsory military service for 18-year-olds, and there were wild rumours they were going to force all foreigners on residency permits into the army for a couple of years too. That was just one factor amongst many - opportunities for work and education were the biggies.
We all saw quite a bit of each other in those early days in Australia, but there was still that age gap and we lived in different parts of the city and attended different schools.
Then her entire family moved back to England early in 1986 to sell their old house, which was still on the market. My wife returned to Australia alone in 1987, having got sick of life in the UK. She stayed with us for a few weeks then moved into shared accommodation and started Uni.
We started going out about six months later, after I went off for a week-long film trip for my uni degree and called her up one night from a dodgy old call box to ask if she wanted to go camping.
We got married in 1991, and now have two daughters aged 11 and 13.
When you look at all the odds against us ever hooking up, I'd say both our kids are very lucky to be around ;-)
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Strangely, once Kylie and I did meet, we discovered many other occassions where we could have (and possibly did) meet prior to that night.
As children our families both spent time in the same caravan park on the Central Coast, only a few vans away from each other. Being kids, running around a caravan park, there was surely a time when we met - and either played together or fought, as children do.
We also went to many of the same concerts, often sitting a row apart. One time, a U2 concert at the Sydney Ent.Cent., we were both there separately and kept our tickets for nostaligia. After we met and discovered we were at the same concert we dragged out the old tickets and looked at the Ent.Cent map. Not only were we a row apart, but she was sitting in the seat directly in front of mine!
Obviously, our meeting was meant to be.
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With summer holiday fun being what it is, I just hope our families aren't more related than we think they are ;-)
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Flip Side of the Coin
Then one day things changed. My hero didn't want to play barbie v vader anymore. He wanted to go out. He stopped reading me bedtime stories. He seemed sad and distant. Not long after that, he asked if he could have a friend over for dinner... that had happened in the past, and family dinner passed in the same ole routine. But not this time.
The good tablecloth was laid. The best crockery came out. My mum was fussing, my hero was edgy. I didn't get it. Then she arrived, and with one careless, beautiful smile I saw that my hero was no longer mine. That this long legged beauty had won him over and stolen him away. She won over everyone in my family in one dinner, but she had yet to meet the hardest of all hearts... The Kid Sister.
I resented this beauty. She was perfect. She was elegance personified, she was more like Royalty than Jackie O... She was a perfect form that swept into my life and changed everything. I had daydreams wherein I would belittle her and make her cry, but in the end. I always was left feeling bad. She was perfect. She was elegance personified
Then one day my mum and dad were going out for the evening, and had asked my hero to mind me. Perfect! Finally we would have some time together, and remember all the good times. Then she arrived, her black high heeled boots, and skin tight jeans. I refused to acknowledge this beauty. Refused her my heart, although secretly my heart loved her from the moment I saw her. Defeated, I retreated to my room, resigned to the fact I would spend the night watching the Bill Collins headline for the evening. Then she came in and asked me if I would like a drink. I saw an opportunity to take advantage of her, and requested 'A Bodgie's Blood' (AKA Cola, icrecream and raspberry topping). She instantly agreed. My brother, knowing me better, was far more hesitant. But she hugged him, whispered in his ear, and before I knew it, we were all making Bodgie's Blood's. I had taken her good nature and turned it to my pleasure... then whilst basking in my glory, I knocked over my drink... red topping and cola seeping into the carpet. My brother went into melt-down. But she was calm, like an angel, she took hold of the situation, got a bucket of soapy water, and we cleaned the damage I had made. But maybe too well, but that was ok... she calmly got out a cigarette, we smoked it together and rubbed in the ash into the bleached carpet. By the end of the night, I was gone. I was smitten on this gorgeous lady.
So Kylie, Thank you 19 years on for persevering not only with my brother, but with me. And for teaching me that every hero needs a heroine. Congratulations!!! All my love!!! xoxoxo
Re: Flip Side of the Coin
You had Kylie in tears... in a good way :)