There are just two times in the year in which I'm eligible to receive presents and they are both double-ups. One of course is late December, when I have my December 24th birthday together with Christmas. The other is early May when I always have my wedding anniversary close to Mother's Day. We were married on May 9th, which happened to be the day after I arrived home from the conference this year. As Andrew had his TAFE woodwork course that evening, we postponed going out until Friday night. We could've just let it go, but I felt it was quite a milestone anniversary as we've been married for 15 years. So we left the kids with Andrew's parents and went out for dinner. We finished up at "Spat's Cafe" which is a little gem of a spot straight from Queen Victoria's imperial empire. There are British and Indian artifacts from that era in every nook and cranny in the place. The booths are tight and secluded with pretty screens and velvet cushions. The whole place is dim with hazy red and green lantern light and the music is straight from the war era and the '50s. (I know that's quite a bit later than Victorian but it still added to the overall effect). On every table was a different china teapot, just making the whole place cosy.

I found myself remembering the circumstances of my first meeting with Andrew. My ex-brother-in-law (who now lives way up in Cairns) was working as a chef at a local hospital where Andrew had just become the accountant at the tender age of 22 (I was 21). Kevin kept telling me, "There's this young fellow you might fancy. He's a Christian like you, but he's also a lot of fun." Kevin often used to make remarks like that. Apparently he'd been building up stories about his single sister-in-law to Andrew at work, too. Then one day, he asked me to visit the following Saturday because he'd invited Andrew around for a game of chess. I was supposed to pretend that I'd just called in on Kevin and Julie on the same day by chance. By now, my curiosity was very healthy and I was willing to go along with the plan.

So both Andrew and I turned up and had a pleasant afternoon. It was quite a hilarious situation because as we later discovered, both of us were there with the express purpose of meeting each other, and we both knew that was the reason we were there, yet we both played dumb and pretended that we were oblivious to Kevin's schemes. We must've carried it off well. To be honest, I don't think I was bowled over by Andrew's stunning good looks on that first day, but by the end of the afternoon, I did think that he had very nice bright eyes and decided that if ever he did give me a follow-up phone-call, I'd be willing to go out with him. And that was just what happened. It seems that he'd summed me up as an 'ultra-modern' girl by the new haircut I'd had, and decided I was probably wasn't his type, but thought he'd give me a phone-call anyway. We've both laughed over that initial impression, because the fact is, I'm just the opposite, with an old-fashioned outlook in many ways.  I think one of the first dates he took me on was to watch the Symphony Orchestra under the stars in the city, and as they say, the rest is history.

Our brother-in-law fancied himself quite the matchmaker for a long time. It wasn't uncommon for acquaintances to say, "Kevin tells me he's the one who introduced you and Andrew. Tell me more." Somebody suggested that his nickname should be Cupid, to which my sister would respond, "Well, he's often been called something that rhymes."

Hey, now that I've written this, I find myself wondering how other blogging friends of mine first met their husbands. It's an interesting subject for a chat so anybody who wants to, please consider this a sort of informal tag. If you decide to take me up on it, please let me know so I can log on and have a good read.

Paula