Found Him! No, Not Wally..... Mr Right!

After years spent bemoaning my singleness (while at the same time enjoying my life regardless, I should add!) and going on more dates than the sands of the Sahara - OK that may be a tad hyberbolic but it felt like that at times! - I found Mr Right this year.... at a New Year's Eve party.

The delightful part was it all a magnificent unexpected surprise. After trying hard to find someone via referrals from friends, and the internet (through which I made some brilliantly good friends!), I ended up meeting the guy I am now with, Stephen, via one of the good friends I made via a set-up date years ago, Fahmi. Stephen used to come to Sydney a lot from Bathurst on the weekends for the opera etc, and stayed with my friend Fahmi more often than he didn't. Since I saw Fahmi quite a bit on the weekends for brunch, movies etc, I used to see Stephen now and then, and we'd talk a little here and there. He came across as a lovely guy, and truth be told, I thought he was handsome from the moment I met him.

But nothing much progressed till last October when Fahmi was in Singapore for 12 days, and as is usually the case when Fahmi's away from home, I fed his cat. The final weekend of his trip, Stephen was due to stay and we arranged an exhange of the house keys at The Union hotel near Fahmi's. What I expected to be a quick 10 minute hand over of keys, ended up being a 3 hour epic, during which I drank some white wine, enjoyed Stephen's company immensely, and ended up accidentally on the best first date of my life! Trouble was he was still living in Bathurst, and after two long distance relationships that hadn't worked that year, I walked home thrilled to have spent the time with this beautiful man but not really thinking it would lead anywhere, much to my great regret.

But Stephen, as enamoured of me as I was of him, had other ideas, and after moving back to Sydney mid-December (not for me I must stress - his work contract had ended!), decided he would make one last play for my affections at Fahmi's New year's Eve party. (Fahmi, god bless him, had blithely not interpreted my constant questions of him about Stephen, and Stephen's to him about me, as actual romantic interest at all, so neither had any idea of the level of the other's interest! Hilarious....). I turned up with my friend, Peter and Stephen immediately said "Hi" and we got on as beautifully as before, but it wasn't till he said he couldn't let me leave the party early (he had me confused with another friend of Fahmi's, also Andrew, who was leaving early for another party) that I twigged that he was interested. I was thrilled, and we ended up spending much the whole party together, and even kissed at midnight. Awww.....

That amazing night has led to the loveliest year of my life, where Stephen and I have firmly become established as boyfriends, where he met my brother, Stephen, and Mum & Dad, where we participated in all sorts of fabulous things together like Fair Day, yachting with friends, countless dinners.... every second of our time has been delightful, and I have loved discovering more and more of what makes him the man of my dreams  - he's so warm, caring, down to earth, funny, intelligent, articulate, so easy to spend time with in any circumstance, my friend, and soul mate, and the sort of person I want to be with all the time. I have been truly blessed by his presence in my life this year, and I am looking forward to many years more.