Petra's Story

If it hadn't been for Pinky, I would not write this story today. Pinky, my Singaporean Chinese friend who met her husband of more than 3 years on the Internet asked me last August during my visit to the UK when I would finally move over there for good. "If you find me a nice bloke to live with", I replied, obviously joking. But then you don't know Pinky... She took it as a mission. Sent me the link to the DatingDirect.com site shortly after I had returned to Singapore asking me about my "preferences" and volunteering to go on the hunt for me. Sounded like fun, but I decided to do the "hunt" myself and pasted a profile on your site some time last September. Reckoning I wouldn't stand much chances to receive any responses if I were to be honest about my location in the Far East I based myself in San Francisco. Besides, I had lose plans in my mind which were directing me towards a next job in the US...

How can I forget the day that was to change my life? It was the 11th of December 2000, the day I returned from a shitty business trip to Bangladesh. After a night without sleep on the plane it was kind of refreshing despite my tiredness to read Mark's note in my inbox: "Hi Petra, if you did not live 6000 miles away, I would ask you out..." Yes, I did live 6000 miles away, more than that in fact, but I still had to chuckle at the thought that Mark had obviously shot his arrow westwards not aware that it would land in the East...

The following weeks and months were kind of crazy. Writing up to 5 e-mails a day, chatting online at ungodly hours, phonecalls either very early in the morning or in the middle of the night. Something had to be done and Mark was about to do it at the end of the month, on the verge of breaking into a new, the real millennium. But this one seemed to have the bug, since he backed out at the last minute. Second thoughts? Too crazy an idea to fly to Singapore to find out who was behind the words on the screen? His explanation made more sense to me than he dreamt possible believing that I would never talk to him again after having been stood up like that.

The conversations continued, even more than before. That "wobbler" of his had brought us closer somehow. Business plans had me booked on a flight to Europe in early March but suddenly it all seemed so long away. I secretly made enquiries about fares from Singapore to London. Quantas had a fairly good offer at the beginning of February so plans began to form in MY mind this time. Talking to him about me coming over for a weekend, Mark was enthusiastic straight away. However, no one else seemed to understand that crazy idea to fly from Singapore to London for a weekend on a blind date. But even though I also not only considered this remotely but completely crazy I knew that I was doing the right thing and that I would not regret it in the end...

I took off on Thursday night, 8th February touching down in Heathrow 14 hours later on Friday morning at 6 am local time. We met in Eastbourne the same evening and had some 60 hours together before I had to leave again to catch my flight back to Singapore on early Monday morning, 12th February.

What could describe better the weekend that would change both our lives forever than the card that Mark wrote in 2 parts, one while I was on my way to the UK, one while I was on the way back, the card that arrived in my letterbox the day before yesterday making me realize that sometimes, just sometimes, dreams do come true:

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