To update anyone who might be interested from the early days, in late 2006 Inez Rix (Rixxy on the forum) and I (Smiley ;-) had a cyber-introduction through the EOS website. We clicked almost from the get go – we had similar principles in terms of trying to help people that were buying property in Spain from the perspective of offering guidance and general advice whether it related to our specialist spheres or not. From a personal point of view, more importantly we both had a very lighthearted take on life and neither one of us took ourselves too seriously and there was a great deal of humour contained within our EOS “tennis.”
On the 7th March 2007 the inaugural EOS meeting was arranged by Justin Aldridge at 7.30 pm in Puerto Duquesa by the then owner of the EOS website. As a keen Manchester United fan I was torn as to whether to go, as it coincided with a Champions League match that I wanted to watch on TV. In true Spanish style I arrived about an hour late (pressure of work at the time and a client I simply couldn’t get off the phone). Boy was I glad that I did make it, because I was simply captivated by Rixxy! As a bit of a technophobe (nor ever having the need or desire either) I had never used an internet dating site, but I can imagine the anticipation of afficionados for this method of dating. I was in a rapidly deteriorating marriage and had already discussed an exit strategy with my then wife, however I most certainly wasn’t looking for a relationship. After two failed marriages, I had become something of a cynic and had decided that the future lay in close friendships (with or without benefits), with the opposite sex.
There were two other attendees at the meet (Justin himself and Juan Mielke) and while the conversation flowed, it seemed pretty obvious to all there that the cyberspace chemistry was manifesting itself in the real world as well. I don’t think either one of us was hanging on the other’s every word but we certainly clicked! All of a sudden it was 10.30pm and all too soon the meeting was winding up.
Obviously much has happened in the interim but for those of you that might have any semblance of interest we are delighted to announce that on June 1st 2013 we finally tied the knot and got married overlooking the Atlantic Ocean in Antigua. It was a fantastic day – the sun shone brightly and while it was a very intimate ceremony (just the two of us, two local witnesses and the Minister) there was a fantastic atmosphere and lots and lots of laughter.
As we had no official reception (not much point in speeches when there are only the two of you) we decided to “trash the dress” for the final sequence of photographs by going into one of the resort swimming pools. It was a fantastic climax to our wedding day but with a silk wedding dress weighed down by several additional kilos worth of water it proved something of a problem carrying the bride over the threshold. Or maybe it was several kilos worth of cake ;-)
We are looking forward to a continuing life full of love, happiness and laughter - kids wont be on the agenda as we have enough of those already (nor are we sure we could at our time of life) but we do have two wonderful Golden Retrievers and will be joined very soon by an 8 year old German Shepherd from our local rescue.