We decided to go out fairly early and grab something to eat on the hoof, we were both pub Stock Controllers at the time who looked after pubs in Leeds so we thought we pop in on a few of our charges, say hello and bag some free drinks before buggering off and spending our money and disgraceing ourselves in pubs that belonged to other breweries! At about half nine we decided that we should take ourselves to places where our antics would not make the jungle drums news and headed up to Greek Street and into the Old Monk. We were congratulating ourselves on a sucessive trip to the bar which took less than 20 minutes to be served and our delight upon finding an empty if not filthy table. The fact that the table was adjacent to a group of 5 not bad looking lads was a bonus and as I used to be a bit of a flirt with a drink or two inside me it didn't take long to strike up conversation with them.
A few drinks later and a lack of Auld Langs Syne I might add, I found myself chatting away with a handsome young chap. We seemed to have so much in common. He'd been to university in Nottingham, my home town and it transpired we'd been to the same clubs, gigs etc. He'd even been to a few Forest matches when he'd been bored and unable to get to Leeds games. We found out in those couple of hours that we liked the same music, read the same books, both liked football and had had this weird parallel existance between Leeds and Nottingham.
It was soon kicking out time and I naturally invited him back to mine, now before you all label me a brazen hussy, I only lived about 3 miles away from the centre of Leeds, future t'husband was about 20 miles and Catherine about 13, so I suggested that we all go back for more drink and to peruse my record collection (yeah, yeah that old chestnut....). The journey home did not pass by uneventfully though, oh no. The city centre was packed and for the first time ever they had installed one of those outdoor ice rinks and a fair. All the pavements and roads were crowded with people and you couldn't move for tripping over someone. However, I was a little bit shocked to be headbutted right on the bridge of my nose by some miniature Chinese girl (actually she may not have been Chinese but she was Asian...), cue lots of blood and quite a bit of pain. A broken nose! Off Chinese/Asian shortarse sauntered, unaware of her causing me actual bodily harm into the crowd and I was left a trifle embarrassed. Any coolness that I had feigned evaporated immediately. Still he stayed and endured a two hour wait for a taxi (we could have walked it in less than an hour), and obviously he called a couple of days later for a proper date.
Fast forward a few years, a long distance relationship, living in our Guesthouse with both customers and a grumpy business partner, an unplanned pregnancy, two miscarriages, money troubles and home sickness - all hurdles that we've overcome and I am proud to say that none of those have put even a slight dent in our relationship.
Tomorrow we shall be raising our glasses to another 9 years.
