How I met my Wife

For today’s blog I felt it would be nice to explain to you guys about how I met my wife and how I knew I found the woman to settle down with. Now let me first start off by going a little further back than that date and also talk about my mind-set towards a long term relationship and how I came about being in the location that I was. As a lad or young man growing up I did like to spend my time at weekends partying and such in and around the city of Salisbury, which is just down on the south coast of England around thirty miles from Bournemouth and not too far from the famous Stonehenge . I did use to keep fit and also went to work during the week but my weekends I like to think of them as my own and I will be completely truthful in saying that I never really wanted to grow as such and settle down and also on that note I had this thing that I was never going to grow older lol.

I had girlfriends and throughout the years just like any other person and a couple of them where even what you call long term. But even then still I liked to do my thing and have fun going out with no really plans to settle down at all. This of course did course problems with my partners at the time due to the fact I never wanted to really slow down and begin time giving up that part of my life.

For many years I worked around where I lived till I got a job at a company called Salisbury Glass. This was contract work and meant I worked away for at least five days of the week and then came home either on the Friday afternoon or on the Saturday. This being said is never the best kind of job for any long term relationship as I was away all the time. It did work for some that I worked with but in saying that it did also cause a strain on a lot of their relationships as well.

So at this point in my life you can tell I never really was going to be planning on settling down. Then came a time around 12/13 years ago that the company got a contract for a place in Barry South Wales. This is a sea side town that was made famous for its Butlin’s camp (which is now gone) and also The Gavin and Stacey show. What was different with job however was that after a short time my company found it cheaper to rent a house for us all, rather than putting us up in a hotel.

This I found really good for me financially, as before I would just spend my money at the bar of the hotel or going out to stop getting bored and then the rest back home. I never really had bills as just stayed with my sister for a couple nights and then headed back away to work then. So now I wasn’t going out in the week at all and then came to the point I thought about saving and decided I would just stay here at the weekends as well because all my bills were paid and had no one to temp me to go out partying.

After some weekends though I did go out but only for a couple of pints and to sit and read the paper. This was mainly just to get out the house for a bit. Then came bonfire night, as we know this is November 5. It just happened to be on a Saturday and because I knew that everyone back home would be out I decided that I had to get out for a bit. So I went out with my newspaper, a big puffer coat and hat. Was not looking to meet people or anything but decided I was going to go to the bar/club round the corner from me. This just happened to be a place called Gordon Bennetts which of course Bennett is my last name and the famous saying I use to hear growing up was ‘oh Gordon Bennett’

I went in and brought a pint and then made my way up around four steps to the next level. You could continue straight up to the garden or to your right was a set of seats going in a L shape around the wall with the dance floor a little further on. I sat on seats just to my right facing the dance floor. I carried on as I usually did and opened up my paper on the table and continued to read, drinking my pint slowly listening to the music. When I looked up first of all I noticed a group of girls sat on the benches along the wall to the right hand side. There was one girl in particular that I noticed and I noticed that she had noticed me also and we kept catching each other’s eyes. She was wearing long boot’s with jeans and also a long sleeved top.

After a while of us glaring at each other her friends got up and I saw that they were going to leave. I must say at this point I wasn’t going to plan on making a move in front of all of her friends in the fear of being shot down lol. Though I’m not shy I didn’t think she would say yes to me meeting her or contacting her. Fair to say this was taken out of my hands when I saw she was going over to me. She leant over and spoke closely to my ear as the music was quite loud and she said she was going to a bar over Barry Island and if I wanted to see and speak to her I should go over. Without waiting for a response she joined her friends and just left. I must say at this point I was a little surprised.

I had a group of lads who were sat next to me and they were joking around saying she likes you. I told them what she said and without hesitation they warned me not to go. Not because of meeting her, but English people weren’t well liked in the bar over there and there had been problems with people before turning on others just because of where they came from. Not being put off at all I just laughed it off and said I will be fine. So I called a taxi and made my way over there.

The night went really well and I didn’t have any problems with the locals over there at all. But the main thing was how it went with the girl I met over there and I’m pleased to say it went really well. We got on well and had a lot fun. At the end of the night she left with her friends and I went back to my place.

At this time I still didn’t think I will be settling down with what is my now wife but I knew I really liked her. To start with we met up by going out for meals and her coming to mine for films. I never went back home to Salisbury or anything at this point. We said that we would just take it slow and enjoy going out as she had finished with her long-time partner a short time ago and I was only living in Wales for the contract but when the contract had finished I would have nowhere to live and would be off to the next job.

After a couple of months had passed I took her back to where I was from to meet my friends and family and we had a great time. With there being no pressure with how this might work out I think it helped us in the long run as we were great friends and partners. But then did come the point with the contract coming to an end in the near future, I knew it was not going to be this way for long as I would have to move on. It really was this kind of time that I knew I wanted to stay with her and it was time for us to talk and decide what we both really wanted.

Happy to say we both wanted to stay together and how we did move on is in my other blog on being a step dad. But in summary I stayed in Wales to be with her and we are now happy married and have been together at the time of writing this for nearly twelve years