That Could Have Been Me

Over at Veg Plotting I've already spoken about how I love receiving everyone's news at Christmas time. However, sometimes that news catches you by surprise and gets you thinking a bit.

I've just had a long e-mail from E and M, the couple who are responsible for NAH (though of course he wasn't NAH at first!) and I meeting. I'd signed up for a photography evening class in Durham just after I moved there to take up my first permanent job, and I'd got to know them well. Over a pint one evening, we discovered a mutual liking for swimming, so I was invited to accompany them to a weekly social swim at Whitley Bay leisure pool. That's where I set eyes on NAH and liked what I saw immediately. However, it soon became clear he was already taken, so I had to put him out of my mind.

The months passed and I became friendly with some other guys from the swimming group. J invited me out, but that was a once-off. It turned out he'd decided that he was going to find a girl to marry and invited a succession of us out one week. I think I was Tuesday, K was later on in the week. That's who he married - I went to their wedding ceilidh. E and M had news of them, having kept in touch and I smiled at the memory I've just told you about.

A few more weeks passed and I was convinced either P or M from swimming would ask me out. In the meantime E and M arranged a pub lunch (at The Cock O' The North pub!) and walk around Durham one Sunday. That afternoon NAH and I talked to each other non-stop, even though his girlfriend was there. Somehow we contrived to exchange phone numbers and for the first time I contemplated taking the initiative and asking a boy out instead of the other way round. In fact I geared myself up to do so - 'if he hasn't rung up by the time this side of the record's finished, I'll do just that'. The record was City to City by Gerry Rafferty. He phoned during the last track. The rest is history.

What of the girlfriend? Well, just after NAH and I got together, she started going out with M (yes, one of the guys I thought would ask me out) and married him. Sadly this Christmas' news includes M dying from leukaemia this year. I'm not saying I would have ended up marrying him had we gone out together, but you never know. So I'm counting my blessings an extra time this Christmas. Strange how you think things will happen one way, then fate lends a hand to completely reshape them isn't it?