Mister Bump UK

Fandango’s Provocative Question (11 March 2020)

Yay, Wednesday already, and Fandango has also published this week’s Provocative Question. This week, he asks:

How did you meet your spouse, boyfriend/girlfriend, or significant other?

Okay, finally a question where I can have a decent stab at the answer 🙂.

First off, my significant other is my wife. Nothing special there, just traditional. We met, started going out, decided it was permanent, got pregnant then tied the knot and sailed off into the sunset. The marriage bit was an afterthought, neither of us were particularly bothered either way, but with a child on the way we figured life would be easier … We’re still together and I like having a wife. The “child” part did not turn out so well, but I enjoy being married.

We were both on night’s out with work colleagues.

I worked with a bunch of guys who stayed locally from Mon – Fri, then dispersed and went home to families for the weekend. Consequently, Thursday nights were big going-out nights. It took me a while to integrate but by then I liked to join in, and we usually went out and got (English expression coming up!) pissed as farts.

She tells me that she had just had a shitty day at work (as a hospital nurse), so on the spur of the moment the team decided to go out to lighten their mood.

By chance, we both ended up in the same bar – a wine bar called Chablis in Bournemouth, a seaside resort on the south coast of the UK (the bar has long since disaqppeared). It was 21st May, 1998.

It was an unusual relationship, because we met that night, exchanged phone numbers, then went out to dinner the next week. All regular stuff so far. But after that date, we spent most all of our free time together for the next week. So it was weird for me (and, it turns out, for her too) to be so intense with somebody, so very early on.

Funnily enough, I had a long-standing arrangement the week after – I was on holiday down in the Pyrenees – so we didn’t see each other at all that next week. I didn’t even have a mobile phone signal. The holiday was from Saturday to Saturday, and she stayed the Friday night before I flew in my apartment. I headed out for the airport at silly o’clock, left her sleeping in bed,and it was only really then that I figured I hardly knew this woman, and I might just be inviting her to rip me off for everything I had!

Lastly, it is spooky indeed that Fandango had timed this question for today, as it happens to be our wedding anniversary!

24 comments

    • …and I think there was probably very little internet stuff around when we met. I would probably have known about anything that was available because I worked with computers. I would probably have used it had it been later, but there’s no substitute for that spark when you meet in real life. As it was, I introduced her to some of the computer games I owned and she got addicted!

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        • Yeah, I think you can, at least, find some showstoppers before you take the time and trouble to meet.
          In the year before I met my wife, I met several women and they usually came across as quite dull. It got so I would always try to arrange a date to a nice restaurant because I knew I would at least have some decent food! I could have found these things out more quickly online. You know how, even on here, somebody sometimes uses the “wrong” word in a comment or something? And you kinda realise that they see their world totally differently to how we see ours? I find that, anyway. I mean, I’m not looking for a partner any more so it doesn’t really matter, but the same kind of thing – and you know straight away that there is a limit to how pally you’ll become.

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