One warm Friday evening, last October back in New Zealand, I received a call from my good friend Phil inviting me out for a few drinks in town with some of his workmates and their friends. Having no other plans that night I thought what the hell, the crew from LCT were always good for a laugh, and Phil did owe me a beer or four. So I suited up and headed out.
Little did I know, exactly one year later I would be sitting in a lovely restaurant on the other side of the world, discussing marriage plans with my beautiful fiancée. But lets not get ahead of ourselves.
So I made my way into town and met with Phil, his friends, and their friends. I ordered a drink at the bar and settled in for what I thought would be a typical night of drinking and chatting. At the time I was working for a brewery and had just spent the day learning about the correct way to pour a beer. As such, I was chatting with the bar maid and complementing her on a perfect pour when three lovely young women, from the 'friends of friends' group each with a different accent, approached me and asked what I did for a living. With casual nonchalance I took a long slow sip of my freshly poured beer and simply replied "I get paid to drink beer."
For some reason the ladies didn't believe a word of it, laughed it off and asked again. This time I gave a more detailed response and the four of us started chatting amiably. One was an American working with Phil at LCT, the other was a Russian exchange student and the third was a beautiful Swiss girl on a working holiday. The four of us laughed and chatted and even danced (well they did, I flailed) for an hour or so, until "that moment", that point in the evening when everything changes.
I was just finding a seat after another session of flailing, when I looked up to see that cute little Swiss girl, walking over to me with a couple of bottles of beer. There are many ways to a mans heart, but a seductive stare over the top of a cool brew has got to be one of the best. In that moment I fell hopelessly in love and have never looked back since.
Romea and I spent the next few hours getting to know each other better over several more beers and I offered to take her out to lunch the next day. She remarkably said yes and in the early hours of the morning I walked her back to her apartment. I then raced home to mine in an attempt to sober myself up enough that I wouldn't have the impending dire hangover that was already threatening. It didn't work, the next morning I woke up feeling awful, or perhaps I was just nervous about seeing this gorgeous girl again.
When I picked her up at noon she looked absolutely stunning. We then drove out to beautiful Kumeu for lunch at a winery and thus began our whirlwind romance. She was only going to be in NZ for 8 more weeks, and two of those were going to be touring the South Island, so we packed in as much time together as possible. In fact she moved in with me that week, we figured we had nothing to lose except time and didn't want to waste a second. So in that short time we had together we managed to tour NZ, visit my parents, and fall madly in love with one another.
Then came that horrible moment when I had to drive her to the airport and say goodbye, not knowing if I'd see her again. I'll skip all the heartache and tears but will mention I gave her something to remember me by that began a series of gestures that would show her I loved her no matter where she was in the world. Messages left at her hotels for her, flowers at work, gifts and surprises that continue to this day. Tonight she off to Italy on business and will be finding a surprise in her suitcase when she arrives.
The next few months were hard for us, we emailed constantly and Skyped whenever we could, until finally in April I boarded a plane bound for Switzerland. We spent another wonderful three weeks together, this time touring her country and meeting her family, before going through another painful airport farewell. The very first day back in NZ I start applying for jobs in Switzerland and preparing to move over there. I was hooked, Switzerland was incredible, and I couldn't bare to be apart from Romea again.
So, in the months that followed I applied for about 100 jobs, started teaching myself German, gave away most of my processions and managed to land a redundancy pay-out. Then in September, I said goodbye to my parents and boarded another plane with everything I owned packed into two small small suitcases. Finally I was coming home to my beloved and this time for good.
Love knows no bounds, immigration laws on the other hand know plenty, so in order for me to stay in Switzerland we're having to get married possibly a little sooner then most people would have expected. But we don't mind and our parents are fully supportive, remarkably enough they even managed to meet each other last July.
So kids, thats the story of how I met Romea...
The night we first me - (Thanks Phil :))
