Responding to my comment on Yorkshire Pudding's recent blog post about "Ordinariness", he recommended a few topics that I may wish to blog about when I suggested that my blog was...well.. just ordinary. One of the suggested blog post subjects was how His Lordship and I got together.
So, for those who may be interested, this is how it all happened forty years ago.
I had, unwisely, married at age 19 to my first ever boyfriend thinking at that time that nobody else was ever likely to ask me. We moved from the London suburbs down to the south coast in search of jobs and cheaper accommodation costs. Within three years I realised that I had made a huge mistake and so the marriage stumbled to a halt.
At the same time P had just moved back to England's south coast from Australia, (where his parents had moved their young family back in the early 1960s as "Ten Pound Poms" in search of a better life).
I was staying with friends who had kindly taken me in when my husband and I split. One evening they took me to their local bar to stop me moping about in their house. We were having a quiet drink together in the front bar when we became aware that a fight had broken out in the back bar (not as refined as the front bar!). Their friend, the bar manager, broke up the fight, called the police and ambulance then came to sit with us when everything had calmed down. He chatted to us, totally oblivious to the blood stains all over his shirt front, and after a while suggested that the four of us go out one evening to try out a new restaurant that had just opened.
Obviously, that was P. We all went along to the restaurant a few days later and had a very pleasant evening. He found out where I worked and the next day called my office and asked me to go out for a drink.
And that, my friends, was that.
Very ordinary indeed.
No, not ordinary at all. You were saved by a superhero. Thanks for sharing this JayCee. Did P speak with an Australian accent back then? In fact, does he have a slight Aussie accent now? Forty years is a long time - the same as me and Shirley.
ReplyDeleteYes YP, he did have an Aussie accent back then and, although now very diluted, it still breaks through now and again.
Delete"Christ Sheila, I feel as dry as a kangaroo's jock strap!"
DeleteWhat a splendid story. These days such things are done on little hand held gadgets, where people tell porkies about themselves. Long live pukka romance!
ReplyDeleteI am not sure about romantic, especially with the blood stains!
DeleteFirstly I would just suggest that 99% of life is 'ordinary'. However what is ordinary to one person can be the ultimate in interesting to someone else. I worked on a hospital ward in my youth (before I had a 'career') as a 'trainee nurse'. There are few jobs more ordinary. However for me those six or so months were some of the most interesting in my life. Back to your early life I thought it was very interesting to hear how you and P got together.
ReplyDeleteI would never think of a trainee nurse experience as ordinary Graham. I imagine it must have been quite an eye opener for a young person, but not something that I would have had the courage to try. Too squeamish!
DeleteWhat a lovely story.
ReplyDeleteIf most of life wasn't " ordinary" we might not notice the special things when they come along!
That is true Frances.
DeleteP must be a force to be reckoned with. Does he still wear the bloodstained shirt?
ReplyDeleteHe was not quite Superman - he did have help from a couple of the bar regulars. Perhaps he should have kept the shirt as a trophy.
DeleteNot all that ordinary - can't say I have heard of chat up in a blood stained shirt before.
ReplyDeleteIt was a new experience for me certainly.
DeleteWell not really is it - most folk just meet a dance or whatever. Well done you for making the choice to correct a wrong turn - for that would have required courage - and then make the right one.
ReplyDeleteIt was a very tricky time for me back then and I did make a couple of mistakes which I am not proud of. All adds to life's rich tapestry I suppose.
DeleteNot ordinary at all. Very romantic.
ReplyDeleteOne thing P cannot be accused of Addy is being romantic!
DeleteCrikey, blimey. Crocodile P.😊 How many people have met their partners in a pub or at a dance? I suppose you have to have some Dutch courage to take away the shyness. I know I did.
ReplyDeleteIt did help Dave !
DeleteLovely story. May you live in happiness
ReplyDeleteOr at least contentment. That would do for me.
DeleteIt did not sound all that ordinary to me, and I would know, being that I lead my own ordinary life half a world away!
ReplyDeleteYours sounds more interesting than mine Debby!
DeleteYou did the right thing when you walked away from your 1st marriage and that took some courage. I waited 33 years to walk away. Rough memories.
ReplyDeleteHere's to good years ahead!
Thanks Ellen. It was a difficult time but perhaps it was best back then, being so young. More time for both of us to start again.
DeleteA lovely story JayCee and thank you for sharing itxx
ReplyDeleteThanks Rachel. I hadn't thought about it for a long time. Too uncomfortable.
DeleteI think it is very romantic …… a bit Musketeerish …. I can just see P clad in leather !!!!! A lovely story of how you both met JayCee. XXXX
ReplyDeleteOh dear. P clad in leather??
DeleteQuite put me off my dinner....
XXX
I find that story EXTRAORDINARY! Happy that you found each other. My better half has been gone for almost a week and I'm puttering about aimlessly!
ReplyDeleteThe right place, right time etc....
DeleteAaah! That was a lovely description. I, too, married at 19 and lived to regret it...
ReplyDeletexxx
19 is too young isn't it
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