Joe

Up until now I've held off blogging about this. Mostly I think because I've been busy but also in part because it's kinda personal, and because I didn't want to sound daft... but thinking about it today I realised that one of the main purposes of this page (if it can be said to have one) is for me to be able to read about past points in my life. I really enjoy dipping into the archives now and then and I'm certain that in years to come I'll want to revisit this point in my life often.

So enough with the sidelong references and coyness. Here's a little post about my fella.

Two months ago (on my birthday) a man I didn't know sent me a message on the internet. At the time that wasn't in itself unusual, but the message was. Straight away I got a sense of someone different, and interested in getting to know me, and who I was very interested in getting to know... Hindsight is 20/20 but I'd like to think I recognised something special even in those few lines of text. We chatted online for a little while, then spoke on the phone, all the while with this exciting sense of having met someone... well, exciting.

A few days later we met in person, we'd arranged to meet for a pint at my local in the evening, after I'd got back from a few days away with work... meetings ran over and I wound up having to catch a later train, the journey North felt the longest it ever has even though I've spent more time travelling it on plenty of occasions. We rescheduled from an optimistic 6pm to a more realistic 7, giving me time to drop my bags at home, shower, change ...and breathe.

I reached the pub first, ordered a pint of Trade Winds, and had just taken a mouthful when Joe walked in. He says that's his enduring first impression of me: man supping a pint. I reckon it's a fairly accurate one. I'm not describing for you lot my first impression of Joe because it's private and I won't need reminding. It always makes me smile thinking about that moment.

We spent a wonderful evening together, both with a growing sense of having stumbled into something special and unlike anything that had come before... That same feeling keeps growing as we get to know each other better... One of my Dad's many wise -isms has been echoing in my head a lot lately: love isn't something you fall in, it's something you make. The feeling I have around Joe is that we're making something amazing together.

So two months in, we've each met the other's families, and each felt welcomed and at ease. We've begun introducing each others' friends to each other and so far they all seem a very compatible bunch which is fun since (for both of us) they're very important. I like the idea of his friends and my friends gradually just becoming our friends...

Speaking of friends they've all been really lovely with Joe so far too... in fact a few of them were invited along to his birthday last weekend and Hamish (who by dint of being my flatmate as well as my friend has seen more of Joe than anyone else in my life so far) made him a card:




Inside the card Hame thanks Joe and calls him "heaven sent" for making me so happy. So no pressure then :D ...but seriously it's wonderful to me that all the other important people in my life (who've met him so far*) seem to enjoy this man's company almost as much as I do.

This Friday Joe and I are going on holiday together. We're off up into the highlands for a few days. I'm giddily excited about it, even though I fully expect constant rain. With luck we'll manage to take some photos and if we do I'll post an album** so those of you who live far away can see this man I'm talking about... In the meantime there's a new reason for my long lapses between posts (not that I needed one). Sorry about that, but if it makes it any better it is a very happy one.

*I'm acutely aware of the important people in my life who - due to geography - might not get to meet Joe for months or even years... I'm not forgetting you guys, and I'm looking forward to you meeting him too
**along with the long delayed last Japanese album, promise!