Long distance romance

Long distance romance

It’s only been five weeks but married life is good. Amy’s nagging me but she did before so no change there.

I first met Amy when I worked at a sexual health project aimed at students – she was one of our volunteers.

I’d decided that I wanted to take a break from work. I wanted to go somewhere that was a leader in sexual health and Australia’s got a very good reputation for its approach to health promotion so I thought Sydney would be a good place to start.

Amy applied for and got my job so I ended up training her to be me.

I remember telling a colleague of mine I thought she looked very fit in a pair of black boots and a denim miniskirt – but she was going out with a bloke at the time.

However, just before I left Britain, Amy and I ended up having this mad fling.

I don’t make a habit of going out with girls who already have boyfriends – I’ve stopped now anyway. It was something that wasn’t meant to happen, so we both decided to stay single.

Besides, I thought I’d go away to Australia and be a bit of a slut and have a lot of fun.

Originally, I hadn’t thought about staying in Sydney, but I got there and fell in love with it.

I went to Fair Day and signed up to the Sydney Bats lesbian soccer team, which I loved – absolutely loved.

I was training on weekdays, playing on Sundays and we’d all go to the Bank Hotel on a Wednesday.

In the meantime Amy had split up with her boyfriend and we’d started emailing and calling each other regularly.

Then one day, this email comes from Amy that said, “Right, I’m going to lay my cards on the table,” and I can remember being floored by it.

Amy said, “Look, you’ve got to stop emailing me. You’re on the other side of the world and you might not come home.

“Either that or we’re going to try and give this a go. If you want I’ll book a plane ticket and come and see you.”

I was shocked because I didn’t know Amy that well and now she wanted to come and visit me in Australia for three weeks.

I was thinking, “What if we don’t get along? It’s going to be a long three weeks.”

Thankfully it wasn’t like that at all.

One night when she was in Australia we went to the Opera House and sat overlooking the Harbour Bridge with a glass of champagne during interval – Sydney really is a very romantic city.

We decided to give it a go, even though being thousands of miles apart is quite hard when you’re in the first throes of a relationship.

But I had started to build this other life in Sydney and I was determined to stick it out for another six months.

In hindsight the distance was good – we wrote to each other all the time and in many ways we got to know each other a lot more than if we’d been in the same town.

Leaving Sydney was a wrench. I’d made some really good friends through the Bats.

They gave me a good send-off though, which involved going down Oxford Street in the back of a police van.

Amy popped the question the wrong side of several bottles of wine so, the following day, I gave her the opportunity to reconsider.

She still asked, but this time she said she could remember my answer.

Without a shadow of a doubt the wedding was the best day of my life.

To have all our close friends and family in the same place celebrating our relationship was the best thing.

Even though it is officially called a civil partnership I would say it was my wedding day and that Amy and I are married – I wouldn’t know how else to describe it.

Civil partnerships are something that needs to be addressed in Australia.

It’s outrageous that Sydney is the gay capital of the world but the government has this backward resistance to something that should be in place already and is a human right.

But I imagine the government is quite happy to rake in all the extra thousands of dollars that are brought to Sydney during Mardi Gras.

I’d do it all over again, take all those risks.

For Amy and me, those three weeks together in Sydney made all the decisions. They ticked all the boxes and it all became clear. Those three weeks were incredible.

Interview by Benedict Brook

You May Also Like

Comments are closed.