For Mr Tigger.....

This Blog is for someone I have made a friend of over the past few months. I will not post this on FB as it is just for him. So if you are reading this then, look away, it will not interest you. Move on to the next....but if you want to enjoy a 30 year old romantic story then...read on.

Living in Cyprus, I was 17 when I met him, he was a few years older and completely unaware of a little schoolie that followed his every movement with a wonderful teenage lust. I would imagine myself kissing him and use my Donny Osmond poster to practice on.  Poor Donny, he got a lot of snogs!

The huge problem was thus. I was a 17 year old virgin and had a father that would deliberately sit any of my prospective suitors in his favourite chair and then yell at them.!  Hilarious! Except that my dad did not get to bully him.  I was too scared to even 'think' of bringing him home.

He was a soldier, a bit of an important one ( in my young mind). I knew exactly who he was. My 17 year old radar had contacts you would not believe. I stalked him, yep, have to admit that!  But in those days it wasn't called stalking it was called 'mad, impossible adoration' of the victim!  I wrote him a love letter in a final mad panic. I was 'egged' on by my best friend, by the name of Ann-Marie ,who lived next to me in Belmont Village.

I don't remember how he asked me out , funny really; as I remember everything else in such detail. He was very nervous. Hey! If you were a 20 something bloke going on a date with a 17 year old, you would be bloody nervous. Let me explain. Soldiers were off limits to us schoolies, they would be hung, drawn and quartered if they were found anywhere near us. Lets just say that his job made the situation much more difficult.

Oh ...onto  Date Night, it has to be in Caps as it was such a big deal to me. He picked me up in his BMW. I had managed to sneak off, as my parents were entertaining visitors from some Middle East posting. I think I told them I was going to the school disco.  Ann-Marie helped me to get ready. Endless discussions on hair and make up.  I do remember what I was wearing.  A pale pink pencil skirt, made for me by the Ay Nik tailoress, who admonished me and told me it was 'far too old for me'. A brand new, sparkling white 'boob tube' on sun kissed shoulders. Flat white flip flops and a necklace, my long, curly, sun-bleached hair worn on one side. Yeah! I looked good......

We went for a meal and I felt so sophisticated. He was such a gentleman and explained to me, carefully, why he could not go out with me. I, did not listen at all, just basked in his attention. I was so naive that I just did not understand. I did not hear from him again.

I was distraught and a few weeks later, I was sat with my friend Ann-Marie at CESSAC beach. His BMW pulled into the car park and an impossibly beautiful blondie tumbled out. Sun tanned and far older than I!  I finally realised that I was just a 'little schoolie' after all. I broke my heart for weeks but time and priorities moved on.

So here we are, 30 something years on and about to meet each other next month. Not in a thousand years, would I have thought that our paths would cross again. He has not disappointed me. He looks good and is a philanthropist, a giver rather than a taker, much like me. My confidence is a little low at the moment so I am the 'nervous one'  this time. But I am happy that fate deemed our paths worthy of crossing once again.

Muse x