That is what it all boils down to. My past life leading up to this single extraordinary moment when my future would become a shared future with the woman I love.

And what an enriching experience! Even if it only came when I was in my mid-40s! I still had time to evolve...

2001 was the year Kim and I met. We started communicating at the end of September 2001 and had our first date on the 8th October 2001.

You might or might not believe in "fate" ... the word that suggests something spiritual, you know, someone guiding us down a path and us, for once, actually listening and benefiting from the experience! Well I do believe in THAT "fate"!

It was a mutual friend who brought us together in the most extraordinary of circumstances. When I look back at it now I realise the odds of our meeting were worse than your chances of winning Lotto, yet it happened!

Our first date took place at a small Italian Cafe on what is Brisbane's main cafe set... we met in the most romantic of circumstances on a perfect summer day underneath a replica of Paris' famous Eiffel Tower. That first meeting over a cuppa coffee could have been the end of what follows - if we had not allowed our dreams and our intuitions to take over.

I have to say that I was so overwhelmed by Kim's internal and external beauty that I immediately suggested we extend our mid-morning coffee to lunch at the Botanical Gardens, in the shadow of Mt Coot-Tha - the home of Brisbane's television towers. She accepted and our date showed promise and I was delighted at the prospect of spending more time with this woman who had captivated me so.

While we ate our lunch and talked about issues that have long since escaped my mind we started feeling this wonderful feeling that happens so rarely - the realisation that this could turn into something special.

I did not want to waste the moment so took a picture of the woman who is now part of my life - just an hour after first meeting her! What a precious picture it is, what wonderful memories it now captures when I reflect on those first moments together!

By the time we had eaten our lunch Kim had accepted my offer to join me for dinner that night and from their our relationship was born, the buds of love waiting to envelop us in this wonderful feeling that overwhelms those lucky enough to experience its power!

That night we wined and dined like there was no tomorrow. From that moment, that time, every second we were apart became a painful memory awaiting the remedy of our being one again.

On 10th October 2001 I got my First Invitation to Dinner at Kim's House. This was our second date. Kim invited me over to her home for a candlelit dinner and then gave me an impromptu demonstration of her dancing skills... in the Salsa.

As one who has two left feet to discover that my new partner was an accomplished dancer realising how inadequate I would be when it came to that particular department! The next night Kim and I went with her son Aaron into town and I watched a group dance the Salsa before we returned. I was smitten. The next day I wrote in an email...

Hi darling

I love you.... last night was just wonderful! Look forward to your email and Friday, of course! Have a wonderful day - I will
be thinking of you.

XXXX 0000 XXXX

Scott

On 18th October 2001 Kim visited my home. We planned a picnic on the banks of the Brisbane river below my home...

Kim wrote that night:

Hi Darling,

Thank you for having me over to your special little hideaway today. I could sense it is a haven for you and your little
paradise.

Hired a video called "Life is Beautiful" which has received high acclaim but is a bit sad. Still, would really like to watch this with you to share the experience. Our picnic today was beautiful. You never have to leave your place to enjoy a picnic by the river. Bye for now special man. Hope the meeting went well.

Love
Kim

On 19th to 21st October 2001, Kim and her son Aaron, came over for the weekend. Just ten days after our first meeting Kim and I spent the weekend together at my home in Karana Downs... as you will see from pictures on our web site, we had already
become very close!

After the weekend Kim wrote in an email:

Hi darling,

Thank you for having us over to share your beautiful lifestyle the past 3 days. Aaron is missing it already and I miss you.

This was very much part of my childhood. I can remember so I must have LIVED!!! Are your memories similar??

Love Kim

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

and I responded,

Hi Darling

My memories are very similar... I wonder what Aaron's will be when he looks back!

It was lovely having you both here and I hope that you can make it next weekend...

Did you get the piccies?

Love you darling,

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Scott

Over the next two weeks love blossomed.

Kim to Scott, 25th October 2001

Hello there special man,

I loved the bachelor cartoon who took a wrong turn in the night. Could just imagine this happening to some, too.

You are very thoughtful in organising my very own dot com. Your kindness and guidance over the past few weeks has been deeply appreciated, highly valued and respected. I just have a strong gut feeling that our conversations and ideas are flowing along in the right direction and perhaps I just have to let go of things I once considered vital to my existence.

Moving over the top of them makes room for the new to enter and I love new beginnings. It keeps life fresh and new. I do respect your judgements and wisdom as much as my own - again, new territory for me!

Speak with you at about 9pm

Love hearts and kisses

Kim

Scott to Kim, 26th October 2001

Hi darling

It was lovely chatting to you last night... although I do prefer it when you are lying next to me! Isn't this perfect snuggling up weather?

I think that cleaning up around the house is an excellent idea ... do you really think we will need one of those big bins though? A trailer with wire sides will probably do the job.... I can see that I am going to have to have a garage sale to get the large desks in my study moving! This room down here has such potential now that the stairs have been re-installed.

I am looking forward to enjoying a large number of new beginnings with you... ;-)

There is that wonderful old classic song "We've only just begun..."

Love you darling

Scott

Kim visited my home from 26th -28th October 2001. During the weekend we decided to book a holiday in January 2001 to go and visit Norfolk Island together. Things were getting serious - after just two weeks! Kim expresses her feelings in an email
after the weekend... 28th October 2001:

Hi darling,

Well, everything is home and unpacked and Aaron is finally off in noddy land. Thank you for having us over, it was good fun and lovely to be with you once again at your little piece of paradise.

I took the occasion of the half hour drive home to chat to Aaron about his feelings towards us and how he felt about perhaps changing schools etc. He was very confused and said he couldn't put it into words. Very hard for a little boy I know but needed to give him the opportunity as we are a unit and have had a stable home life for the past 4 years here in Greenslopes. He put up a few barriers such as we can do all the things at our home that we do over at your place which surprised me given
he wanted to stay there tonight. Anyway, I persisted gently and ultimately found out that he feels left out when I am spending lots of time with you and not him. I guess I have been his focus for a long time and without his father, he clings a little to me and perhaps fears I won't have enough love for him or play with him.

He said he felt lonely on the weekend. I suspect it is him getting used to a different situation and this always takes time. I explained that all husbands and wives spend lots of time talking and being together enjoying each others company and this was very normal. His normal is just the two of us. I said all things change and this will change too. I will have to arrange for little friends of his to come over for the day when we come I think as this will detract from this issue. Kids also forget the times you do play with them, as we did, and we were both aware of Aaron's situation. He tends to be quite possessive of me at times and yet quietly confident to go off on his own at other times. I am only writing this as a sharing process as with any change comes periods of re-adjustment and often confusion and some low times if things don't feel right.

Kids take the lead from the parents but it is important to ascertain how they feel also, even though they are unable to make decisions and I pointed out to Aaron that he was only young and not required to make decisions about our future but was more to be included in the process. What are your thoughts on this, Scott? You face similar issues with Alex. Don't want to make anything out of something that is merely a passing phase but blending people is often a trying time as we both know very well.

I said to Aaron it was Mummy's time now to be with a partner again and in love and for Aaron to benefit from that union. We then changed the subject. This only took about 4 minutes of discussion in real time. Too much and we create a bigger problem than what is there. Anyway, my eyes are getting heavy and I will prepare for another lovely sleep although it would be nice to be with you each night. Not to be at the moment, is it. So, goodnight my love, sleep well, here's a kiss, hope you dream of us on Norfolk or making love on an office table and you wake up with at least a smile on your face in the morning.

Love and kisses
Kim

Then on the 1st November... the admission from Kim by email...

I love you.

Kim

I respond

I love you too darling....

Scott
XXXX

In the meantime we were preparing for an upcoming camping weekend with some of Kim's friends.

Scott to Kim, 7th November

Hi darling

My apologies I did not read your last email until I printed it out and realised there was so much more after the list of goodies to buy.

You wrote:

P.S. I realised fully in a very quiet moment this morning that we have been given to each other as a very special gift. Sometimes we overlook the full magnitude and grace of such a gift due to many reasons, mostly due to the interference of fear and confusion and the scope of impending change. To live a life in fear is only half living and this is now our time, a time to reap the benefits of many hard years which have led to this point. I now truly believe.

Darling, I am at your side and we are going to reap so many treasures as one. I can't wait to explore the journey of life ahead with you. We will look under every leaf, behind every blade of grass, taste every dew drop and watch hand in hand as the moon softens the night sky... We will feel the pulse of life flow through us as our love grows and our lives expand around the bubble that is happiness. We will be one as we are now... my love.

I believe too. I'm going to miss holding you tonight my love.

Scott

and the Norfolk plans were now well advanced...

Hi darling,

You are such a sweet and thorough man. I have never met a man who could organise travel arrangements so well, even down to your well thought out fax to Ponderosa on Norfolk Island. I am super impressed indeed. Thank you for organising our W O N D E
R F U L holiday arrangements. I am happy with these new plans. Everything turns out for the best.

I was reading your lovely email reply to my email of yesterday. You do have a beautiful way with words, Scott, and you are melting the ground from under me. You sound so heartfelt and dreamy it is hard to wipe the smile from my face when I read and listen to what you say to me. I am beginning to see who the more practical one is and who the more romantic one of us is. And yet, I thought I was super dreamy and romantic. It is just lovely to meet a man who is comfortable with where he is, where he is going, how he feels and how he expresses his feelings and thoughts. This aspect of communication is so important to me, to my happiness, to my womanliness, for my soul. Forgive me if at times I seem reticent in expressing my feelings back to you.
Trust comes slowly but once it comes in its entirety it lasts. You have forever a friend in me, my love.

Love K.

And I was coming to grips with the Salsa... as I reveal on 14th November...

Hi darling

Thanks for the email.... Salsa can be "hard" when I'm holding you close... but by God it's fun...

Love you

Scott

XXXXX

On 17th November 2001, we had our camping weekend with Kim's friends.

We had a most wonderful time on the banks of the Lake Cootharaba - feeds into Noosa river, north of Brisbane. Kim's camping friends were great fun but, unfortunately, because of an ailment Kim was facing we left early.

Kim to Scott on 18th November

Hi darling,

Thank you for doing the pics. they certainly turned out beautifully. I passed some onto Trevor and Allison as theirs is the only email address I have. Some of those scenic shots would be great framed around your home!!

Feeling a little better. Missing you. Thanks for being patient with the patient and for working as a team with me over the weekend. You are so easy to have around, very caring, sensitive and loving. Watch out when I'm better for you will get no rest in bed!!

Love and kisses

Me

And I wrote in reply...

Hi darling

When I think of the weekend gone.. I think of your smile.
When I think on the night on a deflating mattress why would I care?
When I think on the laughter, the sun and the lake, friends, family, possums and tents... I think on your touch.
When I think on the cold wind, your aching head and your cough I was just pleased to be there.

Because through all these moments and all these memories you were by my side..
Letting me take that weekend in the wilderness, with you, in my stride.

For the wind may blow and the rain may fall
but one smile from you makes me stand tall...
The new friends that I made brightened the day
but nothing could ever match your special way...
The night in the tent, the mattress losing its air
never crossed my mind with you in my arms to love and to care...

And tomorrow when I call I will hold you yet again
With new memories to enrich that day in the rain.

Love you....

Scott


It was then 22nd November to 22nd December 2001, the month leading up the Christmas. It was at about this time that our time together became an almost daily and nightly event so email went by the board except if there were major issues to be
discussed or prepared for. On the 1st December we watched the sunset over the sea and had a sunset dinner on the beach.

On the 4th December I tried out the aged style format on my digital camera at Kim's home with amusing results. Kim and Aaron spent another weekend at my home in Karana Downs on the 8th December with the river, because of the heat, being a big
attraction for the kids!

As Kim and I had planned a week long holiday down the east coast of Australia, with the highlight being a visit to her father over Christmas, we invited Kim's mother to dinner at my home on the 16th December, a few days before we left. Kim's mother,
Jan, invited her friend Joan over as well and we had a lovely weekend enjoying the company, wine, food and river.

On our Christmas trip to Sydney, we had our first fight on the long road to Sydney! How can you ever forget that first argument? I can't. What made matters worse was that it started brewing the night before our lengthy car trip to Sydney.

Kim has summarised us very well. Private people, even though we have this little dedication to our love on the Internet. So when the tension rose we, stupidly, let it fester for a couple of days before we tackled it head on. We started our trip on a Saturday morning taking turns in driving Kim's fully laden car - our first destination was Coff's Harbour on the central coast of New South Wales. Before leaving Coff's Harbour we stopped at the Big Banana.

Can you believe that we were still not talking at this stage. Poor Aaron was discovering how stupid adults can be at times - even though he scored a great ice cream treat at the Big Banana!

Our next destination was Foster. Christmas eve and we arrive at Sydney! By now Kim and I were like a pair of lovebirds again, having resolved our differences. We settled in at the home of Kim's dad in the southern suburbs as the city's worst fires break out and the thick smoke obscures the sun for days. A family gathering had been planned at the Southern mouth of Sydney harbour. While we partied the fires loomed around us filling the sky with smoke and reflecting most unusual colours in the water as the sun started to set on what had been a perfect day during which I met Kim's extended family and made new friends.

We stayed with Kim's dad until mid morning - taking some happy snaps of Kim's step mum and her daughter before leaving to meet with Kim's step daughter, Monique (getting confusing isn't it!!). We were now officially on our way back home even though we would spend our first night back with Monique at her Darling Harbour apartment.

Smoke filled the sky as the fire held the city dwellers in its grip. Many homes had been destroyed in the Blue Mountains to the West and the Sydney Harbour bridge was nearly obscured by smoke as we left the city for our trip back to Queensland.

Our first stop was at Port Macquarie. Our journey continued by early afternoon we had neared the Queensland border - and our next stop for the night at Ballina.

Part Two coming soon. Our full story is here for you to enjoy.

"Scott"