So if you read my recent 50 Random Facts About Me post, you’ll know the short version of how I met my husband. It was a bit hard to sum it up in a couple of sentences, so today I’m putting it all out there and giving you the whole story about how Scott & I met.
How I Met My Husband
It was 1994 and I was a 21-year-old uni student. I had a part-time job, which supported my love of beer (classy), 2 minute noodles (a girl’s gotta eat) and clothes (obvs).
Because I was committed to my studies getting hammered, I had quite the routine in place. It involved heading to Mary St Nightclub for $1 drinks every Thursday night with my uni friends, while Friday nights were spent with my friends from high school at a bar called Her Majesty’s. Which looked a bit like the picture above, only with far more beer on the table.
Now that we’ve got the setting sorted, I need to back track a bit for this story to all make sense, so bear with me as I reminisce about the time I went…wait for it….camping.
Easter of ’94, a group of us decided to go camping at Byron Bay. It was there, while hanging out at a pub, that we met a group of guys from Brisbane. One of them asked us if we’d like a chip (smooth) and we started chatting.
We asked him where he hung out on the weekends and he replied with, “Her Majesty’s” Now I can’t remember the exact details of the conversation, but I’m fairly sure it would’ve gone something along the lines of “OMG us too. How good is the band Alimony?! We should totally meet in the mosh pit next Friday night!”
Fast forward a week, we’re back in Brisbane (the camping trip was over, thank god) and we start hanging out with the Chip Boy and his mates at Her Maj every Friday night.
One particular night, a few months later, some random bloke rocked up wearing a flannelette hoodie and sat beside Chip Boy. His pizza delivery shift had just finished and he was gagging for a beer. I offered him a sip of mine, because, you know, I’m polite like that, and he drank the whole thing before asking me what my name was. I told him it was Kirsten and he buggered off to the bar.
When he came back, he was carrying a large jug of beer, four glasses and 2 shots of tequila. He slammed the beer and the glasses down on the table before shoving a shot glass in my hand and thanking me for sharing my drink with him earlier. He then asked me what my name was (again) and I yelled in his ear (the band was very loud) that it was Kirsten.
He nodded, started calling me Karen and asked me what I did for a living. I told him I was studying teaching and he told me he was technically enrolled at uni but pretty much only went there to play video games in the student lounge. Fabulous.
We chatted drank together for most of the night, while Chip Boy attempted to woo my friend. When the pub lights came on several hours later and the night came to an end, we said goodbye and left each other to find a kebab a taxi and get home before sunrise.
Three months go by and it’s my friend’s 21st. She invited Chip Boy along and told him to bring some friends. He did and one of them was the pizza delivery boy.
We chatted on and off throughout the night, except this time he called me Kirsten and asked for my number when he was leaving.
Neither of us had a pen or a piece of paper
“Don’t worry” he said, “I’m good with numbers” so I tell him my phone number. He repeated it out loud several times to himself, before leaping in Chip Boys car while yelling out, “I’ll call you!”
Two days later he did.
Two days after that, he picked me up in his electric blue Ford escort and took me to the movies. We saw Priscilla Queen of The Desert and shared a bag of Strawberries and Cream lollies.
As he was driving me home from the movies, he told me he’d been to my uni a few times to try and find me – mobile phones/the internet weren’t even a thing back then, so getting in touch with someone required a fair bit of actual stalking. I asked him where exactly at the uni had he been looking. He told me he loved playing basketball, so once a fortnight he’d drive out to the basketball courts at QUT and shoot some hoops, in the hope that I would walk past.
I told him he had absolutely no chance of ever finding me near any form of sporting equipment, let alone an actual basketball court and that he probably would’ve had more stalking success had he visited the cafeteria. He cracked up laughing and suggested our next date should be at Baskin Robbins. I think that might have been the moment that I fell in love with him.
Exactly three years after our first date, we were married.
Chip Boy was a groomsman and my friend was a bridesmaid. There wasn’t a flannelette shirt or jug of beer in sight. He got my name right at the altar and promised me one incredible life together. So far, he’s been spot on.
And that, my friends, is how I met my husband.
Leave a Reply