The Kiwi poet

Here we are, my first date to report, have fun reading how perceptions can change in an instant…

 After travelling for a month around Asia I arrived in Sydney at the end of January last year, a 24 year-old back packer realising my dream of travelling to Australia to make a new life. I wanted to make my money go that little bit further I downgraded my living arrangements, a lively hostel, let’s call it ‘Hello there’, which was home to over 50 travellers from all over the world.

This is a major transition for a budding young professional who has worked in PR in both London and Manchester. I was ready for a six month break after pursuing my career during and immediately after leaving university, I was ready to let my hair down, meet new people and make a new life for myself.

After four weeks travelling around Australia I landed back at ‘Hello there. ‘Me and my girlfriends introduced ourselves to the guests. After a few of the mandatory drinking games (it is the law apparently) a particular guest caught my attention, a good looking, funny and popular Kiwi, the life and soul of the party. We really hit it off and ended up going out that night.

Salsa dancing on Darling Harbour with drinks a plenty ensued, a thoroughly great night. We got back to the hostel and chatted all night about our families, our travels and our dreams.

He was only staying in Australia for five days, so we went out on dates, saw the sights and the day before he left decided that we would keep in touch. I was of course sad to see him leave, but knew this was only the start of my adventure in the ‘Land down under’ and knew there would be plenty more to come.

So we remained in contact over the next few months, phone calls every week, regular texts etc. It was all very lovely – he was even planning to move to Sydney when he graduated to work as a civil engineer – an exciting prospect – A cute, funny guy that was smart and ambitious! How refreshing – this is looking promising…

That was until it got weird after a couple of months… a lovely (if not a little but too much of the cringe factor) text came through:

“In February I met a really hot pom, I bragged about her to my mum.

She’s really hot, I miss her a lot… Another trip to Sydney is what I must plot.”

Ok… let me stress how cute this guys is, we hadn’t seen each other for two months, we missed each other and it was a one off – I could let it slide. Us women always say that we want guys to be more romantic…

So I chose to ignore it and put it down to his youth, until one week later I received:

“I really miss my beautiful pom, she’s going to be a favourite with my mum. I’ll travel with her to the tower at Pisa, she’s amazing, she my Mona Lisa!” Ahem!

So it moved into the ‘This is a little bit creepy territory’ so I decided to back off, big time. Two weeks passed and there were sporadic replies to texts here and there (I’m not a compete ogre!). I thought that he had got it out of his system, that is until I received this little gem, which can only be described as the final nail in the coffin:

“You really are a shining light, in this world you’re all that’s bright. I miss you, and so does my Kidney, I wish I was with you in Sydney.”

No your eyes are not deceiving you, and it isn’t a typo, that does in fact say KIDNEY! A hot, cute, smart guy dissolved before my eyes into a wet, soppy really really bad poet (or limerick writer!) I use the term writer very loosely.

Strange how things can change so quickly.

The conversation inevitably trickled off, I moved on… Only to receive a text from him five months later announcing that he had secured a contract in Sydney… four doors down from the offices of my brand new PR job! (What are the chances?)

Stay tuned for more dates… let’s find some more frogs to kiss before I find my prince (we can only dream!)