Cyber Love

July 28

I got myself onto Facebook about two months back when my sister Wendee wanted to show me some of the studio shots taken for her wedding album. Earlier i did not pay much attention to the invites from friends. Now in the IT age, almost everything could be done online, from internet banking to internet shopping, and even staying in touch with friends and family. My cousins are mostly on FB, so are my friends. To my surprise, I got in touch with many former classmates and school friends on FB. That's the beauty of online social networks.

I found the love of my life through an online social network too :), to be exact, a matching making website, match.com back in 2003. I was single again after the end of an eight-year old relationship. Adrian was single after things did not work out for him and former partner, and was busy travelling for various projects that his company had engaged. Whilst i sought new friendships and social networks, he sought potential life partners.

Email exchanges started in April 2003 and we met up in August in Coffeebean in SS2, PJ. Our first date was a day after he returned from Pakistan. My long curls were damp from shower in the gym, which i then frequented daily after work and in the weekends. He was dressed all in black - black sweat shirt, black linen-cotton pants, black moccassins, and black-rimmed glasses. Quite an impression he left me. Contrary to his version (ask him now and he'd say otherwise), i did most of the talking, and how i struggled to keep the conversations going. We finished our coffee, and took a walk across the street where he returned some books to the rent-a-book shop. Our date ended with us browsing through a pet shop nearby.

Soon after, we met whenever he was back in KL and had more time for the dating game. We did what most young and working Malaysians did, we had teh tarik at the mamak. So much for romantic dates :P. On one of the few dates we had, I brought along another guy friend, Gerard whom i knew when i was in high school. I thought it was no big deal since we weren't officially dating, and this good old friend of mine was just looking for a friend to have dinner with. Little did i realised that Adrian thought it was an attempt on my end to say I was not interested in dating him.Later that night, his curiosity got the better of him and he asked why Gerard and i never hit off. I bursted out laughing. We had known each other for 16 years, and if there was something, i would not have had the earlier relationship, let alone dated my adorable suitor, who of course was relieved and (I suspected) had a gleeful smile on the other end of the phone.

I was on leave from work one afternoon when Adrian texted me asking for a dinner date. I said yes. He told me not to wear shorts because it'd not be at the usual mamak. It was to be at a restaurant, and he had something to ask me. That dinner took place in TGIF Section 14, PJ. The waiter took our orders, and promptly went off. Before Adrian could say a word, I asked " What is it that you want to ask me?". Taken aback by my directness, he had no opportunity to rehearse the question, though i was sure it ran through his mind umpteen times prior to picking me up. "I like you and enjoy being with you very much. I wonder if you feel the same. I don't intend to see anyone else. I want to see you exclusively. Will you be my girlfriend?". Yes indeed his feelings were reciprocated, and being someone who had always (still do) believe in yes being yes, and no being no, my answer to him was a simple yes. At the end of the dinner, we walked out hand in hand. I was on cloud nine and so was he. A simple one-and-a-half-year courtship was followed by wedding bells.