h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Well, just in case you knew me in a previous existence and have been wondering what the hell has been going on in my life over the last six months or so, read on...

I now live in Wellington (the capital of New Zealand, BTW). I have a nice flat on the side of a hill overlooking a harbour and the airport, and um, warehouses and, and, and, stuff. My flatmates are all medievalists, and are very cool people. Yay!
There's an interesting story associated with the newest one, Chris, that I would like to share with you all now.
Ahem.
This story begins, as all stories do, with a woman. Her name is Ambrese. A very pretty name, I thought. Even better by the fact that she invented it herself...
Anyway, I met her when I was working on the door of the closest thing Wellington has to a goth bar, Indigo, on the night of a goth/industrial gig. I was just sitting there, taking money off people, checking IDs and admiring the views (as you do.) when /the/ most gorgeous woman /ever/ walked in. She looked maybe 16 or 17 (underage), so I ID'd her. She pulled out a Canadian driver's licence, and I looked at it. She was 26. She claims that I apologised at this point, and she got mad at me for it. I'm adament that I wouldn't have apologised, because I don't think I had reason to. Dunno. Anyway, I kept working, she walked in, the night progressed.
Later on, when things on the door were a bit quieter, my workmate, Sophie, pointed out a gorgeous woman dancing seductively on the stage. (Not at anyone in particular, just seductively in general.) I was entranced until Sophie hit my arm an pointed out that we had more customers and I should pay attention, several minutes later.
End of the night, most people had left, the only thing I had to do was return coats and say goodbye to people leaving. I saw her again, leaning against a bench not far from me. She looked sad. She looked at me, we caught each other's eye, I made a 'Smile, it's not that bad!' sign at her. She smiled, and came over to tell me that she wasn't actually sad, just... well actually I don't know what she was because at that point a heavy industrial riff deafened the both of us. We went to the bar (because we could hear better), I bought us a drink each, we got talking, I discovered we had a lot in common, inculuding the fact that we were both jobhunting. She decided I should give her my address and phone number, which I happily did, and she said that she was going to pick me up after the weekend and we would go to her place and jobhunt together. Sounded good to me.
Indigo closed, we went with the rest of the staff to the 24hr cafe around the corner, I walked her to her friend's place where she was staying, and I drifted home.

The next day, if was fair to say that I was infatuated. Unfortunately, I remembered that when I'd asked her if she had a partner, she gave a sort of ambivalent reply and vaguely mentioned a guy that she'd moved to New Zealand with (from Canada), and that he was going to be turning up to the medieval group training on Sunday, and I would probably meet him there.

I sighed.
Sunday came, and sure enough, there was a guy there that I'd recognised from the event, as she described, with a canadian accent. Damn. I introduced myself - turned out he was a really nice guy. Double damn. Oh well. I figured at least I'd made two cool friends. That was a bonus. Monday rocked around, jobhunting happened, all was well and good.
Over the next couple of weeks I got to know them both really well, especially since I helped them move. (Neither of them were really sociable people, so suddenly I was one of their closest friends.) It was really nice to hang out with them - they seemed to have a great relationship, and it reminded me of my relationship with my last girlfriend. I felt like I was making some progress with jobhunting, especially since Ambrese had taken a peek at my CV and then basically redone the whole thing.

Then the shock came. I went to their house for dinner one night, and they told me that they'd broken up. I was really surprised. Sad for the both of them, and told them I was happy to be there for them to talk to. I was, and they did.
After a while, Chris said that he wasn't comfortable with Ambrese being there, especially at night (they were still sleeping in the same bed) because it just wasn't comfortable for him. That night, Ambrese drove me home, and ended up staying the night. Although nothing sexual really happened, it was clear that our relationship was changing, if only because Chris was encouraging us to be together (which I found really wierd, needless to say). I think my flatmates started wondering what the hell was going on when Chris started to drop her off at my place in the evening, and pick her up in the morning!

After a while, we started going out.
It was still a stressful time for... well, all three of us. Chris and Ambrese had just moved, and then broken up. They were still trying to work out whether they were going to live together, or just get seperate beds, or what. There was talk of one or both of them going back to Canada, and whether Chris would accept a job offer in New Plymouth if it came up. To top it all off, Ambrese developed an e-coli infection which quickly spread to her kidneys. That very quickly became a serious worry. Ambrese has a fairly weak immune system at the best of times, and a kidney infection was exactly the reason she had to stop studying at Oxford university. There was a very real chance that, unless she could get the antibiotics she needed very quickly and very cheaply (no subsidised medical care for Canadian residents in New Zealand!) then she would have to go back to Toronto fairly urgently.

This, in fact, is exactly what happened. She stayed up late, in great pain, to make phone calls to Canada. She then arrived at my place, in tears, at seven in the morning (without having slept) to tell me that she was going to have to leave within three days.

This was monday morning. Her flight was booked for wednesday lunchtime. Her antibiotics lasted until Thursday morning. It was a 22 hour flight.

One of the most godawful things I have ever had to do was wait around that airport on wednesday while her plane got delayed later and later, due to fog. Eventually the airport was closed, and she rebooked her tickets for Thursday. Meanwhile, she was very sick, in great pain, and all three of us were /not/ happy puppies.
We endured the goodbyes all over again on thursday, and then Chris and I went back to my place and drank.

Now, I have a girlfriend in Toronto. I miss her lots.
I can't afford to go to Canada yet, but I'm hoping that our relationship will still be strong by the time I get there.
Chris couldn't afford to live where he was once Ambrese moved out, and by coincidence we needed a flatmate, so he moved in.

I'm interested to see what our next phone bill will be.
I'm sad now.
Maybe I'll add to this journal later, but I think I've written enough for now.

Ambrese, stay healthy, stop stressing, and know that I miss you.

Congratulations, but much sympathy for the end of the story (for want of a better descriptor). ... fate sometimes doesn't throw nice things at we poor mortals.

*wishes you the very best of luck in keeping the relationship alive*

Thanks, although I'm not encouraged by the fact that I'm having trouble getting onto a computer to write emails, let alone moving to Toronto!
My friends are having trouble understanding why I want to be in a relationship with someone who's a voice on the phone a couple of times a week...

.. sorry to hear it.

The person I'm closest to at the moment isn't near an internet connection, so all I can do is call her.

B*gger. I hope things work out well for you. I just had a quick flick through one of your forums, and it looks like you're not too happy at the moment.
At this point I would say that I'm here for you, and I would be... except for the 'no internet connection' thing. Sorry.
The thought was there, right?

ty. Well, parts of me are.. parts of me aren't.

*smiles*.. is ok, I have one or two people watching out for me.

*grins*.. I have a new mobile phone, you could text me.

The thought's much appreciated.

how're things at your end?