SOULKISS

That was the end of my online dating (or so I thought) when one day whilst bored on ICQ I saw an interesting name 'comfortably numb' - I figured with a name like that you must be interesting, he seemed to be fed up with women and visa versa. So we started to chat, by the end of the chat we had been online for 4 hours or more. A very interesting guy who lived in Rochester NY, his name is Joshua LaFleur.

We swopped photos and continued to chat over the next few months, even talking on my new web cam after a while we decided hey lets meet up, can't do no harm. Joshua is a deep thinking man who wrote the most wonderful e-mails - both poetic and sensitive and challenging. Me and Josh met not only this once but 3 times in total, he even visited the UK. I took him to places such as Wales, he loved Castles and once used the nickname 'Phantom Prince'.

To cut a long story short we had a big fall out one day ( no grudges held on either side) and on Sept 11th the day of the disaster in NYC I decided to bury the hatchet and make up. We commenced chatting again, Joshua had met a lovely woman called Donna whom later became his wife.

The ending to this tale is that we all met up in 2003, Me, Mike (below),Donna & Joshua it was great to see Joshua again and to finally meet the woman who captured his heart once and for all. Here is a photo of the 4 of us, meeting in Scranton Pennsylvania for a night on the town.

I started chatting on a web cam program called ISPQ - I knew a guy called Mike Drozd we chatted a few times on and off over a long period of time. We started to communicate in 2001 (this chat box was Nov 15th 2001.

He disappeared for a while (seems he was dating at that time). We began to chat again after him sending me an e-mail out of the blue one day Jan 15th 2003 to be exact. Mike is a lovely 'All American guy' is what I would describe him as.

We continued to chat each day as much as we could, we were both disillusioned with the dating scene. He sent me a lovely surprise on my birthday (see photo) he lit a candle and wished me happy birthday on the web cam. Nice touch Mike  !        

I invited him over for a holiday in May 2003 to my surprise he agreed although with some trepidation. I arranged and planned the trip to ensure he had a great time in the UK - we went to London for a few nights, North Wales and The Lake District. We had a great time and got on like a house on fire !

On returning home he invited me over to stay with him, the romance was blossoming nicely - once again I planned the trip with Mike down to a fine art. We booked for New York City, Washington & Atlantic City. Mike got tickets to see 'Meatloaf' for us. I was really excited not only at meeting Mike again but having a fantastic holiday in one of my favourite places NYC. We actually went to NYC on Sept 11th 2003 the Anniversary of the disaster, and visited the Twin Towers area to pay our respects. Here is a photo of us at the top of The Empire state building, now the tallest building in NYC. Before long the trip was over and it was back to normality.

We arranged our next trip to meet up which was to be in Feb 2004 for my birthday. We planned to go to Paris for Feb 27th ! We visited the huge Art Museum went on a Tour bus guide, even found some time to go and see Pere Lachaise again, visited the graves of Jim Morrison and other Celebrities such as Oscar Wilde. Moulin Rouge was a blast too. On return to UK we had a few days out and a night in the grand City of York. Lastly we both went to my leaving party for a job I had been in for 12 years or more (working with Young People) in Residential Care. Mike left the UK . (Here's a photo of me and Mike in a Paris bar)

We continued to chat each day and regularly telephone each other, it was hard keeping up this level of communication at times, and also keeping the romance alive.

We booked another meeting - this time I was going back out to meet Mike , another great holiday booked - a dream of mine to visit Florida. We booked to go to Miami for 2 nights, Islamorada for 3 nights and finally Key West for 3 nights. Our plans were scuppered when we got hit by Hurricane Ivan ? and we had to be evacuated, good job we had done most of the sightseeing the first day of arrival. We moved further down the Key's and hoped for the best.

In Islamorada we had big storms and rain but it was kind of exciting - had a great view from our balcony. We went sea fishing all day and I even caught a bigger fish than Mike ! In Key West we hired bikes and toured around daily on the bikes, visited Hemingway's house, watched the sunsets, and visited the beach to top up the tan .

This was to be our last trip together and as it happened the end of our 'romance' - Mike has since found love with Linda and we still keep in regular touch even with his partner Linda (pic below)

This time Mike you found the woman of your dreams, I'm really happy for you both.

Mike and Linda 2006