A few FTers know the story of Mrs WHBM

Sent on a semi-business trip visit from our Russian office to the UK for a few days, I got the job of doing a sightseeing trip round London on the spare Saturday. First date all on entertaining expenses (London Eye, Theatre, etc), which is probably distinctive in its own right !

Sneaked a couple of evenings out as well later in the week. Walked round the West End of London in the pouring rain on the last night.

It was e-mail that made it. Exchanged messages of thanks, then we just never stopped from about 4 or more mails each way a day. Electronic cameras allowed daily exchange of photos of everything what we were doing (I used to send photos of meals I had just cooked, got comments back about their poor nutrition a few minutes later). SMS texts as well, phone calls, etc. Little visit to Helsinki near the border, first trip to Russia, trip back to London, we never looked back. Time between trips just got shorter and shorter. Holidayed in Turkey for ease of visas, we both bought package tours from our home cities to the same hotel. Married just short of 2 years from first meeting. Our chairman, who asked me to do that first day out, was Best Man, of course.

If you think long distance across the USA is an issue, you should try doing it between the UK and Russia. But if you have found Your Sweetie, stick with it.

I'd do it all over again, exactly the same way, in a heartbeat.

By the way, we still exchange multiple e-mails each day between our offices across London. Never stopped ! Sometimes I send e-mails across the living room between our two laptops for fun, just like the old days.