For ten years, I worked - and I use the word 'worked' very loosely - as the pop page editor for my local newspaper, the Liverpool Echo. Bearing in mind the job involved free CDs (back in the days when people still used those...), free concert tickets, and interviewing some of the biggest names in showbiz, it wasn't exactly lacking in the fun department. In fact, I can't remember most of the 1990s - it's all a big, smiley-faced blur.
I always tried to get along to as many gigs by local bands as possible, and built up good relationships with them - and, as it turned out, one in particular. I went along to an acoustic night to see a friend's band appear, and the MC for the night was young (seven years younger than me in fact, which makes me borderline cougar), cute, and immensely talented. When he contacted me a few weeks later to see if I'd be interested in featuring him on the pop page, I was excited - for all kinds of reasons.
The 'interview' in question took place in a local bar, involved some questions about his singing, and a whole lot of flirting. It ended with him uttering the immortal words: 'So...do you fancy a snog, then?' We still laugh about it now - it might not have been the smoothest line in the world, but it worked! The snog turned into a relationship, the relationship turned into a marriage, and the marriage resulted in two beautiful children to add to the one I already had.
As a single working mum, I'd never had much time for proper relationships - I'd pretty much given up and was happy with that. And then I met Dom - and everything changed. Pretty typically, I suppose, just as I'd decided there wasn't room in my life for any man other than my son, he arrived on the scene and turned everything upside down.
We've now been together for 13 years, and married for 11. It's not been perfect - we've definitely hit a few bumps along the road - but so far, so good. He still sings by night, and works as a librarian by day - what woman could resist??
Debbie Johnson's latest release is Never Kiss a Man in a Christmas Jumper, out now published by Harper Impulse.
Debbie Johnson's latest release is Never Kiss a Man in a Christmas Jumper, out now published by Harper Impulse.
Really interesting post. Thanks!
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