Continue to come

November 2003

A few days after my registration, I received my first contact through the network. The email title was 'message from 1insert'. I didn't know what this meant until I read:

'Hi, I thought you sounded interesting from your profile. My name is Ki, I am 39, single and work as a manager for a fashion exporter. I like to travel, my favourite destination is Phuket in Thailand. I also liked London, Paris and Italy that I went to last year.Do you like living in HK? My email is k*****@yahoo.co.uk and mobile number is 00852 9721 ****. I would like to get to know you, I hope you like too. Ki'

And that was the start of my relationship with Ki. It is one, I am rather proud of.

Next came a message from Lowan. Similar, in style, to the one above, although she didn't give me her phone number.

So over the following few weeks, I had very pleasant email and messenger conversations with both Ki and Lowan. I told them both that I was temporarily in Shanghai and would be returning in the next few weeks. They both seemed happy to wait and I was happy to see how long they would wait. In both cases it proved to be a very long time.

As the messages had begun, so did they continue, about one a week, so that it soon got to the stage that I had insufficient time to respond to them all. Even, that didn't seem to put them of though, some tried again and again. Even now, nearly three years later, the messages continue to come.