Dr Moo in California

So, apart from in my previous post, I hadn't previously mentioned having a girlfriend. However, astute readers will notice that the name Alicyn has cropped up in a number of previous posts. Alicyn is the friend I play tennis with and watched Shogun with (to reference relevant blog entries). So, why haven't I mentioned that we were dating previously? Well, for one reason, we were a little uncertain at the start. It is sometimes hard for friends to become more than friends. You worry that it might harm your friendship and other things.

So, I've known Alicyn for nearly 6 years now. She became friends with a friend of mine (my flatmate at university) online and they got to know each other fairly well. I was introduced to her online as well, but we didn't really know each other very well. Two things changed this. One was that Alicyn was visiting family in South Africa in 2001 and decided to visit my friend. What with me being his flatmate and the only driver, I was tasked with driving down to Heathrow and back to pick her up and return her. In fact, she actually visited on the way out and on the way back so I ended up making that trip four times in my awful banger of a car. The second change was that I was offered an internship at Adobe Systems in 2001 as part of my PhD. Alicyn lived in the area and so we got to know each other for the 3 months I was over.

When I came back to California late last year, I spent quite a bit of time at Alicyn's and we started doing a lot of things together. When I returned from my xmas trip to the UK, we both decided we wanted to get fitter. This meant we spent a lot of time together. Slowly I became interested in her as more than a friend and finally plucked up the courage to tell her that I liked her.

It has now been quite some time since then and things seem to be working well in general. Apart from the fact that I get dumped each day for minor transgressions (like this statement), we get on very well. It has definitely made life a lot more pleasant knowing that I have someon to come home to and spend time with.