I really enjoy telling this story. I hope it types as well as it tells. I told this story to friends from Singapore visiting London over a big steak at the Gaucho Grill. Kathie Wildkat loves this story, she will be my greatest critic, so this is for Wildkat:

Halima and I 'virtually' met on the internet. One sleepy, rainy Sunday afternoon on 23 April 1999. Halima was in the same chat room as me but I was here in the UK and she was 6000 miles away in Singapore.

We chatted at Excite.com for ages that day, my nickname was 'bird', hers was 'flame119'. There was an Australian guy joining in to our conversation with the nickname 'juicer'. We just had great fun that day, talking about all sorts of nothing. Juicer couldn't type, or spell flame, much to my delight. We chatted for hours, at about 2am Singapore time Flame was fizzling out and was ready to log-off. I saw my chance, killer line coming up... wait for it... I typed 'do you come here often'. It's OK, I know what you're thinking, slick or what! Flame encouragingly said she'd be back at the same time on Thursday.

I spent days with Flame on my mind. Somehow we just clicked (sorry, no apologies for lame puns). I knew we had to chat again. If you've ever spent time in chat rooms you'll know the chances of 'bumping' into the same person again are remote. Without her e mail address either, I count myself lucky that Flame didn't rename herself on that Thursday night.

Thursday arrived. I was here at the keyboard at 6pm prompt (2am S'pore time). I clicked the search button, types 'flame' and waited for the list. The list appears, lots of other flames but not my flame119. Clicked and searched again, and again, and... pop-up window 'Hai, wanna chat?'. Wow, with my heart in my mouth I replied to my flame with a cooly abbreviated 'k'.

We chatted again for several hours. This time exchanged e mail addresses. Halima logged-off. I wanted to send her an e mail and did so, titled 'C'mon baby light my fire', that still makes me laugh. After that it all just snowballed and we graduated to first name terms.

One weekend we arranged to meet in the chat room at a set time on a Saturday. I logged-on, went to Excite to enter the chat room only to find that it was 'down'. I was gutted and went to see if Halima had sent e mail. She had, it read something like 'Honey, Excite is down. Please call me I want to hear your voice, here's my number 00 65 781 ....'

The old pulse started racing. I sat and thought for a moment, she had just given me her home number just like that. Stupidly, I wondered what to do until it was completely obvious!

I picked up the telephone and dialed: click brrrrrrrrrr 'hello', I can't describe the feeling, her voice sounded just how I imagined it would. I said 'is that Halima?', 'yes' came the reply. 'Halima, it's Nick' I said. Her voice sounded so happy, I don't think she expected me to call, it was like a test to take us to the next level, to see if I was serious or just playing the fool. We talked for a while, she sounded as if she were just down the street. We were both very happy.

Halima and I exchanged pictures by post. I also sent a copy of a CD that I was listened to a lot in the car. Track two was the best 'You've got the music in you'. I always thought of Halima when I listened to it.

The day Halima's pictures arrived was a very fine day. It was the first time I saw her face, her eyes and her cute nose! I sent her a very long letter that night.

Armed with Halima's telephone number I used to walk down the street on my lunch break with my heart pumping. I'd withdraw cash and exchange it for pound coins in the bank. Walk to the telephone box under the clock tower and feed the telephone with 20 shiny new coins. I needed to hear her voice, needed to talk to her. So I did.

Weekends would start at about 8am, I'd wake up and call Halima to see how she was doing. We'd talk for a while and arrange to meet in ICQ (interuption-free relay chat software). We could chat for hours and hours. Our relationship grew stronger and stronger and the phone bills grew bigger! My overseas calls to Singapore totaled 1,496 minutes in one month! That's over 24 hours on the phone.

July came and with it came my vacation from work. I suggested to Halima that I could come and visit, however, July was Halima's month for exams. Throughout our e relationship I was very concerned about the effect of Halima's late nights spent chatting to me, her phone bill and her studies. July was not a good time to visit.

It was Halima's suggestion in August that I might like to visit her in Singapore at Millennium New Year. I thought it a brilliant idea and went to the travel agent on the following Monday only to find that all the flights appeared to be full before New Year. I moved on to the next travel agent, and the next, and the next until I felt that my quest for an airline ticket was futile.

I was back at the office that afternoon, with a face like thunder, really fed up. Caroline, my friend at work asked me what was wrong and I explained. 'Why didn't you say' she said and efficiently stabbed at the buttons on the telephone 'Paul, can you see if there are any flights to Singapore after Christmas for Nick?', I couldn't bear the agony of waiting and went downstairs to my desk. A Post-It note appeared in front of me, '29 Dec 99, Singapore Airlines £700', it was that easy.

It seemed like a lifetime from August to December. Christmas came and went and 28 December arrived: suitcase packing day! It was all too exciting, it took practically the whole day to pack. Phone calls in between kept us sane.

6.30am, 29 December, very, very cold! My ride to Heathrow arrived and off I went. Checked in, mooched around duty free, called Halima. The day had arrived. It was a protracted, uncomfortable twelve hours that followed. In the plane I sat near the window, big mistake, the Chinese couple who sat next to me who didn't appear to speak much English settled in for a sleep fest. About eight hours later they woke up and moved! I just counted hours and minutes, calculated what time it was in Singapore and wondered what Halima was doing.

I landed. Brushed teeth. Splashed on after-shave and made my way through Immigration at Changi Airport. Collected my suitcase and looked for Halima. Mahes, Halima's best friend found me first, hugged me (much to Halima's chagrin) while I looked for my sweety. There she was, shy, petite and beautiful. We hugged for the very first time, nine months after our first contact. Face to face for the first time. One of the happiest days of my life. We kissed for the first time outside Changi.

My stay was amazing. I had not traveled any further east than the Mediterranean. It was a real experience. New Year was my best New Year ever. We had a really great time together and spent whole nights just talking to each other.

Two days before I was due to leave for the UK I asked Halima if she would come back with me. We had discussed it before, chatting on the phone or in ICQ. Halima was so brave, she said yes straight away. We went down to Singapore Airlines in Singapore itself, took our queuing ticket and waited for a representative. My hope was that we could get Halima a seat on my flight. We sat at the desk sure enough we came out of the building with another ticket on the same flight.

After the successful purchase of the ticket I worried about the permitted length of stay for Halima in the UK. We decided to go to the British High Commission in Tanglin to find out. We described the situation to the bristling person at the high com. Matter of factly the lady behind the counter asked if we intended to marry, I think we looked at each other but didn't answer the question. In a somewhat dismissive way the lady behind the counter said 'you'll either get a visit stamp valid for two weeks or six months, it just depends'. We walked out of the High Com, into the grounds and talked. Halima, always the voice of logic and reason, said 'two weeks or six months, I don't care, I just want to be with you'. We stood in the sun for a moment and that's where I asked Halima to marry me.