Easter Monday, 13th April, 2009. Why BT??

For those of you who don't know, I thought you might be interested to know what the BT is and stands for.

I used to live, at one time, in Thetford, Norfolk. Sadly my marriage broke up and I had to move rather hurriedly to stay with my brother in Derbyshire. The bank obligingly moved me to a large branch of NatWest in Sheffield while they tried to find me a more permanent post in a country branch. One came up - in Bakewell. Well, everyone who doesn't know about Bakewell's culinary delights thinks of Mr Kipling's cakes, the little 'Bakewell Tarts'. My friends in Thetford heard of the move and immediately, I became the Bakewell Tart. In fact, if we're being honest and you live in Bakewell, the well known Bakewell delight is actually called a Bakewell Pudding and is nothing like the Bakewell Tart Mr Kipling makes! But I couldn't be called Bakewell Pudding, now, could I?

So it doesn't stand for Betty Throughgood or Blooming Terrible or even British Telecom, but Bakewell Tart. Ever since, when I have needed an on line name for a forum, it's been Bakewell Tart, often shortened to BT by commenters. Jim, my husband's on line name was Coaster, as he was walking the South coast at one time. Would you like to know how we met?

We both belonged to an on line Forum Group called IDF50 (for I don't Feel 50). It was a lively group and when we both joined there was a great group of people and quite a few of us became friends and met up occasionally. The first meeting was in Birmingham, but Coaster didn't go to that. Jim's wife had died of cancer some time previously and then my partner of 6 years 'dumped' me for another woman. Jim was very helpful and emailed me with suggestions on how to cope on your own. Then disaster struck and IDF50 closed down. I was bereft, it was my lifeline. Luckily, a month later it re-opened and Coaster emailed me to let me know. E-mails popped back and forth between us.

It so happened that Jim's printers are in Derbyshire and he 'had' to make the journey up to see them. I suggested he might call in. By this time we had begun phone calls, which, to my amazement, lasted about an hour or so each. I couldn't imagine talking on the phone for that long to anyone since I was a teenager. I must say, we felt we already knew each other by the time we met. I had seen Jim on his web cam and he had seen me on my daughter's. So no nasty surprises.

So the day came, September 18th, 2002. I lived in a top flat and looked out of the window for the arrival of this strange man and I was pretty nervous, I can tell you. I saw the car pull up and went down to meet him. When he got out of the car, we just hugged for about five minutes. It was lovely. Shall I go on? Jim was going to stay at a bed and breakfast but didn't quite make that. Well, I had 2 bedrooms. We chatted for hours, as you can imagine, grinned inanely at each other, did lots of kissing and when I eventually walked into my bedroom, there was a man in my bed! Enough said. Suffice it to say, a year to the day later, September 18th 2003, we were married.

We hired the old Art Deco cinema in Worthing, on the sea front (Jim lived in Worthing and we still have the house there) and were married there. After some drinks, we all walked over to the beach and had photos! It was a wonderful day and many people though it was the most fun, relaxed wedding they had ever been to. We had arranged it in 6 weeks! We had quite a few things in common. My parents had semi retired to the South Coast, to Lancing, the village next to Worthing along the coast, so I knew the area well. My father was a professional musician, percussion and timpani, and took the post with the Worthing Symphony Orchestra. Jim and Sally used to go and see their concerts.

There was a wonderful children's park in Worthing called Brooklands. It had a large lake and a fabulous area of shallow water trails. My first husband and I used to take the children there for the day and they loved it. So did we. So did Jim!! It really is a small world. Most of the photos of the wedding are not digital so not on line, but I do have some. I didn't really intend to go into all this, but it just sort of flowed.




Rough seas in Worthing. The 'dome' you can see is the top of The Dome Cinema, where we were married.














Jim on the pier the same day. This was in December 2003











The Wedding



Coaster married








Bakewell Tart




We made the coasters ourselves and the place names were pebbles, which I varnished, having painted the names on them. When we visit people, they often still have the pebbles on display!






The box office inside the Dome cinema

















Table of films showing!
















The Wedding Ceremony













Signing the Register. Jim, Gina (me), Russell, Jim's son and Jason, my eldest son. I thought this area, with that beautiful mirror, looked like something from the Titanic!









Kirsty and Lina, my 2 Granddaughters were bridesmaids.
















After the ceremony, in the wedding car

















Photos on the beach. It was a bit windy!














Mr and Mrs Deen


















Someone suggested we should go for a paddle!
This photo became quite famous as we sent it to everyone in their Christmas Cards.















Look at Jim's legs!!











So there you have it. The romantic tale of two old lovers! Now it's 2009 and we've been together for 6 years.

I hope you've enjoyed this little diversion.