If you are new to this site, you will enjoy this post better after reading my thoughts on creating and living a romantic life on your own terms. This post and this post will give your good starting points.

J told me a story that I will never forget. I met her in Sydney, Australia a few years ago.

I don’t remember if I called her or she called me, but when she called me, we hadn’t seen each other for a few months, and all we had was each other’s phone numbers. In fact, the time we spent together was less than 24 hours in total. I’ll tell you more about it later.

When J called me, she was in Brisbane, Australia. After a bit of chatting and catching up, she told me that she was with her female friends the other day and that her friends were talking about how men are sleazy for hiding their intention when all they want is to sleep with women for their own satisfaction. When that topic was brought up, J said to her friends, “No, not every man is like that. My friend Masa is different”.

When she told me this, I must have felt really, really warm inside, because I still feel that way when I think of this story.

When I first saw J, she was buying an ice cream from an ice cream stand at Circular Quay. I was about to meet up with my friends, and their ferry was delayed. So, I had some time to kill. I didn’t know what to do with the extra 20 minutes. There were a lot of street performers in this area, but what caught my attention was not any of those street performers. I noticed J – in my vision, she was the happiest looking person around me… and she was stunning too. I got curious about her and decided to talk with her.

I greeted with her and told her that I found her attractive. We chatted with each other while she was getting her ice cream. She was a backpacker from Scotland, travelling around Australia. She was half-Spanish and half-British. I talked a bit about myself. I don’t remember much about this initial interaction, but I invited her to go and get a 32cm soft serve ice cream from a Korean shop in town with me (you can get one for $3). I was to leave Sydney on Sunday, and this was Friday. We agreed to meet up on Saturday.

On Saturday, we were supposed to meet up at 6pm. She didn’t show up.

I thought I got flaked on, but it turned out that she was just running late.

Thus began our adventure.

We grabbed a legendary 32cm soft serve ice cream from the above mentioned Korean shop, and we walked to Darling Harbour. It was a warm night, and while we wanted our ice creams to last till we arrived at Darling Harbour, we had to use our soft serve ice cream eating skills to finish them quickly before they would completely melt. We were already talking about silly things and I liked that.

When we got to Darling Harbour, we sat down at the waterfront, and talked with one another for ages. I remember bits and pieces of our conversation, but I don’t remember how our conversation went.

I remember, though, this one particular moment very clearly.

That moment was totally unexpected.

She said, in her most spontaneous and authentic way, something like this – when she wakes up in the morning, she always feels fresh and hopeful for this beautiful day to begin. I’m not sure if it was what she said or the way she said it, but whatever that was, I witnessed the beauty of her in that moment.

In my mind, everything froze. In that moment, everything was completely still. Nothing else mattered, because I was moved by her beauty.

When I realised what had happened, I told her, “You are fucking beautiful”.

—

I have no idea where J is. I don’t have her e-mail address or anything. She doesn’t have my contact details either. But you know what’s amazing (to me anyway)? I will remember her, her story and that moment I witnessed her beauty for the rest of my life and I believe she will remember me from time to time.

For me, this is a classic example of romantic moments and connections I want to create in my life.

What kind of romantic moments and connections do you want to experience in your life?

Photo by Chewy Chua