This is Karen. I've known Karen since about 1990, when she went out with my friend Jez. I can't pin-point exactly when I fell in love with Karen, but love her I do, and have done so for quite some time - years, in fact. When I realised just how I felt, Karen was involved with someone else. I found out later that she felt the same way about me, but never said anything. So, I never realised, bit my tongue, and went off with someone else. That someone else was... well, she was never Karen. I even moved away to Manchester, and in with this other person. The night before I moved, I told Karen that I loved her. I don't know whether she really believed me or not. The next day, I left. That relationship crashed and burned. My feelings for Karen run deep. We have made our mistakes with each other, which, though nothing of Shakespearian proportions, are tinged with tragedy in their own way. I will love her forever. I can't imagine it any other way.

Karen and I were married on Christmas Eve, 1997. Why Christmas Eve? Well, not for any religious reasons, that's for sure. No, it was for purely sloppy, romantic, sentimental reasons. Christmas Eve is when Karen and I first got together, all those years ago, and it seemed like the perfect date.

We had a small civil service, neither of us being big on religion. However, rather than go to the local Registrar's Office, we elected to go to a local resaurant. It wasn't as way out at it sounds, honest! Of course, being Christmas, we had to endure the presence of tacky decorations. Well, I say endure - Karen, of course, loved it! I have scanned a few snaps of the event.