Twentieth Anniversary
The 29th October 2023 would have been our twentieth anniversary of being together. Like, the first time we kissed (when I have sometimes told some people about our two anniversaries, they have genuinely seemed to have been hung up on what I meant by getting together, so I'm just being precise!). It was about three weeks after I moved in to Roslea Drive, in 2003. I've already written about the time we first met in person; I was rain-soaked, sleeping in a hostel in town. I'll try to describe that brief period of time between moving in, and us becoming a couple. After speaking to Siobhan on the phone, and finding out I was indeed who she wanted as a flatmate, I packed my few things into a bag and later that day took them to Roslea Drive to move into my new room.
I arrived at the flat with a steak pie in my hand, which I'd bought from a fish and chip shop on Duke St. Siobhan was in the living room, chatting with our neighbour Jonathan. And she was not impressed by my pie. It was a Scotch pie, which for those unacquainted, is quite a dense filling of mince and oil. Siobhan could have very strong reactions to certain foods, and just the smell of the greasiness of the pie was making her boke. She had no problem telling me that she found it disgusting.
Food was a big part of those first few weeks. It is only in hindsight that I realise Siobhan introduced me to a lot of food as actual recipes. She always always loved to follow a recipe to the letter. When I moved in, I was barely aware of any recipes, I just freestyled most of my meals. My main meal was known simply as Pete Pasta. At the time, I wouldn't eat tomatoes to the extent that even a pasta sauce was off limits. So I ate pasta with fried onions, garlic, peppers, mushrooms, gallons of olive oil, and a mountain of cheese. Actually, that sounds quite tasty to me now, but it wasn't my only meal. Siobhan used to remind me of one particular concoction that I made, which was a tin of Heinz spaghetti, with half a tin of corned beef mixed in. Again, this was too much for Siobhan's eyes and nose. It wasn't real food, and I guess I'm less inclined to try that recipe again, than my Pete Pasta.
Another culinary mistake that I apprently made was reintroducing Siobhan to biscuits. She claims to have been biscuit-free for about a year before I moved in with her, bringing bourbons, penguins and custard creams into the flat. I do believe that even without my influence she would have eventually found her way back to the tasty, tasty biscuit world. These are pleasures that everybody deserves.
It wasn't just eating though, there was a relationship that was forming. It was a busy time. I was starting my PhD, adjusting to a new city, a new country even. After I moved in with my single bag of possessions, my sister helped to bring the rest of my things in her car. We planned to meet up with our cousin, who was staying in Glasgow, and organised to go to a Chinese restaurant. I invited Siobhan along. I sat opposite Siobhan, and I think we were quite flirty, and I think everybody else probably suspected that something might be on the cards.
In fact, I was a terrible flirt, which is to say I wasn't very good at it, but I was giving it a good go. I remember putting my sister on the spot, saying something like "doesn't Siobhan have a cute nose? Isn't it perfectly straight, and pretty?" which was true, but a weird thing to have your brother force you to confirm about his new flatmate. Also, with what would become an infamously amusing story to Siobhan, I complimented the panda patch on her t-shirt. I remember the top really well, it was blue, with slightly fuzzy almost flannelly piping. It had plain sleeves, and a patterned body, with a little cute fuzzy panda patch: "I like your panda", I said, slightly nodding towards the top. "What panda?", she replies, not understanding. Easy answer though, right, the one on your top? But as the words come out of my mouth, they are actually "the one, er, the one on your breast". This moment of verbal clumsiness made for an awkward giggle, at an odd compliment from your flatmate. But was something that stuck with Siobhan, and she often laughed about it when we thought about those first few weeks.
I remember that I went to the cinema with Siobhan and some of her friends, the Cineworld on Renfrew Street. We went there quite a lot in those early years. I do not remember what we saw, Siobhan would have been able to say, whe had an excellent memory for that kind of thing. But I think this was maybe the only time we went out together with Siobhan using her electric wheelchair, and if it was more times, it wasn't many more. Soon enough Siobhan felt more comfortable with me pushing the manual chair.
I had new colleagues at work: one who lived in a flat almost directly across the road, and some others that I became instantly good friends with. I would discuss my situation with them, I liked Siobhan, but wasn't dating your flatmate a bad idea? Still, we were getting close, and were spending our evenings watching TV or listening to music. Until the 29th of October, when we were listening to Zero 7, and we kissed each other. And I said, "isn't this supposed to be a bad idea, with your flatmate?", but luckily neither of us took that question too seriously. We both just had a good feeling about it, and were happy to see where things went.
So Happy Anniversary Siobhan!
Love Pete x