Our Story
Jack & Dianne first met in December 2017. Jack was travelling back from New Zealand after a trip there, and had booked a few days stopover in Qatar, with the intention of exploring the middle east using Doha as a base. Unfortunately, 2017 was the year of the blockade against Qatar, and this lead to a longer than planned stay in Doha, but also a chance meeting in a coffee shop.
2017
The beginning
A chance meeting in Qatar lead to phone numbers being exchanged and grand plans being drawn up for a first date in the Caucasus Mountains in Georgia.
2018
Spreading Wings
The first year saw travel to many countries, including a first date in Georgia. Jack planned a triathlon in Sri Lanka for no reason other than the opportunity to stop in Doha for a few hours on the way home. A delayed flight nearly meant this didn't happen, but some hastily laid plans meant that the dinner still happened and the half Ironman was worth it!
Later in the year they traveled to Malaysia & Indonesia, as well as seeing each other on many layovers around Europe. A few days was spent travelling the Middle East, visiting Salallah in Oman, driving and staying among the camels.
That December they visited Vietnam for the first time.
2019
Back to New Zealand
This year saw Jack give up his job at Whole Foods in order to focus on flight training. A well timed gap at the end of employment gave the opportunity to travel to New Zealand for 2 weeks to see friends and family over there.
That summer Jack started full time studying for ATPL exams in Southampton, which meant Dianne had to be creative with travelling to see him. On one 24-hour layover in Edinburgh, she managed to fly to Heathrow and travel on to Southampton before returning back to Heathrow that night to operate the next day.
2020
Pandemic
The first 2 months started normally, with Jack finishing his ATPL studies in February. A quick layover trip to the Seychelles to celebrate was the first time we started to notice talk in the media of this new virus.
A quick trip to Thailand came and went, and then in March 2020 on a routine trip to Milan, the world seemed to fall apart around them.
Jack landed in Milan the night before Dianne was due to arrive, and there was chaos at the hotel. Talk of a red zone being implemented was ongoing, and the hotel lobby was full of anxious guests and staff watching the TV monitors.
A decision was made to evacuate back to the UK on the first available flight in the morning, and Dianne's flight landed and the crew promptly returned to Doha as passengers.
That was the start of what proved to be a very long 8 months, before eventually Germany relaxed their entry restrictions and they were able to meet up late in 2020 subject to various PCR tests.
2021
New normal
2021 brought new challenges in the shape of new COVID variants, but Dianne's birthday in July was celebrated in Greece, and eventually a successful trip to South Korea was made in the autumn.
2022
Rebuild
2022 returned to business as usual with several trips around the world, with the highlight being the tulip fields in The Netherlands.
2023
New horizons
This year saw Jack start a new job in Edinburgh, so it was kicked off with a trip around Japan by train and occasional plan. A year of hard study followed and meant that meet ups were mostly restricted to 24 hour layovers rather than grand trips.
2024
Engaged
Dianne's 30th Birthday brought about a trip to the Philippines were despite the best efforts of a severe thunderstorm, the proposal went without a hitch.
