Introduction

Hello, My name is Alexander Herb Rittele.

And yes I know what you're thinking, what an unusual name! And let me tell you it certainly is. I get many people asking me, where did you get such an unusual name?

Is such I have an oft repeated response to this query and goes something like this; my great grandfather was the youngest and last son in a large family who wasn't actually In the armed services, this irked him more than a little.

And his dissatisfaction is understandable really, why should his brothers get all the glory fighting the Germans? Determined to join the services he decided not to let that little rule about there being one male left in every family to care for the women.

Yes yes, it's sexist I know. But I didn't make up the rules. And I kind of respect my Great Grandfather for what he did, knowing that if he used his real name he would be rejected from recruitment, (a rare thing in those days) he decided to make up a new name and enrol under that name.

And so the magnificent dynasty that is the Rittele family was born. Well not so much. Besides my Great Grandfather fighting in the war none of our family has done anything particularly amazing.

Well my Grandfather Bert was once almost a professional boxer, unfortunately an early injury put him out of the sport early. He donated by middle name.

My first name is much less exotic, my father is a massive Manchester United fan and so named me after Alex Ferguson the manager.

But I've blathered on enough about my name, what you want to hear is my little story. It's not anything particularly epic, but I think you will enjoy it none the less.

This story is one I often regale my friends with, when asked about my faith. You see I am very unusual amongst my peers, in that I do believe in god. By no means am I some kind of shove my religion down your throat kind of religious nut.

No, my position is much simpler.

I believe that there is god. In fact I believe I have irrefutable proof.

All my life I have been pretty much a loser, not because I'm stupid or ugly, oh no. Simply put, I'm shy. Of course that is a bit of an understatement. To put it frankly I am absolutely terrified of girls.

This is how I came to this situation, three months into University and still a virgin. I must admit it's mostly my fault though. There was this one girl back in my home town that I was really sweet on.

A year younger than me and much more outgoing than me also, she was pretty much the exact opposite of me. The amazing thing is I actually kind of had a shot. Well sort of...

Jodie maintains that all through my last year of sixth form she'd been crushing on me and was fending off other boys in the hopes that I would pluck up the courage to ask her out.

Of course this wasn't totally unreasonable to expect. We lived just down the road from each other and both had a tendency to take walks around midnight when we were stressed.

'The Green' as we imaginatively called the patch of grass at the end of our street, was the perfect place to lie down and just watch the skies for hours, something we both did quite often.

Eventually this inevitably led to us running into each other a few nights and even striking up a conversation or two. It was nothing major just a few exchanged pleasantries as we both lay and watched the stars.

That unspoken agreement that we would leave the other to just enjoy the peace and quite of watching the skies at night was the foundation for our relationship and from there things went upwards for me.

A few weeks after we'd started regularly meeting on The Green for our sky watching activities we ended up walking to school at the same time. Odd really, we'd lived on the same street for years but never had we walked to school together. But that changed.

From there it spiralled, we said hi in the corridors, our separate groups of friends would manage to bump into each other no matter where we were. It was actually kind of eerie.

It was as if God himself had decreed that we were to put into proximity as often as possible. And I maintain that is true. Jodie completes me, I'd even go so far as to say she is my soul mate. I believe that god decided we were meant to be together and simply made it so.

God gave me my dream woman and all I had to do was take a few little chances and she was mine.

This is the story of how Jodie and I got together. Enjoy.