Of all the bars in all the world, you had to walk into mine.

Colin asked me to write a small introduction for his book. http://www.facebook.com/thelensoftruthgmw

Here is what I wrote on a plane ride between Kota Kinabalu and Kuala Lumpur.

10 years ago I decided to quit eating meat. It was an on-the-spot decision and a very easy one at that. I was 17 years old and didn’t eat much beyond potatoes and fish fingers. My mother was already a vegetarian and therefore all-in-all the transition seemed effortless. Within these 10 years I have traveled a lot and my appetite has pleasantly grown, I rarely eat potatoes, I have began juicing, I adore chickpeas and always experiment with what I can get my hands onto.
This was my one and only ‘contribution’ to the planet and I was satisfied with it and the thought that ‘that’ is enough.

Off to the bar.

I have written off most of my travels as a wild escape, everyone needs a vacation to really enjoy life and let their hair down, my vacation just happened to be 6 years long.
I have wasted much of my precious time and money living a life that does nothing for me, my future or the world around me. However, that isn’t to say I haven’t had a great time it just means that now, now I am ready to realize my full potential.

In November 2010 I was slightly inebriated in an Irish bar in South Korea. I had taught English there for nearly 3 years and spent most of my spare evenings drinking, dancing and complaining about my students, co teachers and ex(es). On this particular night I met the man of my dreams, I could say that he had a wonderful personality, he seemed sincere, kind and really wanted to get to know me, but to be perfectly honest all I cared about was the fact that this was, and still is, the hottest guy I had ever seen; beer goggles or not!

I caressed his face a few too many times, introduced myself, explained to him how I was going to become a vet ( a complete fabrication) and generally just tried to pick him up. I thought I had him until he soon after disappeared into the fog of smoke and I was devastated for about 5 minutes until my dear friend comforted me with a vodka and we danced the rest of the night away.

Thank goodness for modern technology and, in particular, facebook! The gorgeous man from the bar searched me out and ‘added’ me; probably the best compliment EVER !!!

Between November and March we chatted continuously online. He knew how attracted to him I was but it became a joke and I accepted the fact that we would always be ‘just friends.’

At the end of February 2011 we finally met up and something changed. I invited him to the dog shelter that I volunteered at ( http://shindogs.org ...free plugging) and after weeks of persuasion he decided he would come along. He stayed at mine the night before and he started to talk, and he talked some more, and he just continued to talk! It wasn’t just the endless talking that got my attention, but the fact that I had no idea or care for what he was saying.
I am a vegetarian, I do my part and I sleep at night. This guy seemed to care about EVERYTHING. Even the best people in the world take a break and drink a beer or veg out in front of the t.v but not this one, he just thought and wrote and talked about it all incessantly. It dawned on me that this guy couldn’t be right for me and I let out a huge sigh of relief that he had shamelessly turned me down. However, for him, I became more than ‘the drunk girl at the bar.’ I walked dogs on my weekends and loved animals. It seems I was a selfless human being and suddenly I was becoming somewhat desirable, whilst all fire that I had burning for him was dwindling and I was becoming very satisfied with the ‘friends’ label.

But, do not panic the love story had a happy ending and a few weeks later Colin and I became more than friends, with equal consent.

He still talks however, but now I really listen.

I suppose from the day that we became more than friends I have been on a roller coaster of emotions and personal turmoil. For the most part I have been deliriously happy and know that I have met my soul mate ( even though he would argue that ‘soul mates do not exist’ ) Relationships before have taught me that when you find something ‘this’ good you hold onto it and I am holding tight, which is good as this roller coaster is throwing me in all directions.
I still, to this day, believe myself to be a little more positive than my other half. Sometimes he grimaces about the world in everything he sees and does and it takes all of me not to scream in his face. I am a ‘the glass is half full’ kind of girl, and he always demands a refill.
However, now I understand him and realize his heart is huge and that all he wants is for people to know everything he does.

The world is aching and it is but the human race that has caused this. If there is only one thing I have got from dating Colin it is the knowledge that no one sees past their own noses, and no one truly cares about their neighbors. A cup of sugar or a toilet roll may be passed around in a time of need but what about the pile of plastic bottles left over after the garden party that are just too ‘inconvenient’ to recycle and just this one time will be put with the other trash?
What about the fact that sharks reproduce incredibly slowly and yet it is a must to try shark fin soup when on the menu at an over priced restaurant that cares for nothing but profit?

Is it truly ‘acceptable’ to put money into banks that only keep 10% of YOUR money in YOUR account and invest 90% into THIER own profitable schemes?

Is it right to vote for a leader knowing full well they have little actual power to ‘change’ the world because the rich like the world, just as it is?

There are 34,000 children dying every day from poverty and preventable diseases and in the U.K parents are driven into huge amounts of debt so their child has the latest computer game at Christmas, and rarely are the old toys from last year given to charity but, instead, line the garbage cans on boxing day.

*Boxing day, years ago, represented a day when all old toys were packed up into boxes, obviously, and donated to the needy. It was a day that brought the nations together now it is another excuse to stay home, get drunk and forget that the world is actually meant to be one community.

Before Colin, I made the decision that having children just wasn’t for me. They smell, they are noisy, they continually need attention and pregnancy will, more than likely, destroy my body. Yes, before Colin I was THIS conceited. My decision is the same and I still adore my body, just as it is, but more importantly I have realized that the decision I made was actually the right one, albeit for the wrong reasons.
I should say that I do not want children because I know that when I do have a child he/she will be such a huge part of me and the man whom I love that I will regret ever bringing the most important thing of my life into this dying world. That their, or their children’s future, will be uncertain and they will know little about the wild animals we marvel at today. Bears, elephants, tigers, rhinos they will be myths in a book. They will become the dinosaurs of today however, this time, the extinction will not be a long debated mystery! They wont be able to swim freely in the ocean because of the sheer amount of suffocating plastic that will forever float there.
Global warming will destroy the natural beauties of this world and places such as Antarctica will no longer be.

The rich will prosper and the poor will continue to suffer and increase in numbers. Corporations, like McDonalds will continue to steal (pay so little, it should be labelled theft) the crops of starving countries to fatten their cows who subsequently continue to fatten the people of the more prosperous side of the world.
The world is not equipped for 7 billion people and yet countries, such as South Korea, are in talks about providing free kindergartens so that parents can afford to keep pro-creating!

I have read this book that you are about to and I am extremely proud that I love a man that loves the world this much. He has chosen not to have children and yet he seems to be one of the few who cares about the future for other generations. We both have the most wonderful nephews and it is for them that we concentrate our emotions. We want the world to be something to be proud of not embarrassed by.

For those who mock or do not care, I pity you. If everyone sat up and realized that the world has become a prison, an encasement so that people simply work to survive and at the same time are too busy working to help the world survive, then maybe it wouldn’t be quite so tolerated.

I am grateful to the creator of this book for empowering me with knowledge.
I am grateful to Colin for loving me/we enough to create this book.