Dating

A little over a year ago I was scrolling through a dating app I’d signed up for having gotten myself to a point where I didn’t need a relationship, but was lonely. At that point I’d already made some great friends through it but nothing further. Then this new profile was suggested to me, an absolutely Gorgeous woman from the pics, but more than that her description struck me as someone I could talk to, which after initial messages I started to. And found we got on really really well in that first week of talking.

Now at the same time as us Land Rover folks are usually doing I was also scrolling FB marketplace and ebay for the long list of parts I want or need or desire. And during one such search I found some tyres perfect for one of my projects at a very good price. The only problem being they were a slight distance away, but I had a free weekend coming up & they were in a nice part of the UK to visit.

Now these two slightly separate things meshed together when in one conversation with Amy, the Gorgeous woman, I mentioned I’d be doing said drive, only for her to offer to be company for the trip. Logistically not an issue, it was a small detour to pick her up, but the reality of it would be about a 10 hour drive. That was something I clearly stated, along with the clarification that it would be an actual Date, not just as friends.

To my surprise she still agreed! Now that is the sort of date that can Only go one of two ways. Brilliantly or we Never speak ever again afterwards!

Fortunately for me it went FANTASTICALLY the drive to Barmouth on the Welsh coast being(was?) filled with conversations on humorous things from our past, some serious topics, and just generally getting to know each other. And even towards the end of the trip, driving back into the Midlands in the dark, the patches of silence that come from such long drives were comfortable and not the awkwardness that sometimes comes. And when I dropped her off I didn’t want to stop chatting, it just felt Right.

And so after a few more dates, one Specifically where she met Aryette, my beloved but “interesting” (her words) Series III 88In, that ended up with us spending 12 hours together either in a cinema (see I can do more normal dates!) and the rest just sat either on the bumper or inside Aryette, we started a relationship.

Below – Driving Aryette in Spain

Since then she has fully given the Land Rover Life a go (see her article in LFL August 2026), attending shows (she enjoys), spares days (she does NOT enjoy!), greenlaning and we’ve just got back from a 2900-mile trip in Aryette to Spain and back (more on that soon!) Amy not only enjoys riding in them, but driving them herself. And she has her own favourite out of my 5 Land Rovers, that being Zebby my 110 CSW which she explains as “she’s the one from our first date, and she’s red my favourite colour!”

Now we’ve been dating for a little over a year, and as I type this I’m thinking back over my dating past. It comes as no surprise to anyone that when you’re looking to date someone and you have an ‘alternative’ lifestyle it adds factors of difficulty to finding “the one”.

I myself have been a goth for most of my life, and a lesbian for all of it. Which has meant that finding a girlfriend was never that easy for me.

And when you add into that the fact that I’ve always been Obsessed with the slightly shonky four wheel drives from Birmingham, for pretty much longer than I’ve been into girls and it just gets worse.

All through my dating life I’ve had girlfriends and even a fiancee (before it was legal for us to marry) who at best tolerated the Land Rovers in my life. The mentioned fiancee actually started to view Ary (my beloved 109In and at the time the only one I had) as almost the “other woman” to the point of almost getting jealous of her! Yeah that relationship was Doomed from the start! And others at least could be persuaded to try events, one even attending multiple. Specifically the show nearest my birthday, but it was always a negotiation, and she never enjoyed them.

With each one of my ex’s there was always something missing, something I couldn’t ever put into words, other than maybe the knowledge that they simply didn’t ‘get’ my Land Rover obsession and merely tolerated it. Or worse they simply just didn’t want to. However here I will quote Amy from her article ‘It’s Not a Hotel’

“Being in a relationship that you don’t understand why they enjoy something they are Obsessed with it’s always best to keep an open mind and engage with what they are doing, as to accept them is to accept what makes them happy.“

And that’s the thing, if you are in a relationship you should at least try to experience what they are interested in, what they enjoy, what (other than yourself) makes them Happy. Only then can you find the sort of happiness we’ve all been raised to believe is out there. But if like me you are lucky enough to find that someone who actually Wants to be a part of the things you enjoy, and enjoys them themselves in their own right. Then like me you’ll know what true Love is
I Love you Amy

And as if to further cement how AWESOME Amy is, at the very moment I type this we’ve just spent her birthday, at Entirely her choice, working on the engine swap of Tak my Series One. So she chose to spend the day messy trying to persuade big oily bits of vehicles that were never meant to be together that they definitely should be together! But even after we’d done that, a fact she was instrumental in getting the gearbox to slot in, she then decided after chatting to my dad to start having a look at my dads 107In Series One!

Above – Hard at work on Tak

In a work of fiction the writer could describe Amy as the woman of my dreams, however for myself thats not true. Because growing up (editors note – you’ve never grown up Vee!) I could never have dreamt of such a relationship with such a Beautiful woman. To be cliche she makes me Happy in ways beyond my wildest dreams

Oh, and in case anyone was wondering, she said yes 💜