I had been engaged once a few years earlier, before I knew my London friends, but I broke it off, as it just did not work out well.  Certainly, I had no clue, or idea that this beautiful Swiss blond would one day be my wife.  Trudy+R


Martin Stern

Martin and I were chatting in his front garden and whilst deep in conversation, I suddenly realised I was alone, Martin had spotted Trudy walking past his house and had left me to chat up this extremely attractive long-legged girl. 

I should point out that Martin was always the one to pick up the most gorgeous girls, whenever as a group of fellows we went to a discotheque 'looking for talent' as we called it. 

Martin within moments would be the first to be with some lovely girl. 

The rest of us after a while and a few drinks, would give up (as all the best-looking girls were already with partners) and come back to my flat to play Bridge.  Martin never joined us! 

Learning to play Bridge was enjoyable, we never had any arguments, and we all owed a lot to John Samuels, who was by far the best player and who in a nice way, explained what any of us did wrong.  He was able to remember every card played right from the beginning and by whom, which I found to be remarkable!

Martin had persuaded Trudy that we would take her and her girlfriend (that she was on the way to meet), to go to the famous Carnaby Street.  So that was how we first met, but I later learned that Trudy had seen me before, in Martin's front drive playing 'Jokari', this is a game where a hard rubber ball is attached to a box with a long elastic. 

It was a good trainer for playing Squash, one can play alone, as I was, when unknown to me Trudy had walked past and apparently liked what she saw (although she had only seen me from behind).  This had happened a long time before the day we met, Trudy was an Au-pair with a family further up the road and often walked past but had never seen me again until then. 

We ended up as lovers and met up every weekend after that.  However, Trudy had to return to Switzerland, having been in London for a year and I had decided marriage was not possible.  I was wrong, but it took us four years to eventually marry.  Before we had met, Trudy had been an apprentice in jewellery and was a salesgirl in Zurich, where she studied and went on a course all about gem and hardstones before she had come to London to learn English. 

We arranged secretly to meet up in Geneva, for a holiday in the South of France the following year, together with some other friends Roger and Gita (a Swedish girl).  So once again, I did the driving taking my MGB convertible.  It was quite daring in those days to book and stay in a hotel room as a married couple, without being married. 

We had a wonderful time together and for the first time did some water skiing, I was not good at it and found it awfully hard to stand up, as it was just the opposite to snow skiing where you lean forward.  So, Trudy was laughing at me and told me I looked like I was in a 'sitting on the toilet position' for the first part, before I could stand straight up and lean back! 

I found Trudy so captivating, I could hardly leave her alone, it was almost impossible to lie on the beach next to her, without having to rush back to our bedroom.