Our tale begins on a chilly October evening in 2003.

The scene is the Gold Cane, a much-storied drinking hole on Haight Street, in San Francisco. Inside, perched alone on a stool at the bar, we find our hapless hero, Chris. As he sits, frowning into his beer and trying hard to look indifferent, he is wholly unaware that destiny, in the form of the number 7 bus, is heading in his direction.
Meanwhile, making her way home from work aboard the aforementioned bus, is our beautiful heroine, Hali. The bus pulls to a stop. Hali steps off, pauses momentarily, then makes a serendipitous decision that was to change both their lives for ever. Forsaking the walk north, toward the panhandle and her apartment, Hali heads instead towards the Gold Cane. At this stage it is instructive to know that Hali is the sort of wonderfully gregarious and ever-so-slightly mischievous person who makes a sport of chatting with those folk who look for all the world like they don't really want to be chatted with...
And so it begins; first with beer napkins printed with trivia, leading to an evening-consuming conversation, a reluctant parting (with obligatorily awkward exchange of numbers), on to a confusing dance between friendship and dating and finally, a few months later, to the kind of love that dreams are built upon.

Almost a year after that fateful night on Haight Street, the software company who provided Chris with gainful employment and a US visa goes bankrupt, and our couple must pack up and take their love on the road. Together they moved to Australia; first to Sydney, then Melbourne. After 3 years enjoying the weather and exploring down under they decided to make their return to the northern hemisphere. Firstly to England, and now Edinburgh, Scotland where they are blissfully holed up in their cozy New Town apartment, eating Hali's gourmet dinners, playing scrabble, and planning their wedding celebrations.
This story has just begun, we hope you will join our hero and heroine for the next important chapter, entitled: Jamaica; Makin' it Legal.

Our heroine, Hali Jo Keenan was born of Pam and Steven Keenan in the smallish town of Moorhead, MN. Though Pam and Steven lived separately they parented together and provided Hali with a blissfully happy childhood, allowing her to worry about nothing but the important business of testing the patience of her cautious and extremely protective big-brother Shawn. At 11 years old Hali was lucky enough to gain an additional parental figure in the form of a Step Father, Guy Getschel, a friend for life. Sadly when Hali was just sixteen her father was killed in a car accident at the age of forty-two. Though this was possibly the most difficult thing she has had to deal with in her lifetime, Hali feels truly lucky to have had such a great relationship with a loving, passionate, dedicated and supportive father who was also her best friend.
Hali was overly-involved in high school and was active in everything from Student Council, to Speech and Debate, to Soccer, but her passion was always for the theater. Long before her senior year, and much to her Mother's dismay, she had set her sights on AADA (the American Academy of Dramatic Arts) in New York City. Finally graduation day arrived and after several nerve-wracking auditions, and an extremely jubilant phone call announcing her acceptance, she packed up and ran off to Manhattan to begin her misadventures. In the summer of 1995 Hali took up her first, and certainly most embarassing 'acting job' singing in a country-western cabaret show at a lodge in Glacier National Park, MT. But quickly wanderlust kicked in and armed with a backpack, sleeping bag and foolhardy idealism she and a couple of other cabaret drop-outs (Lauren and Susan) headed cross-country via outstretched thumb and greyhound bus until finally reaching Santa Fe, NM with little more than $84 and an awakened desire to see the world. After 6 months working two jobs, Hali had scraped together enough for a flight to Tokyo, where she was told she could find work. She could, and she did. Three months of singing in nightclubs, nursing egos and a few awkward English lessons later, she headed off on a visa renewal trip to Thailand. While studying massage at a vegetarian yoga retreat centre on the remote and beautiful island of Koh Pha Ngan, she fell in love with the country. In fact she might still be there, if the authorities hadn't decided otherwise!

So, back for another run in Tokyo and finally heading back home, she continued her massage education at the Aveda Institiute in Minneapolis, MN. After massage school it was off to California to live with her former high-school boyfriend Derek (who long-since had gotten himself his own boyfriend). She spent two and a half years in San Diego, riding around on her Vespa, break dancing on refrigerator boxes and learning 'some valuable lessons'. In the year 2000, Hali's Mother, Pam became ill with cancer, so she moved back to Minnesota to care for her. With her Mom back and better than ever, Hali packed up again and headed to Colorado to do massage, wait tables and ski for free. Then to Austin, TX where she bunked up with her oldest and bestest girlfriend Jodi and proceeded to give massages to wealthy ranchers and rich hippies. Stowing her tips in a sock, she saved for her ultimate destination, San Francisco. Only six months passed when the winds of fate (and a very cheap sublet opportunity) swept her west. She set up shop in a health club, put a basket on her bicycle and started referring to the mystical foggy city as 'home'. Ten months later, on a cold night, she was waiting for the #14 bus on Market Street. When it failed to show, after nearly a half an hour of shivering and cursing the ill-destined coaches, she resolved to take whatever westbound bus came next. The next bus was the number 7.

Christopher entered the world, somewhat belatedly and backside first, on the 8th of October, 1976. This begrudging entrance to the world of the living was to set a precedent for many a morning to come.
As a child Christopher was possessed of a nervous disposition and a slightly odd countenance, due mainly to a set of cartoonishly large cheeks which, combined with a pronounced under bite, served to confine the rest of his features to a small patch in the centre of his face. But for all this, his childhood was a happy one, spent at home in Southampton with his Mum, Sue; his Dad, Dave; and his big sisters, Liz and Sam. Four years later they were thankfully to be joined by a brother, Gareth.

When Chris was about 8 his parents split and so he, with his Mum, Liz and Gareth began a move northwards, first to Warwickshire and then to Derby, where they moved into a new house in Darley Abbey with their step-father, Brian and (for part of the week at least) his sons, Chris and Paul. Derby was to be the place they settled for the remainder of Chris' childhood and where this slightly nerdy, awkward and anxious boy was to mature and blossom into a slightly nerdy, awkward and anxious young man.
Derby was a great place to grow up and Chris had a brilliant time attending Ecclesbourne School and messing around with friends in the many parks, gardens and other green spaces the city provides for teenagers to misbehave in. Fortunately his studies (thanks to timely reminders at the Sunday dinner table) remained just enough of a priority for Chris to be offered a place at Manchester University to study Physics and Astrophysics. His nerdiness was about to be transformed into a way of life.
Three years on, and some nerve-wracking exam resits later, Chris secured a 2:2 (aka the drinker's degree) and with an audible sigh of relief returned to Derby to live again at the family home and consider his next move. Whilst considering (which involved sitting on the couch watching a lot of tv), he was "offered" the "opportunity" to work for his rent at his Mother and Step-fathers business, writing software for electronic trading applications. After a reluctant start it dawned on Christopher that due to the gathering "dot com boom", this could actually be a fine way to learn skills which would prove invaluable in his quest of securing a career involving the minimum possible graft. And so it turned out. After a 6 month sabbatical to Australia with life-long friend Mark, where he rekindled his favourite student pastimes of drinking beer and gazing at the stars (this time not in a laboratory setting), Chris returned to the company and found that it was soon to be bought out by a US-based dot com, Commerce One, which was at the time very much booming. They offered Chris a job in their California development center and after an agonizing wait for a visa, he was off to Silicon Valley. After periods living in Cupertino and Palo Alto, which involved some great experiences dotted between long periods of all work and no play, he was lured by the bright lights of "the city" and settled in San Francisco. It was here that he discovered the Gold Cane, the perfect place to spend a cold October evening...