Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
her shoulders. She was direct, honest and not afraid to speak her mind. Sarah had
never been one to shy away from a challenge. She certainly took on one with Alex;
that was evident from the day after they met.
'Maria had invited me around for a drink with my then boyfriend. There was this
sparky guy called Alex renting a room at the house. He clocked everything he could
about me, where I lived and that I wasn't working, and next day there was a knock
on the door. There was Alex: “Do you fancy a lunchtime drink?”'
Sarah agreed and as they got talking, she realised what an amazing guy he was.
After a couple of drinks, Alex in his inimitable way opted to work quickly, suggest-
ing to Sarah they have a summer fling.
'He just said: “You don't need to fall in love with me or anything like that. I have
a girlfriend and she'll be back in the autumn. It will just be for the summer.”' Sarah
decided to take a gamble despite the ties of his long relationship with Gwyneth still
being there. Alex was hedging.
Maria warned Sarah that she would be in big trouble if she got involved with
Alex, but she wasn't to be put off. And that's how their short and intense two and a
half years together began. They got on as opposites often do. Sarah was kind, sym-
pathetic to a fault and very artistic, a perfect foil to Alex's abrasive approach to life.
Sarah was a stage set designer and work took her to theatres around the country.
She was used to high drama. For opposites to work, however, there has to be more
than just compliance. Although not immediately apparent, Sarah was Alex's intel-
lectual match, someone he could depend on to put him right when he became too
stubborn.
'Within a few days, Alex and I went off on a road trip together and had a really
nice time. We went up to Glasgow, went to art exhibitions, then across to Donegal,
stopping in Belfast to borrow Terry Mooney's BMW to travel in style.'
[1]
Somewhere during that journey to Ireland, Alex fell in love with Sarah. He ex-
plained to her how important it was to have someone who really cared for you
when you were away on a big trip. And he told her his ambition was for her to fall
in love with him as soon as possible and to be that person when he next went away.
Sarah and Alex moved in together almost as soon as they got back. It became ap-
parent to Maria and all who knew Alex that his matter-of-fact attitude to relation-
ships was changing. He didn't become a romantic overnight, but Sarah awoke
something romantic within him, which he only revealed to me much later, during
the frightening times just before his death on Annapurna. On all our expeditions,
Alex wrote weekly to his mother, but rarely to anyone else. I noticed on Annapurna
that he would follow a letter to Jean with one to Sarah.
[2]
