UK to South Africa

[LM87]

Hi all
Hope your all well & coping OK during these difficult times with Covid!
My online relationship is based from me being in the UK and him being in South Africa.
We haven’t met yet & I am looking for couples or people who haven’t met yet from the same places who may be able to offer some advice or can talk to about the difficulties and how to make things a bit easier!
Thank you in advance x

[vivid_idea]

Hi and welcome, yeah, this year has been really challenging for those of us in LDRs. You will find lots of nice people here who can offer advice and support. It's not always easy to work your way through an LDR.

I am in an international LDR too. But I am in Australia and he is in Germany. We were lucky enough to meet before the lockdowns came into effect, but Australia has very strict border control and it doesn't look like any international travel will be allowed for the remainder of this year or next! It's really depressing.

How did you and your SO find each other?

[LM87]

I can imagine it isn’t the easiest thing ever. Me and the guy I’m talking to have known each other for 14 months and he was going to come over this year, but it wasn’t just Covid there was a few factors involved in why he couldn’t and we did end up drifting apart for a short while. But he has realised all he wants to do is meet me so that’s our goal 🤞🏻
We met on a dating site, I was doing a live chat and he had clicked onto it and then he ended up messaging me privately and I thought well this is pointless chat but will talk anyways then we ended up video calling most days and built up this amazing connection.
It’s nice to be able to have people to relate to, that sucks that it may be a while that you can’t see each other though 👎🏻
How did you meet and how long you been together? X

[vivid_idea]

Hi again,
My SO and I met very randomly on a chat site, of all places. This soon led to chats, emails, and regular calls. We’ve known each other for over 2 years now and we have met twice IRL.

The first time we met was after 11 months of being on the internet. I was so incredibly nervous and excited at the airport when he was arriving to meet me! There are big windows where you can see the people exit the plane and walk across the tarmac. I could pick him out right away from the distance, even though his eyes were on the ground, and looked like he was concentrating. Probably pretty nervous and fatigued from the long flight. Once he entered the airport, and was walking up the platform (I was already watching him but he hadn’t looked up yet) and then he looked up and met my gaze straight away. His face completely lit up and transformed and I could read his lips as he smiled and said my name.

I won’t ever forget that moment for as long as I live. I knew I fell in love with him in that moment, too, as soon as our eyes met for the first time in real life.

Long distance is so hard but the highs they can come with are higher than anything I have ever known before. Something about the effort you both put into it. It can make you so strong.

I hope you guys get to meet each other one day, and know that it will be all the sweeter for having had to endure so much distance.

[LM87]

Awwww wow that is such a lovely story & I'm so glad It’s working out well for you.
How often do you like video call etc?
It’s weird isn’t it how we get these connections off people which we would never expect.
I always think about the airport situation as weird as that sounds, but I think I get anxious like how will I know it’s him and will he know it’s me and will it be exciting... I mean in my eyes all I want to do is run up and hug him and I think I’ll be an ugly crier to him 😂
I do too, I think we will but it’s just about the effort and actually making it happen. I know it boils down to money for him as well which is hard as he doesn’t earn the best money.
But we will see what happens can’t do much this year anyways so let’s hope next year we can get a plan in place!

[vivid_idea]

Hey there, I overlooked this post, sorry!

We actually video call very infrequently. It’s a bit weird, I know. We talk on the phone fairly often. Usually a couple times a week. But video calls are rare. Kind of like a real treat or novelty. I think we are both a bit shy?

You sound really positive, which is the most important thing. Just enjoy getting to know each other. If you keep liking each other, then the experience at the airport will have a good chance of being really amazing. Life-changing amazing even.