My youngest went to work in Australia a few years ago, and when the OZ office was organised, his employer's plan, was at some point, to send him to Hong Kong.
They sent him to Singapore for a few months whilst things were being organised in HK, and actually screwed up our plans after he paid for us to visit him in Oz.
He met a girl working in the Singapore office, and lo and behold, she was a Yorkshire lass, and her parents live about 3 miles away from me.

He moved onto HK and they had several months flying each week-end between the two cities.
She packed up her job in Singapore and followed him to HK. Apparently her parents went ballistic with her for giving up a good job and flat etc, for a bloke that they hadn't even met - I think I would have felt the same too.
They moved in together and she got another job with another company in HK.

He booked to go to Istanbul - why? because they are both from the West, fell in love in the East, and Istanbul is where East meets West.
The trip looked like it was going to be cancelled with all the riots last week, and we've been really worried about them going....they're in Istanbul until tonight and then they travel onto Greece for 10 days.
He phoned to tell me that he had pre- arranged to hire a yacht and a captain to sail up and down the Bosphorus River and when the boat went under a bridge, he proposed to her and produced the most fabulous engagement ring.
She said YES!

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The hotel were aware of what he was intending to do, he'd organised everything down to finest detail, so when they arrived after a 10 hour flight, they were upgraded to the best room in the hotel at no extra charge- she still had no idea what he was going to do.

How about that for fate? - He went to the other side of the world, he met loads of women in Oz, and then met the woman he wants to marry in Singapore, who lives (lived) 3 miles away from where he was born in God's own county, Yorkshire.
They are both ecstatically happy. He went to Istanbul expecting Mosques, Turkish Delights and Kebabs, and now he has a future wife.
Hope I don't have to go looking for a hat this year, but it'll be interesting to know (when it happens) where the wedding will take place.

I could make a movie out of this story.
Sanji x