Bas: I had her at g’day. Elizabeth will deny it, but the Aussie flag on my Bumble profile definitely didn’t hurt in securing that first date! And from that moment, we were goners. Both knowing we’d met our person. Both knowing it was going to be a helluva headache to work out what to do about it! But both knowing we’d make it work regardless.

Liz: We met on a whim on Bas’s first night in Brooklyn at the end of his roadtrip around America. I nearly cancelled when I realized he was swiping while traveling, but figured what the heck, it’ll be a fun story…

After a whirlwind 3 days, Bas whisked back off to Melbourne. I remember going up to my room after putting him in a taxi and thinking, Dang. I think that was it. To my supreme joy, Bas messaged me 24 hours later when he finally landed back in Australia. We started joking about me coming to visit Australia. Six months later, we had stopped joking and I’d booked a ticket to go for a month. And that was that.

Bas: Such was our commitment to impress each other, I even initially pretended to be a night owl. Elizabeth pretended to be an intrepid eater, going as far as to crack into wild oysters in the Whitsundays. All lies. But the rest, and our joy in each other’s company, was built on sturdier foundations.

Liz: We spent several years doing long-distance back and forth between Melbourne and Brooklyn, and eventually decided we should probably think about moving to the same continent. London was the logical meet-in-the-somewhat-middle choice. Just under a week out from Bas paying me a visit, there was a small hiccup (cue the pandemic). 14 months later to the day, we were able to finally reunite with Bas moving to London. We shared a tiny studio off Trafalgar Square for the first few months before moving to what has been our home base in Angel.

Liz: We are so lucky to have had so many friends and family come and stay with us. During the rarest of vacancies at our place, Bas proposed that we have a date day since it would be one of the only days with just the two of us for the summer. He planned a day of doing things we've been meaning to do in London for the last few years, like breakfast at Regency Cafe and a long-promised rowboat ride on the Serpentine in Hyde Park.

Bas: Turns out rowing is harder than it looks. I'd planned to get us out to a quiet area at the far end of the Serpentine, but after 15 minutes of uncoordinated splashing, I was out of beans. Turns out it was the perfect spot! As I pulled in the oars and bent the knee to warble out a few words, a lovely random couple snapped the moment from the shore (see the photos section!). Thankfully, Elizabeth had no hesitation in saying yes, followed shortly after by "I'm going to throw up!" Maybe she thought we were rushing into it? ;)

Elizabeth is up to seven Australian trips. Bas is similar with the US. It’s a lot of air miles! And we can’t wait to see you all on the next great adventure, and beyond. Ci vediamo la prossima volta in Italia!