It seems to be all doom and gloom in the bingo world at the moment, so this month I am gonna talk about something good, something nice, something touching: I’m going to talk about LOVE in the bingo halls (and not like THAT you smutty lot!) and how i met my soulmate!
It was 2002 and I was a young, windswept and interesting bingo caller in bognor regis. I was also living the single life, mainly because I have always been awful at chatting up the ladies!
Anyway it was a Saturday night and I was doing my usual routine on stage, and in the intervals going around giving out change. I had spotted a hot looking Blondie sitting with some regular customers called Mick and Anita and assumed it was there daughter. I gave her the eye a few times throughout the night, walking up and down her aisle more than i should!
At the end of the night mick and Anita would always have a play on the fruities and i saw this as my chance to chat to this cutie! Have I just sat on your fag ash?’
That was my chat up line! (I told you my chat up style was awful!) We had a brief chat about her parents and that was that. Mick and Anita had finished on the fruit machines and I watched the cute blonde leave in her long dark coat!
The next weekend when Mick and Anita came back I made an effort to chat to them after the bingo to find out some more about there daughter. I found out her name was Maxine and that she lived in Bristol and came down once a month to visit. Being the polite gentleman I am I said that if she needed anyone to show her the delights of bognor regis then I would be glad to show her!
<p”>The following weekend I was working on the bar and Anita came up to me and asked me for my phone number! My mates were ribbing saying that’s its a bit psycho that a girls mother was asking for my number! But i didn’t care, she seemed a nice girl and I had already met the parents (which is a major stumbling block in the whole relationship thing!!!)
Anyway a couple of days later I got a phone call and it was Maxine on the end of the line………
……..It was really weird but we seemed to hit it off straight away, our first conversation was a couple of hours long! It was two weeks before she came down and we spoke on the phone more or less every night.
We actually had our first date on the 1st November: she played bingo with her paren
After the session finished and my shift was over we went on our first date: which ended with our first kiss!!!! (ahhh)
And nearly 6 years down the line we are still together (although I am getting grief because I haven’t put a ring on her finger yet!) In many ways she has been the driving force in my career: since we’ve been together I joined gala/won regional caller of the year 3 times and the national once/have called for celebrities and shouted the numbers in Las Vegas! And now I’m on the telly calling bingo doing what I love, and all the while my Maxine was with me all the way! And through all this she has put up with all the negative things (the anti-social hours, the nerves at competitions, the weekends/bank holidays/xmas’s that I have had to work) that I throw at her on a regular basis. She is the love of my life and my best friend. I Love you Max!
Have you met your significant other in the bingo halls? Let us know…….I know I am not the only one!!!!!!!
