Sunday 28^th January, 2018 0300

Ok I am going to bed soon but Facebook comments kept me up. Anyway, no need for me to get up at any hour.

Not much happening in China so I thought I would reminisce. This has to be 20 years ago or thereabouts.

I met a girl online. No, not a dating site, purely by accident although I have nothing against dating sites. Anyway, I fell in love with this girl, well, as much as it is possible to fall in love online. It seems crazy now and I scoff at others who have done likewise but yes, I did indeed.

I took it to the next stage and thereafter ensued a two year relationship during which time I lost my heart, my money and ultimately my life, although not in the strict sense of the meaning.

We met in the airport and before we even left I knew in wanted to marry her. Clearly as we never did she had other ideas, I reckon that led to a much less fulfilling life than I would have strived to provide but that's not germane to the tale.

I stayed in the Prysbaltiskaya hotel in St Petersburg and she visited , the second night staying. I felt like the teenager my brain said I was and took her to things a forty years old person should. I never booked her into the hotel, don't ask me why but I came to wish I had but that is for the next entry.

The morning after she stayed we went to buy some English learning textbooks. To do so we had to walk down Nevsky Prospekt. At every traffic junction there is a pedestrian underpass. Walking through one of these underpasses a rather unshaven chap violently collided with me, I thought deliberately. Needless to say I (rather inadvisedly in hindsight) shouted out “Oh don't mind me!”

Seconds later as we were walking on the upslope, a group of men overtook us, two closed in at the front and slowed to a stop.

Now James Bond would have reacted and reached for his gun but I am your ordinary bloke plus a bit. The chap in front seemed awfully like the the one who banged into me going the other way. I know now that was to verify I was foreign.

It all happened so quickly. If it has ever happened to you then you will know. You have a feeling something is wrong but it happens so fast. You are in a communist style country and something is going very badly wrong but you have a millisecond to figure it out. Unless you work for MI5 you have no chance. It happens before you know.

I was younger and fitter then but I know the reaction would be the same today regardless. My girl was by my side and we were hedged in and motionless by a group of five men. Terrified? NO I bloody wasn't! Enraged: YES!

A hand went to take my bulging wallet with $2,000 and all my credit/debit cards and along with it my holiday with the girl I had dreamt about for so long. Stifled, neither of us able to move the tunnel vision kicked in.

I have only had it once before. I came home from the pub one night after some road rage from a neighbour. He (dead now) gave me abuse as I opened our gates to park and then was the only person ever in my life to land a punch on my nose. God, if you have never had one don't try it! It stings a lot.

My father had to come out and stop me from pressing the neighbour's cheeks onto my car exhaust.

So here I had a group of men who thought a tourist was easy pickings? Two days after he had met someone he hoped to be with for the rest of his life?

I admit I can be an idiot at times, they could have been armed with guns or knives but there was a hand trying to get my holiday out of my back pocket.

And with my new girlfriend.

Now I would have died for her (and still would) but stopping me from courting her? Sorry but you never read the manual.

I am a taurus. I don'r believe in that stuff but I did turn into a bull. If I didn't break the wrist that was trying to lift my wallet I will be disappointed and having shaken them off I went around in circles inviting them to bring it on.

I don't recall any other time in my life I have been so angry. Had they had guns I would have taken bullets and ripped them from their hands and they may well have been armed. Maybe I was stupid but by God I was incensed and even an AK47 was not going to quell that.

I shall not give the entire courtship but next time will give another warning for people visiting other countries.