The Baghdad Hotel

Of course Jason, now 33, was nothing like a skinhead. A credit manager who moonlighted as a DJ and, like many other Aussie blokes, a keen sportsman, he had just had his hair cut that week. “Before that it was probably slightly longer than most but I felt like a change so I had a number two all over,” he explains.

Like Narelle, Jason was keen to try out his new look on members of the opposite sex – but he wasn’t expecting to discover his soul mate at the Baghdad Hotel on New Year’s Eve either. “My mates and I grew up in Collingwood so we’d go there all the time. It was a youngish crowd and they had good rock cover bands. That night we were just out to have a few drinks and a good time... and if you meet someone, you meet someone.” He sheepishly admits he must have seen his future wife with Kim and Bill on the periphery of his group but “didn’t take much notice”.

Meanwhile Narelle, a born extrovert with a good line in witty conversation, had got chatting with another group of revellers at the pub. She almost went with them when they left to see in the New Year at what she thought might be a more salubrious venue. “They asked me to come but I felt awful about leaving my friends so I stayed.”

Fast-forward a couple of hours to the midnight countdown and the traditional New Year’s Eve kiss, and Jason and Narelle were the only two unattached people left in the pub. Seeing a pretty girl by herself on the other side of the room and buoyed with Dutch courage, Jason did what any red-blooded male would and made his way over. “Everyone had coupled up,” Narelle recalls. “And I saw Jason, and his shaved head, coming my way. I was going to dash off to the bathroom and hide rather than be embarrassed but someone got in my way and I couldn’t escape.”

In Hollywood romances, the kiss would seal Narelle and Jason’s fate; their hearts would be entwined forever – but in the smoky confines of an Aussie pub the reality is a little more prosaic. “I said, ‘Happy New Year’ and gave her a kiss on the cheek and that was that,” Jason explains. “It was pretty civilised – and pretty awkward.”

“The skinhead look was doing nothing for me,” Narelle laughs. “I wasn’t even going to waste my time having a conversation with him – I thought we’d have nothing in common. But everyone else was off dancing so I asked Jason what he did for a living. When he said he worked in accounts, I thought, ‘Oh, he must be all right then’. I mean how many psychopathic accountants do you know?”

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