Most of you know one of us, many of you know both of us and a few of you are probably wondering how you ended up on this website. Whichever group you fall into, read on! We've put together a "Meg and Alex for Dummies" guide as an attempt to describe our lives so far and explain the peculiar set of events that led an otherwise rational Canadian lady to choose to marry a shy and retiring boy from Oxford - in Central Mexico.

The Bride

Meg would not be here today were it not for the half-price offer on flights to Europe spotted by a certain Raymond Smith, of Parry Sound, Ontario, back in 1973. The fine print stipulated that applicants had to be married, and Mr Smith, never one to walk away from a bargain, therefore found himself compelled to propose to the love of his life (and girlfriend of 9 years) Miss Lynn Hogg of Toronto. The two tied the knot in May and, shortly after this picture was taken, set off on their epic 7-month adventure in Europe. Meg came along in June 1976, and soon developed into a photogenic cherub-like creature with big hair. By her teens, Meg had become an avid gymnast and enjoyed terrorizing the neighbours with her french horn and piano "practice" - but she still managed to find time for the real pleasures of adolescent life (such as schoolwork and babysitting). Career-wise, Meg started off at McGill University in Montreal, where she studied gruesome diseases and exotic bugs. So inspired was she by these that she enrolled on a Masters in epidemiology at Cambridge University in the UK. This turned out to be a traumatic but hugely rewarding experience - not least because it was during her year in England that she met the gentleman described below.

The Bride's Sidekick

Alex was the first product of a good old-fashioned love story involving a bearded Englishman and a blue-eyed Mexican. Patrick Goldsmith claims that he travelled to Mexico in 1973 to learn about Aztec language - not to find a wife. However, he met Lydia Gomez in March 1974 and ten months later the two were married. Alex arrived in 1976 and soon embarked upon a happy childhood during which his favourite pastimes were (1) looking at pictures of lions, (2) pretending he was a lion, and (3) devising ways in which he would one day turn himself into a lion. Unfortunately, none of these hobbies are evident from the photographic record. In 1986 the family relocated to England, and Alex spent the next few years developing a "British versus Mexican" identity crisis that was always particularly acute during football World Cup tournaments and, in fact, remains unresolved to this day. Luckily, though, the psychological scarring was minimal: by the age of eighteen Alex had become almost entirely normal. He studied biochemistry at Oxford University for 4 years, and then moved to Cambridge for a PhD. During his second year there, a certain girl moved into his hostel...

In the beginning

It was around 7pm on September 30th, 2000. Alex was in his room hurriedly getting ready for a St John's College Boat Club dinner, and Meg was a couple of metres away on the staircase introducing herself to her new housemates. Neither of them suspected that the grotty college house known as Whinside would serve as a backdrop for the most important encounter of their lives...With only a few minutes to spare, Alex stumbled out into the hallway dressed in his tuxedo. He greeted the newly arrived Canadian, and there followed what she and he both remember as a totally unmemorable and very brief conversation. Nevertheless, Meg was so impressed by Alex's formal attire that she agreed to attend his birthday gathering the next day. The two became friends almost instantly - and 8 months later, Alex (never one to hurry into things) suggested a romantic rendez-vous. On June 19th, 2001, Meg and Alex attended the St John's College Ball (along with a thousand other people) . They even held hands for some of it.

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