In 2006 I left Liverpool and was backpacking around Thailand. I was 21 years old with a degree in English and, after a few months, a travelling acquaintance offered me a job teaching English in Chiang Mai. I thought, “Why not?”

During my second year there, our boss told us the school would be hosting a group of Australian teachers. I had never gotten around to finding an apartment and lived in a hotel, so it was decided that’s where they’d stay too.

When the day came and 15 Australian women came rollicking out of the minibus our minds were instantly blown.

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My colleagues and I had been in town for a while so we were glad to help them get settled in and show them around. As their three-week stay came to an end, we went out to celebrate. Not unusually for Thailand, we decided on a nightclub where you could also eat dinner. People were mingling and seat-hopping and eventually I ended up next to Fiona. I’d spoken to her just once or twice before but not at any length.

I already had my meal and she thought it was hilarious that all I was eating before a big night out was an omelette and rice. Music was blaring and she asked me to help her navigate the menu. Obviously an omelette was out of the question. I saw the word for chicken and figured it would be a standard chicken and rice dish, but when it arrived it was, in fact, a full roast chicken. No rice, no trimmings, no cutlery, just the bird.

I looked over at her with her long black hair and beautiful, big green eyes in this lovely dress and just thought, “Oh my God, what have I done?” But before I could even finish saying I’d try to sort it out she’d already gone hands in – boom. She devoured the entire thing top to bottom and didn’t get a speck on her. She just stacked the bones up as she cleaned them, wiped her hands on a napkin and got back to her drink. I was completely besotted.

I was in awe and knew right then I’d found someone truly special

There was just something about the way she handled it that was so cool and collected. I’d never seen anyone eat a whole chicken like that – the fact she was also the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen made it all the more amazing. It was completely ridiculous and I just thought: “This woman is incredible. I will move heaven and earth to spend time with a woman who can demolish a whole chicken while being so totally unselfconscious.” There was no hesitation, no look at me, she just solved the problem with total confidence. I was in awe and knew right then I’d found someone truly special.

I spent the rest of the night following her around like a lovesick puppy and, as the evening wore on, we shared our first kiss. That was followed by what we call “our first date”, which was actually six weeks of island-hopping.

I didn’t see Fiona for a year after that. By then I’d moved to South Korea and, when she finished university, she joined me there. Since then we’ve never been apart.

In 2014 we were married on a ferry boat in the Bosphorus and I told the chicken story. She thinks it’s a bit mad that I still go on about it, but more than just a funny story it says so much about who she is and how I first caught a glimpse of that. The way Fiona handles life’s surprises remains a source of inspiration: just dig in, don’t make a big fuss and get it done.

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