Origins

Well, we're both really excited about the blog. We love the Andersen family blog because it's a record of their family's past and present and will become something wonderful for the children to look at later on - they will be able to see themselves and their parents at all the different stages of their lives.  

Our blog will probably be more interesting for us and our future family than for others but I hope everyone enjoys it nonetheless.

So, to begin with, I would like to give a brief history of us so far...

Naeem ur Rehman

was born on 24th February (30-something years ago) to his Pakistani father, Fazal ur Rehman, and his Spanish mother, Yousaf Jan. He is the youngest of 6 children - 4 boys and 2 girls - and was therefore endowed from an early age with a healthy sense of his own worth as well as a need to prove himself and beat everyone at everything!

He received a first rate education, which was strictly supervised and heavily supplemented by his father and older siblings. He made an excellent student and enjoyed school and learning although this did not prevent him from escaping and causing mischief at every opportunity. Fortunately, his natural charm, winning smile and eloquence won him the respect and affection of almost every teacher and authority figure and he managed to escape any severe punishment even for the most shocking of pranks.

Another significant event in Naeem's school career was when he fell in love... with his teacher Miss Jasmine. Unfortunately, she left the school to get married, without even saying goodby! Poor, six-year-old Naeem was devastated and cried for several days, much to the amusement of his family... Poor thing!

Naeem was also a very successful and active member of the wrestling team and, at 19, became the regional champion.

Naeem attended University where he achieved an MSc in IT and Communications. He often speaks of his time at University as one of the happiest times of his life. Following graduation, he worked in the city quickly gaining the respect of his superiors because of his quick mind, dedication and his work ethic. After working for a few years, Naeem's friends decided it was time for a change and, almost against his will and only through a bizarre set of coincidences and flukes (in which I can't help but see the hand of providence), Naeem came to England.

In spite of his brilliant mind and excellent education, Naeem struggled to find suitable work here and has been doing security for the last little while. However, he is currently on a course to update his skills and he should then be able to find a job more suited to his intellectual abilities and which will allow him to get home at a decent time in the evening and, best of all, be home at the weekend!

We  both moved to London at the same time but didn't meet until 4 1/2 years later - I still can't believe how close we came to each other and yet how easy it would have been to have never met at all. We finally met and Naeem decided that, if he really could not marry Miss Jasmine, I would do instead...

Eveymartine Brogan

was born on 27th October 1980 to my French/English father, Paul Louis Brogan, and English mother, Valerie Anne Giles. I am the second of four children with one older brother, and a younger brother and sister. As the oldest girl, I was by nature bossy and nurturing in equal measure. (I hope I have redressed the balance more in favour of nurturing in the last 30 years, trying rather to organise things than other people...!)

Shortly after my arrival, my parents moved to South Africa of which I have a few, mostly very hot memories - some of the happiest made during my time at Bedelia Primary School. When we returned to England, when I was 5ish, I continued to enjoy school and always worked hard. In fact, I often asked for extra work/homework even when still at Primary School. Mother - quite the scholar herself - encouraged all of us to learn and I enjoyed being surrounded by books when I got home from school.

Unfortunately, when I was 14 I became very unwell and was unable, as a result, to complete my A-levels. I was, however, always determined to attend University someday and, at the age of 24, finally achieved that goal when I was accepted at UCL to read Viking Studies. My time at UCL was wonderful - I loved every moment of it! Before and after University, I managed to build a fairly strong CV as an administrator / PA. I enjoy administrative work because it involves a lot of organising (one of my favourite things about University was colour-coding my notes for each subject at the beginning of each term!). I have been working for the last 8 months as Office Manager / PA for Benson+Forsyth Architects in Islington but today handed in my notice and will start on 24th June 2011 as Office Manager for White Bear Yard in Farringdon.

During my 4th year at UCL I was working very hard on my dissertation and hardly went out so my flatmates decided, in order to get me out of the flat from time to time, to sign me up for a dating website. Not long after that, Naeem and I starting talking on the website. We were both a little unsure about the whole idea and had been put off by bad dates but, after chatting online several times, we decided to meet...

Next chapter - Weddings!