Damien and I went back to South Africa together, and without intending to, immediately moved into his place. And in true Damien fashion -- it was completely surprising -- a large renovated Penthouse in the heart of the trendy Jo’burg CBD. My family and friends were very wary of him at first; he wasn't exactly good at first impressions. Although Stormy-Rain liked him immediately, and warned me that if we ever broke up, she would make a move. My mother also liked him immediately, and I suspected that if we ever did, she and Stormy would probably wrestle over him.

But Adam was especially wary, and whenever he got the opportunity, threatened Damien with bodily harm if he ever made me get a tattoo or body piercing. (Trust him to worry about that.) James, on the other hand would puff himself up in his presence, just to remind Damien that he was in possession of some serious muscle power and wasn’t afraid to use it. Val and Sue were also concerned, especially when they saw his ankle tattoo and his T-shirt that read "I bite". They even went onto America’s Most Wanted website just to make sure I wasn’t dating a serial killer psycho.

But as they all began to see the positive changes he brought to my life, they grew to like him. He didn’t play golf with my dad -- he was useless at it -- but they discovered a mutual love of chess, which made family lunches very boring. He didn’t go to the bar on a Friday night with James and his mates, but they grew to respect each other... well, my brother hasn’t punched him yet. But Adam was still very concerned about tattoo-induced infections and eyed my ankles and arms suspiciously from time to time. I think Val and Sue finally came around to him when he sent us all away on a luxury Spa weekend for my birthday -- what a fickle bunch. Facials, body wraps and a great pedicure will do that to you.

But I, Lilly, became Little Ms Independent that year. Damien gave me the confidence to step out of the shadows and my comfort zone. I opened my own little law firm, separate from my dad's, and took on a few small clients. And even though my future had never been so unpredictable, considering that all my previous plans had been blown out of the water, I'd never felt more in control and excited about my life.

Damien was in one of those truly bizarre positions where he didn’t need to do anything thanks to an absurdly large trust fund, but he chose to work as a lecturer, spending his days talking about space and quantum physics and stuff that involved Pulsars and Quasars and sounded like an episode of Star Trek -- no matter how many times he explained it all to me, I still didn't quite get it. But I loved how passionate he was. Every now and again I would have to contend with the odd love letter from a starry-eyed student. But I knew, unequivocally, that Damien adored me. He told me every day. Who would have guessed, right? But Damien said it was science -- syyzgy.

Our jobs gave us the freedom to travel and in that year we went to Russia, trekked through the Malaysian jungle to see -- in my opinion - an extremely underwhelming temple, which only left me with blisters and spider bites. We went to London to see Jess, and popped over to Paris and Rome. But we always returned home again. It was the best of both worlds.

His parents LOVED me. His mother pulled me aside one day and told me how relieved she was that he was finally dating someone without a lip ring.

But I also knew that Damien would always be Damien -- he did his own thing and lived by his own rules -- so I temporarily parked the idea of the perfect wedding and three kids.

I heard that Michael got a girlfriend and surprise, surprise, she was one of our acquaintances. Stormy was convinced they’d had a little ‘thing-thang’ during our relationship, but she was naturally suspicious and believed that the government was filming us all and that ancient aliens walked among us. But it didn’t bother me one little bit.

I was happy. Thanks to Damien, my very, very unlikely hero.