It was an Open University connection in the beginning of course - that place certainly changed lives. We both pitched up at the Arts Faculty just as the second generation of courses was being pumped out, where we shared an office for five years or so from 1985. I was always in awe of how very good Shirley was at project management. Our relationship(s) didn't end when I left the university. By now she and Ruth were a couple. We still went walking, and drinking. Even when I moved to Dorset they still came by on occasion, with motor home, to see what birds might be hiding in the marshes round Poole. Many, many happy times.
