Meet Keith

Keith is the youngest of four only children born to the four Capstick sisters (there’s a brother too, but he had two sons and so spoiled the “only child” theme). Cousins, three of whom lived within 2 minutes walk of each other (and two of whom lived in the same cul de sac). Sounds like fun, no? Fun fact: Maureen & George (Keith’s parents) have lived in the same house since 1979.

Keith was a typical active kid, riding (and falling off) bikes, playing for multiple football teams, and followed the Geordie tradition of wearing minimal clothing (shorts in winter) as much as possible. Quite how this flipped around to treating jackets and coats as security blankets in later life, no-one is entirely sure. Photographic evidence suggests he was also into dressing up, although he’s prepared to blame the aforementioned cousins if anyone is asking questions.

As fate would have it, one of those football teams (Steamboat) was sponsored by a pub (of the same name) which meant that preteen Keith spent many Sunday afternoons in the pub for after-match events. While the interest in football waned, the fascination with pubs, beer and spirits has not…

Thanks to George, his musical taste progressed rapidly from Status Quo (first concert!) through metal classics like Motorhead, Black Sabbath and Judas Priest (next 3 concerts, all with Dad) to extreme metal and beyond. Whatever your personal taste in music, I think we can all agree that it’s better than the alternative — Maureen’s favourite musician is Sir Cliff Richard (blech).

This naturally led to an interest in all things music and having decided that the organ wasn’t really a very “metal” instrument (symphonic metal didn’t really get going until the late 90s) he switched to guitar. Then to drums. This, coupled with hanging out with pale girls and boys wearing too much eyeliner, led him to adopt the hairstyle he’s still wearing today, 20 years later (and somewhat greyer).

In the mid-90s Keith moved to Leeds (Uni) and, in the first week, met a featherweight Londoner sporting a biker jacket and a curly undercut called Tim, bonding over their shared interest in extreme music, competitive drinking and (eventually) sheepskin coats. Three years later, Tim let slip that he was dating one of his housemates (El) who Keith immediately liked because she had a) a car, b) a mobile phone and c) crazy hair. If you’re at the wedding, ask them how *they* got together…

After five years in Leeds, and the discovery that while Biochemistry might not be so much fun, there were possiblities in this multimedia lark, a fortuitous series of events and contacts put him in London, in the west end, near Marble Arch, just in time…

Meet the parents

Keith first met Lou’s parents when they were visiting London only a few weeks after they first got together. Lou’s parents were a little nonplussed when, having arranged a Thai meal after work in Waterloo, Lou arrived late, slightly drunk, and with a new boyfriend in tow whom they knew nothing about.

To return the favour, Lou first met Keith’s parents at cousin’s Lindsey’s wedding, where she also met every other member of Keith’s family at the same time. Nice.

Fair exchange

Let it not be said that Keith and Lou haven’t been a good influence on each other.

• Admittedly after a blazing row in Brussels, Keith learned to be open minded about food which isn’t commonly found as a pizza topping.
• Between them they own a number of foreign-language films, thanks to Lou (Keith’s allergy to subtitles has largely subsided)
• Lou has become a sci-fi fan in spite of herself
• Lou had a World of Warcraft subscription for a year, despite getting motion sickness from 3d games
• Lou taught Keith to love 80s electro and in particular the music of Gary Numan
• Keith taught Lou to love chiptune music and, with Tim’s help, various noise and drone artists too (in moderation).

Subtle, guys, real subtle

When they’d been dating for 18 months, Lou thought it would be nice for both sets of parents to meet each other, and arranged a Sunday lunch out at a pub near Richmond, North Yorkshire (the approximate mid-point between Knaresborough and South Shields). Seemingly the parents had been “expecting a big announcement”, and seemed were a bit let down. Many repetitions of “no, just a nice Sunday lunch together… no engagement … no wedding” followed.

As did an absence of any further Taylor/Fryer Sunday lunch outings. Or any big announcements for that matter…

aka “theanorak” and “lardbutty”

Yes, they’re a pair of nerds:

• Keith’s specialities: games, design and code, technology, photography, sci-fi, beer, whisky, dressing like a depressed geography teacher. He once wrote a blog about World of Warcraft and spent three nights/week killing internet dragons.
• Lou’s specialities: photography, food blogging, beer, exhaustive research and dossiers (!), bookmarking and filing systems, dolly shoes, history. Lou loves journalism and has had articles published in Italy, the Turks and Caicos Islands and Hong Kong.
• Keith owns more computers than he does shoes.
• Lou has over 130 folders in her *personal* inbox.
• Lou has a “shopping tolerance” of approx. 40 minutes. After that she has to be taken for a pint (remarkably, Keith’s is 45 minutes).
• Lou books tickets for beer festivals, Keith is in charge of keeping the tasting notes (and remembering Lou’s preferences)

Ups and downs

As with all relationships there have been ups and downs. Quite a lot in fact, as Lou and Keith learned to snowboard together in Slovenia in 2003 (where they fell down a lot), and have ridden in various mountain ranges across Europe and America since.

Lou’s love of travel has rubbed off on Keith, with other highlights including a 2,000 mile road-trip in SW USA and in 2013 a ‘holiday of a lifetime’ trip to Tanzania (photos), meeting up with Heather for a holiday that included a four-day safari in the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater, spotting the big five and much more besides. You could probably think of this as an early honeymoon…