Marrying a Russian woman is routinely portrayed by the media as the mail order brides process. Those words tend to leave a nasty taste in your mouth, don’t they? The first time I heard those words were soon after my marriage when "Cosmo" happened to interview me soon after my marriage, quite by chance.

I was sitting at home, bored and decided to send a letter to a competition that the magazine was launching. "Cosmo" was looking for somebody to feature in their article about Russian brides. My letter was like a God sent, and they phoned me asking for an interview. This was my first interview with the Media, and I was pretty naive at the time. I thought that "Cosmo", like all our friends and family, would find the way we met very romantic.

Imagine my surprise when I read the announcement of the future article: Russian Mail Order Brides!