How it all began...

I found hubski through an ad.

Thanks to the internet, this has now become almost a socially acceptable way to meet a partner. But for several years it was my favourite dinner party conversation stopper.

It wasn't that kind of an ad. I can't remember the exact wording, but it went something like this:

'Etudiante anglaise cherche échange de conversation Anglais-Russe'. It was pinned to the noticeboard in the Russian department of Toulouse University. Underneath the message I had written my phone number in vertical lines and cut them into strips.

I didn't rate my chances of finding a Russian who was learning English in Toulouse, especially one who was going to walk past the notice board in the dusty old Russian department. This was 1996, and Russians abroad were still a rare breed, and generally too rich, dodgy, and busy competing for private beaches on the Cote d'Azur to improve their English.

My ad almost didn't see the light of day. I only put it up because my Bulgarian flat mate had given me her own ad to post, offering Bulgarian lessons for 50 francs an hour. I decided in the interest of relieving boredom to add one of my own to see which would get the greater response (we drew one all). Another reason was in the ten-minute intervals between lessons I remained in the classroom on my own, too paralysed by my terrible French to join in with the French-speaking fag break in the corridor. After a few weeks I got bored of doodling and started to play with fate instead.

A few days passed and I noticed that one of the telephone number strips had been torn off...