World Waits To Hear What Happens In Webpage Courtship

Sydney Morning Herald

Saturday November 10, 2007

Ian Munro

The knight, the maiden, the shining armour. But wait, that was a New York subway carriage. Ian Munro chronicles a very modern romance.

HIS quandary was timeless. Only the means of resolving it reflects our times. She took his breath away, and his words. And by the time he had found them, she was gone.

"The whole ride I was psyching myself up to it. She was writing on this little notepad. All right. Perfect line. I am going to ask her what she was writing about," was how Patrick Moberg related his story of a dreamgirl - a Melbourne girl - who made fleeting eye contact before walking out of his life.

Actually, she walked out of a subway carriage on the No. 5 line in New York.

It was in that busy time when the crowd surges through the doors like a riptide.

There is no fighting it, and he, a 21-year-old Brooklyn webpage designer, was wrong-sided.

"We, like, half made eye contact a few times ... right as the train stopped she got up and, like, everyone else rushed in between us. We made eye contact, really solid eye contact ... and, right when the words were going to leave my mouth, she was off the train."

That is his story as told to a friend and posted on the internet. He could have surrendered his dignity entirely and chased her through the crowd, although that oh-so-casual line about what she had been writing might have needed some reworking. Or he could have let it go. Or, as it happened, he could create a webpage dedicated to finding her in a city of 8 million people.

He called it nygirlofmydreams .com. He included a drawing of her, with her blue tights and blue gym shorts and red cheeks, and a drawing of himself labelled: tall; skinny; not insane.

And he included his mobile phone number for her to reach him.

In less than 48 hours Brooklyn boy had found his dreamgirl. He had some help. A story about his search ran in the New York Post. It became a typing point on other websites, and finally a co-worker of Camille Hayton's made the link.

It was the flower in her hair and the rosy cheeks that caused her co-worker to identify Camille, formerly of Kew, as the muse in this internet love match.

She is identified as an intern at BlackBookmag.com, which now reports a timeline of the encounter, and the pursuit of Ms Hayton by what the site variously and irreverently calls her "stalker" and a "subway skirt chaser".

When not attending to her duties at the magazine, she is a 22-year-old aspiring actress who is understood to have been engaged as an extra in the filming of the feature Sex and the City.

The couple, however, have yet to meet.

Still, this may be a refreshing diversion for Ms Hayton. Friends have claimed that her New York home was burned to the ground just weeks ago.

Meanwhile, she is also believed to have agreed to tell her story to a television show.

He, for his part, is withdrawing from public scrutiny.

A recorded message on his mobile phone declares that he has found his dreamgirl and that "the website totally worked".

But he does not think he will update the website further, and has said he is unlikely to do any interviews.

He does not want to become some gimmicky story. This, he said, is an authentic thing.

Asked by his unseen friend in that website interview if he was ready to meet the dreamgirl he replied: "Yeah [pause of several seconds] ... hopefully."

He told the New York Post they were meeting for coffee this weekend.

No pressure.

Just 8 million people waiting on the outcome.

© 2007 Sydney Morning Herald

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