Meeting a partner’s parents for the first time is usually a well-planned event, especially if they live in a different country. Not for Rob. Having injured himself paragliding in Austria, he ended up recuperating at Uli’s parents’ house in Germany for a week. “Uli’s family immediately made me feel welcome and cared for me,” says Rob, who had known Uli for only three months.
He arrived with a broken ankle, having undergone surgery after the paragliding accident in which his wing had collapsed 60ft in the air. He had landed in a pinewood forest, “breaking branches all the way to the ground”.
Uli and Rob met in Dubai in 2013. German-born Uli was on holiday visiting friends. Rob works in Dubai as a professional skydiver.