Alex was working as an aviation journalist when he first visited Kazakhstan in October 2011, to interview the head of the country’s national airline. “Originally, I was planning to stay longer, to explore, but I was so tired that I decided to return to the UK early,” he says. At Almaty airport, he spotted a woman reading a Stephen Fry book. “She was very attractive. Because of the book, I realised she must speak English and might be going to London.” To his delight, she sat down next to him when they boarded.
“I wasn’t meant to be on that flight, either,” says Aizhan, 34. “But I was travelling to London, to study for my master’s degree in HR, and had lots of admin to do, so I decided to go early.” Alex, 43, helped her with her luggage and they got chatting during the meal. “It felt like a first date,” she says. “He’s half French and he told me how to make frogs’ legs. I remember writing about it in my diary later. I even wrote a joke about people who meet in random places and end up getting married.” They exchanged email addresses at the end of the flight and he wrote to her soon after, but didn’t hear back. “I assumed that was it and I’d never see her again,” he says.
A few months later, though, when Aizhan was settled in the UK, she added Alex on Facebook. “She sent me a message asking if I wanted to go to a comedy show,” he remembers. “I said yes straight away.” But Alex got stuck in the Netherlands because of a snowstorm and couldn’t make it to the gig. When he got back, he invited Aizhan to a bar in Soho with some friends. “It was nerve-racking, but it was a great place and everyone was salsa dancing,” she says. Over the next few months, they continued to meet as friends. Although they both liked each other, they weren’t sure how the other felt. “There were some cultural misunderstandings,” says Alex. “One day, I took her out with one of my friends and when I went to get cigarettes she thought I was trying to set her up with him.”
In May 2012, Aizhan invited Alex to her birthday celebrations. That was the night they first kissed. “After that, he took me to Cannizaro Park in Wimbledon to see the blossoming rhododendrons. It was so beautiful,” she says.
As she was younger than him, Alex didn’t want to push her to get serious too quickly. “It freaked me out, because, in my culture, it’s normal to be married by the age of 25 and we don’t date for a long time before marrying,” she says.
In the summer, Aizhan went to Kazakhstan to visit family. “I realised she might move back there one day and I knew I couldn’t be without her,” says Alex. That August, he proposed; they married two months later. They lived in London for the next two years, but Alex was keen to leave journalism. “I’d always dreamed of opening a brewery or running a vineyard,” he says. “When Aizhan gave me a book called Apples Are from Kazakhstan, I discovered that was where apples were originally cultivated. It sparked the idea of starting a cider-making business.” They moved to Almaty, the cultural capital, in 2014 and, after two years of studying, set up a cidery in 2016. “I think I have read every cider book and been to every conference there is,” Alex says. The couple have two children, Adam and Aidan, born in 2013 and 2015.
Alex loves that his wife is organised and intellectual, as well as beautiful. “In the past 10 years, I’ve seen her flourish and it just brings another level of love and respect,” he says. “I’d never really imagined a type of person I would fall in love with, but being married to someone from a different part of the world really adds something to your relationship.”
Aizhan says Alex was Prince Charming from the start. “I never thought I’d have this magical encounter. He was so attentive and sensitive. He always sees things from my point of view. We complement each other in so many ways.”
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