The Sultan and the Malaysian reporter

So, the Sultan of Brunei got married to a pretty Malaysian news reporter. Talk about a case of being in the right place at the right time. Being visible and mobile, she was able to find herself in a position where a desirable partner would see her and find her desirable.

It was love at first sight for Brunei's ruler Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah when he spotted the young Malaysian woman who has reportedly become his second wife, a newspaper report said yesterday. The 58-year-old head of the oil-rich state married 26-year-old former Malaysian television journalist Azrinaz Mazhar Hakim, pictured, in a private ceremony in Kuala Lumpur on Friday night.

Is there such a thing as love at first sight? Or is this a case of a powerful man getting what he wants? At least she wasn't an airhead former pageant freak, but an award-winning journalist. This puts a positive dent in my theory but it's as much of a fairytale as the story about Mara.

I think that was probably the reasoning of those beauty pageant freaks. They groom themselves well, get in the public eye, and hopefully they get to meet good prospects for marriage.

I realise that it's not the substance of the woman that makes her a potentially good partner for marriage. It's basically who sees her and wants to be with her. That means, a perfectly good woman who is not adequately visible may miss out on the opportunity to meet a good partner, while someone else who is just "normal" may just accidentally meet someone exceptional.

It's weird, that these stories... Mara, Azrinaz... only serve to confirm the notion that storybook endings and romances exist. How are people to focus on "reality" when we see these experiences swirling around in the news? A Sultan marries a television reporter. Prince Albert having a child with a Togolese woman. An Ozzie lawyer becomes a crown princess of Denmark. And about a zillion other examples.

Love at first sight. I used to say over and over to myself: "things like this don't happen to me". I don't even have a boyfriend. So here I am living vicariously and slowly creating unrealistic expectations of what prince charming should be like.