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When it is a leap year, the tradition that spurs women to ask men out is upon us. It's time to make every day Valentine's Day. Depending on who you believe, this leap year tradition has it roots in either Ireland, England or Denmark. According to "The Oxford Companion to the Year", it gives women the "right" to propose marriage. But they certainly don't need to be given the green light to ask a man out. This is the age of the TV cult hit "Sex in the City", after all.

Women no longer need - or want - to sit on the sidelines waiting to fill their dance cards. They won't let fate, or the right man, pass them by.

The Irish legend begins with an unlikely hunk, Saint Patrick. Ireland's patron saint was walking along the shores of Lough Neagh when he was accosted by a teary-eyed Saint Bridget. She told him that mutiny had broken out in the convent where she presided, with the ladies claiming the right to ask out the menfolk. Saint Patrick said they were only allowed to take the initiative every seventh year, but Saint Bridget flipped out.

That's when Saint Patrick suggested the leap year. Saint Bridget decided to kick off the tradition by asking Saint Patrick to marry her. He refused and tried to fob her off with a kiss and a silk gown. Considering the inauspicious start to this tradition, it's no surprise that some 21st century women still believe this is a no-go area. There are many more, however, with different ideas. This next story, which happened on St Patrick's Day, has a mythical status all of its own.

For twenty-something schoolteacher Joan O'Sullivan, it ended with a kiss (on their wedding day). But it started with a dare. Appropriately, Joan was celebrating St Patrick's Day in an Irish bar in New York four years ago, unaware that she was about to meet the man she would later marry. Her friend Michelle's then-boyfriend Keith, dared her $50 if she would pick up a certain Christopher Jones, whose eye-catching red hair seemed equally suitable for the day.

"He won me over with the smooth line, Do you know my friend Gerry?" Joan remembers. "As soon as I heard his voice. I knew he was the guy 'pour moi'. My take on the evening had little to do with the $50 bill. It was more on the fatefulness of it all. Neither Chris nor I had ever been to that bar before. It was nowhere near his neighbourhood, but we both ended up there because it was the only one around that didn't have a cover charge."

"So," Joan admits, "Our cheapness brought us together, not the $50 bill." Still, Keith's dare "to bring that guy home" was fortuitous. "We hung out the rest of the night. Chris did come over to my apartment in the wee small hours of the morning and we had tea and egg sandwiches. How could I ever part with a man that made good egg sandwiches? So, after the sandwiches, he went back home, and the next day I called Michelle and told her that Keith owed me fifty bucks."

Two years later both Keith and Michelle - who are also now married - paid up, giving Joan and Chris $50 in a picture frame as part of their wedding present. And yes. Joan is now Joan Jones.

Chris may believe his opening line wooed his future bride, but fate will remember it differently. He was swept off his feet. He just didn't know it. And they have the framed $50 bill as a reminder, which may prove to be another conundrum. Should they crack it open now and blow it on the roulette wheel in Las Vegas? Or should they go back to the same bar on their tenth anniversary for drinks? For now, the framed $50 bill remains intact.

A bar provided the setting for another meeting with destiny. Alethea and her husband-to-be Marcelino. It is all the more surprising that Alethea took the reins to catch her man. Although she certainly knows what she wants in life, she is also old-fashionedly unassuming. (In fact, she even asked that her full name not be used for this article.) This romantic story, therefore, is worth hearing. In fact, it could easily be a scene from a movie.

The scene opens at an eccentricly decorated San Franciscan taqueria ... naturally. "We were hanging out, part of a large group of friends," Alethea recalls. "One of the people I knew pointed Mars out to me and I had to agree he was cute. I'm pathetic at flirting, but I must have been on a roll that night, because I asked him to dance to a song on the jukebox. He was so sweet and kind, making me feel like I wasn't an idiot for asking."

"He offered to give a bunch of us a ride home," Alethea adds, "but his truck was parked what seemed (to my four-inch heels) miles away from the restaurant. He joked that he could carry me on his back and, taking it at face value, I accepted. I fell for him at that moment. He carried me four blocks. I was the only one in the cab of the truck with him when he dropped me off at home, and I suggested that we hang out some time."

And did they? "He called me the next day and we haven't spent a day apart since."