GLASGOW, Scotland ? A lovesick Bermudian spent more than $1,000 in newspaper adverts to try to track down a mystery woman he met once in a supermarket.

Nick Ming was immediately smitten by a tall blonde woman he had begun to chat up in the shop in Oban in the Highlands of Scotland.

But, before he could ask her out, his mobile phone went off and she walked away. All he knew about her was that she was Finnish, he thought she was in her 20s and was living in a hotel in Oban while working in the area.

Mr. Ming was so determined to trace the woman from Finland that he paid more than $1,000 to a local newspaper in Oban urging her to get in touch.

The 53-line advert, describing the woman as ?an amazingly voluptuous blonde? also included a 13-line poem and links to an Internet website, which included pictures of Mr. Ming.

And each day the romantic Bermudian, who has been living in Scotland for the past six months, made a 50-mile round trip to search the town for her.

But his quest ended in failure this week when the waitress revealed she was not interested.

But Mr. Ming, 35, who is originally from Smith?s, said he had no regrets about his spontaneous search for woman.

?I don?t regret it in the slightest and I don?t regret spending the money,? he said. ?I am quite happy about it.?

Recalling how it happened, he said: ?I was in the supermarket and saw this very good looking woman and I thought ?why not? and I went up to her.

?Then I dropped a line on her and it was a case of ?I was just about to close the deal? when one of my telephones rang and there was this other commotion and she got away.

?So I thought I would try to track her down. And it was a case that I was driving to Oban every day to try to track her down and it didn?t happen, so I thought I would take out an advert.?

Mr. Ming?s story was featured this week in Scotland?s biggest newspaper, the tabloid Daily Record, which sells more than 500,000 copies each day.

The newspaper managed to find the mystery 19-year-old blonde, who broke the bad news that she didn?t want to see Mr. Ming.

?She said that unfortunately she had, what can I say, other commitments and unfortunately it isn?t going to happen,? said Mr. Ming this week.

The woman told the newspaper: ?We only talked for less than two minutes. To be honest, I don?t really want to talk to him again. I am going back to Finland very soon.?

Mr. Ming left Bermuda in the late 1980s. He went to London to study and ended up working as a property developer, buying and selling houses.

He moved to the Scottish highland village of Dalavich, which has a population of just 70 people, six months ago after falling in love with the place on a holiday three years earlier.

?When I saw the place I thought ?wow, this is absolutely gorgeous, I want to live here?,? he said. ?I came up about 20 times before I found this house.?

He now spends his time writing and is hoping to get his first novel published.