Hobbies and Horses

Imagine if you will: Summer 2010, when I was a jaded young thing of... 32. Ish.

Whooooooosh <<< that's the sound of Time Passing 

I won't go into the details, but one morning, after being in a Situation for quite some time whereby I was emotionally bound to one individual with whom nothing could feasibly happen, I woke up feeling like this:

And It. Was. Liberating! After years of investing my emotions in one very unavailable person, at the expense of maybe a few available persons on the periphery, I snapped out of it.

Which left me a) readily available (but not in an "easy" way, you understand... what kinda girl do you take me for??) and b) not quite sure where to direct my affections, though I managed to find a crush or two to see me through the summer/autumn.

But I do have a tendency to crush on safe men and by safe I mean gay. Ergo more futile channelling of affections.

Ergo the need to focus myself on straight, single men -- and enter the murky Dating Pool. Which to my mind can look a bit like this:

WARNING: This video may give you the wiggins. 

Especially if you grew up in the 70s and 80s.

One of the nuggets of advice people always give you when you're looking to Date is to Join Clubs! Join Groups! Meet Like-Minded People. Find a new Hobby!

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Good advice in theory.

My interests and hobbies are not the sort of interests held by Prospective Dates.

To give you some context, when I was 22 and just out of university I took a series of line-dancing classes for fun. AND I ENJOYED IT.

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 ...But that's just me...

I'd already decided to join a rock choir with the vain hope that Eligible Single Men Under Forty would also feel compelled to join... Hmm. One year on, I'm yet to meet my lobster among the Tenors and Basses but rock choir is my hobby axis. Love it. Made some gorgeous friends.

I'd also started Nordic Walking the year before, but sadly no Eligible Single Men Under Forty In My Local Area seem to feel compelled to up sticks (literally) and get Nordy with the Quirkster. They're all across the field undergoing British Military Fitness training.Which, oddly, does not appeal.

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And then there's photography. Sigh.

One day maybe I might rock up to a DSLR course but until my local adult education centre opens itself up to the possibility that People Who Work Full-Time Might Also Want to Take a Course So Please Stop Scheduling the Good'uns at 10am, that might have to wait. Which is a shame because I heard an unsubstantiated rumour that Straight Single Men Under Forty Take Photos too. Can anyone corroborate?

So... I conceded, of my own volition (excuse my abuse of the English language) to Start Dating. I got on that horse (having never really been on it in the first place in order to fall off it, proverbially speaking, I can't exactly use the "get right back on that horse" analogy but you catch my drift).

And here we are. 

OK, we're not quite Here yet, we're somewhere in November 2010. But this post is already overlong and you're probably working this look:

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so I'll lock it down until next time, when I might cover off Date Numero Uno: The Ex-Replica, and share some dating advice from the friend I'll call S— -- and this is advice that I actually heeded.  

Yup.