In a moment of Bridget Jones style cliché, I received an email recently from my Grandmother. Three lines ending in something like:
"Your cousin has a handsome boyfriend. Here is a photo."
In other words, "don't you think you should find yourself one of those?"
And that is the trouble with being single. Other people. I mean, I've only been single three minutes (months) and I'm quite enjoying the extra free time. Give me a chance will you?! (Yes, on one hand, fewer cuddles now. On the other, I'm probably slightly happier and spend a lot less time waiting around.)
I replied that I would have sent a photo of me and the handsome ex, but there was not much point now. Maybe I still should so she can sigh over the grandson-in-law that she'll never have.
But then, that was never likely. When people would ask me stupid things like "is he the one?" I would always roll my eyes and tut. There is no "one." 7 billion people in the world and I can only be happy with one?! Well, there's no hope then.
Really I meant that I probably knew he wasn't but was avoiding the issue because he was a good egg and I didn't want to taint my own and other people's perception of the truth, which would have been: "no, he's not the one, but for now that's ok."
But this blog is not about my relationship, it's about what other people expect you to do. Specifically what my grandparents expect me to do. That being: get married, set up house, have babies. Like.. now. Yuck.
Not that I know what I want to do for the next ten days, let alone the next ten years but at the moment I tend to find myself imagining buying a camper van, driving off into the world and possibly allowing an exotic lover to join me. Then we will save the world somehow and eat marshmallows everyday.
But another point to consider here. I have a dog. Every time I have to wake up with him; or he barks at me; or I have to take him out and either i can't be bothered or it's raining; I regret ever agreeing to have him. I love him, but I resent him. Good lord people! I shouldn't have children! So that agreed upon: what's the hurry?
Also, may I add, with these thinly veiled hints that I am not fulfilling my pre-ordained destiny as sacred mother vessel, and my life will not be complete until the day I walk down the aisle, dewy-eyed, in a meringue dress; I am much more likely to remain the dreaded spinster forever just to prove I'm ok with that. I'm stubborn, you see. I will be eccentric and have a wilderness garden and talk to the birds and "wear purple, with a red hat that doesn't go, and doesn't suit me," and be quite jolly about it all.
My other grandmother took the opposite line. "I'm sorry to hear about your break-up, but I think you're a good-time girl."
...?
...I'm not sure we have the same mental image for "good-time girl."
I hope she is imagining a modern day flapper/independent woman/bright young thing. She did after all qualify it by telling me I had much more world to go see and taste.
Exactly.
"Your cousin has a handsome boyfriend. Here is a photo."
In other words, "don't you think you should find yourself one of those?"
And that is the trouble with being single. Other people. I mean, I've only been single three minutes (months) and I'm quite enjoying the extra free time. Give me a chance will you?! (Yes, on one hand, fewer cuddles now. On the other, I'm probably slightly happier and spend a lot less time waiting around.)
I replied that I would have sent a photo of me and the handsome ex, but there was not much point now. Maybe I still should so she can sigh over the grandson-in-law that she'll never have.
But then, that was never likely. When people would ask me stupid things like "is he the one?" I would always roll my eyes and tut. There is no "one." 7 billion people in the world and I can only be happy with one?! Well, there's no hope then.
Really I meant that I probably knew he wasn't but was avoiding the issue because he was a good egg and I didn't want to taint my own and other people's perception of the truth, which would have been: "no, he's not the one, but for now that's ok."
But this blog is not about my relationship, it's about what other people expect you to do. Specifically what my grandparents expect me to do. That being: get married, set up house, have babies. Like.. now. Yuck.
Not that I know what I want to do for the next ten days, let alone the next ten years but at the moment I tend to find myself imagining buying a camper van, driving off into the world and possibly allowing an exotic lover to join me. Then we will save the world somehow and eat marshmallows everyday.
But another point to consider here. I have a dog. Every time I have to wake up with him; or he barks at me; or I have to take him out and either i can't be bothered or it's raining; I regret ever agreeing to have him. I love him, but I resent him. Good lord people! I shouldn't have children! So that agreed upon: what's the hurry?
Also, may I add, with these thinly veiled hints that I am not fulfilling my pre-ordained destiny as sacred mother vessel, and my life will not be complete until the day I walk down the aisle, dewy-eyed, in a meringue dress; I am much more likely to remain the dreaded spinster forever just to prove I'm ok with that. I'm stubborn, you see. I will be eccentric and have a wilderness garden and talk to the birds and "wear purple, with a red hat that doesn't go, and doesn't suit me," and be quite jolly about it all.
My other grandmother took the opposite line. "I'm sorry to hear about your break-up, but I think you're a good-time girl."
...?
...I'm not sure we have the same mental image for "good-time girl."
I hope she is imagining a modern day flapper/independent woman/bright young thing. She did after all qualify it by telling me I had much more world to go see and taste.
Exactly.
