I am very aware that writing about relationships and love is not the most original of ideas. However, blogging about this aspect of life has been rolling around in my head for a while. Since September 2012 in fact, when me, my sister and our housemate went on holiday to Spain. Due to the fact that we went in an off-peak time, we were surrounded by (how to put it politely), seasoned couples. Golden oldies. This wasn't a problem. In fact, I'm rather partial to the company of older people, as is my sister and our housemate. However, what struck us as odd was the fact that no matter where we went, these couples were not speaking to each other. Comfortable silence? you ask. No, I shall answer, it really didn't feel it. In fact, on some occasions, their eyes lit up when we walked in the bar. Fresh meat, their glistening peepers said: someone else to talk to.
After a particularly heavy night out, the next day we three were floating in the pool.
"You should write a blog about relationships," my sister said.
"Isn't it a bit too Sex and the City?" I asked.
"It doesn't have to be," she said. "Anyway, you don't have nearly as much sex as Carrie Bradshaw."
Fair point.
"You've been single for a while now. Surely you have a perspective on it? And a perspective on other people's relationships?" She asked.
I couldn't help but wonder ...
Wait. No. Not like Carrie Bradshaw.
She was right though. I have been single for over a year and a half. I've had a few dalliances with men during that time. Some have bolstered my confidence, others have shattered it. But I haven't met anyone in that time that I could even be remotely serious about.
My last relationship was a lesson in how unsexy it is when you get too close to someone. Unsexy and scary. And controlling and some might say, crazy. It's given me a rather long checklist of what I don't want in another relationship.
Also, after how caged in I felt during that 2 and a half year relationship, I have loved being single. And not in a gross sex way (urgh), but in a I get to do whatever I want, watch whatever I want, wear whatever I want, look how I want to look, spend my money how I want without comment from anyone else. Liberating.
Whilst my friends aren't like Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte, I do live with a fellow single woman and a single man. I also have a single(ish) male gay friend, another male gay friend who is in a couple (his boyfriend has also become my friend), a friend who has been married for years with five kids, a straight female friend who shares my opinions on relationships but has gotten herself into something complicated and parents who have been married for 30 years, but haven't been together for that whole time. I have a veritable pu pu platter of relationships to examine. In a very general way. Unless given specific permission.
In the meantime though, it will be me and my escapades around the midlands city that definitely gets it's 8 hours a night.
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