Respect for the lonely but empowered...

would like to meet? Hmm, maybe not...

Its not for me, I know that. I'm way too young. I'm frightened of new things in a happy-taking-buses-into-townships but not going-to-a-party-where-I-don't-know-anyone kind of way. I'm totally self-effacing in conversations, in the Graduate of the Year interview I pretty much said 'I really don't deserve this, I'm a bit useless'. Within five minutes of meeting someone I like I manage to say something horrid about my weight. I hate the way I look right now. I'm one of those people who really suits confidence, and when I don't have it, I seem to shout 'I need you to tell me that I'm pretty', and that's really not a good start.

So I must say I have an enormous amount of respect for people who join dating agencies. Be they the internet, speed or just plain 'go out to dinner and see what you think' kind, it takes a lot of guts to put yourself out there. More than that, its fabulously pro-active. Here I am, lying in bed with my hot water bottle, thinking about how much I crave company (and I mean just that, by the way, its not a euphemism), but there are people out there who say 'I want to meet someone, so I'm going to meet as many as I can on the off chance that one of them might do'. Its nothing short of brilliant, its empowered, its truthful, and its logical - I'm not going to meet Mr Lovely sat in bed at 10pm listening to obscure African music.

Unless, that is, the gorgeous, gorgeous man from the end of the new Tropicana advert happens to read this, in which case ..... 'how you doin'?!'...