Chapter 23: Life decisions

I was now approaching 40 years old, owned my own house, and was healthily solvent but still single. I knew that I had pretty much exhausted my bucket list of things that I wanted to do and had moved on from the hectic activities of my youth. My spare time was not being sufficiently filled, and the odd holiday and drink down the pub was not enough. I used up some time with cycling, and I even joined a fitness club for a while, but in my gut, I knew that it was just not enough. At the same time all my old friends were dropping below the radar as they got married or moved away. It was a gradual realisation rather than a Damascus moment for me, which came to a head one Sunday afternoon when I finally determined that what I needed now was the thing that had never been on the top of my life goals, and at times I had been actively avoiding. It was time for me to grasp the new challenge of settling down, getting married and starting a family, before it was too late. But in itself that was a daunting task. The worst thing to do would be to panic and choose the wrong woman.

Since my perception was that time was short, I joined a dating agency. Even though the internet was now a thing, it was still regarded as the wrong place to find a partner, so the one I joined was of the old-fashioned variety. When I enrolled the sales guy came around to the house to make sure I was who I said, and I lived where I said I did. He showed me a book of photos of typical women who he said were on his books, so being impressed by these I gave him the money.

My first three dates were a disappointment. None of them looked anything like the girls in the brochure. They were frumpy and looked older than they said they were. It also seemed that they were chosen at random, because we were hard pushed to find any common interests. So, I was beginning to lose hope by the time the next date was arranged.

I met my fourth date Ruth in the car park of the Four Horseshoes pub near Woking. I was immediately attracted to her cheeky looking smile. I had just parked the Maserati and apparently, she looked at it and thought "Oh no, he's driving an old car". That meant my initial impression to her was not good. Because of my previous experiences I had almost given up trying to make impressions and I adopted a relaxed and "whatever" kind of attitude. This was obviously the right thing to do because we hit it off, and this is despite the fact that halfway through the evening she noticed that I was balding on top. We arranged to meet again and the rest, as they say, is history. But that's another story for another day.



Life decisions