Standen

Today Mum and I went to Standen, a National Trust property just south of East Grinstead. It is one of the few Arts & Crafts houses that you can visit and see a complete collection of ceramics, furniture, textiles and art of this important part of English art & architecture. The house was designed by Philip Webb between 1892 and 1894. This was the first time we had visited for a while and it is well worth seeing. The shop has Arts & Crafts souvenirs and books for sale, but they like the real thing in their time are not cheap!
This is a view of the house from the gardens which are being very slowly restored. There is a large vegetable garden which is well stocked. Overall this is a compact garden when compared to Nymans but you can sit and watch the world go by as we did.

For most people, putting a picture on Blip is very much a photo diary or journal of your life in a year or more. I don’t often say that much about myself and I haven’t yet written a profile – but will do. However today was also one of those days when visiting a house and garden like this can be a little depressing in a way for me. Why? Almost everyone you see wandering about are couples. Most of the time I don’t take that much notice, but sometimes it’s much more prominent and today seemed to be more that way. I have been single all my life and having never had a girlfriend, it can be very tough in a world that expects everyone and takes for granted the fact that you be attached. I often feel that I am a failure and a pleb for this reason. I am also exposed in hearing very frequently to the negativity of other people’s broken relationships and the resultant mess that gets left behind. I’m not going to allow that to happen to me. There are an awful lot of very happy people out there. In our own family there has long been and is a long generation of happy stable relationships that continue to this day on both sides of my parents.

I am constantly told that I need to go out more, but in all honesty where can you go to meet single people when most activities are full of couples?! It doesn’t help that a lot of the things I’m interested in tend to be dominated by older people. Also, although I don’t rule out having my own children, I find the thought of taking on someone else’s frankly abhorrent and it’s not for me ever! Just because I’m the age I am doesn’t mean I have to do this and I won’t!

I sat thinking for a long time on the bench when Mum and I heard a young woman today talking to another pass by and say “If you really want something to happen you’re going to make it happen!” or words to that effect.

So, what options are open to me to solve what I call my eternal problem? The only viable one is Internet Dating and I am working on this at the moment. However, although I have a good profile written, there are still bits that need tweaking. I have been given very sound advice by someone who was successful and there are a good number of people I know now for whom it has worked and if it works for them, it’s got to work for me! It will take time as it has already and I have to sort the grain from the chaff, but I have to believe that this will happen because there definitely are plenty of fully single women out there. It's a question of finding the right one!