September 2010
I have lived alone for a long time now. My husband died ten years ago and I am feeling a bit lonely now. Need company. Someone to go to the shops with on Saturday and say, ‘What shall we have for tea tonight.’ I remember we always shopped on Saturday buying some ham at Green stores, or perhaps some smoked haddock making it a bit different to having dinner every night when he came home from work.
I had been on holiday before with groups, in fact travelled most of Europe. Always palling up with one or more other ladies but thought this time I would take a solo trip. I had heard men moaning that they went on such holidays to find a woman and the women always ended up with other women.
This was going to be a grand slam end of the year bash with Saga, the blue rinse mob as my son calls them.
It was the end of August so they combined two coach loads into one break. There were fifty of us at Durham University which was good as we all had a single room for no extra charge.
Bit like school for meals, we queued up for items ladled onto our plates but the food was plentiful and good. I still wanted to go for the mince with carrots and mash followed by pudding with lots of custard.
There were several blokes on their own and they seemed friendly enough. The holiday had days out by coach to various sites around including Hadrian’s wall which sorted the men from the boys.
The evenings involved us in a program of dances, all sorts country to rock and roll to encourage folk to mix. I love dancing so was up on the floor quite a bit mostly guiding the fellas into the steps. They normally all stand at the bar while the women dance together but as it was finding a partner time they were more daring.
Fred was quite nice and we paired off for a few dances, trouble was he thought, ‘I'll stick with her, save putting myself out for anyone else.’ He wanted to sit on the coach with me next day but I dodged him because I wanted to meet all the guys. It was a shopping trip to see what was on the market after all.
Second night Square Dance, well, some couldn’t swing your partner round as they were out of breath but Reg was quite lithe and we had a drink afterwards but he was going to see me to my room and I dodged him too.
Once the men found I was willing to try them all instead of sticking to the other ladies I was inundated with offers and the modern waltz and quickstep night I had a lovely partner in John. He was a gentleman totally and I did sit next to him on the coach next day. He was very serious though and I enjoy a laugh, life is for being happy so on the rock and roll night I met Sid. He could shake a leg like a good’n but was a bit too pleased with himself so I steered away at the end of the night and avoided him next day. Not that he minded, he was a doll a night man.
The last night was party night. We were supposed to put on a turn for each other so I joined up with two other ladies and performed as the Andrew sisters. Roll on Karaoke, we even sounded quite good and I really loved the American uniform we had managed to hire. I think we were all too old for jive but managed a bit of a revised version but the Zimmer frames were a drawback when being thrown between the legs of the fellas.
All in all it was a grand week and I don’t think anyone actually found the friend of their dreams, so I gave up the idea of finding a bloke for company and went home and bought a budgie.