Closing this blog

I’ve been blogging here for two years and feel like it’s run its course, so this will be the last post on SingleThirtySomething. It’s been great to connect with other single-and-loving-it people from all over the world – thank you for helping me feel like I am not a freak by actually rather enjoying flying solo, and not being desperate to get married and procreate.

I wish all of you much happiness, fun and love in 2011.

xx A

Constantly chirpy people

Is it mean to unfollow someone on Twitter because ALL they ever tweet about are motivational quotes… either other people’s or worse, ones they make up themselves?

What if they are pretty good friends of yours, who would be really hurt by your unfollow?

Surely nobody can be THAT cheerful ALL the time?

Or maybe I’m just grumpy… But seriously… just one #FML tweet, please, to show us you’re human…

End-of-year exhaustion

Anyone else utterly exhausted? I am! Wow, 2010 has been a long year. A good one and a very busy one. But I am glad it’s coming to an end. Although 1 January is just another day, there’s that mental shift: that you’re starting over fresh.

Just barely hanging in there at the moment, I have to work really hard not to snap and lose patience. I’m trying to plough through my last few projects to get then wrapped up before the break, and when they don’t go smoothly, or a client calls with ‘just one more little thing’, I want to scream.

Does a man want a woman who looks like his car?

This is my new theory – you can tell a lot about what a man is looking for in a woman by the car he drives.

Examples:

• A friend’s late 30-something colleague has just bought himself a Porsche. He reckons it will make him more attractive ‘to the ladies’ but is already calculating what he’ll be able to sell it for when he needs to get a SUV to cart the kids around in.
• Another single male friend just bought a very nice, sporty, quite flashy car and was agonising over whether to get the silver or white colourway as he tried to work out ‘what he wanted the car to say about him’.

Hey, you’re OK

Do you watch TED Talks? They are the most amazing collection of ideas, education and inspiration. One of my favourite online innovators/designers/funny people/creative thinkers is Ze Frank whose ‘How to dance properly‘ educational video (LOL!) was possibly the world’s first truly viral video, back in 2001. I have a soft spot for his clips about his cat Annie, but also can spend hours on his site playing with the little creative tools he develops and checking out the seriously interesting projects he runs with his online community.

The perfect birthday

My birthday’s coming up quite soon and I’m trying to decide how to celebrate it.

Definitely taking the day off work (it falls on a weekday this year) so I’m thinking a bit of a lie-in, followed by breakfast at my favourite coffee-and-croissant place… then maybe a morning movie followed by lunch with whichever friends can meet me… and maybe a pedicure or some other form of pampering in the afternoon, a little retail therapy (must get myself a birthday present after all!) and then dinner with my family.

How would you plan for your perfect birthday, assuming it’s all about YOU and doing things to treat yourself?

Priorities, obligations and guilt

I really am persona non grata with my family at the moment. Why? Because I’m not joining them all for Christmas in the cold, dark, wet UK – I’ve booked myself a trip to Egypt and Dubai for three weeks.Pyramids, camels, sphinxes – here I come.

Not the reaction I’d expected

Almost two years ago I had a falling out with two of my closest friends (let’s call them Friend A and Friend B). At the time I was very hurt and confused – particularly because I didn’t understand what had happened, and neither was willing to discuss it. The whole episode was very upsetting and to this day, it is unresolved.

Finding the fun

Ever find that you’ve become too serious? That there’s a fun side to you but it’s buried beneath tons of work, professionalism, stress and responsibility?

That’s me, right now. And it’s time to find the fun again. I can be silly. I like being silly! I love to laugh, to tease my friends, to banter and flirt, to let my hair down.

Something’s got to give…

Sheesh. I am so snowed under with work at the moment that I’ve not had time to post on here for ages. I love what I do, and I have great clients, but I can’t keep all these balls in the air much longer. In fact, I dropped one earlier and am bracing myself for the client’s response tomorrow (eek!).

Anyway, when I am really busy with work, being single sucks.