After Richard nobody really "floated my boat" and I was getting rather bored with the whole thing.  It was at this point that I joined a singles social club.  This was an events based club, anything from meals out, bowling, sailing and even the occasional evening Ball.  It was expensive to join, but I decided that anybody that was prepared to pay a large sum of money to join a club was obviously serious about meeting someone special, so hopefully I would meet decent, respectable people and not timewasters.  I decided it would be worth every penny, so signed up.  I had to have an interview, which Im glad to say I passed (not sure it was an exam, but it did feel a bit like a job interview).  I asked what events were going on in my area and was told there was one that evening quite close by for a meal at a Turkish restaurant.  I decided to go along.  I was told a "host" would meet me at the venue and introduce me to the other members.  I went home, rather worse off financially, but feeling pleased with myself as I was about to enter into a much more respectable way of meeting members of the opposite sex.  I was quite excited. As I got ready for my evening out, the sudden realisation of going out with a bunch of strangers dawned on me.  I'd never in my life done something like this before - what the hell was I doing.  I opened the door of the restaurant and found myself confronted by 18 complete strangers.  I did what I do best and that was smile and pretend to be totally comfortable with this and started chatting.  I relaxed as everybody appeared really friendly.  I was introduced to a lot of people, both male and female and couldn't remember anybody's names after that, but I continued to smile, practice small talk and inside I was shaking like a leaf and terrified, but nobody knew!  I had such a good evening, even though the food was terrible.  It was there I met Karen and Sally, although I didn't remember their names on that night.  As I went to more of these events, I realised that you see many of the same faces at events and met Karen and Sally at other events too.  Little did I know then that they would become my friends.

If anybody had told me that I would join a singles club and make friends - I would have said "I don't need friends".  I now realise, you can never have enough friends.  Over the coming months, I met some lovely people, but unfortunately no men that I was attracted to.  I started to enjoy my nights out with the club, as everybody was in the same boat, everybody had the same objective, people were from all different walks of life.  I made friends with people I would never have met in my day-to-day life.  I met business owners, teachers, executives, nurses, secretaries, factory workers, all with that common denominator - single, lonely, looking for love/friendship.

I decided to stop the internet dating.  It wasn't working for me anyway.  Most of the guys on the internet were jerks and I was now meeting lovely, professional people who were much more "my type".  I became more confident and no longer worried about attending events and not knowing anybody.  It wasnt long before I was asked if I would "host" events.  Before long, I was "hosting" several events a month.  I was really enjoying myself and I was getting a social life, virtually "free", as the benefit of being a "host" was you didnt have to pay for the events you hosted.  Result!

I did all sorts of events from meals out, white water rafting, gliding, bowling, pub socials, quad biking - I was having a ball.  Life was good - but when I came home I was then aware how I hated being on my own and not having someone to share stuff with.  My daughter was getting older and becoming quite independant and I felt a little surplus to requirements.

It was after some months of joining my social club that I decided to give the internet dating one more go.  Although I was going out regularly and meeting lovely people, I wasn't meeting any guys that I would want to have a relationship with.