Live and Let Live

There have been many strange and varied periods of my life where I’ve wondered why on earth I’ve been chosen to live my life. Being a strong believer in fate and the cards you are dealt, I struggle sometimes as to why my life includes some of the more peculiar ingredients.

I’m no superhero and I’m certainly no martyr but some of the knocks that have come my way are enough to send the strongest of people running into the nearest asylum. My relationship with men, I conclude, is doomed and has been from a very early age. I’m not wailing into a tissue over this, I’ve encountered some very lovely men throughout my life so therefore, my only opinion of this is that perhaps it’s me that’s the problem. When I say “problem” I don’t mean it in the literal sense of the word but after reflecting a lot on this I can only conceive that due to my dad being such a marvellous husband, I’ve had too good a standard set and my precedence scale can never be met. I will always expect too much out of my partner and I’m beginning to think that there are no men out there like my dad anymore.

In the past I’ve gone for the wrong kind of man; bad boys I suppose have been my forte. I did try having a sensible one who treated me well but I got so bored. The bad boys were perhaps a little rebellion on my part, deciding that if my parents didn’t like them then this was cool. However, instead of keeping these lads as friends and setting my sights a little higher, I couldn’t help be drawn in by their mischief and danger.

My first boyfriend had a motorbike which to my parents may as well have been the Childcatcher’s Wagon in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. They wanted no part of this relationship and bore no hesitation in forbidding me to see him. Ever the pusher of boundaries, I stuck my revolutionary finger up at them (behind their backs obviously) and continued to go out with him.

I would’ve got away with it as well if it hadn’t have been for the fact I’d ridden on the back of his motorbike through the centre of where we lived with no helmet on. My dad happened to be sat at the junction we passed and I promise you, the only thing I remember seeing was his jaw hitting the dashboard as we flew past doing a wheelie.