My latest column for Expat Focus
Those dam butterflies in my stomach… they’re persistent buggers!
I try to catch my breath, inhaling, deeply… as our car crawls slowly in and out of lanes, jammed with thick Saturday evening traffic.
We are late. Naively forgetting about the headache of weekend traffic in China, we’ve severely underestimated how long it will take to get to our destination, normally a 20 minute drive across town.
This was going to make it harder to arrive ‘inconspicuously’ let alone the nagging fact, the small, subtle bunch of flowers we’d ordered for the birthday girl was China-sized, China-decorated. This means big and garish. Even less opportunity to slide in, in low key style. I breathe.
Realistically, you can go years without meeting new people. If you want to.
Life gets busy and more often than not, it’s all too easy to be content with friends in our ‘hood, our work mates, family around the corner. More often than not, it’s all you need to sustain a comfortable, easy lifestyle, isn’t it?
Sometimes, in all honesty, you just don’t want the hassle of meeting new people. Who wants to put themselves out there. What? I have to reveal to someone that I’m actually a wine quaffing, cat-loving, former trashy magazine obsessive turned pinterest-nerd?!
Sometimes you just can’t find new people to meet… like anywhere. Even in the supermarket! (I’ve tried!) For the love of God, where were all those single men that year I was on the loose (back in the day)! They were actually so few and far between, I had to put myself completely out of my happy, controlled comfort zone to meet my husband. Yes! A blind date!
But this is not about my personal life….it’s about those Blind Dates we all take as expats or new kids on the block. To read more click over here to Expat Focus for the full column.
