oh no, you're single? I'm SO sorry.....

In the ever amusing desert in which I live, there are always a few new interesting and hilarious behavioural quirks that crop up from time to time. From the passengers who wish you a "hello! how are you?" on their way OUT the door, to the man at the car wash who refuses to let you just have your car washed on the outside and not vacuumed, we certainly do get some good giggles.

However, I'm noticing a new trend. Not a cutesy love-for-sparkly-things-that-go-squeak trend, but an annoying and offensive one - the public intimation and complete preoccupation with the notion that in order to have direction, to be a happy, fulfilled, worthy person or to qualify as a normal member of society, one must be in a relationship. Not necessarily a happy, loving, functional relationship, but anything that involves attachment.

I'm a hopeless romantic who loves a good love story, so when I heard rave reviews about the levels of love displayed in the movie Twilight, I decided I had to go. Being a vampire movie, not many of my mates wanted to go. Another friend who'd already seen it 4 times wasn't home and as I was on a short leave of absense from the gym due to an inability to stand upright after two rather intense abs sessions in a row, I decided to go by myself.



In my 26 years of life, I've never gone to a movie by myself and have generally regarded it as a passtime that people do in groups of 2 or more people. Why I have this view I don't know, as it's not like you can actually talk during the film, but it's considered a social outing and that's always what I've thought of it. I approached the ticket counter and asked for a ticket. The attendant asked if I just wanted one. I replied that I did indeed just want one, which prompted him to say "Is your boyfriend meeting you here?". I must have looked confused and when I replied that my boyfriend wasn't meeting me he said "Oh that's too bad. This is the type of movie you go to as a couple". Feeling totally outed as a singleton and stunned by the stellar levels of customer service in Dubai, I bought my popcorn and frozen coke and entered the cinema.

Flashback to my entry about when I saw The Dark Knight - cinema contained large groups of Arabic speaking youths who thought it was appropriate to talk at sound barrier breaking decibel levels and test out their new ring tones. I also detected a rather condescending tone in their voices when I came in by myself. Call me paranoid, but I think they were lamely commenting on my single status.

The movie was FANTASTIC. I'm really not into vampire movies, although I did love vampire books when I was a teen. While some of it was totally far-fetched I was hooked from the moment the lead characters saw each other. The chemistry they had was amazing but what really got me was how much love there was in the film. Clearly from different sides of the track, a vampire and a high school girl make an unlikely couple in this action packed love story. I could totally sense the heartache and the whole forbidden relationship vibe they had going on and can't wait for the next two installments. Could this be the edgier counterpart of High School Musical, without all the cheesy dancing and impossibly perky and day-glo perma smiles? Let's hope so because I've also fallen in love with the moody Edward Cullen.



Following on from the snub at the cinema I was not amused recently when a crew member on a flight announced she was resigning and this was her last flight. The purser (bright spark that he was) said "oh, are you resigning because you're getting married?" He then looked really confused when the girl set him straight and said she was going home because she was going back to uni and had had enough of the flight attendant life. I was dumbfounded for a minute for a few reasons:

1. The girl who was resigning was from a civilised country (read Australia)and clearly getting married and becoming a baby machine wasn't her ticket home.

2. This guy was the PURSER and he clearly equates leaving this unskilled, unimportant and largely monkeys-could-do-it-with-their-eyes-closed job as something he'd never considered. This type of person is in CHARGE of an 18 member team of multi-lingual and multi-national crew???

I thought perhaps this was a one off with a weirdo but no, I've asked around and it's actually a prevalent response to the announcement of resignation. My good friend Mark who's leaving in 3 days got a similar reaction and had to then explain that no, he wasn't getting married and probably never would because he's gay.



So tell me desert dwellers, have you had a similar experience that's left your mind boggling and you wanting to scrub off the telltale stamp-on-forehead signs of your disease ridden single life?

Personally I'm having a great time being single and I feel sorry for people who are in relationships simply because they're too scared to step foot out the front door on their own.