There I was the other evening, sat in a restaurant in Calpe enjoying the most succulent, the most delicious, the absolute best pepper steak I have ever had in my life .Now I am not the quite type. And so, n appreciation of the tasty morsels passing my lips I was moaning and muttering things like, oh, yes, yes, along the lines of Meg Ryan in the famous film scene. My friend Judith, definitely more refined than I, leant over the table and whispered ‘Who needs sex when you can have this?’                                                                                                                      

I laughed agreed with her of course, and continued to let myself swim in the gastronomic ecstasy of my stone-grilled filet steak served  with a home –made pepper sauce, garlic and herb butter, German home fries {which l requested in place of the baked potato with sour cream} and a pert young salad caressed in a dreamy dressing.

As you can see from that description l loves my food. L love buying it, cooking it, eating it, serving it to my friends. My thoughts were completely taken over by food

And so it was a few days later that the tragic truth of Judith’s words sunk in

When you think about it, it’s pretty bloody sad that one gets to an age where food is considered not only a good substitute for sex, but a fine replacement far better and more satisfying than a romp in the hay

How on earth did it get to this?

It’s being single, that’s what does it. It’s a change in priorities that creeps up on you without you realizing it and it’s to do with you rearranging your attitudes and desires to help you find living life as a single not so bad after all.

I did not plan to be single at this stage of my life. It just happened. It took me an extraordinary long time to repair myself after the breakup of my last relationship during which time l didn’t wish to be with anyone else. But l always thought that eventually love in that special way. And l was quite content waiting for that point in time to arrive.

Then, one day, l realized l had been on my own for some four years and l wasn’t afraid anymore of not having a partner, someone to love me and someone to love back. An even bigger surprise was to realize that l actually enjoyed my single status.