Lost in translation

Inspired by the KD logos (although surprised that I haven't had a huge thank you for what I thought were brilliant drafts - I think she has problems too) I produced some for myself. Initially to promote the new ah2.co.uk site, not that there's anything on it yet and at the rate I'm going there may not be until goodness knows when! Then I worked on the Andrew Hill International theme and came up with some nice ideas. Put one as my new facebook profile image and, with several variations to work with, that'll enable me to refresh that for a while until I get some decent pictures of myself again.

It's silly - I have lots of cool photos of everyone else but almost none of myself. This came to mind as I had some contacts from a dating site. I've given up on most of them as I really have been pretty content on my own and probably wouldn't be regarded as a particularly good catch in my present state. Sometimes I feel that I'll always be just me but the prospect of a new place in the future and looking after two or maybe even three children full-time has made me wonder whether I might not need a bit of assistance. Obviously, I would like to have someone around at night and if I were fortunate enough to find someone who can put up with me during the day too then I'm inclined towards not being a hermit.

I keep having two sets of thoughts about all this, though, and just at this particular time I can't possibly be attractive to anyone and, as it happened, have had such a poor lot coming my way on the British sites, that I had stopped bothering. There's another I've been on for years in Russia that is one of the few genuine ones. You can exchange 100 character messages for free and see photos but that's all and have to pay quite a lot to get any e-mail addresses or meaningful contact. The ladies there seem generally much more willing to consider an older person like me and there were far more that actually looked good and were young enough to be interesting. I had made contact with one several years ago and she was genuine and I learned that some really are looking for a decent man here as there is still quite a difference in the general approach of men there and, somehow, the girls seem to be brought up with a less materialistic sense and seem to respect initially-seeming boring old academic types like myself. So to have a mischievous, adventurous streak too makes me a reasonable bet to some and not just for the passport. I get the impression that some would be happy to start life again with someone like me, despite all my failings and lack of resources, where divorce or conditions have left them in less than happy circumstances there.

Nevertheless, when I did look more closely at some of the photos I realised that for many the beauty had, in fact, faded and it was a case of trying to sort out those with a reasonably up-to-date picture that still showed an attractive person and, although one or two were tempting to pay to communicate with, I didn't. This week, though, I have had a number that did make me think a lot harder. I refuse to pay for contact details, though, and then find that the person is quite unsuitable or looks terrible in a 2011 photo! So I had a go at making pretty big hints that if they were to search the internet for me with a few suitable words added to the criteria then they'd reach one or other of my sites and get my e-mail address. Some had no clue as to what I was trying to do - lost in translation, perhaps - but two do seem to have cracked my code and one, in particular, writes really well and is the first potential interest I've had for a good few years. So that's taken my mind off problems for the day!

I make no predictions whatsoever and expect nothing. It was nice to beat the system, though, and I have already a great admiration for one that made it through. The second I have yet to be sure about as she hasn't written in any detail. Both are attactive, in their 40s, not looking for more children, smart and in interesting careers but not showing off cars or clothes so here's another line of the crazy story to follow.