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One is not amused
Journeying solo? There's no reason to compromise according to dating columnist Rachel Roberts
I went to my favourite cafe last week, excited about trying something new from the menu. Home-made hummus, slow-roasted vegetables, lightly toasted pitta bread and mediterranean olives sounded perfect.
But my taste buds were the victim of a cruel tease:'You can't have that,' the waitress told me. 'It's for two people, not one.'
My polite - and, I suspect, common request to have it halved was frozen mid-air by the waitress's icy stare. 'Chef pre-prepares it in portions for two,' she explained slowly, just to make sure I understood this time.
I ate my usual omelette and salad (made with just the one egg, I hope), but felt anger prickling on the edges of my mood. No disrespect to cafe-owners, but why is it that we can bomb Iraq with precision missiles, yet a cafe in Brighton can't physically halve some olives and pitta bread? Fair enough, the hummus might be trickier...
I'd already bitten my tongue once, when I'd been shown to the table enjoying spectacular views of the toilet (Eau de Urine with your lunch, madam?) After six years of being single, it's something that happens with depressing predictability. But not being able to eat what I wanted really did take the piss.
It doesn't matter if you have the most positive attitude towards being single - it's often the way society treats you that has the power to turn only into lonely. And that's a feeling echoed by 43 per cent of the single women who took part in the BBC's Single Life Survey, who claimed that they felt they were treated worse than couples.
Don't believe me? Just check out a busy train carriage. The people sitting on their own aren't looking miserable because they are single. They're just trying to hang on to the pop tarts they ate for breakfast because the kind booking person has shoved them in the backward-facing seats.
I went to my favourite cafe last week, excited about trying something new from the menu. Home-made hummus, slow-roasted vegetables, lightly toasted pitta bread and mediterranean olives sounded perfect.
But my taste buds were the victim of a cruel tease:'You can't have that,' the waitress told me. 'It's for two people, not one.'
My polite - and, I suspect, common request to have it halved was frozen mid-air by the waitress's icy stare. 'Chef pre-prepares it in portions for two,' she explained slowly, just to make sure I understood this time.
I ate my usual omelette and salad (made with just the one egg, I hope), but felt anger prickling on the edges of my mood. No disrespect to cafe-owners, but why is it that we can bomb Iraq with precision missiles, yet a cafe in Brighton can't physically halve some olives and pitta bread? Fair enough, the hummus might be trickier...
I'd already bitten my tongue once, when I'd been shown to the table enjoying spectacular views of the toilet (Eau de Urine with your lunch, madam?) After six years of being single, it's something that happens with depressing predictability. But not being able to eat what I wanted really did take the piss.
It doesn't matter if you have the most positive attitude towards being single - it's often the way society treats you that has the power to turn only into lonely. And that's a feeling echoed by 43 per cent of the single women who took part in the BBC's Single Life Survey, who claimed that they felt they were treated worse than couples.
Don't believe me? Just check out a busy train carriage. The people sitting on their own aren't looking miserable because they are single. They're just trying to hang on to the pop tarts they ate for breakfast because the kind booking person has shoved them in the backward-facing seats.
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