Has anyone ever attempted to do a spot of matchmaking for you?

HAAA sell her, I wish. Whether you want or have time in your life for a man is irrelevant round here.Does your mother in law fancy a visitor Zeph?

I'm sure she does, she a mean, malipative old bat which leaves her very lonely on her own accord.

I'll tell her to start packing this evening then, they should get on really well.

I kid you not the koubara might run off with him, I expect old Boris can woe her with a bit of classical Greek chat up and being of the public school variety I'm sure he has a preference for large behinds. Good one rabbit.

lost your avatar again alice? try thinking where you last put it.

Why don't you want your avatar back, Alice? I don't mind if you choose a different avatar, but you really need to get rid of the white outline in the green box, because I do not feel right about hugging it, and I owe you a couple big hugs by now.

Hi Zed, I don't think people who do interfere like that have our interests at heart but their own. As she has now tried it again I have simply cut her out of my life, which was also my sons choice, as he's as fed up with her as I am. It's not exactly as if I'm available anyway and if I was I could certainly manage without help. We know what we like in a person and the person who interefered has now paid for it.

Absolutely Alice, there is always a spark which no one else can have an idea about.

Thea, I doubly agree too... sometimes, in order to make people understand that we are not something is also another entirely thing altogether. Like I've watched this movie whereby the best friend falls for the friend whom is supposed to get married, and on the other hand, the friend is recommending this so called friend to another guy. I can't remember the title of the movie. Normally, in any given situation, it is sometimes a criteria of a person or a personality, which is being taken into consideration. And another thing I have seen is that whenever someone is single and chooses to be so, they would be labeled as gay for the guys, and lesbians for the ladies. That is kind of corny, I'd say. And doesn't necessarily have to be true. Very good discussion you have here, Thea..

She'll have something up her sleeve.

Hi Aunty, yes the words scheming witch came to mind when she told me. I had the pleasure though of questioning her sanity and maybe for the first time in her life she apolgised. She apologised for doing that and apologised for telling me who not to mix with. Unfortunately she apologised so much that we are now going round for dinner later at the house, and she'd better not have anymore strange men lined up no matter how big their wallets are.

And don't I wish I'd listened to my Aunty. I just told the whole horrid tale to Holly on the next page.

Hi purplealabaster, no I'm divorced not married. I have my own Greek though at safe distance from the rabbid village gossips who in theory know I have a man but only a few know who he is so it can drive them mad with their gossiping. Greek gossip is endless. I suspect my koubara has been kept in the dark about who it is but would naturally disapprove anyway of anyone not handpicked by her good self, thus as far as she's concerned I'm ripe for marriage offers.

Ah, that makes more sense! I was sure you had mentioned being married before, but the divorce would have taken care of that now, wouldn't it? I think it is wise to keep the identity of your Greek a secret, especially if the gossip is really that bad over there. Besides, it is fun to have a "secret affair", at least for a while. If it gets serious, though, you might have to bring your relationship out into the open. Think of the shock and horror of the villagers, then. As for your original question, my husband's mother inadvertently played match-maker for us. She was just trying to distract him for a while when she introduced us, but her plan obviously backfired. Apparently she was a better match-maker than she thought she was.

Actually the Greeks mother did introduce us but I think it was his brother who first brought up the idea. See the whole family already love me. We are not conducting a secret affair though, just not open about it in my village where his family live,and where I refuse to fuel their gossiping, but nothing is secret in Greece and if people spot us out within 20kms of his own village then they telephone all the relatives down in my village, so they all know where I've been before I even get home.

Well, I've always thought Greeks were very emotional people and it seems that could be so. At least you are well aware of their culture. You know I wish you well and hope everything works out well with your Greek and with all the family and the villagers. "And they lived happily every after" sort of thing.

Hi Alice. I was registered to become a novitiate January 1959. It wasn't a noble decision at all. I was a man hater so I knew I could never marry a man. I LOVED children but couldn't have any if I didn't marry. I was a loner. No one had ever cared about me, so I decided to become a nun in an order that ran an orphanage. There I could have a number of children. An entirely selfish reason, Alice - not noble. My life changed completely in June 1958 but that is a very long story. No. I did not become a nun.

Hi Cloudwatcher, I was indeed trying to drop this one but we have no control over these things. Anyway having seen but a little of your earlier mentions of your younger days it makes me feel petty complaining about a thing like this anyway, but I stand firm and no one takes me for a ride like that, and we have now disowned the interfering woman, papers or no papers. It makes me wonder at the sort of person who would do that when one is already attached, just because I've kept that information well out of ears does not leave me certain that she cannot but be aware of it. In fact with mine now quite a while before I met him his mama did express a wish to see us together, and did introduce us when we were both in the same place at the same time, but not a word has been said on the subject since that day, and as she knows how private her son is has never once alluded to the fact that she knows we see each other but has mentioned to mutual friends that she is happy about it. Having seen first hand though the way that mama can interfere with her other sons marriage I think my Greek actually made the right decision to want us to keep it quiet from his family so they don't interfere at all until we have had ample time to ourselves first. I think mama has come to her own conclusion that it is all more likely to go somewhere if she doesn't interfere, knowing me very well and of course her son. So that would fit in with your theory about mamas wanting to some say in who their sons end up with. Also at some point it becomes a bit ridiculous condsidering the ages of the parties involved. Although I love his mama greatly there are certain acts of interference I've heard of now from the other side which leave me rather speechless and my man at this wits end, such as her hiring of a maid for him this summer when he he was suffering from thrombosis, without asking him, leaving him on his doorstep refusing to let the said maid in, who is apparently the biggest gossip in his village, and thrombosis or not he was determined not to allow people into his house who he is not comfortable with. The saga of his furniture and mamas dealings is to impossible to describe.

Oh.. Then you didn't get to see how 'bullies' most were? There were always wars of the sexes in school, most especially during classes to see who's more intelligent beings. hahahaa..

No I missed all that. We knew we were more intelligent than the boys at their grammar school and they weren't on hand to argue about it. It has left me at rather a loss with speaking to teenage boys though as we only tended to see them as a kind of foreign species.and didn't get to see their more grubby side.

Quotes from Thea . . . "less personality than the chair he was sitting on" - "in no way breathtakingly handsome" - "failed to exude buckets of intelligence" Nah Dawn - not for you.

Believe me I wasn't interested enough to look. I've already got one Greek with his own chest hair thanks all the same, you're welcome to the ex koubara's misfits.

Translation of the quote from Thea ... he did not have any chest hair.

Happy endings are always great! lol!

Hi Amber, well you got rid of the two faced friend and you and Mr Hellcowboy are the happy newly weds so it all turned out good in the end.

No it's not insulting at all it basically is when a bunch of old hens get together and Blah, Blah Blah! like a gab fest! No offense intended!

Have to say you've got a very strange with of describing non insulting there TD. Lets take a look now. OLD. HENS. BLAH. And we're all younger than a certain someone I could mention.

And what exactly is a gaggle session meant to be, some strange American terminolgy there TD. Whatever it is it sounds insulting.

Oh poor you sunny, you sound like you really have been haunted by this practice. I hadn't realised they could be so bad as to interfere even when there is actually someone else on the scene, they must see us as free until the car horns blow.

Well you can't be expected to marry all of them sunny.

its more like routine and therefore taken for granted that such matchmakers are generally itching to make some recommendations. one invariably ends up disappointing a few of them...even if that is unintentional...

Hi Lou, good for making a speedy exit with that one, why is it so difficult for people to understand that no means no and why do they feel the need to fix people up anyway.

Hee hee! Barsteward! Hehehe! I know. But what's even worse is her thinking he would be a good BF for me! Some friend! Luckily, I don't see her that often - she is a bit crazy!

Aah ok. Just read the rest of the comments, and I get what a koubara is now.

Hi lina, I lost my response to you but I was laughing the first time, that was an amusing story and I felt a bit sorry for the boy at the end of the row of seats, until I remembered he was pretentious. Why do boys think that anyone would think they had anything to do with their family having money? Did you have a signal ready beforehand with your sister to hop into the next seat? I was cheered this morning by speaking to my Greek who knew exactly the right thing to say to me about it, which is what I'd needed last night, a laugh about it to dissipate my anger.

I can't believe your own mother was trying to pair you off at the tender age of 16 even if she did send chaperones along. I'm most glad to hear that you have a sister you are close to with good sense. I hope the boy grew out of the habit of trying to impress girls mothers with dropping in the family assests, a trait I find loathsome.

Good, I'm glad you are restored to your good natured humor. My sister, when she found out it was this guy that my mom wanted me to go with, was right with me in disbelief and I think if I had any attraction to him she would have done the same thing anyway. No signal needed, she was just as determined to not make this an enjoyable evening for him. Her take on it was, if this guy was going to be in my life, then somehow it would mingle in hers and she was not going to have any of that. My sister and I are very close, (she is 3 years younger, but much more mature than I am). His whole act about the money was to impress my mom (which unfortunately it did) but did nothing for me. It was high school to, I think I was 16 years old. It is absolutely funny to think about it now. No need to feel sorry for him, he made an issue out of it with his little sister and somewhat showed his true nature/personality and since he couldn't laugh it off, which is what he should have done, my mom was the type of person that did have a sense of humor and she did find it funny. She sort of realized that if he couldn't laugh about something like that then maybe I was right.

Hi Scarlet woman, I've read of so many bathroom escapes in novels but don't think I've actually heard of anyone really doing it before, well done. That explains why people try to set people up, the guy with the bad hygiene isn't going to find anyone any other way. I was livid about it for days as this kind of thing hasn't happened to me before and she knew I gather that I have my own Greek anyway, we just choose not to announce it to everyone as they are all a gaggle of gossips.

I see her about every two years and she always at some time comes out with the fact that I could have been Lady so and so. Last time she said this I told her that I was lady already!

Good for you Wmraul, stand firm and avoid. As she's now tried it again I wish you lived nearer as I'm too small to go round punching anyone.

Hi rg, I hope that long may you stay out of such an experience, I will be giving short time to anyone who attempts to interfere in my life again.

I personally don't understand people who do that. They like to think they mean well but I think those types of situations that involve another one's personal life shouldn't be tampered with. I wish you the best. Happy mylotting.