Approximate reading time: 8 min
I have a new friend.
Her name is Tallulah.
(Not her real name, of course – but she chose it…so say no more)
I met Tallulah in February this year at my usual Friday night dance class.
You know when you just meet someone and click?
Well, it was like that.
How to describe Tallulah?
Adorable.
Big-hearted.
Funny.
She laughs at everything.
(A bit of a laughing slut, really.)
Tallulah makes me feel like the funniest person ever.
She is 55, single, and somehow managed to survive raising four kids without having a single grey hair.
How is that even possible?
(I am incredibly jealous.)
Tallulah is the type of friend every single girl should have.
It’s really lovely having a dating buddy to swap war dating stories with.
(So far, I’ve been on 24 first dates in the last 12 months.
Part of me is trying not to panic and encouraging me to focus on all my dating lessons.
While another part, namely Neurotic Angel, reminds me daily that it’s probably just me and that I might be fundamentally fucked.
I am doing my damnedest to squash her rants, but she is a persistent little bugger.)
Tallulah, God bless her, is not nearly as dramatic
(or pessimistic)
as I – and reminds me to stay positive.
Having a partner in crime has helped tremendously.
Truth be told, I am not a very ‘get up and go‘ type of person.
Frankly, I am a bit of a homebody.
Tallulah is the opposite.
This woman is 96% Energiser Bunny, which, to be honest, seems to be having a rather positive effect on me.
When she hit 50, she decided to create her own ‘bucket list‘ of sorts in the form of her
50 for 50 list.
50 things that she wants to do in her 50s.
Nothing on there is groundbreaking; they’re just small, achievable, everyday things
Which I think is amazing.
I wish I could say Tallulah has inspired me to create my own 50 for 50 list, but alas, no.
(Knowing myself, having a list like that would only fuel my anxiety …and give me one more thing to judge myself on…)
But I LOVE that it works for her!
And I thoroughly enjoy tagging along to some of her mini adventures.
A couple of weeks ago, we went for a golf lesson.
I learned a valuable lesson.
I am not a fan of golf.
There are only so many times I can repeatedly hit a ball before I feel like I am going to fall asleep.
The highlight of my golf lesson was hitching a ride to the loo with the ‘ 70-plus golf instructor’ on his golf cart.
I had to break it to him gently that his beloved golf wasn’t for me; he took it well and then took me for an extra-long spin in the buggy.
(Old men love me for some reason)
Tallulah, on the other hand, LOVED golf.
(Sadly, she didn’t get to ride on golf buggy)
So we took a picture instead.
I’ve found over these last couple of months that my brain seems to be a little more tuned into trying to find fun things for us to do together. One of the things I wanted us to try was bungee-fitness.
I had visions of Tallulah and me looking so super cool.
Although in reality I was well aware that we might look more like this.
So I set out on a mission to find us a taster class in London, somewhere. After phoning a couple of gyms, I eventually found a place that offered bungee fit classes. Unfortunately, the instructor, Diago, said their only classes were during the day. He told me they were planning to open an evening class and asked if I would like him to call me when they did.
Awesome news.
Yes, sign us up, please.
About a month later, Diago called me back, super excited to tell me that they were opening up an evening class…would we be interested?
Hell yes.
On the night of the class, it took Tallulah and me just over an hour to drive there.
(Did I mention she has a car? Our car journeys are a phenomenal experience of horrendous singing and wildly inaccurate lyrics – I feel like a teenager again)
We arrived at this super sweet little gym with about six machines. Diago was delighted to meet us and started telling us excitedly about the machines.
“Mmmm, that’s lovely”, I thought… but
“Are they included in the price of the bungee class?”
I asked
Diago looked at me a little stunned, and said;
“The what?”
Me:
“Our bungee-fitness class – you know, with the bungee cord?
Diago:
“Umm, no, we don’t do that here…”
Me:
Nooooo, but that’s why I called and everything? To ask about “bungee fit…
Where is our bungee cord?“
Diago, looking mildly mortified, said:
Um, no, sorry, this is Fit-20. There are no bungees here.”
Tallulah is laughing her head off…I am confused as hell….how did we get our wires so incredibly crossed?
We decided to make lemonade from this pile of lemons and stayed for our introductory session of Fit-20.
(Diago was such a lovely guy – how could we not?)
He explained to us how Fit-20 works –
Six machines only.
Slow resistance training with a personal trainer.
For 20 minutes ONLY once a week.
Fitness for lazy people who have an intense dislike for gyms.
OMG that’s me!
Tallulah wasn’t that convinced it would work…. but I have decided to give it a go for 1 month and wow her with my results!
(That is, of course, when I get a full-time job and can afford it…which I am still working on.
It will happen EVENTUALLY.)
So, as I try to connect all the random dots of this post, I’ll sum it up like this.
They say that friends come into your life for
a reason,
a season
or a lifetime.
I’m not sure which one Tallulah will be yet
(only time will tell 😉)
…but so far, she’s proving to be a wonderful addition to my life, and someone I’m so incredibly grateful to have met.
Sometimes, one of the loveliest things about being single in your 50s is discovering that life can become a whole lot more fun simply because you meet the right friend.