The man from Peru...

Pootle sits opposite me drinking coffee and wearing her woolly hat.
"The trouble is," she says, "how do you ever know?"

We are discussing the issue of opening up to someone new.
"I have seen friends who hold back and let the man do the chasing and then when they finally say...actually 'yes, I love you too', the man then backs off and says I don't want you now. They have had their chase, enjoyed the fun and then dump you." She continues, "next time I am wearing my heart on my sleeve and being honest from the beginning. Then if they don't like it, that should get rid of them fairly early on."

"Hmmm, I am not so sure about that method. It didn't exactly work for me, did it?" I suggest, with a touch of irony.
"So what do you do? How do you know if this person is the right one? You put your heart and soul into building something and then get hurt."

To be fair although this conversation doesn't sound lighthearted, it actually is. Pootle and I often shoot the breeze with conversations like this, and I don't know what I will do when she pootles off to Australia in a week.
"There has to be someone for everyone, surely?" She suggests. "Timing and location are all that are needed...there has to be someone out there for you and me...just waiting."

However, that suggests to me that your life plan is already mapped out. That you are destined to meet Mr or Miss Right at some point; however, what higher power has already shaped your life? I can change my life plan at any given point surely? Pack up and leave? Stay where I am? Nothing can stop me from taking a new direction.

"So timing is important, right place, right environment?" I ask. "A bit like the perfect conception...right conditions?"
"Yes," she agrees. "The right egg with the right sperm, and bingo the conception of a new relationship happens."

She looks at me meaningfully, "I bet there is someone out there for us, waiting, and they will enter our lives when we least expect it."
"Like a soulmate?"  I add, "however, that suggests there is only one?"
"Maybe." She shrugs, "maybe the man for you is in Peru."
"Peru?" I raise my eyebrows at her, "well that's no bloody good, I am not going to Peru."
"Yes, he is in Peru, knitting you a wedding dress made of Lama hair, in his mud hut and making a stew out of camel intestines."
"I hate to say it, but that sounds more like your soulmate than mine. I was kind of banking on mine owning a hotel in Rome. I don't want the man from Peru."
My soulmate has to have running water surely? I think.

I give this some thought. Surely there are always choices? Just because one person made or makes you feel good, doesn't mean that someone else won't make you feel even better? As my dad would say, 'you need to kiss a lot of frogs to find your prince'. However, we could spend too much time looking for that thunderbolt that we miss the man from Peru.

Maybe the simplest answer is the best one. We are unable to change the past, or guess our future...so just live in the now. What will be, will be and none of us can predict what may happen next.

Now...how much is a ticket to Peru?