Being single agrees with me............

For the uneducated, I have been single since April 2003. Despite what people will tell you, I haven't tried to get a girlfriend since then. I haven't met anyone that I have been even remotely interested in, and I really couldn't care less about meeting new people.

And for those who think I'm a serial pervert, I haven't been looking for casual sex either. True, I had done a fair bit of that when I was a kid, but there comes a time in a bloke's life when he's after more than just sex. It's called 'settling down'.

I was at that stage a long while ago. I had found a woman I could have easily seen myself settling down with, but I'm not going to embarrass her by revealing her name. Needless to say, I fell madly in love with her.

But things didn't work out, and a healing process began. I'm pleased to say that we have remained good friends, and she's (alongside my mother) now my basis of comparison when it comes to women.

Ever since I was a kid, I have been repeatedly accused of being things I'm not. For example, I have been called a pervert, flirting and/or propositioning people I don't even like or know, masturbating in public, sleeping with other people's girlfriends, and the list goes on. Needless to say, I am not guilty of ALL of these offences.

But still, that reputations sticks. When those closest to me know how much I have grown up and changed over the past year, I still get accusations coming from left, right and centre. I feel that I have been branded as some kind of sexual deviant.

Another truth: I don't even enjoy sex! I have only ever had one partner that I've enjoyed sleeping with, and maybe that's because it was on a higher emotional level. So that's why I have sworn off sex until I find somebody that I have developed a stable relationship with, and whom I am in love with.

Since that relationship ended amicably, I have learnt not to settle for anyone who offers.

Some people (or so I've overheard in conversation) have accused me of degrading women. Anyone who knows me will tell you the exact opposite. I was raised by the strongest woman I know, one who wouldn't make shit from anyone, or be someone else's doormat. My mother taught me not only to respect women, but to respect people. I still live by her morals and values, because I don't know any different. Any of my past girlfriends (unless they are nuts) will tell you that I was polite, respectful and considerate.

If you think you know the real me, you don't. Only I know the real me.

- Fridge.