I am just not ready to bargain for love. In a sense, the opportunity cost is too high. My heart is still raw…and I’m trying to pick up the pieces. I often wonder if I’ll be able to trust again. I guess everyone says that after a break up. There may be a supply of bad set ups but there is just no demand for dating. Yes….without dating you cannot be rich…you cannot find love. But I wonder if playing with your heart is a good investment in the long run. I’ve been dating for more than 10 years. I’ve had two relationships…both ending badly. Is it worth still investing? Or is it better to change my focus altogether? Should I focus on my pseudo lesbian family? Or my real family…what’s so bad about living with mother? Or just become career driven.....or have an arranged marriage? It is working for my friend in India. For now…I’m keeping my heart under my mattress. I am not investing…so my friends will need to find another investment. No blind dates. No internet dates.

• Egypt Dating For Seniors

When you are single, everyone wants you to start dating. Your friends are writing your online profile, work colleagues trying to set you up with their single friends and even your travel agent is trying to set you up. Couples do not like to see people single. They want singles to join the couple world. I know. I used to be in the couple world and was always trying to pair up my friends. It’s a bit like the mortgage world…when you got one you want everyone else to have one too! Dating is a bit like economics….there is supply…demand….and everyone is after love. Love is the money of this economy. There’s also an opportunity cost: dating is costly. If you do not play your cards, you can loose your heart. There is also a risk to dating….a risk of freak blind dates, stalkers and game players.

• HK Seniors

They say that after the death of a partner or a child, a divorce is the second most stressful event in life. Marriage brings two people together into one and divorce tears them apart. Bad breakups can lead to breakdowns. My friend Lana is going through a difficult separation. It has been over a year but she’s still not over the fact that her husband had an affair. She is spiralling out into a depression. Luckily, and for the sake of her little boy she is seeking help and seeing her doctor to deal with her depression. She has seen the writing on the wall. It’s not normal to break down into tears every day.

• Jordan Older Mates

She has not told many friends about her separation. She’s told me…probably because she was one of the very few work colleagues whom I told when I broke up with my ex. I feel some sort of solidarity. Although my relationship was not as long as hers and luckily no children were involved I could relate to her pain….her feelings of rejection…and probably her anger. I hear all kids of break up stories…and all ways exes get even. First comes sadness, then comes anger…then comes more sadness. I told Lana she really needed time to grieve. It was a loss…like a death and it would take her time to get through it. You cannot rush grieving. It comes and goes…sometimes lingering for years. Many of the calls on the counselling line involve broken hearts. It so easy to fall in love with someone…but so hard to turn those feelings off. True love does not come around often…so when it ends..it’s sad. If love is a mental illness a break up can be mental death. I’m sure Lana will be ok…and will love again. I’m already working my matchmaking skills. But there is no way around break ups…nothing to do but feel the pain. That’s the other side of love….the risk of falling in love.

• Kuwait Over 50 Dating

According to the Telegraph newspaper, research suggests that ugly men are more likely than attractive ones to get their mates knocked up. The theory is base on behaviour in the animal kingdom where the most desirable males restrict their sperm load with each mating to ensure enough to go around. That explains two things: 1) why there are so many f* ugly people out there and 2) why f* ugly guys are getting more sex than cuties. I could not help but wonder how scientists came up with a definition of “ugly.” Did they have focus groups? Did they based it on scientific rules or just subjective ones?

• Kyrgyzstan Senior Mates