January blues

Looking back to that first month that I met Iris, I remember that it was not all a bed of roses by all means. All through early January, I was trying so very hard not to spoil my chances of winning her affection. Although I realised I was in love with her from the first date, I never told her until after her birthday in mid January.
We went out quite often but in the early days, it was mainly because she had never had the chance of a social life and it was quite new to her.
She enjoyed my company, she loved dancing with me as she had been taught as a child and then as a teen-ager; she was a very good dancer indeed. I, too, was very proficient on the dance-floor. My cousin and I were encouraged to learn dancing at an early age and in adult life my wife and I also were keen dancers. We attained Gold Medal standard in both Ballroom and Latin-American. We would help to pay for our lessons by teaching some of the beginners the basics.
There were dance-halls and ballrooms all over the city in the 60s and early 70s and it was a social asset to be able to dance.
Iris never had a regular partner before and I took great delight in teaching her new variations. She found it very enjoyable and this, I think, was one of the factors that helped me to gain her trust. That January, however, wasn't always the happiest of times for me even though I was seeing quite a lot of her. At one point, I was tempted to pack it all in as I thought that I was wasting my time with her. In fact, she said as much one evening. It almost broke my heart.

Writing these memoirs is helping me to keep my mind away from present-day problems and gives me a break in the rather dull and boring routine that I'm going through at present. I think that I'm so used to being involved in day-to-day participations, that coming down from a life of intense activity to an almost static state is getting to me.