sorry the one above was me as I was testing that I had just removed my cookie.

I am reading this with interest being a relatively mature person ( although others might disagree) and having been single now for 18 months or so after a long , long relationship. I find that I am about ready to start again and feel a mixture of confidence and paranoia.   I have recently lost a lot of weight and am totally unsure of how people relate to me. Sometimes I feel that I am moving from fat to curvy and sometimes I think I am kidding myself.

But to get back to the point.   I think how you develop a relationship depends very much on a complex set of circumstances. I currently have my eye on someone that I have known for a few months and may see in a group every couple of weeks (totally wrong for me - much older and going through a complicated divorce, but who can dictate attraction).   Now because I know him resonably well I could imagine going quite quickly to a physical relationship if anything happened but if I met someone completely new I think it would take a much longer period of time.   

This is of course pure speculation and casts very little light on the dicussion.