She is cast into the same pejorative stereotype so many Victorian women are: not very beautiful, especially once the teeth went; alternatively a virgin, asexual or a lesbian – De Quincey hinted all three at various points; a bit of an oddball labelled as both being a "creature apart" above love and sex, and of being in love with her own brother.
I put the same questions to strangers in the hope that I will hear something that will persuade me that retirement is the way to go, or, alternatively, that retirement is not only the simulacrum of death, but hastens death's arrival on his pale horse.
Work commitments were on one hand viewed as a motivator for life, one participant said " it [job] keeps me going", but alternatively another participant who finished work due to fatigue in AS stated "I have finished work now so I am managing much better, but when I was working I found it very hard, you could just cry or you felt physically sick because you felt so tired".
Alternatively, go in at a lower level.
Alternatively, go horse riding or hiking in the forests of Mache Chindul Reserve inland.
Alternatively, go to Cardiff Indoor Market and get a cup of tea on the first floor.
Alternatively, go it alone, bedding down in luxury wine hotels and chateaux along the way.
Alternatively, go to IFA Promotion at unbiased.co.uk, which recommends independents in your area, or call free on 0800 085 3250.
Alternatively, go for a wide-legged Marlene Dietrich style - Cos has a fab pair in black velvet.
Alternatively, go to Bagno Vignoni, where the village square is mostly taken up by a spring-fed stone-lined pool.
Alternatively, go late afternoon for an early tapas tea at Cardiff's Bar 44 or a 4pm, £7 pasta dish at Belfast's Coppi.
