My boyfriend works for a UK contract hire company supplying cars, vans and trucks mainly to business customers. He loves his job, which is a good thing, but he can’t stop talking about it.

Every night I have to listen to him enthusiastically extolling the virtues of the latest hot deal available from his showroom. He is a complete petrol-head (I think the Americans call them gear heads) who avidly watches every motoring programme on television. At weekends he takes me to various motoring related events at Goodwood and elsewhere. Basically, if cars aren’t involved, sadly, neither are we.

For last year’s vacation he decided that we would go to the United States. I was really excited as I’d never been to America before. He had decided that we would be attending the NASCAR Sprint Cup Races at the famous Daytona 500. So I spent my whole holiday listening to various enthusiastic petrol and gear heads talking about brake horse power, performance figures and the like. What’s more, I managed to put on 10 pounds in weight due to my eating nothing but fast food for the duration.

So the future of this particular relationship is now looking very uncertain. My man isn’t really such a bad chap. He can be very caring and attentive, but he also has a tendency to become obsessive about things he is passionate about. Currently the subject of his obsession is cars. I’ve wondered if I would be having the same doubts if his interest matched my own, but I somehow can’t see him taking much of an interest in shopping, clothes and make-up any time soon.

I suppose it’s time for an open and honest heart-to-heart talk. He really needs to know that I am not very interested in attending every motoring event on the U.K. calendar. Nor am I happy to spend my holiday breathing petrol ad exhaust fumes. I want to enjoy a little wining and dining and when I’m on holiday I want to relax in the sunshine. Instead I’ve become an expert on the latest Audi Contract Hire deals and the performance figures of various BMWs.

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