No social life

by Carly
(UK)

I've moved back to the small town where I grew up to be near my aging mother, but I find that I have no friends here to socialise with. The old friends I have met are married with children and have their own lives to lead and I haven't met any new friends. The things I can do as a single person are limited and often things I have no interest in - salsa dancing, line dancing, exercise classes. I'm quite shy, which doesn't help. It's early days yet and I know it takes time to make friends but I can't really see anything changing as long as I live here. I go away a lot too, but I do want to settle down and make a happy and full life for myself here. I even started looking at the lonely hearts in the local newspaper, but I don't think it's a man I need at the moment, it's just some nice friends to do things with locally. At the moment I spend too much time alone or just going to visit my mother and brother (who lives with her and is an alcoholic, which is pretty depressing too). i want a bit of fun in my life.

What can I do?