Making every second count on your calls to service singles

Service singles (single men and women in the Armed Forces) overseas are separated by thousands of miles and limited talk time on mobile phones, so it’s important to make every second count.

Service men and women have 30 minutes a week free talk time on their mobile and you need to plan in advance what you are going to say.

It’s hard to keep a romance going on two hours a month talking plus any other time you can grab chatting online.

Don’t forget your partner has eagerly looked forward to your chat as much if not more as you have at least your family and friends are around you in a safe zone.

What to talk about

* Planning the future - Setting out plans for dates when your partner comes home gives them something to look forward to and removes any doubt about the strength of your relationship and gives you both a hook about future promises to think about while you are apart.

* Good times - Remind each other of great days out you have had in the past.

* Fun times - Laugh about people you know or something daft that has happened to them.

What to avoid

* Fretting about your relationship - he or she may will want to know you are OK but they don’t want you to inject any doubt.

* Don’t talk like your grandma - you may have been poorly or have trouble with the bills, but other people really don’t want to know that when they ask how things are going.

The idea is that your conversations and online chats are fun times not moments you dread because you are depressed and miserable about spending time on your own or your partner has to listen to small talk they don’t really want to hear.

Of course, you don’t want to go too far and give your partner the impression that you having such a good time while they are away that you really aren’t bothered whether they come back or not.

Another good idea is to have a checklist of topics to tick off while you are chatting to make sure you do not miss out anything important.

Love song strikes a chord with the services

The favourite love song of many servicemen and women is on sale for friends and families – and all proceeds from the sale go towards helping the wounded from the conflict in Afghanistan.

Love Farewell is a popular folk song rearranged by folk singer John Tams for the Napoleonic War TV series Sharpe.

Tams has released the song, accompanied by the Band and Bugles of The Rifles Regiment.

The military band asked Tams to help them record the song after the reception the band received every time they played for service personnel and their families.

The music has sadly been played at many funerals of serviceman.

Love Farewell is available as a download from the Help for Heroes website for £1 and comes with bonus track Over the Hills and Far Away/Sharpe’s Theme.

“I’m a civilian - I hold no truck with war yet the young men and women returning in heartbreaking numbers, dead and wounded in service was an opportunity to put my voice where they had put their lives – a small gesture for me – an all too often life-losing, life changing sacrifice for them," said Tams.

"It’s a love song, a leave-taking song without jingoism or sabre rattling and if it makes a difference to the care of those coming home and their families, my small contribution has been worthwhile.”

The Rifles music director Captain Mark Purvey, said he rearranged Love Farewell after the regiment's Colonel Commandant, General Sir Nick Parker, challenged him to produce a piece of music that would be relevant to, and inspire today’s soldiers.

"The song was actually from Queen Anne's reign but it really strikes a chord with the lads today too," he said.

"When we played it for some of the troops who were deploying and some who had recently returned, the reception we got was pretty spectacular - they really loved it. It's by soldiers and for soldiers. It's about the horrors of war but it's also about leaving the people you love behind, and looks at both sides. I think most people can relate to that."

Christmas romances can last for years to come

"Please cancel my subscription and remove my profile"

Strange as it may seem such requests are music to our ears. The whole point of a dating is to bring people together after all, and to give them the chance to meet others and form lasting relationships.

So when our members ask us to remove their profiles we do so gladly as our work is done. Besides, more and more members join each week and so the cycle begins again.

Christmas - Humbug or Happy Holidays?

There's something about this time of year that brings emotions to the fore. All those careful controlled feelings that have simmered under a firmly clasped lid all year can easily spill over.

The yearning of a lonely soul is one such stirring that can suddenly become the biggest priority for a single man or woman. So now more than ever is a good time to reach out to others. If you seize the initiative you might just be in for some lovely surprises in the New Year!

The profile that let’s you see yourself as others do

Psychologists have come up with some tests for checking out the suitability of online partners who you may be talking to across thousands of miles without ever meeting.

The tests are free and are pointers towards your partner’s personality and compatibility with you – and if you are really brave, you can try the marriage test as well.

Good advice is to hold back on the marriage test for a while, because you don’t want to frighten the guy or girl off too quickly!

The compatibility test is based on famous psychologist’s Karl Jung’s work in ‘typology’, which is a model of personality traits.

Before you take the test, remember it’s not infallible and is just one of several indicators you should base any decisions that you might make about your relationship.

The test is just a list of questions that requires simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answers. The questions are designed to disclose information about you. Don’t worry about what you reveal because the test is anonymous and you don’t have to show anyone the results.

Click this link to take the test.

The test identifies four facets of your personality:

* Extraversion - introversion – whether you are outgoing or ingoing
* Sensing and intuition – believing information you receive direct from the outside world or from your own imagination

* Thinking and feeling – do you make decisions by logic or emotion

* Judging and perceiving – judging means you are organised and perceiving means you act on the spur of the moment

From the score under each heading, psychologists have modelled 16 character types and researched how these traits affect your life, romances and career.

As a bonus, the test results also gives a list of famous people who have similar personality traits to you.

A good reason to take the test is before you write your online profile. If your profile is not picking up a lot of hits and you want to know why, then taking this test is a good way of seeing yourself as others do.

You can then take the information of your personality type and rewrite a more accurate profile.