Over these past few weeks I've been mulling over what to write about on this blog at this point. You see, much of the blog so far has been dedicated to past dating stories which often ranged from awkward to disastrous. I never really had a plan for what I might do when I ran out of these stories.
In fact, I'd kind of assumed that I might be about to generate more of them. I was planning to rejoin the world of online dating, hoping to click with someone but accepting that the law of averages would probably result in some more mismatches and mishaps as part of that journey. I wasn't about to seek out unsuccessful dates for blogging purposes but I figured that they would be coming my way anyway.
Well, I've been on plenty of dates recently, but far from being disastrous they've all been really great. I attribute this to the fact that they've all been with Life Begins at 30ty and dating her is awesome, for these ten reasons and more:
1. She's smart and interesting to talk to;
2. She's funny and fun to be with;
3. Two other bloggers have already commented that she's beautiful - they're right;
4. ...and when I tell her this she gets embarrassed, and when she's embarrassed she looks sooo cute;
5. After I mentioned that one of my hobbies is eating, I think our first eight dates all involved going to a restaurant at some stage - and she's never complained about sitting and watching me eat for ages after she's finished!
6. She puts energy into being warm and friendly towards so many people, no matter whether they're a quirky waiter or the owner of a gigantic dog;
7. She's easygoing and unfazed by potential stumbling blocks like turning up to different bars for our first date or ending up on a certain midnight stroll;
8. (To the tune/beat of Milkshake by Kelis):
Her blog posts bring all the readers online
'Cause her blog... is better than mine
Damn right... it's better than mine
She could teach me... I can't make this rhyme...
9. The time just flies by when I'm with her and the end of each rendezvous feels like it has arrived too quickly;
10. When we had our first full-on kiss a thought flashed through my head: If I could be anywhere in the world doing anything at this moment, I'd want to be right here, right now. Happily that feeling has since revisited me often.
Monday, 14 March 2011
Thursday, 10 March 2011
Stylish Blogger Award
Just Saying has very kindly nominated me for the Stylish Blogger Award - thank you very much!
Now about this award; being a recipient of the Stylish Blogger Award is a great exercise in fun and mutual back-scratching. Of course, as with any of these blog awards, there are rules. The “rules” that come along with this award designation are (1) I must divulge seven things about myself, and then (2) pay the Stylish Blogger Award forward to about seven other blogs.
7 random things about me:
1. I can count on one hand the number of cups of tea and coffee I've consumed in my life.
2. For its first couple of hours of existence, my blog was called "Matt79's Blog" - then I realised that I had to be able to come up with a name less lame than that.
3. At different times in the past I've been MVP on a chess team, a pool team and a bowling team - although I'm not too great at bowling any more!
4. I have a great memory for dates and numbers (I used to memorise credit card numbers as a party trick) but really struggle with recalling visual details like colours - I'm not sure what colour my own front door is!
5. I have a paranoid feeling that when I start regularly buying a specific food product it often gets discontinued soon afterwards. I must have unusual tastes - that would also explain why my favourite restaurant shut down after a string of terrible reviews.
6. Once when I was a kid and going on an international flight I packed a metal cap gun in my checked luggage. This turned out to be unwise.
7. In 2008 I got a bit carried away with going to the cinema: I saw 123 movies that year, including 33 in one month - and 8 in one day.
I'm going to pass this award on to seven blogs which I've never previously nominated or been nominated by:
today is my birthday!
This One Time on Match.com
Tales from the Tower
Lost Looking For Fish
Inside The Nice Guy
From the head of The Danaconda
After I Quit My Day Job
Now about this award; being a recipient of the Stylish Blogger Award is a great exercise in fun and mutual back-scratching. Of course, as with any of these blog awards, there are rules. The “rules” that come along with this award designation are (1) I must divulge seven things about myself, and then (2) pay the Stylish Blogger Award forward to about seven other blogs.
7 random things about me:
1. I can count on one hand the number of cups of tea and coffee I've consumed in my life.
2. For its first couple of hours of existence, my blog was called "Matt79's Blog" - then I realised that I had to be able to come up with a name less lame than that.
3. At different times in the past I've been MVP on a chess team, a pool team and a bowling team - although I'm not too great at bowling any more!
4. I have a great memory for dates and numbers (I used to memorise credit card numbers as a party trick) but really struggle with recalling visual details like colours - I'm not sure what colour my own front door is!
5. I have a paranoid feeling that when I start regularly buying a specific food product it often gets discontinued soon afterwards. I must have unusual tastes - that would also explain why my favourite restaurant shut down after a string of terrible reviews.
6. Once when I was a kid and going on an international flight I packed a metal cap gun in my checked luggage. This turned out to be unwise.
7. In 2008 I got a bit carried away with going to the cinema: I saw 123 movies that year, including 33 in one month - and 8 in one day.
I'm going to pass this award on to seven blogs which I've never previously nominated or been nominated by:
today is my birthday!
This One Time on Match.com
Tales from the Tower
Lost Looking For Fish
Inside The Nice Guy
From the head of The Danaconda
After I Quit My Day Job
Tuesday, 22 February 2011
Blog Award
Massive thanks to Pretty Young Thing for passing the following blog award on to me - I'm flattered! Check out her fabulous blog Daterview if you haven't already - great stories including making the most of being ill in hospital by chatting up a good-looking member of staff and subsequently Facebooking him! Plus she has one of the coolest blogger profile pictures I've seen - that's what I call eye-catching lipstick. Thank you for the award!
This award doesn't come for free though - it comes with a ten-question survey as follows:
1. If you blog anonymously, are you happy about doing this? If you aren't anonymous, do you wish that you had started out anonymously, so you could be anonymous now?
I guess my blog is somewhat anonymous, but my name really is Matt and I really was born in 1979, so I'm not trying to disguise myself. If I were starting a blog now I might actually be less anonymous but I was in a different frame of mind last summer and I've just stuck with the habit since then.
2. Describe an incident that shows your stubborn side.
I have this thing about not wanting to let food go to waste and at times I've taken it too far. I remember one particular incident a few years back - I'd ordered way too much at a restaurant but carried on eating after hitting the point of being uncomfortably full for about half an hour. My insides took a while to forgive me for that one.
3.What do you see when you really look into the mirror?
Depends on the time of day - in the mornings I'm particularly likely to see someone with crazy hair, although this can happen at any time and lead me to wonder "Wow - when did I last look in the mirror before this?"
4. What is your favorite cold summer drink?
Water. I actually get told that I drink too much water. When I was in hospital last year I had this conversation with a doctor:
Me: How much water should I be drinking at the moment?
Doctor: As much as you want - it'll all help.
Me: OK, but I thought there might be like a maximum amount?
Doctor: No, go ahead and drink as much as you like.
Me: 'Cause like a few years ago I used to drink about six litres (13 US pints) per day and I just wondered-
Doctor: SIX LITRES? No, that's too much, you shouldn't do that.
Me (thinking): But you just said...
5. When you take time for yourself, what do you do?
In recent months one answer has to be: read blogs! I think we're talking many hundreds of hours by now. Also go to the gym, see friends, watch films, eat (see Q2), drink water (see Q4)...
6. Is there something you still want to accomplish in your life?
Generally I'm not someone who focuses a lot on future goals - I tend to think more about how I'd like to spend the present time.
7. When you attended school, were you the class clown, the overachiever, the shy person, or always ditching?
I was an academic overachiever but wasn't very involved in other school activities. Towards the end I started ditching more but to be honest I think they let me get away with it as long as my test scores stayed high.
8. If you closed your eyes and wanted to visualize a very poignant moment in your life, what would you see?
Some years ago I was in a car crash which for a moment I thought might be Game Over - I was incredibly lucky to walk away and in some ways I've looked at things differently ever since.
9. Is it easy for you to share your true self in your blog, or are you more comfortable writing posts about other people and events?
I'm quite aware that I've only shared certain areas of my life on here - I started the blog to give back some dating stories after reading so many and I've mainly thought of the blog as being about dating rather than about me as a whole.
10. If you had a choice to sit down and read a book or talk on the phone, which would you do and why?
At the moment I don't spend much time doing either, but I guess I spend more time on the phone so I'll go with that.
The next instruction is to pass this award on to bloggers you think are fantastic. I've only just realised that it doesn't specifically say how many bloggers to nominate, but previous recipients seem to be going with three so I'll follow suit:
Lifebeginsat30ty at Life Begins at 30ty - she was also top of my shout-out list the first time I received a blog award - at that time, as well as having a very engaging past-present-shifting blog, she had very kindly commented on more than two-thirds of my posts. Her blog has remained awesome and, of course, the last few weeks have given me even more inclination to list her first again...
Caleb at The Blog Experiment - Caleb and I first met as Good Cop Bad Cop commenters on the blog which started my whole blogosphere journey. He's full of wit and charisma and brains too - watch out world!
Pupa at just like your mama used to make it - she has recently started her blog but got hooked on some of the same dating blogs as I did last year and has been inspired to write exactly the kind of blog which grabbed us both - lots of well-written online dating posts. Hopefully there are lots more to come!
I could happily nominate lots more great blogs, including the other nine from my first award - most are still going and I hope that the others are coming back too!
This award doesn't come for free though - it comes with a ten-question survey as follows:
1. If you blog anonymously, are you happy about doing this? If you aren't anonymous, do you wish that you had started out anonymously, so you could be anonymous now?
I guess my blog is somewhat anonymous, but my name really is Matt and I really was born in 1979, so I'm not trying to disguise myself. If I were starting a blog now I might actually be less anonymous but I was in a different frame of mind last summer and I've just stuck with the habit since then.
2. Describe an incident that shows your stubborn side.
I have this thing about not wanting to let food go to waste and at times I've taken it too far. I remember one particular incident a few years back - I'd ordered way too much at a restaurant but carried on eating after hitting the point of being uncomfortably full for about half an hour. My insides took a while to forgive me for that one.
3.What do you see when you really look into the mirror?
Depends on the time of day - in the mornings I'm particularly likely to see someone with crazy hair, although this can happen at any time and lead me to wonder "Wow - when did I last look in the mirror before this?"
4. What is your favorite cold summer drink?
Water. I actually get told that I drink too much water. When I was in hospital last year I had this conversation with a doctor:
Me: How much water should I be drinking at the moment?
Doctor: As much as you want - it'll all help.
Me: OK, but I thought there might be like a maximum amount?
Doctor: No, go ahead and drink as much as you like.
Me: 'Cause like a few years ago I used to drink about six litres (13 US pints) per day and I just wondered-
Doctor: SIX LITRES? No, that's too much, you shouldn't do that.
Me (thinking): But you just said...
5. When you take time for yourself, what do you do?
In recent months one answer has to be: read blogs! I think we're talking many hundreds of hours by now. Also go to the gym, see friends, watch films, eat (see Q2), drink water (see Q4)...
6. Is there something you still want to accomplish in your life?
Generally I'm not someone who focuses a lot on future goals - I tend to think more about how I'd like to spend the present time.
7. When you attended school, were you the class clown, the overachiever, the shy person, or always ditching?
I was an academic overachiever but wasn't very involved in other school activities. Towards the end I started ditching more but to be honest I think they let me get away with it as long as my test scores stayed high.
8. If you closed your eyes and wanted to visualize a very poignant moment in your life, what would you see?
Some years ago I was in a car crash which for a moment I thought might be Game Over - I was incredibly lucky to walk away and in some ways I've looked at things differently ever since.
9. Is it easy for you to share your true self in your blog, or are you more comfortable writing posts about other people and events?
I'm quite aware that I've only shared certain areas of my life on here - I started the blog to give back some dating stories after reading so many and I've mainly thought of the blog as being about dating rather than about me as a whole.
10. If you had a choice to sit down and read a book or talk on the phone, which would you do and why?
At the moment I don't spend much time doing either, but I guess I spend more time on the phone so I'll go with that.
The next instruction is to pass this award on to bloggers you think are fantastic. I've only just realised that it doesn't specifically say how many bloggers to nominate, but previous recipients seem to be going with three so I'll follow suit:
Lifebeginsat30ty at Life Begins at 30ty - she was also top of my shout-out list the first time I received a blog award - at that time, as well as having a very engaging past-present-shifting blog, she had very kindly commented on more than two-thirds of my posts. Her blog has remained awesome and, of course, the last few weeks have given me even more inclination to list her first again...
Caleb at The Blog Experiment - Caleb and I first met as Good Cop Bad Cop commenters on the blog which started my whole blogosphere journey. He's full of wit and charisma and brains too - watch out world!
Pupa at just like your mama used to make it - she has recently started her blog but got hooked on some of the same dating blogs as I did last year and has been inspired to write exactly the kind of blog which grabbed us both - lots of well-written online dating posts. Hopefully there are lots more to come!
I could happily nominate lots more great blogs, including the other nine from my first award - most are still going and I hope that the others are coming back too!
Sunday, 13 February 2011
Tongue-tied
So, as some of you rightly noted when commenting on my previous post, I've been getting a bit tongue-tied on here recently. Successive posts have been growing shorter and less detailed. Not only that: I used to reply individually to every comment I received - I've really let things slide on that front!
There are two principal reasons for this. One I've already written about in an earlier post - I've become increasingly aware that writing in detail about present-day events involving other people (such as dates) wasn't going to work for me. I'm very much into honesty and I know that if I dated someone who then asked whether I had a blog, I would be straight with them, and they'd probably end up reading it. Therefore I wouldn't want to write anything which might seem like oversharing or an invasion of privacy - theirs or mine. I knew that I'd be likely to err on the side of caution in this regard, and sure enough I certainly have been!
I've very much enjoyed reading lots of dating blogs which don't follow these restrictions, so I hope this doesn't seem hypocritical of me. I'm not trying to say that there's anything wrong with anybody else's way of doing things - just that I have my own individual way of doing things and I need to honour that.
Secondly, and more to the point: my recent dates have of course been with someone who already reads my blog! In the beginning this was the whole point - Life Begins at 30ty and I went on a blogger-date and wrote about our experiences. But since then (as you'll know if you've read her recent post) we've continued to date each other. With each date I've realised more and more that I don't want to be blog-dating her - I want to be dating her. Thus I've been feeling more than a little self-conscious when writing recent posts.
While I was mulling these things over, she wrote a post expressing somewhat similar thoughts but in a far more eloquent way than I feel I'm managing - well, she was already one of my favourite bloggers after all! She also mentioned our pub quiz date (I had an unfair advantage with the numerous British sports questions, but she still knew more about Queen Victoria than me!) and our restaurant-and-river-walk date (complete with photo featuring the free light sabres which the restaurant kindly gave us!) and that we'd made plans to go to the cinema this weekend (I can exclusively reveal that we settled on watching just one film rather than trying to surpass my day record of eight!)
Hmm... I'm getting blogger's block again while trying to write the end of a post on blogger's block! Well, I wanted to say thanks again to you all for your encouraging and enthusiastic comments despite my lack of post details and comment replies - I really do appreciate them!
There are two principal reasons for this. One I've already written about in an earlier post - I've become increasingly aware that writing in detail about present-day events involving other people (such as dates) wasn't going to work for me. I'm very much into honesty and I know that if I dated someone who then asked whether I had a blog, I would be straight with them, and they'd probably end up reading it. Therefore I wouldn't want to write anything which might seem like oversharing or an invasion of privacy - theirs or mine. I knew that I'd be likely to err on the side of caution in this regard, and sure enough I certainly have been!
I've very much enjoyed reading lots of dating blogs which don't follow these restrictions, so I hope this doesn't seem hypocritical of me. I'm not trying to say that there's anything wrong with anybody else's way of doing things - just that I have my own individual way of doing things and I need to honour that.
Secondly, and more to the point: my recent dates have of course been with someone who already reads my blog! In the beginning this was the whole point - Life Begins at 30ty and I went on a blogger-date and wrote about our experiences. But since then (as you'll know if you've read her recent post) we've continued to date each other. With each date I've realised more and more that I don't want to be blog-dating her - I want to be dating her. Thus I've been feeling more than a little self-conscious when writing recent posts.
While I was mulling these things over, she wrote a post expressing somewhat similar thoughts but in a far more eloquent way than I feel I'm managing - well, she was already one of my favourite bloggers after all! She also mentioned our pub quiz date (I had an unfair advantage with the numerous British sports questions, but she still knew more about Queen Victoria than me!) and our restaurant-and-river-walk date (complete with photo featuring the free light sabres which the restaurant kindly gave us!) and that we'd made plans to go to the cinema this weekend (I can exclusively reveal that we settled on watching just one film rather than trying to surpass my day record of eight!)
Hmm... I'm getting blogger's block again while trying to write the end of a post on blogger's block! Well, I wanted to say thanks again to you all for your encouraging and enthusiastic comments despite my lack of post details and comment replies - I really do appreciate them!
Wednesday, 2 February 2011
Blogger Date: The Sequel
For our second date, Life Begins at 30ty and I had decided to go bowling. This had actually been one of her suggestions for our challenge-theme first date, but I'd felt it only fair to warn her that I was on a bowling team a few years ago. Not one to be daunted by this - or by anything else these days! - she stepped up to take me on this time.
...and proceeded to soundly beat me! I got my comeuppance for my big talking! She even had the kindness to make me feel knowledgeable by asking me for bowling tips, even though at that point I was clearly struggling to stay out of the gutters. She's a good winner and I got to show that I wasn't a bad loser - or I hope that's what I showed! We then had a second game in which I managed to redeem myself a little, so we called it a draw (tie?) overall.
After finishing our drinks while watching little kids almost throwing themselves down the lanes with their bowling balls, we left to find something to eat. We went to a great pancake place which I'd never been to before - in fact I've generally only eaten small sweet pancakes so it was interesting to be presented with a massive savoury one big enough to be a meal in itself! We chatted and ate and chatted.
At this point I have to make a complaint about this date. In fact, about both of our dates. The time goes by way too quickly! I couldn't believe that more than three hours had already flashed past when I first looked at the clock on my phone. I don't think either of us wanted our talking to end but we both understood that we had work weeks to start the next morning so eventually we got the bill (maybe the staff didn't want us to go either!) and the end of the date was nigh.
Hmm, I'm reading back over this post and it seems rather brief. Blog readers, I'll level with you: I'm finding blog date blogging to be trickier than I'd anticipated! Maybe this is because I'm more accustomed to writing about dates from many years ago rather than current events. Maybe it's because I don't want to hog the storytelling while my co-dater has other exciting tales to share from earlier in her weekend before getting the chance to write her version. Or maybe it's because my main thought as I write this is: I definitely want to see her again...
...and proceeded to soundly beat me! I got my comeuppance for my big talking! She even had the kindness to make me feel knowledgeable by asking me for bowling tips, even though at that point I was clearly struggling to stay out of the gutters. She's a good winner and I got to show that I wasn't a bad loser - or I hope that's what I showed! We then had a second game in which I managed to redeem myself a little, so we called it a draw (tie?) overall.
After finishing our drinks while watching little kids almost throwing themselves down the lanes with their bowling balls, we left to find something to eat. We went to a great pancake place which I'd never been to before - in fact I've generally only eaten small sweet pancakes so it was interesting to be presented with a massive savoury one big enough to be a meal in itself! We chatted and ate and chatted.
At this point I have to make a complaint about this date. In fact, about both of our dates. The time goes by way too quickly! I couldn't believe that more than three hours had already flashed past when I first looked at the clock on my phone. I don't think either of us wanted our talking to end but we both understood that we had work weeks to start the next morning so eventually we got the bill (maybe the staff didn't want us to go either!) and the end of the date was nigh.
Hmm, I'm reading back over this post and it seems rather brief. Blog readers, I'll level with you: I'm finding blog date blogging to be trickier than I'd anticipated! Maybe this is because I'm more accustomed to writing about dates from many years ago rather than current events. Maybe it's because I don't want to hog the storytelling while my co-dater has other exciting tales to share from earlier in her weekend before getting the chance to write her version. Or maybe it's because my main thought as I write this is: I definitely want to see her again...
Thursday, 27 January 2011
Blogger Date: Part 2-and-a-bit
Depending on whether you read much of my previous post without giving up in disgust, you'll know either that I turned out to be a double-booking blog-date traitor, or that I actually had an enjoyably long evening with Life Begins at 30ty and was granted a time extension by a bus driver with a penchant for the accelerator pedal.
Only a brief time extension though: the schedule predicted that another bus would arrive in ten minutes so we stayed at the bus stop chatting some more. Sure enough it soon swung into view and it was time to say goodnight.
After watching her board a near-empty bus I walked around the corner to my bus stop and was somewhat surprised to find that it was swamped by a throng of desperate would-be passengers. My bus arrived soon after and I joined in the scrum for the door. Somewhere behind me a guy was shouting "Oi, get over here, we're gonna miss the bus - don't you walk away from me!" and several of us turned expecting to see a drunken couple arguing, but it turned out that he was talking to his dog. He then appeared next to me and said something incoherent to the woman in front of me, then randomly asked me if she was my "bird." I shook my head and looked bemused.
I squeezed onto the packed bus as our obligatory eccentric night bus companion hoisted his dog onto the luggage rack. This achievement seemed to settle them both down and the bus eventually crawled away from the stop and set off on its route. It wasn't the smoothest of journeys, but I didn't mind because I was smiling about the evening I'd had.
So, will there be any further updates? Hopefully you've all read Life Begins at 30ty's latest post on our date, in which case you'll know this already: yes, we do have plans to meet up again (and no, I won't be double-booking the date!)
Only a brief time extension though: the schedule predicted that another bus would arrive in ten minutes so we stayed at the bus stop chatting some more. Sure enough it soon swung into view and it was time to say goodnight.
After watching her board a near-empty bus I walked around the corner to my bus stop and was somewhat surprised to find that it was swamped by a throng of desperate would-be passengers. My bus arrived soon after and I joined in the scrum for the door. Somewhere behind me a guy was shouting "Oi, get over here, we're gonna miss the bus - don't you walk away from me!" and several of us turned expecting to see a drunken couple arguing, but it turned out that he was talking to his dog. He then appeared next to me and said something incoherent to the woman in front of me, then randomly asked me if she was my "bird." I shook my head and looked bemused.
I squeezed onto the packed bus as our obligatory eccentric night bus companion hoisted his dog onto the luggage rack. This achievement seemed to settle them both down and the bus eventually crawled away from the stop and set off on its route. It wasn't the smoothest of journeys, but I didn't mind because I was smiling about the evening I'd had.
So, will there be any further updates? Hopefully you've all read Life Begins at 30ty's latest post on our date, in which case you'll know this already: yes, we do have plans to meet up again (and no, I won't be double-booking the date!)
Sunday, 23 January 2011
Confession Time
After an amusing mix-up at the start followed by enjoyable chatting, my evening with Life Begins at 30ty seemed like it might be reaching a natural end point. Our conversation was dwindling a little and this may have been mainly down to me. You see, I have a confession to make: I already knew that I couldn't stay for too long, because this was not to be my only date of the evening.
I thought that all had gone quiet on the speed dating front, but a few days ago I'd heard back from someone I'd liked at the New Year's Eve party and she wanted to meet up again. By unfortunate coincidence, her only free night to meet in the next couple of weeks was this past Friday. I'd already agreed my date with Life Begins at 30ty so it felt too late to rearrange it, but my speed date wanted to meet at 10pm anyway so I agreed. I hadn't counted on the delayed start to my blogger date, leaving me with less time, but I had no choice - I mentioned being tired and said a rather hurried goodbye, then rushed out to look for a cab.
Just kidding! I'd probably be barred from this corner of the blogosphere had I done that, and rightly so! I've never double-booked a date and I certainly wasn't about to start with our esteemed blog friend. It's true that our time in that bar came to an end at that point, but only because we decided to head out in search of a quieter place to talk.
We walked past several bars, each seemingly more busy and noisy than the last. Then good news: she asked if I was hungry. Now, I like eating whether I'm hungry or not, so this was a winning suggestion with me! I knew of a restaurant half a mile away so we walked there, only to find that it was just closing. I made another restaurant suggestion and on we went - I'm glad she'd mentioned to me that she likes walking through London!
The second restaurant was open and not busy, so chatting was much nicer as we ordered and ate our food. We had plenty more to find out about each other and I was enjoying doing so, which meant that the time went flying by again. By the time we'd finished our food and were preparing to leave I realised that we'd missed our last trains for the evening.
She again seemed undaunted by this and whipped out her phone to check out the night buses. She seems well on the road to being fear-free! Once she'd got her plans I walked her to her bus stop. As we approached the stop, her bus was already there. I jogged ahead to keep the bus from leaving, then we had a rushed goodbye as it waited. But just as we turned for her to get on the bus, it pulled away and took off. Evidently the driver decided that our evening was not to end just yet...
I thought that all had gone quiet on the speed dating front, but a few days ago I'd heard back from someone I'd liked at the New Year's Eve party and she wanted to meet up again. By unfortunate coincidence, her only free night to meet in the next couple of weeks was this past Friday. I'd already agreed my date with Life Begins at 30ty so it felt too late to rearrange it, but my speed date wanted to meet at 10pm anyway so I agreed. I hadn't counted on the delayed start to my blogger date, leaving me with less time, but I had no choice - I mentioned being tired and said a rather hurried goodbye, then rushed out to look for a cab.
Just kidding! I'd probably be barred from this corner of the blogosphere had I done that, and rightly so! I've never double-booked a date and I certainly wasn't about to start with our esteemed blog friend. It's true that our time in that bar came to an end at that point, but only because we decided to head out in search of a quieter place to talk.
We walked past several bars, each seemingly more busy and noisy than the last. Then good news: she asked if I was hungry. Now, I like eating whether I'm hungry or not, so this was a winning suggestion with me! I knew of a restaurant half a mile away so we walked there, only to find that it was just closing. I made another restaurant suggestion and on we went - I'm glad she'd mentioned to me that she likes walking through London!
The second restaurant was open and not busy, so chatting was much nicer as we ordered and ate our food. We had plenty more to find out about each other and I was enjoying doing so, which meant that the time went flying by again. By the time we'd finished our food and were preparing to leave I realised that we'd missed our last trains for the evening.
She again seemed undaunted by this and whipped out her phone to check out the night buses. She seems well on the road to being fear-free! Once she'd got her plans I walked her to her bus stop. As we approached the stop, her bus was already there. I jogged ahead to keep the bus from leaving, then we had a rushed goodbye as it waited. But just as we turned for her to get on the bus, it pulled away and took off. Evidently the driver decided that our evening was not to end just yet...
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