Blind Date

Blind dates are weird. Good weird, but weird nonetheless.

Last night passed off successfully. 'Successfully' in that my date was not atrocious - in fact he was amusing, interesting and we talked for a significant length of time. There was pre-dinner drinks (thanks to a long table wait), dinner and post-dinner drinks. In the process we established just how ridiculous it was that we'd never met before given the number of mutual friends we have at church.

Then, rather embarrassingly, he worked out that we'd both sung in the church choir at Christmas. I have no memory of him, which means that I didn't think he was particularly attractive - there was only a small number of men and I watched them closely as I like singing men. I'm not sure that I found him particularly attractive this time - but then I do have slightly unpredictable taste in men and even ones that I've loved dearly I've not actually thought was hot.

As an aside, is it random that mid-way through the date, apropros of nothing, I was asked if I found Colin Firth hot? I'm not even sure what the right answer to this question would have been! [If you're interested, I said that I didn't find him particularly hot, that Guy Pearce was hotter in The King's Speech, that I'm not someone who swooned at the white shirt scene in P&P but that I did love him as Mr Darcy in Bridget Jones.]

One final thing, I fear that my date may have lacked the mysterious 'edge' I'm looking for. It's an unquantifiable quality, but it's always clear when it's absent. I think I noticed it was missing during a conversation about Black Swan...

Anyway, the point of the date was not suddenly fall head over heels in love with someone, it was to get men and women socialising and getting to know each other - if further dating follows, that's a bonus. Plus, now I have a new friend to say hello to at church. Hopefully The Matchmaker will suggest another blind date soon.

Postponement

How disappointing. The Matchmaker has just texted to say that my date needs to postpone till next week. It's a shame, but the text she forwarded from him was suitably apologetic and lovely, so that's ok.

I realised the other day that this is the first time I've ever been on a totally blind date - i.e. with no idea of what the other person looks like, does, is interested in...nothing. I like firsts! Literally all I know is where he goes to church and that we have mutual friends. Bizarre.

In other positives, while I'm still holding firm to the 'no checking on Facebook' rule, I did mention his name to a friend at church this week. Her response was more than reassuring - "Oooooh, interesting! I'm impressed, that's a surprisingly good match...". I'm not getting excited by this, it's more to do with her having previous experience of The Matchmaker's good intentions than anything else.

Another bonus of the delay is that it gives me more time to work out what to wear, how to blow-dry my new (two day old) haircut properly and possibly buy some new shoes. Fun times.

First Date

First New York style date took longer to organise than anticipated, but it's in the diary for Thursday next week at a mutually agreed central location. It feels rather odd organising a meeting via a medium (i.e. the matchmaker, as opposed to a spiritualist) rather than actually communicating with the person you're meeting, but at the same time kind of nice.

Matchmaker suggester a restaurant, so neither of us had to think of that and, as an added bonus I went there just last month so not only do I know where it is, but also what I like on the menu. Here's hoping they won't make me try Mexican street food from the weirder end of the spectrum...

Oh, and the other great thing about this matchmaking business is that Matchmaker already has her next date for me up her sleeve - so if Thursday is a disaster, it really doesn't matter - there's another guy already lined up for a date. I could really get used to this and, compared to all those online dating sites, this is incredibly cheap - all it's costing me is sporadic coffees for the Matchmaker...

New York style dating

This afternoon, I was unusually referred to as Carrie Bradshaw several times during one coffee date (I use date in the context of two friends meeting for a hot beverage at a scheduled time). This friend - lets call her Singer Friend - and I meet regularly for coffee and she is a seasoned listener to my men woes. This friend is also something of a matchmaker and had alerted me a couple of weeks ago that after a dry patch, she was ready to get going again and had me firmly on her list of potentials...

For 2011 she's decided to encourage 'New York style dating' amongst her friends and acquaintances - dates that don't necessarily mean either party is massively interested, but that are a way of getting to know people. Thus, she is in the process of setting up several couples on blind dates (I am the fourth this week) with no strings attached. She compared it to Sex and the City (though insisting that as we're good Christians there'll be no sex) and likened me to Carrie. Honestly, Carrie and I don't have much in common - except for blonde, sporadically wild hair; something of a shoe interest; and a passion for writing - so this was really quite a compliment.

Singer Friend is so into this that I joked that she was like Sally's friend in When Harry Met Sally who had a rolladex containing possible men - her response was that as she'd walked through the bookstore in which we were drinking she'd browsed the nice notebook section with a view to using one for such a purpose.

Anyway, the upshot of this is that I have a date - next week in fact. Exact date is to be negotiated via Singer Friend, but it's very much on the cards. I have his name, but he doesn't know mine (she thinks that women prefer to have at least a little bit of info to go on), I've also sworn not to look him up on Facebook. I recognised the name (it's a guy from church) but though I can't recall what he looks like, have a vague recollection that I've seen photos of him & been vaguely intrigued. But it's just one date and already she's planning more...

I just hope that it's more successful than the last time she tried to matchmake me. She'd mentioned a guy who'd met me at her engagement party and circumstances meant that she didn't have chance to organise a date before her wedding. So what did she do instead? Seat us together at the reception, of course! On a table with no one I knew - without any of my many friends who were present - I was stuck next to a guy with an unfortunate first name who's most interesting topic of conversation was a recent translation of the Bible from Hebrew into Spanish. We had nothing in common and I spent a lot of the reception trying to escape him (while one dear, dear friend sniggered from a neighbouring table). Since then she's apologised profusely and now I'm ready to trust her judgement. Let's see what happens.