How I love stories of dire dates...
Tonight an old friend told me of two classics. The first was a fresh (very fresh) example - from today, in fact. She was late to our dinner with a mutual friend because she'd been with a friend in a cafe when their laptop was stolen earlier in the afternoon. Once she arrived, it emerged that this hadn't simply been coffee with a friend, it was actually a first date. How awful! She felt really bad, not least because not only had he lost his laptop, but she also didn't think she liked him more than a friend.
Later, we shared further dating stories, while our mutual friend (married for over four years) sat back and thanked her lucky stars that she was no longer on the dating scene. The worst story went something like this:
Friend of the laptop theft had been set up by her parents (yes, her parents - for the first and last time) and from the moment she met the guy it wasn't likely to go well as he was significantly (i.e. more than a foot) shorter than her. She persisted for her parents' sake and rejected his dinner suggestion in favour of coffee. In the cafe, he ordered and didn't bother asking her if she wanted anything (even the waitress was surprised), so she bought her own drink. [Btw, we don't have issues with paying our own way on dates, but it's just coffee - surely it's mean not to even offer?] Then, the opening question from him was: "so, you googled me, right?".
No, no she hadn't. The thought hadn't even crossed her mind. I mean, I'd do if I knew the full name of the person in advance (which isn't often the case with online dating or when I matchmaked by The Matchmaker), but I wouldn't tell them I'd done it! It turns out that she's not particularly tech-savvy, so I'm going to have to give her a lesson on the importance of googling oneself at regular intervals, but needless to say this topic of conversation freaked her out a bit. The date didn't last much long than a very quick caffeine injection and her parents probably won't ever be able to set her up with someone again.
