Date 11 – Ricky

Welcome to date 11 of 26

Guy Profile

Name: Ricky
Age: 27
Height: 5.11
Occupation: Something to do with helping young people into employment
Location of date: Surrey Quays, London

How I met Ricky

I met Ricky on Plenty of Fish.com (pof). I was looking for a last minute date for this week’s date because I didn’t have enough time to arrange one after returning from the States. I didn’t want to have to go on pof because I don’t really like the site but the 2 people I had in mind for this week’s date weren’t available and my friend’s attempt to get one of his friends to take me out didn’t look like it was going to materialise either.

On Thursday evening I reactivated my pof account and received quite a lot of messages from hopefuls and I started a few conversations with some but after an hour of being on the site it didn’t look like I was getting anywhere so I logged out. Minutes later I received a couple of messages and I logged back on to read them. Two of the guys that sent me messages seemed quite decent so I spent some time communicating with both of them and another guy who was telling me off for what I wrote on my profile. He said I was contradicting myself because my Intent says: I want to date but nothing serious and About me says:

I understand that most people on this site are not looking for anything serious so if you are only looking to get intimate please move on to the next profile.

I totally understand why he thinks my intent and About me is contradicting but I also mean exactly what I wrote. I am only interested in dating and nothing serious and I want those who are looking for something intimate to move on to the next profile. I am not going to give myself away because I’m not looking for something serious. It’s clear that not looking for something serious means different things to different people. As this date is not about him I’m not going to go into details about the unfriendly things that he wrote to me. Readers please leave me a comment below if you are interested in the things he said because I think they’ll make an interesting debate.

Back to Ricky, because I needed a date for Friday or Saturday I really didn’t waste any time, so when Ricky wrote: ‘whats a pretty fish like you doing in a sea like this?’ in the second message that he sent me. I replied with: ‘I'm looking for a date for the weekend’ and his reply was: ‘Oh ok well im free tomo nite do you have a blackberry?’.  I gave him my blackberry pin and we communicated a little on that before he called me and we had a very nice conversation. He had a lovely deep voice and a nice sense of humour. I was very proud of myself for being able to get a date so quick. I’m liking the new attitude.

The Date

We had planned to meet at London Bridge at 8pm but we didn’t plan what we were going to do. I guess it was only right to continue the excitement by not planning to do anything in particular. Before our date I spoke to Ricky and he asked if we can meet at 9pm instead because he left work late. I didn’t give the best response but I tried to work with him. Long story short I ended up meeting Ricky after 10pm at my local overhead train station and we took a bus to Surrey Quays.

When we go to Surrey Quays I was really in the mood for Pizza but unfortunately they were closing, so we went to the next best thing, Frankie and Benny’s. Before we got to Surrey Quays I knew Ricky wasn’t my type and I felt my energy drop when he came off the train because he wasn’t my type. As he had made an effort and showed faith in me by coming to meet me after just meeting me the day before online I didn’t want to disappoint him and waste the night being less than happy, so I consciously brought my energy back up.

As he knew of my regular dating but not about my blog I didn’t feel the pressure of having to communicate with him after the date as I’ve felt with most of my past date. It made me feel more at ease and it felt real because I didn’t have to avoid saying anything and I could really relax and enjoy the moment. He made me show him my ID just so he could make sure I am the age I said I am. I tried not to get offended by it and found it funny at the same time. He told me he had a dog and showed me some pictures. When I told him I dislike dogs, he mentioned he shouldn’t have revealed that to me yet. He spent most of the date trying to convince me that I’ll like his dog and I spent just as much time telling him that I wouldn’t and I wouldn’t even want to bump into him and his dog, not to talk about purposely going to see him and his dog.  

I think Ricky knew I wasn’t into him romantically and after I expressed my feelings about dogs I think any plans he had of us progressing in his mind went out of the window too. I hope we can be friends because I think we got on but there’s definitely no spark and I hope he finds a nice girl that’s into dogs.

That’s all for this week readers. Please leave your comments or questions below and I’ll post a reply as soon as I can.

Thanks for reading My dating year – date 11.

Date 10 – Dominic

Welcome to date 10 of 26

Guy Profile
Name: Dominic
Age: 26
Height: 5.11
Occupation: Customer Service
Location of date: Alexandra, Virginia, USA

How I met Dominic
I was first made aware of Dominic by my friend who I went to Virginia to visit. I told her I needed to go on dates whilst in the US and she told me of Dominic and gave me his Facebook name to check him out. I had a look and thought he looked ok. I noticed he had a lot of tattoos, which I’m not a big fan of but I still wanted to meet him.

On the very first day that I got to Virginia my friend made plans for one of her female friends, Dominic, herself and I to go to a bar/restaurant. We got there really early and had to wait for her friend and Dominic. Even though I wanted to meet Dominic I was so tired from being up for so many hours that all I cared about at that point was going home to sleep. Unluckily for me that wasn’t an option. My friend’s mentality is that you are not meant to sleep when on vacation. You are meant to have fun fun fun.

When Dominic arrived he looked how I thought he would and he seemed to be quite happy with how I look. He tried his best to make conversation with me even though I was so sleepy and gave me several compliments. As he was the last to get to the bar we waited for him to finish eating and drinking before we asked for the bill. My friend tried to get him to pay for everyone but he refused and they compromised on him paying the majority of the bill. He still weren’t happy and only agreed to do so if he could see me again. I told him we could go on a date and he paid. I could tell he didn’t mind paying for me but I don’t think he wanted to cover more than that.

The Date
Two days after I met Dominic my friend dropped me at a local cinema to see: Think like a man with Dominic because he had agreed to see it with me for the second time after telling me that I was basically a real life version of one of the characters. When I was at his house the previous day, he asked me why I was still single and I told him: ‘it’s because I’m really picky. I have a long list of likes and dislikes about guys’. After running through the list, he realised that he didn’t tick all of the boxes and told me I need to go to ToysRUs to find my guy because what I want is not real.

As we approached the cinema I opened the first door to walk in and was stopped in my tracks: ‘why can’t you let me be the man and open the doors’. I walked back and closed the door and allowed Dominic to reopen it. Nobody has ever told me off for doing so before. I usually don’t wait for guys to open doors for me. When they do I usually think it’s nice of them but when they don’t I don’t think any less of them. Once we got through the doors to approach the ticket queue he started moaning about having to pay my friend $30 for dropping me off and to pick me up after the movie. He was especially irritated because he knew she’ll charge him for every time that she drops me anywhere to see him. He was more than happy to cover her gas fee (as they call it in US) but he didn’t want to pay near as much as he would if I took a taxi and as they are friends he was expecting her to be more understanding and not make him feel worse for not being able to pick me up because of his ban that prevents him from driving his very nice car until October.

In the movie theatre I felt at ease with Dominic. He was such a gentleman about everything and he really tried his hardest to make me feel comfortable. When it was time to go home I experienced something that I hadn’t experienced before. I had difficulty going downstairs on the escalator. It looked narrow and very long. I felt like I would miss a step because of my heels and fall over and was too scared to get on it for that reason. I made several attempts after Dominic’s encouragement but I just couldn’t get myself to go down. In an attempt to get me to take the escalator Dominic took it down to show me it was safe and I’d be ok and ran up the escalator going up to meet me so he could go down with me but I still couldn’t do it and we had to take the elevator. It was so sweet of him to run up the escalator knowing how stupid he looked in the process.

When we got to his apartment I went up with him before going back to my friend’s because he had asked me to. I gave him a hug and the side of my face for a kiss. He asked to kiss me on the lips, I said no and smiled walking away saying goodbye. If he and my friend didn’t have work the next day I would have asked her to come up so we could stay at his for a while before heading home.

Since we met on the first day we’ve kept in touch everyday and seen each other quite a lot and have plans to see each other some more before I return home. Meeting Dominic has been one of the best things about my holiday. I feel like I’m having a holiday romance and I wouldn’t change anything about it so far. Not even his ban that prevents him from driving because I’m impressed by the effort that he has made to see me because of it and he’s also impressed that I want to spend time with him when I could spend time with other guys who are not as restricted as him.

That’s all for date 10 readers. Please leave your comments and questions below and I will respond as soon as possible even though I’m still on holiday.

Thanks for reading My dating Year – date 10.

Date 9 – Austin

Welcome to date 9 of 26

Guy Profile
Name: Austin
Age: 27
Height: 6.00
Occupation: Personal Trainer
Location of date: London Bridge/Tower Bridge, London

How I met Austin

I met Austin on plenty of fish.com (POF), a free dating site. We got to know each other through messages and the instant chat feature on the site before becoming friends on facebook. Anyone who has used POF knows that it is not a serious site to look for genuine love.

I first went on the site last summer when a friend sent me a message telling me to join the site. As the site is free I thought I had nothing to lose so I joined and a lot of guys showed interest in me right away; which was very flattering but after a while the messages all become so similar that it wasn’t pleasing anymore. I met a guy who I thought I may be interested in even though he was below my height preference. He seemed nice and looked decent so I thought I’d give him a chance. We went on a date and the date was great and I thought things would go uphill from there. Unfortunately I was wrong as he was a rare species who lacked common courtesy and stood me up on what was supposed to be our second date and never gave me an explanation, instead he almost blamed me for his odious behaviour.

After that hideous experience I gave POF another chance but was fed up after some weeks and hid my profile because I was unable to delete my account and I continued to receive the weekly messages that are sent to all POF members.

In February when I was in need of more ways to meet guys for this blog I made my profile visible again, but because of my previous experience my profile status was not as friendly as when I first joined so I didn’t get as much messages as before, but I still received an average of 3 messages a day. I just weren’t attracted to the majority of the guys who sent me messages. There were a few that I thought were attractive but this time round I was sceptical so whenever I got an impression that I didn’t like from conversing with a guy I would simply cease from communicating further.

When I received a message from Austin in early March I thought I would read it like most of the messages that I receive and not reply or just send a polite reply just to show that I have acknowledge his message and leave it as that even if he replies, especially as his main profile picture looked like a mug shot. Instead I read his message and I thought it was nice and I replied. I looked at his pictures and I thought ‘huum, actually he is not bad looking and he doesn’t look like a criminal in the other pictures’. When he replied back I was more than happy to go through the messaging process with him until we became friends on facebook.

Before we became friends on facebook we spoke about going on a date but after a while it didn’t seem like the plan would materialise but I didn’t give up hope even though I knew he had gone on dates with other girls from the site and knew that there was a high chance that he was still dating other girls. I thought even if it takes months to go on a date with him I don’t mind. I still had months before the end of my dating challenge so I could afford to be on the back of his mind and not the forefront, so I just had menial chats with him on facebook so he won’t forget about me.

The date

Whilst we were having one of our regular menial chats, rock climbing came up and we planned to do that as a first date. Our communication level still didn’t increase and right until the day of the date I didn’t speak to Austin on the phone, so I was a bit worried that he wouldn’t show up. To my surprise he did even though he turned up about 10 minutes after me and he looked very handsome. Me on the other hand, I had leggings and trainers on. I thought it would be best to dress in what I was going to rock climb in and change to something better after; which I had in my bag. I looked as cute as I could look without heels on but I didn’t feel as good as I usually feel when on a date.

When we got to the rock climbing place we were told that they couldn’t let us rock climb because we hadn’t done it before and we should call in and book a session for beginners. To be honest I wasn’t disheartened and Austin didn’t seem to mind either. I suggested we look for a bar instead and took him on a detour of London Bridge and Tower Bridge in search of a nice bar. Fortunately after about half an hour or more of walking we saw Abbey which I knew was a good bar because I had been there before. To our surprise it was very packed. I have never before seen so many people in a bar and I became really hot quickly and asked to leave. We went to the next bar that looked good and again it was full of people and was just too much for me to handle so we left and we found another one which was quieter but not as nice as the other two.

We ordered some drinks and I took my trainers off and wore my heels instead because that’s what I feel more comfortable in and he was very keen to see me in heels too. We spoke for some time until I had to leave to meet with my friend who was staying over at mine. Honestly nothing spectacular happened on the date but I enjoyed getting lost with him and not having a clear idea of where we were going. I felt like I could be myself with him and most of all he had a sense of humour; which I really appreciate. He behaved like a big kid at times but I thought it was cute and when we were at the bus stop waiting for my bus, he kept lifting me up like a kid every time we went to hug and I kept telling him to put me down. I thought that was cute too and on my way home I felt like singing and dancing because I actually really liked being with him and I felt how I use to feel after seeing a guy I like when I was in my mid teens.

I really hope to see him again but I feel that because most of the guys that I’ve been on dates with liked me and I didn’t feel the same way Karma might just kick in and he won’t like me as much as I like him.

That’s all for this week folks. Please leave questions and comments below and I will respond as soon as I can.

Thanks for reading My dating year – Date 9!

Date 8 – Eric

Welcome to date 8 of 26

Guy Profile
Name: Eric
Age: 34
Height: 6:00
Occupation: Accounts Administrator
Location of date: Wildwood, Canary Wharf, London

How I met Eric

I first met Eric as I was leaving the Christmas party that we had at work. To be honest when he called me I wanted to blank him and pretend that I didn’t hear him calling me.  I decided not to because I was very new in my role and I didn’t want to give people the wrong impression of myself before they got to know me. When I went over to speak to him he seemed a little tipsy. I told him my friend was waiting for me so I couldn’t chat for long. He said he’d look for me on our work intranet and I said ok. I knew he would have difficulty finding me as my name is quite unique and he didn’t write it down.

The following month whilst we were having an event in a part of the building that’s close to his office, he walked pass and saw me and came over to speak to me. I thought he looked quite different from what I had remembered but he looked ok. Whilst we were speaking I had to attend to a visitor so the conversation ended there and he left. Later in the day I saw him again but this time I noticed that he had quite a lot of grey hair. It’s was a bit off putting if I’m honest.

Later in the week my manager told me that I had a call from someone, who refused to leave their name and said they’ll call back. I asked my manager a few question like was it a guy to try and figure out if it was Eric because I had a feeling it was. She gave me the answers that I was expecting and even showed me a picture of who she thought it was and it was Eric in the picture.

Communication duration before talks of date

After the initial call that I missed, Eric sent me an email and I asked him if he would like to meet up for lunch. From the beginning of February until March we met up for lunch several times and we even made plans to go on a date but he cancelled on me because his daughter was ill. I also asked him if he would like to attend a jazz show with me and again he disappointed me and I went on my own. The show was very good by the way. I’m glad I went.

After the two let downs I had pretty much given up hope in  Eric, so I was quite surprised when he started showing an interest in me again towards the end of March. There was one particular day that he really wanted to see me but I told him I couldn’t leave work. As he finishes work half an hour before me I thought it was best for us to see each other the following day. The next day we met up for lunch. I tried to find out what he wanted to see me urgently about and to my disappointment it was for ‘nothing in particular, I just wanted to catch up with you’. When he said those words, I felt like saying is that it? As the Easter holiday was the following week, he wanted to know what I had planned and if I would have time for us to go on the date that we had previously planned, that he couldn’t make.  I told him that I didn’t have any concrete plans and he should let me know when he’d like to meet up a few days beforehand.

On the last day of the holiday, I saw a missed call from Eric and gave him a call back. He asked me if I was busy and if I would like to go on the date with him that very day. As my plans were flexible I said yes and we made the plans over several phone calls.

The Date

I arrived one minute early to the front of Canary Wharf station (our meeting point) and gave Eric a call. Like a true gentleman he was already there but not right in front of the station. I spotted him within a few seconds and we walked towards each other and hugged and went towards the direction of one of the shopping centres at Canary Wharf.

We had to walk around Canary Wharf several times to find a place that I wanted to eat at because he left me to decide where we should eat. I chose the only restaurant that didn’t have anyone else in it because I didn’t want to eat in a mainstream restaurant, even though the mainstream ones had customers in them therefore indicating that their food is most likely better than the one I picked. As it was just over an hour pass lunch time the emptiness of most of the restaurants was expected and Wildwood suffered the most simply because it isn’t as well known as the other competing restaurants.

The meal was good and Eric was good company too but because I had met up with him for lunch several times before, the date didn’t feel special. He asked if we could do something else another time. I said yes. We decided on rock climbing because we want to do something interesting. The date finished around 5pm because I wanted to see some friends who work in the area. Eric would have liked us to do something else after having lunch but as I didn’t think he would want to spend so much time with me I had planned to see my friends whilst in the area and kill two birds with one stone.

I’m writing this blog two days after the date and I can’t really remember what we spoke about. I just know that I don’t really have romantic feelings for Eric. Maybe the feelings could develop over time as he has some of the qualities that I look for in a guy: He is tall, within the age group that I prefer, ambitious, he has his own place and seems to be a nice person, who I can actually learn a lot from. Having said all that there is a big BUT, he has a little daughter between 3 and 5. I can’t remember her precise age and he broke up with the mum less than a year ago and the daughter lives with him. There is something about this equation that doesn’t add up to me and at the same time it’s not really an equation that I’m motivated to work out. My head says I should give him a chance but my heart doesn’t feel a thing for him.

I’m going to go on a second date with him because I promised but I don’t have any feelings for him (sigh).

That’s all for this week readers. Please leave your questions or comments below and I will respond as soon as possible.

Thanks for reading My dating year – Date 8!

Date 7 – Ricardo

Welcome to date 7 of 26

Guy Profile

Name: Ricardo
Age: 23
Height: 5.10
Occupation: Sales Assistant
Location of date: Leicester Square, London
Date: 28/03/2012

Readers please refer to date 3 to find out how I met Ricardo.

As for those of you who have already read date 3, you may want to refer back to it to remind yourself of who Ricardo is and how our first date went.

Why a second date?

Some of you may be wondering why I went on a second date with Ricardo when the vote was for a second date with Curtis. If you are I’m glad because it shows you are paying attention to my dating life, lol. On a serious note – I decided to go on a second date with Ricardo because honestly, I felt bad, for the way I had treated him and I felt like the least I could do was to see him again.

Since date 1 I have communicated sporadically with Ricardo and right until last week I didn’t feel a way about doing so. That’s the way I have pretty much treated the other guys that I’ve been on dates with; the ones that I still keep in touch with anyway.  Whilst writing this I can’t help but hold back slightly and sigh because I feel bad thinking about my actions. Ricardo opened up to me and expressed his confusion about my actions after our date. He thought we had a good time and doesn’t understand why I wouldn’t want to keep in touch and want to get to know him some more.

I have to say readers, when he expressed those words to me, in his own words of course, I felt like I was kicked into reality and I felt the need to make up for my bad behaviour. I sent him a message a day or two later asking him if he was busy and unfortunately he was not in London. When he asked why, I told him: ‘I asked because I wanted to check if you would like to see a movie with me’. His response was one of frustration because every time he wanted to see me beforehand I was busy or too tired, according to him, and when I was prepared to see him he wasn’t in London.

Just like any guy who likes a girl, when he got back to London he got in touch and he made plans with me to go to the cinema and he agreed to see a movie that I wanted to see, that he wasn’t entirely interested in. The movie was: The Best Exotic Marigold hotel. The movie theatre by the way was full of OAP's (old age pensioners). A colleague of mine and I joked about the theatre being full of OAP’s because the film is about OAP’s but I didn’t really think that would be the case. To our surprise it was and Ricardo and I were the youngest people in there. It didn’t put me off but I thought it was funny to see so many OAP’s in the theatre, it’s not something I’m used to but non-the-less it didn’t affect my viewing of the film and I thought the film was good. The courage that the hotel owner in the film showed was very admirable and I liked the moral of the film.

Film review to the side, whilst watching the film Ricardo did the classical yawn stretch, where a guy stretches in the cinema and tries to put his arm around the girl that he is with. Unluckily for him my head did not allow the arm to go any lower and I shoved his arm off with my head. About 15 minutes later, he tried to lean in for a kiss and I quickly moved my body away and asked him: ‘what are you doing?’ He didn’t answer thankfully. At this point I felt awkward. Awkward because I know my response to him leaning in for a kiss can be embarrassing for a guy and also because I thought it might make things uncomfortable.

After the movie things were ok and it was as if the attempt for a kiss never even happened, phew.

As our date was on Wednesday we both headed towards the direction of home because it was getting late and we both had work the next day. On the way to my bus stop he mentioned that we should go to the theatre next and see Wicked or one of those very popular theatre plays. I went along with the conversation and gave him the impression that yeah we should, but I felt really bad because I could see that in his mind it’s only natural that we meet again because we are getting on well and apart from the fact that I’m not always easy to contact and the fact that I seem to always be busy or tired everything is going well and we are heading in the direction that couples go in before officially getting into a relationship.

Ricardo is a very nice guy and he has a lot going for him but I don’t have any romantic feelings towards him at all. I would love to be his friend but I don’t think he would like that. I think it’s best that I don’t see him anymore. I just need to pluck up the courage and let him know that I don’t feel the way I should feel for him and it’s not fair on him if I continue seeing him.

It is my understanding that in North America it is common practice to date different guys at the same time but in the UK that isn’t the case. Is it right to date more than one guy in search of finding the right guy , especially as I don’t get intimate with any of them? Or am I being a player and blog or no blog, is what I’m doing just completely wrong, especially as I may hurt people like Ricardo along the way?

Readers I want your opinions. I really do feel bad about potentially hurting Ricardo and I’m really evaluating whether I should continue this challenge or not.

Please be honest and let me know what you think.

Thanks for reading My dating Year – Date 7

Date 6 – Curtis

Welcome to date 6 of 26!

Guy Profile
Name: Curtis
Age: 24
Height: 6.2
Occupation: Music Producer/ Product Design Student
Location of date: London Bridge, London

How I met Curtis
The same friend that introduced me to Ricardo told me that she had another guy that I might be interested in. She described him as talkative and nerdy looking because he wears glasses. I didn’t mind because 26 dates is a lot of dates so I can’t afford to be picky.

From what I gathered from what my friend told me and Curtis himself, my friend’s ex, who is close friends with Curtis told Curtis that I like him and gave him my name to search for me on facebook. When he found me on facebook after several different attempts at spelling my name because he was given the wrong spelling, he added me and also asked my friend for my blackberry messenger (bbm) pin and he added me on bbm too.

Communication duration before talks of date
After I had confirmed his request on bbm and facebook we pinged (ping is a term used for sending messages on bbm) each other that very day and the following days. Our conversation was flowing quite well on bbm so I mentioned he should call me so that we can speak properly. After sending him the message stating that he should call me, I patiently waited by my phone for his call for about 5 minutes and then I thought: ‘oh, this boy does not have my number’. Even though we had only been communicating for 2 days on bbm, I felt very much like I knew him already and felt as though he had my number.

I sent Curtis my number and he called me pretty much right away. I told him how I assumed he already had my number and my waiting by the phone for his call. It was a nice ice breaker even though we didn’t need one because as I said it felt like we had known each other for some time.  When he called me I was about 7mins away from finishing an episode of Take Me Out online. Instead of being a nice attentive person I decided to multi task and I tried to finish the episode whilst talking to Curtis on the phone for the first time. (Aside – I wouldn’t advise this at all because not only will you sound as though you are not completely interested in the conversation, it’s also quite rude.) Even though I was being responsive on the phone, I could feel that I didn’t sound completely interested and I told Curtis what I was watching, how many minutes left of the show to go and apologised for watching it whilst on the phone with him. Conveniently he said it’s fine, he had something to do anyway and will call back.

I didn’t hear back from him that day. I pinged him the next day and asked what happened as he didn’t call back. He apologised and everything was all gravy. I believe that same day or maybe the next day he asked me if I was busy, I said no and he asked if it was ok to call and I said yes. He did and we had a very nice conversation and we conversed for over an hour. After that we went back to communicating via bbm the days that followed.

Less than a week after we were first introduced, on a Monday I asked him if he’d like to go for some drinks or a nice meal later in the week. He said yes but will let me know when he’ll be available. 2 days later and he still hadn’t mentioned anything about his availability. On the Thursday of that week, during my lunch break, I sent him a ping asking him if he was free on that day or Friday evening. He replied saying I’m free now. I was quite puzzled because I didn’t understand how he could expect me to meet with him around midday on a weekday when he knows I work during the week and I’m at work at that time. Anyway I replied back saying I’m at work and he said he was busy in the evening, so I asked him about the following evening and his reply was: ‘Not 100% sure. ( I must sound like a dick...)’. I told him he didn’t but he sounded busy.

At this point I could have easily thought this guy is not interested in seeing me but because of my dating marathon I don’t think those types of thoughts. I probably would have if I wasn’t doing this marathon. I find that I don’t get offended easily by guys turning me down. Hours later he pinged me and asked if I was free at 20:30 that day and if I could meet him at Waterloo. I didn’t have any plans that evening so I quickly responded and it was a planned date.

The Date
I arrived at Waterloo around the time that we had agreed to meet and waited in McDonalds for Curtis to find me. About 5 minutes later he called me and before I knew it I saw him walking towards me. He looked just like his facebook pictures so I wasn’t disappointed by what I saw. Even though my friend had described him as nerdy, I didn’t see that. I thought his glasses made him look intelligent and I think he is facially attractive but is on the thin side.

Before I got to Waterloo, Curtis had told me that we’ll be in a bar with two guys that he was having a meeting with for about 20 minutes so I had expected to be in the midst of 2 other guys at the beginning of the date. When Curtis got closer to me we said hi and he apologised for the fact that we were going to have 2 people with us. Out of nowhere somebody else appeared and started apologising to me for taking Curtis’s time and said we were going to go over to London Bridge and meet 2 of Labrinth's sisters who are up and coming artists because they are interested in meeting Curtis as they could possibly work with him in the future.

We went to a bar/restaurant in London Bridge. Labrinth’s sisters and a Graphic Designer joined us there. The guy that Curtis came with to Waterloo introduced everyone and we all spoke and one of the sisters and the Graphic Designer had a meeting.  After about 30 minutes Curtis and I went upstairs to the restaurant. We ordered food and got to know each other. The conversation went well and before we knew it the restaurant staff turned off the music that was playing, they made the lights brighter, they started packing away around us and putting up chairs. The two other people that were still in the restaurant got up to leave, leaving just us. We took the cue from there and got ready and left there to look for somewhere else to go. As it was Thursday, the only place that was still open around 23:30 was ALL BAR ONE. After about 15 minutes of being in there they also stopped playing music and made the lights brighter, luckily for us this time there were still a lot of people left in the bar, so we were able to stay in there for another 20-30 minutes before they started telling people to leave.

As it was just past midnight I was getting tired and I don’t think there was anywhere else to go, so Curtis walked me to the bus stop and waited for my bus. When the bus came we hugged and  parted.

I didn’t have butterflies in my stomach but I thought the date went well and I wouldn’t mind seeing Curtis again.

Readers I want your opinions. Even though I said I would avoid going on second dates with the guys that I’ve already been on a date with in my intro blog, do you think I should go a second date with Curtis?

Please say ‘you should’ if you would like to read about a second date with him, even though it may not be date 7 and say ‘you shouldn’t’ if you don’t care to read about Curtis a second time. If I get 5 ‘you should’ and if it is more than ‘you shouldn’t’ I will go on a second date with Curtis and blog about it.

You don’t need to be registered on blogger or have a Google account to vote. I have made the comments open so all you need to do is click comment below, add comment, type in: ‘you should’ or ‘you shouldn’t’ and click publish. You don’t even have to leave your name.

That’s all for this week, please feel free to leave additional comments below or questions if there’s anything that you’d like to know that I didn’t mention.

Thanks for reading My dating year!

Date 5 - Mo

Welcome to date 5 of 26

Guy Profile
Name: Mo
Age: 24
Height: 5:10
Occupation: Engineering student/ Tour guide
Location of date: Marrakesh, Morocco
Date: 04/03/2012

How I met Mo

I met Mo on a road not far from the hotel that my friends and I were staying in Marrakesh. On one sunny afternoon my friends and I decided to get some bottled water from the store that we were told was just behind our hotel; instead of the journey to take about 15 minutes max we found ourselves walking back to our hotel almost an hour later with no bottled water because we were given conflicting directions by the locals, who I believe did not understand what we were looking for. As we were walking back to our hotel, I saw a young Moroccan guy, who looked friendly and approachable, so I decided to try once more to get the correct direction to the store. Unluckily for me he spoke very little English and could not make a sentence in English. As my French was just as bad I called my friend over because her French was a little better than mine and with sign language we were able to explain what we were looking for to the guy, whose name is Mo, and he kindly took us to the store.

After we finished buying the bottled water and a few other things, we thanked Mo and as we were about to turn to make the journey back to our hotel, Mo turned to me and showed me a leaflet that had an excursion on it and asked me if I wanted to go to it with him. I looked at the leaflet and told him that I couldn’t go anywhere without my friends and therefore couldn’t go with him. As I was about to turn to catch up with my friends who had walked ahead to let Mo speak to me alone, he stopped me and told me that I could bring my friends along with me. In delight I called my friends and told them what Mo had said and they too excitedly accepted the offer and we agreed to meet Mo in front of our hotel at 8pm that evening.

The Date

At 8pm sharp, Mo arrived with the bus driver and an English couple who were going on the excursion with us. On our way there Mo and I didn’t speak much because I sat at the back of the bus with my friends. When we got to our destination Mo pretty much left me with my friends to allow us to enjoy what was on offer and I got really involved with the Moroccan people who were playing drums and singing and dancing on our arrival. After we had eaten and danced with the Moroccans, everyone who was on the excursion sat down around a big showground. I sat in between my friends and Mo. The show was really good and we all laughed, clapped and displayed all of the variation of emotions often seen at outdoor shows.

At the end of the show Mo and I walked together towards our tour bus and left my friends behind to take pictures. Whilst we were walking Mo and I tried to get to know each other by asking each other questions. After a couple of questions we struggled to communicate any further because he didn’t understand me, I didn’t understand him and we were both unable to convey what we were trying to say to one another. After a few unsuccessful attempts to continue communicating we gave up quizzing each other and just walked. Mo decided to put his hand around me because I think I must have looked like I was cold. As we walked I felt his hand move lower behind me. For a few seconds I was wondering what he was doing but thought he was just looking for a comfortable position to put his hand, so I didn’t say anything and kept on walking. As we continued to walk the hand just kept on going lower and lower. As it was just about to land on my bum I turned round and said: ‘I’m going to find my friends’. I didn’t care if he understood what I said or not. He made me feel really uncomfortable by doing that and I didn’t want to be next to him anymore.

I made sure I didn’t show that I was upset by what he did because I didn’t want to cause a scene and I would have just ended up frustrating myself if I had approached him to tell him of my disappointment because he may not have understood me. On the way home I sat with my friends again and didn’t say a word to him. When we got to our hotel he gave me a sheet containing his number, email address and facebook name and asked me to add him on facebook. I took the sheet and thanked him for the day and went up to our hotel room.

 

After the disappointing move that he made, I can whole heartedly say I have no intention of contacting Mo or being friends with him on facebook. I think what he did was totally unacceptable and he ruined the good thoughts that I initially had of him. Even though we both knew that nothing was going to come of our date, he could have at least remained a gentleman and then maybe we could have become facebook friends.  

I guess I can’t expect all of the guys that I go on a date with to be decent human beings. I’m back in London now and I hope date 6 will be more respectable and promising.

As always readers’ thanks for reading date 5, if I’ve missed out anything please leave me a comment below.

Thanks for reading My dating year - date 5.