Had a night out – child free – on Saturday night where I didn’t know what to expect but it turned out to be a hoot. A friend was housesitting in the city and her, myself and two other friends met at the city pad for a drink then walked to our first pub for the evening. The Grace Emily has a really good atmosphere and I should make more of an effort to get there as it is such good fun as it’s really easy to get to talking to other people especially when you hang out at the spot near the bar and the mens toilets. It’s one of those rare pubs that don’t have poker machines and there are a few of those left in Adelaide. We got there about 9.30 just as it was starting to get busy and bumped into another friend who ended up coming with us to the next pub, the Crown and Anchor, with her mate. The band we were there to see upon another friend’s recommondation was Spencer P Jones who was a founding member of Beasts of Bourbon.

I felt very out of place in my lime green polyester flared slacks and my polyester shirt with pictures of women on it as everyone else was pretty much wearing black and it was quite dark and smoky so I felt like my slacks stood out a mile. I started off up the back but couldn’t see anything and realised that typically everyone was squished up at the back but there was heaps of room at the front so I made my way up there. That’s what I like about seeing bands at pubs is that even though it can be crowded at least you can worm your way around a bit. When they did start is was so loud that I could feel the music vibrate right through my body and it took me a few songs to get used to the volume but the band was pretty good so it didn’t matter. I like music that can be danced to and I would say pretty much every second song was like that. It reminded me of the days when I used to be a common sight on the Adelaide live music grunge/punk scene and regularly hung out at these dark, grungy pubs where your feet stick to the floor, the music is really loud and just about everyone wears black.

After that finished it was time for some ska at the FAD bar with the Strange Tenants. It was also pretty packed in there and another place where I had to make my way to the front so I could see the band. I like ska music but I prefer the faster ska songs rather than the slow ones and I think there were too many slow ones this time. They had done another gig that night with UB40 so the fact they did 2 shows in one night was pretty good going considering they’ve been around for over 20 years. We hung around for most of their set and then got going. The crowd had started to thin out by then too. As a sign of our age we headed back to the city pad for something to eat and then to sleep. Had planned to dance on at a club venue but the knees just couldn’t face up to it.

Am a bit sore today after my exercise yesterday. I am taking part in the Corporate Cup, well actually I’m doing the mini cup which is 2.75km as opposed to 4.5km or if I was a real sadist, 7.5km. I went with a work colleague and I said I was going to run as much of it as I could which I knew wouldn’t be much as I haven’t jogged for a while now. We managed to run for about one kilometre so the insides of my legs and my stomach is a bit sore today. My previous running partner went and found out she had oesteo-arthritis in her spine so running for her is out. For me to go for a run is pretty impossible as I don’t have a babysitter on hand to do things like that for myself.

After about seven months on the internet dating scene I’m about to say goodbye to it all. I joined up on an internet dating website late last year and was full of hope that this could be a way to meet my ‘true love’ or at least meet some people I connected with – well I was wrong. It’s not for me. I haven’t looked around too many other internet dating websites but I guess they all pretty much work on the same premise where you can initiate contact with someone you like and if they show some interest you can pay to make further contact with them. Ok, I’m with RSVP and kisses are sent initially, then stamps are bought to send emails to a person if you so desire.

I was full of hope at this potential way of meeting heaps of blokes and I could go out on heaps of dates and just pick and choose. It hasn’t quite worked out that way for me.

I wasn’t off to a good start I must say as I did my profile carefully, then sent a couple of kisses. I got an email shortly afterwards asking if I was really a male? Shit, I thought, I put the wrong sex on my profile so I immediately went in to change it. I emailed this guy back thanking him and we had a couple of email exchanges before it completely died off.

The other person I’d sent a kiss to initially, I resent after I renamed my profile so he wouldn’t twig that I was a complete prat and so he didn’t think that this bloke must really fancy him. He replied to my kiss saying he was looking forward to my email so I duly bought some stamps and sent him an email. Before too long we were in phone contact and having long phone conversations. We got on really well over the phone and seemed to have lots in common. Next was arranging to meet in person. It was a little bit hard because I have to arrange babysitting to go out on a date and work around my busy social life and it was busy at the beginning of this year. I had to put him off one weekend as I went away for a girls weekend so the next weekend we arranged to meet. My friend babysat Jaycee Junior while we went out for dinner. Straight away I had strayed from the suggestions of the RSVP website which says just to meet for a short time the first time to either get something bad over with straight away or to leave each other wanting more.

I was really nervous about walking into the pub to meet him but recognised him straight away even though his photo looked quite different from the flesh. For a start I think he exaggerated his height unless I’m taller than I say I am. He also exaggerated about he amount he smokes (occasionally/socially should have been regular). There were a few other exaggerations which I realised he had made later. First of all was his job. In his profile he said he was in IT but he actually had a job working in the local wine industry doing labour type work. I don’t mind what sort of job a person has so long as they are honest about what they do. Even before we met though, he had quit this job and didn’t have another to go to. Another warning signal should have been that he lived with his mother. Also during our first longish phone conversation he was offering to teach me how to play the guitar and he hadn’t even met me yet. A couple of phone conversations later he was offering to lend me his old guitar so I could learn on it. Why do people do this sort of thing if they haven’t even met a person yet? He also sent me text messages all the time even after I told him I wouldn’t be replying so don’t get offended. Even more frustrating, he’d text me asking if he could ring. Just bloody ring me all right?

So, to the date….

Internet dating – last hoorah (part two)