First of all…HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! I hope you all had a wonderful festive season!

I’m back!

By popular demand (well the demand conjured by my own imagination) but after the fun I had writing my 30 day challenge blog I’ve made the executive decision to share more of my random thoughts and experiences.

First things first I ought to catch you up on what’s been happening since I last posted. I’m getting old and my memory is fading so I’ll be giving you the highlights of the last 2 months.

I’ve been on a short break to Amsterdam and absolutely fell in love with the city, but I’ll be telling you more about that at a later date. My lovely flatmate CP took me to see The Book of Mormon which I highly recommend, it is without doubt the funniest musical I have ever seen. I went to see La Soiree at the Southbank Centre for the second year running and it did not fail to mesmerise and astound. I was taken to see Matthew Bourne’s Sleeping Beauty ballet by my wonderful friend FL, on opening night no less. And I was also treated to the Chocolate, Cheese and Wine festival at the Business Design Centre, which, to quote a much loved song, “are a few of my favourite things”.

I’ve been out for more Christmas drinks and dinners than I care to mention, and I went to my first ever Baby shower thrown for my gorgeous friend NF. I’ve spent a really lovely Christmas with family and rather tragically in amongst the frivolity I also had to attend a funeral.

And naturally…I’ve been on some dates.

My luck on Tinder seemed to continue throughout November and it managed to carry me over into early December. My first date was with ‘the Guy Who Used to Have a Beard’ I wasn’t feeling very well on the day we were due to meet so I converted our proposed dinner plans into a coffee date instead. We met at Canary Wharf tube station and unfortunately as soon as I saw him, I just knew, I wasn’t attracted to him. In pictures I’d seen of him he sported quite a healthy beard but when we met he was bare faced. He explained that  his family had been hassling him to shave it off for quite some time and he thought he’d try it out for a little while. Surprisingly, considering I am not actually that big a fan of facial hair, I felt he looked better with the beard, and it seemed as though his face was missing something. Although I realised pretty early on that there was likely to be little sexual chemistry between us, I must emphasise that it was actually one of the better dates I’ve ever been on. We got on astonishingly well and I found I was revealing things about myself and my life that I never thought I would to someone I’d just met. We chatted so easily I almost forgot that I was unwell and the only reason we left is because the barista’s began to clean around us, giving us the worldwide signal for “we’re closing, get out!” Now I know this all sounds awfully promising but as I said before, regrettably I was not attracted to ‘the Guy Who Used to Have a Beard’ at all, but I did enjoy our interaction enough to extend the hand of friendship. However it soon became apparent that he did not appreciate being friend zoned, and shortly thereafter we fell out of contact.

My next date was with ‘the Portuguese Guy’ To be honest our date didn’t get off to the best start, I was still feeling a little under the weather the day we planned to meet and I asked if we could meet a little earlier so that I wouldn’t have to make the arduous journey home (all 30 minutes of it) only to head back out again. Although ‘the Portuguese Guy’ agreed to the earlier time he finally turned up at our meeting point 30 minutes late. As I mentioned in one of my 30 day challenge posts, I do NOT like waiting around for people. I’m the first to admit that I’m not the most patient person to ever exist, however I do think that I was justified in being slightly irritated as I feel being more than 15 minutes late is inexcusable. However trooper that I am I continued with the date. We went to All Bar One and ordered the Tapas and Wine deal, and after a few sips of wine I began to feel more comfortable. As dates go it was ok, nothing spectacular but not the worst I had ever been on. Ultimately I feel we had too little chemistry for it to be worth a second date. They don’t call me the one date wonder for nothing!

After chatting for a couple of weeks I arranged to meet ‘the Guy With Banter’. From the first message exchanged, onwards our back and forth had been so far from serious it was impossible not to be curious about what he would be like in the flesh. We arranged to meet in Camden as the plan was to go for a few pre-drinks and then on to my old favourite, The Cuban and salsa the night away! I arrived at Camden Town tube station, and as I exited through the barriers I couldn’t help but feel slight apprehension about how the evening would go. I crossed the road to wait outside Superdrug and a few minutes later my phone began to vibrate. ‘The Guy With Banter’s’ name flashed on my screen and as I began to describe where I was I heard a male voice filled with an unmistakable tone of recognition say “Oh, there you are”. I raised my eyes to meet that of my date, and let’s just say, he did not meet my expectations! I am of course attempting to be diplomatic, but in the interest of being transparent I will go so far as to say that I had never before been faced with someone I found so wholly unattractive. The date itself was fine, he has a brilliant sense of humour and didn’t take himself too seriously which I really enjoyed, however we didn’t quite make it to the Cuban stage.

My most recent date was at St Pancras Station. Who goes on a date to a train station? I hear you ask. Well the benefits are, there are quite a few cafe’s, restaurants and bars at the station and add to that the fact it’s really close to home and you get a casual venue with various enjoyable options, although the people rushing about with suitcases trying to catch their trains in time does somewhat detract from the chilled atmosphere. After our introduction we went upstairs to a cafe, he had Chai tea and I drank a rather lovely Hot chocolate. As soon as we sat down he proceeded to spend the majority of our (short) meeting talking about his ex wife who he had only separated from two months previous. Now I understand the need to get back on the horse but it is (what I thought was) an unwritten rule not to talk about exes on a first date, or in my opinion any date for that matter unless I decide it’s time to have ‘The Ex Talk’ a talk I am more than happy to skirt around for as long as possible. Now I know that he was almost definitely still hurting from the abrupt break up and that is the only reason I can be lenient and forgive him for what can only be described as the most awkward hour and a half of my life.

And that about brings us to the present…

So following a jam packed month of eating, drinking and partying far too much I am slightly exhausted, a little rounder in the middle and also a lot more tech savvy. (I built a website, don’t you know!)

So finally, whatever your plans are to bring in the new year, whether you are spending it with family or friends, staying home or raving it up have fun, be safe and I wish you an amazing 2016!

As for me…I’ll definitely be bringing in the new year with my old faithful glass of prosecco!