Date 64

"I swear to God, I swear I never even knew what drugs were."

You know that weird time period between Christmas and New Year when you just feel in complete limbo, and time just seems to stop; especially when you're not at work? Well, that's what I blame for selling my soul to the devil again and going back onto match.com. Despite vowing never to go back to the dark side after my experience with Date 55 in particular, and not getting any replies from 6 women after my free 3 day trial (which I previously mentioned during Date 63's entry); I was offered 2 months for the price of 1 and boredom, curiosity and an unexplainable feeling of impending doom with 2012 fast approaching led me to sign up again.

So, to my first date of 2012. The world hadn't ended and I was actually surprised that this person responded to my message as she was an absolute stunner. Obviously, I'm not shallow enough to just make contact with women due to their looks as their profile and interests have to engage me too, but despite what anyone says, it's only human nature to be drawn to the pictures first, and that is exactly how dating sites are designed to draw you in as the picture of the person is the focal point of the profile. Conversely, there are lots that I'll click on due to their pleasing aesthetic qualities that simply bore me to tears.

The lady in question was Australian, 4 years older than me and as it happened she was back home down under for Christmas and New Year when our messaging took place, ah, the marvels of the internet. We seemed to have a few things in common, mainly to do with music and she came across as quite witty, which is always a good start, and after several emails she asked if I'd like to meet up once she was back in the UK, to which I replied in the affirmative.

Every time I've met someone for a date, it has always been for a drink or a coffee, but on this occasion she was quite adamant that it had to be dinner, and even when I suggested we could have a swift half at a bar nearby beforehand she was having none of it. She must have been absolutely ravenous.

So, we met in a restaurant along the SouthBank. Although it was quiet, I wasn't quite sure it was her at first so didn't go over to her initially as I wasn't convinced it was her. Although I found her attractive, her profile pictures looked to be from about 5 years ago, so she could have been extremely photogenic, a whizz on Photoshop or perhaps she'd just experienced a particularly hard day at work. I found this quite interesting though, as during the date she told me that one of her pet hates was people putting out of date pictures on their dating profiles...

After exchanging a few pleasantries and ordering a bottle of red wine and food, my opening line was to ask her why she'd decided to come and live in London. Quick as a flash she replied that it was because drugs were cheaper over here. I actually thought she was joking but as it turned out, every anecdote or reference was about drugs for most of the night. I'm certainly not averse to drug use as I dabbled in my youth and I'm certainly someone who believes in each to their own, but when a 39 year old admits to you that they have to smoke a spliff a day then I find that a little unusual considering I grew out of that sort of thing in my 20's.

We got on well though as she was really funny and full of good stories, but the date only lasted as long as the meal as she said she had to be up early the next morning for her job in finance. We went our separate ways at Waterloo station and I never heard from her again. By the same token though, I didn't contact her either purely because I've become a bit sick of either being ignored when I enquire about second dates or receiving arsey replies, so I decided to go with a new strategy and wait for her to contact me. She obviously didn't and although I would have been quite happy to see her again, I wasn't particularly disappointed as I didn't think she was that into me anyway. Although, having said that, I've given up trying to read signals on dates so I could have been wrong and she could have been waiting by her laptop or phone for weeks, weeping and wondering why I hadn't been in touch.