Date 104

"No hope, no harm. Just another false alarm."

I knew as soon as I first laid eyes on this Jersey Lady in the flesh that we were going to get on, and it also helped that she was beautiful. We started messaging each other through Match and agreed to a date fairly quickly. There was a slight logistical problem, in that she lived in North London whereas I'm in Brighton now, but I just happened to be staying in the big smoke for a couple of days and she happened to be off for the week when I was going to be there, so that worked out perfectly.

We met in an old favourite of mine: the Benugo Bar at the BFI along the South Bank and we instantly clicked. We got fairly tipsy but after about 4 hours she had to go and meet a friend for dinner so I walked her to the restaurant she was going to and then I went off and had a meal on my own. Before we went our separate ways though, she said that she wanted to see me again.

For our second date she wanted to come to Brighton so I made arrangements to meet her at the station. Unbeknownst to us at the time, the Saturday that we were meeting on was Brighton Pride. If I didn't know beforehand then I knew when I got into the centre. When I got into town I just couldn't move as the whole place was completely rammed and I couldn't get to the station as the parade was taking place. She called me to say that her train had got in so in the end I had to run in front of a float and dive through the crowd on the other side and hotfoot it to meet her. From then on we went from pub to pub and had a couple of meals. We also had our first snog, in the queue for a cash-point, which I was told at a later date was a very disappointing first kiss. We had an amazing day and watched the sun go down on the beach. It was nearly time for her to go home and I just didn't want the day to end so I asked her if she wanted to come back to mine. She shared the same sentiments as me and agreed. By this time we were more than merry and made a schoolboy/girl error of opening a bottle of wine when we arrived back at my house...I wish we'd had a cup of tea.

We managed to have sex during the night but when she woke up the next morning she had the Hangover from Hell. She couldn't get up as she felt so sick and had a throbbing headache but she had to get home to London. I live out in the sticks so I'm not really that near the station and I couldn't drive her as although I didn't really have a hangover; I still felt drunk so I didn't want to take the car. I said I'd pay for a taxi for her but she refused and so I walked her into my village and put her on a bus to the centre. I don't know how she made it home without throwing up but thankfully she was ok, despite it taking her over 2 hours to get home by bus, train and tube!

Afterwards we both admitted that her coming back to mine probably shouldn't have happened, mainly because she was such a nauseous waker, but we were getting on so well that it seemed a good idea at the time...The next couple of dates involved me going to London for the day and then her coming back to Brighton again on another weekend, and on both occasions we went home alone at the end of the evening as, despite the fact we were talking on the phone every week and texting every day, we wanted to take things slowly.

By this time we'd been going out for a couple of months and I was due to be staying in London again for a few days. I was going to see Morrissey in Hammersmith so I stayed at a hotel about 20 minutes walk from the venue.

I enjoyed it a lot but I was looking forward to the next night as we were going to be seeing each other again. I met her after work the next day and we went out for dinner and then went back to my hotel where we slept together for only the second time. She took the next day off work and didn't end up going home until 10:30pm the next night as we mostly spent the day in bed, only surfacing for food.

During the next few days she appeared very distant and vague, and so finally I asked her what was up. She rang me that night and said she wasn't feeling it and that us living too far away was a problem. We had a very frank discussion and by the end of it she admitted that she'd just been over-thinking things and that she wished she hadn't said anything to me as she wanted to keep seeing me. Things then seemed back on track again.

She was due to see me a couple of weeks later in Brighton, but due to engineering works we met in Littlehampton and I treated her to a Birthday celebration. I booked a table at the below restaurant, which was on the seafront and bought her dinner.

The food was beautiful and we had a long walk along the beach afterwards...again watching the sun go down. It was very romantic and the only downside to the day was that one of the presents that I bought her was the Spaced boxset, which she hated when she saw it. I thought it was a good neutral comedy to buy but I should have known it wouldn't be up her street as she's a big Miranda fan. Besides that, things appeared to be going really well again.

A couple of weeks later she accompanied me to one of my closest friend's 40th Birthday at a pub in Notting Hill where she met some of my best friends. It was lovely being there with her and I felt so proud when introducing her to people. I stayed over at her flat for the first time and she made me a roast dinner the next day, which was restaurant standard and I went back to Brighton in the evening. The only problem was my snoring, however, which meant I was banished to her spare-room half-way through the night.

We didn't see each other again for a good few weeks due to both of us being busy but to make up for it we planned to spend 3 nights together! It would be the most time we'd so far spent with each other and we were both giddy with excitement in the days leading up to it, even going so far as to text each other how many sleeps we had left each day. We'd been getting on brilliantly and were face-timing as much as we could and we could just talk about anything with each other and were never lost of words.

The weekend came and she journeyed down to meet me in Brighton on the Friday afternoon as she had taken the day off and fancied a jaunt away from London. I'd booked a table for dinner in the evening and then we headed back to her flat in North London afterwards, where I again had to relocate to the spare-room after she'd had her wicked way with me. The next evening I'd bought us tickets to see my favourite comedian, Adam Buxton, in Islington and it was quite a fun night as there were other acts on too.

The next day, after sleeping in the spare-room again, we went out for further adventures as she'd bought us tickets to The Crime Uncovered Exhibition at the Museum of London. It was fascinating and a subject I'm really interested in, having just completed a course in Forensic Psychology. She seemed a bit grumpy, but I thought that that was just her as in all the time we'd known each other she was grumpy EVERY morning. That evening I was going to see Garbage at Brixton Academy with two other friends of mine. I'd bought the tickets months ago but she still wanted me to stay at hers even though she had work the next day and so I made my way to the venue on my own. It was really enjoyable and I didn't end up getting back to hers until nearly midnight. We tried sleeping together again but my nasal antics woke her up so I volunteered to take the sofa as I wanted her to feel refreshed for work. I couldn't have the spare-room as she was having a lodger move in the next day and the room was newly-prepared for him. The next morning we said our goodbyes as she went to work and I went back to Brighton a couple of hours later.

That was the Monday and on the Tuesday our relationship was over. She'd started being a bit distant again so I knew what she was thinking. I again asked her what was going on and she said she'd ring me that night. I knew what was coming and waited until the evening when I got a text late saying could she ring me the next night as she was really tired. I said no, so she reluctantly face-timed me and told me she wasn't feeling it and that my snoring and the distance was a problem. I tried to hold it together but I cried a bit, which made things a bit awkward as she started crying and abruptly finished the call.

I was really upset but not entirely surprised as I'd been paranoid ever since she'd said she wasn't feeling it the first time round. We didn't have anything in common whatsoever, in terms of music, film, tv etc. however we just got on and I'd always told her that this was a good sign as we didn't need to have common ground.

A week later I'd heard nothing more but I couldn't get her out of my head so I texted her to tell her that I missed her. She replied and said she was sorry and that she cared about my well-being but she had to be true to me. We then face-timed a again a few days later and we spoke through things for a good hour and a half. She said the snoring and distance weren't really the problem but she stopped feeling it for me halfway through our weekend together and became irritated by me being there and she couldn't stop herself snapping at me (this is exactly what happened to me with Date 99 when we had our ill-fated trip to New York). I asked her if we could try and work things out and she said although she'd missed our texts and being in touch she hadn't actually missed me and had just been getting on with things. We both started to cry at various points and she had to go off for a few minutes on one occasion as she said she couldn't bare to see me upset. However, we still shared the odd laugh and I'm very grateful for her to have the balls to explain to me what went wrong. I knew there was no going back which gave me closure and we both agreed to cease all contact with each other. She blew a kiss at me and then that was that.

She assured me that it wasn't anything that I'd said or done, which I think is true but I still don't how you can be excited to see someone one day then go off them over night. She would often tell me that in between us seeing each other she would wish her life away as she just wanted to be with me and I felt the same. To me the distance didn't matter either as I felt that it meant we'd always make the most of our dalliances together and they'd always be special. Whilst I have my imperfections, she wasn't Mary Poppins herself. She drank a lot, was a real party girl and would ring me so drunk I couldn't work out what she was saying sometimes and I was once woken up by her at 2am one night as she was crying in a taxi because she was so pissed. Her grumpiness was a pain sometimes but I just accepted these things as I really liked everything about her and I'm a very tolerant and easy-going person. She broke my tiny heart but I just think she doesn't know what she wants and I wonder if she's looking for something that doesn't exist. I wasn't experiencing the initial butterflies I used to get when I saw her but I still loved being with her and I still got excited when I was due to meet her. Doesn't that just happen over time?

I will remember our time together fondly though and I respect her decision totally.

Date 103

"And when I'm lying in my bed, I think about life and I think about death."

My third Tinder date in as many months, so I'd set a new record. Before we'd even met I could tell this person liked to burn both ends of the candle with a blowtorch, as one Saturday night she texted me at about 1am to ask if I wanted to join her down by Brighton Seafront as she was at some kind of party. Considering I was in bed and I live nowhere near Brighton Beach, I declined her kind offer.

I think with her being 9 years older than me, she definitely represented the largest age gap of anyone I had met on a date and I also found out that she'd appeared on Dragon's Den, so clearly the most famous person that I've been out with. We only met for a couple of hours and I have to say that she was very attractive and friendly, however, I couldn't get a word in edge-ways all night and we had to sit outside the pub while she chain-smoked, which did put me off a bit as I'm an annoying reformed ex-smoker.

She certainly seemed like she could be a fun person and we agreed to a second date but that never came to fruition as she turned out to be a bit flakey. I have since found out that she's actually a friend of a friend and also quite the hedonist, which is probably just as well as I doubt I'd be able to keep up with her.

Date 102

"And I doused another venture, with a gesture that was absolutely vile."

Back to Tinder with another two-dater.

When I met this person for drinks for our first date, I was eager to see her again as she had such great music tastes. She seemed good company too and picked a good pub for us to meet in.

For our second date, I booked us a table at an excellent Japanese restaurant in Brighton; no, not Wagamamas. However, I knew as soon as I met her beforehand that we weren't suited and the night felt very awkward until we got shit-faced and ended up snogging. I managed to find us a pub open until 1 am and we were in there for a good three hours. I can't remember anything about our time in there, apart from her telling me 'no tongues' and me ordering quite a few doubles before closing time.

That wasn't such a good move, as I only got about 6 hours sleep and when I woke up the next morning I was still drunk and didn't start to feel sober again until midday. I had to go to a family picnic, which could have been a disaster, but luckily I managed to hide my inebriated state without any dramatic consequences.

I didn't attempt to contact her again as, if I'm honest, I found her a bit odd and she didn't have much to say for herself. She also had a bee in her bonnet about my height and kept going on about how small I am. For the record, I'm 5'8'' and she was a few inches less, so I'm not sure what that was about. I never heard from her either, so the feeling was clearly mutual.

Date 101

"Meat is Murder."

For some reason, I went back onto Plenty of Fish and the usual happened where I sent a fair few messages to women and predictably: I didn't receive any replies. Then, rather surprisingly, someone I'd not sent a message to, actually sent me an email first.

We appeared to have a lot in common and exchanged several emails back and forth, until I sent her one asking if she'd like to go for a drink and they just stopped. I found this a bit odd so I sent her another message a week later. I wouldn't normally do that as I'd usually take the hint and move on, however, I thought that she seemed very cool. The tactic actually bore fruit, and she responded and apologised for not replying, and said she would like to go for a drink.

We met up in Brighton and got way too tipsy for a school night and I thought that we'd got on really well. She was a few years younger than me and very good company. I texted her the next day and asked her if she wanted to go out again and she said she would, which I was very positive about and we agreed to meet up again the following Friday. I suggested we go out for dinner, and with her being vegetarian, I did some research and found a really great restaurant for us to go to in the South Lanes.

However, when I sent her a text the next day to ask her if she fancied the restaurant I'd chosen, I was rather disappointingly sent the below:

"Hmm, would love to eat out but can't really afford to, sorry. I'm not sure I can afford dating at all, really. I kind of spent my month's 'socialising' budget the other night! It's a bit pathetic. Also, I've been giving it some thought, and while I really liked meeting you and thought we got on well, you're great company, I don't think I feel like there was a romantic spark there, to be honest...so do you mind if we leave it for now?"

I guess her beer goggles must have worn off.

Date 100

"Why pamper life's complexity when the leather runs smooth on the passenger seat?"

I wanted to get back on the dating horse again after the New York disaster, so, where better to start than Tinder?!

On my first day back on it, I stumbled upon Date 99 during my search, so she was clearly looking for a new holiday companion. In all seriousness though, I was a bit upset in seeing her on there as she'd told me she didn't have time for relationships and she'd only finished with me a few weeks before, but I guess that's not what Tinder is really known for...

Anyway, it didn't take me long to get a date and I met up with a very sweet woman who'd only recently moved to Brighton after living overseas for the last few years. She even bought me a little present, a Lego figure, although I was devastated when I left it on a pub table! We got on really well, had a few drinks, went for a meal...then we ended up getting a taxi back to hers and sleeping together. This probably wasn't the best thing to happen but we'd been having such a good time that we didn't want the night to end. I even got a lift back home in the morning as she was driving near where I lived to go shopping, which was very kind of her. I did in my heart of hearts regret it though, and I shed a few tears when I got home as I'd just wanted to lose myself and forget about the previous weeks. I guess these things just happen sometimes though and I got carried away a bit.

We'd had a good time but in the days afterwards she began to get a bit passive aggressive. During a text conversation she sent the below, when I hadn't returned a compliment:

I didn't know how to respond, so I said nothing and a couple of hours later I received this:

I thought I'd leave it for a bit and then the next day she texted me normally as if nothing had happened. I was a bit wary of her as she sent me a few more texts like the above during the next week, however, we agreed to meet for another drink. We again had a good time but things just fizzled out and we never went out again.