Date 182

"Pass the pub that wrecks your body."

I had an early warning that this person was going to be flakey after she cancelled our first date 12 hours after we'd arranged it. We hadn't been chatting very long at all on Tinder (about 20 minutes) when she asked if I wanted to meet up the next day. I had a suspicion that she was a bit tipsy but said yes, not really expecting it to happen, and I was proved right.

She lives in Croydon and had initially suggested I meet her there but I said it was just as easy that we meet somewhere more fun in London. The next day I contacted her to confirm whether we were still meeting and she bottled it by asking if we could postpone as she said that the festive period had caught up on her and she wasn't feeling very good; so I was probably right that she'd been a bit drunk the night before.

We'd pencilled in to meet at the SouthBank the following weekend and I was surprised when I texted her the day before to check if the date was still on and she said it was. So I made my way into the capital again and when she rocked up she didn't look like her pictures. I sort of knew it was her as a blonde woman was heading towards me smiling, but I'm not sure I would have known otherwise. There was definitely a resemblance but I suspect that her profile pics were a few years out of date.

We had drinks and a meal and, although I'd enjoyed her company, I was ready to go home but she insisted on going to another pub. I think she just wanted to continue drinking but it was getting close to 11pm and I was more interested in not missing my train back to Brighton.

We said our goodbyes at Waterloo and I suggested that she could come to Brighton if she wanted another date. She seemed very keen and we discussed it again briefly by text but then the messages stopped very abruptly and I never heard from her again...This was probably for the best though and I can only assume that January caught up on her.

Date 181

"So, goodbye."

I assume that this will turn out to be the last date that I meet from Guardian Soulmates considering it will be ceasing to exist from June onwards, and I deleted my profile about 2 days before they made it free for everyone.

It was a great site to be on in London and when I used to live there I met lots of interesting people through it. However, my experiences haven't been great on it the last few years with barely anyone replying to messages and a month's subscription coming in at a whopping £32!!!! I never understood where the money went for that as every time I contacted them about something like glitches on the app, it never got sorted and the format it used hadn't really been updated in the 15 or so years that it was active. I assume a lot of the non-swiping apps will become equally as obsolete soon as why spend a month messaging people and getting nothing back when at least with swipe sites the matching capability means you're halfway there to exchanging messages with someone.

I digress though. I met my last GSM date for coffee and cake that lasted probably under an hour and it was ok. She was quite insistent about a second one so we met for drinks but that was quite quick too and was probably only 2 drinks worth.

The pub date was definitely more fun but I'm not really a fan of cafe dates. Plus she'd made more of an effort to dress up. Our third date was meant to be the pub again but she postponed it due to there being a bad weather forecast, which turned out not to be true. So, it didn't take place but not for a very good reason. When we did rearrange it was for coffee again and I genuinely can't remember anything about it.

These took place in January and February, so before Lockdown, and I've obviously not seen her since but she's still in fairly regular contact, usually sending me links to news stories that are a couple of days out of date. So, she's either bored or just trying to keep a dialogue going. She's a nice person but I'm not sure if we'd meet up again as I just don't know what we'd do as she's usually only ever out for a short period of time before she has to get back.

Farewell Guardian Soulmates.....