Date 107

"The Death of a Disco Dancer."

I'd spoken to this date on a few different sites in which we'd agreed to meet up but then she'd always disappear so I had an idea that she was a bit flaky.

I think that we eventually arranged a date on Guardian Soulmates and we met for drinks in Brighton on a Saturday night. She was a bit older than me and really funny, although I don't think that I was the one for her as she said she liked bad boys. I found this quite amusing considering she was in her mid 40's and a mother of two children, but after hearing some anecdotes about bad boys she'd dated; then who am I to judge?

After we'd been to a couple of pubs she took me to the Green Door Store. It's a well known gig venue but they have club nights too. She said she needed to dance. I can't dance. I'm scared of dancing. The word 'dance' makes me break into a cold sweat. Even when I'm drunk I'm too self-conscious to dance.

She dragged me onto the dance floor and I just watched her. I couldn't join in so she started dancing with other people. I badly wanted to dance with her and I still maintain that if it had been an Alternative, Indie or 80's night then I would have, but the music was of a terrible soft rock variety. I stood on the sidelines with a drink and sort of tapped my feet a bit and pretended to look like I was having fun whenever she stomped past me and made eye-contact. She told me afterwards that she often popped in on her way home of an evening for a dance on her own. Is that a common thing? Am I missing out?

We actually agreed to meet again just before Christmas but she cancelled a day before and when I tried to rearrange she never replied. I can't stop thinking that if only they'd played the music to the Hokey-Cokey that night, then a second date would have happened as that's a dance that I know the moves to.

Date 89

"And if you think peace is a common goal, that goes to show how little you know."

I'd only exchanged a few messages with this person from Match before she suggested we meet up for an afternoon drink as she was in Brighton clothes shopping one Sunday. The day actually coincided with a pathetic 'March for England' through Brighton which involved a load of so called hardmen looking for a fight in the name of nationalism. The pub I picked for us to meet at was actually the scene of the most violent confrontation of the day which occurred, unbeknownst to me, about 10 minutes before I arrived. The picture below was taken from inside the pub.

   The Brighton Argus (2014)

When I got there I'd had no idea what had happened as it had just been cleared up, although my date had arrived slightly earlier during the aftermath. I like my dates dangerous.

We only had a few drinks but I thought that we'd got on well and she was very attractive. Unfortunately, I contacted her the next day about a second date and she declined stating that she thought that we were at different stages in our life and she didn't know where it could go. Whilst I don't really know what she meant, at least she was honest.

During our drinks she told me about a couple of guys she'd been out on with dates previously. One of them turned out to be a racist homophobe and the other one was the most serious and non-humourous man she'd apparently ever met. Unbelievably she went out on three dates with both of them! What must she have thought of me to not want to meet up again?!

Date 14

"Oh, very nice, very nice, very nice."

Very nice person and we had a couple of drinks and a good chat, but there definitely wasn't a spark. Again, there's not that much I can remember about her apart from her waxing lyrical about Dexy's Midnight Runner's front man Kevin Rowland.

I was very impressed with her honesty when we parted ways as she said that she'd be very happy to stay in touch as friends. As it turned out we didn't, but I found it refreshing that she was up front about things.