Now the vast majority of dates don't merit writing about. Normal people, normal lives, just not my people, not my tribe. And when you're online there's a lot of these. Nice, normal people with whom you feel no connection.
A lot of dates, an awful lot of coffee, conversation, dinners even, and still I'm single.
I'm chatting with a girl online, nice, not great profile photos, but we meet at the Good Earth Cafe for coffee, chat, sort of hit it off, plan to meet later, after the weekend, she's a few outstanding internet dates to clear...
We'd had a bit of an online spat, she'd found me a little too challenging, was lured back when I asked her if she "liked Nick Cave". She did, it was something we had in common, and so the conversation continued...
In the beginning she was pretty, she became, as I got to know her, beautiful, the unattainable bar which no subsequent dates would ever reach. We dated for a couple of years, on, off, lived together for a year, in the end it was differing standards of childcare that drove us apart. Her child, obnoxious, the writing was on the wall, following us about and blocking with her palm our every kiss, it offended her, and she, powerless to stop it, my own children held up to a higher bar they came to resent whenever they came 'round. It ended in Idaho, a long hitchhike back with kids in tow, but still I love her and when I am online dating there is always the vague hope that I'll meet someone like her...