Adventures in Dating: The Final Four

I know what you’re thinking: Ella, it’s been nearly four months (!!!) since your last post. You turned 26 a while ago. Where those final four dates at? Where u been, girl?

I’ll tell you, dedicated reader of my blog.

It won’t come as any surprise that going on 26 dates in six months is a pretty intense task. Not to mention having to sit down, recount them all, write and edit them down into something somewhat entertaining. I’ve also had a bit of a crazy year in general - a new job, moved house, and attended various festivals, hen dos, weddings and other events all up and down the country.

In short: ya girl was tired. And even when I successfully went on my last date a couple of weeks before my 26th birthday, the idea of sitting down and writing about them all felt OVERWHLEMING.

But, I’m back, with a new website to boot.

The prospect of writing four 1,000-word blog posts still feels a bit daunting still, so instead, I’m gonna give you a summary of what went down with each. Hopefully I’ll get around to writing full-length ones for you soon. Or maybe I’ll finally get round starting that podast. Or I’ll write a tell-all book of all my daing adventures. WHO KNOWS? But for now - this is what you’re getting, and you’re gonna like it, missy.

DATE 23

T and I went on a second date where we wandered around a market one Sunday afternoon. We had lunch in the park and another wander, and had a cheeky snog in some secluded gardens surrounded by flowers. We walked through the market again to eat some pasteries, and sat in a pub garden in the sun for a while, drinking wine. It all seemed promising - I even told him about my whole dating experiment! He found it all very amusing and gave me his blessing to write about it. But after this date things unfortunately dropped off. It happens.

DATE 24

V and I met on Hinge when she commented on my very cute and very popular otter fact. She had just gone on holiday to Spain, so we spent around a week messaging back and forth before arranging to meet at a bar in Brixton when she was back. I had a slightly taxing week at work, and may have cut a little loose and overdid it on the drinks. So much so that I vommed (luckily not in front of her) and then out of embaressment quickly made an excuse to go home. Hey, I never said I was smooth. Things also dropped off with her, but I’m still not entirely sure whether it was naturally, or out of embarassment on my end.

DATE 25

I came across X on Bumble, where after a couple of swipes of his photos, it was obvious that he was a professional model. His bio was also short and sweet: “I’m in an open/polyamorous relationship.” Another one of those! I had to swipe right.

It turned out that he lived less than a mile away from me, so we made plans one Sunday to walk his dogs around the park. He was interesting - handsome (if slightly baby faced) and very self-confident, boardering on over-confident. We shared a lot of the same values, however I sensed that he was maybe seeking brownie points for his ‘woke’ and feminist views. We also discussed poly relationships, and he way overshared an aspect of his and his girlfriend’s relationship that I was suprised he felt comfortable revealing to a stranger.

He also gave me a couple of backhanded compliments which took me aback, and in retrospect I wish I had called him out on it, but I was just suprised to meet someone who had absolutely no filter. We spoke a little more after the date, but I quickly decided I didn’t really like his energy and didn’t want to hang out with him again.

DATE 26

I put a lot of pressure on myself for the last date to be a really good and interesting one to end this whole experiment, but it ended up just being a regular pub date with a handsome chap.

Matched with Z on Hinge, where I commented on a very adorable photo of him and his nephew, shamelessly used as bait to make the ladies melt. He pointed out that my photo with two adorable kittens probably had the same objective - touche. We had a lot in common, including slightly silly sense of humour and a fake-argumentative flirting style. We met up at a local pub and I melted a little when he spoke (v. deep, v. sexy voice), and spent all afternoon in a pub garden chatting and flirting. No kiss but I definitely had slight butterflies in my stomach when we parted ways.

When I messaged him a couple of hours after getting home, he said it was nice to meet me, but he was only interested in being friends. After all that build up (on my end), I was rejected it. It is what it is.