London Weekend Part II: Saturday

Before I tell you all about my Saturday in London and my Match date! I ask that you my fellow blog readers please click on the “follow” button on the right-hand side of my blog. This will hopefully help show that I have a cool blog that is worth readingg and maybe will help me to attract more followers. And I then hope you will tune in on a regular basis! And oh yeah - spread the word. If you like what you read, send to friends! Thanks for the support!

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming....

So, after my Friday night out in Clapham, Saturday morning arrived along with an uninvited hangover. I am one of those people who gets hangovers very easily and tend to spend an awful lot of weekends suffering through. I wish I could say that stops me from drinking... but it unfortunately, it doesn’t...

Nor does it stop me from taking tequila shots with M. Every time I go out with her (although I do think that I am really getting too old for shots). It’s like we feel the need to relive our early twenties spent drinking shots and Long Island Ice Tea’s on Mao Ming Lu in Shanghai. But that’s a story or another day.

Now back to Saturday. I wake up. I am grumpy with a hangover. I wander around Chelsea a bit and get something to eat. I think about going to the park but end up going to lay back down in bed and taking a small nap instead. Luckily, when I wake up from the small nap, the hangover is almost gone so I decide to go for a long run on the Thames to kill the hangover once and for all.

When I get back from the run, I realize that it is Saturday night and sadly  I have absolutely nothing at all to do. I start to feel a bit sorry for myself. For whatever reason,. on this Saturday night, I was not content to stay at home alone! I really wanted to go out and do something. For the first time, I start to realize that I'm lonely in London!

So, when in need of something to do or more accurately, someone to do it with, why not turn to Match.com. I mean isn't this why I'm paying for the subscription? So, that’s what I did. And in fact one of the men (a Scottish man so let’s call him the Scotsman) had been talking to had nothing to do either. So, we decided that we should meet up for an impromptu date.

I’m pretty sure that it the fastest that I have ever arranged a date. I usually write back and forth to guys for ages and then stress about the date for days in advance. This was was quick and easy to arrange - other than the fact that I had to explain to the Scotsman where Sloane Square is (when by the way he lives in Fulham - right next door to Chelsea) - which should have kind of set off immediate alarm bells.

So, we met outside the Subway stop at Sloane Square. And I was there first even though I was at least a fashionable 8 minutes later. Second bad sign. I want the guy to wait for me.

As he walked out of the subway, I could already tell that the Scotsman and I weren’t going to hit it off. What is it about chemistry? Why does one second of looking at someone tell you “yes” or “no?” It wasn’t that he wasn’t attractive... in fact, he was pretty good looking although at 6’1 he wasn’t quite as tall as I would like. But it was something about they way he moved that told me right away that unless he really turned on the charm, our relationship would be limited to a first date only.

I had suggested we go to the Botanist but it was a bit crowded. I wouldn’t have minded getting a drink there anyway, but I could see that he was kind of freaking out about the crowd. So, I asked him if he wanted to go somewhere else and he jumped at the chance to leave. The problem was that it was about 10 pm and bars were starting to close and the closest place I could think of to go was a 10 min walk.

I could tell he was annoyed by the walk. Which made me annoyed as I was the one in high heels! I kept joking with him that at least he got to see more of Chelsea... But, I don’t think he found it all that funny. Damn. He was definitely lacking a sense of humor and adventure and I was already finding it a bit tough to keep the conversation going.

We ended up at the Trafalagar on King’s Road. It’s not my favorite place but it’s ok. It’s a pub that is open until midnight though (most close at 11 pm) and since it was late, that was good. We ordered a round of drinks. I ordered Rose and he ordered cider - which I thought was a bit girly of him.

It wasn’t that anything was exactly wrong with him... He just seemed kind of bland and I didn’t feel that “spark” nor a good camaraderie. I felt like I was doing all the work to keep the conversation going. Its no fun when a date feels like work! And while I liked his Scottish accent, he was very soft spoken and I was having trouble hearing him. Especially since a huge party of about 15 loud and drunk people came in right after us and for some reason decided to all stand around the sofa we were sitting on. In fact two rather large women were literally sitting on the back of the sofa! It was really distracting trying to talk to this guy while trying to ignore the butts of these two women that were right in our faces.

In case you were wondering, ass in face = not good on a date.

We decided to get a second round and also to move location to get away from the big butt women. However, the second location didn’t prove to be much better. For some reason a guy at the table behind us was yelling “shut up” over again at the top of his lungs.* It was actually distracting the entire bar and eventually the bar staff had to tell him to stop. The whole thing was definitely annoying but the Scotsman was annoyed and upset by it to the point of complete distraction. Despite my best efforts not to focus on the shouting guy (and just ignore him and continue on with our already strained conversation) the Scotsman was not to be put off. He went on and on about what a jerk the shouting guy was. In general, the Scotsman seemed to just be annoyed about everything: the crowded bar, the long walk to the next bar, the ass in the face women, the loud man... I just couldn’t please him and I started to get the feeling that he just wasn’t all that much fun. I mean admittedly, all those things WERE slightly annoying but not really a big deal especially on a Saturday night where expectations were low and the alternative for both of us (need I remind you) was sitting at home alone. In fact, the events of the night could be viewed as rather amusing... That’s how I viewed them at least (I did think about telling him he should start to write a blog so that when you experience annoying things, at least you know it will be a good story).

Luckily it was last call and he needed to catch the subway before it stopped running. So, we walked out together and said our goodbyes. And as I’m dong a quick mental review of the date I decide that although there is no spark between us but the date also wasn’t that bad. In fact, it was better than sitting at home. But just as I’m thinking this and telling him good-bye, he actually says out loud: “Really nice to meet you... it was better than being home alone.” I was thinking the same but I WOULDN'T HAVE SAID IT OUT LOUD! Hello?  Manners? I was laughing inside but outwardly I gave him a purposefully awkward “ummmm thanks...” followed by an almost eye roll and a look that meant I wanted to get away as fast as possible. I think that as soon as the words escaped his mouth, he was embarrassed as he scurried away pretty quick after awkwardly attempting to kiss my cheek as I went more for a reluctant hug.

But I have to say, I had a good laugh the rest of the way home. I actually don't think he meant to be rude. At the end of the day, I guess that was really the best way to sum up the date: “Better than sitting at home alone on a Saturday night” (although just barely).

Stay tuned for part III of the (lonely) London weekend. Since dating men wasn’t working out well, I decided to have a nice Sunday afternoon date with myself!

*Sorry UK but you guys have the loudest and most obnoxious drunks I have ever seen! Why do people yell so loudly in bar? Or sing loud obnoxious song,s or for that matter, pass out in the street covered in their own vomit? It's kind of gross!