Date 16: Cooper – the Australian Booty Call

Who set me up this time?

My friend Liz set me up on this date. Liz was one of the people who originally said that she couldn’t find anyone because all her potentially suitable friends were all spoken for. Then her Australian friend Cooper emailed her to let her know that he was going to be in London for a month and he would like to be introduced to a few people. Liz responded by setting him up on a date with me.

What did I know about him?

He is Australian and he travelled around SE Asia which is where he met Liz. He is another blue eyed blond haired beauty and he is very athletic. He sounded decent! He was very interested in meeting me and participating in the blog. One of his texts read ‘I look forward to showing you the Australian way of dating.’ I had no idea what that meant but I was about to find out.

First Impressions

I met Cooper at Waterloo Station. He came across as chilled out, self assured and eager to socialise. I knew this date was going to be interesting straight away!

What happened?

Cooper told me that one of the best dates he was ever taken on (yes this man has ladies taking him out), was Sea World Australia. So he thought it would be a good idea to take me to the London Aquarium. I had to warn him that London Aquarium is not going to quite match up to Australian Sea World.

London aquarium is a great day out. It’s quite pricey if you pay the price on the door though. There are various offers about so make sure you get at least a third off like all locals do. Cooper had sorted 2-for-1 entry. Some guys might be embarrassed about getting a discounted date but I think it shows that you have financial sense. Charles (date six) also had our meal at 50% discount with top table/taste card. So both were gentlemanly and treated me but didn’t actually spend a bomb. Savvy men!

It was actually a bit strange going on a date at London Aquarium because I think that the last time I visited it, I broke up the most serious relationship I’ve had so far. ]This date was thankfully a lot better though!

Cooper impressed me with his aquamarine knowledge. He grew up by the beach and knew quite a bit about the ocean and its wildlife. His geeky knowledge and passion for the sea made me attracted to him. (So it is official. I can be attracted to blondes!) We got to see several talks. My favourite bit was watching the sharks being fed. They tear their heads around from side to side like in the movies!

Afterwards we went to dinner. Cooper cracked a hilarious joke about taking me to eat sushi. I love sushi and I am relatively comfortable with carnivorism but I draw the line at eating fish raw straight after seeing several swim about.

So instead we went for Thai Chicken Curry. We sat at a cosy little booth around a small round table. Cooper was very flirty with me. Out of all my dates he was the most ‘touchy feely’ and  I wonder if the fact that I agreed to go out with him even though he is only in London for a short time gave him the impression I was up for a fling? This probably wasn’t helped by the fact that I have been dating several men recently. That screams ‘PROMISCUOUS’ doesn’t it? I think he was a bit of a womaniser. Definitely not the type of guy my male friend's would set me up with.

We talked about British and Australian comedy as we share a love of both. Cooper had a few jokes of his own. Most of them were pretty crude. We discussed how I got on to the dating marathon which involved me disclosing that I am chronically single. As we said goodbye Cooper told me in his rough Australian accent that should I feel the need to spend the night with him at any point in the future, I should call him because he is definitely up for it. “I can be your booty call,” he offered jokingly. “I really don’t mind helping out a friend.” That was a bit blunt and maybe a bit creepy. Maybe that’s what he meant when he said that he was going to show me the Australian way of dating? 

Cooper was really funny, good looking and very confident. Although he was a bit touchy-feely and he offered to be my booty call, he kind of pulled it off. Most men would seem incredible sleazy for doing this. Cooper just seemed mildy sleazy. Maybe it's a racist thing that Aussies get away with it?

Despite the rude jokes it seemed that he knew his boundaries very well and never pushed it too far or got intense. For that reason Cooper came across as a casual flirt rather than crude.

Although I am “not that type of girl”, if I ever were to suddenly feel the need to make a booty call, I guess it would be to someone like Cooper! I strongly doubt it though...

 Would I go out with him again?

Yes, I guess so! He’s a bit of a social butterfly and a potential slut but he seems like an honest, fun person to be around. We have exchanged emails and I get his weekly travelling update. If we are ever in the same city again then it would be fun to meet up. Just as long as he knows it’s not a booty call!

What other people have said

That we should go meet him in Australia!

Would I recommend him to a friend?

Yes

Date planning 10 (he’s not even from this country and he managed it)

Rapport 7

Sweetness 6

This was date 16 in my dating marathon. Click the links below to read about my other dates.

Date 1: A – Full frontal nudity

Date 2: Seb – A man in tights 

Date 3: Alan - the softy

Date 4: Christian – Hot Trinidadian

Date 5: Darren – Too into his ex

Date 6: Charles – Trainwreck part I
Date 6.5 Charles – part II Wait a minute Kelyn, What are you doing?

Date 7: Nick the Greek

Date 8: Brett – Poptart

Date 9: Mark – Bowling and Politics

Date 10: Martin – FAIL 
Martin’s Perspective

Date 11: Daniel – DILF

Date 12: Crow – Chronic Bail
Date 13: Jubilee –French Accent

Date 14: Dan – A Black man in Waitrose?

Date 15: James – Relationships are like Laptops
Date 16: Cooper – The Booty Call

Date 17: Brendan – When a man Out-dresses You

Date18: Sam – The Reluctant Dragon

Date 19: Ami – My Lesbian One Night Stand

Date 20: Devontay – If I were a few years younger...  

Am I too easy or too fussy?

Follow in my footsteps – why go on a blind date marathon?

Lessons Learnt - Conclusion

THE END - Epilogue

The Cupcake Flop Theory – yes this is about sex

The Geeky Part – The Results Table

Who have I stayed in touch with?

Why are you still single? How to answer the question

Best places to go on a date - London

Date 10: Martins Retaliation!!!

I had to edit out names and one line that contained a few personal details about someone else! I put illustrations in for fun. Otherwise it's all Martin! Happy reading.
  LagerBlush


Blind date marathon – A different perspective
By Martin (Date 10)

I'm sure a fair percentage of you reading this are in the same position as me... you were one of the guys taking part in the dating marathon. And if you're like me you will have gone through the same process of thinking through the date and trying to foresee how lagerblush was going to blog about you. In doing so I found that I pretty much had a blog post of my own formulated in my head, so why not put it down on paper? lagerblush's a fun girl so I'm sure she'd be entertained by the opposite perspective, who knows she might even publish it if I'm not to scathing about her... just kidding... I'll be very scathing.

First of all let me say that I haven't read her blog post about me yet, that would be unfair, and would probably end up being coloured by me trying to justify any criticism she may have of our date. I have however read all the blog up to guy number 5, so I'll try to keep to a similar format.

A bit about me, my thoughts on dating in general and my connection to lagerblush. I'm not going to describe myself in much detail (I'm sure lagerblush will do a much better, more entertaining job of that), but I will say that I'm pretty laid back, friendly and I enjoy meeting new people (I'm guessing blind dates would be pretty daunting if you didn't). I've been single or practically single for most of my 20s, and as such I've had my fair share of dates. In fact I've been on so many I have a bit of a reputation for it... not THAT kind of reputation, but sometimes I think people misconstrue it as that. I rarely meet girls I end up falling for, and when I do they're mainly friends of friends whom I get to know by seeing at various social occasions. Falling for a girl after dating is even rarer, whether it be a blind date, after meeting in a bar or an … ahem... internet date. Although it has happened to me once.

Anyway, my connection to lagerblush is her school friend Rhona. It would be worth mentioning at this point that the date wasn't the first time I met lagerblush. Rhona made a half hearted attempt to set us up before as she told Dom (my brother) that lagerblush had seen a picture of me on Facebook and thought I wasn't too bad looking – or something along those lines. Nothing really came of it at the time, although Rhona did introduce us at her birthday with the ever so tactful, slightly drunken line of “This is my friend. She wants to sleep with you”. Unsurprisingly, lagerblush looked pretty embarrassed, a little bit shocked, said nothing and walked off, which I was pretty happy with at the time as I would have found it hard to save that situation from the inevitable awkwardness. In fact I'm quite surprised I was Rhona's choice – she and I have had a rather tempestuous relationship after I tried to convince my mum that Dominic was in fact gay and was going out with a man named Rhonan.

 

About the date

I have a fairly standard formula for how the first three dates with a girl should go. Date 1 is drinks, nothing more, date 2 is an activity and drinks (e.g. a gallery, museum, comedy, gig, etc etc), date 3 is potentially a meal and drinks. But as I felt I was in some way competing with another 19 guys, I thought I'd better step it up a little on date 1. The plan was this: Meet up in Soho for some Mexican fast food at Chipotle, then on to some comedy at the Soho theatre, then drinks somewhere in Soho.

I'll admit at this point that comedy on a date is cheating a bit. The thing is no matter how badly you perform on a date yourself, hopefully your date will remember having a good time and laughing a lot if the comedy is half decent – score.

So we agreed to meet at 730, but I got a text from lagerblush around 710 saying she was there already if I could make it any earlier. Now, if I was a true gentleman I would have rushed right over and got there maybe 5 minutes earlier than agreed. However I was in a pub with some work friends supping on ¾ of a pint while they gently ribbed me about my upcoming date, and gave me a few tips. I decided to finish my pint. I turned up about 5 minutes late after getting completely soaked in a rainstorm. Not the best start.

I looked around the pub hoping I'd recognise her. It's a weird quirk of mine that whenever I go on a date, and I mean literally every time, with a girl I've only met briefly before I have this paranoia that I'm not going to recognise them, and that I'm going to go up to another girl thinking it's them whilst they look on wondering what the fuck I'm doing. I secretly suspect that everyone has this paranoia? No? Just me then.

I eventually find her by a pillar and I'm pleasantly surprised. That sounds bad. Really what I mean is I'd met her before and seen photos from Facebook (thanks Dom/Rhona), and I found her attractive, but they didn't do her justice. To put it bluntly and kind of rhyme a little bit (sorry – this is tragic), She is a hottie... maybe I should have turned up on time. I was also suddenly felt very conscious that I was soaked and my hair was hanging in rat tails over my face.

 

It transpires that while lagerblush was waiting patiently at a pub near Chipotle for me she had a couple of drinks... of the non-alcoholic, but rather caffeinated variety – Redbull. I don't know about you, but caffeine makes me edgy. And Redbull frankly makes me go loopy – I mean 15 year old drunken antics loopy. The last time I had too much vodka Redbull I rugby tackled my friend to the floor whilst he was chatting up a girl and licked his face. Not the best next morning, hung over memory!

Anyway we had a drink in the pub whilst we waited for the rain to subside, and chatted quite amiably, mainly about travelling if I remember correctly. The typical kind of conversation you engage in on a date before you settle down into a rapport with someone. Now, as we moved onto the Mexican place I noticed lagerblush had a habit of doing something … not annoying, but rather disruptive to conversation. In the middle of a couple of stories I was telling she interrupted me halfway through and completely changed the subject. It was to the extent that it left my half story hanging in the air like some mangled cat after being hit by a car which I felt like I had to rescue by changing the topic back to my story (that reminds me of a mangled cat story – but that's for another time). I would probably have been better putting it out of it's misery as I'm sure me changing the subject back to my story sounded like I wasn't interested in what she was saying either. Not good and both of our faults. The way I see it was that it could have been down to 3 things: either the caffeine was making lagerblush edgy, she was nervous and trying to think of entertaining stories to tell me and hence not to listening to mine, or I was nervous and was coming up with story after story not letting her get a word in unless she interrupted me.

 

Another thing I noticed was that lagerblush kept starting to talk about drunken stories, but would then stop herself, and would refuse to tell me the rest of it. Kind of like someone telling you they have a really interesting secret but that they're not allowed to tell you. Not frustraing at all! Judging by her earlier blog posts that was a conscious effort. I have to disagree on lagerblush's rule here, I think on a first date you should just be yourself and tell self deprecating stories to show that you can laugh at yourself, and that you're confident enough to have your date judge you for themselves. But maybe I'm too honest.

The Mexican fast food was more of a success. I actually really like this set up for a first date, an informal fun setting, sitting at a high table with stools and just a quick burrito or taco and beer before heading somewhere else. Although I have to say at this point, I think 2 of lagerblush's dating tips may well have applied to me here. Don't brag and don't demean your date's job... Guilty.

The thing is I love my job. It's stupidly good, and I'm incredibly incredibly lucky to have it. When people ask me about it I tell them about it enthusiastically and I'm sure more often than not I spill over into bragging. Don't get me wrong I don't talk about money, that's not why I love my job and I would never do that, but I do get some pretty ridiculous perks, and that's where I need to shut my mouth from time to time. I also think I took the piss a bit for lagerblush working for a large retail company, this is mainly because I worked at this large retail company as a software consultant and hated it. And, let's be honest, because large retailers are evil and trying to take over the world.

After the Mexican we headed to the Soho theatre for the comedy. At the bar we ordered more drinks and while I had a beer lagerblush wanted a coke. I have to admit I was a bit taken aback by switching back to soft drinks (also – caffeine again? Really?), it's kind of a sign to me that the girl is giving up on a date and thinking about waking up without a hangover in the morning. Anyway, the comedian, Sam Simmons, was fairly good but a bit hit and miss, a bit like an Australian Noel Fielding that didn't quite get it quite right.

  

We then tried to find a bar to have another drink or two. This was a mistake on my part. I should have had a plan. I was kind of relying on lagerblush at this point as in a previous text she mentioned that she knew Soho really well, and I was hoping that she'd just say “I know this amazing bar around the corner – lets go there”. So we did the thing that everyone hates doing on a night out – wandering the streets of Soho trying to find a half decent place to have a drink that fills the following criteria: quiet enough to talk, loud enough to have an atmosphere, trendy enough to be suitable for a date, not a gay bar (we were in Soho after all. Having said that, I have ended up in a gay bar on a date with a girl in the past). So we eventually found somewhere fairly average had some cocktails and some more not quite relaxed chat.

Lagerblush produced a dress and asked “What would you have said if I'd have turned up in this?” I complete missed the fact that it was a rather revealing dress and that it was an attempt to start a bit of flirting I probably said something like “er... I dunno, nice dress?” Good work Martin – flirting FAIL. What she was getting at was the wholly inappropriate nature of turning up in a “slightly slutty” dress (lagerblush's words) on a first date and seeing how I'd react. I rate this type of banter. I like it when someone is willing to make a fool of themselves to see how people will react. I really hope she does this on another of her 20 dates and blogs about it!

We finished our drinks and headed to the tube. Now this is where another of my dating theories comes into play. I will always try for a kiss on a first date if I find the girl attractive. It's a way of knowing whether she enjoyed your company or not. Not to sound too much like Cher, but you can tell a lot from a kiss. Anyway as we said goodbye there's that usual bit where you either go in for the kiss or a hug or a kiss on the cheek. Now I hadn't really had any strong signals from lagerblush, it was a bit of an odd date, we hadn't really developed a rapport, but she had stayed out later than she should so she must have been enjoying it a bit? Surely? So my tactic here was this. Go in for a kiss but be ambiguous about it. Don't go for the cheek, don't go for the lips, but somewhere in between. The idea being that she'd either give me a proper kiss or give me the cheek. I thought at the time this was ingenious. Fool proof. Either it would be a comfortable kiss on the cheek or I'd get a proper kiss. Win-win, no risk of embarrassment or awkwardness. WRONG! The result of me doing this was that lagerblush ended up with the same panicked look on her face as when Rhona first introduced us and I had to dive for the cheek myself. Smooth Martin, smooth.

In conclusion, the overriding feeling I got from the date is that we didn't really get to know each other, which is kind of the point of a date so I guess we failed in that respect. However, something gave me the impression that we would get on pretty well once we did get to know each other.

Would I go out with her again?

I would, because we didn't really break the ice, and I think we'd have fun once we did, but I think it's more likely we'll get to know each other at social occasions like Rhonan's inevitable welcome back drinks.


This was Martin's version of our date (date 10 in my dating marathon). To Read my version of our date or to read about other dates in my dating marathon, click on the links below.

Date 1: A – Full frontal nudity

Date 2: Seb – A man in tights 

Date 3: Alan - the softy

Date 4: Christian – Hot Trinidadian

Date 5: Darren – Too into his ex

Date 6: Charles – Trainwreck part I
Date 6.5 Charles – part II Wait a minute Kelyn, What are you doing?

Date 7: Nick the Greek

Date 8: Brett – Poptart

Date 9: Mark – Bowling and Politics

Date 10: Martin – FAIL 
Martin’s Perspective

Date 11: Daniel – DILF

Date 12: Crow – Chronic Bail
Date 13: Jubilee –French Accent

Date 14: Dan – A Black man in Waitrose?

Date 15: James – Relationships are like Laptops
Date 16: Cooper – The Booty Call

Date 17: Brendan – When a man Out-dresses You

Date18: Sam – The Reluctant Dragon

Date 19: Ami – My Lesbian One Night Stand

Date 20: Devontay – If I were a few years younger...  

Am I too easy or too fussy?

Follow in my footsteps – why go on a blind date marathon?

Lessons Learnt - Conclusion

THE END - Epilogue

The Cupcake Flop Theory – yes this is about sex

The Geeky Part – The Results Table

Who have I stayed in touch with?

Why are you still single? How to answer the question

Best places to go on a date - London

Date 10: Martin: FAIL!!

·         Who set me up this time

Rhona
We met when we were 11. We bonded over textiles, woodwork and food technology. We hated all three lessons but managed to have a good time anyway by laughing at my horrific creations like banana and peanut pies. They were BAD! I remember our teacher’s response when we got As in our GCSEs. He saw me in the town centre, pulled up his car and shouted at me ‘Hey, how on earth did you and Rhona get an A?!!’ Thanks Mr. Howells! Rhona is strong minded, principled and fun. Just to demonstrate what a good friend she is, Rhona managed to set me up with someone even though she currently lives in Vietnam. Row is my ‘mate for life’.

·         What do I know about him

Despite the praise that I just sung, there is another side to Rhona. She is a little mischievous and has a habit of getting me into trouble! Date 10 was a rather peculiar ‘blind’ date because over a year ago on one very hazy night, I had actually been introduced to Martin. It was the worst introduction ever.

Sometime 2009: The story goes that Rhona had described her new boyfriend to me as tall, kind, intelligent and good fun to be with. He seemed really nice and much better than the guys my friends normally date. Naturally I had to ask Rhona if he had a brother. And when she confirmed I said “cool. I’ll take him then.” Martin was that brother.

Rhona’s birthday 2010: I was at home trying to complete the coursework from hell. I hadn’t seen Row in ages. I hadn’t eaten all day. I left my coursework looking like a state. Even though the deadline was looming I wanted to make sure I got to Rhona’s birthday party on time. But I didn’t! The trains were cancelled, I end up missing the first bar and arrived 2 hours late. To make matters worse my ex-boyfriend unexpectedly turned up at the party! I necked a few beers but they didn’t really do what they were supposed to. Suddenly, Rhona pulled me up to some guy and shouts, “Martin meet my friend. She wants to SHAG you!” This is one of those moments where you should probably just laugh. Instead I just let my jaw drop and cringed! The next thing I remember is Martin telling me as politely as he could that maybe I should talk to someone else.

I am 100% convinced that as this was just a silly drunk moment that occurred over a year ago, and Martin will not remember.

In summary, I know that Martin is Dominic’s brother, and that if you get introduced to him as the one who wants to shag him, it can be awkward. As I was unable to get details from Rhona (in Vietnam) I googled Martin. Can you imagine my horror when I discovered a photo of him with gherkins up his nose? Did Rhona really think that I wanted to shag this man? Well, at least he doesn’t take himself too seriously and as Rhona said, “don’t worry about the date. I’m sure it will go well and even if it doesn’t it’ll be another funny story!”

·          First impressions

Martin got in touch by text message. His messages were always well written, witty and made me laugh. He explained that he wanted to go on a half outdoor adventure, half city holiday – Tick 1. He was busy at Glastonbury – tick 2. He thought I might like to go see a comedy – tick 3. Would I like to go for beer and burritos – tick 4. He watches the apprentice – tick 5. I started to get suspicious that Rhona was telling this man exactly what to say.

·         What happened

On the whole, this was a pretty good date. However, a blind date post without criticism would be a missed opportunity. So I will make sure to dot in some brutal comments.

I went shopping on Oxford Street before meeting Martin. I was buying trashy dresses thanks to my mid-20s crisis. Then I went straight to the Brewmasters Leicester Square. It's bit of an 'old man’s pub' right opposite the tube station. I was a little early and Martin was running a little late.  Earlier on in the day, I had one GIANT can of redbull (the freaky sized ones you get a Boots) at work and another giant can of redbull on Oxford Street. I didn’t really want alcohol before my date so I went for the next best thing that the pub had to offer. Another redbull! This was the first fail of the evening. Those who know me know that I am very sensitive to caffeine. Also the bartender accidentally put a vodka in it. On the upside, I complained and didn't get charged for the vodka. 

Another English rainstorm had hit London. When Martin arrived my jaw dropped. Water was literally rolling off his face and onto the pub floor. Get a raincoat! He made a friendly hello and he seemed pleasant.

Martin got me a beer and we chatted. Turns out we both went to Catholic primary school but didn’t believe in much of the RE we were taught. We shared accounts about the moral stories that we were taught by our teachers. This cracked me up. We had a few bits in common. Martin knows my area as he has family nearby. He also worked as a contractor in the building right opposite mine! Martin is fun to talk to overall. He seemed really hyper like he’d been on the redbull too. He has a really loud voice and talks quite fast.

One bad thing Martin did was he made fun of the company I work for and the fact that I am on temporary contract. Don’t insult what somebody does 38 hours a week on a date. This could at very best be seen as awkward banter and at worse seem very rude and stupid.

Next we went to the US-Mexican fast food restaurant Chipotle. 

I was quite impressed that Martin had managed to guess that I liked beer. Date1 thought it unladylike for women to drink beer and that had irritated me. In comparison Martin seemed down-to-earth and a lot more in touch with women. Martin didn’t even laugh at my mens raincoat. So I asked him, “how did you guess I drink beer?” He gave a response that gave me a sweep of dread, “You were drinking it at Rhona’s birthday party.” NOOOOooo! He remembers! I think that my face must have dropped as Martin smiled, “Rhona seemed to be doing her best to embarrass you the night.” Yep. Thanks Rhona! I should have known that men don’t forget it when you are introduced to them as the one that wants to shag them!

Martin comes across as a bit of a bragger. He is always talking about amazing festivals he’s attending, great summer holidays, drunken stories and the perks of his wonderful job. He works for a mysterious company that cannot be named. All I know is that he really loves his big computer screens. I hope that he does not work for some sort of internet porn company. I prefer to see him as a spy. Perhaps a little Johnny English. The reason that bragging is not such a good idea on a blind date is that it will likely come across as either pretentious or a desperate attempt to impress. In some cases, it might even come across as if you are trying to compensate for lack of personality. In Martin’s seemed as though he simply ‘loved himself’. This is not as bad as it sounds! It is kind of annoying but much better than hating yourself and the rest of the world (such as date 9)! I think that Martin has a refreshingly positive attitude to life and maybe even some boyish charm.

Suspiciously close to my interests, Martin took me to see comedian Sam Simmons. I almost thought that Rhona had been giving him tips. But then she is in Vietnam so it's probably just coincidence. I had been hoping that one of my dates would take me to a comedy show. The show was bizarre but engaging with enough laugh out loud moments to be called good but not enough for superb. There were a few strange bits that reminded me of Garth Marenghi and a few more standard stand up pieces. Try this link for a taste.

The show was called ‘Fail’ which was an apt title really as this described the rest of the night. Just kidding but there were a few bloops. By now I’d had 2 giant redbulls, 1 regular redbull, 1 vodka and 2 beers. This is overkill for a lightweight! I was feeling edgy, high and thirsty. So I ordered a soft drink. Coca Cola please! Martin gave me a bewildered look that said ‘lightweight’. Needless to say that I had forgotten one of the key ingredients of coca cola: caffeine! FAIL! I was jittering. I really did not want to finish my drink but it felt rude not to seeing as Martin had bought it for me. I also could not stop talking. FAIL!

We decided to go for a drink after the show. Unfortunately Martin didn’t know any good nearby bars. FAIL! We walked around for a bit finally settling for O Bar. FAIL! Not a top choice but it’s better than walking the streets. Martin had been generous throughout the evening and I offered to buy him a drink. I was absolutely mortified when the jobsworth bar tender wouldn’t accept my card unless I had another 3 shots to the tab to get it to reach £10. I even said to the bartender that she could have the three drinks herself, take a tip or put them through the wastage but she refused all options. Noooo! FAIL! On the brightside O bar does some cheap drinks! Martin had to come and rescue me and pay for the drinks again. This was an embarrassing dent in my pride!

I had a cocktail and we swapped drunken tales. We even discussed how many strip clubs we’d been too. Oops! FAIL! Drunken tales can make your date worry that you are alcohol reliant. Even if you do use alcohol as a crutch and see no shame in it, limit drunken tales on a first date to a minimum. Save them for later! I personally think it is better to guard your more wild side and let it out gradually.

During drinks things started to lag a little. Martin does not come across as the type of guy who likes to stay up past his bedtime on a school night. To be fair, neither do I but what happened next left me with no choice. By the time I got to Kings Cross station I was exhausted but in a good mood. Then I found out that the last train had been smashed in by vandals. FAIL! They prepared another train to take us home but unfortunately this added another 2 hours to my journey time. FAIL! After such a long day, I ended up asleep on the manky train seats. FAIL!  I set my alarm to wake me up 5 minutes before my station. My alarm vibrates and beeps very loudly so I thought that there was no chance that I wouldn’t hear it. Just to be sure I put it under my head as I slowly shut my eyes. The next thing I knew the carriage was shaking and there was a loud siren in my ears. I screamed and jumped up on my feet throwing my bag to the floor.To the shock and embarrassment of everyone on the carriage, the scream continued for ages. FAIL! People even came in from the next carriage just to check I was OK. SUPER FAIL! I ran off the train OK but very shamefaced. Luckily Martin didn’t get to witness this. I finally got home at 3am. This is why I like it when dates who know that you have a long journey home give you a text to see how you are. Martin didn't but nevermind.

From the very first text message Martin stood out from the crowd. Martin has a lively way of expressing himself which is quite geeky but also pretty funny! A message he sent me about cheese had me cracking up in the office. I have a bit of a geek fetish and I hope Martin doesn’t mind me describing him in that way. Out of all my dates, Martin took the whole blog thing in the best humour. In contrast to some of the others, he did not see my blog as a soppy romantic plea. Martin understood it as a dare/social experiment which should be both comical and educational. It was Martin’s wacky idea that I should make top trump cards of all my dates. I didn’t take it that far but the ‘planning, sweetness and rapport’ measures at the end of each date post were inspired by him. Plus to back up his quirkyness Martin is also warm and polite. I actually spent a while trying to think of criticisms for Martin.  The only one I could really think of is that he talks a bit too loud!

Here’s a text I received from Martin that will give you a hint of how this man is a little "different": “hey so I was sitting by the pool in Ibiza today with my laptop, and I knocked together my own blog version of our date.” OMG! Shock horror! Click here to read.

·         What other people have said

My colleagues seem to really like the sound of Martin. They especially liked the fact that he wrote a blog back at me! Others have said that he sounds like an fun loving character.

·         Would I go out with him again?

Yes, well under normal circumstances anyway.

·         Would I recommend him to a friend?

Yes

Date Planning 8

Rapport 8

Sweetness 8.5

This was date 10 of my dating marathon. The dare was to do 20. Click on the links below to read the rest of my dates:

Date 1: A – Full frontal nudity

Date 2: Seb – A man in tights 

Date 3: Alan - the softy

Date 4: Christian – Hot Trinidadian

Date 5: Darren – Too into his ex

Date 6: Charles – Trainwreck part I
Date 6.5 Charles – part II Wait a minute Kelyn, What are you doing?

Date 7: Nick the Greek

Date 8: Brett – Poptart

Date 9: Mark – Bowling and Politics

Date 10: Martin – FAIL 
Martin’s Perspective

Date 11: Daniel – DILF

Date 12: Crow – Chronic Bail
Date 13: Jubilee –French Accent

Date 14: Dan – A Black man in Waitrose?

Date 15: James – Relationships are like Laptops
Date 16: Cooper – The Booty Call

Date 17: Brendan – When a man Out-dresses You

Date18: Sam – The Reluctant Dragon

Date 19: Ami – My Lesbian One Night Stand

Date 20: Devontay – If I were a few years younger...  

Am I too easy or too fussy?

Follow in my footsteps – why go on a blind date marathon?

Lessons Learnt - Conclusion

THE END - Epilogue

The Cupcake Flop Theory – yes this is about sex

The Geeky Part – The Results Table

Who have I stayed in touch with?

Why are you still single? How to answer the question

Best places to go on a date - London