Bridget Jones's other diary

I'm not sure that being single is any worse or better than being in a relationship but it sure has been interesting. Even though I am very much aware that Bridget Jones, as a character, is intended to be caricature of single women everywhere I feel relieved that I'm not that much of a disaster and maybe mildly panicked that as a single woman in her early thirties I could probably write my own version of the story. Some might say that I'm already doing that with my blog but that's probably because you don't know the kind of things I don't blog about.

Mostly I like being single and I certainly haven't met any one who has convinced me to even consider changing my rogue single ways ( doing whatever the hell I want) but I have been on a few dates. Now If you read more than the odd random blog post you'll know I am attempting to implement a policy of listening to my gut to avoid disaster later down the line. The new reformed Laura is very sensible indeed but seeing as this new me is determined to find herself not dating a complete asshat I think this new strict policy will work quite well.

I am actually quite new to the world of dating in the traditional sense because it's not really an Irish thing at all. We much prefer to meet someone on a night out and let alcohol do all the leg work and to an extent that's worked well enough for me. Okay that's probably a lie because I do have terrible history of dating asshats. So maybe alcohol isn't as much of a friend as it once seemed. It actually has a lot to answer for so let's take a second to lay some blame at it's feet and conveniently forget it was all consumed out of my own free will. 

So New sober Laura is like a baby deer learning to walk for the very first time as I clumsily make my way into adult dating. I have been on a handful of dates over the last few months and I suppose I consider myself lucky in that none of them have been a complete disaster. To be fair though none of them have been entirely successful either. That much should be obvious because clearly I wouldn't continue to go on first dates if I'd already met someone with potential. I'm not a cheaty mc cheaterpants thank you very much.

Now I've generally called things to a halt because I just know that whatever this is, isn't going to go anywhere or at least it's not going to go anywhere that I want to go. Much as I love that casual half dating someone I'm not all that bothered about until they grow on you (like mold) and then you're all over the shop when things end. I'd prefer to be by myself than with someone just for the sake of it. I can hog my own duvet and keep myself awake at night thank you very much.

Now maybe I'll give this dating thing a rest, sometimes I'm not sure the Americans really do have it all figured out but perhaps I'll continue on my merry way and give someone else a shot. So far I've had a guy who told a fairly big lie and yet that was not the reason I didn't take things further, another who turned up 45 minutes late because he mistimed how long it would take him to drive to where we were meeting and then sealed the deal by being so enthusiastic about everything I had to say that it was like being on a date with a puppy and another who decided that ages after the conversation had moved on to other topics to stand in the pub and say I have something I want to show you and proceeded to drop his pants. He claims it was to show me his mysteriously sunburned knees but I had been afraid I was about to get flashed. 

It is safe to say I'm going to leave that at date one and just be glad I got an evening out. For all of you couples who thing us singletons are having all the fun well you're surely mistaken but on the plus side I'm not likely to run out of hilarious anecdotes anytime soon