Trial and Error

How the unsure foot seeks solid ground
Whilst glancing quickly over quicksand
Quick step, step, slow, and twists around
An intimate dance to understand…

The movement, the flow of thought
Of belief and desire and fear all caught
Like a butterfly in Arachne’s web
Or caught up in the tide, in the flow and ebb

Words flurry like lost leaves on the breeze
Tumbling, colliding, they flit and tease
And somewhere, somehow along the way
Slipped, tripped, and fell astray

The eager chatter fades to silence
Uncertainty stings; turned to reticence
Eager ebullience now changed: restrained
Initial exuberance, now contained

Dialogue: an exchange; a comprehending
Lingual chess: taking pieces; progressing
Through a game of advance and loss
Evaluate the knowledge win, against the cost

How much do you set loose and free
To share conversational intimacy?
And can temperament, turn intolerant
If a wrong step, a wrong word, cause disagreement?

Can a mutual attraction
Be enough of a distraction
Or could Babal’s lingual curse
Turn free flow discourse, so terse?

Perhaps less words, more discussion
Less debate, and more collusion
We gain more by being less demanding
Let’s try and reach an understanding.

Someone Special

After some prompting from a few friends and family, I decided to take the plunge into the seedy world of online dating sites.

Punch in the words ‘dating’, ‘date’, or ‘single’, and you will be hit by plethora of sites all offering confidentiality, a range of fabulous eligible people, and of course, the obvious ‘special’ person you are BOUND to find.

Here’s the reality: you sign up to a few half decent looking sites who immediately want to scalp you for 10 – 20 pounds per month just for the privilege of signing up and slapping your details up in the cattle market. So whilst attempting to dip one’s toe into the sea of singles, you decide to take up their generous offer on a first freebie month, or the pared down ‘free’ test-it-first version which is missing some ‘perks’ but giving you a chance to take a look through those thousands of ‘eligible’ singles.

Round One: The chat up lines

“Hi”
or…
“Hey, you iz cute”
or…
“Msg me, perhaps we can hook up” (he lives 400 miles away)

Always winners.

Round Two: Mr Eligible

‘Eligible’ seems to come in three flavours. There’s ‘Married and looking for a bit on the side’ – obvious connotations. Then there’s ‘Mr sneak and peek’ – they come in, look at your profile, and then wander off again. Then there’s ‘Mr Hit & Run’ – you get a message with simply, ‘Hi’ or a contact request with no message at all, or perhaps even better: “You iz cutez – wanna get jiggy?”. Maybe I’m old fashioned, but I kinda figured an opening conversation would be a great ice breaker.

Round Three: Back to the drawing board

After giving it a go for around three months, I’ve cancelled the accounts. I have come to the conclusion that anything to do with dating or getting chatted up on the internet simply won’t work.

I’m going back to basics and to ‘real life’ and taking up a pottery class in the Autumn. Perhaps I’ll meet someone special over the pug machine.