Stepping in to the water

April 2013

I am, apparently, a SWOFty. Single woman over 50. It's time to get out on to the midlife dating merry-go -round and see if I still have enough zing left to form some relationships with the opposite sex.

Why a blog?- because I bet I am not the only anxious boomer on the second time around market... I find the whole concept of meeting someone online utterly terrifying. Apparently "everybody" is doing it these days....

So, while out riding with a friend (horses will be the other theme, just a much emotional input there sometimes) she tells me that she has signed up with a dating site to rattle her boyfriend a bit. I did nearly fall off the horse at mention of this extreme action, but to try and look at it from both sides, her boyfriend is married, does push the "rules" and gives little in practical commitment but a lot of talk.

So I go home, log on and sign up. After some wrangling with the website, I realise I must have signed up yonks ago, as there are  a couple of hundred "matches" dating back several months. I thought I'd tidy things up and start deleting the ones at the back, but that took  took too long, so I began from the front. Found one only 4 months old that's in the same town. looks completely reasonable and so I flick off a little greeting, being careful to pick a neutral tone, and scroll on through the list.

Dating merry go round

Hmm... maybe I fell off the Merry go round? Time to get back up and into the playground. So, my launch in to the OD world started VERY well- found that I had a backlog of matches on the EH page and thus started working through in reverse order. It's been quite a job  culling it down to a shortlist of 100 or so! Anyway, there was a match in Wagga - with photo. This guy looked genuine and normal!! Sent a message, got email back...2 weeks later it was time for the first coffee and I could not believe my luck.....silly, silly me as all the initial effort on his behalf, texts, looking forwards to seeing you tonight etc....were totally pointless as after 4 weeks of what I mistakenly viewed as a deepening friendship, I got the flick yesterday with the "it's not working as a couple" line.

So my question to you is: If I was such an unattractive prospect, why wait 4 weeks? I kept myself very nice...anyhow, trying not to let this seem too crushing so watch this space.