The Dog Walker

So the year by this point is coming to an end, and perhaps in a bid to squeeze the very last bit of romance out of December, I agree to going on a blind date with a friend of a friend.

Quick background for you: The Dog Walker is actually a friend of my friend's father. They work together and live in the same village. He's recently divorced, wants to meet someone, settle down, have children and apparently been on some really bad blind dates.

When thinking of single friends that my friend's father could set the Dog Walker up with, he's thought, I know, Amy, she's single, why don't I set her up with him. So the father begins to describe me by saying that I'm "not normal, a dancer and fit". The Dog Walker apparently thinks, ok, why don't we meet for a drink when I'm next back in England.

Now I'm a little bit dubious, I'm not one for being set up on a blind date but I agree to it on the proviso to my friends that this is purely a sympathy date, I'm doing a good public service by going out with him on a dog walk as "a date".

Now as a date it was actually quite nice. It was good to get out and go for a long walk in the country side followed by a quick drink in a proper English country pub. As for the actual date itself, I think in my mind I was so set that this was a "sympathy date" that I had my guard up quite a lot. I was my normal self, don't get me wrong, but perhaps I was very aware of what my "normal self" was.

The conversation flowed nicely, although it was quite heavy on being single, going out, trying to meet people, dating websites and plans for the future. I think we both knew that we had both had a couple of nice hours together but that was it and although we had said keep in touch, lets do it again sometime, I think we both knew that that wasn't going to happen.

So in conclusion, a nice date, not terribly exciting, not wowed but nice. However, one should not forget that this was purely a sympathy date and although I wish him well with his quest for romance, I knew that I had a date the next day with the Ex-Husband which I was very excited about going on, and perhaps on that fact alone, any date I had on that day was always going to be overshadowed by the prospects of the next day...