Hello you lovely lot! Something a little different for you today, delving right into a topic that I don’t think I’ve really discussed in any depth on here before and that’s dating and love…

Dating nightmares, dating triumphs, dating no-shows. I hear it all from my girlfriends but my personal dating experience is somewhat limited. I’ve been in a long term relationship for seven and a half years, I was 18 when Charlie and I first got together so I suppose I skipped the key dating days. We met through mutual friends and after a couple of classy drunken nights in Vodka Revs the rest was history. I went on dates in my early teens but I mean, does Frankie & Bennys really qualify as an adult date? Not so much. No shade to F&B’s here (ok a little shade, the vegan options are non-existent)  but if a guy took me there now for our first date I would be questioning whether we were really a match. I don’t need to be fine dined but I do like to head somewhere where kids parties and the ‘congratulations’ song are non existent. Oh there was that one date when I choked on my pizza. That was fun. A word of advice – always ensure you have an adequate supply of water on the table.

Excluding my near-death pizza experience my dating history has been pretty smooth sailing. Charlie did well to pull it out the bag with his dates, on our first he booked tickets to the theatre to see the Lion King which really set the bar. Something he’s lived to regret but hey it worked and I was 10/10 impressed. Would go again. We had no dating blunders, other than an awkward Chinese after work one day, our first as an official couple. We frequently laugh about that one.

So over the past 7 or so years I’ve lived my dating life vicariously through my gal pals, laughing until we cried at the hilarious dates that just turned from bad to worse. I laugh but I’m also sat wondering, how do you even date anymore? How do you get a date? Do you just go and linger at your local pub when football is on? Times have apparently moved on since 2008 (god I’m old) and Badoo, the worlds leading dating app, has over 360 MILLION users worldwide (and not to mention 400,000 new sign ups EVERY DAY). Over 360 million human beings all with their own story, and all looking to find love. Or casual sex, but let’s go with love. That’s pretty incredible isn’t it? 

The app is more than just a catalogue of singletons, it’s clever and it knows exactly how to match you. There are tonnes of amazing new features on Badoo which makes it even easier to look for love. One feature that has totally blown my mind is ‘bumped into’ which enables you to never miss out on that cute guy at the coffee shop ever again. Badoo lets you discover all of the people that crossed you that day, pretty clever huh? As well as sophisticated chat and organisation features, safety is top of the priority list with Badoo. Verified profiles, photo verification and a 24/7 moderation team are just some of the security measures in place to ensure your dating experience is as risk free as possible. So no turning up to the restaurant expecting Brad Pitt and getting Danny DeVito. No offence to Danny DeVito, I actually have a lot of time for him but yeah…you get me. 

I caught up with my girls this week to delve deeper into their dating experiences, purely to ensure this blog post is as entertaining as possible because don’t we all love a dating disaster? Ok, ok, they aren’t all bad, at all actually! Three of my closest friends found their other halves through dating apps such as Badoo (which is actually very popular among my friends!). It seems the way forward these days…

Here are some of my favourite one liners that were discussed (I’ll save you some of the details…)

“How about the time a guy told me he liked to get his ‘winky’ out when drunk?”

“I once went on a date with a guy who ended up urinating over the bar. That was pretty awful. We didn’t see each other again, surprisingly”

“I once dated an American guy from an app, he was lovely and we went to the theatre and for some amazing dinners but unfortunately he had to go back to the states. Maybe we’ll rekindle it some day. Arkansas sounds like a pretty good place to live, right?”

“I once dated a guy who told me he didn’t like pizza. I was silent for a couple of minutes just taking that one in. Who doesn’t like pizza? It’ a good job he was funny”

“My first experience of using an app was pretty good as three years on, we’re still together! I never dreamed of using an app but my experience was a lot better than I thought it would be in all honesty”

“Our first date was awkward. He knocked my red wine down my white dress but I forgave him and we’re getting married next year”

“I’ve only ever had good dates from online dating, it’s just the thing everyone does these days. How else do you find a date in 2017?”

“I once dated a guy in Australia that after a quick Google turned out to be on the missing persons register, that was weird” (yes – that actually happened)

“How about the time I went on a date from an app and fell in love” (n’aww my friends are CUTE) 

It’s a mixed bunch, I’m happily settled but I do LOVE to hear what my single girls get up to on their dates. Whilst I do enjoy a romantic story of bumping into each other into the store and falling in love, or both reaching for the last bottle of wine on the shelf and running off into the sunset it’s realistically just not as easy as that these days, is it? We’re all busy humans, going about our own lives trying hold up a job, side hustle and social life. It just makes sense that dating moves online just like everything else, it’s convenient and it saves time because really, who wants to have to traipse around clubs every weekend pretending to have a good time? A quick flick of Badoo is much more appealing isn’t it? You don’t even need to change out of your pyjamas for that.