Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Swoon... and smooch!

Having Christmas behind us finally cleared the way for Finlay and I to have our second date, almost a full two weeks since our first night out. I was looking forward to it – I’d actually been a little worried it mightn’t eventuate. Nearly two weeks is a long time in the online dating world, where it takes so little for connections to fizzle, no matter how promising they appear...

But that didn’t happen, thankfully. We kept in touch with the odd text and a couple of days after Christmas he asked me out to dinner. He suggested Dida’s, a cosy tapas bar that I’ve been wanting to go to for ages (I heard they do great churros – yum!). The next night I arrived there before him, feeling self-conscious sitting on a stool up at the bar as I waited, nervous and excited to see him again.

He arrived and we settled in at one of the low couches on the side and chatted over our glasses of wine. What I like about him is that he’s really easy to talk to – and interesting. Small talk definitely isn’t my strong suit so when conversation is effortless I love it. There was also the delight of finding out that we have similar outlooks on life in a lot of ways, it’s always nice to meet a kindred spirit.

We ordered a selection of yummy tapas – slices of spicy chorizo cooked up in red wine, baby peppers stuffed with cheese, prawns wrapped in pancetta and lamb cooked on rosemary skewers. It was gorgeous food and such a nice way to eat, just casually picking off plates and sharing dishes. And we did finish with the churros – piping hot with thick chocolate sauce to dunk them in. So good!

At the end of the night I was glowing with the pleasure of his company and the cosy atmosphere of Dida’s, not to mention the two glasses of wine I had. He walked me to my car and we said goodnight with a short, sweet kiss on the lips. I smiled as I drove home and marvelled at how much fun I had. So much so that I had to pull over and text him straight away: Thank you for a lovely night, you’re such great company x

I also texted a couple of girlfriends as soon as I got home, eager to share the good news. The word ‘swoon’ seemed to come up a lot!
Date #2 with Finlay was a raging success. He’s just as great as I thought he was. Swoon…
Just got home from date #2 with Finlay and it was just lovely. He really is great, swoon…
One wrote back and said: That’s great! You deserve a night out with someone wonderful. And I thought, she’s right, dammit. I do deserve that! It’s funny how you get accustomed to things not going your way, to not getting what you want. It really should be the other way around. How about expecting things to work out beautifully for a change? To unfold effortlessly and in ways even better than you could ever have imagined? Isn’t that a possibility too?

I’m emphatic that surely it is and I would rather live like that. I’ve always believed in the power of positive thinking – self-fulfilling prophecies and all that. So I allowed myself to think about what I would like to happen next with Finlay, in a perfect world, and it was this: wouldn’t it be great to spend New Year’s Eve together and have someone lovely to kiss at midnight for a change?

New Year’s Eve and me have a troubled relationship. On the one hand, New Year is actually one of my favourite times of all. I get all introspective and philosophical on the year just gone, and super inspired and excited and hopeful about what’s to come…

On the other hand, I hate the pressure of New Year’s Eve itself. The pressure to be doing something fabulous, somewhere fabulous with a bunch of fabulous people grates on me. I’m in my thirties, man. My friends and I don’t party anymore. Gone are the days when I had a group of people I could rely on to come into town with me and queue up at the best nightspots to dance until the early hours. All of my friends are coupled up and either out of town or holed up at home with the kiddies. You know?

So my last couple of New Year’s have been exceedingly lame. Last year I saw it in sitting on my parent’s couch watching TV. Sad, sad, sad. And it was looking like more of the same this year, unless…

It seemed like a stretch to wangle a New Year’s with Finlay, on what would essentially be our third date. I knew he was spending it on Waiheke Island with friends. I didn’t really want to invite myself along, that’s a bit pushy for my liking. But I was actually going over to the island on New Year’s Day – my uncle had invited a big group of people over for lunch. Maybe it wouldn’t be so much of a stretch to arrive the night before? Finlay had kind of suggested it when New Year’s came up in conversation…

I weighed up my options and well, it was pretty clear. I could:
  1. Spend it alone. Not an option – next!
  2. Spend it with my parents – again. I love ‘em to death, but it still wasn’t that appealing. Leaving me with the last possibility…
  3. Be proactive, go to the island and see what happens. To be honest the worst case scenario here was still miles ahead of the alternatives. And the best case scenario, well, it could be pretty great.
So I called my uncle and asked if I could crash on his couch for the night. And I texted Finlay and told him it looked like I might be on the island for New Year’s after all, and could I drop by and say hello? I got positive answers from both of them – so I was all set!

And it was so worth doing. I spent the early part of the evening at my uncle’s, having a glass of wine and watching Lord Of The Rings reruns on TV (très sedate!).

Then later I caught a taxi up to the house Finlay was staying at in Surfdale, bottle of bubbly in hand. He met me at the bottom of the long driveway with a flashlight and we walked up to the house together. The party was in full swing by that stage, the room was dark, the music was loud, people were dancing and there were all sorts of concoctions being cooked up with rum and fruit and Jägermeister and red bull and god knows what else! Everyone gave me a very warm and friendly and tipsy welcome and I was so pleased to be there.

We had a great ol’ night. A bit of talking, a bit of drinking, a bit of dancing and of course, the much anticipated countdown to midnight... It was a lovely clear night and the house had brilliant views over the water towards the mainland. We all went outside and after some arguing over who had the correct time, we started counting down and at the end of it, I got just what I’d wanted – my someone lovely to kiss at midnight. Just goes to show that being proactive pays off!

It was a memorable night, and bodes extremely well for 2007, I feel. Start as you mean to continue! I got this text from a friend in Finland:

Always remember for 2007: Life is short, break the rules, forgive quickly, kiss slowly, love truly, laugh uncontrollably and never regret anything that made you smile…Happy new year!

Sounds like a good creed to live by to me.

Happy New Year, everyone!

3 Comments:

At 5 January 2007 at 6:14 pm, Blogger The Dummy said...

What a great start to the new year! It's amazing how we get more of the things we want when we go out and make an effort to get it instead of hoping it lands on our laps. It's looking pretty promising, bb. :)

 
At 6 January 2007 at 6:18 am, Blogger The Dummy said...

Oh, and by the way, let's see how you did at the roll call!

 
At 6 January 2007 at 8:46 pm, Blogger brunette babe said...

It really was a great start to the new year - unexpected and just perfect.

Didn't do so well on the blogwide workout this week though - just one trip to the gym for me. Next week will be better!

 

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