I wasn’t nervous or anything; more excited and jumpy. I’ve gone on dates before, but not where I didn’t know anything about the person.
I rocked up five minutes early, sat down, and had a drink, then Alex rocked up. She said she doesn’t come to the city much, but I’m the opposite because I play a gig in Northbridge every weekend. I play in a few heavy metal bands. I’ve got a gig at Milk Bar in a few weeks with one of my bands, Remission.
When I mentioned that I was playing in bands, she asked, “what kind of music?” and said, “metal”. She didn’t instantly recoil, which is always a good sign.
It went quickly in a good way. There weren’t any awkward breaks in conversation or anything like that. I looked at my watch, and it was 8.30 pm, and then we were talking, and I looked at my watch again, and it was 10 pm.
She’s a teacher, and she built a house and moved into that earlier this year. She also does dancing and teaches tap dancing lessons as well as Monday to Friday school teaching. She was just interesting to talk to, and there was a lot of back and forth with asking questions.
She asked me about my family. I’ve got a couple of siblings, and she was like, ‘are you the youngest?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m 26, and then my oldest sister’s 29.’ She asked, ‘Is it OK if I’m the same age as your sister?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, I don’t care. That makes you a cougar.’
She was nice but not nice, like a generic blanket term. I enjoyed learning things about her, talking to her, and getting to know her.
Overall, it was one of the best dates I’ve been on. We added each other on Facebook. And then I sent her a message saying I had a good time and asked if she was keen to catch up; I’m eager to catch up, and she said she was. Hopefully, there’s a second date. I think there will be, so I’ll look forward to that.
Alex, 29, says:
Before going into this, the overall feeling was, are they even going to rock up, or am I just going to sit here, and everyone knows why I’m here, and I end up sitting alone?
I was a little bit late finding parking. So when I wasn’t the first one there, it was a bit better because I knew straightaway he was there.
At first, it’s a little awkward because you know nothing. I remembered his name because I was purposefully trying. Otherwise, I think it probably would have just left me pretty fast. We started chatting and got the small talk out of the way. He was really lovely. So he exceeded my expectations because you go in, I guess, expecting the worst but hoping for the best.
We were joking about why we got matched up because he plays music in a band — he’s a drummer. I thought that that was pretty cool that he made music. I made pieces all through high school and uni. But the opposite, I did classical violin. His brother’s a music therapist; I thought that was a cool career. And we both realized we worked at different cinemas but worked at the cinemas through uni, so we talked about some funny experiences and walk-ins in the cinemas that we probably shouldn’t have seen.
We talked about interesting skills we have, and his impressive talent was that he’s good at fixing staplers and can count in 28s well. He’s a pharmacist, so most of the prescriptions were in 28, so he knows all of his multiplications in 28. I don’t have a special skill. I can keep plants alive, though.
We were there for ages. We felt like we were getting kicked out by the end because we were like the last people in the restaurant. It was a good day because otherwise, we both joked about how we probably would have left quickly if it wasn’t.
We’ve added each other on Facebook and messaged each other a little. We’ve both said we’re keen to catch up again.