Still grumpy but for a different reason.

My second night back in Bali found me meeting a person from another dating site for dinner. We had exchanged a few emails and the conversations seemed to be flowing quite easily (as easily as you can interpret through emails) and so what the heck, that's what being here and pro-active in the search is all about, right? So lets do dinner.

As she worked I made the two hour journey to her neck of the woods and a restaurant of her suggestion, Prada. Yes, as the name suggests it was a nice resto in a lovely location near the water with really good food and service.

At our appointed time to meet, 7pm, I received a call telling me she was running a little late, which is fine as I was enjoying a beer and the outdoor atmosphere as well as the small ensemble that had begun to play background music. At 7.30 I receive another call, her telling me that she was not far away now and should be appearing very shortly. At 7.45 she appears looking very little like her photo that she uses in her profile. But hey, that's OK it was the communication between us that I was more attracted too anyway. Sadly there was to be little or no communication.

After the first ten minutes or so it seemed to me that my date was either very nervous, shy, withdrawn, introverted, terrified or very possibly catatonic, and so it was left to me to lead the conversation at every juncture and try not get too frustrated at the monosyllabic responses from my dinner guest. But hey, that's OK. These things are a bit of a roll of the dice anyway. There is no telling how these things go and it really is most important to ensure you have a good time regardless, yeah? And so I went from beer to scotch!!!

We were eating a lovely meal, the ambient music filling our often uncomfortable silences and it was obvious something had to give.And so it was I put the foot down with the scotch, much to the horror of my now mute guest as I started rambling on about all sorts of subjects more to amuse myself than with any real expectation of a response from her.

I essentially scoffed desert and ask for the bill, payed, and we went our separate ways. Me in a taxi for the two hour trip back home.

Now I'm not really that disappointed (even though I may sound like it)about the evening as you have to get in the game to have any chance of winning, so to speak. But here are some requests for future dates after experiencing two months of online dating.

1. Delete all the photos that depict you falsely on your profile. Pretty much all the women I have dated look little like their photos. They will invariably show many of themselves as cute young things as far as they can get away with it, and throw in one photo that is a little closer to what they really look like. Even then it isn't that close. If you lie about your looks, I don't trust you as soon as you walk in. Get it?

2. If we have an appointed time to meet, short of your house burning down, please respect that arrangement or you may find a drunk at the table when you arrive, or, find no- one at all.

3. If it seems that we are actually poles apart and really don't have any connection or common ground at all, is it really sooo hard just to be polite and pass the time over our dinner/bowling/juice on the beach/walk in the park with idle chit chat about nothing in general until we are put out of our misery by the cheque arriving?

4. At the end of the evening after we have tortured each other, there is no way I believe you when you say, "Maybe we should do that again, I'll give you a call." Just lets laugh about it and say good luck, hey? Can we keep it real?

5. You know from my profile I smoke, and although I'm not an alcoholic, I may enjoy a beer, wine or scotch over dinner. Please don't look at me like I've eaten your sister's children for this.

I promise normal, positive, upbeat blogs shall resume here with.