Blind Dating For Friends

Moving to a new country is tough, especially one where you don’t know that many people. Growing up in the same place for 27 years means that you know a lot of people. There are always friends available to see and many plans to choose from on a Saturday night. There would be weekends back home when I would ask my husband if it could “just be the two of us this weekend”. A quiet weekend at home with no social events; just for a change. (Being a bit of a home body I probably asked him this every weekend. He thankfully declined this request on most occasions, and we would go out).

However, I seem to have gotten my wish here in London as meeting people is a bit of a process; and there are many weekends where it is “just the two of us”. Thankfully we are not just a married couple but also the best of friends, or else boredom would have ensued. So we have loads of fun together; but there comes a time when you need the company of others.

And so it begins, accepting ANY and every social invitation offered to you. It could be people you just met or people your husband knew from high school who he hasn’t seen or heard from in 10 years. But you go anyway, or else it’s you, a cup of tea and ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ on a Saturday night. It usually goes something like this: *Jenny and Michael invite you out for dinner. They seem nice, albeit a little dull; and Jenny has an irritating laugh. But you have high hopes for these new potential friends and you start to tick off the boxes

o    Do we like these people?

o    Do we get on, do we have any common interests?

o    Will they just be acquaintances, people we invite to make up the numbers?

o    Would we invite them to Christmas dinner?

o    Would I invite them to my Birthday?

o    Would we never invite these people to anything? Ever.

X  We don’t like Jenny and Michael. We won’t be seeing them again…….

Meeting new people is made even more difficult here in London. It seems to be a very fluid place. People are constantly moving in and out, settling for 6 months or 2 years then moving back home.

Not too long ago we accepted one of these invitations and met some new people. We struck up a conversation with another couple and found we had a few things in common. We liked these people, and yes we would invite them out again, maybe even to my birthday, or Christmas dinner!!!!!!!!!!

“So how long have you been living in England for?” we asked, with high hopes for our new found friendship.

“It’s coming up to a year next month,” they replied.

We “ooohed” and “aaaahed” appropriately. “How are you enjoying it?” we asked

“Really loving it, but looking forward to going home. We’re going back in June this year.”

And that was that, back to square one; and back to tea with ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ on Saturday night.

 Now where did I put Jenny and Michaels number??

*names have been made up as these people are fictitious. ;)