The Shark

I went to the Playground with work people again on this particular Thursday.  As we got there, I did the usual lap around the bar to establish the best place to sit, and what kind of talent we had in the bar this evening. As I did, I saw the most dashing man.
Now, Thursday nights in this establishment are known as Suit Night. This particular man however stood out from the crowd for a few reasons: He was rather tall. He had the most amazing eyes. He was in jeans, a t-shirt and a beanie (I have a thing for beanie-wearing men!). And this man had a smile that could light up the entire room.

As I walked past, I kept eye contact, smiled, and walked on by. As I completed my lap, my lovely Blond Girlfriend (affectionately know as Cougar 1) asked whether there was anything worthwhile around. I relayed my amazement at The Shark, and she wanted to see such a thing for herself, so she took me by the arm and off we went again, drink in hand.

As we passed by the second time (this was within the space of five minutes mind you) I made eye contact again, and grinned at him unashamedly. As I passed him by he took a hold at my arm, telling me that I didn't get to look at him like that and just keep walking. So C1 and I stopped, introduced ourselves, and settled in for a while.

My usual topic of conversation at this point is around occupation, it's an easy ice-breaker. But as soon as the question had slipped passed my lips, I immediately retracted it. He looked at me, slightly baffled. I responded with something along the lines of "I really am not fussed with what you do for a living, so long as what you do makes you happy". And that was that.

For once in my life my nonchalance paid off. He was so impressed that I didn't care about his vocation, even more so, we made a pact to talk about anything but work. And it was refreshing. It was so nice to not have someone grill me on what I do for a living, and the attitudes that usually correspond with my vocation.

We spend the rest of the night drinking and talking. I left at about 1. He kissed me goodnight and put me in a taxi.

We met up for a couple of dates after that.  We went and played some pool, drank some cider. We went for dinner at his local Thai, a nice intimate place. It was a great night. These times we went out he held my hand, kissed me every now and then, particularly when he bid me farewell. Then we went to the Botanical Gardens, hung out for a day.  It was a great laid back day. And then, as I dropped him home, he kissed me on the cheek.  Hmmm.

So, I took the hint, I backed off. But he persisted with catching up, going down to the pub and playing pool and drinking cider (favourite past time of mine thanks to The Kid). But the affection had definitely backed down to 'mates' status.  I learnt a lot about him in this time though. I learnt that he excelled to professional snooker level at the age of 9. He'd left school and played snooker his entire life.  It's all he knew. He worked a 'normal' job, but never an office job, but he loved nothing more than to hustle.

The one thing that I kept from The Shark the entire time was that I was a mum. He lived this carefree lifestyle that was so far from my life, so contrasted from everything I knew, I didn't know how to bring it into the conversation. I dropped hints, suggesting that there were parts of my life that were so different to the parts that he saw.

He liked my high energy levels, and in contrast, I loved spending time with him for his calming nature. I think we fed off each other.  After spending a chunk of time at his place, I finally invited him over for dinner. Cooked him my famous Spaghetti Bolognese. My eight year olds bike was on the front veranda when we walked into the house. He said "nice bike" and just kept walking. It wasn't until after about a half hour when he saw my five year olds reading words written on the glass door that he asked about them. I pointed out the fridge (covered in drawing and certificates from school). Then the penny dropped. He simply responded "Oh, so you're a mum". And that was it.

The amount of times now that we've spend days together drinking wine and dancing around the lounge room in the comfort and ease of each others' company still baffles me to this day. We spend time together and he never seems to want it to end, often asking if I can stay a bit longer. I can honestly say I find it hard to leave. Spending time with him is easy. But we're mates now. That's what we are, and that's what we'll be. I'm not sure what happened to get us from 'dating' to mates, I'm not even sure that we'll ever have that conversation, but what I have now is an amazing person in my life that I wouldn't trade for the world.

And it sure is nice that he's not trying to get in my pants ;)

The Canadian

Probably one of the most uneventful dates I've ever had.

We met for a drink in North Sydney. The conversation was easy enough.
Work was what we had in common. Both working in the IT Industry gave us plenty to discuss.
We decided to kick on for dinner - at his favourite little Thai place in Kirribilli. He had obviously eaten there a lot because the wait staff who could barely speak a word of English knew him by name.  The food was great.

I dropped him back to his place, as he had walked (obviously planning on drinking a lot). He lived right in front of the Harbour Bridge, the most amazing view you'll see (which I saw from the street only).

He kissed me goodnight and we both knew that was done there and then. The most riveting thing about that man was his accent, but surely that would have worn thin!

The Pilot

One of my favourites. Even still now after the guy gives me the heebie-geebies, in hindsight, he did so well at the beginning.

The Pilot was exactly that, a domestic airline captain. Sexy. You should see the pictures in uniform.
We started over email exchange.

Pilots have to re-sit a set of exams every six months to ensure that they're still fit to fly.  He was in the middle of studying for these exams when we started our email exchange.  Therefore, he was buying himself time.
For every 'decent' email exchange that occurred, we traded a phone number digit.  This made for an intriguing banter, sparked my attention, and had me chomping at the bit.  It was creative, and kept me at arms length.  He was playing a game, he was in control, and this, to me, is incredibly attractive.
The email exchange was limited to about one per day. Some days, if a photo was emailed, then two digits would be exchanged.  It took about a week to get a phone number. Like I mentioned previously this made for an engaging liaison; a "you had me at hello" moment.

My final email to him was a sole image; a homemade cup of coffee. It scored me the last digit of his phone number. It also scored me dinner.

I picked him up from his place. He'd booked and organised dinner locally. We had a glass of wine, then headed out for dinner. The chemistry was definitely there. All the email flirting that had gone on was also there in the flesh, which was a relief.

As we walked into the restaurant - a trendy Japanese place, I saw a friend of mine who I simply adore. He was gracious, went and checked on our booking, allowing me a quick hello with this friend of mine.  

Dinner was fantastic.  He insisted on footing the bill.  The conversation was easy. I dropped him back at his place and he invited me in for a glass of red.  I obliged.  As one started to look like three, I commented that I was going to have to stop drinking as I was driving for the night. 

He (as a true gentleman would of course) offered me a bed for the night.

I (as a lady would of course) take him up on his offer.  OK, so this is NOT how a lady should act.  Had I gone home I believe things would have gone differently.  However, for a man who spends his life with stewardesses, I also never believed that this had've been a long term option. Wanted it to be, it suited my lifestyle perfectly. Someone who's away half the time. One cannot smother when one is away! He was suave, funny, kind - he ticked all the right boxes, but he also came across (probably as I do) like he does this all the time.

I stayed the night.  I slept with him, and got to somewhere between second and third base (I've never been entirely clear on this one). It was nice waking up next to him the next morning.

We went out for breakfast. Around mid morning, I called it and toddled off home.  There were no "we should do this again" or "I'll call you soon" remarks.  Nor was it uncomfortable.

We have texted, from time to time, but we've never caught up again. Do I mind? No, not really. It becomes water off a ducks back after a while.  I think, once there is a man who really catches my eye, who knocks my socks off and blows me away, that it might start to matter.  I'm still waiting for that day to happen - clearly... as I still have many a blog post to write...