In a new weekly feature, Her.ie goes behind enemy lines to see what it’s really like to be single in Ireland.
From speed dating to making speedy escapes, our no-holds-barred blog will follow one girl’s attempts to venture into the dating jungle, play the field and share any wisdom that she finds along the way!
Week Fifteen: Gone Fishing
Over the last few months, we've mostly been concentrating on the highs and lows of dating with Tinder but as we all know, there are more ways than one to skin a cat... or find a hottie!
Lately, I've been hearing a lot of stories about people using Plenty of Fish - with mixed results - so I decided to dedicate this week to two stories of romance (or lack of!) sent in by our lovely readers.
First up, Aileen!
"After a seriously long (six years) troubled relationship, I found myself single again. In the days before Tinder, my adventurous single best friend told me to join Plenty Of Fish (POF) so apprehensively I uploaded my best photos and wrote a painstakingly short personal statement.
Away I went, receiving numerous messages including an invitation for 'no strings fun' in a car park in Sligo and a detailed message from a couple looking for a participant in a threesome to "spice up their marriage". Finally, with my finger on the 'delete account' button, I received a message from a respectable looking Navy fella who honestly came across as a nice guy!
Loads of messages followed, numbers were swapped and phone calls began! Finally D-Day came and his ship was coming to Galway so we decided to meet. Fake tan, blow dry and French Polish ready, I with my back-up (aka best friend) headed into our favourite pub for a couple of drinks. Dutch courage on board, I rang him only to find out that he was in the teeny bopper nightclub up the road. When I declared I wasn't moving, he said he'd come meet me!
Thirty minutes later, he arrives in the pub HAMMERED and goes to lob the gob on me within the first five minutes before using me as a prop to steady himself while he stumbled to the bathroom!
My friend came over and asked what I thought and I have to admit that I did something I'm not proud of. I ran as if my life depended on it! Usain Bolt would have been proud!
I received a text early next morning along with 20 missed calls! He was a nice guy but a terrible drunk and I still receive an Christmas text two years on! Plenty of Fish my eye!"
Now before you go knocking POF off the list of dating options, another reader by the name of Sophie has a slightly more uplifting tale for us.
"I met a guy on POF, we got to chatting on the website and we seemed to hit it off great! He seemed like a funny, honest, down to earth and funny guy! He passed the mandatory Facebook/Twitter/Instagram search (stalk) with flying colours! We had exchanged numbers and after nearly a week, I finally got the text: "Can I take you out sometime?".
That scary butterfly feeling came into my tummy and I was immediately petrified! What do I wear?! Where are we going?! What do we talk about?! All these thoughts were running through my mind!
A few days later, we had arranged to go to the Guinness Storehouse and... the date went amazing! What started out as a cute little 'daytime date' ended up with us in a nightclub until about 3am! No awkward silences, no awkward kisses - we just hit it off straight away! That was in January this year, it's now mid-June and we are 'official' and have actually just booked our first couple's holiday together for the end of the summer. So... chin up ladies, there still are some nice guys out there...they're quite few and far between so keep on searching and you'll get there eventually!"
We want to hear your dating stories! Email hello@her.ie or tweet us @Herdotie with the #shiftyfirstdates.
