Can he be for real?

I actually made a date. No trekking across London, but not too close to home. Instinct warned me that meeting for coffee, rather than dinner would be a wise decision.

As it turned out, even coffee was far too long to be in this man's company. He talked non-stop about himself, how rubbish his life is, how he has too work too hard (don't we all?) how terrible his ex-wife is, (you married her, get over it), how he has no friends (fancy that).

You get the picture. I ran screaming out of the coffee-shop. No, actually I drank my coffee very fast and said a polite goodbye. He was still talking at me as I left. He may still be there now.

Left standing there.

I have a confession. This time last year I stood a date up.

My defence is that we'd made the date 10 years earlier. To be honest I thought it was a joke - not to be taken seriously, like when people say to the couple they meet on holiday: "Oh you must pop in some time", never thinking they will.

So there I am on a Saturday afternoon, at home, when the phone rings. I answer and an unfamiliar voice says: "Oh if you're there you're obviously not meeting me here." I'm just about to say he's got the wrong number when he says his name, and I recall this long-ago conversation! He is waiting on the steps of the Tate.

We meet later - and he looks exactly the same - not even 5 years older, let alone 10. But sadly the reason we haven't been having a fun packed decade together remains. Utter incompatibility. We'll not meeting again in 2021!