Now dating in London can be amazing. There are loads of places to eat, drink and a million and one things to see and do, but let’s be honest. Like dating in most big cities, irksome things can sometimes leave us feeling really grumpy, especially in the summer.
Here are the top 9 things we love to hate about dating in London:
1. Getting the Underground to a date: Summer on the tube is a nightmare at the best of times but even more so when you’ve made that special effort to be clean and fragrant for a date only to arrive sweaty and whiffy. It’s no fun being wedged between a backpack and an armpit for the best part of our journey as we slowly cook in our own bodily juices and feel that perfectly applied make-up start to slide off our faces – right, ladies?
2. Getting the Underground home from a date: Date is going really well, you look at your watch. The chances are the last train leaves in approximately three minutes and it’s the end of the month so your finances won’t stretch to a black cab. The night bus, which is always full of vomiting and smelly types, then becomes the only viable option, as does sleeping in a doorway or stealing a lift back home on a milk float.
3. Queues to the best restaurants: What is it with these ‘can’t pre-book’ joints that are all the rage these days? Trust us, this is not helpful to awkward first time daters. Please don’t torture us with a long wait times and gawky conversations, people! We need to flirt and eat!
4. The cost of coffee: Yes, coffee joints make great first dates. It’s just annoying when we actually really fancy our date so then clock up £105 for a 6 cups of coffee when we could have gone to the Ivy instead…
5. The weather: OK, this isn’t a strictly London thing but we always plan romantic, care-free picnics in the park with a basket of scrummy treats for the heaven’s to suddenly open and rain on your parade. Typical. Soggy sarnie anyone?
6. Picnics in the park: Again, picnics in the park sound fab during a sunny spell but then 5000 other people think so too so your romantic time is spent listening to other people’s loud and overly graphic conversations, all the while fighting off Airbus-size pigeons threatening food-theft and poo splatterings.
7. Far from the madding crowd: So you arranged to meet them outside Covent Garden tube. Bad idea – there must be at least 20 six foot, brown haired guys called Tom in a 20 metre vicinity. And no one wants to be saying, “Are you Tom?” to every man who looks like he’s waiting for you as you’ll then run the real risk of being led away by men in white coats…not that anyone would notice, this is London after all.
8. The big city/small city thing: So the date didn’t work – what are the chances of you ever seeing them again? Very low, that is except for when you’d really rather not see them and find yourself sharing a Tube escalator. It’s called sod’s law.
9. The big city/small city thing #2: You meet up centrally near work only to discover your fab date lives on the far side of East London and you live in South West London. You’re now toying with whether the 90-minute commute to see each other is worth it. Which takes us back to the commuting on the tube in summer…hmm, they’d need to be pretty special.
Anything else to add to this list? Share your grumpy thoughts @lovestruck
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