Poppy: I've been ODing for years on and off, I usually try for a few months, then give up for a few more months, then try again, etc. I've used a different site every time, this time it's OKC, and I have to say that so far it's the site where I've had the greatest number of promising contacts.
48: new date will have to be known as Mr HotYoga, as he practises, well, hot yoga. He's emailed me to suggest a lunch date next week rather than wait until after new year.
An interesting thought: dating sites put us in the position of assessing potential partners as though they were commodities, like digital cameras. In fact, we really assess partners as what he calls 'experience goods' - like wine or chocolate.
You can measure the weight of a bottle of wine, you can record the height of the bottle; you can measure the wine's alcohol content, its colour, the number and length of the 'legs' that run down the side of the glass; you can write down the date it was produced, the grape variety and the region it was made in. That's all very interesting for a few people - but it tells you nothing you really want to know. Wine is something to experience. You want to smell and taste the wine - and all those other, measurable, factors are actually only useful to you as ways to prepare you for that experience.
People are much more like wine (or chocolate) than digital cameras. When you taste a glass of wine, you could describe it, but it wouldn't really be a very useful description. But you know if you like it or if you don?t.