Classified!

To my regular readers, I apologise for the lack of posts over recent days. I know, because some of you have asked the question offline, that you have been wondering whether my silence has been down to the fact that I've met a potentially significant other at last. Not yet, I'm afraid.

However, you may quite reasonably be wondering what has become of the aforementioned potential dates...and what other excitement has occurred, since I penned Hedge Fun?

Not enough in my view.

His Hotness, along with his uniform, has disappeared into the ether never to be heard from again. I could tell you what he does for a living and get him, in his words, 'into serious trouble'. I won't because I'm not vindictive, but it does beg the question why he divulged such classified information to a woman he does not know, so cannot know whether he can trust, if he was planning on going to ground a few days later?

Left Luggage went the same way...

The entrepreneurial one who was worryingly recently separated announced, the day before I had tentatively agreed to meet him, that he'd met someone else and it was all going very well and he thought he'd fallen for her, so couldn't meet. Doesn't that smack just a little of neediness, albeit that I didn't have high hopes for him anyway. On the positive side, he did at least have the decency to be honest rather than just stand me up.

And the others, should I meet them? Here's the dilemma....if you're not excited about a date before it even happens is it worth going?

Amidst a very busy working life and a social life to rival Prince Harry's (without the naked pool playing), charity work (yes, yes, I know I sound like a Miss. World contestant, even if I don't look like one) and my pretence at keeping fit, I don't have a great deal of time. I would happily make the time for the right man, if he appeared in my life, but the time taken in finding him, which generally ends up being wasted, is having something of a negative impact on both my sanity and my optimism...

On the other hand, is it fair to judge the likely compatibility of a date on the face of a few emails and possibly a telephone call? It may sound harsh but, yes, I think I and my friends who've dated for England over the last few years would probably say it it is fair.

So, for the next month at least, I'm only going to go on dates that I'm excited about. Obviously, such excitement may not translate into real life when we meet but at least there's a fighting chance.

So, tonight, I am going on a date that I'm very excited about. There are one or two 'red flags', but I'm fast coming to the conclusion that these are inevitable at my age and are merely a reminder that careful and cautious handling of my heart is required rather than instant dismissal of his. In the interests of avoiding jinx, I am saying absolutely nothing, other than I'm meeting him tonight ... if he calls me today to arrange time and place that is ... and, for now, I shall call him Classified....