Ten Most Popular Posts of 2011

The beginning of 2011 was blog-tastic!

As far as blogging goes, 2011 has been a funny old year for me. It got off to a very strong start, with me making a list of dating-related new year resolutions and then getting stuck straight in by going to a singles party, signing up for a dating boot camp weekend and then inviting my international blogging buddies to help me celebrate the site’s one year anniversary with a week long series of guest posts.

However, a violently strong love-hate relationship with online dating was spurred on by the idiots on Plenty of Fish and having to spend money on sites that couldn’t guarantee even one date. That, along with the fact I had dates with a weird stalker type, a guy who nearly proposed on the first date (well not really, but kinda) and a guy who seemed lovely and keen before flaking out on me after two really good dates, made me feel that my dating life had pretty much gone to pot.

Nice, But Nothing Special…

This year hasn’t been too great for me as far as dates have been concerned. There was Lovestruck Guy, who I met at a singles event and went out with just once before he turned into a weird-ass Bug A Boo.  There was also the guy my friend set me up with, who was nice enough but acted like one date was the equivalent to us having already been together for one year. When he tried to put one of my rings on my wedding finger, I knew I was entering into stage five clinger territory and couldn’t get him out of there fast enough.

With those recent experiences under my belt, you can totally understand me not having the desire (or energy) to date for awhile. However, as mentioned in my last  couple of blog posts, I’m feeling refreshed and raring to go again.  Here’s the first date of (hopefully) many in summer 2011…

eHarmony 0 -1 Plenty of Fish

With only one month of my three month eHarmony subscription left, the race is now on to see if I can get a date (or at least have an exciting conversation) using what is supposed to be one of the world’s most succesful dating websites. While I wasn’t too keen on the idea of a paid-for website, I’d heard lots of good things about it from other people so was excited to give it a go. I mean, what sort of dating blogger would I be if I hadn’t even experienced the dating giant know as eHarmony? Unfortunately, I’m sad to say that after two months, it’s just not working for me.

Me, when checking my eHarmony 'matches'

I went through ‘guided communication‘ with a nice-enough guy the first week I joined. I found the guided communication process to be long and tedious and to top it off, there wasn’t even a conversation at the end of it! Since then, I regularly check the matches they select for me but to no avail. The past couple of months have pretty much consisted of me saying “really, they think that we’re a match?” – just because I like watching TV, keeping my home clean and orderly and reading newspapers, it does not mean that any man who does the same is a good romantic match for me. Also the past two months have had me doing a lot of internal screaming whenever I check my matches and discover yet another blank photo with the words “request my photo” across it.  I have a selection of pics up, why are they so special that they think people need to specially request to see theirs?  Grrrr! It’s also very annoying to send  a message to a suggested match when it turns out they haven’t logged on for three weeks and most likely no longer have a valid membership. Fail, fail, fail.

Deuces! Time To Say Goodbye To POF

Apologies for not being consistent with my blog posting. I know its not great but admittedly, I do this from time to time. I mostly do this when bored of ‘dating’ which, I guess doesn’t bode too well for someone who is a ‘dating blogger’. Sometimes I go quiet when my ‘real life’ is busy and I don’t have time to write.  Mostly I disappear when I’d had enough of trawling dating websites every day. Scratch that. It”s usually Plenty of Fish that’s to blame. That website drives me absolutely doolally but yet in some weird self-harming way, I’m totally addicted to it. It’s kinda sorta entertaining. It’s kinda sorta educational (in a ‘that’s-exactly-what-I-DON’T-want’ kind of way) but most of all, Plenty of Fish never fails to generate great blog content. I wouldn’t have been inspired to write past blog gems such as ‘I Am Not Interested‘ and ‘Messages on POF – So Bad They’re Good if it weren’t for PlentyofFish.com’.

Chucking Up The Deuces (Credit: The Tez)

I’ve been on Plenty of Fish for nearly a year now. Apart from sending crappy messages, dates and blog inspiration my way, what has it actually done for me? Nothing! Yes it is free, but like a lot of things in life, you get what you pay for. I pay nothing, I get nothing. Therefore I’ve come to the conclusion that I need to wean myself off of the site. So from today onwards, there will be no more POF related-content. It’s time for me to move onto new things and hopefully the results will be different.