Date #25

Date Matched:  6 April 2016

Ethnicity:  Australian

Age: 32

Date Met: 13 April 2016

Icebreaker: Him

Icebreaking Message:  “Hi ____ 🙂 How are you enjoying Tasmania so far?”

–

This Match was one of those down to earth guys I enjoy talking to on Tinder whenever I can. He was a breath of fresh air compared to some of the less genuine types I came across. I especially liked that he started conversation with an open ended question.

He seemed like a blokey bloke in his pictures. He had thick eyebrows and heaps of facial hair with a boyish grin and a chest full of hair that seemed to say to the world that he’s a man’s man with no effeminate nonsense about him. He had the stock standard dude shots of him posing on a motorbike, in front of a fire truck, playing golf, and cuddling with a dog. I pictured him to be the type of man with a deep husky voice and a medium build.

He was a decent conversationalist. We chatted about my experiences in Tasmania and how I had originally started out on the island dairy farming out in the sticks and was now trying to start up a life in Launceston. He told me how he had grown up in Launceston and lived in Tasmania his whole life. He had studied at the University of Tasmania and now had a successful career working with computers in software engineering and web development

After chatting about ourselves and getting to know each other casually, he randomly asked me why I was on Tinder and what I was looking for. I answered him honestly and explained my situation. I was a traveler on a Working Holiday visa that was expiring in 3 and a bit months and I wasn’t sure if I was going to extend it for a second year. I had also come out of a serious relationship a couple months ago where kids and marriage were discussed. I wasn’t in a position to offer a serious relationship and I wasn’t looking for a hook-up. I genuinely wanted to make friends and have amazing memories and experiences with interesting people from Tinder.

He seemed relieved by my response. Like me, he wasn’t in a position to jump into anything serious as he was also fresh out of a long term relationship. He didn’t reveal too much about it, other than it lasted three years and eventually turned toxic leaving him emotionally drained. It made things easier and more agreeable once we established that we both were coming from similar situations and had mutual expectations.

As we continued chatting, I told him of my plan to stay in Launceston for as long as possible. I absolutely adored the city with its stunning Cataract Gorge, Tamar Valley, and old European style buildings and parks. I had a part time job waitressing and I was confident that somehow I could find a second job to pull me through. I was so sure of myself, that I decided to try and find a room to rent in a flat share and go from there. The rates in Launceston were ridiculously cheap for Australia, with rooms in a share-house around the CBD and surrounding suburbs ranging from $95-150 per week. I was making just enough to cover those costs so it seemed manageable to pay that rate while looking for a second job.

As the weekend rolled around, like a typical dude Tindering on a weekend, he asked me what I was up to. I told him how I had just checked into a hostel for the week. My Couchsurfing host had his spare room taken over by an Air BNB booking and there was no way in hell I was going to go back to Date #17’s share-house. I was on the hunt for a flatmate and was scouring the listings on Gumtree and Flatmates.com.au, telling my Match about my struggles to find a decent furnished room. To my astonishment, this Match offered a room with a bed that was available in his current share-house. We would have to meet in person, of course, before it became a solid offer. I asked him the stock standard questions, the location: Newstead, cost of rent: $120 per week, not including bills, flatmates: him and his good mate.

Although it seemed a bit unorthodox and out of the ordinary to find a flatmate on Tinder, I wasn’t completely opposed to the idea. The last share-house I had lived in, back in Canada, I had found through Couchsurfing, although in that instance it was through a female acquaintance and not some random dude I had never met before on a dating app that was developing a notorious reputation worldwide as a “hook-up app”.

I was keen to meet up with him and his flatmate in person to see if we could mesh and get on. We decided to meet on a Wednesday as I didn’t have anything on that night and being in the middle of the week, it seemed fitting to go out and be more social. He chose to meet at the Cock’n’Bull pub on Wellington St. I had never been there before but had walked past several times and was curious about what it was like inside. I was keen on the idea of meeting in a relaxed setting at a quaint British pub, having a casual night over a pint and a pub meal. It helped that there would be a third person there instead of just a one-on-one.

At this point in time, things were becoming more intense between Date #21 and I. We were meeting up every day we were free. Feelings were developing and we were starting to act as if we were a genuine couple. I eventually caved and told him about the Tinder blog and how I was still meeting other people from the app to get writing material for this project. He was surprisingly cool about everything. He knew that we weren’t an official couple and he would be relocating in a few weeks to Sydney, so he didn’t have the right to restrict me from carrying on with my project. However, when I told him about this particular Tinder date, where I would be meeting with two guys who might potentially become my roommates, he felt slightly intimidated by the whole thing.

I told him that he had nothing to worry about. I had to scope out all of my possible options, as there weren’t many, being a city of only 80,000 people and all. It was simply for writing’s sake to mix up the blog a bit, nothing more.

–

Walking to the pub that night, I felt slightly overwhelmed and a touch guilty. I had to remind myself of why I was doing this social/blogging experiment and that it wouldn’t hurt to meet a new person from Tinder to add another story to the blog.

Being only two and a half weeks fresh from spending several months living in regional Australia, I was beyond excited to have my farm days behind me and be in a city again, albeit a small city, and have experiences going out to bars and restaurants wearing pretty clothes I hadn’t worn for some time. I put on my best make-up and perfume and donned a white lacy frock I got from Valley Girl , with a pearl necklace and my orange Etam coat. I was worried that I might be a touch overdressed for a week night. I shrugged it off and decided I was in the city now, surely it wouldn’t be the only one dressed like this.

I walked down the quiet city streets and no one was dressed like me. I felt I had made a mistake in dressing too fancy. It was too late to turn back and change, lest I be rude and show up super late, all in the name of trying to look pretty but casual at the same time.

I felt awkward walking into the pub, where everyone was dressed casually. I found my Match sitting at a table with his mate. They were dressed in jeans and cotton t-shirts. Compared to everyone else in the pub, there was no doubt I was the most overdressed in the room. As I introduced myself to my Tinder Match and his mate, I was a bit taken aback as I found him to be different from the impression built in my head. I pictured a husky-voiced burly manly man; what I got in real life was this smaller framed man with a soft voice. His mate was this massive guy with an eyebrow piercing who looked like he could be a bouncer/football player. He later confirmed my suspicions when he told me that he had lived in the States for a few years playing NCAA Football. They both had the same name, which gave me one less name to remember.

They were friendly and easy to chat with over pints. As we looked through the pub menu we were sussing each other out for roommate-esque qualities through conversation. No one had special diets and they were relieved that I wasn’t vegetarian/vegan as I ordered roast of the day for dinner. I talked about roommates I had in the past and their traits and what I liked and didn’t like in a roommate. We all seemed to be on the same page, which was assuring. We liked living in places that weren’t too messy but not so clean that you would be afraid to touch anything. They were social guys and didn’t mind having people over. On weekends they would host poker nights with all their mates. I was keen on having social roommates so it was assuring that they were fine with hosting company.

As we ate our pub meals I got to know these two men with the same name a bit better. The two of them both worked in software development and had known each other since university. They had been living together as roommates off and on for the past three years. They knew each other well and were so comfortable around each other. They told me of one time when they went looking at a house together and the landlord assumed that they were a gay couple. They didn’t bother correcting the landlord and played along with it, later having a laugh about it. They were funny and both had a sense of humour that was infectious, I was beside myself with laughter at all the jokes they cracked throughout the night.

Once we finished and paid for our separate tabs, they drove me down to their place in Newstead. The house had a relaxed vibe to it that made me feel comfortable and at ease. The kitchen was large and modern with plenty of benchtop space. They had a dining table and a shelf full of liquor. The living room had a large TV with gaming consoles and comfy couches to sprawl on. They showed me their bedrooms and then led me to the available room. There wasn’t much furniture in the room aside from a nightstand with a mattress on a box spring with no bed frame. Despite the room being sparsely furnished, I felt like the share-house was everything I was looking for. It was a good area close to the shops and the CBD and it would be within walking distance to work.

I especially felt relaxed and at ease with these slightly nerdy guys, who reminded me of my computer-obsessed brother back home. Being there made me think back to the last share-house I had lived in back in Canada, where I was the only girl with 4 other male roommates. It was a place I was fond of and had enjoyed living exclusively with males. I was eager to be the only woman in the house again and this opportunity seemed perfect.

Once the house tour was over, the guys offered me a beer. The three of us sat on the large couch drinking and chatting. It felt like I was exchanging stories with good friends from back home. The one moment of conversation that still sticks with me was when we started talking about all the amazing national parks and hiking opportunities in Tasmania I was keen on experiencing. My Match then talked about how dangerous hiking can be in Tasmania. His ex-girlfriend was a serious hiker and was out with one of her best friends the month before in South-West National Park. Her best friend was wearing the tracking chip and slipped off a cliff and died. It was the most chilling story I had ever heard. I later found out that the story was true and had made the news.

As I was sitting there chatting with these two guys with the same name, I got a call from Date #21 asking how the house tour was going. I told him that it was fine. He then asked what I was up to and if I was planning on hanging around there for much longer. Since I had finished looking around the place, I didn’t feel the need to stick around anymore. He offered to pick me up and I didn’t object. I said my goodbyes to my Match and his mate and thanked them for the evening out and for showing me around their place.

It felt a bit strange walking out of their house to meet up with another person from Tinder. It was like I was developing an addiction of some sort, where the only people I  hung out with outside of work were men from Tinder, as I didn’t know anyone in town and had no other source of friends. It felt strange to potentially live with someone from Tinder while going out with another person from Tinder. Could it be considered trashy and in poor taste? I was seriously considering living with these two guys as they were easy to get on with. They were nice genuine guys but there were no feelings of chemistry or sexual tension. I felt like I was just hanging out with guy friends and nothing more. But then I thought about what would happen if I brought home Date #21 for a sleepover and the potential awkwardness of it all. The scenarios were running through my head as I shuffled out through the options in my head.

Has anyone else ever been approached to move in with a Tinder Match? Surely I can’t be the only one who has found a roommate/flatting opportunity from Tinder… I would love to hear your stories in the comments section below.

Date #24

Date Matched:  1 April 2016

Ethnicity: English

Age: 34

Date Met: 7 April 2016

Icebreaker: Him

Icebreaking Message: “Hey how’s your travels ?? Why on earth would you choose to stop in Launceston haha x”

–

Being a Londoner, this Tinder Match was out of his element in the small quiet island State of Tasmania, a far cry from the bustling global metropole he left behind. He found it strange that as a traveller, I chose to make Launceston one of my destinations. The first thing this Match mentioned while messaging over Tinder was how bored he was in this small city.  I suppose coming from London, where the city is massive and constantly alive in noise and colour with always something on, Launceston would be like a shy, slightly dull distant relative in comparison.

Although I understood where this Match was coming from, as I have been to London myself, I urged him to reconsider his opinion on Launceston and enjoy it for its relaxed cool vibe, which should be approached from a different angle to London. He was amused by my methodical defence of Launceston and decided in his second message to me that we must meet for a drink. He apologised for being somewhat forward and abrupt but he was desperate for company.

He was visiting his family in Tasmania since his father wasn’t in the best of health and he didn’t have many friends in the area. He found it hard at times to escape his parent’s house in the countryside and he didn’t have anyone to hang out with in town, who wasn’t his relatives, so he turned to Tinder to cope.

He was a Tinder rookie and had never used the app before. He admitted that he didn’t “know the protocol”. It was evident that he was new to the whole thing as he kept firing heaps of messages at me. It was a bit much at first, but he seemed nice enough not to dismiss. We started messaging each other the night before I met Date #21. At first, I was keen to meet up with this Match, but then he told me that he was at St John Craft Beer Bar. Having had my last Tinder date there, I felt it would make the blog boring to have a subsequent date at the exact same venue. So I decided to stay in that night and meet him on another occasion.

To be honest, I wasn’t in a rush to meet him right away. I felt I ought to give it more time to suss things out before making the move to get out of the house. This Match seemed sociable and funny but he would send me these long messages that overwhelmed me. He also didn’t paint an appealing picture of himself as he described how he was sitting alone in St John’s and how important it would be for me to come soon so he wouldn’t look like a “complete friendless loser”, in his words. I’m personally a bit of a lone wolf and when people tell me that I ought to hang out with them because they can’t stand to be alone with themselves, it makes me want to hang out with them even less.

To make things worse, this Match threw in the speculation that maybe one of the reasons he was all by himself was because he smelled.  I assumed he was being funny and just cracking a joke, but how was I to know, I hadn’t met him in person yet, what if he actually did smell!?

The pictures on his Tinder profile also made him seem a bit weird. Weird isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but there is a fine line between cute and endearing weird vs off-putting weird and I wasn’t sure which side of the spectrum he fell.  There were a couple of pictures where he had shorter hair and looked clean-cut. Then in other pictures, he had long hair and had more of a crazed look. In one of his pictures he literally wore a disco ball as a hat, it was the most bizarre thing I had ever seen. I’m sure it was just a party gimmick, but I didn’t know what to make of it.

As the night went on I felt that this guy must be on the off-putting side of the weird spectrum. He was messaging me at a rate that was quite alarming. He was so needy for my company (or any company at all for that matter). He bemoaned the fact that he didn’t have his car with him and how, if he did, he would make the trip out to wherever I was just to have someone to hang out with. The rate he was messaging me and the urgency in his tone to have someone, anyone, to hang out with him, made him come off a touch too desperate and I was not keen to reward his behaviour with my presence.

I was still at Date #17‘s place, it was my last night there before I moved into my Tanzanian mate’s place in Ravenswood. It was getting into Autumn so we decided to have a quiet night at home. Date #17 had some of his mates come over to watch Australian Rules on the TV as it was that time of year when the season was getting into full swing. I had watched a few games from the previous season but I still was trying to get my head around the sport. Anyone who has ever watched Australian Rules before will know that it’s such a chaotic-looking sport, it’s hard to know what is happening half the time. Date #17 and his mates were getting fully into it, perhaps a bit too into it. They were constantly talking the whole time about this player… and that coach… and that one season… and that one AFL Grand Final… blah blah blah… I wasn’t absorbing a single thing as I stared blankly at the TV in a confused state.

Because I was preoccupied sitting on the couch watching Australian Rules, I wasn’t paying any mind to my phone. This Match, in the meantime, seemed a bit gutted that I didn’t end up coming out and expressed it to me in his messages. I was feeling indifferent about it.

–

The next day I received a message from this Match. He apologised for messaging me incessantly and admitted he was “mildly inebriated.” He commended me for staying in and assured me that it wouldn’t have been the best first impression if I had met him that night. He also mentioned that he got into a bit of a fight that night and how it was a good thing I had missed out on him making an ass of himself. I shrugged it off and decided not to judge him too harshly as everyone, including myself, is prone to making a fool of themselves when they’ve had a few drinks, so I continued to talk with him.

He asked me about what I had seen and done in Tassie. I told him my stories of hiking in Freycinet and soaking up the sun at the beaches on the Bass Strait and sampling the local fare at the Salamanca Markets and the Tamar Valley which then led to a conversation about how underrated the food scene is in Tasmania, especially in Launceston. It was evident from how the conversation was going, that food would be the common interest that would bring us together. Since we both fancied quality dining experiences, we decided to make an afternoon of it by going out for a cafe lunch and coffee date. The day we both were free was a Thursday. I had to work the dinner shift that evening so midday was the only doable time for me.

Being new to Launceston, I hadn’t seen much of the cafe scene, other than that one cafe date I had with Date #19 at Sweetbrew.  I let this Match pick the place to grab lunch. I loved the way he presented the options: “So I’ve got two places in mind, one is a classy stylish restaurant cafe (soho), and the other is a cool and bohemian style (boho) cafe.”

I wasn’t in the mood to dress up too much for someone I had never met before, and I felt that the soho place would be a dressier place. I prefer saving those sorts of places for people who I’ve met and definitely have a connection with. In the end, I decided to have our first date in a relaxed setting, so I chose boho. I had no idea where we were going, but he seemed to have some level of taste, so I trusted him to take me somewhere decent.

–

There it was established and confirmed, we were going to meet for real this time. I gave him my number and the address of where I was staying, hoping to God I was exchanging my details with a normal person and not some crazy stalker.

That morning I got up and leisurely pulled myself out of bed. I wore light make-up and pulled on a comfortable fitted t-shirt and jeans with a loose-knit wool sweater overtop. I figured it was just brunch, there was no need to get too dressed up for it.

He called me as he pulled up to the house. I heard this Londoner English accent on the other line, “Hiya I think I’m here? I hope I’m here anyhow. I’m not the best at directions.” I walked out the door and I saw him around the corner.

He looked a lot better than I thought he would. He was actually quite handsome. There was no doubt he looked a lot older than my previous Tinder dates. He was 9 years my senior and had a more mature look compared to the 20-somethings I had been meeting recently. He didn’t have the long crazy hair he donned in some of his photos and instead had a smart crew cut, but his hair was thinning and he had a receding hairline.  He was smartly attired in a brown gingham blazer and well-cut pants and stylish glasses. He had a lovely accent and an air of maturity to him that was initially intimidating to me.

During the car ride, he apologised again for his behaviour when he went out to St. John’s and then went off to some other pub. He gave me a blow-by-blow account of how he nearly got into fisticuffs with a bloke over a game of billiards but was lucky enough to get away unscathed. The way he was describing his night out made me think back to an English boyfriend I had when I was 20, who was a complete dog from Luton. He would be lovely and well-spoken when he was sober but was awful when he was out drinking and would get into a scrap one way or another. I wonder if that sort of behaviour is common in English men.

The conversation digressed to what each of us was doing in Tasmania and how we were getting on in this island state. He told me of his visit with his father, who is English, and his mother, who is Australian. I was curious to know if he had lived in both Australia and England, which he hadn’t. His parents were quite content with raising him and his sister the whole time in England. Then one day they decided to retire and up and leave England to be in his mother’s home state of Tasmania. My Date would come once a year to visit his parents in Australia but he was always happy to return back home to London.

He told me of his life in London and how he worked with cars and was settled in the house he owned in the outer boroughs. I asked him if he would ever consider moving to Australia to be closer to his parents, which then led him to mention that he had a 9-year-old daughter in England, so abandoning her for a life overseas was simply out of the question.

It was a bit strange for me to be on a date with someone who was ahead of me in so many aspects. Here I was living a vagabond life in Tasmania, with no one to look after but myself, and here he was living responsibly thinking about his house and his child and how to be a good Dad. I asked him about his relationship with the mother of his child and he told me they were still friends and that there were no hard feelings between them. I found that commendable, as I  personally come from a family where my parents are no longer together and are incapable of being amicable.

I had never been on a Tinder date with a Dad before.  Normally I avoid men who mention that they have children on Tinder as I am not that big on the idea of being around kids who aren’t mine and having to deal with their mother(s). Also, being in my mid-twenties I am still young enough to find plenty of childless men. But this Tinder date failed to mention his child until meeting in person and from his pictures he didn’t give off a Dad vibe, so here I was unintentionally on my first Tinder date with a Dad.

The day was sunny and beautiful and it was quite easy to find a parking space for the car, even though we were in the CBD on a weekday.  We parked on Brisbane Street close to The Mall and from there we walked up to George Street, which is the same street Sweetbrew is located. At first, I thought I was going to be having yet another date at Sweetbrew. Fortunately, my Date walked into a different cafe only two doors down, called Bryher.

The moment we entered we were greeted and seated promptly by the friendly and outgoing Alison, one of the cafe owners, who recognised my Date right away as he had clearly been there before.

“So lovely to see you here again!” She exclaimed to him.

“Yes, I enjoyed this place so much, I needed to bring my friend round to show her how good it is here,” he answered.

She seemed chuffed by the compliment and passed us these simple but well-designed menus to look through.  The first thing I noticed while leafing through was this long list of products and producers that they used from all over Tasmania.

I appreciated how transparent the cafe was with where all the food and drinks were sourced from. I had never seen such a transparent menu in my life. I felt like I was eating in a truly special place, a step up from any sort of cafe I had ever been to before. My Date said this sort of place would fit in well with the London scene.

Once the menus were passed around, the lovely hospitable Alison came around with water for the table and asked if we would like anything to drink. I ordered my usual flat white and my Date ordered a pot of Earl Grey tea. I thought it was very English of him to order tea instead of coffee. If I was in Canada I would have ordered tea as well, as coffee back home is typically atrocious. In Australia on the other hand, the coffee culture is incredible, so of course, I had to try the coffee here

You can certainly tell from the coffee, whether or not a cafe is up to scratch.  I am happy to report that this cafe’s coffee (pictured below) was one of the best I have come across.

This flat white was smooth and creamy, which is what I like in a coffee. I commended Alison on her excellent barista skills. She seemed pleased by the accolade.

My Date asked her how she came up with this cafe concept, which then led her to tell us her story of how she travelled with her partner, who are both from mainland Australia, to Europe and lived and worked in the UK.  During their travels, they were so taken by Bryher Island, a part of the Isles of Scilly, in Cornwall, that they decided to name their cafe after the island. I thought it was such a cool way to conceptualize a food dream and make it a reality in their new island home.

As I sipped on my drink and my Date carefully arranged and poured his tea, I had a peruse through the menu (pictured below) and found it difficult to settle on one dish.  It all looked so lovely.

In the end, I decided on the baked giant beans with black pudding, bratwurst, and a poached egg (pictured below with my Date’s cup of Earl Grey tea in the top left corner), as I had never tried black pudding before and I was curious to know what it was like. My Date settled on the Croque Monsieur. When the food came out, it looked so homey and delicious.

It was one of the most delicious cafe lunches I’ve had in Australia and the food was so different from anything I had ever had in a cafe before. I liked that this cafe, rather than jumping on the trendy vegan boat, they focused on creating flavourful traditional food with a twist. Rather than shunning all forms of meat and dairy, this cafe embraced these types of food and got them from local sources to create beautiful well-balanced food.

While we chatted over lunch, I felt this Date was much better in person than he came off on Tinder. We talked about places we had travelled to in Europe and Australia.  He asked me how I was able to manage living on my own in Tasmania. I admitted to him that it had been a struggle as I was barely scraping by with just one hospitality job in Launceston. When Alison came round he suggested to her that I should work here. I felt sheepish being put in the spotlight like that.

She thought about it and replied, “We are looking to hire another person soon. You should send us your CV to our email on our website.”

I was on cloud nine when she suggested I work with her. I liked that their cafe was the only one of its kind and not some chain. In my last job in Canada, I worked for a small local chocolatier and I was eager to work in a similar sort of environment, as I am not a big fan of food chains. The possibility of getting a day job to complement my evening job would be too good to be true, then I could definitely stay in Tasmania for a while and create a life here. All these wild fantasies flashed through my head of how I would write a blog post about how a Tinder date led me to a second job in Tasmania and how some Tinder dates can be truly life-changing affairs.

As my Tinder date paid for both of our meals, despite me pulling out my wallet and offering to pay my share, I felt like I had made the right choice in meeting this Match in the end. He was actually quite friendly and easy to talk to. When he dropped me off at where I was staying, I gave him a hug and he gave me a kiss on the cheek. I texted him later that day and said how great it was to meet in person and how I thought he was a lovely person. He then responded by saying that he should have given me a kiss. I blushed at the text. Had I not met Date #21 and been so enamoured with him, I think I wouldn’t have minded a kiss from this Date, but my heart was set. I politely told him that I would prefer just being friends as he would only be in Australia for a short time. He was understanding about it and decided that we must keep in touch.

Overall, I was happy with how this date went and I was glad I didn’t let the bad first impression get in the way of our meeting in person. I didn’t end up working at the cafe, despite coming back and following up on my application in person. Even though things didn’t pan out the way I would have liked, discovering this cafe was an incredible experience in itself. I am sure working there would have been a dream, but in the end, I found other work in other amazing places, but that’s a story for next time.

Have any of you readers ever had a date like this, where the date turned out to be much better than expected? I would love to read your stories in the comments section below.

Date #23

Date Matched: 2 April 2016

Ethnicity: Kiwi

Age: 35

Date Met: 5 April 2016

Icebreaker: Him

Icebreaking Message: “I think we have the same love for tassie :)”

–

As I was Tindering in Tasmania, I wrote in my profile that Tas was my favourite Australian state. When I encountered matches, like this one, who agreed with me, I automatically felt more drawn to them.

This match in particular had the best description of the Tasmanian landscape that I have ever heard.  His words exactly: “In a simple phrase: it’s like New Zealand and Australia fucked and Tasmania was birthed ;)”  He was bloody hilarious, and I was instantly hooked by his humour.

One of the reasons why I was drawn to this match, in particular, wasn’t necessarily his appearance, but rather his line of work. He was a professional photographer and almost all of his pictures were of him hard at work, aka pictures of him shooting high-profile music festivals and concerts. As a self-proclaimed music and photography buff, I wanted to connect and learn this guy’s story.

I naturally am drawn to more creative types, especially when they are talented enough to make an income from their creative pursuits, such as this match. I don’t know how you other readers feel, but I am so envious of people who can support themselves purely on their creative genius. I am a creative wannabe compared to a professional creative, and deep down I hope being around those types of people will lead me to learn their secrets and how they live “the dream”.

I was stoked to have this interesting guy match with me. I was even more ecstatic when he flicked me a message shortly after matching. It also helped that he was easygoing and genuine in the way that he talked to me.

There was one particular moment, which drew the two of us together and cemented a special friendship between the two of us.

I had experienced a night of drinking at my Couchsurfing host’s place. As I do after a night of drinking, I woke up in the middle of the night to get some water so I wouldn’t have a killer hangover the next day. As I was attempting to fall back asleep, I flicked through my phone and checked my Tinder account. I discovered that this match was also up and online as well. Considering it was just before 4am, it was a bit strange.  But there was no one else to talk to, so we just talked with each other.

I liked this line he used to get the ball rolling: “Well since we’re both still up, you want to talk some banter?” He continued: “And I talk a good talk and I’m not a weirdo even though that sounds cliché as fuck but if you can hold down a good convo at 3:57, I’m totally down.”

I agreed that some banter would be good fun so long as it was limited purely to messaging. I didn’t want to talk on the phone at 4am and be rude and inconsiderate to my host.  There was also a Welsh girl from Couchsurfing staying in the same room as me and there was no way I was going to wake her up. She had just come back from living in a tent for several days doing grape picking for her farm days to get a second-year Working Holiday visa, she deserved a peaceful night’s sleep.

So with these terms and conditions set, this match sent the following message: “Sooo tell me a story? … I want love, destruction, epic, adventure, go!”

So I told him this story, the story of how I came to Tasmania, as it has all 4 of those elements, in my opinion:

“Well, I’ll tell you a true story that has a bit of it all.  I came to Australia for love.  I met him in Canada.  He was from the Netherlands working under the table at a farm 100km away from my city, but he drove in every weekend to see me.  I thought I was going to go to Japan to teach English once I finished my degree, but I wasn’t successful in the interview stage.  So I took it as a sign of fate that we were destined to be together in Australia; he had started his second-year visa by this point.  So I finished my degree and stuck it out in a long-distance relationship. Three days after I graduated I flew to Melbourne. It was a constant struggle the whole time trying to work and travel together as a couple. I waited for our luck to turn around but it never did. I had some of the lowest rock-bottom moments of my life. I also realized how different my priorities were from my boyfriend’s.  He wanted kids and a house sooner than me.  He was tired of travelling and I wasn’t. He wanted his future kids raised in a religious environment and I didn’t. After seven and a half months of trying to make a decent living in regional mainland Australia, my boyfriend set me free because he could see I was miserable and our irreconcilable differences would always be there. I was always curious about Tasmania and I finally had my chance to go. So I spontaneously booked a cheap fare on the Spirit of Tasmania and spent my Valentine’s Day seasick on the Bass Strait. It was the hardest thing to admit failure in a relationship and start over from scratch, but it had to be done. My first sight of Tasmania was one of those love-at-first-sight moments you never forget. But I knew once I saw the mountains and the sea, that for once in my trip I made the right decision.”

Reading that back to myself I was impressed that I was able to convey such deep and honest emotions and feelings via text. This match also seemed to like my adventurous tale. He wrote back, “Wow that is an incredible, epic and incredibly honest story, I love it! I too have a similar story with Tassie.”

The story he told was, in his words, “an epic tale with an unfortunate, tragic end…”

So here is the story, word for word:

“Part 1: It was a orphans Xmas my good close friend invited me along. I hadn’t met her housemates before and I fell in love at first sight with her housemate, she had such a powerful presence. I even remembered asking my friend, “Where have you been hiding this girl?” Anyway, we connected and talked, drank and smoked cigarettes until I couldn’t remember anymore. The next morning I woke up in her bed. I was fully clothed and slightly confused as to where I was, but I rolled over and there she was beside me sleeping. She looked like a goddess with the sun shining on her as I watched her for a moment or two. I was ready to leave but as soon as I made the move to go she grabbed my arm and pulled me back to bed and we cuddled for hours. Nothing happened sexually between us as this moment was so perfect. An act of sex would have ruined that perfect moment. As the morning slowly turned into the afternoon we both hastily parted ways to do family commitments.”

“Part 2: We forgot to exchange numbers but I left a note with all my details and a, ‘Please we must do this again!’ I told my cousin what had happened and I thought this might just be a one-off perfect moment with a girl. If she didn’t contact me it still would have been one of the greatest mornings I have ever had and it would be a fond memory I would have for years to come. But she did contact me that day and invited me around that evening. I went around, I was nervous as all hell. I had never felt so nervous in my life. I stood outside her gate for a bit just to calm my nerves. Eventually, I went in, and she embraced me like we had known each other for an eternity. We talked art, theatre, politics, life, till we couldn’t talk anymore. That night we went to bed and held each other. She had to get up to fly down to work at Tassie Falls festival and I had to leave to work at the Byron Bay Falls Festival. We maintained contact during our Falls festivals giving each other heads up which bands to watch or not to watch.”

“Part 3: But with all the banter we exchanged at Falls Fest she kept telling me how incredible Tasmania was. I had been to Tasmania once years back but I was only there for a few days photographing a wedding so I didn’t see much of it. Fast forward a year later, we had fallen in love with each other and had an incredible year of creating theatre, music and photography. Basically we were ready to take over the world. We went our separate ways again during Falls, I was at Byron Falls and she was at Marion Bay but had planned to meet up and work at MOFO together. We had an incredible time; I fell in love with Tasmania and fell even more in love with this incredible girl. 8 days wasn’t enough but I had to head back to Brisbane and she had a theatre conference in Sydney. But something had changed when she got back to Brisbane and we were slowly falling out of love. I couldn’t put my finger on it. In the end, once we conquered the Melbourne Comedy Fest, she ended our love.”

“Part 4: It was a hard pill to swallow; I had never loved someone as much as I did her, but I didn’t fight it.  We remained friends, but as the months went by love turned to friendship, but friendship turned nasty to the point of having to completely cut contact with her and this is something I regret for the rest of my life. But the love for Tasmania remained and I was set to work at Marion Bay Falls Festival, MOFO, Cygnet Folk Fest and was kidnapped by the crew from Party in Paddock. We ran into each other at those festivals but never spoke to each other and the last time I saw her was at Faux Mo this year. Again we didn’t talk, but she looked happy and full of life, it was good to see her that way.”

“Part 5: 3 weeks later I got a call from her close friend, my first thoughts were, ‘What have I done now!?’ But it wasn’t the news I was expecting. She had taken her own life. I was so upset, I never thought she would go out that way. I knew about her struggles but this incredible girl had all the support, no one would have denied her if she just asked for help. She was an incredibly gifted actress, musician, producer, mentor, and leader. Most of all, she was the most fearless woman I had ever met. I found out she was supposed to start her dream job the following Monday here in Launceston.  I regret not trying to patch things up between us, but I have no regrets with the time we had together and what she taught me will be forever entrenched in my own art.”

–

It was one of the most gripping and chilling stories I had ever heard on Tinder. I was instantly hooked as each part of the story came through in these incredibly long but detailed messages. From his words, I felt the emotion and pain from experiencing a love that had started off so natural and strong, just as you would expect from some film. When the twist of the story came and the love suddenly faded away without explanation, I had a flurry of questions in my head. Maybe there were other details he chose to leave out, but my heart broke for him. Having just left a boyfriend, with whom I had the longest relationship of my life, the first of its kind where marriage and children were discussed, I was able to empathize and understand what it felt like to lose a relationship that seemed impenetrable, yet was unable to stand the test of time.

The only difference was I could still communicate with my ex, he was very much alive and there if I needed to talk to him. I have never been confronted with the pain that suicide brings.  I could only imagine the pain that this man was going through.  I found it somewhat strange that he was on a dating app so shortly after a suicide happened that affected him deeply. I asked him why he was turning to Tinder. I wondered if he had given himself enough time to process his feelings. His response was:

“My reasoning as to why I’m on Tinder is that I’m doing a documentary/photography compilation for an exhibition on Tinder users, I’m only 4 days into this, so I’m 4 days fresh to Tinder and am very much overwhelmed by it already. I think I have opened Pandora’s box. I started working on this project with my friends last night that is it. All I can say is, ‘Wow!’ and it’s only 4 days in”

He wrote on, “So my next question is would you like to be a part of ‘Project Tinder’? I’m just hoping this doesn’t come off as creepy. The premise of the project is ‘What is the meaning of love in this day and age of social media?’ The exhibition will be part of a photography exhibition accompanied by a quote from a small interview I’ll be conducting with the likes of people, like you, who use Tinder.”

I was so excited to learn about his project and in turn, I shared my Tinder project, this blog, with him. After reading some of my blog posts he wrote:

“This is great! It makes me cringe in a very good way 🙂 we need to connect!”

I was overjoyed by this response.  I found a professional creative who wanted to hang out with me and collaborate.  I was on cloud nine! In particular, he liked reading about Date #13, which reminded him of a girl he dated from Saskatoon.

I was incredibly flattered when he continued to write, “I can think of a few mates that could learn valuable etiquette from a blog like yours.”

He showed me his photography blog on BlogSpot, which was amazing.  I would love to link it but it would break my rules of keeping each of my posts completely anonymous. Seeing the stunning quality of his professional photos made me feel even more excited to meet up and potentially collaborate with this interesting artistic man. He also told me about another photography project he would be working on in the States. I was intrigued to learn more but we agreed that he would tell me more about it once we met. The crazy good vibe we both felt from talking to each other was too good to pass up. We both were so keen and had to meet in real life!

It took a bit of time to coordinate a suitable time to meet up. Eventually, we settled on meeting up for a drink at St John’s Craft Beer Bar, a favourite watering hole for both of us.  At the time I was waitressing at a restaurant but I was always stuck on the dinner shifts, so my mornings and early afternoons were almost always free. The plan was to meet up with him one afternoon and grab a sneaky before-work drink and later I would head off and work my dinner shift at the restaurant.

I decided that since I had a lot of time before my shift, I would give it a go with walking to work. Even though I wasn’t exactly close to the CBD, I was keen for a good long walk and Launceston as a city is not at all that big. It seemed doable to attempt the trek from my Couchsurfing host’s place in Ravenswood to the CBD.

I was incredibly lost on my journey.  I walked down Henry street, but once I got up to the bridge at the North Esk river, the walking path diverged from the main road into this park area. I followed this walking trail, which went along the river. I assumed that somewhere along the trail, there would be other trails that would lead into the city. I kept walking but nothing came up. The entire side of the track that ran parallel to the CBD was blocked off by the rail tracks that ran parallel to the river. Eventually, the trail spat me out onto the A3, the Tasman Highway. I hadn’t made much progress in my walk to work, in fact, I had backtracked quite a bit, but it was nevertheless a gorgeous walk through in a wetland setting.  I made a note that it would be a nice walk to go on again, perhaps on a date.

As I walked down the A3, I noticed the Coles at Newstead on Elphin road.  I was keen to get some snack items so I popped into the store and had a bit of a shop. As I was in the store I gave this match a call and told him about my walk and how I got myself lost. He found it funny and assured me that it was alright. He was in the area so it wasn’t too much of a bother. So he made the plan to come by and pick me up from the Coles with one of his friends, who would drive us to St John’s.

As I was in the grocery store, I ran into the Welsh girl, who was Couchsurfing in the same room that I was staying in. I told her about my Tinder blog and how I was about to meet up with Date #23. She found the idea awesome and empowering, especially being a woman. She thought it was crazy that I had already gone on more than 20 dates. She admitted to me that she had never dated that many people in her life. But she was one of those open-minded hippy people who didn’t pass judgement and found it amusing and humorous.

The timing was perfect. As I had just finished paying for my items at Coles, my Date rang to tell me that he was there.

I saw him from the other end of the parking lot.  He had shaggy hair and a massive beard and dressed casually mostly in black. When I came up to him to introduce myself in person I noticed that he had the most striking blue eyes.

Even though he was Kiwi, he didn’t sound it at all. His accent didn’t sound Aussie either. It was the weirdest accent I had ever heard and I couldn’t place it. Sometimes the way he pronounced certain words sounded somewhat North American, which is a bit strange considering he had never been to North America at that point. He was friendly and extremely chill and relaxed. I felt a positive vibe from him instantly.

His friend was this American girl from New York. She was backpacking in Australia just like me, but she had only lived in Tasmania. She found Launceston quite boring compared to New York and was hoping to move back to hectic city life and maybe live in Sydney. I thought she was crazy for wanting to leave a place so beautiful as Launceston for the crazy rat race lifestyle you get in Sydney. But in retrospect, I am writing this in a bar in Sydney so I guess I followed that same direction.

It was convenient to have her there to drop us off at St John’s Craft Beer Bar. However, because of my silly detour getting so lost trying to get to the CBD, by the time we got to the bar, we didn’t have enough time to go in and have a drink.  So together we walked to the restaurant so I could make it on time for the dinner shift.

This Date was such a good sport. I felt so bad that my first time meeting him wasn’t a proper date with more time on our hands to sit down and have a beer and chat, but he didn’t seem to mind.

We had a pleasant time exchanging stories of our dating experiences. I told him about how my blog began and the thought processes that occurred, which led to me putting my Tinder first dates out there on the internet for everyone to read. This then led to an exchange of stories of dates that we have had in the past.

One of the best stories he told me of his dating experiences was this process he uses for weeding out the fun girls from the boring duds, which he has used on a few girls.  He told me how the process starts by meeting up with a girl at a seedy pub full of pokies, degenerate old men, crap carpets and even crappier furniture.  If you have ever been to a pub in regional Australia or certain low-key suburbs in Melbourne or Sydney you can imagine the type of pub it would be. He would get a kick from the girl’s uncomfortable reactions. Some girls were chill and relaxed and just rolled with it. He told me of one girl who was instantly offended and left the bar after ten minutes. If the girl lasted in the pub stage then he would then take her to a slightly nicer bar and if they lasted through that stage, he would then take her out to a concert. He told me only one girl ever made it to the concert stage.

I was intrigued by this process of elimination, it was brilliant. I wondered to myself how I would go if I were on that sort of date.  Have any of you readers ever made up a process like that to weed out dates? I can’t say I have ever come up with such an elaborate method to sort the duds from the eligible candidates.

I would have loved to keep walking and talking with this Date, but unfortunately, I had to leave and work my dinner shift. He was nice enough to at least walk me to the front door and give me a hug before parting ways. Although this first meeting was short and sweet, I knew that this was just the beginning of other things to come.  Whether it would be a great artistic collaboration, an intense romance, or a solid friendship, only time would tell.

Have any of you readers ever had an artistic collaboration from Tinder or know of anyone who has found an artistic match on Tinder?  I would love to hear your stories in the comment section below.

Date #22

Date Matched: 17 March 2016

Ethnicity: Belgian

Age: 27

Date Met: 4 April 2016

Icebreaker: Me

Icebreaking Message: “Hoe gaat het?”

–

So this was the guy I met at St. John’s Craft Beer Bar when I was out with Date #21.

What drew me to his profile was his quirkiness. In his profile description, he wrote “I am not weird, I am limited edition.” He seemed like one of those people whose weirdness was endearing.  I also liked that he had pictures of him hiking looking like a dreamy traveller with these stunning landscapes in the backdrop.  He also had a funny picture of him wearing a floral wreath, which he oddly pulled off. I had never seen a guy do that sort of thing on Tinder before, I was intrigued.

He was just pretty. He was tall and fit with a well-shaped nose and dark hair that was paired with these stunning green eyes. His face made me think of a brunette male Ken doll.

I saw on his profile that he went to a hogeschool, my first thought was that he was Dutch.  Turns out he was Belgian, from the Flemish part obviously, and came from a village close to Bruges.  I had yet to have a Tinder date with a Belgian, so I saw him as a new addition to the already interesting mix of people I had dated on Tinder at that point.

It was when we were sharing travel stories about where we had been in Australia thus far, that I found him to be somewhat of a strange traveller. He had been in Australia for several months and had spent most of his time in Tasmania.  He had been living in Tasmania for three months and Melbourne was the only place he had visited on the mainland. But that changed shortly after we matched when he left Tassie to go up to the northern coast of New South Wales for the Byron Bay Blues Festival.

When we first matched he was living in Queenstown, and by Queenstown, I do not mean the lovely skiing city in the south island of New Zealand, but rather a middle-of-nowhere place in western Tasmania completely surrounded by nature reserves. It’s even further down the track than Zeehan and Zeehan is far out. I mean you can’t even get a Redline connection there. You know you live in the middle of nowhere when…

One weird thing about this Tinder date was that he had yet to hold a job in Australia and was merely having fun on the island without any sort of responsibility. I was eager to know more about why and how he was doing the things he was doing without having an income to get by on. But just as I was getting to know more about this strange Belgian, he went off to the music festival and I never heard from him again.

Had we not coincidentally found ourselves in the same bar on 2 April 2016, I highly doubt I would have met him in person at all. It was as if a fate bigger than us had stepped in and made sure our paths crossed.

I thought it was a funny coincidence to finally meet him in person. I noticed straight away that he had a strange quirkiness to him.  He wore this black shirt that had a rose print all over it with these blue tie-dyed baggy hippy pants. His hair also had random sections that were dyed blonde.

After running into him at the pub I wasn’t sure if I would hear from him afterwards. I assumed that our encounter would go the same way our conversation did on Tinder, essentially fading out into oblivion. But much to my surprise the next day on 3 April, a Sunday, he messaged me asking to hang out. I was out hanging out with Date #21 before he had to go back to work the next day, so I didn’t message him back until the next day.

Since it was a Monday and most normal people work, except for us two backpackers, we decided to meet up that day. I was available because I was unemployed waiting on a hospitality trial that was to begin the day after.  He was free because he also wasn’t working anywhere at that point.  We both didn’t have much on, other than errands, so we decided to meet up in the afternoon to go for a hike in the Gorge, as you do when you are two unemployed backpackers with too much time on your hands.

I was still staying at my Tanzanian friend’s place, far from anywhere central, so I asked this Date to pick me up. Even though this Date was unemployed, he at least had a car and was able to drive up to my neck of the woods.

This Date was different from any Tinder Date I had had at that point. For one, I knew what he looked like. I didn’t have to do the awkward scanning in the horizon, looking for someone who matched the six or so photos on their profile. When he showed up at my doorstep, I knew who to expect.

His car was one of those older 90s beater cars. The windows still had to be rolled up and down and the only modes of in-car entertainment were a CD and Cassette player, the best types of cars IMO.  He still had the tie-dyed pants on.

Everything about him, from his car to how he dressed, was quirky, except for his personality. He was quite shy and it was hard to have any sort of meaningful type of conversation with him. To compensate for this I had to do the majority of the talking. I’m not sure if it was because English was his second language or if he generally was more of a listener than a talker.

Before I went on this date I was interested in how I would feel going out with him. I usually have a weakness for European men.  I wasn’t sure if I would be in one of those situations where I would develop feelings for this Date as well as for Date #21 and be in one of those weird predicaments, where I would be interested in two men at the same time.  However, the shy awkwardness of this Belgian did not allow me to fall for him.  He was a pretty face and that was all. I found Date #21 much easier to talk to and one of those open people who make dates enjoyable and anything but awkward.

It’s not that the bush walk with this Belgian was terrible. He was nice enough and I enjoyed being out and about in nature, taking in the sunshine and the stunning scenery in and around the Gorge.  You can see from the pictures below how idyllic and relaxing it is at the Gorge.

The views were gorgeous and I was happy to be spending my day off doing a walk in the Gorge, it’s one of the most beautiful places in Launceston, where the South Esk river, the longest river in Tasmania, ends its journey flowing into the Tamar river, which then flows into the Bass Strait. It’s a fail-safe place to bring a date for some picturesque peace and quiet.

My Date and I started our walk from the car park above the First Basin on the Reedy Gully track. It was a quiet walk, where we crossed paths with a mere handful of people. There was a point in our bush walk, where we heard a loud cracking noise come from out of nowhere and saw the hugest branch fall off from a massive gum tree about 100 meters in front of us.  It must have been hanging off the tiniest thread before gravity had its way with it.  The spectacle was somewhat frightening.  The branch could have easily injured someone. Luckily we were mere witnesses to the random brutality of nature rather than active participants.  Considering that people do get killed by tree branches in Australia, I felt lucky to have not been anywhere near that tree.

From the Reed Gully track, we made our way to the Duck Reach track, which leads to the Duck Reach hydropower station/museum.  The Duck Reach power station has an interesting history.  It was a publicly owned station, which provided the city of Launceston with hydropower from 1895 to 1955.  It’s a random building to come upon during a bush walk, especially with its massive length of pipeline that runs alongside the walking path.

Image taken from http://mapio.net/place/40906958/

Seeing this random piece of man-made architecture emerge out from the bush was a beautiful juxtaposition between the harsh elegance of industry and the gentle beauty of nature.

At the power station, we paused our bush walk to check out the small but quaint museum inside.  Not only was the museum informative, but it also provided relief from the warm autumn sun.  There was also this stunning street art at the power station (pictured below), which added a twist of urban beauty to the site.

Graffiti on the old power station

The suspension bridge leading to the old power station

Once we crossed the bridge that went from the power station to the other side of the river, my Date began to open up a bit more.  We both enjoyed playing and watching soccer.  His favourite team was FC Barcelona.  We talked about our favourite players, games we saw in Europe, as well as past World Cups. Eventually, this conversation led to the two of us opening up about our creative passions. I admitted my passion for writing. He then opened up about his passion for art.  He never studied it, but it was a constant love in his life.  When he finished school he did an apprenticeship at a post office, rather than going to art school, and worked there for many years.

He didn’t do much in Belgium.  He rarely went out and because of it, he was able to save up thousands of Euros. He saved up so much money that when he was in Tasmania he could live comfortably without working. I guess he didn’t consider his home country a place to live it up. I suppose he felt that being on the road was the only place worthy enough in his eyes to let loose and spend money and go on random adventures.

He told me how he would draw in his spare time. His specialty was drawing faces. Thus far in his travels, he had only sketched four faces. I asked him what criteria he had for wanting to draw someone’s face. I was expecting a stereotypical answer, something along the lines of finding an exceptionally beautiful face that he just had to recreate in art. But instead, he didn’t have much of an answer.  He merely said that he drew faces that interested him and it was always a spur-of-the-moment decision rather than planned. His faces would take him a long time to complete, sometimes up to a month.  But he was self-taught and merely finished once his perfectionist tendencies allowed him to.

I asked him if he would draw a picture of my face.  He said he would, but he would have to go off a photograph.  He didn’t do sittings. I would have preferred a sitting, as I don’t have a recent photo that I would consider worthy enough to sketch. Nevertheless, I asked him if he could sketch my face if I gave him a photo.  He said that he could perhaps give it a go.

By this time we had made our way back to the First Basin, which concluded the end of our date.  We didn’t hang out anywhere too long and decided to just go back up to his car.  After our walk, he drove me home and I gave him a hug and thanked him for taking me out for a lovely walk around the Gorge.  I felt sufficiently relaxed by the day, but deep down I wished that it had been with Date #21 instead, discovering all these beautiful places around the Gorge.  I found a friend in Date #22 but I was happy not to have the date drag out too long.  Overall I felt calm, certainly not overwhelmed.

Have any of you met an interesting introverted artist on Tinder? I would love to hear your stories in the comment section below.

Date #21

Date Matched: 30 March 2016

Ethnicity: Australian

Age: 25

Date Met: 2 April 2016

Icebreaker: Him

–

I don’t have the first message that he sent me, but it was one of the better ones I have received. He liked that I was an adventurous traveller and expressed his interest in travelling. He then introduced himself in his message, which I found a bit redundant as his name was clearly visible in his Tinder profile. Overall it was a good opening message.

To be honest I was on the fence when it came to swiping right. He had some decent looking photos and others were just weird. His first picture was him looking dreamily atop a tree, it was his only decent photo. Another picture was him looking smugly in a suit. One of the weirder photos was a picture of him and a bunch of girls on this bed and he was behind them all on a laptop. It made him look like a massive player with all these females flocked around him. He also had a picture that showed him clearly out at the bar with a smoky haze and a mate beside him, who looked clearly drunk. In another picture he was shirtless donning nothing but a furry vest and board shorts in a cocky pose on a bed that screamed that he was a bit too self-aware of his good looks. In another photo it was obvious that he had been at the beach with his mates and he had his mobile out with a massive smirk like he was texting some bitches (gotta kill two birds with one stone). My initial reaction was to swipe left, but he had dark hair and light eyes, which I am a sucker for. So yeah… I ended up swiping right.

It wasn’t just the photos that added to this initial harsh judgement of him. In his profile description, he said that he could be “your prince charming” for only 3 weeks. That statement gave me the impression that 3 weeks was his expiry date with most girls and from that point on he would move on to the next exciting catch.

He also bragged in his profile that he had taught himself to make blueberry pancakes for a girl and threw in #commitment. First off, blueberry pancakes are not exactly hard to put together. You just throw ingredients into a mixing bowl, stir, and chuck it onto a frying pan. It’s not exactly rocket science. I would have been more impressed if he learned something slightly more complex and impressive like how to make crème brûlée or a duck confit.

My initial reaction was, “This guy seems like the hugest player/douchebag! Oooohhh dark hair and light eyes. I’m getting a heartbreaker vibe, I wonder if I could tame him. What the hell, why not!?” *swiping right motion* That was more or less my thought process.

It didn’t take long until I received a message from him, which made me wonder to myself, “What the hell does this player want?”. He was a smooth talker, who used big fancy words and complete sentences, which made me feel nervous. As an academic, I was wetting myself with each beautifully constructed paragraph that popped up in my inbox. But from talking to him I knew there were major differences between us.

He was one of those, “I’m so keen to travel”, but didn’t actually have any plans to do so in the near future. The only time he had left Australia was to go to Fiji on a family trip. Being on country #15, I felt underwhelmed. He was working in a corporate job, but wouldn’t specify what exactly it was that he did, which seemed a bit sketchy to me. He bragged about how he was climbing ladders in the corporate world. It sounded reminiscent of those people from those shady pyramid scheme companies like Amway or World Dream Builders and I told him that if he was from one of those companies he could get fucked. Thankfully he wasn’t, he was in IT. To my surprise, he still kept talking to me, despite me being somewhat bitchy and confrontational at that point.

It wasn’t long before I felt drawn to him. He composed messages in a way that was poetic and thoughtful, like no man I had ever encountered before. I could see how he could be a massive player. He also told me that he was tall, 190cm (6’4″) to be exact. Once I looked back through his photos, I noticed he did have long legs and was indeed taller than the other people in his photos. I have a massive weakness for tall guys, I felt my heart suddenly flutter once he mentioned his height. He was bewitching and I was under his spell.

While I was messaging this guy, I was still homeless in Launceston and crashing on friends’ couches. I was still at Date #17‘s place. It was awkward, one of Date #17’s roommates was this bitchy Kiwi chick, who kindly told me that I had to find somewhere else to stay on Thursday cause she had friends coming over on the weekend. I was a bit upset at Date #17 for failing to inform me of this. When I came to stay at his place he made it clear that I could stay at his for as long as I wanted. But I wasn’t too heartbroken to leave. I was feeling uncomfortable at Date #17’s place. The Kiwi roommate had said some racist comments the other night about Maori people, which as someone with Canadian indigenous heritage bothered me.

The place I stayed at afterwards was completely different. I had met this friend through my Couchsurfing host. He was a single man from Tanzania, who had three gorgeous kids with his Philippina ex-wife. He was open and warm treating every guest in his home like family. It was a welcome change from the cold, closed-off white people I was bunking with for the past week. However, the one downside of this new accommodation, was that it wasn’t a nice hop, skip, and a jump away from the CBD.

So when the weekend came around my host had his workmates over to help him build his new deck in the backyard. Once they were finished, they had drinks in the living room and I joined in. The guys weren’t anything special, just stereotypical tradies. One of them was bragging about how he knew all the DJs at all the clubs in Devonport as if it was an accomplishment. I think there are maybe 3 nightclubs in Devonport tops!

Nevertheless, I was still fresh from isolated life on a dairy farm, so it felt nice to have any sort of human company to drink with. Having drinks, talking nonsense, and listening to party music in the living room made me feel keen to go out that night. These guys said that they would be heading out to the clubs later on. I asked if I could join and of course, they were keen. First, they had to head out to a mate’s place and then they would come back to pick me up to go out.

Meanwhile, I was messaging this Date on Tinder and it seemed like he was going to be heading out that night as well. Our original plan was to just head out with our own people and hopefully, we would eventually bump into each other, but it wouldn’t have been a big deal if we didn’t see each other because we planned on going on our first date the next day.

My plans of going out that night were shattered once the guys called my host telling him that they wouldn’t be able to come out as their mate had just broken up with his girlfriend that night and they were worried that he would do something stupid if they didn’t stay with him. I was gutted. I did not want to spend my Saturday night at home, especially after I had a couple drinks in my system and was in the mood to go out and party. I told this Tinder guy about these sudden changes in plans. If I was at Date #17‘s place it wouldn’t have been a big deal, I would have just walked over to the CBD. But I wasn’t at his place, I was all the way in the hood aka Ravenswood. To my surprise, this Date offered to come and pick me up at my place so I could join him and his mates for a night out. But we still would go on a proper date the next day.

Once I gave him the address of where I was staying and he confirmed that he was on his way, I nervously paced around my room and fretted over my makeup. Was it too much? Did I look hot? Did I pick the best dress to wear? I had a smoky eye look with pale pink blush and lipstick. I liked how I looked, but it could have been considered too much makeup by some men. My dress was a dark navy long-sleeved loose button-up dress that had these long strings at the front collar, I had picked it up on sale at a Sportsgirl in Adelaide, because being in Australia, I had to have at least one clothing item from Sportsgirl. I wore the dress with my chunky H&M necklace with large plastic roses along the chain with black floral patterned tights and my suede Edward Meller shoes, that could have used a cleaning, but I didn’t have suede cleaner and they were the only thing that matched the outfit *sigh*.

Once my Tinder Date was here, it was the moment of truth. Would he be a massive player in person as his online persona seemed to suggest?

As I stepped out of the house and walked towards the street. I saw him standing there in front of his parked car. He was indeed tall. Tall with dark hair and hellishly handsome. He was dressed casually in a nice blue short-sleeved collared shirt with a black zip-up hoodie and dark jeans with black canvas shoes. He drove a newish ash-grey Toyota Corolla. The interior was clean and his mate was sitting in the back, with the front seat unoccupied just for me. I was flattered. As we were talking I used some of my stupid and cheesy humour to break the ice and lighten the mood. They seemed to be into it, which was reassuring.

The first stop of the night was Geronimo’s, an aperitivo bar in the CBD on Charles Street. It’s one of the more sophisticated watering holes in Launie. The atmosphere is minimalist but chic. The lighting is dim, and the bartenders suave. The drink menu had an impressive range of wine and cocktails. They had Aperol Spritz on the menu and it was less than $13, so I ordered that, while he ordered a scotch on the rocks.

It had been ages since I had a Spritz, and drinking it made me think of the month I spent in Italy when I was 21. This Date had never heard of the Spritz, but he liked it when I let him have a sip of mine. From the moment we sat down with our drinks in hand we didn’t stop talking. To say we hit it off would be an understatement. The chemistry between us was explosive. His poor mate just sat there, while the two of us blabbered on and on, forgetting to acknowledge him. After chatting for a while, my Date took note of his poor friend and apologized for not including him in our conversation. By the end of our drink, we decided to head off to another bar. This time it was just him and I. His friend made up some excuse that he had friends to meet up with at another bar and kindly excused himself.

In our conversation with my Date, I learned that we both like St John’s a lot. So once again I had another Tinder date at my favourite watering hole in Launceston. Everything seemed to be going smoothly until we walked in.

I noticed one of the guys standing at the bar was likely one of my Tinder matches, whom I had been talking to quite a bit. When we ordered drinks at the bar, I sort of hid behind my Date. Luckily this Tinder match didn’t seem to notice who I was. Once we ordered our drinks and found a place to sit, I noticed that the guy sitting on the couch by us had a sort of Dutch accent and he was talking to a girl, who had a Canadian accent like mine. He seemed familiar. Then the realization dawned on me, this was another Tinder match of mine from Belgium.

Running into not one, but two Tinder matches was one of the weirdest things I have ever experienced on a Tinder date. That sort of thing certainly never happened when I was Tindering around Edmonton. The realities of trying to maintain a Tinder blog in a city of fewer than 100,000 people became apparent to me at that moment. In such a small city there are only so many places that you can go to on a Saturday night. Running into another Tinder match can happen quite easily.

When the Canadian girl got up to go to the toilet, my Date also went off to go to the toilet. With just me and the Belgian guy sitting there on our own, I figured I might as well break the ice. So I asked him if he recognized me. At first, he seemed puzzled, but once I mentioned Tinder it finally clicked in his head who I was. “Ooohhh!” he exclaimed, “I remember you now!” I asked if the girl he was with was a Tinder date. Turns out he had just met her at the hostel he was living in.

He was staying at the Arthouse, which is a hipster-looking hostel in the CBD, which I considered moving into if I had nowhere else to go. When the Canadian girl came back, I asked her where in Canada she was from. She was from my favourite part, the Okanagan valley in British Columbia. It was nice to talk to another Canadian. It had been a while since I had met someone from my country. But she wasn’t the friendliest or chattiest, so the conversation with her didn’t go anywhere beyond the introductory niceties.

By the time my Date had come back from the loo, the Belgian guy told me that it was his birthday. Since I had only just recently gotten out of a long-term relationship with a Dutch guy, I knew the customary Dutch tradition of congratulating the person, whose birthday it is, by saying “Gefeliciteerd!” and kissing them on both cheeks. Flemish people do the same thing, so I used this opportunity to show off my worldliness in front of my Date by congratulating this Belgian guy in proper Dutch fashion.

I was having such a beautiful night with this Date. After we finished our drinks, we decided to ditch the bar scene and go for a drive. As we left the bar, he held my hand as we walked down the street until we got to his car. It felt nice, really nice.

As we were driving, I was feeling spontaneous and suggested going for an evening walk in the Cataract Gorge. He was all for it. But as we drove up the windy stretch of pavement that led to the Gorge, he admitted that he was planning on taking me there for our proper date and surprising me with a picnic. It sounded like a sweet and fun date idea, but I still was keen to do it the next day, even if it wouldn’t be a surprise anymore. In the car we got into some deep and heavy conversation, it was amazing how much we were opening up to each other about personal aspects of our life and it didn’t feel weird at all, despite being practically strangers.

By the end of the car ride, he opened up to me about his struggles with depression. We both had battled it at various points in our lives and it felt reassuring to meet someone else who had similar demons as me. Just then, to shift the mood to a better place, he offered me a tinnie of Strongbow cider, which he had a 6 pack of in the boot of his car. With a tin of cider in hand, we walked from the car park into the Gorge.

It was a romantic walk. There was no one around, the only light guiding us came from the park lamps dotted across the path. The animals rustling in the darkness were our only company, as possums, peacocks, and wallabies were stirred by the sound of our footsteps. Once we came to a large open grassy patch, where I noticed the vivid night sky above us. I stopped my Date from walking and talking any further as I directed his attention to the blanket of stars above us. He was just as awestruck as I was. I couldn’t pass this opportunity up. I walked over to a soft patch of grass and laid myself down under the stars, encouraging my Date to join me.

It had been years since I had laid down with a gorgeous guy under the stars. The last time I was 20 and it was freezing cold in winter laying on top of snow. On this particular night, it was chilly but I was still able to wear a dress on green grass. My Date, being the perfect gentleman he was, offered his sweater for me to wear. It was as if I was in a Hollywood romance. The night sky was gorgeous, and being in Tasmania, the milky way was incredibly vivid. My Date and I had our fingers intertwined the whole time as we talked.

Earlier that night he told me that a woman’s consent was important and he wouldn’t kiss a girl unless the signals were painfully obvious. When I realized that I wanted to kiss him. I stared at him for a while until he finally got the hint. It was the most beautiful place to share a first kiss with someone. I knew at that moment that it was the beginning of something special.

After a while, we noticed that it was getting late and the chill became insufferable. Walking back to the car, we noticed that one of the staircases leading up to the car park was aptly named “Maple Steps”. He found the name was fitting for a romantic night out with a Canadian woman and decided that he had to kiss me on these Maple Steps. I kissed him from the step above him so that I was closer to his height. As we kissed he put his arms around me and lifted me off my feet. It was one of the most romantic moments of my life.

Driving home I was in a state of pure euphoria. Once we were parked in front of my friend’s place, we had a hard time keeping our hands off of each other and pulling ourselves away. Each time we paused to say goodbye, he would gently touch my face and play with a strand of my hair, saying the most beautiful compliments. It was hard to step out of his car.

It was then that I asked him about the three-week comment on his Tinder profile. He chuckled at the question and admitted that his work had been promoted to work in their Sydney offices and he would have to move there in three weeks. He was originally from the Central Coast in New South Wales, so being closer to home was a more sensible move for him. It was hard hearing that he wouldn’t be sticking around in Launceston. At the same time, it felt like I had a prime opportunity to have a fleeting short-term romance and continue having Tinder dates in the meantime. The blog wouldn’t be stopping anytime soon and there would be plenty more dates to write about.

Once we realized how late it was my Date, being the gentleman he was, walked me to the door to keep me safe and say goodbye to me on the doorstep. We kissed each other incessantly, it was a struggle to part our lips. Once we realized the time was 3am, we reluctantly said goodnight and agreed to meet the next day. It was actually 2am, but with daylight savings time we lost an hour. The next day I miraculously woke up at 8am and had another beautiful date with this gorgeous Tinder find. It was truly the start of a thrilling adventure.

Have any of you readers ever had a Tinder date go exceptionally well? I would love to read your stories in the comments section below.

Date #20

Date Matched: 10 March 2016

Ethnicity: Australian

Age: 30

Date Met: 30 March 2016

Icebreaker: Him

Icebreaking Message:  “Hi ____, how you finding the tas hiking, about to head off tomorrow morning myself for 4 days hiking in the highlands”

–

So when this Date asked me about hiking and mentioned that he was doing a multiday hike in the Tasmanian Highlands, I was hooked. The motivator for him swiping right: he had pictures of him rock climbing.

I am such a sucker for guys who have outdoorsy activities in their profile pictures, especially if its rock climbing or hiking; hunting and fishing not so much. Plus he looked all fit and sweaty as he gripped this rocky crevice in one of his photos, I was like dayyyummmm! So when he swiped back I was excited by the possibility of having a buddy to take me on some sick outdoor excursions.

I have a wild imagination, so as soon as dates mention doing fun outdoor activities, my mind instantly conjures bewitching visions of weekend wilderness trips, the wind whipping through my hair and sunshine kissing my skin with a hot guy and stunning panoramas. Especially in a place like Tasmania where the mountains are breathtakingly beautiful and the landscape is like nothing else in this world.

When he asked me out for a drink I had nothing better to do.  We both were fans of St. John’s, this amazing craft beer place on St. John Street in Launceston.  It is one of my favourite watering holes in the city.  It’s neither too big nor too small, it’s often busy with loads of comfy couches.  The staff are knowledgeable, friendly and incredibly passionate about craft beer and always have expert recommendations that suit anyone’s taste. It’s 10/10 amazing.  When we decided to meet up there for a drink I was stoked.

I decided to look cute but casual.  I wore my short flowy white empire waist cut dress from Rome with this gorgeous navy dove print. I always get compliments on it and it’s a fail-proof choice.  I paired it with pearls and my mint green flats from Hamburg and my thick knit navy J. Crew cardigan. Once I was ready to go, I made my way down the street to St. John’s.

At this point, I was still crashing at Date #17’s place.  He lived a short walk away from the CBD in a downhill direction so it was an easy hop skip and a jump away.

We both were punctual.

As he leaned casually against the bar I knew it was him, he looked exactly as he did in his pictures.  He had gorgeous brown hair with matching brown eyes and a beard that was neither too short nor long, the perfect sexy beard length. He was neither too tall nor too short, he looked just as fit as in his picture, minus the drenching sweat, with a casual jean and t-shirt ensemble and well-paired sneakers.

Straight away we ordered our drinks. I got this interesting grapefruit-flavoured pale ale.  He got an amber ale. However, when the beer was served, it was clear that we might not be so suited for each other after all.  He got a half pint and I went for the full pint.  He paid for the drinks like a gentleman, but it felt a bit strange to be carrying the largest size drink on a date, whereas he was behaving more moderately. It was slightly awkward but I shrugged it off. I swear I’m not an alcho…ok maybe I am a bit!

We found a comfy couch to sit on that gave us the most appropriate distance from each other to talk intimately but not to touch.

He was easy to talk to. I enjoyed the music a lot, there were many times when I paused the conversation to comment on a band or song that I enjoy. I am the worst for pausing a conversation to point out a Canadian artist to a non-Canadian, that night I was certainly guilty of this crime. He also seemed to be into the alternative rock music that was playing from the pub speakers that night and we both were fans of Triple J radio, so I guess it was alright.

I still was blown away that I was on a date with an Australian guy with an incredibly Australian accent. A month ago when I was in a long-term relationship with my Dutch boyfriend, I never would have thought that I would have these experiences of dating the locals rather than merely befriending them. I felt like I had come far that month, further than I ever would have imagined. I guess Australian men weren’t so bad after all, I thought to myself as I looked into his warm brown eyes.

He was a simple man who had his life set in Launceston, he grew up here, and he was a tradie. He had family here, his only sibling was a sister, who lived in Melbourne. He would go rock climbing in the Cataract Gorge and often went on hiking and camping trips around Tasmania. He loved his dog and he loved the outdoors. He appealed to my adventurous nature-loving side and it was great to talk to someone about all the hikes that I did around Tasmania, with someone who was familiar with the trails.

The date was fairly simple and uneventful, we had the one drink and afterwards, we decided to head back home.  It was a weeknight and things weren’t going explosively well enough to justify being out until the break of dawn. I wasn’t blown away by the date but I wasn’t disappointed.  He was handsome.  I could see myself hooking up with him if he decided to whisk me away to his on another occasion.

When we left the bar he was kind enough to offer me a ride in his ute back up the hill.  The walk up that hill is steep as, so I accepted. It’s amazing exercise, but I didn’t have the best shoes for it.

I’m not one for pickup trucks, but I liked his.  It wasn’t too big or small, it was slightly vintage and impeccably clean, considering he had a dog. Once he got me back to Date #17’s place I decided to just give him a hug.  I would have kissed him if he tried but he didn’t and I was indifferent. I had this Tinder blog project, and I had to be impartial.  How else was I going to go on a string of Tinder dates if I flung myself on every reasonably attractive Tinder date and saw them multiple times?

Number one rule to keep in mind when serially Tindering like I do: only go on multiple dates with men that really knock your socks off on the first date. Anything less than that is a waste of time. Plus the more time you spend dating loads of new interesting and exciting men, the more opportunity you have to find the One.

What do you think? Is that a reasonable rule?

Date #19

Date Matched: 15 March 2016

Ethnicity: Australian-American

Age: 29

Date Met: 29 March 2016

Icebreaker:  Him

Icebreaking Message:  “Hey ____!  I have tried to guess where all your photos are from.  It looks like possibly Iceland, somewhere, somewhere, possibly Italy, somewhere at night(nice smile btw) aaaaaand…Somewhere.  How did I go?”

–

As you can likely tell this Date was quite spunky and out there.  I liked his first messages to me.  He jumped straight into getting to know me and wrote something personable. The cliché, “Hi how are you” messages get old quick.  If you want to stand out from the competition and not sound like a boring hum drum person, write something personal that speaks to your match’s interests.  Its pretty easy all you have to do is take some time to look through your match’s profile and pictures and figure out their interests from the way they present themself.

Anyway, I digress.  This ice-breaking message sparked a conversation about travelling. We talked about my travels in Europe and Australia and he told me about his upcoming travels to Norway and the States. This then sparked a conversation about our lives and where we were presently in our current situations. This date was an interesting character, his Dad was American and his mother, Australian.  He was conceived in the Caribbean and born in the States but grew up in Tasmania.

After being a hiking tour guide in Tasmania for over 7 years, this Date was taking a leap of faith and going on a trip to Norway to chill out and do a ton of hiking.  Afterwards, he would buy a one-way ticket to the States and see what work he could pick up on his travels along the way.  It would be his first one-way flight and I was both excited for him and jealous.  Having flown to Australia on a one-way ticket, I have become familiar with the joy of packing up my possessions and starting a life of uncertainty on the road.  I was excited to come into contact with another like-minded free soul, so naturally, I was eager to meet up, if only to just chat about travels over a cup of coffee.

Unlike the vast majority of my matches, who were located either in Launceston or Devonport, this Date was close to me in Meander, only a 20-minute drive from me in Dairy Plains.  Being the only closely located match, I was keen to meet.  He also seemed outdoorsy and adventurous, so planning a hike in the Great Western Tiers, a mountain range just outside our backdoor, seemed like an excellent idea to learn more about each other in an environment, where we both would feel comfortable and at ease. There were many hikes that I wanted to do in the Great Western Tiers region, including the Meander Falls and Split Rock loop. This Date had been to the Falls but he hadn’t done the loop. So we were gung-ho about this date idea.  I was also keen to know more about the industry he worked in and what it took to become an outdoor adventure guide. However, there were plans beyond our control that completely changed the way that our date was supposed to go.

–

The Monday after my whirlwind weekend with Date #18, my boss took me aside after work to have a chat.  At first, I thought he was going to bring up my performance issues at the dairy. It was pretty obvious that I was treating this job as a way to earn a consistent pay cheque until the end of my first-year visa, so I could go off to Taiwan to teach English and leave my memories of a hellish first year in Australia behind. Of course, those plans of running off to Asia didn’t come to fruition.  My boss pulled me aside to tell me that they had too many full-time staff and they couldn’t afford to keep me on. He assured me that the decision was purely financial and not based on performance. He let me choose my shifts for the rest of the week and by the end of it, I had to leave and find work elsewhere.

I was absolutely gutted at the time to learn that with only three months left of my first-year visa, I had to start over yet again and find a new job.  My dreams of teaching English in Taiwan were going to have to be postponed, I had no idea what I was to do with myself.  So I did what any normal girl would do, I went to my room and had a cry about it and then I pondered my options.  In the end, I chose to go to Launceston to see if I could get work there.  Still running off the euphoric high I felt when I was with Date #18, I wanted to be near him again.  He was in Launceston, and a lot of my Tinder matches were from there, Launceston was the most sensical place to be.  I could date lots of men from Tinder in Launceston, and write blog posts about them.  I could be in a city again, a small city, but a city nonetheless.  My intuition was telling me to move to Launceston and I was inclined to follow.

So in my last week of work, I found a Couchsurfing host to take me under his wing for Easter weekend and I found a Redline bus connection to take me from Deloraine to Launceston.  I was set for my new adventure.

–

Once I was in Launceston I had to break the news to my Date that I was no longer in the Great Western Tiers region and he would have to drive over 50km to Launceston if he wanted to see me. So he did!

We met on the Tuesday after the Easter long weekend. After my stay at my Couchsurfing host’s, Date #17 offered to let me crash at his place for a few nights.  So there I was back at Date #17’s, he was at work and I was still Tindering away.

This Date picked me up from Date #17’s place (no judgement: it was convenient ok…). He drove this small white Japanese car from the 90’s and had a personality of its own to boot. The front seats had these white shaggy chair covers, it might have been sheep’s wool, it might have been faux, who knows.  The car also had a CD player and was stocked with a ton of CD’s, the 90s girl in me was overjoyed! My date also had an interesting personality, which matched his quirky car. He wore an Adventure Time T-shirt with Jake the dog on it. He also rocked these black cargo pants and skate shoes. He truly was a goofy hippy, but he was lovely and warm right from the moment I met him. I knew that even though there wasn’t a romantic attraction there, I was with a genuinely interesting person, who was a far cry from some of the more boring types I’ve met through Tinder.

So the plan was to start our morning off by going to his favourite cafe in Launie, Sweetbrew.

As you can tell from the cafe decor, this place was so cute!  There was art on the walls for sale.  The cafe was a small, warm, and intimate space. It was also full, a good sign that business is usually steady.

I ordered my usual small flat white…

…and this gorgeously presented chocolate mousse.

Both were incredibly delicious.  The coffee had the right amount of creaminess that I like, and the chocolate mousse was perfect; it wasn’t overly sweet and the chocolate flavour was rich but not overpowering.  I was in cafe heaven…

My date merely had hot chocolate.  He was trying to avoid coffee and through those efforts, he now developed a strong liking for drinking chocolate.  As a self-proclaimed chocoholic, I wasn’t opposed to this interest.

–

After our lovely stop at the cafe, we continued our journey to Greens Beach.  Although our original hiking date plans didn’t happen, I was content with this new compromise.  We were on this stunning quiet beach, an hour’s drive from Launceston, situated at the mouth of the Tamar River, which feeds into the Bass Strait.

As you can see from the pictures, Greens Beach is gorgeous!  The beach truly lives up to its name with its dreamy blue-ish green hue.  With the exception of a family strolling at the far end of the beach, there were no other people around.  We had so much space and privacy with a stunning backdrop to top it all off.

Although it was a cloudy and windy Autumn day, we still decided to go for a swim.  I didn’t find the water temperature all that bad. My Date on the other hand thought it was freezing. But he was a good sport about it and joined me on my swim.  This beach, like Hawley beach, was quite shallow, but over time I eventually got to the point where I could swim out and not be able to touch the bottom. I was having the time of my life swimming in the sea away from the city. My Date didn’t last too long in the water though. After fifteen minutes he packed it in and made his way back to the beach. I decided to continue swimming further. I was getting a killer workout and I wasn’t stuck in some gym, it was paradise being out there on the water.

Once I got tired of swimming I headed towards a bench on a rocky embankment on the left side of the beach. I decided to swim out there to relax on the bench and get a good view of the beach. However, once I got close to the shoreline, I noticed there were a lot of rocks under me. As you can tell from the pictures the waves weren’t too rough on this beach so it wasn’t too bad finding my footing on the rocks before reaching land. Despite my best efforts I still managed to scrape my toe.

Once I dragged my weary body up onto land my toe started to bleed. The view from the bench also wasn’t much to look at either.  Behind the bench in amongst the bush was this dirt walking trail.  It went all the way from the beach further along the shoreline.  I would have loved to have followed the trail further but I had already been swimming for about half an hour and it would be rude to be away any longer.  I felt a bit bad for the poor bloke, I had been out on the water so long and he was all alone on the beach.

By the time I ambled my way down the trail back to the beach I found my date sitting tranquilly on the beach blasting electronic music from his portable speaker. He had just finished this amazing bit of sand art and was admiring it with pride.

You have to admit this Date had a creative side to him.

He was so open and he didn’t hold anything back.  I loved that he was upfront in his approach and let his quirkiness shine.  I felt like I had met a kindred spirit, who was a bit weird like me but in a good way.

After my big swim, I was cold and exhausted.  As far as keeping me warm, my towel wasn’t cutting it. However, my date was a prepared gentleman, who packed a big puffy black coat with him, which he let me wear to warm myself up. So there I was on Greens Beach in his big black coat with my towel wrapped around my legs having a chat with my date admiring the light dancing on the waters of the Bass Strait with this beautiful sand art laid out before me.

We chatted about a lot of things as we watched the tide inch it’s way closer and closer to his sand art. He told me about how he studied photography and how his experience didn’t match up with his preconceived notions of what studying photography would entail. He envisioned photography school to be full of artsy parties, something that would be the pinnacle of his young life, but it didn’t pan out that way. He learned some interesting skills but it didn’t fulfil him as much as he thought it would. He had worked in hospitality in a bunch of bars in Launceston and later worked as a walking tour guide for seven years. He worked in customer-facing roles just like I did.  It perhaps explained his amicable personality and his ability to converse so easily.

With our sociable personalities, we were having a lovely time chatting on the beach and listening to my Date’s music blast on his speakers. This was what travelling the world was all about, meeting like-minded souls and connecting, if only for a brief time.

–

Once the tide started washing away my Date’s sand art we decided to pack it up and make our way back to Launie. It was a gorgeous drive back winding our way through the Tamar river. In the car, my Date admitted that when I was out swimming for ages, he kept using the zoom on my camera to check that I still was afloat on the water and not drowning. I thought it was a unique way to look out for me and I found it chivalric and sweet.  Meanwhile, he was telling me about this awesome pub in Launie he used to work at for three years called the Royal Oak Hotel. I was eager to find some work in Launie as I had been there for a little less than a week and I needed to find something quick so I could find my own place and set up shop in this new city that I was starting to fall in love with.

So we decided to go to Royal Oaks to have a drink and check it out.  I also wanted to see if it was the type of place, where I would want to work at.

We pulled up to the Oaks and I was feeling a bit nervous as I was wearing a bikini with my white flowy skirt overtop.  My hair was full of sand and salt, I had no make-up on my face and I was not dressed like someone out to get a job.  But I figured at the very least I could get a beer and a good laugh out of the situation.

The pub was nearly empty, but it had charm.  There was a small stage at the far end of the bar.  It was one of those venues where local music acts could get some exposure.  There was classic rock coming from the speakers placed throughout the bar.  It was a chill and artsy place with a relaxed vibe to it.  The staff were lovely and everyone knew my Date from when he used to work there. The first bartender we talked to was a girl who was in the process of transitioning into a male.  He ran poetry slams in Launceston and loved to write.  I was eager to join a writer’s group so I was excited about the prospect of working with a fellow writer.

Once we had bought our first round of drinks we went over to the table full of people in the smoker’s area.  There was a couple sitting near us and they seemed to have Canadian accents.  Sure enough when I asked they said that they were from Newfoundland. When I said that we had a lot of Newfies living out west in Edmonton, the red-headed female in the group told me that it was offensive to call people from Newfoundland, Newfies.  I apologised and said that I wasn’t aware because everyone uses that term in Edmonton even when speaking with people from Newfoundland. She continued to glare at me suspiciously and stopped talking to me. It was the most awkward situation. I was stunned, usually, people from Newfoundland have a reputation for being friendly and easygoing, but clearly that’s not the case for all of them.  Once we had finished up our drinks we escaped the awkwardness and went to a different bar inside.

The next bartender we approached was this lovely man in his early 20s.  He was about to take off in a few months to embark on a road trip, where he would be travelling from London to Mongolia.  I was quite jealous; embarking on such a massive journey would be incredibly interesting and life-changing.  Tasmania is a life-changing place as well, but exploring an island is a lot different compared to driving through the world’s largest continent.  This bartender was whinging about the many long days he had to work, where he often averaged 40 hours a week. If that was the case then it seemed that there was a shortage of work that I could easily fill to relieve these workers from their long hours.  I felt like I would be an absolute shoo-in.  My Date went and talked to the supervisor on shift and he gave me the name of the bar manager to speak to when I hand in my CV.

–

I was elated by the prospect of a job that would commence quickly.  To top off my fantastic day, my Date invited me to a BBQ/bonfire gathering his parents were hosting on their acreage property in Meander. It was a spur-of-the-moment invite and I accepted it eagerly. So this date took a new spontaneous turn and there I was sitting in my Date’s car driving off to Meander.  It was the first time, since coming to Launceston, that I was once more bound in the direction of the Great Western Tiers. Seeing the backdrop of these stunning mountains with the sun melting into the horizon, I was left in a state of breathlessness and awe.

Passing through Deloraine brought many fond memories to mind, but this time instead of going through town and turning onto the B12 to Dairy Plains we took the A5 down into the quaint country town of Meander.

Driving past the small establishment of Meander, we continued up a hill until we got to the end of a road, where we came upon a lovely house nestled in a forest thicket, with a man-made pond on the other side of the road.

When we arrived my Date’s mother was the first to greet us.  You could tell she was older, likely in her late 50s or early 60s.  She had a lovely smile and she looked like a person with a positive disposition. When I told her that I was from Canada she told me excitedly that she used to live in Vancouver in the 1970s.

After talking to my Date’s lovely mother, the rest of the introductions with the party guests were underway. There was a lovely elderly English couple. A German man with his Australian wife and their son, who was around my age. Lastly, there was my Date’s father, who had a lovely-sounding American accent, which had been softened from decades of living in Australia.

Shortly after our arrival dinner was served.  There was a variety of well-cooked barbecued meat, salad, cheese, and, most importantly, wine.  The standout conversation of the night was the one I had with the English couple.  The husband was born in South Africa and his wife was born in Brazil. They had lived in the Middle East, England, and America, and finally settled in Perth. In Perth, they lived in the same house for over twenty years so that their kids could have a stationary life, the sort of life that they never had growing up.

Listening to their stories I found that I could relate.  Constantly moving locations and not having the sense of a permanent home is a feeling I am all too familiar with.  As a child, I lived in two different territories and two provinces in Canada and went to ten different schools because my family moved all the time for one reason or another.  As an adult, I have lived in many places overseas as well and I have constantly been on the move.  It’s not often that I meet people like me who have a history of not staying in one place for long.  But speaking to this couple and listening to their story of moving around and settling in Perth for twenty years gave me hope that maybe sometime in the future I can learn to settle down eventually and lead a stable life.

Meanwhile, my Date and his father had built a heap of scrap wood in this massive grassy patch on their property and lit it up and made a massive bonfire.  Once the bonfire was made we all migrated over to the grassy patch to bask in its flames.

While watching the bonfire I was able to talk to the German man, which was lovely as it had been a while.  FYI he said my German was outstanding #humblebrag :p  The stars were stunning that night, I laid on my back and basked in the glow of the universe illuminated above me. My Date joined me.  We had such a fantastic time lying there and having a chat and a laugh while admiring one of Tassie’s natural wonders.  The night sky is a definite must-see for anyone visiting Tas!

My Date was amazing company, there were so many moments where he made me laugh to the point that I was beside myself with laughter.  I felt so comfortable that I thought only about the current present moment and not about what was behind me or in front of me.  It is magical to have a person make you feel that way, I knew I had found a kindred spirit.

–

After the bonfire I was invited to stay the night there in the spare room.  Before I went to bed, my Date invited me to his little cottage that he was staying in, which was separate from the house. This Date was 420 friendly so we had a smoke with his pipe.  It was the harshest burn I’ve ever had while smoking but it did the job.  I was nervous being there in his cottage, I felt that perhaps I had put myself in a vulnerable position, where he would try and make a move on me. But he didn’t, he was completely respectful and didn’t lay a hand on me.  I appreciated it, I wish more men were like that. We had a fun time watching Adventure Time and he introduced me to the Mighty Boosh, which is a strange show with the most random plot lines. Once I had smoked enough and watched enough shows, I made my way back to the house into the spare room.

In the morning I was treated to a lovely breakfast and shown around the property. Everything was so quaint in this house.  It was clean, but it had personality.  I felt blessed to be there and to have discovered these people.

–

On the drive back home in my self-reflection I felt at awe with this amazing experience I just had.  The past 24 hours had been such an incredible adventure.  It is certainly on my list of unforgettable dates.  I am so happy that I trusted this Date and let him lead the way and take me to all these beautiful places.  Going on Tinder dates, especially when you are picked up in a car, is a huge trust exercise.  But I’m glad that I opened my heart in this instance and trusted this Date.  He was so kind and respectful and he was open.  I wish more of my Tinder dates were like this.  I find it annoying at times when guys still put the moves on me after only one date, even though I make it clear on my profile that I am only looking for friends. To all my male readers out there, be more like this guy, live life fully and be open and genuine! To all my female readers, what do you think of this Date? Do you also have the same frustrations as me when it comes to Tinder guys putting on the moves too early? I would love to hear your feedback.  ‘Til next time! xoxo

Date #18

Date Matched: 9 March 2016

Ethnicity: South African

Age: 27

Date Met: 18 March 2016

Icebreaker: Him

Icebreaking Message: “Hello :)”

–

This Icebreaking Message was one of the most unoriginal messages I’ve ever received. If I got a dollar for every time I received a message on Tinder that just said “hello” or “hi”, I would make a killing!

I wasn’t expecting much from this Date, he looked super young and seemed to have a fairly average appearance in his pictures.

We both talked about what we were doing with our lives. I was working on a dairy farm in Dairy Plains and he was studying in Launceston at the Australian Maritime College (AMC).

He told me that he was doing a survival training course as part of his studies. I was immediately intrigued and wanted to know more about what he studied. He was studying Ocean Seafaring and had moved all the way from Perth to Tasmania for his studies.

AMC has the best Seafaring program in the country and is world-renowned so it seemed like a program that would be worth going to the other end of the country for. When we started talking he had only been in Tasmania for three weeks at that point.

When he told me that he was originally from South Africa I was even more intrigued. I asked if he spoke Afrikaans. He said he knew a bit from his school days but he didn’t speak it because he was English South African. He came to Australia when he was 14 years old and considered Australia as his new adopted home.

While talking, we found common ground in our love for tea, for rooibos in particular. He was surprised and impressed that I knew of it and where it came from.

The thing we had most in common was that we both were freshly out of long-term relationships. He recently ended a relationship that lasted for five years. They broke up in November last year so he could come to Tasmania for his studies. I had a boyfriend for a little over a year and it was my longest relationship ever. We broke up in February and I came to Tasmania immediately after, to distance myself from my ex and to clear my head in this new post-breakup phase.

I liked the fact that we both were in similar situations. We both were trying to date again and get back on our feet as individuals and there wouldn’t be pressure to get into a relationship quickly since we both were newly single.

This Match was the type of guy who constantly asked questions like, “What are you up to?”, “How’s your day going?”, “What are you doing?”, so I naturally would ask the same questions back at him. In one of these instances, he told me that he was watching a documentary on Netflix about the Third Reich. I then thought I should act really funny and clever by asking if he does “Netflix and Chill”. I’ve heard of Netflix and Chill dates on social media but I never had a first date like that, as I was in a relationship when those types of dates were reaching their pinnacle in hype and popularity. So in my attempt to try and be funny, I set myself up for my first Netflix and Chill date.

He admitted he enjoyed learning about history and military history. When I told him that I studied history he was super stoked and suggested we watch a history documentary sometime. He also liked the fact that I was working on a dairy farm. His grandparents had a property next to a dairy farm in Natal so he had many fond memories of drinking milk “straight from the teet”, his words not mine. He was also interested in Canada and, like most people I’ve encountered on my travels, told me about how he’s “always wanted to go to Canada” *eye roll*, they all say that. He had never seen snow before, which I thought was crazy.

After some flirty banter, he asked for my number and I gave it to him. We decided we would have this lovely date on the dairy farm, watching Netflix and drinking tea. He then suggested cuddling. Maybe it was because I was newly single and I missed that sort of affection that I once had on a regular basis, but the idea of cuddling didn’t seem like too bad of an idea. Silly me I thought, “Yeah cuddling that could be nice,” without realizing the implications of such a decision. I swear being out of the game for a while can make you forget the simplest of dating rules, such as: Never put yourself in a situation on your first date, where you are in a homey intimate setting cuddling.

Looking back on the messages we exchanged it was quite evident how much of a perv he was and sex was clearly the only thing on his mind. From asking me what I was wearing, asking for pictures of me, suggesting things like cuddling, and asking me to join him in bed; how did the red flags in my mind not go up!?

When I told him that I was cleaning and listening to music on my iPod he just assumed that I was doing it in my underwear. Like in what universe does that happen!? I guess I’m a square for cleaning in proper clothing and/or pyjamas. I sent him a picture of me in my pyjamas just to show him that that wasn’t the case. He then said that he would send me a pic of what he was wearing except he was shirtless.

I was curious about what he looked like so I told him to send the pic anyways. My god was it good. He wasn’t super ripped but he was toned enough that the prospect of meeting him suddenly became more exciting. However, once he sent that pic he then used it to try and get a picture of me shirtless. It was one of those, “Well I sent you this sort of pic so you should send me one back” sort of scenarios, so annoying…

One time he asked me, “What do you like in a guy?” so I said, “Well I love light hair and blue/green eyes that make me think of the sea. I really like someone who’s outdoorsy, fit, adventurous and willing to try anything once. I also love to laugh and need someone with a sense of humour.” When I asked him what he liked in a girl he had a sweet but incredibly vague response, “Pretty much the same in girl form but don’t care what hair colour or eye colour but they got to be someone I can talk to and share all life’s good experiences with.” He was good at catching my interest and as time went on I became even more interested in meeting him.

So we met on a Friday. He drove over 60 km from Launceston to Dairy Plains to see me as soon as his class finished that day, which was 4pm. He didn’t have his own car but he was able to borrow one from one of his classmates. He wanted to get out of Launceston so he come out this way. When we were thinking of things to do I suggested going for a hike in the Great Western Tiers. There were loads of hikes in the area that I hadn’t done yet and was eager to complete and cross off my list.

However, he told me the day before we were meant to hike that he wouldn’t be able to show up until later in the afternoon and it would be way too late to do any sort of hiking. We decided to get a drink instead and check out the nearby town of Deloraine. I also offered to cook for him, so he offered to bring over a bottle of wine.

This Date turned out to be smoking hot when I met him. It was the hugest surprise and one that I was not ready for. I thought he was going to be some average-looking guy, who would be easy to turn down if he tried anything. “Oh god,” I thought to myself, “I was not prepared for this.” I guess after being disappointed by Date #17 when his real looks didn’t match up to his virtual looks, I swore to myself that I had to be ready for potential disappointment with this Date as well. But I was now in a reversed scenario and all my defence mechanisms stored in my brain were coming down. Finally, I found a Date in Australia, who made me cheer a bit inside and fist pump in my head, “Yesss! This is what I’m talking about! I need more Dates like you!”

He was short, around 5’9″, but he was heaps cute with sandy blonde hair and he had these lovely green eyes and an infectious smile. He had this cute boyish charm and was well-dressed too. He wore a beige Helly Hansen windbreaker jacket, well-cut khaki pants, and these gorgeous Sperry Topside loafers. He also had this deep smouldering voice and the cutest South African accent. I was totally and completely enamoured.

He had brought over two bottles of wine instead of one. I didn’t have any proper wine glasses to drink out of, but he didn’t seem to mind. We had our wine in regular water glasses and chatted for a bit before we decided to head off to Deloraine.

He was really interested in what I studied. I told him about my Bachelor’s thesis and my fascination for the Renaissance and the Reformation, two major historical time periods that he didn’t really know anything about. I found that a bit disappointing since he told me how much he loved history, but it seems like he has the same mindset as most people, where history to them means studying more modern history.

Like most people, he asked whether Early Modern history referred to the early 20th century or the Industrial Revolution. I had to correct him and explain the Renaissance and the Reformation and how collectively spurred on the modernisation of Europe as we know it. It was evident that everything I was saying was way over his head.

At the same time when he told me about his Ocean Seafaring studies, everything sailed over my head as well #inlandgirlproblems. But his one saving grace was that he was at least interested in what I studied and he told me to send him a copy of my Bachelor Thesis. This was the first time a guy actually wanted to read the whole thing, rather than listen to me giving a vague excerpt of what it is I studied in casual conversation. I was beyond shocked.

When we were drinking wine on the couch in the little cottage, where I was living, the two Taiwanese girls that I was living with came back from their milking shift. He was super nice to them and was friendly in how he talked to them. That to me is a huge turn-on. I need a guy who can interact with people from different cultures and be consistently friendly.

I also ordered groceries last night through Cole’s online. The truck driver came by while we were drinking wine and my date was also super chatty and friendly with the truck driver. The more I saw him interact with other people, the more I became attracted to him. I felt like I had finally struck gold in the Tinder world!

Once the groceries came and we stored them away in the cupboards and fridge, we decided to set off to Deloraine.

In Deloraine, we went for a walk along the river and looked at all the random public art sculptures dotted along the river bank.

It was such a lovely walk. It was sunset and the sky was full of warm citrus hues. It was so romantic and scenic. Later that night this Date admitted to me that at the time he was tempted to grab my hand, that’s how romantic and picturesque it all was.

We both talked about the travels we had done. With his ex-girlfriend, he had been to Indonesia several times, once to South Africa, and once on a southern European tiki tour. Like me, he wasn’t a fan of the tiki tour experience and wasn’t one for a fully structured travel itinerary.

He had lived a life that I could only dream of. He grew up in Johannesburg and in Australia, he was close to the beach in Perth. He had always lived in warmth, a stark contrast to my snow-filled childhood. His family had their own yacht and growing up he would go sailing. As he told me about his sailing adventures, I had these fantasies flashing through my head of me wearing a cute bikini, and tanning on the bow of his yacht. I’ve never been on a yacht before.

Talking about seafaring then brought us to the topic of why he chose to study Ocean Seafaring. Originally he had signed up to join the navy two years ago. He wasn’t able to get in because of a throat surgery he had as an infant. He then decided to study engineering then computer sciences. He never finished any of his studies. He had studied for years until he realized that the only thing that would make him feel truly happy and fulfilled would be a life on the sea. I found it attractive that he had sacrificed his comfortable life in Perth to study something he was truly passionate about.

After the walk along the river, we grabbed a drink at the Empire Hotel on the main street of Deloraine. I figured it would be a safe option since it had a Trip Advisor sticker on its front door. From the moment we walked in, I knew the pub was a brilliant tucked away gem.

The interior of the foyer and bar had an antique feel to it and the atmosphere was warm and cozy with a fully functional fireplace next to the bar. With the colder autumn weather taking over, the fire was most welcome.

We both ordered cider. He was an absolute gentleman and paid for the drinks and turned down my offer to pay. As we were drinking our ciders he showed me his student ID. We then compared our IDs. Like me, he also has a catchy last name. He has the same last name as a famous member of Pink Floyd and is fitting for his studies. However, he didn’t know this famous band member from Pink Floyd, which was slightly disappointing. As a classic rock lover, my heart cringed a little.

As we were looking at each others’ IDs, there was an old woman sitting next to us and like a typical old person she talked our ear off about her life and her grandkids. She was your typical sweet old lady with a sunny disposition. She told us how she played lawn bowls for most of her life. She then went on a rant about how some reckon bowls isn’t a real sport but she reckons that it is indeed a real sport and ought to be taken just as seriously as any other sport out there. My conversation with her left such an impression on me that whenever I think of lawn bowls or go past a bowling green, I now think of her.

She asked if my Date and I were a couple. We both shook our heads awkwardly. “Oh!” she exclaimed, “You look like you ought to be.” Inside I was fist-pumping, “Yes, it’s not just me, other people think we look cute together too!” Before we left the pub my Date made sure to squeeze in time in front of the fire. Coming from WA he wasn’t used to the Tasmanian cold and he whinged about it a lot, but it wasn’t that cold. It was only autumn and would inevitably be colder with Winter soon approaching. “Good luck travelling to Canada,” I thought to myself.

After the drink, we made our way back to the cottage on the dairy farm. At the cottage, we made this ravioli lasagna that I saw on a Buzzfeed cooking channel, Tasty. It didn’t look as picturesque as it did in the video and this “lasagna” was more like a cheesy ravioli soup. It was so embarrassing serving such a failed meal but my Date was a good sport about it and ate the “lasagna” anyways. We continued to drink more wine. At that point, we polished off a whole bottle and moved on to the second one. After several drinks, I thought it would be irresponsible to send this Date on his way back to Launceston. Since it was Friday night it would be likely that he would run into police conducting random breathalyzer tests. So I offered to let him stay the night.

In the end, we did have our Netflix and Chill date, but rather than watch a historical documentary, we watched a Jim Jeffries comedy special instead, and it ended as the majority of Netflix and Chill dates end…

I’m surprised we were able to fit somewhat comfortably onto my tiny single bed in my tiny room. It’s a good thing neither of us was neither tall nor big. It was the first time since my breakup, that I invited someone into my personal space to spend the night with me. It was a massive step towards getting over my ex and moving on with my life and becoming more independent.

I’m sure many of you readers, who have experienced a break-up from a long-term relationship, can relate to how huge and important these sorts of steps are towards recovery and getting fully back into the dating game.

It was slightly awkward since I didn’t know his sleeping patterns, nor did he know mine; but I liked him and he made me feel comfortable and at ease. There was one point in the middle of the night when I had a strange nightmare and started freaking out and then I woke up and realized that it was just a dream. I apologized to my date and went back to bed.

I got up super early that morning, as I usually do after a night of drinking. It was one of those awkward moments, where I was fully awake and couldn’t get back to sleep and waited until my Date woke up. Once he woke up and fluttered his eyelids, he reached over and comforted me with a kiss. He looked like the most divine being under the morning sun peeking through the Venetian blinds.

We had a romantic morning cuddling and kissing. One perk about this Date was his kissing abilities, he was an amazing kisser! This Date was the exact opposite of the one I had with Date #17, where I woke up regretting the night before and wanted to keep my distance and get out of bed as soon as possible. With this date, I felt the rush of positive dopamines coursing through my body. My hormones were racing like crazy, it made me feel like a giddy 16-year-old.

As I was cuddling with this Date, I noticed this weird indent in his skin on his side. I asked him what it was. My first thought was that it was from a mole removal from a melanoma check. Turns out when he was 12 in South Africa, he was shot in his side by someone trying to steal his mobile phone, which at that time was one of those massive brick-sized phones.

He was the first person I had ever met, who had been shot. His story horrified me, I could only imagine how traumatizing it would have been to be held at gunpoint. At the same time now I can say that I went on a date with a straight-up gangsta! I mean I grew up in a rough neighbourhood in Edmonton, but I’ve never had an encounter involving firearms. He told me before about how dangerous South Africa was and seeing his gunshot wound showed me the realities of the violence that can be prevalent there.

After lying in bed until the late hours of the morning, we decided to get up and get on with our day. I offered to make him breakfast but this Date was one of those people who didn’t eat anything in the mornings. I sometimes skip breakfast on a weekday when I’m rushing off to work, but on a weekend when there’s nothing on the go, it’s so lovely to have a leisurely breakfast. I wasn’t going to skip breakfast so I made myself some toast and coffee. Eventually, this Date decided to at least have some coffee.

After breakfast, we decided to go for a short hike in the Western Tiers. I looked at some books on hiking trails in Tasmania and found many hikes in the area around Dairy Plains. This date had to head back to Launceston around 1pm to study with his mates, so we settled on a short hike to see the Alum Cliffs. In the guidebook it said that the hike took 1 hour. But as with most guidebooks, the predicted time was stretched out to the utmost maximum.

I think this hike took maybe half an hour there and back. We saw a lot of elderly people on the trail, a testament to how easy this hike was. The cliffs looked cool in the hiking book and I thought the hike would lead us into the cliffs. Unfortunately, the hike merely led to a lookout deck, where you can look at the cliffs but not actually get to them. It was a lovely view but I was hoping for more of a real proper hike.

I at least had good company during the walk. My Date was so sweet during the hike and at the lookout. He often paused to slip his arm around me and steal kisses every now and then.

The beautiful and picturesque Alum Cliffs

After the hike, my Date and I for some reason got onto the topic of how it had been ages since either of us had fooled around with someone in a car. We then decided to give it a go. It was another one of those moments where I felt like a giddy teenager again.

We ended up driving down Westrope Road on the way to Higg’s Track. But instead of turning onto Higg’s Track, we continued down Westrope road until we reached Western Creek. It was a bumpy ride and driving down the uneven and winding gravel road in a small car, that belonged to one of his mates, made us worry that we would somehow damage it, but in the end, we got to our destination with the car intact. Once we got to the creek, it was evident that we had found an ideal romantic spot. We were completely alone and isolated.

Our idyllic spot at Western Creek

So we had our moment of heated romantic passion and it was simply idyllic! It was a bright sunny day, we were at a creek, in a stunning forest, and not a single car drove by, the situation couldn’t have been more perfect. After our steamy car sesh, my Date dropped me back off at the cottage and then made his way up to Launceston.

Overall I would say that even though this Date wasn’t the best at virtual conversation, he was delightful to be around in the real world. This was one of the craziest most memorable Tinder dates I’ve been on and it’s one that always brings a smile to my face when it comes into my thoughts.

Weirdly enough two days after this Tinder date, I lost my job at the dairy farm and had to start a new life in a new city.

Stick around to learn how my Tinder ventures further evolved, trust me, there are still many good Tinder stories left to tell. I would love to hear about your personal Tinder experiences in the comments section. I am also looking for guest bloggers to write about their Tinder experience so feel free to contact me via my Facebook page.

Date #17

Date Matched: 5 March 2016

Ethnicity: Australian

Age: 23

Date Met: 13 March 2016

Icebreaker: Him

Icebreaking Message: “Are you enjoying your farm work?”

–

When I first came upon his profile I could see that he was a typical Aussie bloke. There were pictures of him in a footie jersey with his mates. There was also a picture of him in his cap and gown getting his degree, a sign that he was educated and literate, always promising. He had dark hair and light eyes, always an interesting genetic combination, so I swiped right.

We got to talking about my farm job and what I was doing for work. When I told him that I was doing dairy farming in Dairy Plains, he asked which farm I was on. Oddly enough he knew the farm. While he was in university he had a side job supplying feed mixes for various dairy farms in the area, including the one I worked at. It’s crazy how country Australians seem to know each other or at least have a couple degrees of separation between each other.

He grew up on a beef farm in Ridgley, Tasmania, close to Burnie, so he knew a lot about cows. Although I didn’t give that much of a crap about cows and farming, it was my livelihood and in a way, I had to learn to care enough about cows to get through the day. This Tinder Match was comforting to talk to because he knew what dairy farms are like and farm life in general. At the end of the day when I would be venting about work, I turned to him because he understood what I was going through and his virtual company was appreciated for that reason.

This Date and I were getting on well. We even called each other once on the phone before we met because we both were curious about each other’s accents. He definitely had a slight country/bogan accent that you hear more often in rural areas rather than cities. It’s certainly not an accent that I would be keen on hearing the rest of my life, but with this project, I had to keep myself open to a variety of people and situations.

We decided to meet up on a weekend that best suited both of our schedules. We settled for the long weekend in mid-March. He was working at an accounting firm so he only had weekends off. I had to work the morning shift on Sunday, which goes from 4am and ends around 9am. I had Monday off and it was a public holiday so the plan was that he would pick me up from the farm Sunday afternoon after my morning shift and we would spend the day out in Launceston. I would spend the night at his place and he would sleep on the couch and I would get his bed. We would spend Monday together and then he would drop me off back at the farm later that arvo (‘Strayan slang for the evening).

So that morning I got up at 3:30am for my 4am shift, I was an absolute zombie and had to drink a cup of coffee to get through it. The milking took forever that day so I finished my shift around 10:30am and texted him to pick me up from the farm at 12:30pm. After the milking, I had a long shower to rid myself of the nasty stench of cow. I was excited about being back in a city again and wearing cute dressier clothes so I put on make-up and picked out a dress to wear, a silk strapless number from Gypsy Global Village that I bought for less than half its original price during the closing out sale of Offshores in Edmonton (RIP!). I wore my blue knit Tom Tailor sweater over top with nylons and my fancy and expensive black Edward Meller shoes I bought at David Jones in Melbourne and my black leather Sam Edelman purse I bought at Winners. I packed up my backpack with an outfit to sleep in, and an outfit for Monday, as well as my basic toiletries and necessities.

Just before my Date came he suggested I add him on Facebook, I thought it was a bit strange of a request but I added him. Literally a few minutes before he arrived I did a small stalk sess of his Facebook photos and noted that he wasn’t as beefy as I originally thought he would be. I expected some medium-built dude but when I saw full-body pics, I noticed that he was quite lanky and had long skinny legs.

When he arrived at the farm he called me to announce he had arrived. I was in panic mode at this point because I couldn’t find my camera anywhere. He asked if he could come in but I said no because my room was a mess and I didn’t think it was a good idea to bring just anyone in. I never found my camera so I gave up and grabbed my things and went to his car. He had a tiny forest green coloured car, it was such a student car.

When I met him he was wearing white sunglasses but I could see right away that he had terrible acne scars. I have never had a date with such bad acne scarring as this guy. I know this sounds bad, but I would like my future boyfriend to have somewhat nice skin. I have soft even skin that I got from my father (Thanks Dad!) and I tend to go for guys with similar skin. This Date’s skin didn’t exactly fit the bill.

I knew right away that this Date and I didn’t have any serious potential once I met him in person. He was indeed skinny and lanky in person and slightly gangly in how he moved and it wasn’t appealing to me. But up to this point, he was a nice guy to talk to so I figured we could have a fun time hanging out and take it easy as friends.

I know I sound slightly bitchy for friend-zoning someone at first sight, but when you’re a mature woman who’s dated a few men in her life, you just know instinctively whether a man is boyfriend material or not.

So when he drove me to Launceston he decided that we ought to take the scenic route down Meander Valley Road. There was this takeaway place in Westbury that used to be the place everyone had to stop at before the Bass Highway was built. The place was called Andy’s and he swore they had the best pies and it had been ages since he had one. Since I am a pie snob, having spent over seven months in Regional Australia, I was keen to try it out. Sadly now that Andy’s was no longer this busy hub due to a much faster highway completely bypassing it, the quality of the pies were sub-par much to his disappointment and mine. This date was a sweetheart though and paid for the pies, which was nice.

From Launceston, we went to his place to drop off my backpack. He showed me his house that he shared with two female roommates that was close to the CBD. It was a lovely place and you could tell that there was a feminine influence in the décor of the house. He offered me a glass of water, which was accommodating of him, but he only filled up the glass three-quarters full, which I found off-putting. I usually fill up a glass of water full until there is maybe a finger width of space left.

His room was messy in a way that reminded me of how my brother keeps his room. He also had a slightly slanted bedroom floor. He demonstrated this by rolling his can of spray deodorant on it, which rolled down perfectly from one end of the floor to the other. The house was a ten-minute walk to his work in the CBD but he didn’t like living so close to the CBD and would prefer living further out where it’s more peaceful and not so close to the action and drive into work. He then proceeded to tell me about this block he bought in one of those cookie-cutter suburbs that’s further out from the city that will be developed sometime later this year.

As a girl who has always lived inner city and is happy living inner city and would rather die than live in a cookie-cutter suburb, I knew that this date was a bit too country bumpkin for me and we were not on the same wavelength. He also was the type of person who played it safe in life and made investments in property and stocks so that he could have a safety net for a future wife and kids. If I was the settling type I would have dug it, but I’m a travelling nomad living off the seat of my pants type of person and not keen to settle.

I needed someone to travel the world with and accompany me to all these crazy outlandish countries that no one has ever heard of or knows much about. I could just tell he wasn’t the type of guy who would be into that.

After showing me his sharehouse, he offered to show me his work offices, which I thought was kind of strange but I decided, why not? Plus I was curious to see what sort of office space he had. It was an open office plan. He showed me his desk, which didn’t have a lot on it since he was switching desks the next week, and showed me the other desks where some of his other co-workers sat and what they usually do at work.

I’m not sure why he brought me to his office. It was pretty boring not going to lie. Maybe he thought we would have had hot office sex or something… Either way, it was stupid and for those of you guys reading this, don’t bring a chic to your workplace on the first date, there’s no reason for it until you get to know her better and you have gone on a few dates.

After the office tour, he showed me around the CBD. It was a Sunday and a public holiday with good weather so the city centre was dead. I wanted to go to Cocobean because I missed high-quality artisan chocolate but it was closed when we got there. The tour around the CBD didn’t take too long because Launceston is a tiny city with only 103,000 inhabitants, so there’s not much to it. When I saw the size of this city I found it ridiculous that this Date thought that living so close to the CBD was too hectic and crazy for him. This city is so tame and relaxed, even when I’ve seen it in “rush hour” it’s nowhere near as bad as the cities on the mainland.

He took me to City Park because he knew that I wanted to go there. It was a lovely park but I didn’t linger too long at any of the sites he showed me. We went to the duck pond, the yellow house full of plants, and visited the monkeys. I took note of all these lovely places but I didn’t want to stay anywhere too long because I didn’t want to linger in such a way that he might get the idea to move in closer and schmooze on me. But in my head, I kept a mental note of these places and wondered what it would be like to come here on my own or with someone I was more into.

After visiting the park he took me to see the Cataract Gorge. Again I didn’t linger anywhere too long. He suggested going on the chairlift that takes you over the gorge. It’s a cute and intimate ride but you can’t go on it with just anyone. I declined the offer and suggested we keep walking.

We walked from the First Basin across the gorge over to the Gorge Restaurant and the rotunda. It was a lovely walk and there were heaps of wallabies and peacocks flitting about, which made the experience feel more exotic. I kept walking and exploring further so I suggested going up this path that weaved up the gorge. It was enjoyable for me but my date was only just keeping up. He was astonished by how fit I was. I didn’t think that being able to hike up a hill at a somewhat mid-tempo was anything to rave about, but he thought otherwise. He chalked it up to the fact that I was constantly doing physical work at the farm. I was “work fit” as he called it. Yup, too fit for him.

When we got fairly high up the hill we realized that we were now on a road where cars were able to drive past. We found this sign just off the road and looked at where exactly we were. My Date noted that we were getting close to Trevallyn and we were going a bit too far away from where we parked. He suggested turning back and going back down the way we came. I thought that that was a lame idea and suggested that we take this narrow gravel path that ran parallel to the hill. Even though my shoes were not equipped to walk on such a trail, I loved the ruggedness of the experience. I felt like I was back in nature and not in the middle of a city.

We had a lovely time walking and talking. My Date was so impressed by the amount of walking I was doing on uneven ground in black dress shoes and how fit I was. I was impressed by the amount of history he knew, considering he studied commerce. I told him about some of the courses I took in history and he actually was able to keep up with some of the events I talked about. He had hands down the most impressive historical knowledge out of any guy I met so far on Tinder.

He told me how he never tried weed before in his life. As someone who loves a good joint every now and then I was a little turned off by that fact. Perhaps some of you would call me a druggie or someone who has gone too far into the dark side. But honestly, I like weed and I want to be with someone who enjoys it too or at least has tried it once or is at least willing to try it in the future. It was obvious too that this Date had never done it before, he was just so dweeby in how he acted. He reminded me of myself before I tried pot when I was 20 and had all these apprehensions about it because it’s viewed so negatively in society. This Date was just a bit too much of a pansy for me and his anti-weed banter was cramping my style.

Another red flag was when I asked him about the last time he had a girlfriend. Instead of telling me about the last girlfriend he had, which was what I asked him specifically about, he proceeded to tell me about every single girlfriend he’s ever had in his life. It was exhausting listening to him go on down his mental list of past girlfriends. If someone you’re on a date with gives you their entire dating history and you didn’t ask for it, that’s usually a sign that they feel they need to make themselves look more desired than they really are. If he was a secure guy he would have answered my question plain and simple, but no, he had to go on and on about every single girl who was ever interested in him.

Anyway… I digress, we eventually found our way back down the hill and we coincidentally made it onto the path that leads to the suspension bridge. We walked on the bridge and from there had this amazing view of the gorge. It was beautiful. My Date thought I would be freaked out by walking on this wobbly bridge that slightly swung the closer you walked to the middle of it, but I kept my cool for the most part. Again I didn’t linger anywhere too long and just kept a move on. In my head, I thought of how lovely it would be to come back to the gorge either by myself or with someone special.

After walking around the Gorge we went to the movie rental shop since we decided before we met, that we would pick out a movie to watch before we went to bed. At first, he decided that I pick a movie but I insisted that we pick a movie together. Turns out we are both indecisive people. After milling about for some time I chose the Importance of Being Earnest, I read the play for a university-level English Literature course and loved it, he never read it, and I was dying to see the film version with Reese Witherspoon. He chose the Australian classic, The Man from Snowy River, based on the poem written by the Australian bush poet Banjo Paterson.

But before we watched the movies he suggested getting dinner. Before we met we both agreed that we love steak so he suggested we go out for steak when we meet up. I was beyond excited to get some steak in me. So he took me to this restaurant on Seaport Boulevard called Levee Food Co. The restaurant is a mid-range establishment. The staff weren’t the most accommodating and it took a while for them to seat us.

Once we were seated my date seemed to be all whingey about the possibility of having to pay for two steaks and suggested that perhaps one of us get pizza and the other one get steak. I found it a bit strange since we had agreed for some time that we would both be enjoying a steak when we got around to going to a steak restaurant. In the end, I decided to be gracious and not drain his pockets too much so I chose a pizza that had pieces of eye fillet on it, which they so affectionately called Luv Me Tender and he got himself a steak, and no we did not share our food. We also had a Levee pizza as an appetizer, his suggestion not mine, so by the end of this dining experience, I was pizza-d out.

After dinner, we went to a BWS Bottleshop to pick up some wine to enjoy at home, while watching the movies. With two bottles of wine in tow, we went back to his place. We decided to watch The Importance of Being Earnest first. I was a little nervous about the film choice. Not every straight man gets excited by the possibility of being strapped in to watch an Oscar Wilde play on film. But this Date was surprisingly cool about it and he actually liked the film and found the humour funny. Now I don’t know if it was the wine, actually, I’m 99% sure it was the wine, in my sedated state I let him come closer to me when he tried and we actually cuddled while watching this film. I was slightly drunk and I no longer cared about anything at this point. The whole time I thought of how much lovelier it would be if he was someone I was more into. But I chalked my indifference up to the fact that I was newly single and was learning how to get back into the game.

After the film, we went to bed because I was so exhausted from having been up since 3:30 that morning. He asked whether it was ok if he got into bed too. Again I was too sloshed and exhausted to care and we started kissing and doing things that I now regret very very VERY much. Anyway…

The sun came up the next day and this Date tried to cuddle me but I had my back turned to him the whole time. I couldn’t face him, I felt too ashamed. You could tell he was trying to get close to me and push his luck and hopefully have a repeat of last night, but I was sober now and was not having any of it. I got out of bed as quickly as I could and put some clothes on.

For breakfast, he made me pikelets (from pre-mixed batter in a carton) topped with raspberries, sliced-up banana, and maple syrup. He thought the maple syrup would remind me of home. It was a sweet thought but I rarely eat maple syrup, even in Canada, and maple syrup is produced on the opposite end of the country thousands of kilometres away from where I’m from.

After breakfast, we decided to watch The Man from Snowy River. It’s a classic Australiana film set in the Grampians. Once I watched this movie I no longer felt bad or embarrassed about picking out The Importance of Being Earnest to watch. The Man from Snowy River had some of the cheesiest shots I’ve ever seen in film and there were so many scenes that overplay the drama and intensity of a moment. I found it ridiculous that someone was that thick to put such terrible acting into a film. The dialogue was crap and I was baffled that a sequel was made of this film since the original was awful to begin with.

The movie was so boring that I actually fell asleep for a good twenty minutes. The only thing I liked was the gorgeous shots of the Grampians. Having lived near those mountains for a month, the Grampians will always have a soft spot in my heart and it was lovely to see them again on film. The lead actor Tom Burlinson also wasn’t too bad on the eyes with his blonde cowboyish good looks. The part where he finally kisses his love interest, played by Sigrid Thornton, and then the two of them romp around the hilltops of the Grampians on horseback was pretty cute. My Date groaned at it, “Oh god what a stupid scene” but I objected and said that it was lovely and sweet. But in my head, I thought how awesome it would be to be swept off my feet onto a horse by a cute blonde Australian like Tom Burlinson. One can only hope…

Once the movie was done, my Date and I got ready for our pre-planned trip to a vineyard in the Tamar Valley because I told him before we met that I wanted to do a trip out there. So I went and did my make-up and put on my cheap but flattering navy H&M dress with flower-patterned tights, with my expensive black Edward Meller dress shoes and my black leather Sam Edelman purse. I packed all of my things up as well and was happy to be out of the house and one step closer to my own room on the farm.

For lunch, we went to Josef Chromy. It took us ages to find a park, it was so busy, we almost turned around and went somewhere else. Luckily there was overflow parking across the street. I was so happy we went. Everyone at the restaurant was dressed up so I didn’t feel out of place. It took some time for us to get a seat but we were shown to a large lounge chair to wait at while a table was sorted out for us, which was much better than what Levee Food Co. did for us when they merely made us wait at the bar. We were offered a table out on the verandah. It was a lovely warm day so it was perfect.

I ordered a glass of Sekt to start. My date just had whiskey. I thought it was a bit strange that he didn’t drink any wine since we were at a winery, but oh well. We thought of just getting a cheese platter, but our server told us that we had to order mains since the cheese platter is served at the café and we could have just gone there instead. It was no trifling matter though, I had my eye on the wallaby bolognese and was keen to try it, so I ordered that. My Date just ordered some scallops. We decided that we would have the cheese platter but would have it as a dessert. When the food came out it was in small servings, which is typical of a fine dining establishment. You could literally see my Date gulp in horror as he saw how small the portions were. It was clear that he wasn’t used to this type of dining experience. I told him not to worry about it, we already agreed that I was going to pay anyway.

My wallaby bolognese

While I ate I ordered a Gewürtztraminer and had it with my meal. Both the Sekt and the Gewürtztraminer were fantastic and if the bottles weren’t $25 a pop, I would have bought one. The bolognese was fantastic and it was my first experience eating Wallaby. The cheese platter we ate at the end was divine. I wasn’t all that hungry at the end of the meal, but it looked too good to not fit it in. We had Camembert cheese and it came with these lovely crackers and an assortment of fresh and dried fruit. The server we had was also excellent. He was young with long blond curly hair that was put up in a ponytail and he rocked this sick pair of Doc Martens, and the service he gave was top-notch. I was having the time of my life, enjoying this luxurious fine dining experience and I was loving it. I felt so in my element but my Date looked slightly uncomfortable.

My glass of Sekt

Sure enough, when the bill came around, $100 in total, I paid for it and my Date didn’t even try and stop me. But I didn’t care, I was making good money at a dairy farm at the time and I was happy to be out at a luxurious vineyard close to a city rather than in the middle of nowhere. I was over the moon with joy.

At the end of our meal we had a walk around the vineyard and it was so lovely.

View of the vineyard from the restaurant

Josef Chromy restaurant on the other side of the pond

Visiting this vineyard was certainly the highlight of my weekend and I was super happy to be taken out here. Once we finished walking around the vineyard my Date and I made our way back to the farm. On the drive back I told him how I was fresh out of a relationship and that I was using my time in Tasmania to reconnect with myself and figure out what type of person I want to be in the future. I also stressed that I needed this alone time and I was in no place to seriously date someone or be in a relationship for a while. I gave him this speech to make it clear that I was not interested in taking things to the next level. He seemed cool with it. When he dropped me off I thanked him for the lovely weekend and I gave him a hug and a kiss and went on my way back towards my own room.

I was so happy and excited to see my own bed and to have my own space again. Usually, when I feel that way after seeing a guy, that’s usually a bad thing for him. I just was not into him at all and I wasn’t feeling it. For the first couple of days I didn’t hear from him so I assumed he wasn’t feeling it either so I was over the moon happy thinking that this indifferent parting was mutual. Alas, I received a text from him. But I didn’t message him as much as I did before we met. I had to cut my losses and move on to other Tinder men to date. I had a blog to maintain after all.

Later that week he texted me and asked me if I missed Launceston at all. I replied and said that it was a nice city and I’m sure I would go back there again sometime. He then suggested that I come over again. I told him that if I did I wouldn’t want to spend the night because I didn’t want to be in a compromising position again. It was after I sent that message that I never heard from him again.

Later that month I did lose my farm job due to overstaffing and not based on my performance and I got into contact with this Date. I needed a place to crash for a few days and this Date surprisingly offered his space for a bit. I did stay on a spare mattress on his floor for five days in my first week in Launceston while I job searched, so that was cool.

Tinder helped me find a place to stay so I didn’t have to waste money on a hostel. At first, I was slightly pissed about paying $100 for lunch at Josef Chromy but this Date did save me that amount of money by letting me crash at his for a bit, so it wasn’t so bad in retrospect. This Date and I are still friends I guess. We don’t really talk however if I see him around in Launceston I say hi. He’s a nice person and he has a lot of good qualities and I’m sure he’ll be a fantastic candidate for a lady looking to settle down and start a family, I just know in my heart that he and I are too different to even consider wasting more time together. I wish him the best and I do appreciate the lovely weekend he gave me because that in itself was a lovely adventure and it will be an interesting travel memory to look back to.

Have any of you had a weekend getaway with someone you just met on Tinder? I can’t be the only one who’s done it. I would love to read your stories in the comments section below.

Date #16

Date Matched: 8 March 2016

Ethnicity: Danish

Age: 26

Date Met: 10 March 2016

Icebreaker: Him

Icebreaking Message:

This was without a doubt one of the cutest icebreaking messages I’ve ever received. The bear is adorable and it made me think of home. For those of you guys out there active on Tinder, take a page out of this guy’s book and send a cute adorable GIF to that girl you really want to chat up; it will be memorable and sweet. It’s so much better than those cliche messages such as, “Sup”, “Hi”, “How are you”, “Hey gorgeous”, etc. It might seem cheesy and dopey but take it from a female serial Tinderer, it will make you stand out from the competition. If she has any sense of humour and appreciates cute gestures, she will probably be willing to take some time out of her week to let you take her out. I’m not going to lie, this GIF made me that much more keen to meet him.

In his pictures, this guy seemed a bit rough around the edges. It was mainly the fact that he had a Scandinavian company in his profile description, which made me press the heart button. I had yet to have a Tinder date with a Scandinavian man and I’ve always been curious about their culture.

I first guessed that he was Norwegian, but I was wrong, he’s Danish, whoops! But I guess I’m not as bad as some other people. He said most people usually guess that he’s German or Dutch. Since I know what the German and Dutch languages look like, I knew right away that he was from one of those countries way up north, but clearly, I don’t know the differences between the Scandinavian languages.

He had been in Tasmania for the past week and was leisurely travelling around the island in his van. I asked him where he was on the island and whether he liked hiking and had plans for his trip. He was staying in Rosebery, 150km from the dairy farm where I was. He liked hiking and didn’t have any plans. I had the next day off so I suggested he come by the farm and go hiking with me in the Great Western Tiers. I offered to give him some gas money or cook him dinner for taking me hiking. He was surprisingly cool about it and decided to come and get me. He declined my offer to fill up his vehicle and feed him, a nice day out was sufficient for him.

I gave him my number and the address of the dairy farm where I was staying and he gave me a rough estimate of when he would be arriving. He originally told me he would come around 10 or 11am, but he was running late and arrived just after noon.

That morning when I got up I went to plug my phone into the charger, nothing happened. At first, I thought my outlet was acting up so I tried a bunch of other outlets in the house and nothing was working. I was panicking and literally had less than half of my phone battery life left. It turns out there were over 70 homes in the valley without power and we were one of them, oh joy! Luckily this Date arrived before my phone died. By the time he came around my phone was at less than 10% battery life. Whew, that was close! It would have been disastrous if he arrived after my phone died and he was lost. Thankfully he was better with directions than Date #15 and found the farm with no problems.

He drove this massive white van. It was one of those typical backpacker vans that are boxy and look somewhat like a giant toaster on wheels. It smelled a little like a travelling backpacker and cigarettes. He was a medium-sized guy with blonde hair and a flat-brimmed baseball hat. He was dressed super casually in shorts and a t-shirt. Like Date #15 he wasn’t wearing shoes but there were sneakers on the ground behind his feet. Why don’t men wear shoes around these parts!?

First impression of him: He had some brown stains on his teeth, probably from all the smoking he’s done. He looked rough around the edges and gave off one of those stereotypical tradie vibes. I made my mind up instantly that there wasn’t going to be any romantic or sexual involvement with this guy. I wasn’t even sure if we would get on as friends, initially it seemed that we didn’t have much in common other than the fact we were both backpackers.

We drove down the road, which took us to the Great Western Tiers. From there I made him turn onto this other gravel road I discovered the day before. The sign from the highway told us this road led to a bunch of tracks including Higgs Track, Mother Cummings Track, and to Western Creek, to name a few. When the van wheels switched their coarse from pavement to gravel, it instantly felt rustic. We were bouncing along this road and we both had no idea where it would lead. The sound of the tires rumbling along was so loud, it was harder to speak and hear each other above the noise, so we mostly sat there in silence.

On the way down the road, we come across this vehicle that was completely burned out. It is the creepiest-looking thing I’ve seen and it made me think of those horror news stories where people get murdered in a vehicle and their remains are torched and left in a haphazard manner.

Eventually, the track wound its way up the hill and then we found a sign directing us to Higgs Track. The end of the road led to a gravel roundabout. It was the start of a hiking trail. So we parked the van. There were a couple of other cars there but for the most part, it didn’t seem like we would be encountering many people on this hike.

My Date changed into socks and shoes and he put together a backpack full of water to take with us. I just had my purse and my camera with me. With that, we entered the trail and instantly it felt as if we had stepped into another world. The first half of the walk was full of moss-covered rocks and fern-lined walkways. One of the first landmarks we came across was this lovely bridge over a creek. I have no idea which creek this is, but it’s beautiful and it’s a great spot to take pictures.

This walk was gruelling but amazing at the same time. After the bridge, the walk kept going at a continuous uphill pace. There seemed to be little to no respite for the less fit. It felt good to be hiking and getting some exercise, at the same time I was wearing my dark Buffalo jeans that I had only just recently started fitting into again and they were tight. It was a poor choice but I was wearing my baggy hippy sweater overtop but the shirt I wore underneath it kept slipping up, which was annoying to constantly pull down while hiking. I would have worn baggier pants but all of my more comfortable jeans smelled like cows and needed to be washed. So I let this Date walk ahead of me most of the time, while I nonchalantly adjusted my pants and shirt every few minutes so I wouldn’t look like a complete lovehandled mess.

The hike up was gorgeous and the whole time we didn’t encounter a single soul. It felt like we had landed in some other alternate fairytale/enchanted forest universe. It wasn’t one of those hiking trails where everything is excessively groomed and well-maintained. The path weaved up the hill organically in a way that made the hiking experience more rugged. We also came across the most colourful mushrooms I have ever seen in my life.

Even though it wasn’t the sunniest day, there was so much beautiful nature to discover and it was loads better than sitting at home in a sedentary state. We took two breaks during our hike and it took us around an hour and a half to reach the top. On the first break, we sipped from our water and talked a bit. On the second break, I accidentally sipped from his water bottle and I knew it instantly because I could taste the smoky residue from his breath. It further cemented in my mind that I certainly would not be kissing him.

We walked and walked and finally when it seemed like we couldn’t handle it anymore, we made it to the top. It was a cloudy day so the top of the mountain was covered in a misty haze. The peak of the mountain led to this long stretch of flat plateau land. It was a beautiful sight and I wanted to take a picture of it with my camera. When I tried turning on my camera it was slow and unresponsive until the notification flashed up on my camera that the batteries were exhausted. I was absolutely crushed that I couldn’t capture all these stunning sights in front of me. I was forced to do things the old-fashioned way and capture it all in my head and store it in my memories.

There was a hut close to the mouth of the trail, which we came from. In our curiosity, we walked up to the hut and had a look inside. The sign at the front of the hut said that we were in the Central Plateau Conservation Area at the Lady Lake hut.

The Lady Lake Hut (picture taken on a separate occasion)

Inside the hut was a wooden table with several chairs. There were small narrow bunk beds built into the walls with dirty small mattresses propped up against them and a large stack of dirty blankets and pillows that have been used by many people but likely have never been washed due to a lack of washing machines in the area (aka none). There was a gas-powered cooking area opposite the large table but there was no electricity in the hut. There was a rain catchment outside the hut to provide water. Everything from the heater to the stove had to be operated by gas. Signs of human habitation were seen throughout the hut. Some people left behind non-perishable foodstuffs such as tea and spices. There were several books, tea candles, and playing cards. Someone wrote a several pages of handwritten notes explaining in detail all the hikes one could do in the area and where they were in relation to the hut.

There was a map of the area as well for a visual reference.

Even though it was simple and small, it was a quaint space that offered shelter to hikers from the elements. I had never seen such a building in my life. I knew such places existed but it was my first time happening upon one.

Had there been more chemistry with this Date, I likely would have kissed him there or at least flirted. I thought to myself how lovely it would be to bring someone special up here to have a romantic moment in this hut. But since I wasn’t attracted to this Date in that way, I merely had a look around and then stepped outside and had a seat on the large porch outside. My Date sat beside me and began to roll himself a cigarette while I sipped at my water. We talked for a while and stared in awe at this beautiful expanse of moss-covered land in front of us. We both agreed that we had never seen such stunning natural beauty in our lives. It was so unique from the typical mountain scenes one comes across. It felt like we were on another planet or in some parallel Lord of the Rings universe.

The Central Plateau Conservation Area (picture taken from Date’s cellphone)

It was relaxing sitting there with him on this front deck taking a break from hiking. As I talked to this Date I got to learn more about him. We both were middle children. He had an older brother and a younger brother. I am the second of four children. Back in Denmark he was a carpenter and had been working in his craft for several years. He never bothered studying after school because he was dyslexic and chose to pick up a trade instead. The way he described his decision to travel was random but wasn’t prompted by a major incident or life-turning event as travel decisions sometimes can be. He merely decided to pause his life and leave Denmark for a spell.

He had been in Australia for over a year already and was on his second-year visa. He had a cousin in Adelaide so he spent some time in South Australia and had lived on Kangaroo Island. I was slightly jealous of him. I’ve always wanted to go to Kangaroo Island since I first saw the pictures of those crazy-looking caves. He did vegetable harvesting and tractor driving there for his regional work to get his second-year visa.

He was the type of person who was happy to be on the road and took the simple but beautiful and profound moments of life and cherished them. As I talked with him I came to realize that he was a positive sort of person who never let negativity bog him down. He loved his home, his country, his family, and his dogs. He told me that he enjoyed travelling but once his visa expired he planned on going back to Denmark. Denmark would always be his home base for his travels. He was quite the opposite of me in that sense. I don’t consider Canada my home base anymore and I choose to make my home wherever I end up.

After sitting and talking for a while, the sweat from hiking started to cool my skin and I was freezing. We decided to go for a walk around the Central Plateau to warm up our blood again and do a bit of exploring before heading back down. We came to the Lady Lake itself, it was a short walk from the Hut and there was a thin walking trail leading the way. It was wet and misty everywhere so we had to be careful where we stepped so our shoes wouldn’t get soaked. The lake itself was more like a small pond but it looked mystic and enchanting like a magical pool from another world.

Lady Lake (picture taken from Date’s cellphone)

The red flowers everywhere provided a lovely boost of colour to an otherwise muted landscape. It was such a beautiful place and it felt like I could stay there for days constantly walking around and exploring. My Date and I walked a fair distance down the flat terrain of the plateau. There were sections of small rocky mountains rising up in various places but we were so exhausted from walking uphill that we just stuck to the flat areas. We tried to walk in the most straight and direct path possible. Once we walked past Lady Lake it was evident that there were no other groomed trails and we had to choose a path that best suit us from the terrain laid out in front of us. We walked along this squishy and interesting boggy ground that made me feel like I was on a trampoline.

Eventually, the straight path led up to this large rocky hill/mountain. We decided to attempt walking up it. About halfway up we realized there wasn’t a path up this hill and it just led to a bunch of dangerous rocks. Admitting defeat, we took a break and drank some water and then make our way back down again towards the hut.

The adventurer in me wanted to keep exploring but the rational part of me knew that it was getting late and it would be best to call it a day and make it down back to the carpark before it got too dark and dangerous.

On the way back to the hut, the cloudy mist grew even thicker and we could hardly see anything in front of us. At one point we weren’t sure where to go and we had to rely on our instinct rather than the landscape because our vision was so obstructed we had no idea where we were. My gut feeling told me to go in one direction but his gut feeling told him to go another. I decided to swallow my pride and follow his lead. He didn’t seem like someone who was stupid with directions so maybe he was right. Sure enough his sense and logic trumped mine and he got us back to the lake. From the lake, we found the trail that took us back to the hut, which in turn led back to the trail that took us back to the carpark.

The start of the trail back down the mountain, with a view of the valley below (picture taken from Date’s cellphone)

The way back down was scary and dangerous. Everything was damp from the mist. the rocks were wet and slippery and there were a few times when we nearly slipped and hurt ourselves. We both agreed that hiking up this track on a cloudy and misty day probably wasn’t the smartest idea. The air was so wet that my hair was soaked. Because we were walking and actively moving, we didn’t feel cold at all.

By the end of the hike, I realized that I had made a connection with this guy and he was pleasant to be around, someone I could perhaps consider as a friend in the future. On the drive back home we both were in a good mood and smiling from ear to ear. We had done a lovely hike and saw stunning nature that blew us away. It was an amazing second Tinder date in Australia.

When he dropped me off I thanked him for driving all this way and for taking me out hiking. I didn’t invite him back to the house because I wasn’t sure if the power came back on or not. I would have cooked him a meal or something for taking me hiking. But at the same time, I didn’t want him to get the wrong idea.

However, the next day I realized I had left my camera in his van. So he had to come back to the farm to give me my camera. I decided I had to cook him some food for making him come twice around to the dairy farm. On our hike, he admitted that although he had complete independence living in a van, he rarely had hot meals anymore so I figured he would appreciate a hot breakfast as a thank you. I made him a cheesy and meaty omelette and he seemed to like it.

Since this date, we have decided to become hiking/adventure buddies. Whenever he’s in the area we usually meet up and go visit some local sights. We have this lovely friendship and when we go out I pay for my own stuff and he pays for his own stuff. He also is respectful and never tries to put the moves on me or make me feel uncomfortable. He’s a fantastic person and I’m glad that I took some time to get to know him and realize that sometimes first impressions aren’t always right. Had I met him in the real world, it’s likely that I wouldn’t have gone on a date with him or hung out with him in general. But I’m glad that our paths crossed and I was able to come across an unexpectedly good Tinder find.

Have any of you readers ever had a Tinder date, where you didn’t get the best impression of your date at the start, but later came to like them? I would love to read your stories in the comments section below.