#FirstDate #FirstDates #FirstDatesIRL #Dating #Dublin #Dublin8 #TempleBar #QueenOfTarts #Ireland #LEGO

First Date #36 was with an Israeli woman living in Dublin. We matched on Bumble. Extending the match is a feature on Bumble. Normally, the woman has 24 hours to message after the match, and then the man has 24 hours to respond once the woman makes first contact. Either side can give an extra 24 hours; the man can do it as soon as the match is made, and the woman can do it after she sends the first message. I occasionally do this to show that I’m truly interested in the match. You’re limited to one a day, so you can’t give them to everybody. But in this case, I hadn’t matched with anybody in a long time, so I gave her an extension to increase my chances. I think she was impressed with the compliment and we started texting each other.

After a bit of get to know each other texts, we planned to meet at a café in Dublin. Once again, I was taking the bus, so I tried to make it somewhat convenient for me. Queen of Tarts is in the Temple Bar area. She lives in Terenure, so it wasn’t around the corner for her either. It’s nice when both people make efforts. We definitely came from different backgrounds, and she was the first Jewish woman I had met while dating. My very first girlfriend was Jewish, but I hadn’t dated any others in the intervening 31 years. It seemed like there was the potential for more conversation, so we exchanged phone numbers.

(First Date – 16 January, 2020)