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First Date #52 was with an American woman on holiday. We matched on Bumble. She had visited Ireland a few years ago and fallen in love with it. Since she works for herself, she travels to Ireland as often as possible to explore and work at the same time. On this trip, she was going to be staying outside of Dungarvan in mid-October, so we planned to meet up in town there.

This was my second consecutive First Date with an American woman in Dungarvan. The last one ended weirdly, so I didn’t have high expectations. She arrived wearing a Mickey Mouse sweatshirt. She said she wanted me to feel at home as she knew I was from Southern California. She was from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. As it was early afternoon, I asked if she wanted to get a coffee, and she said she’d rather have a pint. Well OK then. We went into the nearest pub. It was a typical old man’s pub. TVs were on to watch the horse races. People were either watching the telly, had their noses buried in newspapers or both. She wanted a Guinness, and that was easy enough to get in such a fine establishment. I wanted a cider, and my only option was a Bulmer’s. I would have preferred almost anything else, but when you’re in an old man’s pub in Dungarvan, do as the old men do.

We talked about our careers and what we loved about Ireland. She seemed jealous that I could relocate here and continue to work. I could tell that’s what she’d rather be doing than commuting every few months. She seemed interested in the fact that I make websites and exchanged business cards with me. She said that she was going to be in Dublin the following week, and she wondered if I would be interested in hanging out with her. I told her that sounded great.

(First Date – 12 October, 2021)