#FirstDate #FirstDates #FirstDatesIRL #Dating #Dublin #Dublin2 #TempleBar #TheTempleBarPub #Ireland #LEGO #Birthday #HappyBirthday

I’ve always loved my birthday. Birthdays are like second Christmas; you get gifts, cakes and birthday sex if in a consensual relationship! From 1995-2016, I was lucky enough to be in a relationship for 20 of those 21 birthdays. And even prior to COVID, I was able to convince different women that sleeping with me on my birthday was an amazing act of charity.

Now it might seem that sex is the only thing that matters to me in the dating world, and that isn’t the case at all. Even when in an extremely satisfying relationship, sex is only a small portion of the time that you spend with that person. Eating meals, watching TV/Movies, going on road trips, playing games, and even the bad times take up 90+% of the time you spend with your partner. If that less than 10% of the time is amazing, and the rest of the time is meh or worse, the relationship is not going to work.  On the other hand, if the time spent outside the bedroom is pretty awesome, but the intimacy fizzles, that isn’t going to work either. Both inside and outside the bedroom need to be positive for me.

Friday, 9 September will be my 55th birthday. Like usual, I’m looking forward to it. I don’t mind getting old, because it beats the alternative. Also, though my body absolutely disagrees, I don’t feel like an old man in my head. I’m healthy enough to take Brownie on walks every day (weather permitting – it is Ireland after all). I host regular board game nights at a pub, and have friends over to game a couple of times a month. I collect and build LEGO. Who needs kids when you act like a kid!

I don’t believe in higher powers, but I do wish that wishes were real. When making a wish, should it be realistic? “I wish I could lose weight!” Well, that’s something that you control, so your wish can absolutely come true. “I wish I could win the lottery!” Do you need to specify how much you want to win, because I win €3 or €4 once in a while. “I wish that right wing authoritarians would all go away into the dark pages of our history books!” I vote to do my part, but that wish is about as fanciful as me dating Salma Hayek. Hmm, maybe I should stop wasting my wishes on world peace, and I should wish for getting a piece… But I digress. My birthday wish this year is for this amazing journey of more than 50 First Dates to come to an end soon. So, I’m lighting those candles, taking a deep breath, and blowing as hard as I can.