The other night, with Dennis, was, almost, the perfect date.  We met and went for an aperitivo.  We talked.  A friend of his (well work colleague, who was incredibly beautiful – if I were straight…..) came over and chatted for a bit.  It was nice and, unlike last time, didn’t feel so strained.  OK, so he’s a bit camp but likeable.

Then we went for dinner.  The Brick Oven near Porta Venezia.  We both had bacon/cheeseburgers (I haven’t had one for ages) which were not bad.  I had beer – he doesn’t drink.

We talked about relationships.  I said I was really concerned that, should we have a relationship, the smoking would be a big problem for him.  Still, the most important thing was that we talked.

We agreed to meet again.  I teased him about how, I could come back tonight and that could he really wait until Saturday?

He phoned the next morning to say he had thought about it and that I was right, the smoking would become a problem, eventually.

I’m kinda glad and kinda sad in a way.  However, we are to remain friends – and the difference is that he thinks it was his decision, which is fine by me.  Maybe I’ll also get something else from it……we’ll see on Saturday!

I’m finding this new site interesting and, certainly, there are many more available people.  However, it being a site where most people are looking for sex, I thought that the chance of meeting anyone for a more long-term relationship was fairly slim.

However, and it’s early days yet, I’ve met Bruce.  Bruce is very good looking and, it seems, wants similar to me – i.e. someone to love – over and above the sex.  There’s a long way to go from here to something like that but, there’s a chance (again) and each one of these fills me with hope and gives me the certain knowledge that one day, one of these men, will just slot right in as if he was always meant to be.

One of my problems, I have found is that I may be too direct.  Most of the time I just shrug my shoulders as these people seem to do the blah, blah, blah without any substance and, to be honest, that’s not what I want.  Not only am I too direct but, worse than that, I want it NOW.  And I don’t mean the sex bit (although that is always welcome, of course).  What I mean is I want the long-term thing to start immediately.  This may strike of desperation but, I assure you, it’s not.  It’s more to do with the fact that I am impatient and because starting a relationship is so fraught with difficulties and misunderstandings, in addition to the extra stress that a gay relationship seems to impose, that I just want to get that bit over with.  You could say that that bit was all part of getting to know someone and, of course, you would be right.

However, the problem (in the past and so, for me it is the ‘norm’) is that then there are times of not speaking, of saying things one doesn’t really mean, of the slamming of doors and the ‘meaning to hurt’.  And that’s not what I want.

However, I suppose that it is inevitable and that, now, these days, there is less inclination to try and set up a life with someone, everyone having been bitten before, so, therefore, more wary, more circumspect and, from the other side, more suspect.

I’ve never really got into the ‘gay world’ and every time I get close to it is both shocking and intriguing at the same time.  So I was (still am) shocked by the amount of people willing to show you pictures of parts of their body that, they think, you may find appealing (although, sometimes, they are appealing).  I always thought that it was, partly, the element of surprise and imagination that made the whole thing sexier.  It seems not.

On this site, I don’t include a photo of my face.  However, if people ask I will send one.  To me it is quite a good picture (given my age and the fact that a good iron wouldn’t go amiss if applied to my face – that’s been the smoking and the not listening to V when he said I should have been using cream all this time) but I’m not for every one.  So, on sending my pic, if a good response isn’t forthcoming or the usual ‘you’re not my type’ is returned it can be a bit disappointing.  I won’t say gutting as, although it may seem that for a split second, I realise that I do the same.

However, when I get a good response, it makes me very happy.  So I put up with the ‘not so good’ responses for the responses that are good.

And one guy, today, said that, unfortunately, he was looking for someone who looked older, which, in a way, was a compliment.

Still, whichever way you look at it, even if it is a bit like school and going up and saying ‘I really fancy you’ only to get rebuffed with the girl turning to all her mates in fits of giggles, leaving you standing there like some sort of jerk, it isn’t quite like that and it does take some of the nerve-wracking ‘having to actually physically go over and then getting left and everyone seeing’ thing out of it, which, for me, is great. And, in any event, it’s better than getting one of your friends to go over and say (with a London type accent, of course) ‘My mate fancies you……..’

It doesn’t stop that tinge of disappointment though.  Ah well, right now, I seem to have enough on my plate, so maybe I’ll start to take it a bit easier and see who ‘comes’ to me!  (Actually, I have been doing that and I too give the standard ‘sorry, you’re not my type’ when they don’t look as I would like.  Hey, right now, in Milan alone, there’s over 900 guys online and looking to be hooked up in one way or another – so I think I’ll get other chances, don’t you?)

On that optimistic note, I’ll stop; there are men to be found…….