Mmm-hmm. Well I read the following comment on Valley Girl's blog (and thought I'd take my point away from cluttering her comments box up!) and was ever so slightly perturbed. Not so much by the comment but by the tacit agreement of the (90%) female participants:

The whole "to pay or not to pay" thing is ridiculous. What kind of asshole lets a girl pay for a date? Equality, schmequality... isn't the whole point of taking a girl out to impress her? To make her think you're wealthier than you actually are, more intelligent than you actually are, more popular and important than you actually are? I've learned from experience that there are a few little things you always need to do while with a chick... they are not big things, but they go a long way.

1. Hold open doors.
2. Pay for meals, or at least the first ten or so.
3. Say please and thank you.
4. Not refer to her as "toots" or "sugarthighs"
5. Don't blow your nose into the sleeve of your Steve Miller Band t-shirt while in the restaurant.

I've highlighted in bold the bit that makes me re-read that with a pained expression. The initial discussion was borne out of who should pay for meals on a date (for the record I would always offer, but if it got to the third date and she'd not even made an attempt to pay half at least once then I'd frankly assume I was dating a gold-digger with her eyes firmly fixed on half the value of my flat - pay for the first TEN meals? No fucking chance.)

I hope it's a US/UK cultural thing but if, and it's a big if, the bit in bold is true then I may as well give up. I'm a logical person so let's break this down - the point of a date is to lie about who you are and hide your true self from the person you're dating.

Why?

I ask again, why? What's the point? If it goes well they'll find out what you're like eventually and then you're cast adrift with a dose of heartache and a significantly emptier wallet. I can only see the point if you're just out for a shag....

I'm thoroughly puzzled this morning now. I guess it goes a long way to explain why I'm still single seeing as I can't lie and am always myself on dates. Yeah, that must be it *rolls eyes*

Ah well, nowt wrong with being a life-long bachelor :)

And now, my favourite non-porn animated gifs, ta-da (They may take a while to load)!

Firstly, some random ones I find funny




A masterpiece of timing....



I'm not sure how it walked away from that!



Laziest cat ever



Sums up the internet for me :)



Coolest monkey in the world...



Ouch!



Same old Arsenal - always rubbish ;-)



Epic failure, ha ha ha




And I've no idea who this is, but I'm in love.... :)