Attention attached ladies we need YOUR advice!

So how do you decide if he's right for you and you want to keep going with the romance? Do you have a check list, and see how he matches up? Do you just hang in there and see where it's heading? Or do you initiate "the conversation" and risk flight?!

Do you just know when you know?!

A wise person once told me that starter relationships are painful. They can be frustrating until you know where you stand or do I feel that because I haven't met "the one". And if I had I'd know it would feel all very natural and right or is that my fairytale view when one meets Mr Right?

Ladies who believe they've met Mr Right I want to hear your experiences!! Help the rest of us in our quest! xoxo

Speed dating not for the faint hearted!!

Have you tried it? Had any success? I have to admit I have tried it twice, once when it was all the range...a time when 300 people would gather in the ballroom of the Alexander Hotel with the hope of meeting "the one"! One of my gal pals who came with me that night actually met her husband. The same night one of my guy friends fell head over heels for a girl named Siobhan, he promised her breakfast the next morning and cycled to Dun Laoghaire with it to discover she was a happily attached journalist doing a research piece! She wrote about him in the Sunday Indo that weekend. For me, the night involved meeting 20+ men, just as I started to warm up to the one that had just sat down, a fog horn would go off and he had to move on. You then get to sit there and painfully watch the one, out of twenty-something that you just "clicked" with, clicking with the next girl along. If you go, here are some tips: if brave enough to go alone...GO alone, or go with a male friend... if not, discuss with your gal pal what will happen if you both like the same guy. Good luck with that one!!! Secondly, think of insightful questions to ask...avoiding, believe it or not, questions re occupation. Men perceive it as gold digging! Your aim is get a good feel for the person, and if you have enough in common to date. Thirdly, go open minded, have no expectations and you should not be disappointed!! I’ll save my second experience for another day! xoxo

Have you a rusty gaydar?

I am the Queen of rusty gaydars!!! I can be so spot at times, I have a cousin I outted to my Mum when he was 12, poor kid didn't know he was gay himself!
Recently however, it's been playing up, my gaydar that is. I use to spot this guy in my regular watering hole...we had made eye contact on numerous occasions but we never spoke. A few months back I was at a reunion for a club I was involved in when I was a kid, and this mystery man appeared with a date. I thought he was so cute, typically I wouldn't give another woman's man a second look but this guy was just my type! We got to know each other and that night it had crossed my mind he was a little feminine, my friends knocked the idea out of my head. As the months went on, I continued to cross paths with this cutie pie and his "GF", I later discovered he was single and she was his FBF! I thought all my birthdays were coming together as he was always so lovely and charming, we would meet in the strangest of places and he was really growing on me. Recently I was out with one of my MBFs and ran into the cutie pie, my world came crashing down as he openly flirted with my very straight MBF. What do they say? The good ones are dead, gay or gone! I need to oil my rusty gaydar!

Matchmaking friends...a recipe for disaster?

Is matchmaking friends a recipe for disaster?
I'm your ultimate matchmaker, always at it! I don't know what motivates me...maybe karma, the hope if I make my friends happy it will come back to me. My Mum once told me off, claiming if I continue to match-make friends, I'll have none left to socialise with. I don't agree, I love to see people happy, and who better than my friends. I have one wedding and a few couples under my belt...I have had the few mistakes; female friends gone bunny boiler which has made me wonder if it’s more trouble than it’s worth!
I have two rules...firstly, I step back after the first date...they are on their own, that includes no relationship counselling, as I cannot take sides between two good friends. I don’t even ask how things are going; safer that way! Secondly, if the relationship doesn't work, I refuse to accept the excuse from either party not to turn up to something I am organising if the other is there!! After all we are all adults!
Hmmm, I am still awaiting friends to return the favour and wonder why they haven't!

Don't leave house, unless dressed to impress an ex!

I've heard that advice on more than one occasion, can't say I always obey it, in fact unless I’m going for drinks I’m more ‘a take me as you find me’ kind of girl. But this weekend I wished I had!! Not an ex, mind you but that cutey who has unashamedly been flirting with me in my regular watering hole! But this weekend I wasn't in my regular watering hole, I was on the road to join my gal pals for a girlie weekend away, when I pulled into a petrol station in the middle of nowhere...need I set the scene? Trackies, hair curly and tied up, wearing no make-up, covered in fake tan...so smelling as attractive as I was looking!! I pulled up to the pump, was filling up when in the corner of my eye I spied him. Took me a minute to place the‏ face and then it hit me like a truck; well after all it was out of context, in the middle of nowhere...I wanted the ground to open up and swallow me, I avoided his eye contact. I just hope he didn't recognise me...oh the shame! I suppose I won’t know until our next encounter...all I can say ...to be continued...
But I learnt one valuable lesson; I will never leave the house again without looking dressed to impress!!!