Another goal achieved, but… this one cannot be ticked off my list of one hundred goals, as it is someone else’s goal that I have been proud to be part of.
I have been in LA for a few days now, and am sort of finding my way around. My best friend Maggie (Magellan) is invaluable here, I would be lost without her. She knows her way around the whole US pretty well, and has got me to many destinations that I would have never found on my own.
I am enjoying being settled in one place for a while, and with the RV parked up, and the use of Evan’s car, it really does feel like going out somewhere, and then coming back home.
And last night I had the chance to go out on a date/adventure! Let me explain…
I have known Yvette online for quite a while now, since she first found out about me when “ALife4Sale” started, and contacted me via email. She has her own blog, all about being single again, and the perils and pitfalls of having to start dating again a bit later in life. She is also pretty goal driven, and for this year has set herself two challenges.
Her first decision was to have at least one adventure a month for the whole year, and she also committed to dating at least one new guy per month too. Way back in July, when I first wrote about wanting to do 100 goals in 100 weeks, she wrote on her blog that perhaps one of her goals would be to meet me somewhere down the line on my travels, and do something adventurous.
Her ultimate goal is to write a book about her dating adventures, twelve chapters, twelve guys, and a lot of her thoughts on the modern dating game. I reckon it will be a great book, she writes very well.
Well, it turned out that we would both be in LA at the same time, and after a bit of planning, she decided that she could kill two birds with one stone, by making her adventure of the month happen at the same time as going on a date with Mr. November – me!!
We met in the afternoon, and took a drive along Mulholland Drive, which ends at a great outlook overlooking the Hollywood Bowl, and the whole city. In the evening, after a quick dinner we went to Warner Bros Studios, where Yvette had got us free tickets at the filming of a sit-com. Unfortunately a lot of free tickets had been given out, and we had arrived too late to get in, and with many others we, were turned away.
Oh well, we decided, we would drive down to the beach at Santa Monica, and perhaps find a place to have a drink. When we got there, the pier was lit up brightly, and the big wheel stood out from along way away. “That’s the adventure part of the evening then,” said Yvette. “We’ll go on the big wheel!” When we got there the pier was cold and damp and deserted, and the big wheel flashed it’s glamourous invite in complete silence! Oh dear, the adventure/date wasn’t turning out too successfully!
We wandered down to the beach, and Yvette said that she still had to do something adventurous and out of the ordinary to achieve her adventure of the month. It had to be something that took her out of her comfort zone, she insisted. “I know, let’s go skinny dipping!” she said. I was very skeptical, it was pretty cold on the beach, the waves were crashing in a bit, and we had no towels!
But adventure was required, and after a bit of dithering around we were both in. It was freezing! We were both out again pretty quickly too! But adventure had been achieved, and we were both pretty proud of ourselves as we sat in a warm bar later to celebrate.
It was a unusual and fun date, and Yvette was great fun to hang out with (pun intended!), but I am just slightly concerned about how I will fare in my write up as Mr. November in Yvette’s book, as that water really was quite cold!
Thanks for a fun afternoon and evening Yvette, I am (sort of!) looking forward to the book coming out!
Yvette’s blogs:-
Single Again
and
Meet The Man In The Street