Dating Demented!

Saturday past was date night & to make it all the more romantic, I brought the Wife along. I mean she was my one and only choice, of course.

I had bought us tickets to see a Country Music band called Old Dominion at the Waterfront Hall in Belfast. Old Dominion are what I call New Country, which is a world away from Patsy Cline, John Denver or local leg-end Jimmy Buckley.

Look them up! You might be surprised

I even arranged childcare for the boys, which is how Auntie Lynze came to give up a Saturday night on the booze & boys (over 18’s only) and came to our house to watch the kids. In reality my 8 year old would take charge with Auntie Lynze only being there to tick the ‘Adult present’ box should anything have gone wrong.

So, with the kids safely looking after the babysitter the Bride and I set off for the Big Smoke, excited for the jaunt into the city.

Date night & a concert wasn’t all I had arranged, no sir, I had a little surprise in store for my special Lady. Unbeknown to her I had gone online & pre booked a special VIP experience. This is the sort of crazy behaviour love does to a man and his wallet.

Thinking about her comfort & throwing financial caution to the wind I had splashed out £6.50 on one the closest car parks to the venue. It was so fancy that it didn’t even have a barrier on entry or exit, which impressed me as much as it made me think i could have parked there without paying and saved myself that £6.50!

Never one to put a price on romance, I was a little miffed that she didn’t seem more excited but I’m convinced she tried to play it cool as we parked up, she was definitely struggling to contain that ‘in awe’ vibe

With the car parked in sight, almost, of the venue, I slipped the hand (behave)into hers and began a romantic walk of easily less than one minute. Arriving at the doors of the venue we were whisked through security and promptly settled at the bar for what I believe they call pre-drinks!

I had planned this date like a clockwork Casanova.

Or so I thought, Pre Drinks it seems aren’t cheap! Certainly not as cheap as 2002, when I was a regular on the disco scene. £6 for a wee gin. Remember what I said about putting a price on romance? Turns out that price is £24...

Fearing financial ruin I ushered her to our seats using my excitement to see the band as an excuse to get away from the robbing bar-steward selling drinks. I even let her borrow some of my excitement, mainly as she seemingly left hers at home.

The band were amazing and treated us to a set of almost two hours, which meant the show didn’t end until almost 1130pm. The night was of course still young but it did pose a bit of a problem for us, as due to Northern Ireland’s archaic Sunday trading hours Tesco, where we usually go to on date night for a romantic stroll, would be closing in 30 minutes.

The Tesco part is true, let’s face it I couldn’t make that up, there is something about slowly meandering through the shampoo and bog cleaners products without children bugging you or fighting with each other!

Don’t have kids? Laughing at how crazy this sounds? Just you wait and see!

So, date night ended just shy of midnight as we released the babysitter before the family truckster turned back into a pumpkin & the ‘suck in your beerbelly’ spell wore off.

The spark is still there though. We are tentatively scheduled to have dinner for two in Feb 2020!