The good karma begins

Getting out about again I had Christmas Eve dinner with the on-line social group, still with few expectations. I arrived on time and bought a drink at the bar. Scanning the surrounding faces for someone to talk to I saw a couple of women who looked my way and then averted their gaze. OK, I thought, so they don’t want to be friendly.

A man who had greeted me when I walked in was standing chatting to someone else so I joined them and introduced myself. It was all plain sailing from there. I spoke to other people who were friendly - I didn’t bother going near the two unfriendly women - and when we sat down to dinner I was surrounded by lovely new faces and interesting conversation.

I met people who have inspired my desire to travel again, ran into a familiar face from the walking group, and even moved down along the table chatting to new people as I went. Eventually my “mate” from the last group turned up but to  my relief he didn’t monopolise me, although he did invite me to his birthday next month. He’s going to run it as one of the social activities. There was no sign of "Jo."

The next day one of the men I had chatted to briefly emailed me and wanted to stay in touch. (I wasn't interested and tried to reply without encouraging him: It was nice to meet you too, I'll catch you at the next function type of message.) This completely confounds me: someone I had spoken to in only a cursory manner shows interest, yet men on the internet are, frequently, complete bastards!

You just can’t tell, can you?

Either way I will keep going to their social functions I’ve met several smart, interesting people and after doing it a couple of times it’s not that scarey. Hopefully this is heralds the beginning of meeting nice people who may be potential new friends instead of horrid men who I never want to see again.