My blind date experience.

 

I had no clue the right turn of phrase to use. A blind date or a blind meeting-up, so take the caption as it were and just read on.

It was in the year 2006, and only a relatively fewer people owned phones with special features like camera, audio-music, etcetera.

Most of the populace owned the ‘torch-light phones like the ‘heavy’ Nokia brands, siemens, Motorola and the usually flip silver-colored Samsung which I owned.

Notwithstanding, we were happy.

And by reason of the type of phones that we used, we couldn’t do more than putting a call through and receiving, after which the exchange of smses were our model chats.

Then the snake and ladder, building a castle games especially kept us busy too.

                                            The phones that were in vogue then

And for the free midnight calls? It not only kept every young person of that era alive, it also helped to nurture the butterflies that we felt in our bellies for our first loves, most relationships that didn’t even see the dusk of the graduation night though.

We became ‘nocturnal animals‘ so much that different voices would rent the air, many of us chirping like an owl when we laugh at night.

Then the telecommunication companies (basically MTN and GLO) decided to add more spice to what was supposed to be a boring era, by the introduction of a legal version of hookup, or what other term would best describe the act of sending random text messages of the data of the opposite sex via smses for possible dates?

The messages would usually go like:

“Hi, I am Alex, 21 and I would like to be your love interest or friend (or whatever the language usage, I basically forgot how the message went, so permit my innocent babbling.).”

We were required to send a YES message and then the sender receives our phone number for further chats.

And just because I was really bored at that time, I said a YES response to one Alex and that was it.

A call came through after a few hours and the sweetest baritone voice laced with a pleasant sprinkle of huskiness called to inquire if I was Titi. Ladies and gentlemen, I fell flat and hurriedly said a yes, smiling sheepishly.

Truth be told, the voice melted me.

Alex (that was his name) had one of the sweetest voice I ever listened to.

His barritone voice I’d liken to that of the radio presenters that ruled the airways in the late 90s.

I mean those dudes that anchors late night shows on radio, DJing rhythms and blue music of the likes of Craig David and Celine Dion? Those were actually the lullabies that gladdened my soul to sleep, so their voices still resonates.

His throaty voice would melt the heart of any woman, so do well by not laying a blame on my feelings.

Then the conversation began.

We would exchange messages all day, with him in turn calling endlessly, and it’s usually for several minutes (and only a really big boy would do that those days). We’d also talk all through the night, and trust me, it was really fun.

We bonded so well just because we seem to share same values on major issues in life. From discussing religion to politics and football ( I used to be very vast on those) family life and the likes, there’s usually something new to talk about.

Then the ‘ginger’ to really want to see him began to grow. I was in the university at Ogun State, he was already a graduate and even working in Lagos.

Matter of fact and according to him, he is all out there and in search of a life partner, and I always wonder why such an intelligent (and trust me he was) and sweet voiced male would be single. I remember he was in his early thirties and I was just a twenty year old undergraduate.

And at some point in our blind relationship, and in my head too, I knew that we were married and with three kids already. .

However, we began to tilt our conversation towards meeting up. He wasn’t too bothered about this, but I was. And even though my parents lived in the same city where he was, at that age, my movements were restricted. My strict parents would not allow me visit random people unaccompanied, so who visits a ‘globacom-hookup’ with her dad??? He’d have roasted me whilst still breathing.

Alex suggested he visits me at school in lieu, while he gets to lodge around my hostel for the weekend, and that was it.

I wore my best dress on this day and gleefully re-organised my room to taste and scented it for his visit.

I even told a few of my hall-mates and these busy-bodies too in turn, eagerly awaited the visit of Mr sweet voice.

I actually painted the picture of a perfect human in my head, so I could not hide my disappointment when he literally had to jump down from the bike right in front of me at the balcony of the one storey building that house me and others as hostel.

I watched my crush paid the bike man in utter dismay, his head being same height and matching the seat of the motorcycle.

Carefully though, I dodged and vanished into the air and farther away from him.

Then my feelings began to wander back and forth like the spirit of an accident victim.

How it all began, our conversations and how it now made much sense on why he constantly downplays the importance of a good look, emphasizing being courteous, godly and being of a good character.

Ha, I knew I was really mean to have bolted away, but honestly speaking;

“Who character help abeg???”

If you’re confused, nobody is ugly. But man was legit dressed and looking like my great grandfather too, I couldn’t deal.

“I didn’t sign up for a sugar daddy now?” I fumed as I watched him from a hole in the balcony and on a bended positioning.

I truly doubt his age this minute, he must have slashed it into halves. I mean the looks, the mien, the appearance, his age and then that voice???? They don’t match at all.

And after almost an hour of leaving him ringing my phone and no longer picking up, my hall-mates were not having this small girl’s inhumanity to the elderly. Unanimously, they insisted that I should save him of the stress and at least, meet him up.

I refused.

His calls won’t stop coming in, and all of my hall-mates won’t stop mentioning at my cruelty.

Then came one of them, Bimbo, lamenting my cruelty, she mentioned that if only Alex had come for her, she would at least welcome him and they could even take things further.

“Abi you will kuku have him for yourself?” Was all that instantly slipped out of me.

Her face actually lit up into a smile and I was shocked.

In a quick rush brethren, I had given Bimbo a brief of our major conversations and in fifteen minutes they were in each other’s arms, locked up in her room and I was relieved.

And for a few moments too, my room mates rallied me, admonishing me to not fall in love until I see.

Later on, gists has it that he wasn’t initially comfortable with her, but that her warm reception and sheer excitement must have melted him and in few hours, they were giggling in her room.

Not so fast please.

Well, Alex stayed for the weekend, the duo chuckled as they incessantly walked past my room, shopping groceries and cooking different delicacies for the entire season.

Noticeably however, Alex was warm to every hall-mate of Bimbo but me.

Obviously she told him, he accepted their meeting as fate and Bimbo even had the effrontery to inform me that Alex said he’s happy God used me as a bridge for their meeting. 

Let’s just say I was supposed to have been given the name, Bridget. .

Last time I heard anyway, they’re married and it’s up to them to tell if they’re happy or not. I’m still very single to stupor Sha.

This story actually cracks me up each time I remember, so I just thought that I should share