Taking the pledge or 52 first dates

Last week I was avoiding housework by having a nose around the interworld.  At Secretmomthoughts were photos of her second 'first' date with her husband. Ahhhh - what a lovely idea I thought, we really should do something like that, as we tend to slump in front of Come Dine With Me and veg most nights. While this is very relaxing, it really isn't that good for finding out about what's currently making us tick and sometimes we can lose touch with each other.  I can remember my Mum and Dad sending us up stairs and having a steak night every Saturday when I lived at home, again nice but a bit predictable too.

Reading down I found that once again nothing in the world of blog is original and the cupid and saviour of marriages is simplymodernmom.  She's drawn up a pledge for couples to sign:
•Agree a date night (at least one hour, one night a week)
•The dates can be at home so don’t always need babysitters.
•Rotate being in charge of date nights.
•Can’t do the same thing twice in one month.
•No children allowed.
•Must create a date-like atmosphere. No frumpy clothes or pajamas. Make it a special event. Mind the details. But most of all, keep it simple.

I told Tim about this pledge, thinking he would laugh, but he agreed that it sounded like a good thing (he just thought I was sad for blogging about it! - but I see writing about it as a kick up the bum to do something and get us out of our TV-rut, it did work with getting a smaller sized bum of which to kick).

So here I am writing about our first date. We did cheat a bit as this was organised ages ago, but so what!  On Friday we went to see comedian Stewart Lee (he was supported by Simon Munnery - who I'd never heard of before but was brilliant - one of his quotes "A million monkeys were given a million typewriters. It's called the internet"), we were sat on the front row in the middle (bad move for a comedy show!). Stewart started the show by asking the lady next to me what her favourite coffee shop was.  This sent me into a panic for the next while and I lost the first 20 minutes (I don't like coffee and couldn't think of anywhere that sold it!) - after it became clear that he wasn't going to ask me anything, I really enjoyed myself.  The end came when he asked Tim what the time was (again a good move not going for me as I didn't have a watch on!). 

It was so nice to be out that we drove back and managed to get last orders in the local pub. I accidentally drank too much wine (they were big glasses and I'm a cheap date!) so the walking home bit is slightly hazy, just like our real first date!

Looking forward to repeating the experience at least another 51 times, thanks simplymodernmom for creating the spark, and thanks for pointing us in the right direction Secretmom xo