Guests this week include Annie Lord, Vogue’s dating columnist who spoke about meeting people online during a global pandemic, a big-wig at Tinder who spoke of how the government consulted them on how to tackle the nation’s loneliness, and a sex toy company who have sold an awful lot of sex dolls.
We’ve rubbed each other up the wrong way, fallen out, made up, the lot. But most importantly, we’ve talked.
Whilst dating, Tinder and sex dolls are all a bit alien to me, love in lockdown is something I feel I’ve studied every day for the past 10 months. Since last March I’ve been locked in with what was then my 4-months pregnant girlfriend, and is now my girlfriend and child, and in that time I’ve learned more about our relationship and indeed myself than any other point in my life.
Before I get too soppy I should say there have of course been challenges. Our one bedroom flat is open plan, meaning my daughter being adorable is often a bit of a distraction to me trying to work. I’ve spoken to her about this and she’s ignorant about it at best. My partner has the body temperature of a reptile meaning she wants the heating on at all hours every day, she listens to Irish radio constantly (and during a year in which there has never been as much newsworthy content they seem to permanently be interviewing a pensioner in Derry who has lost something), and like a Mcdonalds employee who comes home and orders Burger King, her idea of entertainment is watching endless documentaries about babies and birth, despite being an NHS midwife who has just had a baby.
We’ve rubbed each other up the wrong way, fallen out, made up, the lot. But most importantly, we’ve talked. Not just to catch up over a meal, not just to the time between appointments. We’ve spent days, weeks, talking, understanding each other properly, giving ourselves a bit of time to explain ourselves and then listening in turn. And I feel incredibly lucky to say that I now know her even better than I did before.
