Speaker 1: Novel.
Speaker 2: This show contains adult material and swearing. You have been warned.
Speaker 2: I'm dead that I actually gagged when he said bouldering.
Speaker 2: That's so funny from me.
Speaker 3: No, that's it. We don't need to hear any more from.
Speaker 2: Oh my God, having me I'm a savage. Are you
Speaker 2: bored of modern dating? Meeting the same people from the
Speaker 2: same apps in the same bar You've only chosen because
Speaker 2: it's close to your house and you can make your
Speaker 2: usual quick getaway. It's time to change the narrative on
Speaker 2: how we find love. It's time to start looking for
Speaker 2: love in all the wrong places. I'm going on a
Speaker 2: wild dating adventure, only picking people who are the total
Speaker 2: opposite of my type. And after twenty eight of these
Speaker 2: dates two months, will I find that special someone? Or Well,
Speaker 2: this experiment proved that I should just give up on
Speaker 2: dating altogether. It's time to find out. I'm Grace Campbell
Speaker 2: and this is twenty eight dates later.
Speaker 3: Grace, I'm here, I'm here, I'm here, I know here. Well,
Speaker 3: we need to get straight into this guy. You sent
Speaker 3: me this guy's profile, Ray, and I think you've hit
Speaker 3: the jackpart here.
Speaker 2: He's baffing it. Ah so Ba and I'll tell you
Speaker 2: what he was bath in person, Like I actually didn't
Speaker 2: realize he was going to be that bar and he
Speaker 2: was more hot in real life, especially what I'm trying
Speaker 2: to say where.
Speaker 3: Okay, so his profile first, Like obviously I've seen his profile.
Speaker 3: I don't hear the date went, but like from the
Speaker 3: get go, he is handsome, He's a vegan cyclist. There's
Speaker 3: photos of him shopping for beans and lentils of the supermarket.
Speaker 2: With bride flag on his face.
Speaker 3: And then there's one where he's like fake DJing, which
Speaker 3: not a fan.
Speaker 2: Of but no I'm not. I'm not a fan of
Speaker 2: that one his things.
Speaker 3: I was looking for al pro passion fruit yogurt? Is
Speaker 3: that like some that's Joe analogy? Okay, I think it's
Speaker 3: a joke. Right. Is he French?
Speaker 2: I thought he was maybe going to be French he
Speaker 2: works for a French vegan company. Well, I don't know.
Speaker 2: I spoke better French than him, but he was ba right,
Speaker 2: So he turned up. Yeah, he had cycled to the date, which,
Speaker 2: I will be honest is a bit of a nick
Speaker 2: for me. I don't like people turning up to meet
Speaker 2: me sweaty, I'm afraid, but he came and he had
Speaker 2: brought me a present.
Speaker 3: Is this the first present you've got?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I think so. Yeah, I think this is yeah,
Speaker 2: And can we, by the way, can we normalize bringing
Speaker 2: gifts on a first day? I think it's really chic.
Speaker 3: And so he's also a bold vegan. What's bouldering?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 2: So bouldering is basically like rock climbing, but they don't
Speaker 2: have to attach themselves to anything. It's like rock climbing
Speaker 2: without like going as high.
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, I was thinking that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So I would say the bouldering and the cycling
Speaker 2: things are both massive inchs of mine. I want stated
Speaker 2: somebody who was really into rock climbing, and by what.
Speaker 3: I'm into hiking and rock climbing.
Speaker 2: Hiking is different. I love hiking, but the whole culture
Speaker 2: around going to these places where they go in London
Speaker 2: to go climbing does quite give me the ick. It's
Speaker 2: not like the actual thing itself, it's the way that
Speaker 2: people talk about it and have like their little fucking
Speaker 2: climbing shoes attached to their backpack while they're cycling along.
Speaker 2: It's like you've got the bingo card of like all
Speaker 2: of the things you can be to be like, hit,
Speaker 2: do you know what I mean?
Speaker 3: I have a question.
Speaker 2: What was the gift? So he brought me vegan bacon
Speaker 2: from the company that he works for, and he said
Speaker 2: that he had a friend who was a fan of mine.
Speaker 3: O great snow fence. That wasn't a present. They're just
Speaker 3: trying to get you to post a bit.
Speaker 2: No I know, I know, No I know, And do
Speaker 2: you know what was? I haven't because they haven't paid me.
Speaker 3: Also, did you try?
Speaker 2: It wasn't nice? It's banging. Bacon is banging. I've been
Speaker 2: eating it loads. It is banging, okay, but I'm not
Speaker 2: posting about it because you.
Speaker 3: Know you're gonna have to text me the brand because
Speaker 3: I love.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's banging. It's really bad.
Speaker 3: That is today's sponsor. Today's sponsor. It is vegan bacon.
Speaker 3: And the brand is actually called banging because you keep
Speaker 3: saying it.
Speaker 4: So you cycled over?
Speaker 5: Why tell me why you hate cyclists.
Speaker 2: I just don't like dating people who buy bikes everywhere
Speaker 2: because I find it really inconvenient annoying. How do you
Speaker 2: move around and somebody's got a bike that's more more
Speaker 2: a bit?
Speaker 4: So what do you do?
Speaker 5: I work for a company they make vegan bacon. The
Speaker 5: reason I got this bag is two.
Speaker 2: Things go on. It's got loads of vegan bacon in it.
Speaker 5: Yeah, only show me show bacon signing whether or not
Speaker 5: you deserve to have.
Speaker 2: Never had any desire for vegan bacon. Are you vegan?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: You're vegan? Okay, So my bag is insulated. Oh my god,
Speaker 2: that's like a deliver bag. That's like a bag.
Speaker 5: Deliver Wow, which, if anything, it's good.
Speaker 2: For to I love the He had one of those bags.
Speaker 2: It was like a backpack, but then he opened it
Speaker 2: and it was like a cooler bag inside the backpack
Speaker 2: to transport all his vegan bacon. He's obviously like taking
Speaker 2: around all his dates. Don't you think he's got a
Speaker 2: cute voice as well?
Speaker 3: He does?
Speaker 2: Just me, he was.
Speaker 4: He had like a cute voice.
Speaker 2: I liked the way that he spoke.
Speaker 3: So he works for a vegan bacon company.
Speaker 2: Rod stopped looking the vegan bacon company. They haven't even
Speaker 2: paid us.
Speaker 3: He cycles everywhere like you and him. You and him
Speaker 3: could just get a tricycle. Oh my god, you could
Speaker 3: have a whole life. Oh it could be sponsored by
Speaker 3: the vegan bacon people and you can be tricycleaning around
Speaker 3: the place.
Speaker 2: I can't tell you how unwell that makes me feel
Speaker 2: as a concept.
Speaker 3: You kind of have the same hair.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's true. We did have the same hair. Yeah,
Speaker 2: we did have the same hair.
Speaker 3: Grace, did you tell him how good looking he was?
Speaker 2: Oh? Yeah, we're you always very good looking? What you're
Speaker 2: very good looking? But you've you've got like a very
Speaker 2: like structurally good face than you were. You've always been
Speaker 2: looking like at school where you've been looking.
Speaker 5: I've always had good feedback from the Grandmass. They've always
Speaker 5: they've always been like, oh, gorgeous boy. But then I
Speaker 5: kind of realized I say that to everyone.
Speaker 2: I think you're very attractive. Thanks. I think I am
Speaker 2: as well. I don't doubt that. But no nobody ever
Speaker 2: says I look like an attractive famous back.
Speaker 5: Well, maybe there isn't someone attractive famous person. I got
Speaker 5: it quite flustered, so I've not checked my face.
Speaker 2: Really hot, I thought, so. I was actually flustered when
Speaker 2: you came in. Yeah, you're really good looking, and I've
Speaker 2: got grace relaxed, Relax, Relax, Jesus, Grace. This is why
Speaker 2: I'm single. I have no call, and I fancy someone.
Speaker 3: I just made him.
Speaker 2: Did he go right?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: He was really flustered. Yeah, he was really flustered.
Speaker 3: You can tell, you can tell.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I can't believe I did that. But that's why
Speaker 2: I do. This is a problem, Like, this is why
Speaker 2: Like when I don't like someone, I don't like them,
Speaker 2: but then they think I like them. When I like someone,
Speaker 2: I'm like, oh my god, you're so hot, That's what
Speaker 2: I say. I'm like, oh my god, I fancy you
Speaker 2: so much.
Speaker 3: So, like he seems like a pretty tame guy in that,
Speaker 3: like he's ticked all your ickboxes, which means he's probably
Speaker 3: actually a really nice guy. Was there anything? Was there
Speaker 3: anything that he did that wasn't like, I mean actual flag.
Speaker 2: So it was going really well, and I was like,
Speaker 2: I want to fuck this guy, was what I was feeling.
Speaker 2: I was very attracted to him. And then he started
Speaker 2: telling me that he is a spoken word poet.
Speaker 4: Basically, do you like comedy? Do you have what comedy?
Speaker 5: I also try and do some stand up, not stand
Speaker 5: up for poetry.
Speaker 4: I really.
Speaker 5: Let's just say hot takes on injustices that I turned
Speaker 5: into some top lass.
Speaker 2: Well, hopefully you can destigmatized spoken word for me. Yeah,
Speaker 2: but the spoken world is a huge it's a hugely
Speaker 2: stigmatized thing.
Speaker 5: In my beautiful bowl on the plates, lonesome chip doesn't
Speaker 5: know it's face. What a lovely wide pot he couldn't
Speaker 5: eat because it was too hot.
Speaker 2: It's just good. Tell me where to stop now, you
Speaker 2: carry on if you on? Yeah, why do you do
Speaker 2: a bespoke home about me? That kind of was It
Speaker 2: was about a lonely bowl of chip. Really, that's been
Speaker 2: the highlight.
Speaker 3: No, we don't need to hear any more from him,
Speaker 3: that was it. No, he went too far. Yeah, no, No,
Speaker 3: it just reminds me. We've seen ankor mean where it's like,
Speaker 3: I love lamb.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the thing is right, it's so hard. Yeah, because
Speaker 2: I respect people who are like creating stuff, Yeah, I do.
Speaker 2: I like poetry a lot, Right, There's something about the
Speaker 2: spoken word format that does give me the because I
Speaker 2: think some of the people that do it are quite icky.
Speaker 2: But I didn't not respect it. The only thing that
Speaker 2: I hated about that bit was not even his impromptu
Speaker 2: spoken word. It was for him saying that he writes
Speaker 2: about injustices. I could tell who was reading me a
Speaker 2: poem about like the wrongs of the world as like
Speaker 2: what I presume was like a straight white man, and
Speaker 2: I was like, I don't want to hear your poetry
Speaker 2: about the injustices.
Speaker 3: Are you someone who's into romantic gestures? Would you be
Speaker 3: into that? No?
Speaker 4: Absolutely not.
Speaker 2: I once got serenaded by a guy like he's playing
Speaker 2: his guitar. I was breaking up with him, and he
Speaker 2: started playing his guitar and he started playing me a
Speaker 2: Dennis Brown song, which like a Jamaican singer, like old
Speaker 2: school like lovers rock singer. So I was playing the
Speaker 2: song and I've just walked out the door while he
Speaker 2: is singing like I am great. It makes me so
Speaker 2: uncomfortable when anybody does anything like that. I used to
Speaker 2: have this ongoing joke with my ex boyfriend because he
Speaker 2: knew how much I hate that stuff. So whenever we'd
Speaker 2: be like in a public place, he'd pretend to propose me,
Speaker 2: and I'd be like, oh.
Speaker 3: My god, sorry, like you're trying to break up with
Speaker 3: someone and they started singing to you. That actually would
Speaker 3: make me feel.
Speaker 2: So unwall it was. It was so horrific.
Speaker 3: So I'm guessing if you were ever being proposed to,
Speaker 3: you'd prefer to get proposed to in.
Speaker 2: Private, Yes, definitely.
Speaker 3: Has anyone ever proposed to you?
Speaker 2: No, Oh my god, no, I would give me the
Speaker 2: magic if someone supposed to me. Really yeah, like you
Speaker 2: don't know me at all.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm very sorry to Ray Bouldering vegan cyclists, But
Speaker 3: that was he was going so in my eyes, I
Speaker 3: was like, he's actually.
Speaker 2: Really nicely and he was fair well, and he was funny.
Speaker 2: He was really funny. But I think as we went
Speaker 2: more into the day, I sort of could see so
Speaker 2: many things that we just were not compatible on as well.
Speaker 2: One of the things he told me was that he
Speaker 2: basically can't spend like a night at home alone. He
Speaker 2: has to have plans like every evening of the week.
Speaker 2: And I was like, that's my idea of hell, and
Speaker 2: I just can't relate to someone who's like that.
Speaker 4: I can't of.
Speaker 2: Anything worse than being out every evening by the week,
Speaker 2: even though it's my.
Speaker 5: Busy do you know what, I every night of the week,
Speaker 5: every week, I'm busy, but sometimes I'm busy alone. One
Speaker 5: thing I like to do Guelfen is holdering.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, it goes hand in hand with people
Speaker 2: that ride bike. They always love the clime. I'm the
Speaker 2: worst person.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, I do feel bad for me because
Speaker 3: he probably went in being like, I'm like this really
Speaker 3: in my eyes, I'm the grave, you're listen, you're a cooman,
Speaker 3: you're bouldering, you're cycling, you love tofu. You feel like
Speaker 3: grace read the room.
Speaker 2: I know I'm dead that I actually gagged when he
Speaker 2: said bouldering. That's so funny for me. Huge respect, Grace,
Speaker 2: huge respect.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I don't know. I just I've met so many of
Speaker 2: these guys before, and there's a part of me that
Speaker 2: wants to be with someone who's like kind of wholesome
Speaker 2: and like into all of this ship. But I just
Speaker 2: didn't feel like I would be able to fit into
Speaker 2: that with him and him with me, you know. Yeah,
Speaker 2: but like I aspired to having a Lamborghini rules like
Speaker 2: cyclo bike.
Speaker 5: No, I lived in apparently the gastronomic central of the
Speaker 5: world's capital, the world Leon.
Speaker 2: And did you get really good at friends? We're doing
Speaker 2: a French degree.
Speaker 5: No, I wasn't still biology. Yeah, but they gave you
Speaker 5: the chance of the year of war advances.
Speaker 3: I snapped that up. That's my favorite place.
Speaker 5: The whole.
Speaker 2: The mass accent is really strong. It's like basically the
Speaker 2: equivalent of a Jordi accent. But I mean sometimes I'm like,
Speaker 2: what the fucking say? But I'm pretty good because that's
Speaker 2: how I love France. One of myself in.
Speaker 5: France, so you know French just from holiday?
Speaker 1: No, well, I you too are going to do Sorry,
Speaker 1: we're friends so great.
Speaker 3: He's bilingual? Is that a turn on for you?
Speaker 2: I would love to go out with someone who spoke
Speaker 2: French because then my French would get better. Yeah, I
Speaker 2: feel like it's hot when someone speaks another language. It
Speaker 2: shows that they have like intelligence. The fact that they're
Speaker 2: speaking to you in English and that's not their first language.
Speaker 2: It is fit.
Speaker 3: I'm so embarrassed that I only speak English. So I
Speaker 3: feel like I would love to go out with someone
Speaker 3: who was no offense to my boyfriend. It will be
Speaker 3: turned on. It would be definitely turn on. If you
Speaker 3: went on a dating a guy he spoke multiple languages,
Speaker 3: you'd like.
Speaker 2: I remember once when I was in my ex, I
Speaker 2: didn't we we'd only just got in with each other,
Speaker 2: and I didn't tell him that I spoke French. I'm
Speaker 2: not fluent, but I can speak pretty good French. And
Speaker 2: we went to France and we're in Marseille and we're
Speaker 2: at this restaurant and then the way came over and
Speaker 2: I just had this like completely fluent conversation with Water
Speaker 2: and he was like what And I'd never told him
Speaker 2: that I'd said French, and he was like, I've never
Speaker 2: been more attracted to you when I am in this moment,
Speaker 2: because it is fit. When you're watching someone like speak
Speaker 2: in another language, you don't know what they're saying, You're like,
Speaker 2: oh my god, that's crazy.
Speaker 3: Have you ever gone it with someone who's bilingual? No, yeah,
Speaker 3: I've got. I've gone it with guys who like have
Speaker 3: lived abroad when I was living abroad, and obviously they'd
Speaker 3: really good English, but also like really good Spanish or
Speaker 3: Portuguese whatever it is, and like I just yeah, it's
Speaker 3: just's nice, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: It's great?
Speaker 5: Yeah? Great?
Speaker 3: And like, is there any nationality you'd love to date?
Speaker 3: Is there anyone any like any country you've been to?
Speaker 3: And you're like, the guys are just fit here. I
Speaker 3: love their accent, I love everything about their culture.
Speaker 2: I mean, I would love to have a French boyfriend,
Speaker 2: like I said, because then it would be great because
Speaker 2: we could have French kids, and then our kids could
Speaker 2: speak French.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 2: I also do like have like a real source for
Speaker 2: American men, but obviously they speak English. But I'm very like,
Speaker 2: I'm an international girl. I get with people like my
Speaker 2: roster is very diverse, is what I will say.
Speaker 4: So, what if your like dating life?
Speaker 2: Like I've been single since twenty eighteen. Okay, I know
Speaker 2: I was shocked.
Speaker 4: I mean that much.
Speaker 2: I've been saying just twenty.
Speaker 5: Most of that, I've been like, I don't really care.
Speaker 5: I'm not here to find someone straight away. You know,
Speaker 5: most most marges end of the divorce. You're going to
Speaker 5: break up at some point anyway, what's the point? Recently
Speaker 5: has been like, I would like to settle down, really,
Speaker 5: get a house together, really get some cats, I mean dogs.
Speaker 3: Just god, he's kind of confused. He's like, oh, everything
Speaker 3: ends in divorce. He's like, but I'd like to settle down,
Speaker 3: get some cats, Like, dude, what do you do? Yeah,
Speaker 3: do you want to settle down with the cats or Yeah?
Speaker 2: That was a big thing because I don't like cat people.
Speaker 2: I'm afraid and I don't really see myself like having
Speaker 2: a future with someone who likes cats. Anyway, if I
Speaker 2: was going to be like mystic Meg, which and I'm
Speaker 2: very good at predicting things, I feel like he will
Speaker 2: get into a relationship quite soon with like a really
Speaker 2: sort of pretty girl who like tans very easily, who
Speaker 2: has long, straightish hair and loves cycling around and going
Speaker 2: to holidays to Copenhagen and just cycling around Copenhagen, and
Speaker 2: he'll get into really happy relation and they'll have children.
Speaker 2: That's why I predict and cats and cats overall. Hey,
Speaker 2: what was the date?
Speaker 4: Like?
Speaker 3: Would you go on another date?
Speaker 2: I thought the day was good. I wanted to go
Speaker 2: on another date with him.
Speaker 3: And did he not text you or I think no?
Speaker 3: I think I asked for his number and he said no.
Speaker 2: I think I wanted to see him again. I would
Speaker 2: have I was sorry, I would have had sex shogged him. Well,
Speaker 2: I think this shows me right, how actually just shallow
Speaker 2: I am because I just think because he was so handsome,
Speaker 2: I wanted to see him again because he was really
Speaker 2: good looking and he was funny, so he was he
Speaker 2: was taking the piss out of me a lot, Yeah,
Speaker 2: which I like. But I think despite those eggs, I
Speaker 2: don't think he was I'm on that I would ever
Speaker 2: like be in a relationship with I would definitely have
Speaker 2: gone on another date with him, but I believe he
Speaker 2: rejected me, probably because I told him about how he
Speaker 2: was eighty five times.
Speaker 3: Also sorry, not only that, like you gagged every time
Speaker 3: he said an interest.
Speaker 2: Sorry, I just had to swallow my tea. Yeah, I know,
Speaker 2: but that's like classic me, like being like, you know,
Speaker 2: like a six year old girl being like, ooh, I'm
Speaker 2: thinking that that means that the boy fancies you next time.
Speaker 2: On twenty eight Dates Later, I felt like a milk
Speaker 2: on his date. I was three years older than them,
Speaker 2: but I was like, I felt like, oh, I can't
Speaker 2: explain it. I felt like they were obsessed with me
Speaker 2: because I was older than them. Well, they're quite boyish
Speaker 2: and quite like they were like so immature. It was
Speaker 2: really cute.
Speaker 4: Around me.
Speaker 2: I'm a savage. Twenty eight Dates Later is produced by
Speaker 2: Novel for iHeartRadio. For more from Novel, visit novel dot Audio.
Speaker 2: The series is presented by me Grace Campbell, with help
Speaker 2: from Roz Pursu and Dan Whyde. The producer is Diggory Way.
Speaker 2: The executive producer is Claire Broughton. Our Editors are myth
Speaker 2: Lly Raw and Max O'Brien. Production management from Charie Houston
Speaker 2: and Charlotte Wall. Willard Foxton is our creative director of
Speaker 2: development
Speaker 1: Novel