How to meet men in real life?

At the moment dating is impossible...even meeting through groups. MeetUp and U3A has stopped. There are no evening classes or gyms open. Good job I am happy with my own company

I'm listening to cases of domestic violence have gone up 700% since lock down. I know it happens to men too but the majority of victim are women. I know there are great men out there but when I hear this I wonder if we/I am crazy for wanting a partner. Sorry if this is a bit negative but I keep hearing about DV going up and I find it horrifying.

I'd quite like a gentleman friend, but not a live-in man, a friend who is a man.
Ex was abusive but didn't start off that way, if they would never get anyone to be with them would they
There are always exceptions to everything. I know people who fell deeply in love and married very soon after meeting, but often an abusive man is a real charmer, love bombs you, talks about marriage, becomes jealous of other relationships, with parents, children, friends, and wants you all to themselves, and needs to know where you are. They say look at how he treats those who are in a position 'lower' than you, waiters, shop people, that kind of thing, and is he a 'victim' , is his Boss always out to get him, his colleagues, or neighbours always on his wrong side, soon you'll be one of those 'out to get him' he'll be criticising you, just for starters, once he's 'hooked' you. Lots of other things too Honestly, it's much better to be picky, go slowly and wait for a lovely man, and no doubt there are some lovely men out there, it's easier to go slowly and make sure than get involved with someone who will take lots of time and money to get away from

sodapop my husband and I met through an advert in the paper too, we’ve been married 24 years, best move I ever made.

Bet you are, I'm so jealous.

I met my man completely by chance. I was widowed nine years and wasn't the slightest bit interested in meeting anyone else. It never occurred to me that I would ever meet anyone I would care for again. My two children met their partners through Tinder, and when one of them then married, I met my man who was a guest at the wedding!

Apparently "Across the Room" is a good one. They organise dinner dances throughout the year. So it's a very relaxed, group activity.

In lockdown it is impossible to meet anyone new. Encouraged by a good friend after being on my own for 4 years, I started nervously with an online dating subscription a couple of years with limited mixed results. Elite singles is rubbish, so save you money and don't bother with that site, nor the free ones as they tend to be for ' hook ups' I.e looking for new friends with benefits rather than looking for a steady 121 relationship.

The geographical distance setting on Elite singles does not work as a filter. You do need a thick skin with online messaging, as initial pleasant dialogues can be truncated suddenly without the courtesy of an explanation or excuse. This is called ' ghosting', and is relatively common behaviour. Many people on the paid for sites are genuine enough, in terms of people looking for a partner, provided you are sensible in your interpretation of their profiles. Many also seem to lie about the age or use photos that are over 10 years old. I met one man for coffee who was not only 10 older than he stated, but knocked 10 years off his sons age as well. Unfortunately for him, he did look his actual real age, which was not a problem in itself, but the continued attempt to mislead after meeting up was troubling. I would not have minded the 'fib' so much if he had confessed on first meeting that he had knocked off a few years from his age. After the age of 65 many people do not want to appear as if in the ' looking for a carer' category if they are young at heart . I had been honest with my age, but the gap with that particular gentleman was too great, as I'm still working full time at the moment.

However I found the biggest issue was large numbers of alleged 'matches' who are former subscribers that are not active members, and most do not live with my stated 50 mile radius, many suggested 'matches' were 200 miles away.

I have however joined some mixed group activities in my home town and made new friends of both genders with a common hobby interest. Have been on group outings with these new friends.
I got also got a free 3 day membership offer with the Dating Lab who run sites under multiple brands such as sites for the Times, Telegraph, Saga etc and have actually met up with a nice man just before lockdown erupted. We are currently exchanging emails, had a few calls and messaging and will go out for a walk in near future. Both of us have been isolating on our own, following the rules. Not sure this man is the one for me as I'm not looking for full time new husband at present, and I think he may be looking for more, but the prospect of having a holiday companion and days out, when possible, seems to suits us both at the moment as it is very early days.

Good luck with whatever you try, but don't get disheartened with online dating. Give it a go, it might work, but finding a new hobby worked better for me in terms of my overall loneliness, but lockdown has been really difficult.

Hearing some of these stories I think we were very lucky Sarahmob