A cautionary tale for you youngsters out there ..be wary .. be aware ...

Picture this : you've just hit 'send' on a first contact message that you boldly send out across the ether, asking someone their essential measurements and the all important photo

Just like the *bleep* on an asdic set, the reply whizzes back to the in-box after an interplanetary delay of about two hours or so :

"A real catch. Nicely put together. Everything in all the right places. Many are called but few are chosen. Hurry up bébé and make me an offer that i simply caaan't refuse. Sorry, no photo because i haven't figured out how to use my new fangled 3G cell phone"

Eureka : i've crossed binary numbers with a blonde !!

Against the better judgement of friends and contrary to the advice of the daily horrorscope, we gamely fix up a meeting after work, just for a quickie, mind you, and nothing more

The excrutiating waiting in dead-time is gradually parried and whittled away by sly glances at the clock on the wall and the futile trips to the coffee machine

All the while drifting into reveries and sifting through the memory banks of what the words 'ideal', 'second best' or simply 'acceptable' really equate to

Until .. until .. the fateful horrorhour arrives

And so off we gamely trot, prepared for the best, but secretly anticipating the worst

It's an old adage that first impressions count, or even that a picture could paint a thousand words, or that one shouldn't judge a book by it's cover (plus another trillion of blithe homilies) but even so ...

Whaddya do when your hopes and dreams become real ... somehow, the apparition now present and tangible just doesn't, in any way whatsoever, figure into your plans ?

Do you sort of pretext another unspecified 'thing' that's really, very ultra-important that you have to be at right now "awwww i'm soo dumb, i'm double booked, i'm soo sorry"

Or do you, humanely, after the five seconds of perception time, say "errrrr ... no" and walk away