i wanted to go see my mate steve play with his band, and thought that it would be nice to grab a burrito and bring a girl along, and you know, blog about it. over the weekend i was going through the burrito emails, and had no idea who might like to come. not least a request by a girl who described herself as “a red headed science journalist who plays in a band and can ruck and maul and jump in the line-out.”

laura who lives in cambridge, no longer plays rugby, but very astutely asked me, as i come from waterford and studied in dublin, who i supported between munster and leinster. not the sort of irish cultural question i expected to be asked on one of these dates.

we ate the burritos in angel, i really made a mess to laura’s amusement, i am getting messier. it was clear that laura is smart, she was so sharp in conversation, i struggled to keep up. the gig was in the monarch in camden so we took the northern line.

steve and i know each other for about 10 years. butterflies on strings are a band he formed with  friends from music school (acm in gilford). i’m not that into music, but i generally lean towards indie rock. the butterflies have an indie folk sound and i am a fan.

we had a few drinks after, laura, i, drummer hugh and steve (bassist btw). laura also plays base in her band and most of the chatter was music related. but there a feeling throughout the night that laura was itching at something…

…it wasn’t something i said. it was what i do – marketing. laura just doesn’t like it. she was even skeptical about the purposes of this blog! i had to justify what i did. i reasoned that without marketing budgets a lot of artistic and creative people would be without income. many advertising professionals agree that certain parts of capitalism are bad, but being rewarded for creativity is a good thing. i think i heard her telling steve that she was changing her mind.

i ask laura how she thought the date went…

“…I particularly applaud you for your chivalrous decision to make such a complete mess of eating your burrito so that I couldn’t possibly embarrass myself. Good choice of date as well, I’m obviously very at home at pubs with bands playing and it was fun to chat to your friends as well… So yeah, as the others have said so far – fun dates with a cute Irish guy, I am converted. Although you certainly didn’t overhear me saying you might have changed my mind about something, never, that never happens”.

as for the future, who knows, but i reckon laura will be checking out the butterflies before me…

vote for laura!