In this weekly feature, Her.ie goes behind enemy lines to see what it’s really like to be single in Ireland. From speed dating to making speedy escapes, our no-holds-barred blog will follow our attempts to venture into the dating jungle, play the field and share any wisdom that we finds along the way.

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Week  Twenty: Off The Starting Blocks The dating process can be a very fickle one and even though you may have a lot in common with a guy, it can often be the smallest thing that puts you off. I was reminded of this during a catch-up with an old friend recently. While she's now happily loved with a long-term boyfriend, she was a prolific dater back in our younger days but had some of the most specific requirements that I've even come across. Her main bugbear? Shoes. She would absolutely not tolerate a man with bad shoes, regardless of the other assets that he might possess. A little while back, we decided to put the same question to our lovely ladies and asked what were your ultimate turn-off's on a first date. Here were your top ten complaints! 1) Talking about their ex 2) Bad manners 3) Ordering messy food 4) Assuming that they 'on to a good thing' 5) Indecisiveness/not having a plan 6) Being late 7) Bad choice of clothing/shoes 8) Checking out other people 9) Poor conversation skills 10) Showing signs of Facebook stalking Agree/disagree? Send your horror stories to hello@her.ie or tweet us @Herdotie with the #shiftyfirstdates. Sarah sent us an email this week about one of her particularly bad first date experiences and we definitely had a bit of a giggle! Take it away Sarah... "Hi, I just want to write in about an absolute disaster of a date I had a couple of months ago. We basically met on a night out and everything was fine so we decided to go on first official date. We decided to go the cinema, which is always a bad choice but we pressed ahead regardless! When it came down to the arrangements, he was pushing for me to drive and collect him so to avoiding any awkwardness, I just said yes. We had a pretty non-eventful trip and got back to his house shortly after midnight. So… next was the whole ‘awkward chatting waiting nervously for the car kiss’ bit. Now usually this might take ten or fifteen minutes but this night? We waiting until 1am, 2am and at, my engine was still running and he wasn’t making any attempt to get out! I politely said ‘Jesus, is it that time already? I better go’, to which he replied ‘God, yeah, I better go’ while continuing to start another conversation. Then 4am and 5am arrived, foxes started strolling the streets and by 6am, I had to basically ask him to go as it was getting ridiculous! So I ended up going on a date to the cinema and arriving home to a chorus from my suspicious housemates going ‘yeah yeah, where did you end up last night?!’. Safe to say, I ended that romance fairly quick. I honestly think he was just too nervous to kiss me that he ended up trying to stall it but it was a complete disaster!"