So many normal people are looking for romance these days, as if a fulfilling home life and a engrossing job are not enough.

It’s as if something is missing in the modern world where internet porn is standard fare for many people. Naturally, the web caters for this perceived lack of sparkle in many people’s lives.

As an example, there is an internet dating service established for the only purpose of enabling married people to commit adultery. It claims to have more than 100,000 members in the UK alone.

A reporter who tried it out gives us this example of a typical “date”.

“I arrange to meet a 41-year-old mother of two who misses “romance and flirting”, in a cafe in two days’ time. … She turns up, a blonde with lipstick on her teeth. She looks furtively around and asks me if I’m nervous. I say that if she stops twitching, I’ll calm down. There is tension in the air like North and South Korea coming together to hammer out a treaty.

“Suddenly the realization of how odd it is to meet a stranger with the express intention of having an affair dawns on me. Romeo and Juliet it is not. … But she is an old hand at this type of encounter and tells me she’s met many men through the site, and that I was probably the only one who hadn’t lied about my age. She tells me she thinks relationships have a shelf life of about ten years before boredom sets in, but that she stays married to ensure her children have a stable home.

“After discussing how mundane marriages become and avoiding questions about my personal life, it’s clear we’re past our sell-by date after ten minutes, never mind ten years. There is zero chemistry. She doesn’t want to discuss her husband, and I feel uneasy talking to her. Despite this, she still seems keen to flirt with me.

“In the end, we agree to part and she wishes me luck and assures me I’ll find the perfect paramour. So much for raging passion. This was like having a meeting with a new accountant with a helping of self-disgust thrown in. For all the glossy, sexy chat and out-of-date pictures posted online, this is the rather tawdry, mundane reality of these adulterous assignations. A pub on a wet afternoon and two people who have little to talk about except whether or not they are going to have a meaningless fling.”

Romance is most certainly isn’t

According to a BBC article, scientists have discovered that much of that heady first response that we call love may be thanks to the release of a chemical in our brains. The protein, a type of neurotrophin, gives rise to the feelings we associate with falling in love.

Not only that, but apparently these effects wear off after a time, allowing the extreme early feelings to mellow into a less passionate but potentially more stable relationship with the loved one. Which is something of a relief, since the headline announces that “Romantic love lasts just a year” - for a moment I thought we’d all been doomed to very brief relationships indeed.

These researches into the mechanisms of our feelings are all very interesting and worthy, I’m sure, but too often a crucial question is never asked. It may well be true that this neurotrophin is responsible for the feelings we experience in the first flush of love but what causes the chemical to be released in the first place? It seems to me that the chemical is much more a result than a cause and that the scientists are trying to catch a will o’ the wisp in all this.

Dream dates do exist! At least they do for David Brown, a 24 year old British man who dreamed about a cell phone number. David thought it might have been the number of someone he met the night before so he texted it. Thus began a romantic tale.

The number actually belonged to Michelle Kitson, a 17 year old girl he had never met. But the two hit it off - texting led to phone calls and letters and eventually David moved 60 miles to be nearer his dream lover.

Their story is an example of a true romantic dream. Michelle and David have just returned from their honeymoon.

Man Dreams of Cell Phone Number, Texts It and Meets Future Wife

The black swan mentioned in my previous post, Lovesick Swan, has turned out to be a female.

The love-sick black swan has been reunited with her mate after a long winter. The swan, now named Petra, fell in love with a swan-shaped paddle boat last summer but because the boat was put in for the winter, she has had to wait months of lonely winter nights to see her love again.

The paddle boat was put back into the lake and Petra quickly rejoined her love. Swans mate for life and Petra has chosen her strong, silent partner. This looks like a love that will last.