So this week I met someone off the internet! Yes a genuine meeting of someone I had never laid eyes on before – our only previous contact had been through a website and email and then text. But as a 36-year old married mother of one it probably isn’t what you are thinking and the blind-date in question was another married mum.

We made contact through a ‘Meet A Mum’ type noticeboard for local mothers wanting to make new friends, a sort of Lonely Hearts column for the social group I find myself in. I’ve recently moved to the area and so has she, so I brushed aside all my reservations of meeting people online and responded to her note asking for Brighton parents to get in touch.

Walking to the café where we had arranged to meet was as nervewracking as going to meet a real blind-date. Would we get on? Would it be toe-curlingly embarrassing as we groped blindly for some kind of conversation? Would she be checking out my scruffy pushchair? And you have to worry that of course she could be a front for a slave trade ring.

I was aware that we only really had one known thing in common – the fact we had both given birth, and meeting someone based on an act that nearly half the global population can do suddenly seemed a very loose reason for making contact indeed.

Initial awkwardness over we fell into conversation immediately and found that we actually had an awful lot in common - where we had lived and worked in London, reasons for moving to the coast, our dogs, activities we enjoyed, down to ordering exactly the same off the menu without realising. Yes we did talk about the children, but funnily enough (due to age, schooling and care choices) that was the one thing we didn’t really have in common! We’ve arranged to meet again soon and while we may not become new best friends I’m glad I looked through those Lonely Hearts and took the plunge.