
I paid £20 for Tinder and want my money's worth – but little-known loophole desperate guys are using is driving me mad
A FED-UP mum reckons she'll never find love on Tinder - because it keeps serving up blokes she's already rejected.
Divorced Dawn Cowie, 48, turned to the app after more than two years being single.
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Her swipe finger has been working overdrive and she's already knocked back everyone that's on offer in tiny Nairn, Inverness-shire.
But frustrated Dawn told how the guys she's rejected are making comebacks and repeatedly showing up for her.
The mum-of-one said: 'It's doing my nut in. I keep running out of men because of my location.
'And I feel Tinder is recycling profiles. I kept thinking I've seen these faces before.
'Three times I've seen this one person. It's not taking the hint.'
Since her marriage of 16 years ended Dawn admitted it's been tough trying to find someone else.
Between work and taking care of her 11-year-old daughter she's not left with much time to herself.
While meeting blokes in noisy pubs is a nightmare because she has no clue what they're saying to her.
A friend suggested Tinder and she decided to fork out £20-a-month to get all the benefits of the app.
But so far she's been extremely unhappy with the men offered up to her by the app.
I tried the Tinder for fitness - I met my perfect match & learnt to do chin-ups in 8 weeks
One date she lined up ended in disaster because the guy kept going on about her age, despite only being four years younger than her.
Dawn said: 'Since then I've ran out and it's changed my location to global.
'There's no way I'll be flying 3,000 miles for more red flags.
'Now the same ones keep showing up, including the one that was going on about my age. I've already blocked him and moved on.'
Dawn has discovered she may be falling victim to a little-known loophole on Tinder.
She added: 'People have realised that if you deactivate your account and go back on, it says 'new'. So it resets them and pushes them back out.
'I feel like I've got to see it through to the end of the month to get my money's worth.
'But I won't be renewing after that.'
Dawn isn't enjoying being back on the dating scene and has no idea if she will ever meet someone else.
She said: 'It's actually a minefield. I thought dating in my 20s was bad.
'But it's a whole new ball game in the dating world now.
'To be honest I'm thinking if it happens it happens.
'It would be nice to have company but in all honesty I have an amazing daughter, my parents and my close friends.

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Times
2 hours ago
- Times
Tony Blair: Bono and Geldof saved millions of lives with Live Aid
Sir Tony Blair says Bob Geldof and Bono have saved millions of lives. The rock stars have often been labelled as western do-gooders but a new documentary sets out their influence on world leaders since the Live Aid concert 40 years ago. 'What Bob and Bono and others have done over the years has resulted in, I don't know, probably millions of people living who otherwise would have died,' Blair says. The former British prime minister credits Geldof with getting him to champion African debt relief, while George W Bush tells how Bono persuaded him to pledge $15 billion to fight Aids in Africa. In the series, Live Aid at 40: When Rock 'n' Roll Took on the World, Bush recalls a 2005 meeting with Bono and Geldof before a G8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland. 'I didn't have a clue who Geldof was. He and Bono came in, and Bono was at least somewhat presentable; Geldof looked like he crawled out from underneath the ground,' Bush says with a chuckle, before adding: 'But he was a good guy. He cared deeply.' Blair's former adviser Justin Forsyth says: 'Bob was effing this and effing that, even with presidents and prime ministers, and Bono had this kind of deep empathy with people and knew how to kind of appeal to their inner souls.' Geldof adds: 'He [Bono] wants to give the world a great big hug, and I want to punch its lights out.'At the start of the series, Geldof speaks about a conversation with Paula Yates, his wife at the time, that prompted the idea of Live Aid and how he had to explain who Status Quo were to a bemused Prince Charles during the concert on July 13, 1985. • Daniel Finkelstein: Band Aid's critics are just feeding cynicism Geldof later reflects on his subsequent campaign to obtain debt relief for Africa, begun when he returned to an orphanage in Ethiopia in 2003. 'I see these children whose parents have died because of no food. It annoys me to tears of frustration. I go ballistic at this point, as ever, and 'get me Downing Street'.' Blair, at a G8 summit in Évian-les-Bains, France, took a call from an aide relaying Geldof's concerns. 'I remember shouting, 'It's happening again,'' Geldof said. In a subsequent meeting, the British prime minster agreed to head a Commission for Africa after Geldof set out the case for the world's poorest countries to be freed from debt. 'I wouldn't have reacted that way at anyone, but it was him with his track record, his commitment, his knowledge, his dedication. And therefore, it made sense,' Blair said. Kate Garvey, another aide to Blair, recalls: 'He [Geldof] was driving the agenda inside government.' When Blair decided to raise debt relief at the G8 summit in Gleneagles, he knew it was critical to persuade Bush. They also had the backing of Bono, who had formed an unlikely alliance with the Bush administration when he got access to Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser and a 'huge fan' of U2, soon after Bush's election. She says in the documentary that Bush's tastes went 'toward country music'. Pictures show the president smiling as an aide asks: 'You do know who Bono is, don't you?' He replies: 'Yeah, he married Cher.' But Bono found common ground when he brought an 'ancient Irish Bible' as a gift to the White House, as he knew Bush was a 'man of faith'. Bono wanted the US administration to take action on the Aids pandemic, at a time when 6,000 Africans a day were dying. 'I'm being informed that there's a pandemic destroying an entire generation of people on the continent of Africa at the time that I'm the president,' Bush says. Around a year later, in his state of the union address, Bush pledged $15 billion over the following five years to 'turn the tide against Aids in the most afflicted nations of Africa and the Caribbean'. Bobby Shriver, co-founder with the U2 frontman of Data (Debt, Aids, Trade in Africa), said: 'Bono got George Bush to give $15 billion to black people who don't vote, who have Aids.' Bono says Pepfar, the president's emergency plan for Aids relief, was the largest health intervention in history, adding: 'It has saved 26 million lives.' In the series, the lack of diversity of the rock acts in the charity concerts is debated with Harvey Goldsmith, the promoter behind the Live Aid and Live 8 concerts. 'I didn't care whether they were black, brown, green or yellow, if they were a big act and they were great and they wanted to play, great,' he says. Bono does think it could have been more inclusive of the African continent. 'We did our best to make it more involving of African acts and failed,' he says, referring to the Live 8 gigs. At the Gleneagles G8 summit, a few days after the Live 8 concerts, aides recall how Blair rushed to London from Scotland when he was told of the July 7 bombings. When the exhausted prime minister arrived back towards the end of the summit, Forsyth says the Blair had little patience with Gerhard Schröder, the German chancellor, who was holding up agreement on Africa. 'He went down into the bar with all the leaders there, and their wives. I remember him, not to exaggerate, but he had Schröder up against the wall, saying, you know, 'We've got to do this deal?' And at that moment, Schröder gave in, and we got across the line with the Germans.' The G8 leaders agreed immediately to cancel $40 billion of debt owed by 18 of the world's poorest countries, and promised to increase aid to developing nations by $50 billion a year by 2010. Live Aid had critics. Kumi Naidoo, a human rights activist, said: 'There were many good people with good intentions that were involved both with Live Aid and Live 8. I think that there was not enough sensitivity to understanding that it's not right for a bunch of predominantly white male folks to get together and say, 'We got to frame a continent like this.'' Bono fears the 40th anniversary of Live Aid will have a different resonance for global aid than events in 2005. 'The 20th anniversary was just a convergence of good fortune and good actors on the world stage. But what's happening now in politics means this anniversary could be a funeral for the last 40 years.' Live Aid at 40 airs on Sunday, July 6, on BBC2 and can be streamed on BBC iPlayer


The Guardian
4 hours ago
- The Guardian
The moment I knew: I declined his proposal, then something clicked
It was the day before my 25th birthday in 2005. I was living alone in a flat in Sydney and getting ready for a friend of a friend's 30th that night. I wanted to look vengefully hot for the occasion – someone who had dumped me was going to be there. But later that night I forgot all about my ex. As I was sitting in the back garden at the party, making balloon animals, I looked up and saw a man wearing a bright blue floral 80s outfit – a dress and matching jacket – with fishnet stockings and a floppy hat. It was a circus freaks-themed party and he was one of only a handful of other guests who had dressed up, the only Bearded Lady among us. His humour and confidence glowed as brightly as his pearl choker and matching clip-on earrings. I instantly sensed a strong connection. Drew and I followed each other around all evening, trying not to let the other realise it. A few days later I sent him some pictures from the party and we wasted an entire week of our respective employers' time emailing all day every day, each trying to flirtatiously out-funny the other. Finally, I asked him out for a drink. We started dating and suddenly we'd been together for eight months. Before our first Christmas as a couple, I got wind that he was planning to buy me a kitten. Feeling headstrong about my independence, I gazumped him by buying a kitten for myself. I wasn't ready to share a pet. We slotted easily into each other's lives, sharing eclectic circles of friends, love for our close families and travel. After a year, he moved from the Central Coast to be closer to me in Sydney; after two, he moved into the flat with me and my cat. Three years later, alone on a beach in Borneo except for the three men fixing a generator just behind us, Drew proposed to me. I was taken aback. I didn't feel ready to settle down and I said no immediately. 'I'm not ready,' I uttered. Drew simply kissed me and said: 'I'll wait until you are.' When he said that, something clicked. I realised that whether I was ready was immaterial. I'd never felt ready for anything I've done that was exciting and wonderful and worthwhile. I was ready to not let that stop me. After a few moments I said yes. It was the best decision I've ever made. We got married in 2009. We've faced many challenges since – the terminal illness and death of Drew's father, fertility hurdles, the births of two babies who could stay awake for Australia, postpartum depression, and much more – and Drew has been exactly the right balance of strong, brave, funny, sad, vulnerable, supportive, clever, kind and loving. With Drew as my champion, I said yes to a whole lot more in life too, including writing my first book. In return, it has been the best thing ever to watch as he has thrived in his own life, as an artist. Seeing Drew's work on gallery walls and in people's homes thrills me every time, and there's no one who deserves it more. As for my kitten, Gusto, she's about to turn 20. Our now-shared cat has always, quite rightly, loved Drew the most. Jessica Dettmann's new book Your Friend and Mine (Atlantic Books, $32.99) is out on 1 July Do you have a romantic realisation you'd like to share? From quiet domestic scenes to dramatic revelations, Guardian Australia wants to hear about the moment you knew you were in love. Your contact details are helpful so we can contact you for more information. They will only be seen by the Guardian. Your contact details are helpful so we can contact you for more information. They will only be seen by the Guardian.


Daily Mail
6 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Ryan Lochte's wife Kayla Reid takes 'betrayal' swipe at Olympian and claims she is 'broken' amid divorce
Ryan Lochte 's estranged wife, Kayla Rae Reid, appeared to accuse the Olympic swimmer of 'betrayal' as she opened up on how their marriage and divorce left her 'broken'. Reid announced earlier this month that she had filed for divorce from the six-time gold medalist in March, after seven years of marriage. At the time, the former Playboy playmate branded the divorce 'painful' and referenced 'trials we didn't choose or see coming', while Lochte said he was 'deeply grateful for the life we've built together'. But neither revealed exactly what led to their marriage becoming 'irretrievably broken'. As revealed by the Daily Mail, however, the couple owe nearly $270,000 in various debts, while they are also fighting over the custody of their three children - Caiden Zane, seven, Liv Rae, five, and Georgia June, one. Now, Reid has taken to social media to post more cryptic comments about the divorce, including that she is 'stepping into the best chapter of her life'. The former Playboy playmate posted a series of pictures and videos alongside 'reminders' of what she is 'telling herself right now'. 'Sometimes God allows the betrayal... because it leads to the breakthrough,' one read. 'Divorce isn't the end of my story. It's the beginning of my rebirth... I didn't choose to be broken, but I'm choosing to rebuild.' She added: 'You're stepping into the best chapter of your life - you just have to heal first... most people have no idea what I've endured. 'Ignore their opinions. Truth always reveals itself.' Kayla's petition for divorce, filed in north central Florida's Alachua County, asked the court for 'sole parenting responsibility' or at least 'ultimate decision-making authority' and 'majority timesharing,' Daily Mail previously reported. 'Wife is fit and proper to assume sole parental responsibility for the minor children of the parties. Shared parental responsibility would be detrimental to the children,' her lawyers wrote. Kayla's petition for divorce, filed in Florida, asked the court for 'sole parenting responsibility' However, Lochte responded by insisting it was in the best interests of Caiden, Liv and Georgia for their parents to share custody. But his April 28 counter-petition, prepared by attorney Justin Jacobson, also included multiple errors when it came to details of their birthdays and places of birth. Lochte said all three were born in May but – as Kayla pointed out in a subsequent filing – Caiden was born June 8, 2017, Liv was born June 17, 2019, and Georgia was born June 21, 2023. The gold medalist swimmer and former Playboy Playmate tied the knot in Palm Springs, California, in January 2018, after previously going public with their relationship in 2016.