We were just two midlifers in our 50s who met back in 2020 using a popular dating app. Bored, lonely and emerging from lockdown we jumped at the chance for an outing. We had our first date at a trendy, dimly-lit Japanese restaurant and bar in Sydney’s Surry Hills. By our second lychee martini, we became aware of some mutual connections that we knew and discovered that we had actually grown up in the same place.

There was an immediate feeling of familiarity and a shared sense of humour that clicked without effort. We were in no rush for anything too serious. In fact, it would take another five outings, including antique-trawling for some 70s-inspired crockery, before things would develop into more of a romantic connection.

You could say we’ve been dating ever since but, in modern parlance, I’m inclined to call it more of a “situationship” than a full-blown relationship because it’s not an “all-in” arrangement. I don’t think that is too uncommon these days – partnership norms have shifted over the past decade and some reports suggest that there’s even some kind of relationship recession out there.

The Oxford dictionary now describes a situationship as a romantic relationship in which the couple are not official........

© The Guardian