The fourth sticker option

My mission to infiltrate the 'Traffic Light Dating' event at the Plaza Shopping Centre at 6pm, was somewhat hampered by the fact that I was supposed to be in Upper Tooting at 6pm to pick up my daughter from a schoolfriend's house.

This wouldn't matter so much if the schoolfriend's family were people I knew well, then I could just explain that I had to distribute adventure stickers to people looking for love, and so might be a bit late.

As a fulltime working Mum, I'm rarely at school to pick up my daughter so I find it quite tricky to arrange schoolfriend visits for her. So I was proud of myself for wangling a tea invitation to this particular little boy's house. Especially as it meant I had some time after work to complete the Yellow Traffic Light mission.

It was my daughter's first visit to this family, so I wasn't sure how it would go; but I didn't think it would be a big deal if I rang up and said I'd be a little late to pick her up. I don't like lying to people, but I decided not to explain the real reason I'd be late. I muttered something about 'work' and so at 5.50pm I told them I was heading home now and would be there in about half an hour to pick her up.

Well it is approximately 30 minutes from Oxford Circus to Balham. Then I could head straight to Oxford Circus tube station; which is only about a 5 minute walk from the Plaza. And then I'd get the tube south to Balham, and it's only about 7 minutes from Balham to Upper Tooting.

I hoped the Traffic Light Dating thing might start early.

At 5.55pm there was still no sign of the Traffic Light people and their stickers. I couldn't even see anyone getting ready for the sticker distribution process, whatever that process might be.

I realised I didn't have a very clear plan how to get my yellow IWAA stickers available as a fourth option for the daters. I hadn't made plans as this really did depend on the sticker distribution methods used by the organisers.

I was hoping there'd be a big, unsupervised, central bucket full of the red, amber and green stickers. Then it would be easy to add my 300 yellow stickers to the sticker vessel. There were supposed to be 450 IWAA stickers, but I got bored of cutting them up and thought 300 would probably be enough.

If there was a central sticker tub I couldn't see it. Not at 6pm. Nor at 6.05pm. I couldn't even see any sign of anyone wearing any coloured stickers. There were a lot of people hanging around. Quite a few young men on their own, some were even quite handsome. Although I was only interested in one thing when I looked at these handsome blokes - why weren't they wearing any stickers? Frustratingly I had plenty of stickers that they could wear, but how to get my stickers into circulation? It was 6.10pm and I still didn't have any clue.

At this point I started to worry about my daughter. I try my best to be a good mother and I do put my daughter's well being above any silly adventure plans. I knew she was safe and probably enjoying herself, but this was her first visit to this schoolfriend, and what would his parents think if her mum was an hour late collecting her due to a sticker dating mission? I imagined that she was either having great fun, but I would ruin it for her and she'd never be invited again due to my adventuring lateness; or else she was miserable and crying to go home to a Mum she saw little enough of at the best of times.

I decided to ask a friend to pick her up. But when I called there was no answer. I wondered whether I should just quit the Yellow Traffic Light mission?

I was standing on the first floor balcony in the Plaza, near the food court, and from there I had a very good view of all the shoppers below. And at 6.12pm I finally saw someone wearing an amber sticker! I decided to have a look around to see where this 'maybe' lady could have found her sticker. The amber sticker was just a large plain circle, I wasn't very impressed. Just a plain coloured sticker, no text at all. Mine said 'I want an adventure. Do you?' This one didn't even say 'I want a date'. Or for amber, actually, it should be, 'I may want a date.'

My yellow 'I want an adventure' stickers were certainly much superior. Plus this Traffic Light Dating event was obviously badly run. I wanted a sticker, actually all 3, but there was no obvious place to get them. My tube poster nose stickering was obviously much better organised.

I had thought of simply leaving piles of yellow stickers available so that shoppers could help themselves if they wanted. But I'd really hoped to make it obvious that the stickers were connected to the dating event, not just randomly publicising my email address.

By 6.13pm I realised that many of the confused single people who'd turned up for the dating, must, like me, be wondering where their coloured stickers actually were? Perhaps it was a bonus that the Traffic Light Dating organisers were so disorganised? All these people who couldn't find love could now turn to adventure instead! Just in terms of stickers obviously; it's only me who's taken this idea any further.

At 6.14pm I wandered through the shopping center, busy with my bag of stickers. I left stickers on phone booths, stickers on food court tables, stickers on shelves in clothing shops, I even, cheekily, put my stickers in the 'Traffic Light Dating' leaflet dispensers. I felt sure people would be visiting these to see if the start time really was 6pm.

At 6.18pm I took a big handful of all my remaining yellow stickers, and threw a few hundred stickers from the balcony into the shopping center hall below. The pretty yellow stickers fluttered satisfyingly downwards. The surprised shoppers looked up, wondering, 'What's going on?'

I would have liked to have stayed to see those stickers hit the ground, to see if anyone picked one up, or even stuck it onthemselves whilst thinking 'Adventure? Yes please!'

But I had to go. I made my way out of the Plaza down the stairs in the UniQlo shop, and quickly back to Oxford Circus and then to Upper Tooting. My daughter had had a great time, and didn't want to leave. Her schoolfriends' parents said could she come again soon, and not to worry that I'd been late.

As we walked home my daughter said 'I'm bored,' so I gave her a yellow sticker to stick on the poster nose of a boy at bus shelter. That cheered her up. I understood why. Poster nose stickering is really very good fun; but throwing and scattering and fluttering stickers is an amazing feeling. Perhaps she'll try it one day and understand?

'When I grow up I want to be an adventurer.'

Today, I think I came a ittle closer to that dream.