Gypsy, I wasn't meaning a single woman hanging out in a bar hoping to pick up guys.

What about if you are arranging to meet up with some friends? Back home it wouldn't occur to me that I couldn't set out to meet some friends.

I mean, if you're meeting friends in a public place, in a bar or restaurant, then someone arrives first, it might be you, or it might be a friend, sometimes you get there and a friend is already there (and maybe she or he has been feeling a little like a lemon waiting for the others), but sometimes it's you, and you end up waiting by yourself for a while before the others turn up.

Here, if my friends say, we're going to be in the pub/bar at about 8-ish, I wouldn't have any problem with going by myself to meet them there. Although, sometimes, friends who live at the other end of the street will knock on for me/or me for them, as we're passing on our way out, and we'll go to the venue together, but it's by no means obligatory to hook up with someone as you leave home, it's okay to meet people at the venue.

Are you saying that women can't even set out from their own homes by themselves to meet up with friends in a bar or restaurant?

Do people have to go round to one another's homes first in order to 'gang up' and go out en masse?

I'm a bit confused now.

Please can you clarify for me how on earth people manage to arrange a night out with their friends, if no one dares to go out in case they are the first person to reach the bar or restaurant?

Thanks