Hyperactive Speed Dating
Well punters, you've been waiting to hear the next instalment of my search for love, with baited breath I dare say, so here it is.
I've told you of my rather stylish theatrical introduction to Speed Dating with Fast Impressions where I met half a dozen guys and had one match, who I have had contact with over the last week. I have a booking with Sydney Speed Date for next Thursday evening, but earlier this week, an opportunity came up for me and a friend to attend one of their earlier Speed Dating events on Wednesday night. Since I had a spare ticket, I searched for a single girlfriend to accompany me, which in reality, meant I had to beg friends until I found one brave enough to trust me that Speed Dating would be fun.
There is a significant stigma surrounding Speed Dating and online dating it seems, and many of my friends believe me brave for putting myself out there through these organised means. I managed to convince Miss Kim to come along, mainly with the promise of one free drink and "canapés" that would potentially serve as dinner. She's not looking to meet anyone but conceded it might be fun and it would give her a chance to improve her social skills.
The venue was the Ivory Lounge, touted as "a well presented cocktail lounge" and by it's own description, "the interior was specifically designed to give a warm and sensual feel." I couldn't disagree more. While it may attempt to be a cocktail bar, and is stocked with all the right looking glasses and liquors, sadly, in my and Miss Kim's opinion, it was more a basement trying to be a penthouse... and failing. Concrete flooring, visible ducting along the ceiling, and the reality that the whole place is smaller than my apartment, I couldn't be enthused about making the venue a regular haunt.
But I digress, I wasn't there for the couches and low lighting, I was there to meet 19 single guys for 3 minutes each. There were less girls than guys, and it meant that guys would have empty rounds where they would have to watch all the other guys with the girls. Guys and girls were armed with a date card where you could list the names of the dates you met and tick whether you would like to Friend, Date or No contact with the person. And to keep your Toms, Dicks and Harrys straight, there is a portion of the card you keep and list your own notes about them to jog your memory later. The guys and girls were briefed separately, and us ladies, were warned that most of the time, guys listed every girl as a Date in the hopes of matching anyone. Hmmm, way to get a girls hopes up.
I had noticed quite a trend in the girls dress for the evening, a significant number of party dresses were abound. I was wearing my work wear, which was quite nice, but certainly not a bright red short dress. The guys wore a mix of after work dressed down attire through to going out shirts and jeans. Some even had nice shoes.
I started off with a guy named Tim, we sat down and before even really introducing myself he told me he recognised me. At that point I panicked - I am a life model after all, has this guy seen me naked already? Nope, turns out he attends the same Swing Dancing classes as me and has been swing dancing for about 6 years. Tell you what I felt terrible that I didn't recognise and remember him. I put him down as a Friend. After that the guys were a bit of a blur. They all seemed to be from the Western Sydney area, Blacktown and the likes. There was a prevalence of non Anglo guys as well. There was a baker, an engineer who wanted to go to Nida, a Masters student, a mobile massage therapist, a chiropractor, a security guard who had worked on the P&O, an Air conditioning and refrigeration repairman, an electrical engineer, a guy whose mate took him to lots of R&B gig in clubs, a pharmacist, an RTA roadway designer, a recently graduated law & finance student about to begin work, an accountant and a guy who did something with chemicals... couldn't tell you what though because my notes only say "Dull - Manly, Chemicals".
At some point there was a break where the one free drink and canapés came in to play. The canapés? Wedges, chips and spring rolls... not exactly your gourmet choices, and certainly not presented in any useful way. We did get chatting in the break to two guys who were easily the most attractive in the room. Both Kiwis, the conversation was animated and fun, but I had a sixth sense that they weren't actually interested in me, but I was curious to actually have my date with them.
During the second break (as I said, the boys are now mostly blurs and I can't remember which boys were around the breaks) instead of buying another drink, we sat and chatted to the girls at the next table. They were young (19) and flippant, to the point that they had been so worried about talking to guys for 8 minutes (as suggested on the website) that they decided to just make stuff up. I'm amazed anyone would think that is a good and sustainable idea! One of them had made herself an imaginary Sex Shop Owner, can't even imagine how that conversation would go!
In an effort to avoid the usual 'what do you do, where are you from' guff, I decided to sometimes ask guys what the silliest, or most embarrassing thing they've ever done was, keep them on their toes so to speak. Of course I was armed with my own stories to offer first while they try to work out what on earth they would tell me.
My Most Embarrassing Moment:
When I was in year 4 I had a crush on a boy and made a valentines day card for him, and another boy I liked. I was sprung putting the cards in their desks, but trusted that me asking them not to tell, would actually work. The next part of that memory is me sitting in class, completely demoralised, in tears with my very tall teacher standing over me (obviously trying to make things better) saying 'The one thing I want to know is; why didn't I get one?'
The silliest/ stupidest thing was generally stuffing my knee skiing and having a knee reconstruction as a result.
My favourite stories were:
Andrew, while travelling, crossed the boarder from Laos to China on foot but discovered he couldn't change his Laos money to Chinese money, it was the weekend and also a public/ bank holiday and he was subsequently stuck in China for 4 days with no money, hardly knowing the language and fumbling his way through knowing no one.
Michael, when a young teenager, was visiting his mates house. He stepped out on to the balcony to speak to his friends Dad, and the parents bedroom lead out on to the balcony as well. The friend's Mum stepped out of the bed room stark naked and hadn't realised Michael was also there, had a moment of horror, covered herself and fled inside again. All the while Michael could only stare with his mouth wide open.
At the end of the night, Miss Kim and I compared notes. She was far more lenient than I and had listed a number of guys as Friend. I had listed 9 guys in all, 6 guys as Friend and 3 as Date. Miss Kim was shocked that I hadn't listed the other, more boofy NZ guy as a Date so I changed him from Friend to Date knowing full well he wouldn't have listed me at all.
The next day I was at work and Miss Kim pinged me on Facebook to tell me that she had only 2 Friend matches, at which point I knew I'd be the same or less. Neither of the NZ boys had matched her, and I would have put money on them not matching with me either. I think they were there to find the easy girls good for a shag. When I finally got home and checked my email, I was informed that 9 guys had said yes to me. Of those 9, 2 matched me. I was given Michael and Andrew's details as they had listed me as Friend. I haven't contacted them, I'll think about it, I remember who Andrew was, but I'm still struggling to picture Michael, though he was the Michael of the naked Mum story (where as the stuck in China Andrew was a different Andrew).
So all in all, we had a pretty good time, it was really full on and exhausting talking to people for 3 minutes only to work out whether you would suit each other. It really is an exercise in being Hyperactive and being able to be engaging 19 times over! It was a night full of giggles, and I am looking forward to next Thursday, though I will be flying solo, no wing woman to help veto boys (or pimp me, turns out she was promoting me to some of the guys as she had them after me).
I've told you of my rather stylish theatrical introduction to Speed Dating with Fast Impressions where I met half a dozen guys and had one match, who I have had contact with over the last week. I have a booking with Sydney Speed Date for next Thursday evening, but earlier this week, an opportunity came up for me and a friend to attend one of their earlier Speed Dating events on Wednesday night. Since I had a spare ticket, I searched for a single girlfriend to accompany me, which in reality, meant I had to beg friends until I found one brave enough to trust me that Speed Dating would be fun.
There is a significant stigma surrounding Speed Dating and online dating it seems, and many of my friends believe me brave for putting myself out there through these organised means. I managed to convince Miss Kim to come along, mainly with the promise of one free drink and "canapés" that would potentially serve as dinner. She's not looking to meet anyone but conceded it might be fun and it would give her a chance to improve her social skills.
The venue was the Ivory Lounge, touted as "a well presented cocktail lounge" and by it's own description, "the interior was specifically designed to give a warm and sensual feel." I couldn't disagree more. While it may attempt to be a cocktail bar, and is stocked with all the right looking glasses and liquors, sadly, in my and Miss Kim's opinion, it was more a basement trying to be a penthouse... and failing. Concrete flooring, visible ducting along the ceiling, and the reality that the whole place is smaller than my apartment, I couldn't be enthused about making the venue a regular haunt.
But I digress, I wasn't there for the couches and low lighting, I was there to meet 19 single guys for 3 minutes each. There were less girls than guys, and it meant that guys would have empty rounds where they would have to watch all the other guys with the girls. Guys and girls were armed with a date card where you could list the names of the dates you met and tick whether you would like to Friend, Date or No contact with the person. And to keep your Toms, Dicks and Harrys straight, there is a portion of the card you keep and list your own notes about them to jog your memory later. The guys and girls were briefed separately, and us ladies, were warned that most of the time, guys listed every girl as a Date in the hopes of matching anyone. Hmmm, way to get a girls hopes up.
I had noticed quite a trend in the girls dress for the evening, a significant number of party dresses were abound. I was wearing my work wear, which was quite nice, but certainly not a bright red short dress. The guys wore a mix of after work dressed down attire through to going out shirts and jeans. Some even had nice shoes.
I started off with a guy named Tim, we sat down and before even really introducing myself he told me he recognised me. At that point I panicked - I am a life model after all, has this guy seen me naked already? Nope, turns out he attends the same Swing Dancing classes as me and has been swing dancing for about 6 years. Tell you what I felt terrible that I didn't recognise and remember him. I put him down as a Friend. After that the guys were a bit of a blur. They all seemed to be from the Western Sydney area, Blacktown and the likes. There was a prevalence of non Anglo guys as well. There was a baker, an engineer who wanted to go to Nida, a Masters student, a mobile massage therapist, a chiropractor, a security guard who had worked on the P&O, an Air conditioning and refrigeration repairman, an electrical engineer, a guy whose mate took him to lots of R&B gig in clubs, a pharmacist, an RTA roadway designer, a recently graduated law & finance student about to begin work, an accountant and a guy who did something with chemicals... couldn't tell you what though because my notes only say "Dull - Manly, Chemicals".
At some point there was a break where the one free drink and canapés came in to play. The canapés? Wedges, chips and spring rolls... not exactly your gourmet choices, and certainly not presented in any useful way. We did get chatting in the break to two guys who were easily the most attractive in the room. Both Kiwis, the conversation was animated and fun, but I had a sixth sense that they weren't actually interested in me, but I was curious to actually have my date with them.
During the second break (as I said, the boys are now mostly blurs and I can't remember which boys were around the breaks) instead of buying another drink, we sat and chatted to the girls at the next table. They were young (19) and flippant, to the point that they had been so worried about talking to guys for 8 minutes (as suggested on the website) that they decided to just make stuff up. I'm amazed anyone would think that is a good and sustainable idea! One of them had made herself an imaginary Sex Shop Owner, can't even imagine how that conversation would go!
In an effort to avoid the usual 'what do you do, where are you from' guff, I decided to sometimes ask guys what the silliest, or most embarrassing thing they've ever done was, keep them on their toes so to speak. Of course I was armed with my own stories to offer first while they try to work out what on earth they would tell me.
My Most Embarrassing Moment:
When I was in year 4 I had a crush on a boy and made a valentines day card for him, and another boy I liked. I was sprung putting the cards in their desks, but trusted that me asking them not to tell, would actually work. The next part of that memory is me sitting in class, completely demoralised, in tears with my very tall teacher standing over me (obviously trying to make things better) saying 'The one thing I want to know is; why didn't I get one?'
The silliest/ stupidest thing was generally stuffing my knee skiing and having a knee reconstruction as a result.
My favourite stories were:
Andrew, while travelling, crossed the boarder from Laos to China on foot but discovered he couldn't change his Laos money to Chinese money, it was the weekend and also a public/ bank holiday and he was subsequently stuck in China for 4 days with no money, hardly knowing the language and fumbling his way through knowing no one.
Michael, when a young teenager, was visiting his mates house. He stepped out on to the balcony to speak to his friends Dad, and the parents bedroom lead out on to the balcony as well. The friend's Mum stepped out of the bed room stark naked and hadn't realised Michael was also there, had a moment of horror, covered herself and fled inside again. All the while Michael could only stare with his mouth wide open.
At the end of the night, Miss Kim and I compared notes. She was far more lenient than I and had listed a number of guys as Friend. I had listed 9 guys in all, 6 guys as Friend and 3 as Date. Miss Kim was shocked that I hadn't listed the other, more boofy NZ guy as a Date so I changed him from Friend to Date knowing full well he wouldn't have listed me at all.
The next day I was at work and Miss Kim pinged me on Facebook to tell me that she had only 2 Friend matches, at which point I knew I'd be the same or less. Neither of the NZ boys had matched her, and I would have put money on them not matching with me either. I think they were there to find the easy girls good for a shag. When I finally got home and checked my email, I was informed that 9 guys had said yes to me. Of those 9, 2 matched me. I was given Michael and Andrew's details as they had listed me as Friend. I haven't contacted them, I'll think about it, I remember who Andrew was, but I'm still struggling to picture Michael, though he was the Michael of the naked Mum story (where as the stuck in China Andrew was a different Andrew).
So all in all, we had a pretty good time, it was really full on and exhausting talking to people for 3 minutes only to work out whether you would suit each other. It really is an exercise in being Hyperactive and being able to be engaging 19 times over! It was a night full of giggles, and I am looking forward to next Thursday, though I will be flying solo, no wing woman to help veto boys (or pimp me, turns out she was promoting me to some of the guys as she had them after me).