SWEETIESAL

As a single girl about town I often wondered to myself, when would this chance meeting occur where I locked eyes with a tall, dark and handsome stranger, perhaps at the supermarket or the gym? You know, like it happens in the soaps and rom-coms?!


Truth is, that RARELY happens. So naturally I did what any modern girl does and looked to increase those odds of meeting someone of interest. I’ve tried internet dating, dating apps and the most recent was speed dating. The latter was the one I was probably the most dismissive of but actually the one I enjoyed the most!

App Mishaps

The whole dating websites and apps method was really just not for me. Too faceless and too cringey when you are stood outside somewhere waiting for BlueEyedBoy25 to arrive and he looks NOTHING like his profile pic, and a substantial amount shorter than his height details. NOT COOL.

The Need for Speed

So on a whim with my gal pals, we set about signing up for a speed dating event and waited excitedly/nervously for the night to arrive. An after work event, on a school night, meant that we could have a few drinks but had an excuse to leave if it was just too horrific. One thing I will say is that I do think we picked a too old age bracket but to be honest that just added to the general hilarity of the evening.


Armed with a rum and diet coke for dutch courage, we were all seated and given a number, and the host announced that we would have 3 minute dates with the men. We were all asked to mark down the number and name of our date on a scoring sheet and then populate the grid with whether we liked them or not.

The Nitty Gritty

It became apparent early on that ALL of the men were serial speed daters and most recognised each other. They had a very set idea of what they wanted to talk about and just got straight to it! Sadly, all of the men were too old for me (I’m 32 and we signed up for a 30-45 age bracket but most were between 45 and 50) but it really was a lot of fun and I think if we had been in the 21-35 age bracket we may have found some eligible bachelors more around our own age.

In Conclusion

What I liked about the evening was that it was genuinely hilarious and if you are a nervous dater like me, it was like immersion therapy as I effectively had 10 dates in one night(!) I also thought that it was a really interesting way to meet new people. Did I want to date any of them, no, but equally they were all charming in their own way and the debrief session with the girls afterwards was absolutely brilliant. Turns out two of us met a wedding DJ whereas the other two met an award winning radio DJ!! Same person, I must add(!)


All in all I have to say I do think it was a really fun night and something I would encourage all singles to do with their friends. I would happily go again to a younger group and it’s one of those things that will give you a laugh for months afterwards!


(This post was originally posted on the Simply Be Blog - written by me, but I wanted to post on my blog too!)