All you need is... speed dating?

So we decided that the best way to ease ourselves into our challenge would be via speed dating. We chose speed dating to start us off because:


1. Talking to people is something we do best.
2. We could go together - providing moral support and leaving us less likely to back out at the last minute
3. Our speed dating ticket also provided free entry into a fancy nightclub - this alone was enough to swing it for us.


We bought our tickets weeks in advance (a bit too keen, I hear you say?) and tried to approach the whole thing with an open mind. We really didn't know what to expect but we reasoned that even if the speed dating went terribly we would still have a fun night out. And if the dating went great - even better!


The event was held at a nightclub in central London. The venue looked pretty upmarket on the website (it actually had pictures of Prince Harry and Beyonce gracing the dance floor) so let's just say our hopes were high. We arrived punctually at six-thirty pm. (We had planned to go for a nice dinner accompanied by a strong bottle of wine beforehand, but due to train delays we ended up scoffing a quick McDonald's before rushing to the club. Classy.). We needn't have hurried: when we arrived there were approximately three other men inside and no women. Feeling very sober and about to lose our nerve we headed for the bar where we promptly ordered a bottle of sauvignon blanc. Needless to say this disappeared down our throats within the next fifteen minutes. Luckily, within half an hour a lot more people had arrived and we got chatting to two girls who were also first-timers. They were very friendly and normal and calmed our fears of being trapped in a room with socially awkward strangers (or creepy perverts).


The logistics of speed-dating are pretty simple - the women sit down and the men rotate every three minutes. You are provided with a small card in order to jot people's names down along with something memorable about them. (Unfortunately for one unlucky man Minnie's memorable info was 'fish breath - NO!'). It's important to remember to do this as the people you meet whizz by in a blur. The idea is that you tick the people that you want to see again. Minnie's first guy was pretty chatty and easy-going, although Minnie felt she may have put him off by wondering aloud 'have we officially started?' half-way through their conversation (they had). Amie's first guy was sweet, but very very awkward... however, she plowed through the three minutes with relentless questioning. It was really easy to get chatting to people and we both found that every time the bell rang we couldn't believe our time was up.


Having said that, there were definitely a few dubious characters in there. One man described himself as a professional poker player. Amie's take on this was 'So you're basically unemployed?' Unfortunately he also suffered from a bad case of body odor and subsequently neither of us were particularly impressed. Additionally, three minutes was about two minutes and fifty-nine seconds too long with Karl from Hong Kong. After twenty seconds of talking to Minnie he fixed his eyes creepily on her and asserted 'You look like you want to kiss me.' Minnie quickly backed away in horror and assured him 'No. I don't.' (He later invited us to a singles party he was organising which we politely declined). Yet happily the majority of the people we spoke to were normal, friendly and not unattractive. A lot of them were city workers who evidently found it difficult meeting a potential partner when they worked long hours. By the end of the night both of us had met at least one person that we wanted to see again. We spent the rest of our evening partying and drinking with our fellow speed-daters - just picture the first night of uni when everyone gets far too close far too quickly and you'll have some idea of how the evening turned out.


Overall we had a really fun night and would definitely go again. Speed-dating is a great way to meet new people, especially if you are new to an area. Imagine going for a night out where it's totally normal for everyone to talk to everyone else - genius! However, don't go with high hopes of meeting the man or woman of your dreams. (There was one moment when Minnie thought Amie had found her perfect man, only to discover that Amie thought he was gay and just didn't know it yet). From our experience it's best just to go with an open mind and enjoy it.


Amie & Minnie