Amie
During a short hiatus from online dating websites, I decided to attempt to meet a man in a more conventional and respected way; by crashing post-work drinks during happy hour in Central London.
The evening began with the primeval search for a seat. Once a seat had been wangled between four oldish men, ranging between thirty to fifty, an hour (and a bottle of wine later), I had enough confidence to wander around the bar searching for an eligible bachelor. After several further bottles of wine and several shots of Jaegermeister later, it is suffice to say that my memories of the night are rather hazy.
Despite good intentions earlier in the night, my inability to understand that when I am inebriated I am NOT God's gift to the dance floor lead to me dancing like a crazy person. From what I can remember, I also ran like a loon between several men, clearly seducing them with my dance moves and blood shot eyes. After a wise decision to miss my last train home, a move celebrated with four vodka shots, I decided that the boy that I was currently draped over was actually horrid and ran off to find someone more suitable. The night proceeded in this way for several hours, until I met Nick, who I exchanged phone numbers with (a process which when severely drunk took at least 9837423 hours) and finally, sensibly, decided to call it a night. I arrived home with a receipt for an £80 taxi fare, but most importantly with a date arranged for the following week. Success.
Date night.
After a preparatory nap, bath and pre-date glass of wine, I met Nick in London. Despite minor set backs where I realised I had unintentionally left the price tag in my new clothes, a dead giveaway that they were bought specifically for that evening, and several blunders into conversation topics which in hindsight should not be addressed on a first date, 'so how many people have you slept with?', the night passed in a blur of loveliness. To cut a long story short, we drank, we ate and we discussed important issues such as current events in reality TV. It was only as we caught the last train home that Nick was treated to one of my personality flaws which I consider a major player for my lack of a boyfriend - my severe awkwardness (kind people call it shyness) surfaced as I said thanks and goodbye in the manner of a startled goose (consequently, a moment which I continued to live over and over in embarrassment in my mind for a good few days).
The experience was enlightening, and I cannot decide whether online dating is preferable to meeting someone in a bar. With online dating, you can simply ignore someone if you don't like their appearance or their portrayed personality, and save yourself aggravation further down the line. You are also unrestricted as to when you approach someone on an online dating website: it is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. However, can you really judge a person by three photos and several paragraphs of text- think about previous ex-boyfriends/girlfriends or crushes- would you fancy them if you just saw a photo online and knew all of their favourite pastimes? Meeting someone in a bar does provide a 3D image, and is a more fun and romantic way to get to know someone. However, you have a lower chance of meeting someone who is more on your wavelength, as both of you may be viewing each other through slight beer or wine goggles, and you may discover unchangeable personality clashes several weeks down the line, which may have been spotted immediately with online dating. This would suggest that meeting and dating a stranger you find in a bar may be more hassle than it is worth.
Nevertheless, it was a wonderful experience, and now the game of 'who contacts who first' begins!
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