Speed Dating

Yes, I signed up online to go speed dating and all I knew was that there would be 15 single men from the ages of 26 to 37. I confirmed my attendance for 2nd February 2009 and thought it would be a fun experience.

Sendy (my partner-in-crime) and I arrived there just a bit before 7.30 and found parking right outside Carnegies. A very friendly English guy who introduced himself as the host for the evening pointed us to another guy standing near the bar to get our name tags and scorecards. Fantastic, name tags.

It was only when we were waiting for our tags that it dawned upon me... I didn't really think about what I was getting myself into, did I? There were more men than expected. I did a quick count and found 18 rather mature looking men. Yes, by mature I mean not-so-young.

You could feel the tension in the air. Most of the "date-rs" came with a friend but everybody was behaving in such awkward manners. I myself was glued to one spot and found it hard to breathe because it felt like my every move was being analyzed.

Then, the bells rang. It was like they were calling in the herd. We split into two groups, boys and girls or should I say men and women, and were briefed on how to fill in our score cards.

Soon, we were walking to our seats. Sendy was sitting right across the room from me so both of us could see each other. I was "9. Monica", Miss Breakfast at Tiffany's in black and she was "11. Sendra", the mamacita in the red dress.

My first date was also a number nine, a 30-ish year old French geologist. I tried really hard to think of all the positives but he was red-faced from the alcohol that he consumed probably to calm himself down and was quite conscious of his accent. I thought that his accent was alright although I did have to ask him to repeat himself a couple of times. Five minutes was way too long. He simply walked away without any proper goodbye which left me wondering how I was going to get through the evening. Least I had my glass of red wine with me.

From memory, the second guy was a bit of an improvement tho I saw him crossing out the girl before me. It had me thinking if he would do the same for me. But I think I enjoyed the conversation and by the time the third guy came, I could feel my shoulder muscles relax and a natural smile forming on my face. I felt like a gypsy who was about to give a palm reading.

The conversations became more interesting, finding out about what the men liked to do, what movies they liked, where they want to travel. One guy really stood out from the crowd. He looked like he was in his late thirties and the first thing he said to me was: "So, do you like the singer Monica". That caught me off guard. He knows Monica? Err, maybe he's talking about an Aussie singer that I do not know. But no, he was actually talking about Monica as in Monica and Brandy. He was a big fan of RnB and listed out Neyo, Chris Brown, John Legend and my eyes nearly popped out of its sockets! I would have never thought that he would be a fan of such genre.

And I was surprised. I would have never noticed these men. It was a true eye-opener and it forced me to think about how "anti" I really was. Just being open to conversation... it was such a change. I met quite a number of geologists and couldn't help but poke fun at one of them. Turns out that it is because they travel a lot for work which makes it harder to meet other people.

I met a cop! Can you believe it? I have been thinking that I have never had a cop friend. And there he was, sitting in front of me. He was one of the easiest to talk to and we spoke more during the breaks.

Also, I have also been thinking, seriously, I do not have an indigenous Australian friend. I was talking to Jerome about it not too long ago. And there, same night, I was having a great conversation with a very friendly and funny dude who happened to be of indigenous background. He was also an avid fan of rock-climbing which is something that I have written down on my diaries but never got around to doing.

There were two guys who came across as very gay to me. I don't know what it was but we got along so well and even when one of them was sitting at Sendy's table, I thought, whoa! He has got to be gay! And Sendy thought the same. Hrm...

Time seemed to go by quicker as the night went on. By the time the 16th guy came, I was feeling drained. I did put my all into every "date" and made an attempt to find common point of interest, a tip from Pascal. The 18th guy was hilarious. We were probably both over the usual "where are you from" and we got straight into the questions. I think we were both glad that the evening was finally going to end.

So I came out of it with two ticks under dates, about 7ish or 8 ticks under friends and the rest obviously fell into the "not interested" category. While I wouldn't do this again, I would rate it as a fab 104.