I split from a three year relationship last week, and in a spur of the moment decision I decided to accompany my two single housemates to speed dating. Yes, speed dating.
I have wanted to go for a long time and I even recall a conversation with said ex about how fun it would be and that we should go even though we aren’t single.
It was brilliant.
If you aren’t familiar about how it goes down; you sign up online, attend, see about 15 men for 4 minutes each, make notes and then the next day fill out an online form saying ‘yes’, ‘no’ or ‘friends’. If you match up with anyone then you get their email address and the rest is up to you.
The friends box I feel is a bit like a limp pat on the back; “Yeah we had a good chat, but I’m just not into bald men.”
The selection of men was wide and far reaching – I met an Australian, two Greek men, a Hungarian and an Scottish/American hybrid (I couldn’t work it out).
Four minutes is just about the right amount of time. It is short enough to mean that you can still fill the time with talking to someone, even if they are mental, but it also long enough to suss someone out.
The Hungarian was a researcher who used to work at Cambridge Uni. Is it the case that all academics are devoid of personality and a sense of humour? Maybe it takes up such a large part of the brain to be that intelligent that there is no room left to think about social skills?
I also encountered another strange soul, who upon hearing that I was a journalist said, “Oh, I did journalism at uni, but I didn’t finish the course.”
“Oh really, why was that?”
“Well I wanted to concentrate on other thing.”
“Oh ok, what was that?”
“Martial arts.”
It wasn’t all kung Fu though, my conversation with the one man I put a yes for revolved around ex girlfriends that happen to work for the same publisher as me and lemon curd being the best type of preserve, along side Cherry and not forgetting Nutella. He also said yes by the way.
