37. Speed Dating

Speed dating!

Jewel, Covent Garden

When we were making our to do list, we both admitted to being curious about speed dating so it had to go on the list.  I'm not sure what we were thinking and I'm fairly sure that we were seduced by American rom-coms into believing that attractive people really do speed date.

As the day of the speed dating approached, our doubts gradually crept up on us and by the time the day came around, we'd decided we needed a good amount of Dutch courage before we could actually go through with it.  So off we went to Benito's Hat in Covent Garden for naked burritos (yummy) and a couple of margaritas while we practiced our 'interested' faces.  Not sure either of us really pulled it off...

Interested / horrified

Interested / not listening at all 

Anyway two margaritas down and it was time to go and scope out the speed dating, so off we went to Jewel which was conveniently just down the road and also had a happy hour on.  There were no cocktail menus in sight so we opted for classic mojitos.  Cocktails in hand, we retreated into a corner to try and work out where the speed dating was without having to ask anyone.

Round three (ding ding!)

It seemed that everyone was headed downstairs so down we went...  only to discover that everyone down there already had a scorecard and name badge and it STILL wasn't obvious who we should ask.  After standing awkwardly for a while, one of the girls sat next to us put us out of our misery and revealed that she was one of the organisers and they were 'looking for two girls'.  Name badges issued, all that remained was to grab another margarita each and occupy our dimly lit bar stools.

Unfortunately getting the margaritas took a little longer than the 5 minutes they allowed us so by the time we sat down we were already a couple of minutes into date number 1 - oops!  Not to worry though, there were 15 more to come...

... and come they did.  16 dates total and not a single one either of us found even remotely attractive.  Some at least were relatively normal, a couple even managed a little banter - but most were strange and some positively depressing.

For our part, Anett mastered the art of 3 minute dating much better than I did and came away with some interesting details about some of our dates.  I stuck to small talk and as a result had to explain my job 16 times in a row.  I did, however, manage to fill out my score card in a little more detail... but only a little.  I also got the first guy's name wrong.

Score cards: probably more useful when you have time to fill them out

As soon as the event finished, we found ourselves in the middle of the strangest gang of single men that has ever been assembled.  A couple of them were good fun and we would probably have stayed on for another drink were it not for the appearance of Super Creepy Spanish Guy who spent the whole of my 3 minutes staring at my breasts and then went on to tell Anett she was the only attractive girl he'd met all night and he 'wanted to take her home and make her a proper margarita'.  There was no choice but to escape via the bathroom - but not before one of the more normal guys took a photo for us.

Post speed dating smiles of relief

Clearly we needed a drink.  We headed across the road to the Porterhouse and before we had finished our first beer, boom!  We were approached by a young hipster from Brighton who had just moved to London and was there with his two friends.  All three boys were the right side of 30, in good jobs and most importantly...  not weird.  We had another drink with them and then it was very definitely time to go home.

Unfortunately we'll never know how many matches we could have made that night as you have to like someone in order for that to happen.  The people at Speed Dater Online do operate a guarantee so we are now entitled to a free ticket for another session of speed dating in the next three months.  We won't be taking them up on that particular offer!

Ooooh...  popular!

Here's my rather drunken review of the night:

Speed dating list trumps ratings!

Cost: 0/5 - we paid £20 and bought our own drinks when normally we get into bars for free and other people buy us drinks.  Not good economy.

Originality: 4/5.  Never before.  Never again.

Fun factor: 2/5.  Good burritos, good margaritas, some laughs but ultimately a traumatic and terrifying experience.

45. Ice hockey

Guildford Flames vs. Telford Tigers

(With special guest Mad-K)

Thumbs up for ice hockey!

We took the train out to Guildford to see local heroes the Guildford Flames play against visitors the Telford Tigers.  The Guildford team were sat at third in the league with Telford at 5th so we were expecting a good game and we were not disappointed!  The home side had an impressive array of banners up in the rink telling of various wins and a massive crowd turned out for the game - we could only get standing tickets in the away fans' area - children were admitted for free so there were lots of families in. 

Our vantage point - complete with ice hockey crazy fan family

This was the first game of ice hockey I'd seen so I was very grateful to be accompanied by two experts - Anett has been watching the Winter Olympics religiously over the last few days (sometimes two sports at once!) and Mad-K's seen his fair share of ice hockey too.  I've pretended to watch it in bars before of course but this time there was no beer so I had to concentrate. 

My ice hockey spectating coaches

The Tigers scored first, fairly early in the first period, and despite penalties on both sides neither team managed to score any more before the break.  We went in search of hot dogs, pausing briefly to take my photo with a man who was obviously born to be an ice hockey goalie (why else would anyone be called Rockman?).

ROCKMAN!  Now there's someone who would rock a Mighty Ducks film.

Unfortunately the catering team really let us down - they hadn't seemed to anticipate that there would be any demand for food and in the sudden rush must have forgotten that they also needed to cook as many hotdogs as had been ordered.  Needless to say, when we eventually got our hotdogs they were bitterly disappointing.  For the home fans, the same could be said of their team's performance; after conceding another couple of goals in the second period they did manage to get one themselves, only to concede another after electing to play with 6 players and leave the goal completely unattended.  To be fair, the Tigers shot for that goal was a brilliant no-look backwards shot from behind the other goal - nobody could have seen that coming!  The shockingly poor banter from both sets of fans was only made worse by the fact that Guildford and Telford sound pretty similar!  I think the fact that the Tigers' fans had the biggest drums might have won it for them.

Final score: Telford Tigers 4, Guildford Flames 1.

Peace (kind of)

Scary park predator

Once we got back to Clapham Junction, having not been satisfied at all by our ice hockey hotdogs we decided to go in search of something more nutritious.  What we found was some delicious Indonesian cuisine at Warung Bumbu on Lavender Hill.  I've not been to Asia but Anett has and she said it was authentic so I believed her!  Either way it was delicious - we shared a satay platter and then both had curries (Anett's seafood, mine lamb) and rice, beers (Asahi) and mojitos.  Delicious!

Highly recommended!

Ice hockey list trumps ratings!

Cost:  3/5 (Tenner for the ticket - good, £3.50 for that hotdog - ridiculous)

Originality:  2.5/5 (I've never done it before but the others had.  Lots.)

Fun factor:  4/5 (Lasted all evening, good and entertaining)

34. Marshmallow shooters

Marshmallow shooters!

with special guests Lotti and Charlie

Just a little something Anett found on Pinterest that looked cheap and fun.  All you need is some plastic cups, balloons, and marshmallows...

Equipment

First you cut the bottom out of the cup and the top off the balloon.  Tie a knot in the balloon and stretch it over the end of the cup.  Pop a marshmallow into the shooter and ping!

A completed marshmallow shooter

It took us a while to master the art of aiming it...

Marshmallow shooter list trumps ratings!

Cost: 5/5 (very cheap)

Originality: 4.5/5 (found on Pinterest)

Fun factor: 3/5 (short but sweet)

The List

Things we are going to do in 2014

(in no particular order):

1.  Daft Punk video

2.  Candlelight Club

3.  Pretend we're getting married and go try on wedding dresses

4.  Paintballing

5.  Tough Mudder

6.  Big night out in big wigs

7.  Harry Potter movie marathon

8.  Go camping

9.  Skinny dipping

10.  St Patrick's Day - kiss an Irish boy!

11.  Thanksgiving

12.  Christmas party - bake gingerbread

13.  Puppet show

14.  Pancake day

15.  Black tie dinner

16.  Roof top cinema

17.  Easter egg hunt

18.  Hyde Park roller blading

19.  Camp out for Wimbledon tickets

20.  Attend a beer festival

21.  Slumber party

22.  Go see a show

23.  Hip hop karaoke

24.  Climb a tree

25.  Murder mystery party

26.  Hint Hunt

27.  Evans + Peel Detective Agency

28.  90s dress up

29.  Pole dancing

30.  Hot tub cinema

31.  Art exhibition

32.  Bubble Dogs

33.  Dining in the Dark

34.  Marshmallow shooters

35.  Bad taste party

36.  Messy Twister

37.  Speed dating

38.  Water fight

39.  Hill rolling

40.  Eating competition

41.  Sex and the City marathon

42.  Day out saving the world

43.  Zoo

44.  Tattoos

45.  Ice hockey

46.  Salsa dancing

47.  Geocaching

48.  Kiss a Spanish boy

49.  Spy on a Tinder date

50.  2015 calendar