2. Candlelight Club

2. Candlelight Club

First, a couple of updates: we actually have covered loads of the to-do list but got too busy doing stuff (mostly inventing and promoting the now international weekly festival that is Tequila Friday) to update the blog!  Expect a gentle trickle of half-remembered, half-made up anecdotes and reviews over the next however long it takes.  Also it's not 2014 anymore but let's face it, that's not important.  What's important is more wifey fun times and tequila.

So the Candlelight Club: it's a 1920s themed monthly event with a secret central London location, lit entirely by candlelight.  Anett and Lotti had been once before and actually the secret venue was the same both times (can't remember where) so it came recommended (not sure the Candlelight Club felt the same way about Lotti) and we chose their Halloween event so we could put in a good costume effort, with Lotti on makeup duty as usual.  

We dressed as three ex-wives who had been viciously murdered by one treacherous individual who we won't mention again.  But he was there with us and he took some good photos so thanks for that.

Upon arrival, we popped upstairs to put our coats in the cloakroom and found that there was a tarot card reader hanging out.  Lotti was keen for a reading; Anett and I were keen for a drink.  After two drinks (pricey but strong and tasty), we had worked out which barman was making the strongest cocktails.  After three we had run out of money!  The live band were dressed in theme and worked the crowd well.

Anett was still recovering from a beach ultimate-related concussion and we were all in end of the month mode so it's fair to say that we kept this night fairly tame - there also weren't many single people there which limited our potential to mingle.  We lasted until the end of the night when the lights were unceremoniously turned on and headed back to Clapham favourite the Clapham North for a little more dancing before bed.

Candlelight club list trumps!

Cost: 3/5 (good for a treat, would be better if there was one drink included with the ticket price)

Originality: 4/5 

Fun factor: 4/5 (closed at midnight which felt a bit early)

http://www.thecandlelightclub.com/

16. Rooftop Cinema

16.  Rooftop Cinema

One of the nicest things about London is the fantastic range of activities on offer - and there are a range of great options for cinema.  Unfortunately one of London's major drawbacks is unpredictable weather and the clever people running all of these lovely outdoor activities would never make any money if they cancelled every time it rained a little.  Or a LOT.  

Guess how rooftop cinema went down?

Yep, you guessed it.

In true British spirit, we showed up despite the weather - desperately hoping there would be some shelter, heaters, maybe even hot drinks...  We got blankets and ponchos.  The seats had been kept reasonably dry at least but up on the rooftop there was very little respite from the wind and rain - we huddled for warmth.

Fortunately, there were cocktails.  Unfortunately, they were a bit summery and all contained ice!  Anett says this is the only time in her life she has ever cried into tequila and I believe her.

The film on offer was Casablanca - a total classic that we could definitely just have watched at home.  The weather did not ease up but by the time we were walking back to the tube we were so cold and shivery we were a bit delirious so at least we had a laugh!  Like true Brits, we left with a sense of achievement from having gritted it out and will almost certainly try again another "summer".  Fuck it, let's just book for February.

Knitting on the tube home like proper grannies

Rooftop Cinema List Trumps!
Originality: 3/5
Cost: 3/5 (all weather, no refunds policy really screwed us)
Fun factor: 1/5 (but to be fair, would have scored much higher in better weather - but this is London)

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.