Speed Dating for Christians

What is the Speed Dating phenomenon? Craze or crazy?

Well two months ago I couldn’t wait any longer and decided to find out for myself just what all the talk was about. I grabbed my credit card – typed ‘speed dating in UK’ into the mighty Google and waited nervously to see what appeared.

X-date.co.uk was the first result that appeared and to start with the letter X at the front of the title I assumed it was X-rated – or perhaps dating for people looking for a quick encounter – but I read on and it turned out to just be a funky name for a simple speed date service in London.

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Heres what happened…
8.30 we arrived and were handed a piece of paper with ruled lines on it from 1 to 20 and given a sticker and a pen to write our name and stick it on your jumper – or ball gown – whatever you’re wearing.

8.35 got a coke from the bar and sat down and waited with some trepidation it has to be admitted.

8.42 more people started to arrive – some on their own – most with a friend or two – some in groups.

8.50 made a few friends before anything kicked off – usual banter – why are you here! – done this before? (of course everyone says no! lol)

8.55 – all the ladies are asked to sit on the tables around the room and the guys are told that they will be the ones to swap seats once the 3 minutes – yes 3 minutes of banter between the couples is up!

9.00 – kick off – lady stands up with a microphone and says “lets x-date!” – basically got 3 minutes to talk to the person opposite you!

After each 3 minute session – the lady stands up again and says – “all move seats gentlemen”! At this point – moving between time you quickly write a few one line notes about the person you were just talking too. At which point you also tick one of 3 boxes. Yes – No – or friend.

Once the final whistle blows – and it really is a whistle, the only thing to do after a further 30 mins of general chit-chat with the other daters, is to get home – login and fill in your results.
Its at this point that the speed dating website calculated whether or not you have any matches – ie anyone else that you says yes – no – or friend too, said the same thing in their notes about you. If there is a match – then an automatic email is sent to both parties!
And that.. as they say.. is it 🙂

Here’s an article from the BBC website

The Speed Dating phenomenon
Speed dating has set up home in Nottinghamshire and is fast becoming a global phenomenon. Louise Prance, a Nottingham-born student, sets out to find out why.

Step one: As soon as you arrive you will be asked to write your name and contact details on a sheet

Step two: Take a seat, girls one side, boys the other. You have three minutes to find out as much about each other as possible.

When the bell sounds, all guys move along one. By the time you have reached your last speed dater you will have noted the number of every potential ‘date’ you have met in that time.

Step three: Hand in your feedback form.

Step four: After the event you will be contacted with your match details via e-mail or text.

Speed Dating. Yes, that word fills me with fear too. Because like you I picture sad, unattractive, middle aged people all clinging on to their last hope of finding true love.

Why is speed dating becoming a global phenomenon?
So why then is it becoming a global phenomenon? Taking over the likes of chat room dating and internet love matches.

There are many reasons why this could be – it’s a bit of fun and it’s different to the normal night down the pub. But I have a sneaking suspicion its more than that.

Okay, so you only have three minutes with each person who sits opposite you and you have no idea if they are a closet Gary Barlow fan. But I can’t help but feel that it is somewhat romantic.

I, like most women have the fantasy of meeting my perfect man, in the perfect situation and him saying the perfect lines. So having an evening arranged where you get to meet 30 candidates who are all hoping for the same thing, and are not a) attached b) gay and c) homicidal is like getting a lifeline thrown to you when your drowning. Isn’t it?

Signing up
Before I sussed it out first hand I decided to have a look at how easy it is to sign up for one of these events and see if I could get an idea of who I would be sharing three minutes of my life with.

I found with 99% of websites you can book really easily online (I’m assuming that’s to save us singletons the shame of having to ring up and actually admit that we have reached the point of no return!) and yes – there is normally a ‘view guests’ button, minus photos!

Some of the names men have given themselves did leave me somewhat anxious… ‘Friend of Brad Pitt’, ‘Sting’, ‘Son of Tommy Cooper’ to name but a few.

So, obviously most of these men do comedy as their part time profession then? Hoping to restore my faith in the women I checked out their ‘view guests’ button. ‘Ladytramp’ and ‘Cheeky Angel’ are what greeted me. Wonderful.

However, I swallowed my pride, looked past these initial worries (well, ‘Friend of Brad Pitt’ man could come in handy one day?) and decided to see for myself what one of these events was actually like. Also to protect any of you before you throw yourselves out to the sharks. (I can tell what your thinking, but no, it’s not because I haven’t had a date in a few weeks and I fancy my chances… Hmmm…)

The speed dating experience
Arriving at the event I decided to view from the sidelines and see how the people interacted with each other and to see how the event was actually co-ordinated.

To give you the basic gist of what happens, the ladies are allocated a table at which they will sit at for the whole event.

Then, both the men and the women are giving ‘flirt’ cards, which have the profiles of all the people that you are going to meet. You then mark whom you like and don’t like. Simple!

That is until it actually starts. This is when the work starts. At first you’ll be thinking ‘Oh it’s only three minutes, I can fill that time up no problem’ but from the look of some peoples faces when they got stuck with that Gary Barlow fan, three minutes can feel like a long, slow lifetime!

The event lasts for about two hours and you generally see about 30 people in a night with a break half way through for drinks and a chat.

After its all finished you hand in your ‘flirt’ cards to the organisers who will then email you the next day and let you know who has picked you and if you have any love matches!

People normally stay at the bar after the event to carry on drinking and to either bitch about the amount of losers there are there with your fellow gender, or carry on the flirting with your lucky match.

So ladies, pack away your trepidation, have that glass of wine before you leave the house and go and let the men fawn over you in the old traditional style, as they vie to win your affection and a mark on your flirt card. Because the old saying is true ‘you don’t know until you try’. This could be your night?