How to Date a Guy in 6 Minutes

As a complete speed dating virgin, it became pretty apparent after talking to my flatmates that I had absolutely no idea how speed dating worked. So after a pretty decent amount of research (by which I mean enough to start believing that I had made some sort of horrible mistake) I proceeded to begin getting ready for my possible night of love.

Therein I discovered the first problem, what does someone wear to speed dating? The heart shirt seemed too obvious, the pencil skirt too serious and the jeans too casual. This is a problem that has plagued girl-kind for decades but suddenly when you’re dressing with the intent that your possible romantic future depends on it, it makes dressing for Limelight look like a walk in the park. Snapchats to my girlfriends were sent and after a unanimous outfit decision I was on my way.

One of the many many snapchats that was sent

After dragging my friend along for emotional support we arrived at the SUB bar at Queens SU which had been romantically decorated with various forms of heart related decorations and banners everywhere. There weren’t a lot of people there to begin with and with my sudden realisation that the complete lack of dates in my life had left me massively unprepared for the night’s events, we decided the bar was our best bet.

Lucky table 14?

The place quickly filled up and all too soon it was time to begin, with a time limit of 6 minutes which seemed like it would last forever we sat down and began.

Due to the LGBT friendly nature of the event you regularly alternated between talking to boys and girls. My first date was a girl and gave the proceedings a positive outlook as it turned out we had a friend in common so had no lack of things to talk about.

This turned into a recurring theme for the night with many of the girls getting marked down as possible future friends and after confirming this with a few other participants, this seemed to be a really positive general outcome to some of the same sexuality and gender parings.

Mates as well as dates

Unfortunately the majority of the male dates fell into the friend category but dates 2 and 4 there was definitely a turn for the better. Date 2 was easy to talk to as well as being smart and dressed like some sort of model. Although I’m not sure about the possible future of our pairing as my answer to “Most you’ve ever roughed it” (mine being Reading Festival 2012) didn’t really stand up compared to his backpacking around Asia.

Couldn’t take pictures of my own dates but DID sneak this selfie of another couple. Crafty.

Date 4 was a lot more relaxed and once we found a common interest in films we were talking so much that six minutes seemed way too short. He was friendly and relaxed and wasn’t some sort of intellectual prodigy like some of the others I’d encountered, so easily worked his way to a tick in the date box.

There was the odd bizarre date, one of which who didn’t really seem like he was anyway interested in anything I had to say let alone in the whole speed-dating event to begin with and another who spent the six minutes looking a bit too intently into my eyes that almost caused me to think that I’d see him later trying to follow me home.

Found my Mr. Right.

Although best date of the night definitely has to go to the RAG man skeleton himself, who as he couldn’t talk, played hangman with me for six minutes.

Definitely one of the more different dates of the night

Overall though I went in with no expectations and pretty much left my pride and dignity at the door and I had a really good time thanks to the soundtrack of classics from Shania, Sinead O’Connor and Robbie Williams setting the mood and with prizes such as a free night’s stay at Madisons.

It was a great evening and though I don’t think it’s dramatically improved my love life it’s definitely got me hooked, and I recommend it to everyone if for no other reason that a laugh and a bit of fun.