Counting silences, deep chat and Theresa May: It’s the Valentine’s edition of Edinburgh Goes Dating

All they need is (some V-Day) love

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It’s every couple’s favourite day of the year: Chocolates, flowers, prosecco, sex, a whole day dedicated to celebrating the bae of your dreams. Aww. But for the single students of Edinburgh, February 14th holds a whole different meaning. You may not have a Valentine this year – but that’s completely ok, The Edinburgh Tab is always here to help.

In the build up to the big day we sent out eight single students to see if they could bag themselves a last minute Valentine’s date. Here’s how it went down.

Marni, second year English Language and Literature, and Michael, second year History and Linguistics

She loves a good chat and dislikes Tories, he likes open-mindedness and hates bigotry. Two days before Valentine’s, Marni and Michael met up at Paradise Palms – followed by Revs – to find out if they got on.

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Was your date physically ‘your type’?

Michael: To an extent no, but I do think she’s really attractive both in terms of looks and personality.

Marni: Not really.

What was the worst part of the date?

Michael: Probably when the date ended – it wasn’t the longest evening and I would have liked to have talked for longer. Obviously she had other commitments, but I was beginning to connect with her.

Marni: When he compared the Me Too movement to fascism.

Any awkward moments?

Michael: When we clocked Paradise Palms was too full, so we patched it and went Revs.

Marni: The whole date. In particular when he kept commenting on the awkward silences and keeping count of them.

Can you see your date as a future valentine?

Michael: Probably not, but everything happens for a reason. I wouldn’t completely close it off, as fate does sometimes work wonders aha.

Marni: No.

Rianna, third year Theology, and James, second year Economics with Finance

Rianna and James also met at Paradise Palms to see if they could find a last minute V-Day bae in each other. She loves style and humour, he loves sport and travelling – could they one day love each other?

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How did you find the date?

Rianna: Yeah, it was cute! The date was super casual and James came across as such a good guy, so for the second date that I’ve ever been on in my life (very inexperienced, I know) it went really well.

James: Yeah it was good, I like meeting new people from different subject areas that I wouldn’t normally cross.

Was the chat good?

Rianna: We had a really good chat about common interests and even some more deeper things, which I wasn’t expecting. With a bit of banter weaved in there too, it was nice to have flowing conversation on the date.

James: Yeah, the chat was pretty good. Obviously it takes a few minutes to find some common ground, but she had good chat.

Could you see your date as a future Valentine?

Rianna: Well, he seems to be a bit busy at the moment for that, so… I don’t really know.

James: I’m not in the UK for Valentine’s Day next year, so probably not.

Second date?

Rianna: I’ll be more interested to see how he answers this one, but I’d say, yeah, why not? If he asked me out again, it’d be a yes from me.

James: Yeah maybe, the chat was fun.

Rebekka, second year Psychology, and Oliver, first year Linguistics and Psychology

Sporty, funny and intelligent – this is the kind of guy that captures Rebekka’s interest. For Oliver, ambition and open-mindedness are key qualities in a potential girlfriend. The two met for drinks at The Hanging Bat to discover if they fulfilled each other’s criteria.

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How did you find the date overall?

Oliver: I liked her, and I liked the chat. As a date I don’t know – the whole blind date thing made it hard because I wasn’t used to it and it’s harder to get chemistry going.

Rebekka: The date was good. I liked the the bar we went to, it had a nice atmosphere.

Most awkward moment?

Oliver: Nothing downright awkward, I think I sometimes found it hard to know what to say though.

Rebekka: He like opened a bottle of water and it splashed in my face, which was a bit awkward. Oh, and it was water because he wasn’t drinking…

Any weird moments?

Oliver: Hearing that she wanted to work in a prison. But she later explained her reasons and now it makes perfect sense.

Rebekka: When he suggested ordering food. I asked to go for drinks for a reason, but suppose I can’t help if he was hungry…

Second date?

Oliver: I’m open to getting to know her more, maybe in a different setting where we can both relax and let our hair down a bit. But I wouldn’t be upset if we just left it there as a friendly evening.

Rebekka: Unfortunately not.

If you’re interested in joining the over 500 students taking part in Edinburgh Goes Dating so far, fill in our application form here.