Happy Girl Saves the World!: My fun Valentine's: 50 Shades of Love

Hello, friends!

I know it's been too long since My last post. You see, I had to sell my Piolo (my laptop) and for the longest time I found it hard to post anything. But I'm done grieving now and in line with my theme for this year of making things happen, I am now blogging through my iPhone (find a way!).

Speaking of making things happen, this year, I've decided to stop being a grandma and start shaking things up with my life, and that of course includes my dating life.

It was the week before Valentine's and I still had nothing romantic planned. So i decided to take matters into my own hands. :D I googled and found this:

Ooooh, looks interesting, I thought. And it seemed pretty "safe," since it was sponsored by Click the City, among others.

But alas! When I tried to sign up, the slots for women were already filled up. But the site did say that I should leave my details so they could inform me of future events, and I was like, why not.

It came as a surprise to me when Telu Events, the organizer, called me up the day before. A slot opened up! Is this fate? Is this destiny? Haha. So I said yes.

The event was held at Oz Bar, Holiday Inn and Suites. We had dinner first. At this time, the participants started to chat already. I was seated in a pretty friendly table. :) Some of the people there were "forced " to attend by their friends. One was a second-timer. I was the brave soul who joined last minute. Telu also conducted a getting-to-know-you game to break the ice. It really helped get rid of some nervousness. Well, at least for me.

Also, Telu gave us a "speed dating kit." It had some helpful tips on grooming, small talk, etc. Pretty useful for a socially awkward person such as myself. It also gave me something to look at during lull moments at dinner. :p (will post pics of these later)

I was delighted to find out that Holiday Inn served good food. I had cream dory with potatoes and vegetables. The fish was soft and flaky and well-seasoned. The potatoes were cooked perfectly for me, not mushy but not raw. It also had pepper and eggplant, the flavors of which balanced out the saltiness of the fish and potatoes. I also loved the dessert they served later in the evening..

But wait. I'm not here to talk about food.

After dinner, the participants were ushered to the pool area, where the fun begins.

So the setup was there were about two rows of small tables with two chairs each. The ladies were seated in designated tables. The men would first sit on a designated table, have their first date, and then after 5 minutes, transfer to the next.

The participants were given a date list. We were supposed to write down the names of our dates, take notes, then check either "absolutely" or "no." If the one you said "absolutely" to checks you back, Telu will give you his contact number.

Me and my friends at our table thought it was peculiar that dinner was served before all the dating. But it makes sense. Speed dating takes effort. It is tiring. We needed the energy. I didn't think much of it, but really, meeting 27 new people in one night is pretty tiring, but hey, it was also fun!

The most common first question is "what do you do?" I found this problematic, since by experience, once a guy hears "lawyer," he'd be like. "Oh, wow, scary tiger lady!" or, "Hey, my sister's best friend's cousin's helper is having trouble with her husband.. what should we do?" Hahaha. So I tried different ways of answering this question, like, "I litigate" (then the guy pretends to know what that is and move on), or "I work for an airline" (then I let the guy assume that I'm an FA, lol) or, my favorite, "can you guess?" (So I get what impression I give).

Some of the answers I got were teacher, fashion person, doctor, nurse. No one guessed right.

The weirdest question I got was "Are you Chinese?" I mean. I have nothing against China (save for the territorial dispute). But look at my eyes.

I had pretty interesting conversations. Many of the guys were IT professionals. There was an engineer, an insurance salesman, a chiropractor, a med student, a self-proclaimed introvert, an artist, a car nut, a body builder, and a very silent seaman. :))

At the end of the night, Telu gave us keys, and we were asked to give it to the friendliest person we encountered. At this time, we were seated with our last dates for the night. My date gave me his. He got like three keys and won Mr. Popular. He also won Best Dressed. He was the sweetest guy, he gave me the prizes he won, yay! So I got a planner, perfume, and a gift certificate.