It’s raining women! News update from 100 Dates

Hi everyone,
Sarah here. Quick update for you. Our current contender, Lisa, is nearing the end of her 10 dates – she went on #8 this morning! So we’re looking around for our next contender.

So… if you nominated a friend for 100 Dates, now is the time to help us choose them, by asking their friends to put in supporting recommendations. The more recommendations we receive for someone, the better idea we get of how awesome they are, and how many people they have supporting them & helping to find them dates through their online networks. AND, the more nominations we receive, the easier it is for us to write a really awesome profile of your friend when we launch them on 100 Dates. For example, our current contender, Lisa, had nominations from 10 friends, so we could write a really lively profile, all using the words her friends said about her.

Please note that we’ve had lots of single women put forward, so we aren’t accepting NEW nominations for women right now – but if you’re here to fill out a supporting nomination for a friend who was already nominated, please feel free to do so! When we open up to gals again, we’ll let you know here and on Twitter (@100dates)

We are super keen to run 100 Dates for an awesome single guy, so please feel free to nominate your awesome single guy friend if you have one.

Thanks everyone for continuing to follow our adventures on 100 Dates.

Here’s the form to nominate someone, or put in a supporting recommendation.

Cheers!
Sarah

7/10 – the skype date

My latest date came so highly recommended that it seemed churlish to worry about the small matter of our inconvenient living arrangements – I live in Coburg, AS in Bangkok.

Skype was the obvious answer to our long-distance dating dilemma. We sorted out busy schedules and time differences and met online on a cold and rainy (my end)/hot and steamy (her end) Friday night.

We chatted dating, culture, work, big city living, dancing and the Art of War. It was a fun talk, and refreshing to compare notes about our respective nontraditional relationship ideals and hopes. As we wound up we agreed to meet on skype again soon and irl whenever we next find ourselves in the same country.

Skype dating is fun! Would you do it?

6/10 – the hip restaurant lunch date

This date started out badly as due to miscommunications I was the only one who showed up to our lunchtime rendezvous. No drama, I had wanted to check out the restaurant and I enjoyed trying the tacos (frijoles con nopales – baked black beans, cactus & ‘pico de gallo’).

AM and I rescheduled for a week later, same time, same place. This time around we both showed up (hooray!). I ordered the chili rellenos (bullhorn chiles stuffed with wild mushrooms, pepitas, epazote & pumpkin sauce), he had the tacos de pollo (raised-right roast chicken, citrus, guacamole & queso frescode) and we shared an ensalada verde (iceburg lettuce, cucumber & spring onion, lime & dill dressing).

We ate, we talked, we had coffee – that’s three of my favourite things, right there.

The verdict? A good time was had.

5/10 – the art exhibition date

MH and I arranged to meet at an art exhibition launch in the inner north (everything happens in the inner north, dontcha know) on a balmy weeknight. There was a storm brewing as I left the city and I arrived at the gallery out of breath and dripping in sweat.

I recognised MH from his facebook pics straight away (yes, I do look at photos before a date), and we started chatting easily about why Melbourne-folk wear black and the nature of dating. Eventually we drifted to the bar across the road for more wine and conversation.

The rain finally came, and went, and I was wiping my bike seat off as we parted ways. There was a moment of hesitation, a chaste kiss on the cheek, and then I was freewheeling back to my part of town.

4/10 – the after dinner drink date

NH told me he was up for a stress-free date, and I agreed. We met in the city on a Wednesday night for an after-dinner drink. Unfortunately, I had skipped dinner in favour of drinks at a book launch. Was I drunk? No. Was I sober? Nooooo…

We talked for a long time about books, movies, travel, anxiety (me) and calm (him). I learnt that there are two kinds of zombie – the living dead (traditional) and viral zombies (modern).

As we left the bar NH asked me when I’d be blogging the date, and he said he might tweet about me to balance the score. And he did:

Had a very pleasant date with Lisa last night. Very stimulating conversation. Talked for hours with topics jumping around. Would do it again.

Dating in an electronic age

Another question:

if you’re about to date someone and they have a blog – do you read it?

I’m an avid blog reader but have resisted reading any of the blogs or even twitter feeds of my dates before I go out. This is a decision I made when I started this project – I wanted to go on each date with no expectations/preconceptions apart from what came through on the recommendation form.

What would you do?

3/10 – the unofficial date

My third date arrived through unofficial channels, that is, not through the recommendation form on this site. I went anyway (of course I went, that’s what this whole project was about!), to a weekday city lunch.

A few things. Although I meet a lot of people through my work, dates make me nervous! Is this strange? I bumped into a friend who was lunching in the same venue which was a little odd as well. But the date itself was lovely, and after an initial period of jitters (me, can’t speak for him) we spent hours talking about, oh you know, everything.

In my last post I asked, how do you end a date? This time, I stood awkwardly for a bit before laughing at myself, waving, and skipping off down the street back to work.

2/10 – the local coffee date

CR was recommended to me on the basis that he is a fellow writer, blogger and innercity dweller. As we both live in the inner north we quickly arranged to get together for a mid-morning date at Sugardough.

We chatted easily over coffee, talking about our books, travel and technology, and there was a noticeable lack of first date awkwardness, which was nice.

After a long chat CR noted that we’d talked quite a bit of shop! But it didn’t bother me in the slightest – there’s a fair bit of overlap between my professional and social lives, and I spend a goodly portion of my life talking about writing and publishing. I enjoy talking to other writers, not to mention comparing notes can be cathartic!

How is the best way to end a date? We said, ‘it was nice to meet you’, then I jumped on my bike and CR headed off on foot in the opposite direction.

1/10 – the first date

TV was recommended to me by a mutual friend who lives interstate. We were introduced on twitter, which proved a very speedy way of doing things – the actual recommendation form filtered through to me after we’d already arranged our date!

We met at the State Library on a sunny afternoon, wandered into QV to get coffee, and sat on the astroturf lawn in the village square area. We talked iphones and media and study; it was a good chat.

On the short walk back to my work we confessed how weird it felt to be doing this date as part of the larger 100 Dates project. I think it was probably stranger for TV than for me; I don’t know how I’d feel going out with someone who I knew was lining up more dates even before we met! But we agreed that if we saw each other again it would probably feel more natural.

Starting 100 Dates

When I first stumbled across 100 Dates I thought – great idea! I loved Sarah’s pragmatic approach to finding someone special, and thought her brave for doing her searching so publicly.

So when I heard 100 Dates was being thrown open to ten others, it took me all of ten seconds to decide to throw my hat into the ring. (Thanks to my marvellous friends for recommending me!) I was still nervous when my profile went up though – what would happen?

Well, what happened was that the people in my life have been supportive and curious about the project, most commonly wanting to know if I’d had my first date yet*. Many said they were thinking about who they could recommend for me, which is kind of the point of an exercise like 100 Dates. Previously many people had known I was single but it wasn’t until my profile was published on 100 Dates that they actively started thinking if they might know someone great to introduce me to; I guess setting someone up can feel awkward unless you know they’re actually looking.

I’m really excited to be going out and meeting the people who were recommended for me!  If you know someone amazing, why not recommend them using the form below?

*Not yet!

Read more thoughts on 100 dates at my blog or seek out the #100dates hashtag on twitter.