Speed Dating

OK, so just to prove that I'm not just sitting in building furniture and writing on this blog, tonight I went speed dating in downtown Boston. The motives weren't primarily romantic, you understand, more just to get out there and meet people in a more efficient and less creepy way than randomly approaching people in bars.

It was moderately successful too. I had eight eight minute "dates". One was an absolute psycho - she didn't want to be there (was dragged along by a friend), wasn't very forthcoming with the conversation, and seemed to be a teensy bit racist. Ah well.

Most of the other seven were reasonable fun though, at least to talk to for eight minutes. I was fortunate in that the English accent and the fact that I've just moved over gives me an immediate head start, and can fill the conversation for at least 6 of the available minutes. Unexpectedly, pretty much everyone seemed to have lived in Massachussetts all their lives - I was expecting Boston to be a little more cosmopolitan than that, though I shouldn't base my judgement on a sample of eight presumably rather desperate ladies. The other thing in my favour seems to be that American men are all idiots. I went for dinner afterwards with two of the girls, and listening to their accounts of their other dates I wonder how men in this country ever manage to find mates.

So I think there are 3 or 4 that I'll try and meet up with again as friends, and one that I'll go for putting down as a second date. She was the one person in the room who wasn't from the area - she was a "military kid" and spent time in Germany, England and all over the US, and she was the only one that I vaguely fancied. In fact, maybe "vaguely" isn't quite enough...