Pause, please

Lovestruck - the online dating platform - and Pause Bar - part of the Swizzlestick group and according to their website the 'City's first private hire only venue' - teamed up for singles night. I got an invite from Pause (no, I am not signed up to lovestruck) and a friend suggesting going (S, where were you, by the way??!;-)). I've never been to a singles event but with a free cocktail included and going with a group of friends - why not?

And here's 'why not':
It got busy quite quickly. And incredibly hot, too. I'd say there were more women than men around. And it very quickly felt like being at a meat market. Be careful not to have eye contact for too long with somebody you really don't want to talk to! Admittedly, it must be much harder for the boys who did a good job at chatting up the girls. You then of course have a dilemma: how long do you at least pretend to be vaguely interested and have polite small talk until you gently turn them down? And also: how do you turn them down? Or should you just be very direct quickly so not waste anyone's time?

I really do like meeting new people. But not with the sole intend of hooking up in some way... The chat up lines ranged from weird to cringe-y. Also, I don't do just drinking - I need (and like) dinner!!!

Having said all that: it clearly works for some! And H's courageous move to approach the guy she liked paid off. His friends then got stuck with the rest of us... And it wasn't all bad (well, I mentioned the free cocktail already!) - I ended up having a really nice chat with one of the friends. As we ended up chatting due to other people's circumstances, it was just a nice friendly conversation rather than a forced attempt at flirting and you can never have too many friends (he did ask for my number ;-))!

On my way out, I had to ask for directions (I was too lazy to get my phone out, and the two guys looked like city boys so I thought they'd know their way around). As it happened, they had also been at Pause. Slightly awkward moment, when the girl that one of them had chatted to (and whose number he got), also came by. And I'm not sure whether at first she thought that he was taking my number - which he wasn't, he was showing me the map on his phone (turned out, that they didn't know the area....). They were going for dinner (it was 22:00!) and I was actually tempted to join them. But I also started to have a headache, so I decided to go home instead. And the girl actually took me to the station in the end. There were definitely nice people at the event! :-)