Last week, I headed over to Brasserie Sixty6 on Georges Street Dublin to try my hand at speed dating.  I am not going to lie to you, I was terrified!  When I sent the mail to apply to take part and didn’t get a response for a while I was secretly hoping I wouldn’t, and so when a mail did come and I opened it I was hoping it was to say it was full and I’d have to wait till next time.

After all, if that happened I could tell myself I tried, pat myself on the back and spend last night with my feet up and a cup of tea.  However, the mail said come along and so, having peed more in one day than is probably healthy, off I went.

Can I have this Juliette? Image from imdb

Where’s My Juliette?

RomeoRomeo JulietJuliet is the name of the event organisation, obviously it was the JulietJuliet one I made my way to.  The night kicked off with registration which happened between 7pm and 7.30pm, nervous knickers here showed up towards the end of that window hoping I could sneak in.  I was met at the door by a truly charming gay man who told me how he and his partner (and fellow organiser) met at one of these events – I chose to believe him.  They couldn’t have been better hosts if they had tried, both adorable.

Good Gooner

The venue was very good too, just the right size that we filled it nicely.  So I got my name tag with my name and number (my number was a classic Arsenal number, so I thought it was a good omen) and headed to the bar to get myself a drink.

There were 13 ladies in all and we were all fairly age appropriate for each other, not that that matters a whole lot.  Six ladies sat at tables and the rest of use sat opposite one,  every time the bell rang we moved to our right and began again.  We had scorecards – now having a scorecard for people seems somewhat wrong, we need to think up a better name for that – but everyone was writing furiously so it was all good.

How do you do? Please don't be a nutter

Nervous Noras

I can’t emphasise enough how nice everyone was, not an obnoxious so and so between us, if any of you are reading this, it was a pleasure.  After a few “dates” we all relaxed a bit and having spoken to everyone there I realised we were all as nervous as each other.  Recently I wrote an article on online dating and I’d have to say I found this better.  You can tell more about how you interact with someone from talking for 3/4 mins than mailing for weeks, of that I am convinced.

Normal lesbians?

I am not holding out any major hopes for a date after the event, but I left after 10pm that night with a smile on my face, reassured that there are nice genuine women out there, just looking to meet someone to see what happens.  I hope each and every one of them succeeds.

When I asked the host why he set up the events he told me

The reason I set the speed dating up is because I was looking at a different approach to meeting people other than online and in bars etc and the prospect of meeting 20+ people in one night and deciding who I wanted to keep in touch with after was very appealing.

Unfortunately nobody was currently doing gay speed dating so I decided to host the events myself…and over time, each event brings it own little magic.

People alwasy feel nervous about whether to attend or not as speed dating can be a little daunting to most but once people come, they tend to relax after the first few minutes because they see that its such a relaxed and social atmosphere.

I hope to keep hosting the events in the future as its a great way to meet new people and of course a LOT of fun. I have made so many friends myself through hosting the events and I look forward to doing many more.