Every issue, we bribe singletons with free food and bevvies to go on a blind date, organised by us. The only catch – they have to write about it after. (Thanks for shouting this one Burger Burger!)
The Bachelor
The prospect of food and a date was too good to resist. So, with many seasons of The Bachelor under my belt serving as encouragement, and few emails to and from Debate later, I found myself smiling across a table with my date for the evening. Ordering showcased how different two people can truly be, as my date’s pre-planning met my spur of the moment selection.
Moving on from complete strangers in the space of a meal is quite a different experience to the usual. At first, I felt pretty nervous, but conversation flowed the entire time. As it turned out, my date was incredibly cool. Topics jumped from the mundane to international travels, a mutual appreciation of club bangers and everything in between.
As we became more comfortable around each other, laughter and smiles continued to radiate cross the table. My thoughts kept flitting between chats to how much Debate had really hooked it up. I recall being straight up surprised at how throwing two people together had resulted in such a great evening. My match-maker definitely got it right. The night closed out typically, with the front of house commenting on how I looked a lot less pale than I did at the start of the evening. And also, we swapped numbers (booyaa!). Overall I give the date a five out of seven, because giving a rating out of 10 is too mainstream. And who knows, maybe we’ll see each other again? Watch this space Debate readers…
Married at First Sight
“I’d soooo go on that! You know… if it wasn’t being filmed for TV,” has become my new saying during the weekdays while watching Married at First Sight with the fam. Enter stage right, Debate Magazine – setting me up on a blind date with free food, similar to that on TV, minus the cameras and weddings.
When date night rolled around, and I stood awkwardly outside Burger Burger with my wing-woman. We wrongly identified three guys as ‘date guy’ until we spotted ‘actual date guy’.
Being a natural hugger, I had joked to my friend that I would formally shake the guy’s hand to introduce myself… well, that backfired. I completely blanked and actually extended my arm to him like it was a business meeting. It was that exact moment I thought maybe I wasn’t destined for MAFS after all.
Thankfully, the nerves were mutual, and my date was a total sweetie pie. Much to my surprise, we had a lot in common, so conversation flowed easily. I took comfort in hearing it was his first blind date too. His humour was A+ and we had a great laugh together.
When I told him my niece shared the same food allergies as him, he responded with “Aww, crack up!” followed by an uneasy, “Oh no, wait… I don’t mean crack up...” which only made us laugh harder. It’s always nice when you meet someone you can laugh with over stupid stuff.
I’d say the hug at the end of the date (#progress) and me putting my number into his phone is a pretty good indication of how the date went. So depending on whether he texts, there could be a second date… Otherwise MAFS, I’m ready for you!