Wellington Singles Club Premier Singles Event (27th March 2009)
Rounded up a few single mates of mine (Scott, Colm and Dvita) to check out Wellington Singles Club premier singles event held this evening at Rain on Courtenay Place. It was the first dating event hosted by this company and their posters around town caught my attention. Cheesy as it may sound, I thought it would be a great way to take a break from the normal routine of catching up with the same friends for drinks and expand our social circles. After all, we kept saying we don’t meet new people when we hang out at social events so who knows, we might find new friends to add to our group here! I had no expectations of the event; I’ve been to 2 other dating events previously (and blogged about them) and frankly, I do not believe in meeting your special someone in an arranged environment. It just feels ‘unnatural’ to me. But that’s just me – it works for some people.
Caught up with Scott for dinner at Catch Sushi at 7.15pm, then a coffee boost at Starbucks on Courtenay (not sure why I felt so tired but I definitely needed caffeine) before heading to Rain. Colm met us on the way in and Dvita came over shortly. It was rather empty when we walked in at 8pm. Cost us $30 per person for the event which included ice-breaker games, prizes and drink specials. It was amusing that the organisers of the event already knew who I was when we walked in – haha, must be from the series of emails of me informing them I have a group of singles turning up and please, pretty please, DO NOT match any of us up together :P
We were given 2 cards from the deck and tasked to find our match for the first hour. Once you’ve found your match, the pair had to tell one another their favourite animal and colour, and 3 reasons why. Fortunately for the 4 of us, we had no matches so spent the rest of the night flitting around talking to random strangers, regardless we had a matching card or not. Occasionally, we would group together, have chat and laugh, then break away again to talk to others. We joked about telling other people that our favourite animal was a bunny rabbit! That would be a conversation starter ;P I have to say, we are definitely not shy and felt very at ease talking to strangers. It was interesting talking to some of the guys and I wondered if they were slightly intimidated by my confidence – had few of them choking on their own words. Ops! I chatted with the hosts for the night as well and found out that the Wellington Singles Club is only one of the many life consulting services provided by the wider company. Apparently you can get life coaching on other aspects of life like career as well. Hmm, interesting…
2 older guys who came to chat were into dancing but we had little in common so I found myself having to constantly bring up new topics to talk about. 2 other Indian guys already knew who I was before I introduced myself – they happened to be Telecom staff and saw me in my Chinese princess costume at the work Xmas party. Eeks! Talk about lasting impressions!!
As it turned out, we were informed that our favourite animal is the type of partner we seek and our favourite colour is who we are. Really?? Hmm…bunny rabbit…what on earth would that imply? Hahaha!
About 9pm, we had to get into groups of fours for an adjective name game, where you need an adjective in front of your first name that starts with the same letter as the first letter of your name i.e. in my case, Amazing Angelica. I had one of the organisers at my table of four who volunteered us up to stage to introduce ourselves to the party, and we got prizes for doing so too! Cool!!
One rather interesting (and odd) person I met was a Scottish man with an accent so thick I had to get him to repeat his sentences time and again. He came over to ask me if we had matching cards and though we didn’t, I invited him to join my table. Instead of taking my offer, he walked off, grumbling that we didn’t have a match so no point talking. What??! Nobody gets away being such an arse! I kindly asked the people at my table to let me slide out of the lounge chair, walked up to the bar where the Scottish man was and plonked myself on the bar chair across him. “I kindly ask you to join my table and you just walked off – that is just plain rude,” I told him off to which he mumbled that the game was stupid. I rolled my eyes and thought to myself why he bothered to turn up in the first place when such cheesy games were to be expected at the event. I then introduced myself to him, we started talking and he bought me a beer. Through my short conversation with him, I could tell he is a very opinionated man and told me he was a ‘man on a mission’ – he meant looking for someone. Good luck, buddy, because I ain’t sure you’ll find what you want here tonight!
Around 10pm, Scott rounded us up to head over to Hawthorne Lounge for a drink. The lack of people at the party made the place seemed too empty and the games started to bore many of us. I could see my Scottish man giving Scott dagger-eye looks when Scott was whispering to me at my ear! I had to explain to him that Scott was a friend when he asked me what was that all about. When he started to tell me stuff like he thought I’m cool, pretty and easy-going, warning bells ring in my head – oh hell no! Geoff asked me last night why I don’t walk up to random guys at social events to strike up a conversation since I’m not a shy person. I couldn’t give him an answer then but now I know why – somehow I always get stalked after that!
Colm, Dvita, Scott and I left for Hawthorn Lounge taking half the party with us! The organisers came to ask us if we really had to go, as if in fear our departure also meant the end of their party. We really do have to go – I need to run away from my now stalker! Ok, I didn’t exactly say that out loud because Scottish man was nearby. He just wasn’t letting me out of his sight, and walked me arm in arm all the way to Hawthorn. Sh*t…I need Plan C…
Everyone mixed and mingled at Hawthorn which was much more relaxed than at Rain. Scottish man didn’t stop pushing his luck, trying to get me to drink more but I didn’t feel like one. Besides, I really dislike being pushed to drink. And letting you buy me a drink doesn’t mean I owe you a thing! Guess he got the gist when I kept declining his offer to head to some other bar and after he tried hitting on a few others girls at the bar, he took off. For a ‘man on a mission’, I have to say his mission failed for he didn’t even take any girl’s phone number. Perhaps he’ll have better luck elsewhere. I wouldn’t mind being his friend if he wasn’t so ‘on his mission’.
All in all, I have to say I had a good time and great laughs of the event. Though none of us met anyone of interest even to be friends or swapped numbers (except one Kiwi-Indian guy who took Colm and my numbers but I think all he wanted was really to get to know Dvita better because he just couldn’t stop talking about her after she left!), us 4 had a fun night out. It was also a good way for one to push your own limits if you are afraid to talk to random strangers. I think I just enjoy feeding on other people’s fear when I’m oozing out confidence :P Not sure if I’ll go to the next event though.
About 11.30pm, Colm and I left and headed to The Malthouse for another round of drinks. Found Chris and Geoff along the way and had them join us. Wellington is so small – we bumped into Vicky and Ant in the bar and ended up hanging out all together, chatting and catching up. Headed home around 12.30am – I want my bed!
Caught up with Scott for dinner at Catch Sushi at 7.15pm, then a coffee boost at Starbucks on Courtenay (not sure why I felt so tired but I definitely needed caffeine) before heading to Rain. Colm met us on the way in and Dvita came over shortly. It was rather empty when we walked in at 8pm. Cost us $30 per person for the event which included ice-breaker games, prizes and drink specials. It was amusing that the organisers of the event already knew who I was when we walked in – haha, must be from the series of emails of me informing them I have a group of singles turning up and please, pretty please, DO NOT match any of us up together :P
We were given 2 cards from the deck and tasked to find our match for the first hour. Once you’ve found your match, the pair had to tell one another their favourite animal and colour, and 3 reasons why. Fortunately for the 4 of us, we had no matches so spent the rest of the night flitting around talking to random strangers, regardless we had a matching card or not. Occasionally, we would group together, have chat and laugh, then break away again to talk to others. We joked about telling other people that our favourite animal was a bunny rabbit! That would be a conversation starter ;P I have to say, we are definitely not shy and felt very at ease talking to strangers. It was interesting talking to some of the guys and I wondered if they were slightly intimidated by my confidence – had few of them choking on their own words. Ops! I chatted with the hosts for the night as well and found out that the Wellington Singles Club is only one of the many life consulting services provided by the wider company. Apparently you can get life coaching on other aspects of life like career as well. Hmm, interesting…
2 older guys who came to chat were into dancing but we had little in common so I found myself having to constantly bring up new topics to talk about. 2 other Indian guys already knew who I was before I introduced myself – they happened to be Telecom staff and saw me in my Chinese princess costume at the work Xmas party. Eeks! Talk about lasting impressions!!
As it turned out, we were informed that our favourite animal is the type of partner we seek and our favourite colour is who we are. Really?? Hmm…bunny rabbit…what on earth would that imply? Hahaha!
About 9pm, we had to get into groups of fours for an adjective name game, where you need an adjective in front of your first name that starts with the same letter as the first letter of your name i.e. in my case, Amazing Angelica. I had one of the organisers at my table of four who volunteered us up to stage to introduce ourselves to the party, and we got prizes for doing so too! Cool!!
One rather interesting (and odd) person I met was a Scottish man with an accent so thick I had to get him to repeat his sentences time and again. He came over to ask me if we had matching cards and though we didn’t, I invited him to join my table. Instead of taking my offer, he walked off, grumbling that we didn’t have a match so no point talking. What??! Nobody gets away being such an arse! I kindly asked the people at my table to let me slide out of the lounge chair, walked up to the bar where the Scottish man was and plonked myself on the bar chair across him. “I kindly ask you to join my table and you just walked off – that is just plain rude,” I told him off to which he mumbled that the game was stupid. I rolled my eyes and thought to myself why he bothered to turn up in the first place when such cheesy games were to be expected at the event. I then introduced myself to him, we started talking and he bought me a beer. Through my short conversation with him, I could tell he is a very opinionated man and told me he was a ‘man on a mission’ – he meant looking for someone. Good luck, buddy, because I ain’t sure you’ll find what you want here tonight!
Around 10pm, Scott rounded us up to head over to Hawthorne Lounge for a drink. The lack of people at the party made the place seemed too empty and the games started to bore many of us. I could see my Scottish man giving Scott dagger-eye looks when Scott was whispering to me at my ear! I had to explain to him that Scott was a friend when he asked me what was that all about. When he started to tell me stuff like he thought I’m cool, pretty and easy-going, warning bells ring in my head – oh hell no! Geoff asked me last night why I don’t walk up to random guys at social events to strike up a conversation since I’m not a shy person. I couldn’t give him an answer then but now I know why – somehow I always get stalked after that!
Colm, Dvita, Scott and I left for Hawthorn Lounge taking half the party with us! The organisers came to ask us if we really had to go, as if in fear our departure also meant the end of their party. We really do have to go – I need to run away from my now stalker! Ok, I didn’t exactly say that out loud because Scottish man was nearby. He just wasn’t letting me out of his sight, and walked me arm in arm all the way to Hawthorn. Sh*t…I need Plan C…
Everyone mixed and mingled at Hawthorn which was much more relaxed than at Rain. Scottish man didn’t stop pushing his luck, trying to get me to drink more but I didn’t feel like one. Besides, I really dislike being pushed to drink. And letting you buy me a drink doesn’t mean I owe you a thing! Guess he got the gist when I kept declining his offer to head to some other bar and after he tried hitting on a few others girls at the bar, he took off. For a ‘man on a mission’, I have to say his mission failed for he didn’t even take any girl’s phone number. Perhaps he’ll have better luck elsewhere. I wouldn’t mind being his friend if he wasn’t so ‘on his mission’.
All in all, I have to say I had a good time and great laughs of the event. Though none of us met anyone of interest even to be friends or swapped numbers (except one Kiwi-Indian guy who took Colm and my numbers but I think all he wanted was really to get to know Dvita better because he just couldn’t stop talking about her after she left!), us 4 had a fun night out. It was also a good way for one to push your own limits if you are afraid to talk to random strangers. I think I just enjoy feeding on other people’s fear when I’m oozing out confidence :P Not sure if I’ll go to the next event though.
About 11.30pm, Colm and I left and headed to The Malthouse for another round of drinks. Found Chris and Geoff along the way and had them join us. Wellington is so small – we bumped into Vicky and Ant in the bar and ended up hanging out all together, chatting and catching up. Headed home around 12.30am – I want my bed!
"Talk about lasting impressions!!
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