Just got home after a rigorous session of, yes, speed dating. First time ever, first SDU-sponsored activity ever. It was weird at the start but strangely exhilarating after a bit, kinda like what this 7-tonne bottlenosed whale must be feeling while lost in the Thames.


Truth be told, it was a lot more fun than I expected, except that the dinner wasn't too hot. (Note to SDU people: It's all a wee bit too obvious when serving sausages for dinner at an event for shy, single people. Massive Taiwanese sausage in a bento set (!) some more. Do you cut it with your spoon and chopsticks or do you bite into it while talking to a complete stranger who is looking studiously at how you tackle that piece of meat?)

So basically you get a number then the women sit down at one end of the table while the men do the rounds, kinda like a factory assembly line. You spend three to five minutes talking to each of these 24 strange men. And I do mean strange. Men who stare at the top of your blouse like they've never seen the tops of blouses before. Men who try very, very desperately to collect all the women's handphone numbers into their Palm Pilots. Men who tell you "er, your voice is very low" (which while true doesn't mean you have to say it out loud, dammit). And men who tell you that you can find the biggest peanuts - "as big as your fingers" - in China's Shandong province.

By the way, the average male speed dater is:
- An engineer
- In his late 20s to early 30s
- Bespectacled
- A jogger

So then, you had to keep track of who you thought had potential and write it down. I lost track and in the end, randomly picked a few, a course of action I am sure will be most regrettable later. I've also almost lost my voice because the accoustics were so bad at the restaurant and everyone had to shout to be heard. I kept yelling: "Hah? Say again??" After a while, you tend to zonk out and just go through the motions: "What are you working as? What do you do for fun? How are you finding the event? etc etc"

Which, after a while, made me want to be somebody else, like a rock-star/chef with a penchant for inventing pet toys and discovering new species of beetles. The furthest I got was to lie about how I love to roller-blade in East Coast Park.

I can see why this whole thing might be addictive though. It's the fastest and easiest way for busy, busy people to get to know more busy, busy people. And it's a bloody challenge just coming up with new ways to engage that engineer in the checked shirt in front of you for five minutes.

Epilogue: RIP Whale