Four years ago - and several times subsequently - I was tempted to try out a speed-dating event organised by the charming people at Fishbowl Events; but self-doubt and inertia got the better of me.
There's another one today. And this one I really was going to go to. Oh yes. My self-image is better than it's been for years, as I've dropped a ton of weight and got back into a regular running habit over the past two months. And I must admit that I am, alas, feeling desperately randy of late.
So, this time I was definitely going to give it a try.
Until I realised they were holding it at Switch. Oh, I'm sorry - SWITCH!, I should have said. Now, this place is fairly new, and I've never been there; but nothing I've heard about it persuades me to try it. The name is fucking STUPID! for a start. Exclamation mark - really?? Moreover, it's run by Culinary Capers, a catering company whose food I have found - at a couple of events they've catered, and at the most godawful Thanksgiving Dinner I've ever had - to be pretentiously over-elaborate and just not very good.
Still, I was really keen to try this speed-dating thing, so I thought I'd do some more research: and I discovered this online review (the only one it's yet garnered on the City Weekend website) which complains that the place is outrageously overpriced. I'll say! 62rmb for a Stella? WTF??!! That's at least 25% more than anyone else in town is charging (assuming that's the price for a 500ml glass, and not a piddling 330ml!), 35-50% more than most places, and more than 100% more than the keenest 'happy hour' price. OK, I gather they have a two-for-one 'happy hour' deal; but that doesn't count for much if their base prices are twice as high as they should be. The 35 or 40rmb we usually get charged these days is already way too fucking high (there's simply no way the price of anything in Beijing should be higher than it is back home in the UK); 62rmb is simply obscene.
And I gather the food is similiarly exorbitantly priced, without the quality to justify it. I'm afraid this is the kind of place that I MUST boycott on principle. I'll have to wait for December's round of speed-dating....
[Furthermore, of course, it SNOWED last night - so I fear the event is likely to fizzle anyway. It would be hard enough for me to hack just a few miles across town to Dongzhimen. I can't see people making the effort to come in all the way from Shunyi or Shuangjing or Wudaokou with the roads and sidewalks in this sort of condition.]
2 comments:
I bloody hate the word dating. Somehow it brings to mind that ghastly idea of sodomy. (Maybe I need counselling here.)
Whatever, keep it simple. Drop the Visa or whatever on the table, and
Hi, I'm FROOG. How am I going so far, or Do you fool round?
Let's be honest. One is more likely to meet the object of desire in the supermarket on Monday night.
On a philosophical note. Finding this desirable creature is a random affair and has nothing to do with calculation.
Note of caution. Avoid chance encounters in bookshops.
Oh, I like chance encounters in bookshops. It works rather better in Beijing than the supermarket thing. (Singles don't eat at home much, and thus shop very infrequently. The foreign supermarkets are full of yummy mummies from Shunyi - a different kind of danger.)
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