Looking for Love

I’ve never gone on an agency planned date before, but agreed because I felt I had nothing to lose. Based on an arranged telephone appointment, I went down to the Lunch Actually office for an interview. I was met by one of their staff, Deidre, who made me feel at ease immediately. She gave me a short introduction about the company and I discovered that it matched people according to a detailed list of questions revolving around hobbies and favourite films, right down to the order of importance of various different physical attributes.

Deidre took the time to ask me some personal questions to get to know me better as a client. I learned that it would take an average of 10 to 15 days to match people, and clients included professionals from different industries. Also, photographs of matched couples would not be shown to each party prior to the date, nor would personal information like telephone numbers be given out. This made me feel better; I was also happy to hear that it usually took more than one match before people found Mr Right. That meant it wasn’t a case of “one strike and you’re out!”. Then I had my photo taken and left.

A few days later, I got a call from Deidre saying that she found a match and she emailed me David’s (not his real name) details. From the looks of it, we had similar interests like music and football. We were to meet on a Saturday for lunch at Raffles Place.

Surprisingly, I wasn’t nervous about the date and actually arrived early. Then he showed up, casually dressed in jeans and a T-Shirt but looking well groomed nonetheless. They say the first five minutes of a date are usually the most awkward, but I think we did well. As we perused the menu, we started chatting about where we lived. Then we proceeded to talk about our jobs as we were waiting for our food. I passed him my name card but he had forgotten to bring his, so he scribbled his mobile and office telephone numbers on a napkin. This made me wonder if he was a traditionalist - considering he didn’t just text me 
his mobile.

David was very articulate and he was comfortable to be around, without having to try too hard — which was a relief because I would get totally cheesed off otherwise. The more we talked, the more we realised we had a lot in common. I learned that he used to be in a band and played the guitar, while he discovered more about my music related job. Before long, we were involved in a game to see how many names of mutual friends and acquaintances we could rattle off! I was really enjoying myself by now. We also talked about future plans (occupational), what we did in our spare time, our hangouts, and likes and dislikes.

The date lasted a good two hours, and we kept the waiters busy refilling our glasses with iced water. Then we took a leisurely stroll to The Esplanade, still deep in conversation. There, we parted company with an agreement to meet up again.

I have a good feeling about David. Not many men I meet can hold a decent conversation with me, let alone have so much in common. And since all successful relationships start with friendship, I think we’ve made progress.

Ms Right: Magdalene Bong, Web Designer, MTV Asia Networks

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