Natalie, 53, says:
We ended up arriving for the date at the exact same time. I was a little nervous and so was Conrad. He had actually arrived a little earlier then went for a walk to calm down his own nerves before going into the restaurant. He was a very nice man, really intelligent and great to talk to.
The first thing I noticed about him was his T-shirt. You notice these things as a woman. Once we got talking and I found out what his job was, the T-shirt made sense as he would be dressed pretty formally during the day.
I wouldn’t say Conrad was my usual type but there was plenty to talk about and conversation flowed really nicely between us. I would say there was quite a bit in common as well — we are close in age so that helps. We spoke about old movies, our work and travel. Conrad has travelled to Antarctica which I found really interesting and wanted to hear all about. He’s also off to Singapore soon so it was nice to relate over a love for travel.
There is a lot more I’d like to know about Conrad. We stayed at the restaurant for about two hours but I had to be up very early for work the following day so we called it a night around 9pm. He walked me out and waited with me for an Uber. I gave him my business card and said I would like to see him again. We discussed possibly going to see a movie together.
I have been single for quite some time now and have tried online dating but it’s just not for me. I log on then end up logging off very quickly. Don’t get me wrong, I have had some good experiences but I’ve also had some bad. There seems to be a lot of scammers in these dating spaces and I have found men my age are either looking for something casual or someone younger. I’ve been reading Blind Date for a while now so one afternoon I figured I should apply and give something different for a change and I’m glad I did. Conrad was very genuine and interesting — it was nice to have an intellectual conversation on a date.
8/10
Conrad, 53, says:
I was pretty nervous. I arrived early and walked around the block. The worst thing was, I actually had on an undershirt and I ended up having to excuse myself to go take it off mid-date because I was sweating profusely. The walk around the block combined with nerves definitely didn’t do me any favours. That was probably the most awkward moment during the date.
It was my first time at Lotus and I ended up taking cues from Nat on what to order. Conversation flowed well between us. We both asked each other lots of questions and there weren’t many awkward moments or silences that you might get with a first encounter. She was very nice.
We talked about our love for food, a little about politics and a lot about old movies. There was actually quite a bit of common ground. Nat had a really interesting background work-wise that I enjoyed learning about. We both really enjoy old movies and I go and see quite a few of them around town so I’ll definitely flick some invites her way and see if she is interested in coming along.
We finished the date after a few hours as we both had work in the morning. I don’t think it’s going anywhere romantically but we have swapped phone numbers and will definitely keep in touch. I can see us making good friends out of it. To be honest, I am not quite sure what my usual type is or if I even have one. I guess I am just looking more for chemistry.
It has been four or five years now since my last relationship and I’ve found you don’t really meet new people through existing friendship groups. I’ve tried online dating and didn’t really like it all that much. A friend of mine showed me your Blind Dates and encouraged me / helped me sign up. I’m glad I gave it a go and hopefully have made a new friend from it. I am very happy with the outcome.
8/10