This is just what Londoners need…read more
Some interesting information first: London has the highest number of singletons in the country - a fact that comes as no surprise given that it is also, by far, the most populated city in the country. Now tell someone it also has the highest percentage of single people than anywhere else in the country and you may raise some eyebrows.
If you have lived here, as I have all my life, you wouldn't be surprised to see why this is the case. Londoners abide by certain invisible rules, amongst them are the following: "Thou shalt not speak to strangers" and "Thou shalt not make eye contact with those you do not know." With these rules in mind you can see why so many people have trouble connecting with others and why it does not have the same sense of bonding and community spirit you would find in small towns and villages. The English reservedness also proves to be highly problematic in approaching people and asking members of the opposite sex out on dates - this is where Jean Smith comes in. She teaches us to approach, talk and flirt with people everywhere we go - whether it be the supermarket, art galleries, bars and even the street where you may meet your dream partner. If you do not try, you will only miss out.
On the walking tour we went to several places - an art gallery, the local supermarket in Covent Garden, a pub to name a few and she encouraged us to strike up a conversation with members of the opposite sex.
In the world of dating, the most common fear people have is rejection. Now this isn't what worried me - thankfully pretty much nearly everyone I meet respond positively if I start a conversation, ask for contact details and even ask them out. What I do have difficulties with though is flirting. I don't know how to flirt and quickly feel awkward if someone flirts with me even though I don't mean to feel that way. Reading signals is another problem area - particularly when women are quite subtle. To give you an idea - my last two ex-girlfriends claim they made it blatantly clear they were flirting and were interested in me before we entered a relationship. I also often find myself wondering, "Was she flirting with me or being friendly?", telling my female friends about those situations and find they tell me those women I encountered were indeed flirting. I tend to be much too cautious!
Jean told us what to do, where and how to do them. She also told us about body language and the signals to watch out for - something I found to be of super help! Just before the end of the tour, we retired to a pub and had a good discussion together. There was flirting going in amongst members of the group - every single person had a laugh and a good time! We were all encouraged to ask questions and discuss them together. Jean answered them all in a very helpful, detailed manner.
One more thing I am also pleased to add is that she was not in any way patronising or condescending. She comes across very friendly, down to Earth, approachable and extremely charming through her smiles and super confident personality.
All in all I think I met about 15 women - all of them total strangers and they all reacted positively. Had a great time, including a comical time when during the supermarket task I had pretended to be completely clueless about wine, simply to strike up a conversation with a woman, and it turned out she had no idea about wine either. She had a boyfriend (oops) a few metres behind who then came up to me but don't worry, he was quite friendly. I then had to spend a few minutes playing dumb, saying "Really?", "Ahhhh, I see", "I didn't know that", "Aha!" etc. a lot as he proceeded to spend a few minutes telling me all about wine. :)
The evening ended on a high, and I certainly felt more confident thanks to Jean!