The Guardian 'Blind date'

Prologue: The Guardian newspaper occupies a slightly different market to the London Lite. The have articles about worldly issues while the London Lite has stories about footballers wives. You have to pay for The Guardian newspaper and it's a nationwide publication while the London Lite is free. Some would say they have a slightly more affluent, educated and discerning reader (Time to put that to the test). All I have been told is below and this is a real 'blind date' as you don't get to see a photo before you go on the date.

"You will be eating at Bistro One Ninety at the Gore Hotel. The restaurant are aware that you are on a blind date with the Guardian and will point you in the right direction on arrival. The restaurant are offering you a three course meal and a bottle of house wine.

Natasha is 27 and was born in Mexico, living there until the age of 16. She currently works in International Development and is very much interested in conservation. She says she is a 'true outdoors girl' and that her holidays generally involve trekking, hiking, cycling and camping in off the beaten track type places. Whilst in London she loves discovering new bars and restaurants. I do hope you get on!" - The Guardian

 

I made sure I was on time this time. As I learnt from last time that ladies are extremely accurate at telling the time. I also made up for it by being very early and everyone knows when you are waiting for someone time seems to go really slowly. After reading the menu quite a few times and playing with my phone Natasha arrived. Well I guessed it must have been her as she came over and gave me a big hug. She asked if I had been waiting long and I hadn’t – It was 8:02 and the date was meant to start at 8:00.

We slipped quite easily into conversation mainly talking about what we had been told about each other in the profiles that the Guardian newspaper had sent us. She worked for an development company specializing in conservation so had done a lot of traveling with her job which was very impressive. I remembered that the email he said she was into hiking. So I casually mentioned a couple of hikes I had just done and asked her about hers – I was expecting her to say she had done a little bit of rambling (small hill walking) here and there and that she had exaggerated in her profile but no she had under played it. She does extreme hikes with crampons and ice axes on glaciers with sheer faces and sharp drops. Now I thought it was time to casually drop that I ran a marathon a few weeks ago into the conversation thinking that it would end the conversation and I could do a victory dance and she would bask in my glory but it wasn’t to be. Natasha was off for a 100km bike ride on Sunday - luckily I am not a very competitive person.

We talked about other things including a funny moment confusing abseiling off a castle in Wales with The Castle which you can abseil inside, that is in London (you learn something new everyday) and somehow talking about Tom Cruise and how good he was in the movie Cocktail. I then had to explain about how New Zealand does actually look like Lord of the Rings without the hobbits and I think I convinced her to watch Flight of the Conchords so she could learn to better understand the kiwi accent.

The food at Bistro 190 was amazing (and no I am not getting paid to say that – well, not yet that is). There was a very long wait for the dessert, which was worth it because the cheesecake was amazing. This wait gave us time to work out if anyone else in the restaurant was on a blind date as well. You never know it could be the blind date hotspot of London. There was one couple who where very interesting. They had sat down and hardly said a word to each other all night then left without even touching there apple tart – very weird and also it meant that they run out of apple tart so Natasha couldn’t order it for dessert.

After we had finished the 3 course meal and wine (Thanks to the Guardian) we decided it would be a good idea to hit the bar next door because it wasn’t busy and have a quick drink. We found nice spot in the bar as it started to get busy. Choosing to sit near a door that lead downstairs to what seemed to be an A-list party in the exclusive area of the bar. People just kept on coming in and out of the party. There was one girl, who I guessed was the birthday girl, who came out of the party then went back in with a different outfit on. That must be how you judge the party by how many outfit changes the host has to make. We then found out later that they where twins – honest mistake. After seeing a girl say “I am friends with Michael downstairs”… and getting allowed in we discussed for a while the different way of trying to crash the party and then realized it would be too much work and the party didn’t look that fun anyway. I then realized it was getting late and was time to go. A quick hug goodbye and a mad dash to get the tube finished my night. I look forward to the Guardian column in a couple of weeks.