Lets face it readers, meeting someone special is NOT GOING TO HAPPEN if you remain on your couch at home. Even if you try, one of your besties will eventually parade past your couch, scooping up the guilt-inducing remnants of your Noodle Box carb-fest, clinking together the empties of your single-handed tour through the Marlborough wine region and take it as a personal mission to GET YOU OUT THERE.
If you want control your own destiny, this is to be avoided at all costs. If you can summon up the teeniest level of proactivity and arise from your heartbreak-induced languor and do this before they swoop in, there is much to be gained.
But where?
Start with sports.
Here are five options to unlock a hidden pool of activity that will prise you off that couch, get you out in the air and mingling with the eligibles, complete with a tip or two on how to get started and a couple of rookie mistakes to avoid.
Golf
Watching golf on TV is something only slightly less tedious than alphabetically re-organising the spice cupboard and a sport where you could depart the lounge-room for a three course meal and still not have seen a change in the leader board.
Take in some live golf however and you open up a range of possibilities. Firstly, if you are following this guide sequentially, this will be your first foray outdoors since the breakup and you will:
- Allow sunshine on skin that has grown as pasty and delicate as that of an 80-year-old shut-in
- Start to burn off that Ben and Jerry’s calorie surplus that you’ve accumulated via golf-spectator walking, reaping all the aerobic advantages of a golf game without the frustration of trying to do something productive with that stupid white ball
- Note that the vast majority of spectators are men. If you are able to forgive an over-abundance of baseball cap-wearing you are well placed to scoop one up.
Just not this one.
The Olympics
The Olympics bring a dazzling array of sporting prowess, a tremendous arrangement of live entertainment and a tribe of terribly earnest volunteers (and lets face it, we do love someone in a lanyard).
Tips:
- I lack statistical evidence, but suggest you are unlikely to locate your life-partner in the stands at the Greco-Roman Wrestling or the male synchronised diving events
- Lurk around the exits of the blue-ribbon events such as 100m finals and swimming, paying particular attention to those who emerge from the corporate function boxes
Case in point
Tasmanian wannabe-real-estate agent becomes PRINCESS as a result of chance meeting at the Sydney Olympics.
Throughbred Racing
High stakes, hats, style, celebrities who know nothing about horse-racing, branded marquees and you have all the glamour of the Milan Fashion Festival with only the teeniest whiff of portaloo and horse-effluent.
Take a few stiletto totters inside the front gates of the racecourse and if your single-radar still has a bleep left in it you will latch onto the fact that the ratio is vastly in your favour.
You have the perfect excuse to frock up, get your hair done (or if that fails, squeeze it into a hat that costs you about the same as your next three haircuts) and float about the lawn in a frothy dress. Trust me, two glasses of bubbles and you will find a way to extract your stilettos from a grassy lawn with the ease of an ice-dancer. Then simply glide from one bucks party to the next, avoiding any cluster of men in onesies, fluorescent suits or superhero costumes.
We might be all a bit jaded with the antics of Liz Hurley and Shane Warne, but lets take note that they met at a race meeting and appear to be still going strong at Ascot three years later
Just don’t go near this sort of display.
Footy
I’m being outrageously Melbourne-biased (but hey, its my blog) but AFL footy does have its unique advantages when it comes to re-entering the male domain.
Tips:
- Treat the Great Southern stand as you would the Uruzgan province of Afghanistan and only venture into the shadows of the light-towers of the MCG if you have a sponsor that can ticket you into the hallowed halls of the MCC members.
- You may find that you don’t actually venture into daylight and your viewing of the actual game may be the same as what you’d see if confined on your couch since you might not emerge from the Bullring bar but remember that its called the BULL ring bar and is entirely male dominated (else it would be called the Daisy the Dairy Cow Domain. And that will never happen)
Just don’t try to match the blokes drink for drink and end up in this situation
Grand Prix Motor Racing
I have my suspicions that there is actually no discernable difference between the molecular composition of testosterone and that of high-octane racecar fuel. Both have the ability to drive men to incredible feats.
Being at the car races you have the best of both worlds:
- In the corporate tent – those that will challenge you from a career ambition and intellectual perspective (although likely with an accompanying ego that is never going to be able to cheerlead you on your journey through the glass ceiling)
- In the outer – someone that will always have the strength to flip the top of your Crownie, change a washer in your bathroom tap and have the ability to indulge that latent curiosity you have about men in tradie shorts.
Just stay at the GP, and don’t think that it bears any resemblance to the Bathurst 1000 where you will find something like this:
In summary – find your sport and train up!
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