mysinglefriend blog

Success story: Eleanor and Darren

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0100

As usual, we're rounding the week off with another mysinglefriend.com success story. We hope this one will warm your cockles throughout the weekend, as apparently it's going to be very chilly indeed. If you're going on a date or two this weekend be sure to wrap up snug and indulge in some warming beverages. Whisky mac anyone?

This week's success story comes from Eleanor and Darren who got in touch to let us know about their upcoming nuptuals.

"I met Darren through your website in June 2008, and I am pleased to report that nearly 4 years later, we are getting married! The wedding will be taking place in March at good old Gretna Green!

I never thought I would meet my future husband on a dating web site. I had previously tried other sites (with no luck and lots of very random dates!) before being added to yours by a work mate, and here we are. Unbelievable! Thankyou MSF!"

And thanks to you both for getting in touch. Many congratulations to Eleanor and Darren from all of us at mysinglefriend.com! If you're part of an MSF success story and want to tell the world, you can get in touch with us at blog@mysinglefriend.com.

For more success stories click here.

Not a mysinglefriend.com member? Add a friend or sign up now!

Click to go to the main site: mysinglefriend.com

Flirting Tips for National Flirt Day

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0100

If you're a confident flirter then you've probably been charming the pants off of everyone you met since you stepped out of the house this morning, so you can stop reading now and go back to batting your eyelashes at Wendy from accounts . A bit of friendly flirting can put a ray of sunshine into the darkest of days, so don't hold back; it's almost a public service, really. If you're not quite so much of a smooth operator and haven't made eye contact with anyone today apart from your Hello Kitty screensaver, why not use National Flirt Day to galvanise you into action? Follow these few simple rules and you'll be knee deep in phone numbers in next to no time.

Smile

There's no escaping the fact that smiling is crucial to flirting. You may think that you look like all smouldering and intense when you scowl moodily across the room at someone, but they're more likely wondering why the weirdo with the face like a smacked bum is staring at them, and edging towards the nearest exit. A smile is an open and friendly gesture and, most importantly, keeps things lighthearted. Flirting is meant to be fun, after all.

Eye contact

When you flirt, you're communicating your interest in another person and you'll be hard pressed to do this if you can't look them in the eye. Eye contact can be a tricky one to perfect - too little and they won't even notice you're interested, too much, or too intense, and they'll become wary. Don't approach it as you would a staring competition, instead build up the eye contact slowly, with little peeps here and there, and when you're sure they're interested too, go for some longer, lingering looks.

Compliment

A compliment can go a loooooong way, but you have to be sincere. People aren't stupid and when you are flattering them simply for the sake of it and have no deeper interest, they can tell and they don't like it. To pay a good compliment, all you have to do is find something that you genuinely like about them. Like their hair? Say so. Like their shoes? Say so. Like their New Kids On The Block t-shirt? Then darn well say so. A well paid compliment can make anyone melt.

Touch

If you're not too confident about flirting it can be hard to judge when a touch is appropriate, as you don't want them belting you round the head with their man/handbag and shouting for help. As a general rule of thumb, stick to the arms, keep it brief and wait and see if they reciprocate. Be sure that you only touch them at a natural and appropriate juncture too; if you're too fixated on finding the right moment to touch them, the right moment will never arise.

Relax

If you're a nervy flirter it may be tricky to try and relax, but it's the one thing you can do that will get you furthest. If you aren't feeling relaxed, you might find yourself smiling fixedly, staring, saying strange things and touching inappropriately, which won't go down very well. Take a few deep breaths and take things slowly - there's no need to turn the charm up to maximum wattage immediately. The other thing to remember is that the person you're flriting with will, hopefully, be flirting right back which will give you confidence and make everything feel a lot easier.

So go forth, MSFers, and conquer National Flirt Day. Get searching, mailing and dating so that you can try out your new skills!

Not a mysinglefriend.com member? Add a friend or sign up now!

Click to go to the main site: mysinglefriend.com

Profile of the Week: Mark

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0100

mysinglefriend.com is awash with brilliant profiles. They might be funny, clever, sincere, strange or just have a really great photo, but something will make them stand out. Each week we're going to be picking our favourite profile and sharing it with all of you. But this isn't a one way street; if you've seen a really good profile or even if you'd like to nominate your own, you can get in touch with us at blog@mysinglefriend.com and tell us all about it.

This week, for your delectation, we have lovely Latin mover Mark.

What's this? I have to say how great Mark is, thus worsening my own chances? Outrageous.

Okay, well first off, things I definitely shouldn't mention are his tall dark handsome looks, and that annoyingly trim and toned physique he has. There's that "job" he has that is one of those proper career thingies, where he finishes at 5pm or some stupid hour, so he can actually have a life and do things in the evening.

That reminds me, definitely should steer clear of all the cool things he does with his free time, like salsa classes, gymnastics, couch surfing parties, the South American scene, photography and exploring London. Will totally keep schtum on that "life experience" nonsense from the umpteen months he spent travelling around South America and becoming fluent in Spanish. What a waste of time that was! He also did the Philippines too, won't say anything about that!

And there's just what a cool guy he is, how can I cover that up? There's how much fun he has just going out to work socials, parties and club nights, all the live music he keeps on top of. How central he lives, making it really easy for him to get around and see the best of London.
There's even an intellectual side, he likes Philosophy and Neuroscience - actually retaining something from his University Degree.

Ha, well I think if I keep all that under wraps his chances will be well and truly scuppered. Now to begin, click 'Continue' button...

Fancy your chances on the dancefloor with Mark? If the answer is yes, just click to view his dating profile.

Not a mysinglefriend.com member? Add a friend or sign up now!

Click to go to the main site: mysinglefriend.com

Valentine’s Day Revolution

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0100

So it’s Valentine’s Day.

Large bunch of roses. Yawn.

Tacky card with slightly sick-making message. Yuk.

Dinner a deux. Zzzzz.

It's not that we hate the big red day, but, to be honest, we’re just a little bit fatigued by all that stuff that has been festooning the shops since before Santa could make his way back up the chimney.

There are so many fluffy bears, yucky cards and horrible ‘Valentine's offers’ around that it may make you feel more aligned with Al Capone’s version of Valentine's Day than the Romancing Chancers who once had ownership of 14^th Feb.

Valentine’s Day should be a great excuse for all you fabulous people to take a risk and go on a date (as if you need a reason), but you don’t need to show your interest by splashing the cash in Clintons or on Interflora. Yes, singles can lead the revolution for being altogether less predicable and trust me, there’s nothing more appealing in a person than confidence and creativity.

We all know a date is about who you are with not what you are doing but it's easy to be‘predictably dull’ and we know you're better than that! Why not prove this by trying something altogether a bit loopy/worthy/weird/potty!

So instead, why not go with something surprising and, as we’re living in lean times, frugal to mark the occasion? Read on for some inspiration for wooing your Valentine for free (or for just a few pounds), whether you’re planning a first meet or are onto date four and want to turn things up a notch...

	Discover your Twilight side by donating blood together before chatting over the proffered (wait for it…FREE) tea and biscuits. Seriously though, most of us will know somebody who has needed blood – you are saving lives and that’s a big thing to achieve on a date!

	Leave your date to chance. Start at your date’s house, flip a coin – if it’s heads go right, tails left. Keep going till the first restaurant. Let’s just hope luck’s your way and you don’t end up at McD’s or, possibly worse still, a £300 a head Michelin starred number!

	Forget the future - do your genealogy together. You can find out loads about each other without it being like an episode of Mastermind and you never know, you might find that you’re on a date with someone descended from Mozart or Robin Hood (though hopefully not the Sheriff of Nottingham!). You never know what shenanigans your ancestors got up to and if things progress to a family viewing you’ll at least have plenty to talk to their distant relatives about!

	Why not start the date earlier? Meet at your local farmers’ market and choose and buy food together, then go home and cook it and eat it together – if it’s rotten you can share the blame and if it's delicious you can claim all the glory!

	‘Come Date With Me’. Set up your own party at home for a group of single friends. Get everyone to critique the food, rate the conversation and score (on) the evening.

	Volunteer for something together. Help out at a soup kitchen, take a granny shopping; you never know you might even get a bit of handy advice from them!

	Get dirty (and a bit creative) by throwing a pottery masterpiece, after all it worked for Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore. London peeps can try the Wheel House Pottery in Merton Abbey Mills or check local listings for a pottery project. At least you’ll have a sugar bowl to give you mum for her birthday if the date doesn’t go according to plan!

	Worried you might seem a bit dull?! Sit in at the House of Commons – there are professionals dullards in there and you’ll seem scintillating after that! At the very least, it should give you plenty to talk about over dinner afterwards.

Think you can do better? Email us with your top tips and we’ll tweet the best....

Not a mysinglefriend.com member? Add a friend or sign up now!

Click to go to the main site: mysinglefriend.com

Advice: getting what you want

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0100

Last week we gave you some advice on Knowing What You're Looking For; that is, approaching your time on mysinglefriend.com with a clear objective, whether it's marriage and babies, some brilliant dates, or just a bit of a giggle. Once you've sorted out your priorities and joined the site, the question is, how do you pursue your goal?

Be clear

We mentioned this last week, but it's worth saying again: if you're looking for something specific, eg. a long term relationship, and aren't interested in anything else then you need to let people know. You don't need to make a meal of it, but a casual reference thrown in should help to deter those who aren't traveling the same path as you. Equally, if you're just looking for a few good nights out and nothing more, and you don't want to get tangled up in anything else, then say so.

Be proactive

Being proactive is always at the top of our list when it comes to dating advice, and it applies here more than anywhere. Once you know what type of person or relationship you're looking for you have to be proactive in seeking it out as it could take a long while for them to simply appear in your inbox. Keep a close eye on the new members appearing in your home page and read their profiles carefully - you'll be able to pick up some clues about what they're looking for. The genius of MSF is that their friend does the hard work for them and is likely to know what your potential date wants and not be afraid to say it. Once you've picked out a few likely targets, message them immediately - there's no sense in hanging around.

Be flexible

This next bit of advice flies in the face of everything we've just said, but life, love and online dating are all contrary beasts, so please bear with us. If, on your travels through the site, you come across someone who purports to be looking for everything that you aren't but you still think they seem rather lovely, then get in touch with them. Letting your heart rule your head and following your instinct is often the best way to do things so it would be a shame to pass a profile by simply because they're looking for a bit of a laugh and you're looking for something long term. Being clear about what you're looking for is brilliant, but don't let it make you so inflexible that you pass up what could be great opportunities.

Not a mysinglefriend.com member? Add a friend or sign up now!

Click to go to the main site: mysinglefriend.com

Win a copy of a brilliant new dating book!

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0100

Dave Cornthwaite is an adventurous chap. He's skateboarded 3618 miles across Australia, ridden a tandem from Vancouver to Las Vegas and later this year will swim 1000 miles along the Lower Missouri river. Impressive stuff and clearly Dave isn't one to shy away from a challenge. Having some down time between these hardcore endurance expeditions, Dave, rather than resting up like normal folk would, set himself another little challenge when he decided to find a girlfriend by attempting to date 100 women in 100 days. The result, he says, was an emotional rollercoaster that threatened to turn his world inside and out and upside down.

He searched high and low, online and on the street. Encountering awkward embraces, inappropriate foot rubs, a girl who was the spitting image of Eddie Izzard, an embarrassing mishap with a mug of hot chocolate and an unexpected dose of heartache, Dave's journey proved that even with the best of intentions, finding love can be the hardest challenge of all.

Luckily for us, Dave has written a book about his experiences. It's very funny, honest and (you might be a bit interested in this ladies) a revealing insight into the way men think and act on the dating scene, and we have three copies to give away to MSFers. All you have to do is email us with your funniest or most embarrassing dating stories and the best three win a book!

If you'd prefer to do it the old fashioned way and buy a copy your self, you can pick one up from Amazon for your Kindle, or grab a paperback version direct from Dave's website. Between now and Valentine's Day 100% of the profits go to breast cancer awareness charity CoppaFeel, so buy, buy, buy!

Not a mysinglefriend.com member? Add a friend or sign up now!

Click to go to the main site: mysinglefriend.com

Success Story: Naomi and Nick

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0100

We love Fridays at mysinglefriend.com and we suspect you lot do too. What's not to like? The anticipation of a great night out, or in, relaxing with mates and, we hope, going on a date or two. To celebrate we'd like to share another MSF success story with you. This week we have Naomi and Nick who dropped us an email to let us know about their new found happiness.

" I met Nick in November 2010 after several weeks of chatting online. Exactly a year after our first date, he proposed to me on a weekend away in Oslo! I was absolutely thrilled and we are planning to get married in September this year. Thank you to MSF for getting us together. I recommend this website to everyone because friend's comments about a potential date makes it such a refreshing approach to dating. What is also very exciting is that Julie, who wrote my profile, also wrote the profile of another of her friends who got married in June 2011 to someone she met on MSF. So we've had a very good success rate!"

Many congratulations to Naomi and Nick. And also to Julie, who appears to be doing sterling work on the description front!

Click to view more MSF success stories.

Not a mysinglefriend.com member? Add a friend or sign up now!

Click to go to the main site: mysinglefriend.com

Advice: Knowing what you're looking for

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0100

If you're a regular reader of the mysinglefriend.com blog, you'll have seen our weekly success stories and know that we're fans of long term relationships, romance and wedding bells. Our success stories go to show that online dating and, more specifically, MSF really does work. Along with the LTR, we're also fans of the casual date; on MSF the emphasis is about having fun just as much as it is about finding love. So, basically, we like everything. Hooray!

Our MSFers, however, may not. Some people on the site will be seriously scouting for The One, wanting to find that perfect person to spend the rest of their lives with. Others may have joined the site to meet new people, go on some casual dates and have a bit of a giggle. There are probably a few people who are just a bit curious about the dating scene and are dipping their toes in the water. Just as you'd expect out in the big wide world, there are all sorts of different people on MSF, all looking for different things. If you want a successful experience on mysinglefriend, the trick is to know what you're looking for. If you're looking for a serious relationship and don't have time to waste on casual dating, you need to make that clear.

Now, we're not advocating leaping into mail conversations with things like 'Do you think you'll want to marry me in a years time?' as this will have prospective dates running for the hills immediately, but there are some slightly more subtle ways to find out what someone is looking for. Though it somewhat smacks of a scary interview question, asking, as casually as possible, something like 'Where do you see yourself in two years time?' will help you figure out their frame of mind. If they say 'Engaged' then you'll know you're on a similar wave length. If they say 'In a hot tub in Tobago with Beyonce and Harrison Ford' then you may presume that their projected life path is a bit too different from yours.

If you're concerned that your potential date isn't looking for a serious relationship, it's worth sticking at the mail stage a little bit longer before you decide to meet. If someone suggests a date after the first or second mail, then loses interest when you demur, it's probably safe to assume that they are not in it for the long term. If you build up a good rapport via mail, share interests, aspirations and other details then you can probably surmise that the person wants to pursue a relationship. Spend enough time mailing, or perhaps talking on the phone, and you'll most likely feel able to ask them outright and share your hopes for the future with them.

As with most things in life, an honest and straight forward approach will get you furthest. Why not take the ultimate step and state what you want in your response. It may feel like going a bit too far to say 'I'm looking for someone to spend the rest of my life with' but at least you'll know that the people who contact you are happy to entertain that possibility too.

Not a mysinglefriend.com member? Add a friend or sign up now!

Click to go to the main site: mysinglefriend.com

Profile of the Week: Jo

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0100

This week we have the delightful, if perhaps slightly eccentric, Jo...

This one is a wonderful human.

She's got the best face I have ever seen in my life, and am yet to meet a person who doesn't whole-heartedly agree. She is a secret gay and uses this to look at ladies bottoms. She likes it. So do we.

Jo is a talented and acrobatic dancer, let me tell you, when Monsieur French waves her hands in the air, she really *doesn't* care! She's a grammar fascist and fancies herself a bit of a photographer, she's not done too badly with it, neither! She is learning the guitar. And the Ukelele. She is better than she thinks she is. I listen to her outside her bedroom. A bedroom which, incidentally, couldn't be more butch if she tried. She's so butch. BUTCH. She's got power tools.

Once upon a time I came downstairs to find Jo on her own, punching the air and whistling along to the Fox Searchlight Productions music, y'know, at the beginning of the films...

Jo's all time favourite song is 'Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now', which is very quaint, almost endearing the first thousand times. However, thereafter it becomes a wee bit unnerving...

Frankly, my beloved housemate needs to have a bit of fun. She had a (typically) amiable break up well and truly long ago enough.

So ladies, if you think you can handle 'Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now' being your song, why not get in touch with Jo? Just click to view her dating profile.

Not a mysinglefriend.com member? Add a friend or sign up now!

Click to go to the main site: mysinglefriend.com

Fancy taking part in a game show?

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0100

Are you the star of your local pub quiz team? Do you play along with University Challenge? Have you always hankered after a tea-time television appearance? If the answer is yes, then we've got an opportunity for you.

Shine TV is on the lookout for contestants to take part in a pilot of a brand new game show. They're looking for outgoing people with good general knowledge, lots of enthusiasm and a bit of courage to take part in this exciting show. If you fancy your chances, please email shine.gameshow@shine.tv for an application form. You need to be 18 or over to apply.

You never know, all those pound coins fed into the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire machine over the years might just add up tp something...

Not a mysinglefriend.com member? Add a friend or sign up now!

Click to go to the main site: mysinglefriend.com

Secondary Picture Gallery: Laura

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0100

If you're a regular follower of the mysinglefriend.com blog, you'll know that we're suckers for a bit of a theme. After last week's Secondary Picture Gallery which featured Adele hanging out in the most glamorous street in the world, Ramsay Street, we were tickled to stumble across another MSFer getting up close and personal with one of its most popular residents...

Yes, it's the lovely Laura with Mr Karl Kennedy. And doesn't he look happy? If you'd like to get in touch with Laura and find out how she came to be so close to such a legendary thesp, just click to view her dating profile.

Not a mysinglefriend.com member? Add a friend or sign up now!

Click to go to the main site: mysinglefriend.com