Festival | Dating101Sydney's Blog

So last week was somewhat of a big week, a managed to bag myself a great new job, yyyippeee (very excited!)! Then of course there were celebrations all round at the big event at the Argyle on Friday, cocktail fun ahoy! CarniArgyle didn’t disappoint, I will be frequenting again for sure!

Then there was a little festival called Future, you may have heard of it? It is the festival with MGMT, Chemical Brothers and Pendulum headlining? (Not that I got to enjoy any of it! I only went and got asked to leave didn’t I!) 26-years-old and asked to leave a festival – was not impressed (think my little brother was a little bit less impressed than me considering he had only had two beers!)

Security on a power trip – less than ideal! Surely it is standard that people are expected to be merry at a festival?? In the UK if you’re looking a little too intoxicated they take you to a tent, give you water and feed you. Over here they simply rip your bands off and you don’t get a say in the matter. There goes $165….

The fun continued despite my altercation, everyone descended to our humble abode to continue the party into the wee early hours on Sunday… Following a great night of drinking, chatter and banter I took myself of to bed.

To say I wasn’t so sparkling when I woke up was an understatement! I literally didn’t move from the horizontal position all day, it wasn’t too bad however as I had company in the form of a male species – silver lining and all that. So after another great weekend it’s suddenly Monday morning again a little bit too soon.

Another of many great things about Sydney, is the fact that if you wanted to do something every night, you literally could (I don’t think your liver or bank balance would be too happy about it however). Since moving here two years and three months ago I never fail to be disappointed by the events of each weekend, they get better and better as time goes on.

Despite this I have decided that I am going to made a conscious effort to try to stay in more over the next few months – I have a month long trip to the UK in July for my best friend’s wedding, so need to save save save.

It’s so funny, when I lived in the UK I found it much easier to save, a lot of my friend’s are in relationships and lived nearby so it was much simpler to just ‘stay in’ if times were tight, or you just wanted a rest, ha! In Sydney it is a completely different story. I can probably count on one hand the number of weekends I’ve stayed in since landing in the land ‘D’n Under’ (that’s probably being over generous is I’m honest). I’ve found myself looking to sign up for long distance runs to motivate myself to stay in and not go out. Otherwise the quest to go out, party with my friends and meet new people is just too strong – damn you will power why do you hate me so?!

So let’s see how I go on hey! I’m going to try and experience the finer things in Sydney and believe me there are lots of them! – Art galleries, restaurants, scenic walks, beaches and dancing/ cooking classes to name a few. Don’t get me wrong there will still be a fair share of bars and restaurants that I frequent, I just figured it would do me no harm to mix it up a bit.

If any of you have any recommendations, give me a shout! I’m all ears!

Dating in Sydney can be so much fun, with all the amazing venues, activities and suburbs each date stands to be more different in so many ways from the last.

Spoilt for choice is pretty apt, with all the activities to choose from in this amazing city, sometimes it’s just nice to meet up with a date over a quiet drink in an atmospheric bar after work.

The lovely Shelbourne - Ideal for after work drinks

On this particular occasion the said location was the Shelbourne Hotel on Market Street, I’d arranged to meet up with a cute Irish guy that I had been texting back and forth whilst travelling in SA. Upon my return to Sydney we arranged to meet for a drink on a quiet Wednesday evening.

I’d met him when he’d been trying to sell me a hairdressing voucher (yes he was one of those annoying people who pester anyone with hair in the CBD) he happened to be quite cute and the deal was quite good, so I bought one from him. I figured that it was a good deal and a clever way to give him my number (always thinking).

So it was the weekend before we were due to go out and I decided to go to my first Sydney festival with a few of my girlfriends and their friends. There I got talking to a lovely Aussie chic for a short while, who was a friend of a friend, we made small talk and she asked what I was up to in the week. I explained that I was going to get my hair done and then had a ‘date’.

She seemed to have a vast knowledge of Sydney hairdressing salons and proceeded to ask me where I was going. I explained and she asked if I’d got it off one of the sales guys from Pitt Street, to which I replied “yes”.

The interrogation then followed, was he Irish, “yes”, did he have brown hair, “yes”, was his name Darren*, “yes”. It only turns out that my date happened to be her ex fella that she split up with him two days before getting with her new fella (who happened to be very good mates with my Bessie!)

So I explained that I had arranged to meet him after getting my hair done and that I would cancel if it would be awkward at all. She was very determined in the fact that I shouldn’t cancel and that she was with a new guy now and very happy.

Wednesday came by before I knew it, brand new hair cut, new dress and feeling quite good about myself.

We met in the Shelbourne and we had instant chemistry, drinks were flowing and we’d arranged to meet up again on at least three dates (was looking good). We even had a cheeky kiss before the chatter turned to the previous weekend, he asked where I’d been and I explained I’d been to the festival with my friends. He asked which friends, I told him and decided to not omit the name of his ex, Annabel*, as didn’t want to be deceitful.

He didn’t pick up on it, so we carried on chatting about the week, my hair etc. He asked who had done my hair, I explained and low and behold it turned out that he actually lived with her, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, small world.

So I innocently asked how long he’d been living with Annabel for… yes I said the wrong name. He twigged straight away and mentioned that he had noticed that I’d said that name before.

Sensing I was digging myself into a hole, I innocently said, “It’s so weird you should say that as Annabel did say her ex used to work for your salon, but I thought that there was no chance it could be you.”

So the interrogation began with the 20 questions, “Is she Australian?” “Does she live in Coogee?” “Does she have brown hair?” I answered all the questions “yes!”

To which we agreed it was the same person, reality hit home.

Darren proceeded to tell me that; yes it was his ex, his ex… FIANCEE! Who he was with for NINE years! Annabel had neglected to tell me that little nugget of information.

He then excused himself to go to the bathroom, visibly upset. He left me to ponder the situation I’d managed to get myself into, I had only myself to blame.

Ten minutes later he appeared rather sheepishly at the table with red puffy eyes (quite obvious he’s been blubbing in the bathroom). He proceeded to ask me if she was happy, to which I responded, “I’m not going to lie to you, yes she is.” Not exactly the answer he was looking for.

I then received what can only be described as a monologue of clichés and cringe factor announcements that would make any woman’s blood run cold: “I’ve got to be completely honest with you here, there isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think about Annabel and wish that I was still with her. She was/ is the love of my life and I miss her every second.

“I think you’re an amazing girl and I was looking forward to seeing you again, and I do think that is this wasn’t the situation I’d definitely want to see you again. But as you’re friends with Annabel and she’s in your circle of friends, I just can’t continue with this. With this in mind I’m going to go.”