Over the last 16 years, setting up thousands of dates for my clients in Victoria most say they are looking to find a nook and steal a potential kiss!

I felt I should do some up to date research on making it a memorable one……thought I’d share a few findings:

Fan Tan Alley – Find a nook in NA narrowest commercial street to steal a kiss.  For a little extra luck pass thru Gate of Harmonious Interest and the red streetscape in Chinatown.

Mount Douglas Park – You can drive or hike to the top and share a view of Victoria – go at sunset and watch the snow-capped Olympic Mountains turn pink—this summer especially! Are you melting yet?

Sipping Martinis at Vista18 – unforgettable views, cityscape and the Inner Harbour, ocean, mountains!

Westsong Way – From the west side of the harbour, you’ll get the vest views of the Victoria skyline including the Empress Hotel and Parliament Buildings.

Dallas Road – Walk along the waterfront from Ogden Point to Clover Point, plenty of places off the pathway to hide a picnic basket lunch for two, take in the scenery and take the stairs along the walk that lead to quiet pocket beaches.

Willows Beach – pack a picnic and blanket; watch the moon rise over the ocean on the strip of sand in Oak Bay is totally a smooth move!  Let’s just say you won’t need hot chocolate!

Where’s your place you like to set off some sparks?

 

 

Are you looking for love in Victoria/Vancouver Island?

Contact Me [email protected] .  I’m on the island meeting singles every week.

 

Well, yah, sorta!

I help my clients get closer to happiness in this crazy world of dating.  You can go from feeling like you’re the only single person out there to actually out there on really great dates. No drugs required!

Anybody can get happier.  The first step is to decide you want to.  Sound silly, but wouldn’t we all want to feel happier?  I meet singles everyday who have been stuck in the rut of the dating scene, who have stayed in their comfort zone even if its not what they wanted.  Some have wished for some kind of magic solution and left it in the hands of the universe.  In theory, that’s why singles give online dating a try; they are wanting to have entertainment and instant gratification behind a screen.

If credible matches with singles serious about meeting someone resonates with you, with no harmful side effects and there is no way to overdose, then I am indeed your happiness dealer!

If you need help brokering out your happiness drugs, I’m available If you want to talk for five minutes to see if Matchmaking is right for you, write [email protected]  to schedule a complimentary chat.

My thought of the day; Choose your words wisely, keyboard courage can be dangerous.

We all get negative/positive feedback especially when it comes to dating and how the new norm is to communicate on social media and/or texting for that matter.  Too many people develop “Keyboard Courage” and type the craziest things and hit send and think that’s ok —it’s not!

Don’t think for a minute that potential suitors aren’t doing extensive social media checks to see what type of person you are.  They read threads, view pictures, read your words and check with their network of friends, in under an hour.  And based on what they find, they use that info to decide whether they want to meet you.  Of course, even the best of elevator pitches I can do for my clients won’t influence their opinion of you if you look like or have a reputation of being a headache waiting to happen.

 

My warning; keyboard courage especially in dating can go the wrong direction, very quickly, and remember that there are real people behind that avatar or profile.

 

If there is issue, take a step back from it all and always try to be aware of paths crossing again in the future!

We are currently in the middle of a heatwave and ready to enjoy not only the 150th Anniversary of Canada Day, another perfect long weekend of summer!  Since I just returned from a couple weeks of visiting family in Toronto and spent my week back nursing a nasty bug I picked up, I instead dedicated today to think about the rest of my summer and how I can make this a Summer of Love for my clients!

The Summer of Love refers to the summer of 1967, when an unprecedented gathering of as many as 100,000 young people converged on the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco.  Today half a century later, the most basic values and cultural assumptions of that moment and that movement still apply. From the words of Lennon;

There’s nowhere you can be that isn’t where
You’re meant to be,
It’s easy.
All you need is love.

Is this your summer to find LOVE?

I’ll be waiting with flowers in my hair!

 

Call me a Romantic at Heart, but working with my clients has been amazing!  I don’t know if it’s the fact that so many more people are reaching out to find love (54% of the population is Single) or what it is, but I’m such a sucker for love and I believe in it and always want to win at finding love for all my clients.

By nature, I think as a woman we are nurturers, we’re caretakers, and me in particular……I want to take care of everybody I can.  Tie it with a pulse on the dating scene; imperative traits to have as a Matchmaker!

Over half of people in B.C. love their dog more than their partner and all of them say they would consider NOT dating someone they suspected their dog didn’t like. Sound familiar?

Here are a few considerations to determine if your “dog person” considers their pooch more than a pet:

  1. They admit to shedding a tear when they must leave their dog at home at night
  2. They share more pictures of their dog on social media than of their family
  3. They brought their pet on a date (I know a lot guilty of that one)
  4. They make up songs to sing to their pet like they’re auditioning for American Idol!

No matter how you look at it, dogs are extremely common in BC and one third of the population has a least one dog. I must say……. I am guilty as charged!!!!

Ever feel like you love your dog more than your date? Gone to great lengths to keep your pet happy? Send us a message with your experience!

Good Question!……..who can’t!

He’s the Go-to-Guy and the Mr. Fix-it Man, and good to find!

Dating Tip:  A nice guys goal is to make other’s happy!  Especially his girl!

 

 

 

 

 

FACT: A lone-parent is a man or woman who is single, separated, divorced, … Lone-mothers make up 13% of Canadian families, while lone-fathers make up 3%. which means that the odds are pretty good that at least some of them are looking for love.

If dating as a single person can be a messy combination of fun and frustrating, dating as a single mom poses its own unique challenges. We asked some of our brutally honest single mom clients to tell us the truth about what they want prospective dates to know before they try to hook up with them. From rules about sleepovers, and meeting the kids, they didn’t hold anything back!

“Anyone who wants to date me needs to know that he is always going to be my second, maybe third, priority. My kids come first, and my job is a close second since I have to support my kids. I want to be in a relationship, but not if it messes things up for my kids.” —

“I don’t care how romantic our date was, you are NOT getting invited home. I don’t have sex with someone who I’m not married or engaged to under the same roof as my kid. Period. I don’t want her to be hearing or seeing anything she shouldn’t.” –-

“My kid is pretty great, but you don’t get to meet him unless you are around for the long haul. If you ask to meet him and I say ‘no’, that means I’m not sure about you yet.” —

“If you are the type to get jealous that I’m still friendly with an ex, don’t waste your time with me. My ex is my kid’s dad and we’ll always be in contact, so you had better be able to handle that.” —

“My last boyfriend complained that I wasn’t spontaneous enough.  I have a 2-year-old! I can’t run off for a long weekend trip at the drop of a hat.”

“I think the biggest difference between dating before I had a kid and dating now is that I have no patience for drama or game playing. I used to spend months wondering if someone was right for me and playing all the games. Now I just don’t have the time or energy for that. It is either working or not. If it isn’t working, I’m quicker to pull the plug now than I was before.” —

“Believe it or not, I’m not looking for a father for my kid. I’m looking for a partner for me. If we work, then we can talk about whether you’ll be a part of my kid’s life. He has a dad and it isn’t you.” –

“A guy who is going to date a single mom can’t be needy. Don’t expect to always have me answer every call or text. I’m juggling tons of stuff and trying to date too. I’m doing the best I can.” –

“Please be all the way divorced or out of your prior relationship before you call me, especially if you also have kids. I don’t need drama! Dating with kids involved is hard enough without having fresh divorce issues to deal with.” —

“I have a two-strike rule for last-minute cancellations. Getting a babysitter is work and expensive! I can’t handle flakes at this stage of my life. I already have too many plates spinning.” —

“This should be obvious, but don’t date me if you don’t like kids. Ideally, if this goes well, you’d be in my kid’s life on some level, so even if you think I’m great, don’t ask me out if you aren’t okay with the thought of sharing your life with a kid someday.” –

 

Happy Mothers Day to all the Single Moms !

 

In some ways, we are all living Option B.   No one’s life is perfect. The question is when things go wrong in your relationship then what?  You freeze in horror like OMG. You go thru months of grief that follow like a building being torn down in a matter of minutes. Boom. Flattened.  Then keep wishing you could go back to try to fix things but you do not have that option.  Then you rally and realize you do have the option to kick ass with Option B.  Besides when you find romantic happiness again , and you will, well more power to you! 

I feel it everyday. Everyday we help singles who are struggling to rebuild their dating lives.  Its is our attempt to share what we’ve learned over the last 16 years of matchmaking and help our clients make the most of Option B, embrace it, find happiness and start dating again.   

 

“If you’re going through hell, keep going” – Winston Churchill  

 

Social media has changed peoples lives in the ways in which people ask each other out.  Apparently, asking for a phone number is over.  Why? Because people ask for social media info instead!

Even so, recent studies claim the phone call is more intimate than friending someone on Facebook, nobody makes phone calls you just get their phone number to text them, seems to be the new 1st base for singles!  That’s a whole other story! Take note, once you send a text or a photo, it’s sent and forever tied to your digits. Hold that thought, there are other options, check out our friends at “QTeeApp”   http://www.qteeapp.com/   (watch for next blog post).

So, here’s what I have found; there’s a problem when you start digging into others social media and you immediately learn too much about someone and it’s an early turnoff overlooking a chance to get a vibe with you before you dig in too much.  Many singles have shared their online dating stories with me and some say they keep like a dossier on people and then they immediately decide if that person is not for them.  I find that just wrong!  Remember social media representation of the people putting themselves out there, really isn’t an accurate representation of who they are.  Sometimes you build a sense of that person, when you haven’t had a conversation with them, haven’t met them in person, and there is no sense of who that person is and you’ve written them off, without giving them a chance.

Take into account that most people have an idealized life that they post and people don’t put their real lives online, so I am a firm believer you need to see someone, smell them, need to know them; that’s part of what you learn about somebody!  Living proof, The Waiter Rule; You can tell a lot about a person by the way he or she treats the waiter and being rude to waiters ranks No. 1 as the worst in dining etiquette.  You may save yourself a lot of future problems by more “dining out” first dates.

I always encouraged my clients when I send them a profile match that you can’t speed up the process of getting to know that person on paper, you have to do it in person (unless you’re really not looking to hook up) and the reality is you can’t rush it, you have to take the time.

So, still thinking of going ONLINE “Communicating for FREE this Easter weekend and see where it takes you – it’s an Easter weekend of opportunity!” …….. Or is it…….!!!

What do you think?