If The Key Fits (Part Two)

Now I should tell you about the event itself I suppose. It actually started at 8pm but my confirmation email said to turn up at 7:30. Apparently this was so I could feel fashionably late when I actually arrived on time. I obviously missed this bit of social etiquette however and ended up wandering Oxford Street for half an hour freezing my butt off and getting beeped at by stupid men in cars and hoping I didn't end up getting even more sick than I already was. At 8 o'clock however, I passed the name check at the door from the girl who seemed so sure someone would try sneak in (she was constantly trying to cover the guest list) and the male bouncer who appeared to be moonlighting as the fashion police.

Inside, I was presented with a small padlock (like those used for luggage) on a piece of ribbon. And that was it really. The rest was up me. I then grabbed a drink off the bar and jumped right in. Well, figuratively speaking at least. The whole lock and key thing acts as an ice breaker really, so you can feel comfortable approaching anyone there and know they won't tell you to rack off. You can also assume that they're single so if you think they're hot stuff you can try to hit on them - and people were, trust me. I saw a few people who were lip-locked by the end of the night. Most people were really friendly though and you often exchanged a bit of conversation as well as checking if your hardware matched. There were people you had no connection with but with these you only tried for a lock and key match before you moved on.

On arrival, where as all the girls got padlocks, all the guys got keys. The aim of the game (as well as meeting a whole heap of people) was to circulate and find the key to match the lock. Very Freudian I know. Also an opening for most guys to go on about the size of their keys when they didn't fit the locks. Uh-huh. As soon as you did find a match however, you took your lock and key to the main desk to exchange them for a new (unmatched) lock and key and entered into the draw for prizes. Then you started the whole thing again. Some people were really into it and matched heaps of times but others were more happy to soak up the atmosphere (or was that the free alcohol?). I guess I was somewhere in the middle. I matched a few times, even twice with the same guy. Although seeing as locks and keys that had previously matched were given out at the same desk, if you just hung around the area, it really wasn't hard to match again reasonably soon.

There were at least 200 people there though and it was comfortably crowded. People were mostly in their mid-late 20's I think but some were either older or younger. Everyone seemed to be having a really good time though. There were a couple of people I talked to who felt really outside their element, and one guy who just seemed shocked that so many single, good-looking people were all in the one place, but the atmosphere on the whole was great.

For my own part, I think I would have had a truly fantastic night if I hadn't been recovering from a cold and I'd had a few friends there. It was definitely less exhausting than the speed dating with everyone being a lot more laid back and relaxed. As the night was held in a terrace building, there was a rocking party upstairs and a more schmoozing thing going downstairs. The venue was also pretty central to other places you might want to go out to afterwards. When the event ended at 11pm though, I chose not to kick on but to go home and recover. But even though I didn’t meet my perfect match, I’m glad I went.