Where did you meet your partner?

[Annabellerina]

Looking for inspiration on where I might meet my soulmate in a post covid world. If you didn't meet your partner online, tell me where you met them!

I'm mid 30s with young DC, v outdoorsy and active. Climbing wall is full of people in their 20s, I do see nice looking guys out running but I look sweaty and gross when I run so wouldn't dare approach them, been thinking about joining the gym but imagine I'd look sweaty there too. School run is inappropriate and work is 95% women. Can't think of anywhere else I used to go except the odd night out when I'm focused on having fun with friends. I took a language class and everyone was younger than me. I joined a samba band, same problem there.

Is it my age? Where are all the men in their 30s?!

Bumping

Playing Pokemon Go with my son 😬😆
Still going 2.5 years on, he’s not long moved in.
Not what I planned on catching but 🤷‍♀️
Could be worth a try! Loads of guys play it and it’s a fun hobby that gets you out and about! I’ve met loads of friend through it as well.

I met mine at work but that’s no good if no ones in the office 🤔

Friends have met their partners in the pub, been set up by mutual friends or park run. Loads of blokes at park run

At a festival
Prior to that in the pub

1. From working together on committee for a club 2.At a public meeting. I think its worth getting involved in local organisations. It extends your social group and it's easier to meet people when you're not doing something so obvious as going clubbing. Outdoorsy is not as good for chatting and getting to know people as getting involved in a local campaign. If you have a political affiliation,join the local party branch,that's pretty much a guarantee of finding someone. Golf's another good one if you can afford it.

Pub

Mines was (and still is) my next door neighbour

Sport based club. Training and competing meant we saw a lot of each other and socialised as a group. We knew each other for 4 years before we became a couple.
Pre mobile phones and internet. I feel sorry for people dating today, when you meet online it’s very much in at the deep end. The slow burn of physical attraction and, for want of a better word, “courting” seems to be an old fashioned concept now.
I just can’t see how you can work out if you are physically attracted or attractive on social media. I suppose love letters and notes played a part in the past but nothing beats physical presence and body language to tell you that you are desired.
Sorry didn’t mean for it to be so long.

In a pub at after work drinks with mutual friends. But we were early to mid 20s at the time.

Running club.
Not when running- coz he is way faster.

I'd been single for two years, had tried OLD and joining clubs etc. I'd pretty much given up, and then finally met DP in a pub when I was with a group of friends.

He sat next to me, while talking to the guy opposite me. They were talking about their love lives, he was saying he was single and felt like a monk and that he never seemed to meet any single girls ..

.. I butted in, saying I'm single (I'm normally so shy, I have no idea what made me do this) and he laughed and said I guess we'll have to get married then. Thought no more of it, but he'd sent me a friend request before he left the pub (he knew who I was, extended circle of friends, just hadn't spoken before) and a message to say he hoped I enjoyed the rest of my night.

We texted pretty much non stop from the first day, met for a coffee 10 days later, then started dating.

3 years on, we live together and run a business together.

It was SO random. I had given up, and would never, ever have thought I would end up with this particular guy, who I know of through other friends, and I certainly never imagined I'd found my DP when he sat next to me that day!

Life is so weird sometimes.

McDonald's in 1996 at the start of a night out with a mutual friend.

Most of mine were through work.
I now work exclusively with married women, I'm the only single and they don't have any single guy friends to hook me up with so I had to turn to OLD.

I wouldn't worry about looking hot & sweaty at the gym/on a run, I would think guys who run/gym who find that a turn on not a turn off. You've got to grab all the opportunities you can when you are 30 or older!

OLD in 2009. We matched up almost immediately. He was witty and solid, not that good looking but I decided to give it a try. It was the best decision I ever made. Scientists are usually a solid bet!

Men don't mind women looking sweaty! Trust me. They don't think like we do. If they find your sweaty face unappealing to look at (most of them truly don't!) they'll find something else they find attractive (like your legs, your smile, your personality, the way you move). I think an exercise-based activity is your best bet.

Similar to a pp at the pub with some friends and he was part of a very extended circle and we got chatting.

On the internet

Ooooh don't worry if you're sweaty when running or exercising! Guys who like active girls absolutely won't care. Can you join a sports based group/club though where you have drinks after the activity - makes it easier to chat? Are you on Strava? Get on it if not, you can see people you've run past (if they're on Strava too), and I know couples who've met this way.

Otherwise pubs really, try and find ones that show sport, more likely to have groups of men. Or other work pubs where there's likely to be post work drinks on Thu or Fri.

He came to fix my boiler that was on its last legs. I opened the front door cold and shivering, and not looking especially glamorous having been without hot water for 2 days...and there he was...boom, instant attraction...and he fixed my boiler for free so I was impressed by his honesty. I just felt so comfortable with him from the first moment, and he says he felt the same. The attraction was off the scale on both sides. I wasn't using dating apps nor remotely interested in romance, and neither was he. We seem to be falling in love with each other all the same, and he only lives a few streets away from my home. I rather think we will be growing old together.

He was a fellow housemate in a houseshare and we'd both just moved to the area and were both working for the same organisation. I thought he was a bit strange! Started running together 6 months later and dating a few months after that. Seventeen years later we are married with three DC.

In a nightclub (1993).

Is there a reason you don't want OLD?
With the restrictions I can't imagine many places to meet new people where it's not SD and odd or counterintuitive.

Fwiw I met my DH OLD, I only met a handful of people using it and had initially only signed up to get over my crippling social awkwardness. Ended up meeting DH and it turned into a relationship fairly quickly as we got on so well. Now I'm in my 30s I've no idea where I'd meet anyone else if I found myself single, the only other single people I know are 40s/50s and either have no interest in dating or OLD.

I was his patient lol.
I hasten to add nothing happened until I was discharged from his professional care. I was awful, ill, in pain and insanely grumpy, with hair that was falling out, tiny children and I hadn't set foot outside the hospital properly in months. He tells me he knew I was the 'one' the day he met me......I laughed at him when he asked me out for a meal I was rather slow on the uptake, and very wary but he was patient.
We are very happy together years later.

At work, football stadium food stall when we were 17 ⚽️

Dp was one of my best mates housemates (we were late 20s when we met). I suppose now in my late 30s if I was looking I'd probably join more groups that share my interests, such as local campaign/community groups, or maybe social things on something like meetup.