THE DATING EXPERT

Nana Wereko-Brobby runs dating events club Social Concierge, for people who prefer to date offline…

MEET AMY

Former wild child, actress and bon vivant, Amy is a self-pronounced late bloomer (she’s in her ‘late 30s’) and has enjoyed some passionate relationships but hasn’t taken things too seriously to date. Eccentric and engaging, Amy has a strong personality and a lot of spirit. But now that her priorities have changed, for the first time in a long time, she is open to dating with purpose.

THE CONSULTATION

The recent end of a three-year relationship coincided with a new direction in Amy’s life – setting up a coaching business and embarking on the hectic life of an entrepreneur.

Formerly an actress for 15 years, Amy is spontaneous, dives right in and sees the best in random situations. Her uniform is jeans and Ts. Unconventional? Yes. Career woman? Recently. Which means her prior relationships with hedonistic types no longer fit the woman she has become. This dateover challenge is to find someone more mature, who can match her new focus.

However, the soul of a party girl never dies so the mission was to find a fun-loving guy who had also discovered direction a little later in life and was now all about getting those ducks in a (romantic) row.

THE MATCH: Nick, ‘mid 30s’

Scouted at 21 by Storm Models, Nick’s 20s were fun and party-focused, with music also taking centre stage. At 31 he broke up with his girlfriend of five years and says he’s ‘stumbled through the 30s single wilderness ever since’.

Recently finding his career calling – the drinks business – he’s now ready to look more proactively for a relationship. What drives him
is a simple and happy life, starting a family, doing something he loves and getting that work/life balance.

THE DATE: Thursday night, 6.30pm, Flavour Bastard, Soho

‘I’m usually late for dates as I hate them,’ says Amy. ‘But I’d never been on a blind date before so I was actually excited. With work running late, I was delayed by 40 minutes…

‘Nick was so gracious about my being embarrassingly late – and informed me he only had an hour left! He had a prior arrangement to see a mate’s film screening and couldn’t let him down. I was a bit disappointed, but we agreed to make the most of the remaining hour. This was definitely a speed date!’

Nick adds: ‘We were on a tight turnaround, so you’d think Amy’s late arrival would be a disaster, but it wasn’t. Amy is a bright and attractive business woman – we had plenty to talk about.’

THE VERDICT

Amy says: ‘Would I go out with him again? Absolutely. An hour isn’t long enough to tell how you feel about someone, but he was handsome, interesting and articulate. Most importantly, like me, he is bored with partying and hanging around shallow numpties!  9/10.’

Nick says: ‘My first and last impressions of Amy were kinda the same – she was easy to talk to and had a good sense of humour. I’m pretty sure we’re in agreement that a second meeting would make sense, especially in the light of our curtailed first effort. 9/10.’

NANA SAYS…

The only enemy here was time, always the Londoner’s plight. I’m hoping for at least a three-hour date next time. Follow @BalanceLDN on Twitter for an update on the Amy and Nick story…

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