Singles Parties

The City of Manila - Compiled Threads - Page 430 - Skyscraper City

Got this Fb message from my Maven Secrets coursemate, Glen Cura of batch 3.0:

'Glen- Cura January 15 at 11:18pm Report

hi am organizing a singles event for filchis in grand opera hotel,not so strict with age, but the target participants are single yuppies, the goal of the event is to network and build friendships. 800 un fee, for details you can contact me, glen 09498456561, sun 09222097589. thanks'

This is my first time to hear of the Grand Opera Hotel.  From the location, the target of this event is the Binondo-Banawe, 'real Tsinoy' group, versus Westernized Tsinays like me.   I have no idea how the Binondo crowd would respond to an event like this. I like that there's no age discrimination.  I once organized a party for my then-single friend RU.  He specified an age range, which I complied with.

In all, I've organized three singles parties.  Two were in houses, so they were potluck.  Another one was in a resto, so there was a drinks stub.  The house parties were attended by about 50 people. I got an invite to play badmin from one group, which I refused because my badmin sked was full at the time.  Wouldn't mind playing with them someday.

The third one was in a defunct resto owned by my friend Zoilo Cruz and his partner, whose name escapes me now, at Octagon Building.  To make the cost of going minimal, to avoid the 'desperate' label, I thought of using drink stubs.  Maybe about 20 people went, because there was flooding everywhere that day.   The resto did not collect the minimum from me.

I've been to a couple of singles parties.  One was organized by Anvil Executive Club, I think.  My friend quietly gave me a stub, and swore me to secrecy as she only gave me one, saying that I go to club meetings because I'm interested in the club, not to meet people.  I only went because of the stub.  The President then invited me to open the dance floor, nothing personal, he probably thought that since we were friends and I understood that someone had to do the job, that my two left feet were perfect for the job.

Another was organized at a mutual friend's condo rooftop.  Among other things, the party was memorable because of a DOM-DYM.  Ok, he was a DM, that's for sure.

So when MF invited me to a singles party on a weekday night in New Manila near my house, I told her that I was too lazy to drive, etc.

I guess I'm more interested to meet people, male and female, single or married, in situations where we have a common interest e.g. the blogging, Quiz Night, KTV, movie and dinner with mutual friends.

I can't think of anything interesting that came out of any of the singles parties that I had organized or gone to.  By interesting, I don't mean just dates, even friendships would have been good enough.  Well, maybe it was my fault, too, because a host of one of the parties wanted my number but I refused to give it to him.

Some parties had games, others were just a matter of being introduced to one another.  And let's not forget the ICA-Xavier, ICA, or Xavier parties that I had been to.

Wait!  I had stayed maybe an hour to a party of maybe 20 people.  Not sure if it was a singles party.  I went with a male friend, who invited me. to the party.  There I met a guy who became my best-friend-of--the-opposite-sex at a time.  He didn't really make an impression on me at the time, but, as Maria Ressa would say, a 'confluence of events' e.g. badminton and his being our contractor, led to our being friends and his being my 'assumed husband,' to my surprise.

It was my second time then to meet Jayson Biadog, who became a good friend. I sold Speaker Carljoe Javier's book Kobayashi Maru of Love.

I think that maybe the speed 'dating' activity that we had at a Writers Block networking event, which was also successful at my Ateneo English Honors class orientation, might get people talking.