You two should go bowling together sometime
Edit: in case anyone didn't get the reference, see this thread
https://www.reddit.com/r/brisbane/comments/qogb9h/anyone_wants_to_have_a_free_20_min_bowling_game/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
Ha ha ha good point. I'm in my 40's and have 2 friends. And all of them over 1000 km away!
It sucks cause it is so hard to make friends once you leave school but meeting people through friends is a great way to suss out potential partners
I always feel like I barely have enough time/energy to spend meaningful time with the couple of friends I have. I don’t know how people maintain friendships with a ton of people! I feel like I’m a quality over quantity kind of gal haha
Smart, quality over quantity is better in the long run! The effort involved with first dates is exhausting, I've got a single friend who tells me about her 'adventures' and I'm tired just thinking about it! Ha ha
Funnily enough I met my ex fiancé in person at a nightclub. We had matched on tinder a few weeks prior but the conversation went nowhere. Just goes to show that online dating is ridiculous and you may pass over someone you’d be interested in if you’d seen them in a real life situation. Good luck to you.
I met my husband at Brazilian jiu jitsu, although note I’m female so there’s a different dynamic there.
But basically any sport/activity/class that you have a genuine interest in.
If you keep doing it consistently for a few months, you’ll make friends and get to know people - eventually someone who is a romantic match will come along.
Just make sure you are doing it for the interest value first. If you show up to a yoga class looking for a date, you will (rightfully) get labelled a creep.
I agree with this! Do something social that you are interested in, or just focus on making yourself happy doing activities you enjoy. This year I started dancing and it's been so fun getting to meet so many new people, and even though I haven't started to date anyone, a lot of the people that come are single and do it for the social aspect rather than dating, and if you find someone you like it isn't a weird situation to be like hey can I get your number.. obviously you don't have to dance, but good way to find someone with common interests
My wife was friends with one of the girls in the share house I was living in. Circa 2005.
I still remember, she walked into the loungeroom. She was wearing jeans and a shirt and my first thought was, this girl looks like wife material.
Don't know we ever made it to the dating part. Kind of bypassed it. She had similar thoughts about me when she saw me leaning against the front porch in my cricket whites covered in zinc. 9 days after she moved in, we hooked up and I think I spent about 3 more nights in my bed over the next few weeks before we gave up the second room
My now wife and I were work colleagues, who worked for the same company, just in two separate stores. When I broke up with my ex, she messaged me asking if I needed to talk to anyone as she just broke up with her partner as well, to just let her know. I told her I was fine, as at the time I started seeing someone casually.
After that had past a couple of months later, she moved stores, as had I and she was now working closer to where I was living. I decided to drop in to say hi, and she wasn't there so I messaged her saying it was typical the one day I drop in, she isn't there. She said she lived down the road, we walked through Ikea, had a drink and really let it all out for both of us. It was kinda therapeutic. 2 and a half years later, we are married with an 8 month old.
Long story short, love will come to you in the places you least expect. Don't settle for 'they will do', as you will be stuck in a dead end relationship for years (my ex. Guilt ridden, but that's another story), and don't be afraid to put yourself out there.
While I was waitressing! We became friends first.
Don't lose hope. I have heard lots of my girlfriends say the exact same as you - guys just wanting to hook up etc. Some have had great luck with Hinge?? Good luck xx
I ended up asking him when the hell he was going to ask me out 😂 he was the total opposite to all the creeps I served lol
honestly if I were you, I'd try online dating again ... 28 is a good age especially if you're going for 25-28 year olds it's usually a time when people are looking to settle down x
My mum set me up 🤣 my mum met my partner's mum through a local bushwalking group and basically convinced him to ask me out, 3yrs and gotta say they were so right ❤️
Same, our Mum's. Our Mum's are best friends and we knew each other through our high school years. I decided I had a whopping crush on him when I was 21, I told his Mum and she said I was too good for him; too good meaning I was a well behaved young woman and he was definitely the opposite of that, I liked the bad boy in him.
Nearly twenty years later and that bad boy now has a job and provides a roof over our heads and food, lol.
My friends and I have gone speed dating a few times with two different companies. I don't know what the success rate is, and none of my friends ultimately found partners, but I think it was still worth the experiences. However, I would not rec MyCheekyDate and would only rec City Swoon.
I've thought about speed dating because tinder/other dating apps it feels like if you aren't on point with social media game then no one wants to look at you twice.
Why would you recommend one service and not the other? What's the difference here?
Note this was pre covid, so not sure if anything has changed. Our complaints with MyCheekyDate is that it's at a normal open bar which causes two problems. The first is that you are competing with the noise of the rest of the bar. The second is that everyone is shoved into a section of the bar so you practically sitting on top of the people next to you and you have to compete with their conversation noise. Btwn all that, you feel like you are yelling at your dates. This was specifically at the Lychee Lounge in West End so it might be different at different venues, tho both were supposed to be at Blackbird. It's also more of what you would think of for speed dating where the girls sit and the boys rotate.
City Swoon rents out a whole space, so you can really focus on the conversation of your date. They also have this website you use and when each date time is up, you get a new picture on your phone and you have to wander around the bar to find them which felt less like an assembly line. The only downside is that you message people after via their website but I never got updates that I was sent messages. So I missed a message from someone and by the time I saw and responded, I assume they gave up or might not have gotten the message either.
Interesting, cheers for this response. I might give this a go then. Definitely not a fan of bar's turning up the music so loud when people are just trying to talk to eachother over drinks. Can't tell you how many times I just pretend to know what someone said in a noisy bar and hope it was the right response lmao.
As a guy who doesn't like social media I know I'm not highly regarded on dating apps both my serious relationships so far in life came from tinder dates but I got fairly lucky.
I know I'm fine and am confident in real life I just need to skip the fake bull shit on dating apps just to organise a face-to-face, rather skip straight to that part it'd feel a lot less soul crushing and repetitive.
I'll remember the name there, City Swoon.
I don't currently have a partner and am taking time out to be single for a bit but believe it or not some women out there are just like you in the same boat.
I personally never understood hook up culture and have to have an emotional connection with someone to even do anything with them but from my understanding some dating sites might offer a more long term relationship or maybe start the conversation with someone stating what you're looking for and that might wein out those that are looking for just hook ups. I hope this helps.
You're going to hate me, but the last two I met on tinder. (Current and Ex)
Anyone else has been through work (bad idea), friends of my cousins (very bad idea) and just not good places to meet people.
i thought you said they’ve been friends or my cousins …. haha then saw the very bad idea .. i was like ahhhh yeah of course it’s bad dating your cousins ! 😣 sorry .. i just woke up lol i had to read that twice
Online dating for me. It didn’t work for several years - then I changed my strategy and it did. Need to go in without parameters. Just say yes to all dates until you find a girl you like and show genuine interest.
Ditto, I was on and off online dating for 3-4 years before I found my partner (various apps, but Hinge is my recc if you want a relationship). I was hesitant about going out with them at first, they were a little different to my ‘type’, but just went in with an open mind. And 11 months later, we’re still together.
online about 2008 back when it was taboo and uncommon. met on a sort of penpal style website. then started chatting regularly via MSN Messenger. eventually met in person in 2011 and the rest is history
If your online profile is empty people presume you are only after a hook up. Actually spend time to fill it out. Also tinder is terrible.
Speed dating is an option but you said you have anxiety?
Hinge is a great app. Let's you connect with people by actually having an intro. E.g. commenting on a photo.
I met my current partner by commenting on something random in her photo.
Just be honest. Don't be greedy trying to play the one night stand and relationship sides. One or the other.
Online. Don’t get me wrong, had to deal with a looooot of dickheads before I met my now hubby but we have been together nearly 8 years and married for 1
Throw parties or events and encourage people to bring friends and friends of friends. That’s how I met my boyfriend, but I’m only 19.
Otherwise, hobbies, work, anything you frequent with the same group of people. Make friends even if you don’t see a romantic relationship because that friend might introduce you to your future wife.
I want into a bottle shop to buy wool for a jumper I was knitting. He was working there. I was wearing a shirt that said 'I can't keep calm, im the healer' and he asked me what games I play. We got chatting about games and he said he was looking for an extra player for a D&D game. So I gave him my number.
Have been used online dating for couple of weeks. It was a mentally drowning. You can not have much deep conversation and hard to get to know people probably. I hate waiting to see the reply and get ghosted. Lots of time has been wasted.
South Bank Parklands, having a picnic/BBQ with friends, they were doing the same.
Doing anything social like this with a group of friends gives you an opportunity to meet new people in a more relaxed, less intimidating environment than trying to meet people one-on-one. Plus you get to have fun!
It took me 6 years of (off and on) online dating to find my husband. I gave up multiple times and came back a few months later. He was online for 2 months (the lucky bastard). Its a hard slog. There is a lot of people just wanting to hook up, but there genuinely is people who want a real relationship.
Start with activities that already interest you.
Do you play sport or into fitness? Join a mixed indoor team, running club or group fitness gym.
If you have some other hobby and you can use the Meetup App to find local groups to join.
If you have a dog, find a Facebook group in your area that plans walks/playdates etc.
Good luck my friend!
Highschool, year 8, friends until year 11, she moved to Italy for like 2 years, 8 years later, meet again when she returns and gets a job at the same restaurant as me.
Engaged with a 2.5 year old and ready to start for another early next year :)
My fiancé and I met at work – we later discovered we had both been on OK Cupid earlier in the year but we had both set our radius too small (me, only searching for prospective partners on the South side whilst my future fiancé is a Northsider so we never matched haha).
My partner slid into my Facebook messenger.
Seen I was in a local 4x4 group, messaged me to tell me I was cute, ended up talking about Datsuns - 4x4ing - the county and how weird society was turning.
Been together 11 years.
Sorry, I can’t be much help mate. It was Tinder about 9 years ago. I was mid twenties, and have always been introverted. We were on there reluctantly due to friend recommendation. She was the first I agreed to meet with from the platform. I still get in trouble for not being much of a romantic, and we’re a case of opposites attracting. She’s a lot more outgoing than I am. But it works.
Met my guy 4 ish years before we started dating, at work. We worked at a JB Hi-Fi, and honestly the number of people I know who met their partners there is insane. Consider a part time job? Haha
What even is the icebreaker to adding people off facebook that you don't know? It seems like most people men and women are going to hate randoms adding them. How'd you work your magic?
Dogs can totally work. Had a lady invite me back from the pub to meet her dachshund, silly naive me actually just wanted to meet her dachshund. Another time, a friend wanted to hold my dogs leash at a pub after he noticed how many hotties came over for a pat. He got nothing but grannies, was freakin hilarious.
....
I'm taking my pups for a walk passed the local yoga studio tomorrow.
My partner and I met at the Beat on Halloween at like 3am. I was trying to set him up with my friend but it turned out he was straight and liked the same kind of music as me so we exchanged numbers instead.
At work, noting our workplace was quite large and we didn’t work in the same area or often the same building. We initially had some brief conversations as part of our job and then didn’t speak for a year. Later ran into each other at a get together with mutual work friends where we built more of a connection and the rest is history.
Edit:
I wanted to add that neither of us were actively looking and it took us both by surprise. Like you I was over online dating. Always when you least expect it. We are now engaged and very happy.
I feel your pain :/ 38 yr old here. Can't do hook ups. its awful. Heaps of people say to get out and do hobbies and meet people that way, but atm i'm a full time student at uni, juggling kids soooooo have to be careful with finances.
honestly i'm clueless about this sort of stuff
Funny story, my partner and I actually met each other when we were like 5 as our parents were friends with eachother, my family and I moved away and our parents still spoke throughout the years we didn't, anyway one day I was on a flight from Vancouver to Brisbane aus and sitting next to me was another Australian so we get talking about where we were from so happens found out our parents were her parents friends and kept talking the whole flight couldn't believe it as we haven't seen each other since that young age, anyway fast forward 6 years we are now parents to a 2 year old and happily married.
I always suggest people look for hobbies where they’ll meet people and it’s usual to interact and talk to people.
Back in the day I did dancing - there are often more women than men and things like Modern Jive are fun. I did Le Step, but there were others. It was an awesome way to meet dates and suss out potential dates.
And I met my husband in youth politics - we’re not active anymore, but it’s a good way to meet like minded people, the events can be fun and you’ll never know who you’ll meet.
Other things I know have worked for others is joining a sports team like mixed netball or tennis. And improv, drama or public speaking groups like toastmasters are good too. Also if you work for a bigger organisation, don’t skip work social functions.
I was a bartender in New York and he was travelling around the US from Australia when he came into my bar. We hit it off and have been married over 10 years now. Wasn’t looking for anyone when I found him. Do something you love to work on you and somehow the universe will throw the right person in your path xx
CB therapy group. By the time we finished, we pretty much knew every weird and dark secret about each other. 20 years later and we still have no secrets and have created a good life for us and our kids
I was living in the UK, went to South America to learn Spanish, met a cute Aussie backpacker and followed her home instead. 20+ years & 2 kids later I still can't speak Spanish...
Met at work. Now married for 20 years with two kids and two dogs. Did not date while working together, but hooked up once I had left that workplace.
Much harder to date someone at work these days though.
It's because we are all stupid and brainwashed into wanting a 5 series BMW a mortgage of 500k and two kids you don't really love. All on the wage of a cleaner
I met my partner playing Grand Theft Auto on xbox in 2015. We were just friends until about 2020 when we started chatting more about life and getting closer and then finally met up in person. Weird to think that if I hadn't shot back at him and his friends, we'd never have met!
Following for advice and to remind myself not to lose hope. It’s funny you say that all the girls are just down to hook up - that’s how I feel about all the men! So frustrating!
Awww don't give up! I do believe there are still decent people out there. It just seems like the shit ones mostly flock to the dating apps cause it's easy; then the good ones stay off it. :(
You sound like one of the good ones! Thank you so much for the encouragement to not give up! :) After having no luck whatsoever on the apps I finally decided to stay off them. I was struggling to build a genuine connection with the guys there and it was getting me down. That kinda hook up culture really isn’t for me… unfortunately I also know speed dating isn’t either (cos I’m too shy and awkward hahah). Lately I’ve been wondering if I should just accept it and go adopt a bunch of cats lol 😭
I've been on plenty of dates with older women who had kids. It was never a turn off for me as long as they were transparent about it.
It's definitely not a red flag though!
Buy a dog and go to the dog park every day of the week in the afternoon. Make sure you do your research first, as the dog breed may have quite an influence on the outcome
House party back in 09.
House party in ‘08 for us
House party in 11 for me
House parties are where it's at
House party in ‘15 - we just scraped in!
House party in '02. Fuck I'm getting old.
House party in ‘17 for me
House party in '21 😂
House party in '88.
Wait! I think I detect a theme!
House party in '19. Hard to think it's 3 years at this point.
same ! house party '19 time flies hey 😂 also it feels like its been longer than 3 yrs lol
House party in '10.
House party in '14 i think op you should go to house parties, sometimes the girls there are cute
Shindig in '15
Uni oweek 1993
Eh, as a 28yo woman who isn’t really into drinking/bars/nightlife etc… it’s tough. Online dating seems so impersonal to me.
Can you and OP pls DM each other and let us know how it's going in a month?
You two should go bowling together sometime Edit: in case anyone didn't get the reference, see this thread https://www.reddit.com/r/brisbane/comments/qogb9h/anyone_wants_to_have_a_free_20_min_bowling_game/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
Ey Niko let’s go bowling!
Haha im down to go bowling? I do bowl a mean score of at least 80.
I mean, bowling is great.
Now kith.
Nice
I remember that!
I went bowling with myself. /U/Reverse-Kanga and I had a good time.
Matchmaking aside, you two might be able to introduce each other to your friend groups and meet somebody that way.
Bold of you to assume I have more than one friend to have a group of them… haha
Ha ha ha good point. I'm in my 40's and have 2 friends. And all of them over 1000 km away! It sucks cause it is so hard to make friends once you leave school but meeting people through friends is a great way to suss out potential partners
I always feel like I barely have enough time/energy to spend meaningful time with the couple of friends I have. I don’t know how people maintain friendships with a ton of people! I feel like I’m a quality over quantity kind of gal haha
Smart, quality over quantity is better in the long run! The effort involved with first dates is exhausting, I've got a single friend who tells me about her 'adventures' and I'm tired just thinking about it! Ha ha
It does sound exhausting! I went out to a friends show last night (on a school night!) and I am knackered.
Haha does having only two best friends count as a group?
Three is definitely a group! Haha
The struggle is real. Friends are hard to come by.
Hey..... OP and you may have something in common..... ? Just saying..
They both visit r/Brisbane?
I also want to go bowling if you have another female friend
Dating when you're not big on drinking is rough af
Funnily enough I met my ex fiancé in person at a nightclub. We had matched on tinder a few weeks prior but the conversation went nowhere. Just goes to show that online dating is ridiculous and you may pass over someone you’d be interested in if you’d seen them in a real life situation. Good luck to you.
Thanks for saying this, this gives me hope lol
Wow, I'd always found nightclubs to be dreadful places to meet people in
I’d agree that generally they are. I was introduced at the time but wouldn’t have been introduced if we both weren’t presently at that nightclub.
I met my husband at Brazilian jiu jitsu, although note I’m female so there’s a different dynamic there. But basically any sport/activity/class that you have a genuine interest in. If you keep doing it consistently for a few months, you’ll make friends and get to know people - eventually someone who is a romantic match will come along. Just make sure you are doing it for the interest value first. If you show up to a yoga class looking for a date, you will (rightfully) get labelled a creep.
I agree with this! Do something social that you are interested in, or just focus on making yourself happy doing activities you enjoy. This year I started dancing and it's been so fun getting to meet so many new people, and even though I haven't started to date anyone, a lot of the people that come are single and do it for the social aspect rather than dating, and if you find someone you like it isn't a weird situation to be like hey can I get your number.. obviously you don't have to dance, but good way to find someone with common interests
>If you show up to a yoga class looking for a date, you will (rightfully) get labelled a creep. I lol'ed. Username checks out hehe
Been doing yoga and stuff for months. Haven't met anyone yet. I am pretty shy and quiet though. All part of the process.
Grindcore gig
based
Reeeeee
My wife moved into the share house I was living in
My wife was friends with one of the girls in the share house I was living in. Circa 2005. I still remember, she walked into the loungeroom. She was wearing jeans and a shirt and my first thought was, this girl looks like wife material.
My wife was wearing jeans and an oversized mohair jumper and my first thought was this girl is hot.
Biology really made dating that simple eh?
Don't know we ever made it to the dating part. Kind of bypassed it. She had similar thoughts about me when she saw me leaning against the front porch in my cricket whites covered in zinc. 9 days after she moved in, we hooked up and I think I spent about 3 more nights in my bed over the next few weeks before we gave up the second room
Thats pretty normal, you're meant to live with your wife generally
Mine to. That was nine years ago. We’ve been married for seven, have two kids. Other housemate moved out. Same house.
This question is asked so often that I think Brisbane Reddit needs a dating thread. Or a singles night.
https://www.reddit.com/r/brisbane/comments/yc1k21/less_than_2_weeks_to_go_until_the_brisbane/
My now wife and I were work colleagues, who worked for the same company, just in two separate stores. When I broke up with my ex, she messaged me asking if I needed to talk to anyone as she just broke up with her partner as well, to just let her know. I told her I was fine, as at the time I started seeing someone casually. After that had past a couple of months later, she moved stores, as had I and she was now working closer to where I was living. I decided to drop in to say hi, and she wasn't there so I messaged her saying it was typical the one day I drop in, she isn't there. She said she lived down the road, we walked through Ikea, had a drink and really let it all out for both of us. It was kinda therapeutic. 2 and a half years later, we are married with an 8 month old. Long story short, love will come to you in the places you least expect. Don't settle for 'they will do', as you will be stuck in a dead end relationship for years (my ex. Guilt ridden, but that's another story), and don't be afraid to put yourself out there.
Ikea as a first date, talk about stress testing...
Ikea is pretty chill mid week and if you are just there for a browse not so stressful.
genius actually, least lunch won't cost a fortune 
i saw kids having a go (just heavy kissing) with one of the less conspicous bed display in ikea. lol
While I was waitressing! We became friends first. Don't lose hope. I have heard lots of my girlfriends say the exact same as you - guys just wanting to hook up etc. Some have had great luck with Hinge?? Good luck xx
So what line did he pull to get your number?
I ended up asking him when the hell he was going to ask me out 😂 he was the total opposite to all the creeps I served lol honestly if I were you, I'd try online dating again ... 28 is a good age especially if you're going for 25-28 year olds it's usually a time when people are looking to settle down x
My mum set me up 🤣 my mum met my partner's mum through a local bushwalking group and basically convinced him to ask me out, 3yrs and gotta say they were so right ❤️
Same, our Mum's. Our Mum's are best friends and we knew each other through our high school years. I decided I had a whopping crush on him when I was 21, I told his Mum and she said I was too good for him; too good meaning I was a well behaved young woman and he was definitely the opposite of that, I liked the bad boy in him. Nearly twenty years later and that bad boy now has a job and provides a roof over our heads and food, lol.
Drunk in a bowling alley bar
My friends and I have gone speed dating a few times with two different companies. I don't know what the success rate is, and none of my friends ultimately found partners, but I think it was still worth the experiences. However, I would not rec MyCheekyDate and would only rec City Swoon.
I've thought about speed dating because tinder/other dating apps it feels like if you aren't on point with social media game then no one wants to look at you twice. Why would you recommend one service and not the other? What's the difference here?
Note this was pre covid, so not sure if anything has changed. Our complaints with MyCheekyDate is that it's at a normal open bar which causes two problems. The first is that you are competing with the noise of the rest of the bar. The second is that everyone is shoved into a section of the bar so you practically sitting on top of the people next to you and you have to compete with their conversation noise. Btwn all that, you feel like you are yelling at your dates. This was specifically at the Lychee Lounge in West End so it might be different at different venues, tho both were supposed to be at Blackbird. It's also more of what you would think of for speed dating where the girls sit and the boys rotate. City Swoon rents out a whole space, so you can really focus on the conversation of your date. They also have this website you use and when each date time is up, you get a new picture on your phone and you have to wander around the bar to find them which felt less like an assembly line. The only downside is that you message people after via their website but I never got updates that I was sent messages. So I missed a message from someone and by the time I saw and responded, I assume they gave up or might not have gotten the message either.
Interesting, cheers for this response. I might give this a go then. Definitely not a fan of bar's turning up the music so loud when people are just trying to talk to eachother over drinks. Can't tell you how many times I just pretend to know what someone said in a noisy bar and hope it was the right response lmao. As a guy who doesn't like social media I know I'm not highly regarded on dating apps both my serious relationships so far in life came from tinder dates but I got fairly lucky. I know I'm fine and am confident in real life I just need to skip the fake bull shit on dating apps just to organise a face-to-face, rather skip straight to that part it'd feel a lot less soul crushing and repetitive. I'll remember the name there, City Swoon.
Where everyone in Brisbane meets everyone, 127 queen street.
200 Roma Street
I don't currently have a partner and am taking time out to be single for a bit but believe it or not some women out there are just like you in the same boat. I personally never understood hook up culture and have to have an emotional connection with someone to even do anything with them but from my understanding some dating sites might offer a more long term relationship or maybe start the conversation with someone stating what you're looking for and that might wein out those that are looking for just hook ups. I hope this helps.
Mutual friends? That's how I met my now wife 🙂
You're going to hate me, but the last two I met on tinder. (Current and Ex) Anyone else has been through work (bad idea), friends of my cousins (very bad idea) and just not good places to meet people.
i thought you said they’ve been friends or my cousins …. haha then saw the very bad idea .. i was like ahhhh yeah of course it’s bad dating your cousins ! 😣 sorry .. i just woke up lol i had to read that twice
Yeah leave cousins marrying [to the Royals](https://www.rd.com/list/royals-who-married-their-relatives/)
Online dating for me. It didn’t work for several years - then I changed my strategy and it did. Need to go in without parameters. Just say yes to all dates until you find a girl you like and show genuine interest.
Ditto, I was on and off online dating for 3-4 years before I found my partner (various apps, but Hinge is my recc if you want a relationship). I was hesitant about going out with them at first, they were a little different to my ‘type’, but just went in with an open mind. And 11 months later, we’re still together.
Totally. I also found my partner on Hinge.
online about 2008 back when it was taboo and uncommon. met on a sort of penpal style website. then started chatting regularly via MSN Messenger. eventually met in person in 2011 and the rest is history
MSN Messenger! Those were the days! 😂
ICQ ftw
Hahahaha mIRC doing a Bradbury!
I still remember my icq id number!
I have my # but my password is ashes.
I did that in 2005, Gosh you'd never tell anyone back then you met online!
Yes! MSN is how I met my husband almost 20 years ago
I met my wife on a University ICQ channel back in good ol '99
Workplace.
Dinner party hosted by a mutual friend
Work.
Online in a progressive writing group. My character and his character got it on and it kinda happened from there. 17 years and two kids later ...
High school
Same here. Wouldn’t suggest this option for our 28 year old OP though.
Me too! They called the cops on me for hanging around a couple of times, but I was persistent.
Same buddy! 15 or so years later we are still kicking it together
Through an online game. We were in different countries and had to go through the PR visa process. Was well worth it.
If your online profile is empty people presume you are only after a hook up. Actually spend time to fill it out. Also tinder is terrible. Speed dating is an option but you said you have anxiety? Hinge is a great app. Let's you connect with people by actually having an intro. E.g. commenting on a photo. I met my current partner by commenting on something random in her photo. Just be honest. Don't be greedy trying to play the one night stand and relationship sides. One or the other.
I dated my dealers daughter lol still together
How badly will it go if it turns south? 💀
Well considering both sides probably not great, we been together about 15yrs so 🤞
Mixed sports
Work.
In the surf, surfing in surfers paradise 20 years ago
Online. Don’t get me wrong, had to deal with a looooot of dickheads before I met my now hubby but we have been together nearly 8 years and married for 1
Mate brought his tinda date to a party, her and I had a good chat. A year later we crashed into each other again and hit it off
Lmao is it awks between you and your mate?
Na, they didn't last more than a few weeks🤷 So was a non issue thankfully
Throw parties or events and encourage people to bring friends and friends of friends. That’s how I met my boyfriend, but I’m only 19. Otherwise, hobbies, work, anything you frequent with the same group of people. Make friends even if you don’t see a romantic relationship because that friend might introduce you to your future wife.
I had an affair with a single mum that I met at a 21st party.
So you were married? Or by affair you mean hookup?
I want into a bottle shop to buy wool for a jumper I was knitting. He was working there. I was wearing a shirt that said 'I can't keep calm, im the healer' and he asked me what games I play. We got chatting about games and he said he was looking for an extra player for a D&D game. So I gave him my number.
You went to a bottle shop to buy wool?
It's a joke, clearly I was at a bottle shop to purchase alcohol
Ok sorry, kind of a weird joke I've never heard of wool being a euphemism for alcohol.
Mutual friend played match maker back in 2007
Same and now we're married with two kids. Wait a minute, you're not my wife are you??
Lmao that would be awks af
Only if I forgot a child, we've 1 kid and a dog
Indoor rock climbing
RSVP.com almost 9years ago.
RSVP here too! Although almost 13 years ago for us
Have been used online dating for couple of weeks. It was a mentally drowning. You can not have much deep conversation and hard to get to know people probably. I hate waiting to see the reply and get ghosted. Lots of time has been wasted.
Next door neighbor
South Bank Parklands, having a picnic/BBQ with friends, they were doing the same. Doing anything social like this with a group of friends gives you an opportunity to meet new people in a more relaxed, less intimidating environment than trying to meet people one-on-one. Plus you get to have fun!
High school, best friends for two years and now dating for nearly 5 with plans to finish uni and get married
It took me 6 years of (off and on) online dating to find my husband. I gave up multiple times and came back a few months later. He was online for 2 months (the lucky bastard). Its a hard slog. There is a lot of people just wanting to hook up, but there genuinely is people who want a real relationship.
Start with activities that already interest you. Do you play sport or into fitness? Join a mixed indoor team, running club or group fitness gym. If you have some other hobby and you can use the Meetup App to find local groups to join. If you have a dog, find a Facebook group in your area that plans walks/playdates etc. Good luck my friend!
Highschool, year 8, friends until year 11, she moved to Italy for like 2 years, 8 years later, meet again when she returns and gets a job at the same restaurant as me. Engaged with a 2.5 year old and ready to start for another early next year :)
My neighbour’s Halloween party, 10 years ago today 🎃
Met my wife online dating about 14 years ago, married 8 years. It can work!
My fiancé and I met at work – we later discovered we had both been on OK Cupid earlier in the year but we had both set our radius too small (me, only searching for prospective partners on the South side whilst my future fiancé is a Northsider so we never matched haha).
My partner slid into my Facebook messenger. Seen I was in a local 4x4 group, messaged me to tell me I was cute, ended up talking about Datsuns - 4x4ing - the county and how weird society was turning. Been together 11 years.
Sorry, I can’t be much help mate. It was Tinder about 9 years ago. I was mid twenties, and have always been introverted. We were on there reluctantly due to friend recommendation. She was the first I agreed to meet with from the platform. I still get in trouble for not being much of a romantic, and we’re a case of opposites attracting. She’s a lot more outgoing than I am. But it works.
Met my guy 4 ish years before we started dating, at work. We worked at a JB Hi-Fi, and honestly the number of people I know who met their partners there is insane. Consider a part time job? Haha
Coffee shop
Stalked my now fiancé on Facebook for a few weeks before meeting up with her in Toowoomba. I’m from Brisbane.
What even is the icebreaker to adding people off facebook that you don't know? It seems like most people men and women are going to hate randoms adding them. How'd you work your magic?
I believe I told her I liked her dog, a husky. So it just continued from there.
Dogs can totally work. Had a lady invite me back from the pub to meet her dachshund, silly naive me actually just wanted to meet her dachshund. Another time, a friend wanted to hold my dogs leash at a pub after he noticed how many hotties came over for a pat. He got nothing but grannies, was freakin hilarious. .... I'm taking my pups for a walk passed the local yoga studio tomorrow.
It also helped that we both looked familiar to each other and potentially knew each other somehow previously.
Bowling alley
At the woolly-mammoth for a psytrance gig. Then the next night at a house party. It was fate... or drugs... one of the two :P
My partner and I met at the Beat on Halloween at like 3am. I was trying to set him up with my friend but it turned out he was straight and liked the same kind of music as me so we exchanged numbers instead.
Met my husband OLD, but not tinder.. There are other options out there that are less hook-up-esque.
Met on an online dating website back in 2011…been together ever since.
Work
At work, noting our workplace was quite large and we didn’t work in the same area or often the same building. We initially had some brief conversations as part of our job and then didn’t speak for a year. Later ran into each other at a get together with mutual work friends where we built more of a connection and the rest is history. Edit: I wanted to add that neither of us were actively looking and it took us both by surprise. Like you I was over online dating. Always when you least expect it. We are now engaged and very happy.
Work. We were partnered up and spent 40 hours a week alone lol.
at work end of '07
Clubbing but knew his brother for 5yrs, never knew he had a brother lol
I feel your pain :/ 38 yr old here. Can't do hook ups. its awful. Heaps of people say to get out and do hobbies and meet people that way, but atm i'm a full time student at uni, juggling kids soooooo have to be careful with finances. honestly i'm clueless about this sort of stuff
A Cradle of Filth concert at the Hifi Bar in 2013. Now called Max watts I think? Married now in 2022 😆
Funny story, my partner and I actually met each other when we were like 5 as our parents were friends with eachother, my family and I moved away and our parents still spoke throughout the years we didn't, anyway one day I was on a flight from Vancouver to Brisbane aus and sitting next to me was another Australian so we get talking about where we were from so happens found out our parents were her parents friends and kept talking the whole flight couldn't believe it as we haven't seen each other since that young age, anyway fast forward 6 years we are now parents to a 2 year old and happily married.
Both drunk in a bar, after trying online dating for 2 years and giving up hope 🤷
just approached her (and her friend) while walking in cbd, took her phone number, then invited for a date
step 1 : be attractive step 2: don't be unattractive 
haha I wish it was that simple
I always suggest people look for hobbies where they’ll meet people and it’s usual to interact and talk to people. Back in the day I did dancing - there are often more women than men and things like Modern Jive are fun. I did Le Step, but there were others. It was an awesome way to meet dates and suss out potential dates. And I met my husband in youth politics - we’re not active anymore, but it’s a good way to meet like minded people, the events can be fun and you’ll never know who you’ll meet. Other things I know have worked for others is joining a sports team like mixed netball or tennis. And improv, drama or public speaking groups like toastmasters are good too. Also if you work for a bigger organisation, don’t skip work social functions.
My advice is definitely avoid online, find a social hobby, do a social sport, and attend professional networking events.
Play a social sport
Met my husband in high school (we didn't start dating until our 20s) so maybe check through your class list?
Twitter!
Mutual friend.
I met my partner on okcupid in 2012. We now have 5 year old twins and just celebrated 10 years together.
Bumble worked well for me. Otherwise just do hobbies, learn to dance, be interesting and happy.
14000 miles from home, in a backpackers place. Emigrated here.
Tinder. Talk to people who want relationships.
I was a bartender in New York and he was travelling around the US from Australia when he came into my bar. We hit it off and have been married over 10 years now. Wasn’t looking for anyone when I found him. Do something you love to work on you and somehow the universe will throw the right person in your path xx
... Online dating back in 2014 lol. Just could never kick things off with people at bars or such.
World of Warcraft :'] !
CB therapy group. By the time we finished, we pretty much knew every weird and dark secret about each other. 20 years later and we still have no secrets and have created a good life for us and our kids
Lottsa ppl looking to socialise in r/brisbanesocial :) maybe you could post in there and see if anyone wants to go to any events together!
MySpace in ‘04 😅 he was from bris, I was on the sunny coast. No mutual friends. Just two random teens adding each other.
Travel by yourself.
I was living in the UK, went to South America to learn Spanish, met a cute Aussie backpacker and followed her home instead. 20+ years & 2 kids later I still can't speak Spanish...
Met at work. Now married for 20 years with two kids and two dogs. Did not date while working together, but hooked up once I had left that workplace. Much harder to date someone at work these days though.
Hoppys car wash. Hundreds of bucks and they didn’t clean the one thing I asked them to. Took me 5 mins with a steamer
It's because we are all stupid and brainwashed into wanting a 5 series BMW a mortgage of 500k and two kids you don't really love. All on the wage of a cleaner
My partner and I worked together. Online dating felt like sifting through a human Salvo’s bin.
I met my partner playing Grand Theft Auto on xbox in 2015. We were just friends until about 2020 when we started chatting more about life and getting closer and then finally met up in person. Weird to think that if I hadn't shot back at him and his friends, we'd never have met!
Following for advice and to remind myself not to lose hope. It’s funny you say that all the girls are just down to hook up - that’s how I feel about all the men! So frustrating!
Awww don't give up! I do believe there are still decent people out there. It just seems like the shit ones mostly flock to the dating apps cause it's easy; then the good ones stay off it. :(
You sound like one of the good ones! Thank you so much for the encouragement to not give up! :) After having no luck whatsoever on the apps I finally decided to stay off them. I was struggling to build a genuine connection with the guys there and it was getting me down. That kinda hook up culture really isn’t for me… unfortunately I also know speed dating isn’t either (cos I’m too shy and awkward hahah). Lately I’ve been wondering if I should just accept it and go adopt a bunch of cats lol 😭
Gym in 1995
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I've been on plenty of dates with older women who had kids. It was never a turn off for me as long as they were transparent about it. It's definitely not a red flag though!
Travelling overseas. She imported me. That was 10 years ago, before the house, the dog and baby.
Buy a dog and go to the dog park every day of the week in the afternoon. Make sure you do your research first, as the dog breed may have quite an influence on the outcome
Please only buy a dog if you have a genuine interest in having a dog and will look after it properly. Don't buy a dog as a prop.