Dating disasters

The good, the bad, the strange, the wonderful - a date can be all of those. But have you ever felt that the more important a date is and the more you plan for it to be perfect, the weirder it will be? Of course these dates are perhaps the most memorable but at that moment in time all you can do is wish that someone else was in your shoes. We present some of the ‘memorable’ experiences that have happened to people.

Whoops, I forgot

“It was our anniversary so my boyfriend had planned a lovely dinner at Okra. It started out nicely but then the bill came and Omar reached into his pocket for his wallet and suddenly his expression changed, he then felt in his other pocket - nothing. He went out to the car, while I sat trying to look carefree and nonchalant, and came back empty-handed. He had forgotten his wallet and I only had Rs700 with me, so we called a friend, who was also out for dinner. We waited and waited and waited, while the waiter repeatedly asked if we were sure we didn’t want to order something else.”

Sarah Ahmed

Sneaking out

“Every time I had to go meet my boyfriend I had to sneak out and my biggest fear was running into someone I knew who would tell my mother that I was alone with a boy. We once went to Park Towers, and I was sure I wouldn’t meet anyone except for people my age. We had just ordered when two ladies walked in - of course it was my mother and her friend! I panicked and slid off the sofa onto the floor and hid my face in my hands, then while I thought they were not looking I jumped over the sofa and made a run for it. It didn’t work, as my mother saw a crazy girl who she recognised as her daughter, jumping over chairs and dashing towards the exit.”

Kirran Saeed

Perfect planning

“I really liked this girl at college and somehow got the courage to ask her out for Valentine’s Day. I asked my friend for his mother’s car and he managed to get it for me for three hours by telling his mother he was going gaming. I dropped him off and picked up my date and headed towards the restaurant. We were stuck in traffic for one and a half hour, the restaurant had a wait of 45 minutes, and by the time our food came it was time to head back and my friend was calling frantically. I inhaled my food and didn’t really talk to my date because I was so stressed out. It was my first and last date with her.”

Salman Hameed

All wrong

“My date took me to see a play - which turned out to be really, really bad. And after the play, he took me to Subway! It was around 11:30 pm and I couldn’t obviously order a sub on a date, so I had to drink coffee and have a stale cookie.”

Alia Khan

Cultured

“Don’t ever go on a first date to a Japanese restaurant if you don’t know how to use chopsticks. You will have to make a choice between the food and the date.

My date had the pleasure of seeing me use my fingers to evenly spread wasabi sauce across the sushi and then use my hands to pop the sushi in my mouth. Even though there was minimum spillage, she seemed a little disgusted and suddenly remembered that there was a sick parent who needed attending.”

Fahad Ali

(Some names have been changed for privacy reasons.)

Published in the Express Tribune, July 11^th, 2010.