How radical honesty will help you!

How radical honesty will help you?

 

As human beings who live in a society and a town as big as London we know how communicating is becoming more and more difficult. And we all know why! Well, we sure do know one of the reasons: People are not honest with each other anymore! Whether it is because we are afraid to hurt people’s feelings or to say the ugly truth.

Let’s focus on relationships, loved ones for example. People wait to know each other better before becoming more honest but it should be the opposite. Just imagine this, if since day 1 you have been brutally honest with each other what could you be really afraid of? At least you’ll be sure of one thing is that no matter the person in front of you is frank and isn’t it one of the pillars of a relationship? And it can be the good too: compliment your crush, your partner spontaneously.

And that way of thinking is something we are trying to bring at VEE as we want to help you create a strong relationship but put our little twist on it as always!

Wednesday 26th of September, the place to be is the Sway Bar London for our #VEEVariety event at 7PM with a little game of radical honesty. Just come and see how it goes. You might be surprised.

Be positive, be sincere, be spontaneous

Simply be yourself

Leave the diplomacy at home but bring authenticity and brutal honesty!

 

The Second Date: A guide to pairing when wining and dining.

Sommelier or casual admirer, everyone can appreciate a good wine, but sometimes wine alone isn’t enough to impress a newly found love interest. It may need that extra flair of flambéed scallops, or just a touch of spice from a thai curry. Either way you can’t wine and dine with just the wine, so here are some quick tips on making the perfect match for your wine on your dinner date.

The 2 Cs: 2 terms you need to know for pairing success.

The first ‘C’ we will be discussing is ‘Congruent’. Congruent pairings share similar chemical structures with each other, and create a palette that warmly embraces the flavour of the food and wine. The most common indicator of this type of pairing is congruent with a dish is the colour; red meats pair with red wines, white meats pair with white wines. Simple, just as dating should be. Next is congruent’s partner in crime, contrast, which as the name implies, means using antonymous flavours to scintillate the senses. Although it may be tricky at first to discern which wine is a direct contrast to a dish, with your newly found wine tasting skills you’ll find the right Syrah for your salmon and impress your Pinot partner.

If it grows together, it goes together.

By in large, most wine varieties are grown with the local cuisine in mind, so that bottle of old Italian Pinot Grigio was destined to be paired with a chicken pesto, and the Spanish Rioja longs to be reunited with some sliced chorizo. Let this simple trick reveal your cultured side and take your date on a taste adventure from the intimacy of your home.

If you’re stuck in a dilemma, sparkling wine pairs with almost everything.

There you are, table set, beef wellington coming along nicely. You glance into the fridge and there it is; the empty slot in fridge the door where your bottle of Napa Cabernet should be.
In your moment of dating despair remember this tip! To add that extra level of culinary glamour to your dish, sparkling wine is a good failsafe. The light and stimulating texture of the bubbles can help clear your palette after a hearty meal, whilst the citrus tones can add the extra sparkle to a lighter entrée.

Sweet wines get you through spicy times

Due to the high acidity of sweeter wines (such as Riesling), it can easily reduce the amount of residual fats and proteins such as capsicum, and allow you to retain your composure, even in the hottest of dates.

Top 10 Tips for First Date Success!

1. Your purpose

Before you meet that person you need to be honest with yourself. Why do you want to date them? What is the purpose of meeting someone new? This will help you to have your goals clear enough so you can later compare if that person is on the same page, on the same book in a different library.

You are more than free to change your mind once you meet the person so it’s not about setting up your mind in a way that you can’t change, it’s about knowing yourself and what is your drive for dating.

2. Have as much fun as possible

Dating is supposed to be fun. Whatever your reason for dating, the final goal is to have a great time. No one dates expecting to have a hard time so, even if it’s obvious, remember that it’s not a serious thing.

Don’t put too much pressure on yourself as it won’t help you at all. If you have the fear of not being liked or accepted, don’t worry, it’s fine, everyone struggles with that and if that’s the case it doesn’t mean you are doing it wrong, it just means the person in front of you is looking for something different. Remember there are plenty of people on this planet and everyone is free to give their opinion but they are not necessarily right.

3. The outfit 

Feel free to wear whatever you like. Who is going on a date? You or your neighbour? You rather feel comfortable being who you are. Dressing to impress it’s just a myth. Maybe the person you are meeting doesn’t like your clothes, maybe she or he doesn’t care that much or maybe they are difficult to be impressed.

But try to remember that there is no second chance to meet someone for the first time. So if you want to feel sexy/comfortable/sassy, just do it your way.

4. You are not your thoughts

On a first date it is usual to feel excitement and nervousness. If you don’t, you are a lucky person but if you go through these feelings of insecurity you are completely normal.

The good thing is that most of the time people aren’t as hard on us as we are with ourselves. We are usually our worst enemy because of the things that we tend to say to ourselves.

Our internal dialogue looks like this “I should be funnier”, “I am not cute enough”, “I should have bought that shirt for the date”, “I look like a bag of rags, I’d rather call them and cancel

We all have had these kind of thoughts. Breath in and breath out. You need to keep in your mind that this person accepted to go on a date with you. Full stop.

5. Choosing the right place

This should be agreed by both parties. Somewhere between homes so it is equal for both, as a general ‘rule’. But maybe you don’t want a standard date.

A good piece of advice is meeting in a place that’s convenient to leave or to do something where there is an option to finish earlier. That way if things are not like you expected you can get up and go. Perhaps you could meet for a coffee at a cute cafe or a small drink at an original pub.

But if you meet to have dinner and you feel uncomfortable and not brave enough to leave soon, at least you will need to finish your food. That part is up to you.

6. Breaking the ice

The first time you meet this person can feel unusual because you want everything to be perfect. But I need to say that there is no such thing. There is no formula to have the perfect date because you are the one who needs to find out what you would like.

The best ice breaker is actually breaking the physical boundary. If you are brave enough you can introduce yourself by kissing them on the cheek.

7. What to talk about

Having an interesting chat can turn the most boring date into the best date ever. One of the things we find most attractive is a person who can stimulate our mind and spark our soul.

There are lots of things that have been said about the topics that can and cannot be used on a first date. “Avoiding politics, sports, religion and basically any kind of controversial topic” is the main old fashion rule.  But rules are made to be broken sometimes.

Everyone is different and generally it’s always risky but you can start asking the person about the basics. What they enjoy, what they like to do in their free time, where they live, which kind of job are they have…  This shows genuine interest and it helps you to know who are you with.

Obviously there is a time to ask and a time to be asked, the last thing you want is to feel or make someone feel like it’s a job interview. Who knows, maybe you end up talking about the facial cream you use, your last and beautiful relationship, the biggest lie you have told to your boss, your favourite sexual game, how you celebrated your birthday last year, or how much you been struggling trying to fit in this society.

The main rule would be to listen in a non-judgemental way.

8.Don’t be afraid of the silence, let it do it’s work

The vast majority of us think that being in silence is a sign of boredom, nothing in common with the person in front of you, or even worse, if there is empty space in a date it means it is not going well.

But when no one talks the opportunity of something else emerges. Maybe you notice their eyes how they look at you, the shape of their body, how good they smell, how they are sitting… basically you allow other things to happen and even if you feel uncomfortable it doesn’t mean it is something negative, there are actually more ways of communicating than just using your speech and they can be quite powerful.

9. Who pays?

Usually when you get to have a first date, unless you choose something different (doing some sports, going for a walk, visiting some museum), you usually end up in a place where you either drink or eat something.

Many people feel uncomfortable when it comes the time of paying. The best advice that we can give you it’s to split the bill or make rounds. If you or your date wants to invite the other to somewhere ‘expensive’ that’s completely fine as long as it is something you want to do/can do and not because you are ‘supposed to’.

10. The ‘goodbye’ moment

You need to take two things in account. What do you want and what does the person with you want at that moment. If the signs are not clear, it is always very useful to ask straight away whatever you need to know and to let the other person know how you are feeling and what you desire.

Communication is the only way to truly get the best out of a situation, if you don’t say it, they might not see it and you may both miss it.

Your personal choice

“I really want to meet someone that blows my mind, I need to feel stimulated by the person I am meeting. That’s the way I feel connections with people. I am not sure what I am looking for, I reckon I  will just go with the flow and see how I feel after a while…”

“I want someone to have fun with… just sex to be honest. I need to like the person and feel attracted to them but I am not yet into relationships.”

“I have a partner and we have had an open relationship since we’ve been together. This agreement works for both of us. We share our life living in the same place and having the same personal goals but we like to meet more people to have special connections with.”

“I want to marry someone and have kids with the love of my life. I truly believe in love stories. I keep thinking that I can find someone and we would be together forever.”

Have you ever thought why you want to date? What are the reasons that motivate you to go on a blind date, use an online app or go out on a Saturday night to a club where you hope you can find people you like?

Whatever your reason is you have the right to do it. You can have the relationship that you are looking for.

There are as many different kinds of relationships as there are people are living on this planet. You don’t need to have the relationship that you don’t fancy, or the one that your friends have or the one that your family wants you to have.

You deserve to have what you want. You can define your own rules regarding what you love and what motivates you to be with someone. We usually have our own ideas of how we want to form our connections.

There are so many types of “agreements”. You just need to find someone on the same page or someone that accepts your agreement.

Don’t join us.

Don’t join us if you are like them.
We all know how they interact nowadays.
Social media is the new reality.
Who cares if you are a great talker, a trustful person, a funny guy or a genuine human being?
You are no one if you don’t interact through your black mirror.
So don’t join us.

Keep looking at your screen.
It doesn’t matter if it’s real or not because it looks beautiful.
Stop talking to people on your way home, just keep looking at your screen because you are missing so much if you stop doing it.
Go out but don’t forget to check your phone at least every ten minutes.
You might miss the last picture of someone’s food, someone’s training or someone’s holidays.
Check your online dating app just in case someone new has joined.
Enjoy your lunch but not too much because someone else’s lunch looks so much better in that beautiful picture.
Check again because the person you just crossed paths with could be on that app and you can match them to start a conversation.
Don’t talk directly to him or her because it might feel real.

Don’t join us if you don’t want to establish real connections.
Don’t join us if you are not looking for real people.
Don’t join us if you are not looking for genuine experiences.

VEE is about connecting people, about real experiences, about people who go out of their comfort zone by living in the present.
You need to be brave enough to live this life fully.
We don’t do screens, we do people.

Go real, go VEE! Visit Vee International for a #NewWaveDating experience.