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*This post was written in collaboration with Senior Cornwall Dating.

Now that the government have more or less announced we will be returning to the tier system after lockdown, everyone who has been trying to continue their dating life breathed a collective sigh of relief. Optimistically everyone hopes we are nearing he end of our current (and hopefully last) national lockdown. I recently wrote a blog about what the restaurant rules are in each tier. Depending on which one you move back into, you might even be able to go on an actual date, out, somewhere in public. But that is jumping a little ahead. With all of the confusing COVID-19 rules, where ARE you supposed to meet people to go on dates with?

National dating sites

We’ve all seen national dating sites crop up online or on TV ads. The idea is that rather than try to find a dating agency Cornwall, you would create a profile and then add where you live to it, and be matched with people in your area. My personal experience with such dating apps is that you rarely find someone actually IN your area. I live in Essex and the only handful of boys I matched with were from London, which meant one or both of us doing a bit of travelling for the actual dates.

Local dating sites

If you are looking for someone who genuinely DOES live really close to you, then local dating sites are the best option. Let’s face it, there are not many people out there who are specifically looking for a partner that lives several miles away. So say for example you live in Cornwall and you register to a Cornwall dating site, you will only get matches in Cornwall and can spend more time looking for people who match your hobbies and interests. That’s another thing I love about the idea of dating sites. Not only can you write all the things you like on your profile, but you can also specifically write what you are looking for, which saves a lot of time down the line.

Social media

I am not, for one minute, suggesting that you just find a random stranger on social media and try to strike up a conversation (although that can and has happened for a number of people, if you do take this approach just make sure you put measures in place to make sure you are safe). Most social media websites have a tool that suggests friends based on who you know mutually or who you already follow. The most obvious example of this is the “people you may know” part of Facebook, which matches you up with people who have a lot of friends in common with you. Rather than just trying to start a conversations with a stranger, you could ask the mutual friend to do some digging for you and find out if the person you like is single. If they are, you could even go as far as asking your mutual friend to introduce you.

*This post was written in collaboration with Senior Manchester Dating

With lockdown looking more and more likely to be extended, a lot of our freedoms and things we enjoy have been restricted. Dating is one of the things that has been impacted the most from local and national lockdowns. While online dating sites are a great way to meet new people with similar interests to you, when it comes to going out on an actual date it becomes quite difficult if you are not meant to leave your house, save for essential items. People have been thinking of inventive ways to date using video calling. Companies like Skype and Zoom have benefitted enormously from the lockdown, and you can do a number of things on a video call to make it feel like a “real date”.

Have dinner

Say you are browsing through a local site, like a dating agency Manchester, and you find someone you like. Bingo. The next obvious step would be to message them for a bit and then if you get on, arrange to go out for dinner. only, of course, you can’t go out for dinner. That doesn’t have to be the spanner in the works it feels like. If you arrange a video call, you can order food at the same time and eat it while having a chat. One of the benefits of this is that you can both order food you actually like. Because how many of us have been on dates, bravely said we’d try something our date suggested and then it turned out to be vile.

Watch a film

Let’s face it: the cinema is a terrible date. It’s dark, it’s awkward, you can’t talk, and you are forced to sit next to your date for an hour and a half without learning a thing about them. However, watching a film with someone at the same time over a video call can be a pleasant experience. Although you probably don’t want to chat all the way through the film, because you will miss it, at least you can talk a little bit and share your opinions on the film. I always find that you can tell a lot about a person about what kind of films they like. For example, if he is over 30 and Borat or The Hangover is his favourite film, steer well clear.

Do a quiz

If you meet someone on something like a Manchester dating site, you can chat for months and months and still not really get an idea of who someone is. Quizzes are a great way to find out what their interests are, and more pertinently, what they are not. Zoom quizzes went through a bit of a moment at the start of lockdown, and I have to admit the most entertainment came from the WRONG answers people gave (mostly me). It doesn’t have to be anything heavy, you could even find a quiz on a TV show you both like or a mutual interest.

*This post was written in collaboration with Senior Suffolk Dating.

Having been single on and off for the majority of the last few years, I feel like an eternal singleton who cannot be taught anything about dating. But the pandemic has turned a lot of what we think we know on it’s head. I mean, who would have believed a year ago that a trip to the supermarket would be a glamourous night out! Realistically, the internet have been nothing short of a God send during the lockdowns, giving people the ability to still get to know each other without the benefit of being able to meet up. Internet dating is the way forward, and there are plenty of ways you can use the internet to “up” your dating game.

Finding a date

The main reason to use internet dating is because you can specify what you are looking for and find someone who is your type in your local area. So you log on and type “dating agency Suffolk” and you’ll get results in and around Suffolk. The majority of good dating sites will let you add in a more specific geo location so that you can find someone REALLY close if that is what you want. Once you have found an appropriate site for your local area and age, you can start working on your profile. Make sure you pick out a great picture as well!

What am I looking for?

Now another great thing about the age of internet dating is that you can be VERY specific about what you want. Say for example you are interested in saving the environment and environment and you want this to be something you share with your date. When you complete an online dating profile you are more or less able to create a “shopping list” of all of the attributes you are looking for in a significant other. This is so much better than meeting a random stranger in a bar or a club and slowly and painfully finding out across a number of boring dates that they do NOT share any interests with you whatsoever.

Having the actual date online

In the UK, we have now been in two lockdowns, and people are speculating it wont be the last. So with the absence of all of the normal date venues, actually having the date online is a good option. You can either set up a Skype or a Zoom call with whoever you met on the Suffolk dating site. Having a virtual first date has a number of pros including:

•  Not wasting money on dinner
• Only needing to dress the top half (you can easily get away with joggers on the bottom half)
• You can end the call with an excuse a lot more easily than you could leave a restaurant or a bar if you don’t click
• You have more time to get to know someone if you do a few Skype or Zoom dates before you meet up in real life

*This post was written in collaboration with Kent Dating Site

If you are single, the lockdown has probably salted your game a little bit when it comes to dating. with it looking likely that at the end of the current system we will go back into the tier system, it’s going to be difficult to find dates and go out on dates. Even with a vaccine on the horizon, people are still speculating that we have around 6 months left of restrictions until we can get “back to normal”. If you had a fulfilling and active dating life, there is no reason you cannot carry this on. Technology has given us several different ways to find dates, and you can date online by having Skype or Zoom calls until you can meet up in person. Maybe it will do you a favour and help you get to know someone better if you can’t meet up with them in person for a while. 

Finding a date in the pandemic – what about a “meet-cute”?

In the movies, when two characters meet for the first time and eventually fall in love, this is a “meet-cute”. now it’s fair to say the pandemic has pulled the nation together in some sense. I have found people a lot friendlier during these trying times. With limited options on meeting people, it’s not outrageously unreasonable to suggest you could meet the love of our life in the Sainsbury’s vegetable aisle. Open yourself up to being more confident and chatty will not only provide you with more options for meeting people, but it will also help you to feel a little bit less lonely in these trying times.

Finding a date in the pandemic – online dating

Online dating is so popular now, you will more than likely know someone that has met their partner online. Without being able to go out and meet people in bars and clubs, online dating becomes a lot more significant. The benefits of online dating are that you can describe exactly what you are looking for and you can match with people with similar interests. Local dating sites are usually a lot more successful than some of the national dating sites that match you to people miles away. So for example, if you are looking for Kent dating a local dating site will only match you to people in the area. 

Finding a date in the pandemic – get your friends to play matchmaker

Normal dating rules do not necessarily need to be cast out just because we are living through a pandemic. The truth is, we have ALL got at least one friend who loves to play matchmaker. The only thing that needs to be different is that instead of going on a blind date, you will probably start with some “blind messaging”. I always hear stories of how people met their other half through friends of friends. Spend some time looking through your suggested friends on social media, and if you see anyone you like to get the person you have in common to introduce you.

*This post was written in collaboration with subsanddoms.com

Under the guise of being goody on Twitter or being Mum of the year, some celebrities walk among us like NORMAL people. Yes, they eat like us, they look like us and they drive around in Rolls Royce’s and Bentleys. It has always been an interest of mine to find out just EXACTLY how celebrities are like us. What do they brush their teeth with? What loungewear do they wear? Who does their make-up? Well, I am going to spare you of THOSE details and tell you something far more interesting: which celebrities are into BDSM. You never know from the outside and there are a few you would be surprised at. It wasn’t a conscious decision that I managed to compile a list of women, but I guess it is just because strong women are more open to discussing “private” afford. 

Eva Longoria

Eva Longoria’s character in Desperate Housewives isn’t exactly squeaky-clean, but does that mean a Dominatrix is lurking somewhere in the shadows? Well, maybe it isn’t that full-on, but Eva certainly enjoys being tied up with scarves. Describing how she likes to be tied up, Longoria also told Female First “There’s something very sexy about being submissive because your guard is down, you have to surrender to something like that.” She lives in LA, so she’ll certainly have a good selection of willing partners!

Amber Rose 

It must be increasingly difficult for Amber Rose to answer questions about her sex life, considering everything is always traced back to her very famous ex, Kanye West. Never one to mince her words, Rose admitted, “I like to take a really rich, powerful man and make him squirm like a little bitch… I get off on that”, on the Amber Rose Show. I’m going to hazard a guess that Kim Kardashian never tunes in.

Angelina Jolie

Angelina probably doesn’t have to use a website, like find bdsm, but she still manages to find partners that are a little bit out there like her. When she and Billy Bob Thornton were an item, they both wore vials of blood. She told ABC’s 20/20, “Early on in my first sexual relationship, I got knives out and had a night where we attacked each other.” Blood might be a little bit extreme for some, but it’s obvious she is fascinated by the world of BDSM.

Rihanna

This one is probably a bit more evident than the others, considering she wrote a song about S&M. In the world of celebrity, Rihanna has been quite unlucky in the sense that some nude photos of her did find their way onto the internet. But RiRi embraced it and took it all in her stride. She once said, “I think I’m a bit masochistic … I love to be tied up and spanked. I like to be whipped … But I prefer to be spontaneous. Using whips and chains is too planned … you have to stop and look for the whip. I prefer them to use their hands.”