Summer Lovin' and Riding off the New Year, New Me

Firstly, Happy bloody new year to you all! I discovered yesterday that Beyonce's Single Ladies is 10 years old this year and I thought "What the absolute dickens!". I was involved in a very competitive bouquet toss  to that bop at my sister's wedding and now in 2018, I am planning my own party of love!

I also want to give a shout out to 2017's greatest love moment in marriage equality getting a big, fat YES vote. Not that I hadn't realised it's significance before and not that our LGBT friends couldn't propose to their significant others before this, but being proposed to was one of the single most magnificent things I have ever been a part of, my heart bursts with joy whenever I think about it and when reflecting on it and how special it is, it's so farking great that this country has finally given all Australians the right to feel that and legally bind their love too. if you could bottle that feeling, everyone would be higher than Joe Cocker on the good stuff.

Anywho, moving on to this whole new year, new me malarkey. There's nothing that I love more than a Fat Jewish (follow him on insta if you're not) meme taking the absolute p*ss out of everyone zenning out over a new year and attending bikram yoga and doing the paleo diet to unlock the 70kg of ham and 7 wheels of cheese you ate and the 10 gallons of chardy you drunk over the holidays, classic! #fitspo aside, I fully believe that this time of the year is the BEST to find love.

Prey do tell, I hear you say. Well, there's a few reasons why. Aside from the glorious weather, fun parties and general cheery atmosphere that surrounds the new year in Australia. It's also a time that most people reflect on shiz they want to accomplish in the new year. Not to say that a partner is a priority for everyone, but I am pretty sure most people are keen to meet a little someone they can spend some quality time with.

I've witnessed online dating going off in January first hand, but so you're not just taking my word for it, I did some research on this to see if it was in fact true. I stumbled across an article on Bustle where they interviewed the comms manager of PlentyOfFish about it. They said that the first Sunday of a new year brings the biggest surge in new users for them across all age ranges, for POF it is a 48% increase above the daily average. In this same article they also spoke to Match and Happn who say they also receive massive spikes in a new year with the peak period lasting from December 26 to February 14. So, not to put too finer point on it, but my single friends, you are right in the freakin' zone of a love spike!

Can I also just share a MIND BLOWING statistic about POF? They had 18,176,325 new sign ups last year world-wide… I mean….

So there's a couple of thoughts from moi on this. For sceptics of online dating, you cannot ignore facts. The fact is more and more people are signing up to use dating sites, whether they admit to it or not. Secondly, there is something really endearing to me about people signing up to dating sites in a new year. I personally was a big fan of doing this, I would spend the Christmas with my family and their partners and really miss that for myself or think about how nice it would be to one day have my own family traditions. Intentions are good and people are ready and open to meeting new people.

You can research online dating til the cows come home, nearly all people will tell you that Sunday is the best day to get traction. Sunday evening was my time for online dating, there would be lots more matching and conversing and hopefully date setting for the week ahead.

We are about to hit the weekend, so do me a favour but mostly you one too, jump on whatever app you might be signed up to and have a meander, if you are not on one, grab a bottle of wine, a beer, cider, water, whatever your poison and get signed up and embrace meeting some new peeps. Disclaimer though, not too many wines when perusing, fraught with danger.

I'd love to hear from people that give it a go this weekend and hear their thoughts! I'd also love to hear from you about topics you might want me to look into. Email on the website J