A twist of fate
( 2003-12-11 08:50) (thatsmagazines.com)
The Chinese term yuan fen is hard to translate -
in one sense it can mean ¡äfate,¡ä but this doesn¡ät quite describe the entire
meaning. The term is most often applied to matters of the heart, and more or
less means being ¡äfated to meet.¡ä This does not, however, guarantee that you
will hit it off: one can have ¡äyuan¡ä without the ¡äfen¡ä - meaning that you may be
destined to meet, but not necessarily fall in love, which just about sums up
this month¡äs blind date.
 Our man, who hails from the Land Down Under, had an
intimate dinner with his date, a local lass from Beijing, at the Kerry Center¡äs
Coffee Garden. Both reported that the food was delicious and the service prompt,
which ensured a smooth ride into the evening. "I¡äd been on blind dates before,
so I wasn¡ät nervous," says the dude. Our girl was equally at ease, explaining
that she felt "very relaxed" and had "no real expectations" going into the date.
But surprise, surprise - it turns out that both had met before - on another date
eight months prior. "My first impression was the sudden realisation that we had
met before," laughs our man. However, the woman gives a conflicting report. "It
took him five minutes to realise he knew me from somewhere, but it took him
pretty much the rest of the evening to figure out from where!"
The dinner conversation, she adds, covered the predictable first date topics,
but with a twist - she had heard it all before. "I really wanted to test him...
he¡äs a smooth talker, but the questions he asked were the things we talked about
on our previous date. I just answered them as ambiguously as possible to see how
long it would take for him to remember." The man, however, reports that they
spent the evening catching up on the previous eight months. Hmmm... A case of
¡ähe said, she said?¡ä The truth, we suspect, lies somewhere in between.
The ending of their was somewhat clich¨¦: "She¡äs a bit of an artist," says our
man, "so she invited me to go back to her place and look at her paintings." Ay
carumba! Unfortunately, however, they did just that... look at paintings.
Afterwards, they parted ways on a platonic note. "I¡äll probably give her a
call," the man states, "but we¡äd go out as friends." The woman was a bit more
blunt. "He¡äs a very attractive and handsome man," she concludes, "but I¡äm like a
frozen fish - not very easily impressed." Ouch!
Each month we match two people for a free dinner date in Beijing. If you¡äd
like to participate, place your personal ad on our website . Be sure to include some information about
yourself as well as an idea of what sort of special someone you¡äre looking for,
and we¡äll do our best to help you find your perfect mate!
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