Get your Weaver on! A great way to meet people offline

When my friend told me about Weaver, I immediately went to check it out.  I liked the idea of meeting people offline.  As everything is online these days.  When chatting to my girlfriends, the conversation will go like this: "I went on a date last night" "Oh, really, with who? Show me a photo" "Ok let me get a hot photo on Facebook"  Seriously it's so terrible to judge someone on their looks and Facebook profile.  We all do it. Or you meet someone and you start sending each other whats apps.  Some people only know how to communicate in this way.  I don't like constantly sending a guy instant messages via whats app.  You create this perception about each other which might not be how things are in real life.   I really believe in communicating in the old school way!

  I decided a while ago to cut down the time I spent on my phone and want to avoid using instant messaging as much as I can.  Now I'm pretty much obsessed with Voice Notes.  It's so much quicker than typing and you can express yourself so much better with the tone of your voice.  I usually sing or make silly noises on voice notes, just for fun and to make the receiver laugh. 

Spending so much time in messaging through the social platforms such as bbm, whatss app, skype, gchat, twitter & facebook is so time consuming and tires you out emotionally. A lot of the time what's said can be interpreted the wrong way and just isn't real.  I would prefer to spend my time more constructively and rather get to meet the person face to face and then get to know them that way.  I just feel that my energy can be channelled to a more worthy and creative course.

If you feel the same way and are looking for a different and fun way to communicate to your friends or boyfriend / girlfriend, try just using visuals.  No typing allowed.  It pushes you to be creative and can be quite an amusing challenge!  I have done two posts about this, Seeing is Believing and Marco Polo.

When last did anyone (except the postman or sales dude) pitch up at your front door for a surprise visit?  Usually you will get a phone call or instant message first to check if you are at home.  How much more meaning would the following statement have when said to you face to face instead of via an instance message: "You are beautiful."  When meeting people in person, you can read their body language and facial expressions, which you can't through instant messages (there isn't enough emoticons available to cover every emotion, haha!).

I started a Social Club to meet more girlfriends and to socialise, which has been very successful, but you can't meet any guys this way.  This is where Weaver comes in.  You can meet new guys that you are NOT friends on Facebook with just as new friends or maybe there's a spark and you can peruse that if you want.  This is the rad thing though, you select your preferences when you sign up with Weaver.  If you want to 'meet fun people' , 'random hook up' or 'finding the one'.  There are other categories that you select what suits you best, like what is your scene, what age of people you are interested in, what you usually do on the weekend and what you mostly chat about.

So how does Weaver work?

1.) You sign up and create your profile here. (It's a super quick process!)

2.) The Weaver Team looks for a match and contact you when they found one.

3.) Each person pays R79 which covers the first round of drinks and their admin fee. (Not bad at all!)

4.) You call and invite two wing woman / men to join you on your Weaver.

5.) The Weaver Team choose a meeting place and let all the parties know.

6.) You pitch up and have fun!

My first Weaver:

My two wing woman were meeting me at Neighbourhood and when I got there my one friend was at the bar already.  There were two guys standing at the bar and the barman soon informed us that they were our Weaver dudes.  So we got our round of drinks and went to go sit at a lounge.  My other wing woman and their other wing man pitched up soon after.

As it goes when meeting new people, everyone had a chance to introduce themselves.  We all got along great and after a few rounds we got a round of tequilas.  After that we were all smiles and ready to hit the next bar.  The one guy said he could get us into one of the Loerie Awards afterparties.  We were all like: "HELL YEAH, bring it on!"  

So off we went, it was at Truth Coffee and the place was bustling with people.  We high-jacked the photographer from Riaan photography and asked if he could take a photo for us.  The one Weaver guy had a great idea to try and copy this photo he found online where people do the 'Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon' pose.  Read more on it here.  So this was our inspiration:

Here's our attempt:
(Don't judge us, space was limited!)

What a fun night and fantastic way to meet new people!  I will definitely go to another Weaver.  The great thing about this 'group blind date' is that you have your two wing woman / men by your side which takes all the awkwardness away.  It's just 3 girls and 3 guys having a chat, no pressure, just having fun!  Step outside your comfort zone and give Weaver a try. SERIOUSLY do it, what have you got to loose.  You can only gain some new friends!