Single in Sydney: A dinner invite on a deserted island leaves Sarah worried about getting stuck with a bad date

SARAH’S on the hunt for a date to join her at a dinner on Sydney Harbour but it’s technically on a deserted island and that means she can’t hail a water taxi if things go pear-shaped.

Sarah Swain

2 min read

June 10, 2016 - 12:00AM

Manly Daily

Sarah’s has a hot dinner invitation on Sydney Harbour and she needs a date ... will she find one?

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JOURNALIST Sarah Swain has been single (but dating) for longer than she cares to remember. That’s because it’s tough out there, as any single will tell you, so to bring hope to others across the city, she’s sharing her no-holds-barred adventures on the Sydney single scene every week

Choppy Waters

IT’S one of the top five waterfront restaurants in the world.

But despite having 595 tinder matches, I had no date to take.

You see, I’d been invited to sample dinner at Fort Denison as part of Dinner De-Lights.

It means you can see all the glittering lights of Vivid without having to trog around Circular Quay tripping over buggies and people stopping every three centimetres to try and get their entire extended family including the dog in an Opera House selfie.

I’d been invited to sample dinner at Fort Denison as part of Dinner De-Lights.

The PR said it would be a romantic spot for lurve — and I agreed.

And I nervously hoped I’d have fixed my single status by then — or at least, you know, found a guy I wanted to invite.

But as the date approached, I started to get a bit worried.

While I had a few first dates lined up, I didn’t want to risk taking any of them out for an entire night to a deserted island, because I’m not sure water taxi’s respond to hailing if it went badly.

I’d been hoping I might pick one up at the last minute alongside a margarita at the opening party of a new Mexican restaurant, El Camino Cantina in The Rocks.

Scenes from the 2016 Vivid Festival at Circular Quay. Photo: Bob Barker.

And, while the drinks flowed, the conversation didn’t.

Most of the blokes at the bar seemed either to have had too many tequilas or too few to chat when I tried, and while one bloke who “designed the neon” in the bar asked for my number and said he’d be in touch, he hasn’t.

Jenna and I did have a bit of a laugh though watching one 35-something balding ginger who seemed to think all the 25 year-old glossy gazelles in leather trousers would be interested in him. He kept brushing past Jenna and I to go chat them up with his tongue hanging out of his mouth like a hungry lion.

Scenes from the 2016 Vivid Festival at Circular Quay. Photo: Bob Barker.

So, on Saturday it was my mate Jen who was by my side as we boarded the boat to Fort Denison (yes there’s a Jen, a Jenna and a Jenny in my close friends. Confusing).

While she’s great company, and we hadn’t seen each other for ages, I did feel a little bit sad I hadn’t managed to rustle up a man. Especially as it was all fairy-light lit and, with the blustery weather, had an air of being shipwrecked about it. You know, despite all the waiters and proper loos.