Fancy meeting you here, Lovestruckers! It must be fate. We’re back to help you weave your way through the perilous London dating scene. Summer is here which means that outdoor dates are almost mandatory. But does the thought of paying over the odds to sit outside a café with all of north London’s yummy mummies fill you with a fear worse than pre-date butterflies? Worry not!
SO WHERE SHOULD I TAKE THEM?
To the joint home of athlete Jessica Ennis, runner Mo Farah, and a few other British Olympians whose names we have forgotten! This isn’t the oddest Spare Rooms ad of all time, this is the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park!
WAIT, WHAT?
That’s right, even though Usain Bolt is long gone (he always was), you can still visit the Olympic Park. Good job too – they spent enough time harping on about the sustainability of the London 2012 Games. Fun fact: no new buildings were built for the London 1948 Olympic Games. Instead, events took place in already existing venues and athletes were put up in basic accommodation dotted all over the city. Not for nothing were they known as ‘The Austerity Games’.
WHERE IS IT?
East of everything, in Stratford. Even though one of the aims of the Games was to put east London on the map, you still might never have travelled this far right on the ironically named Central line.
HOW MUCH?
Free! But only if you spend the entire day avoiding actual attractions and eating air. Great dates of the world… Once you start eating and drinking and swimming, things get a little pricier. Life hack (or perhaps a better example of #Pippastips): bring a picnic to cut costs.
MAXIMUM BLUFFING VALUE
The Arcelor Mittal Orbit (the huge red sculpture-come-eye-sore) was dreamt up by designer Cecil Balmond and artist and knight – not a proper knight, a Bob Geldof sort of a knight – Anish Kapoor. They initially wanted ArcelorMittal Orbit to be 50m taller than it now is but had to scale back the quasi-double helix of steel to cut costs – they should have just bought a packed lunch to work every day.
DO SAY ‘It looks like a crane and a corkscrew got drunk and went on a face morphing site….’
DON’T SAY ‘I was in the Olympics, you know. 100m sprint. You might not have spotted me – I’m awfully quick.’
