Stop, look, listen...

Before you step out looking for love, remind yourself that you could meet your soulmate anywhere, any place and any time. No maps exist for you to pinpoint their location, but you can narrow the odds by identifying places where like-minded people tend to hang out. If you're stuck for ideas, here's where to start sharking:

Your local pub

Good for: Meeting people who live in your neighbourhood, and wonderful if you're a slow mover who likes to spend time getting to know someone before you move in
Bad for: Anyone with a thing for teetotallers.

Club night

Good for: Getting to know someone intimately without uttering a word. Just shut up and dance!
Bad for: A nice quiet, cosy chat.

Swimming pool/gym

Good for: Showing off your toned body, and getting in shape while you size up the talent.
Bad for: Hiding excess flesh; dick shrinkage.

Chat Rooms

Good for: Meeting like-minded people, no matter what floats your boat, with no need to dress up before you make that connection.
Bad for: Being one hundred percent certain the person you're chatting too is fully clothed and not in the middle of their maximum security prison rehabilitation computer course.

On holiday

Good for: Forgetting your past and reinventing yourself in any way you please. So what if everyone back home has seen that picture of you at a party wearing nothing but a traffic cone? Out here, you can be the world's greatest lover and nobody will be any wiser.
Bad for: Holding out every hope that this romance will travel home with you.

Updated: 19/05/2009