Do you yearn to be able to approach the cute brunette dithering over the pasta sauces at your local supermarket, or burn with regret that you never spoke to that gorgeous fellow commuter on the 8.15 to Waterloo? Then welcome, shy reader, to the Flirting and Walking Tour of London.
Our guide is Jean Smith, a cultural anthropologist of American extraction who has dedicated her career to the study of human attraction. She is also a fantastic flirt. She smiles, she sparkles, she has something charming to say to everyone. And for 90 minutes she’s willing to share her secrets with us.
My fellow tour members (there are 12 of us) are a mixed bunch: slightly more women than men, and ranging in age from early 20s to late 40s. A more friendly and engaging group I’ve yet to meet, but we all have one failing: we’re rubbish flirts. On a walk that takes us from the National Portrait Gallery to Tesco Metro to Covent Garden, Smith teaches us how to strike up a conversation with anybody, how to spot the signs that they might actually be interested and, perhaps most importantly, how to deal with it when they’re not.
And then comes the really hard part: we have to put it all in to practice. And so we flirt. We approach strangers in the street; we strike up conversations in the supermarket. It’s terrifying, it’s strangely bonding, and it works — by the time we move on to the pub for an educational recap, one of us has picked up an entire (off duty) police unit. But most shocking of all, as one of my new found comrades points out, is the discovery that this flirting business is, actually … quite fun.
So do I now simper seductively every time I pop out to buy a pint of milk? Not exactly. But I know I could.
The next Flirting and Walking tour is on January 7 at 7.30 pm. See jean-smith.com and flirtology.co.uk for more information.
