Eligible Bachelors – Bachelorettes

Everyone knows that finding a perfect partner in our busy society is not always easy. Sometimes it can feel like all the good ones are already taken, but it is not necessarily so. The world is still full of extremely eligible bachelors and bachelorettes, with billionaires, royals and aristocrats the world over still looking for that special someone.

Top of the list is a man who easily makes the Forbes top 100 rich list, Mr. Michael Bloomberg. This New York City mayor is the owner of 88% of the fantastically successful Bloomberg news and data company. Worth an estimated $18 billion Mr. Bloomberg could be quite a catch for a lady looking for a jet set lifestyle.

Another one for the ladies holds the 2009 crown for richest person in Brazil with a fortune currently standing at $27 billion; Mr. Eike Batisa is one of the world’s biggest oil and gas tycoons. Also a keen powerboat racer Mr. Batisa is looking for a new lover after he split with his ex wife, but any ladies with their eye on him will need to come up to scratch as his ex is a Playboy cover girl.

Single men searching the market for a successful lady may have previously overlooked Miss Oprah Winfrey, fearing that her busy TV schedule leaves little time for a relationship. But with retirement planned for the end of her 2011 contract and a fortune of $2.4 billion to play with, she could well be searching for the perfect chap to share her golden years with.

If you can speak a little Spanish you might be interested to hear that billionaire construction company owner, Alicia Koplowitz is still seeking a second husband following her divorce in 1989. Potential spouses will need to come with some status though, as her younger sister has been linked romantically with the Duque de Huescar, heir to the Spanish aristocratic house of Alba. Worth $2.2 billion she is definitely one to keep your eye on.

Maybe you’re looking for someone with a bit more class than some of these self made money moguls? Well the good news is there are still plenty of royals the world around who are seeking a partner and top of the list is most definitely Prince Carl Philip of Sweden. With Orlando Bloom-ish dashing good looks, this handsome 31 year old blue blood is second in line to the Swedish throne and quite a catch for a classy lady.

One for the men, the stunningly beautiful Charlotte Casiraghi is Monaco royalty and the granddaughter of Grace Kelly. At just 24 years old she is a successful published writer and editor of a popular magazine, as well as being fourth in line to the throne of Monaco.

For those looking closer to home, you may have thought all was lost since old Wills got engaged to Kate Middleton, but there is still single royalty close to home. Williams younger brother and self confessed naughty boy Harry of course is still available and don’t forget those lovely, if a bit quirky, daughters of Lady Sarah Ferguson, Beatrice and Eugenie.

Garry Hudson currently writes for Baines and Ernst

How to Choose Good Plenty of Fish Profile Pictures

If you’ve ever delved into the wonderful world of online dating then you are probably well aware that putting up good pictures on your dating profile is about eighty percent of the battle. This concept of having strong visual attraction on one’s profile is especially true for free dating sites like Plenty of Fish. The reasons for this is that with a greater number of users, which is the case for free versus paid dating sites, then the quicker the other users will scan through the vast sea of profiles, typically only stopping at the one’s with attractive profile pictures. It’s true what they say, first impressions make a big difference.

So what’s a person to do when faced with a multitude of Plenty of Fish profile picture choices? Here’s a few tips that will should help in whittling down your dating images.

  1. Be sure to have at least one clear head shot and one full body shot. There’s no reason to deceive people and having clear pictures that show your face in a good lighting and the profile of your body gives people the assurance of what you look like without having to be skeptical.
  2. Don’t use any pictures where you have been drinking alcohol or are clearly doing something while drunk. These pictures may be funny but you don’t want anyone to get the image that you are a booze bag who can’t control him or herself.
  3. Try to avoid the “cell phone in the mirror” picture.  This tends to come off as lazy and typically results in terribly unclear images of yourself, ones that will not do you any justice.  And by all means, if you are a guy, keep your shirt on.  Nothing makes a guy look more like a douche than flexing his biceps in his bathroom mirror.

As with any online dating profile on Plenty of Fish, the more time you take to get your best pictures up, the more success will have with the rest of your efforts.

Gaming With Your Partner

I love gaming and I want to share it with everyone I know, fortunately enough, almost all the people I know are gaming enthusiasts so it’s not too hard to convince them to play a game of any kind. The one person I find an absolute struggle to get enthused about gaming is my girlfriend. Although gaming with the family is practically what the Wii was designed for, it isn’t the experience I want my girlfriend to share with me.

Don’t get me wrong, the accessibility of the Wii makes it a great machine and I love playing the Wii with my nieces and getting a good game of Wii Sports or Resort going, but I want the AAA title  experience to be portrayed across to my girlfriend. I have tried and tested several games to involve my lovely lady and I will give you a run down of the successes and the failures I have experienced.

One of the first experiences that showed that there was potential to get my lady interested in the world of gaming was when I was playing Fable 2, she really enjoyed the interactivity and pleasant scenery. I then explained to her how we age in the game and take on characteristics of good or evil depending on our actions throughout the game. This was a positive start as she was fairly interested but there wasn’t enough happening in the game to hold her fleeting interest. Verdict: 5/10

I thought the blockbuster action and thrill of the Call of Duty games and the movie like production would keep her interested for the entirety, but the lack of interaction for her to jump in and have a run about meant she didn’t get the enjoyment of seeing planes fall through the sky or buildings blow up in the distance. She’s not really into the action genre of film so this was the key indicator of her disinterest. Verdict: 3/10

I love playing football games and I love watching football, it is safe to say that my girlfriend does not share the same enthusiasm for the beautiful game, if football is on the television it is reason enough to get angry, but she understands the interest I have in the sport. But the times she finds me playing Fifa 11 have ended catastrophically. It is safe to say she doesn’t have any interest in the football game genre. Verdict: 0/10

One of the few games she has really got into the story of was Assassins Creed Brotherhood, the fairly accessible running across roofs meant she could join in with running from one place to another, but she was fairly inept at the fighting game play. But the story of Ezio Auditore da Firenze and his struggles against the Borgia and renovating all the locations throughout Rome really held her interest. Verdict: 7/10

Heavy Rain is the number one choice for you to enjoy with your girlfriend, she can get involved in making some choices and enjoying the story, letting it play out and seeing what happens. This has been the game of choice and I was disappointed when it ended as it is not often that a game like that comes along that my girlfriend can enjoy. Verdict: 10/10

There are a whole bunch of other games that need to be mentioned for their accessibility if not their amazing storyline, Worms and Tiger Woods PGA Tour are great games for the two of you to enjoy whilst getting slightly competitive, whilst games such as Jet Set Radio have an artistic feel about them. I feel the next game we can both sit down and enjoy is going to be Rockstar’s Cop Drama L.A Noire. For that I can’t wait.

Andy is a gaming enthusiast and is currently working for a company that offers great Spa Hotels at decent prices. Follow him on his twitter @andym23

Is Social Media Destroying Romance?

Facebook is great and we can stay in contact with all the people and give them a poke or a comment whenever we want. But is this to the detriment of the excitement we get at the beginning of a relationship as we can already find out a lot about our potential partner just by looking at their Facebook pages and twitter feed.

One problem is that if you look at the Facebook page of your potential partner, you already know a lot of the information about them and you don’t want to give the impression of being a “Facebook stalker”, which a lot of people tend to throw around quite flippantly. But really when you are taking an interest in what they think and what is actually going on around their life.

At the same time it is quite hard to find the correct balance of when you post something on your partners wall as to not come across as a love sick puppy dog, because it almost becomes part and parcel with becoming more than friends with someone when to display your affection through social networks.

The dreaded ‘relationship status’ is another social media relationship obstacle that I’m sure does more harm than good. At what point in the relationship do you change the relationship status seems to be the question that hasn’t quite been answered by many relationship experts. God forbid you display you are in an “open relationship”, that just screams out the wrong signals, so avoid at all costs.

All of this makes you wonder how it affects the start of any relationship and what thought processes go through people’s mind as Facebook and your friends start to scrutinise your relationship status.

It can also inspire jealousy, whereas you used to be able to be in a relationship with a sense of naive bliss, now you can’t go a minute without finding out some new girl has started at the work place or some guy making some inappropriate comments to your girlfriend’s status. Of course an important aspect to any relationship is trust, and more often than not our partners are deserved of the trust we put into them, but it’s natural self preservation to protect the one you love. Its natural instinct and is wrong to fight it, just remember there are levels of trust with any relationship.

We need to get back to the basics when courting and I don’t mean finding prospects at the local discotheque, real romantic gestures need to be commonplace again and we need to not rely on the ‘poke’ button as the building blocks of any relationships. After all, it won’t make for a romantic story when you are gray and old and people ask you how you first met one another.

Andy is working for a Unique Silver Jewellery company and loves his work. Follow him on Twitter andym23

The Antidote To Valentine’s Day

If you’re still paying for Christmas then you’ll be overjoyed to be reminded that Valentine’s Day is almost here. And that marketing event ain’t cheap neither, the average American spends $160 on gifts for their partners and family, not a whole lot less than Christmas.

You could try to do things on the cheap, yeah, right, if you fancy being single on the fifteenth! However, you could do things that will keep the costs down by stealth, making a card yourself rather than sending an overprices tacky missive from a high street stationer says that you’re thinking of her; baking a cake instead of buying one off the supermarket shelf says you like to do things for him.

You can dip your own strawberries in melted chocolate, that often leads to other things and it’s cheaper than a huge box of chocolates that you present her with only to be accused of “trying to make her fat.”

How about taking care of business yourself with a home vajazzling kit? That’s an awesome surprise and much cheaper than getting it done professionally.

If you’re single at the moment then you’re probably sick of it all before it’s even begun, going out this weekend is going to be a chore with all those smug couples staring longingly into one another’s eyes, smooch induced nausea! So, if you don’t feel you’d be responsible for your own actions out on the streets then how about holding your own anti-Valentines day party? Make it themed and it could be a scream.

How about a Gangsters and Molls themed cocktail party? Or invite a few of your single crew over and have a night of slasher movies and beer? You could invite everyone over and indulge in a bit of speed hating. Speed dating’s been done to death, speed hating involves getting together and having a really good moan about your job, the government, taxes, you get it, just rag on everything that’s getting you ripping for a few hours.

If you’re a single girl and you’re not looking to get tied down then how about treating yourself to a day of mani pedis and massage? Get a facial and a new ‘do. Do it for yourself sister!

If you’re a single guy you might like a mani pedi and massage but how about sending a card to your dear old mum, tell her how much you appreciate her and that you love her dearly. She might think you’ve flipped but it’s good to tell her every now and again, no matter how old you’re getting.

Another thing a guy might do is send flowers to one of his single lady friends. I don’t mean all creepy weird stalkery but just a few flowers (Not a single red rose!) to some-one who might appreciate the thought right about now. And you never know, she might have a sister…

Dan Cash will be sobbing bitter tears as he microwaves his romantic ready meal for one on Valentine’s Day.

5 West End Shows Guaranteed To Impress your Girlfriend

Gents, with Valentine’s Day rapidly approaching it’s about time you got thinking about how you’re going to sweep your special lady off her feet. Chocolates and flowers just don’t cut it these days, diamonds are far too expensive, and clothes or saucy undies may seem like a great idea at the time, but have a habit of backfiring dramatically.

To avoid getting yourself throttled with something ill-advised, red, lacy, and inappropriately skimpy, why not treat your lady friend to a pair of theater tickets instead? A visit to London’s West End is glamorous and seems considerably more expensive than it actually is, so if you’re looking to impress someone, a trip to the West End is perfect. Treat the woman you love to an unforgettable evening.

Dirty Dancing

One of the most popular chick flicks of all time brought to life live on stage, think of the brownie points you’ll earn for escorting your lovely lady to see that! Dirty Dancing features all the iconic songs from the film and, of course, the famous lift sequence. It’s a perfect show for fans of the movie, or just for fans of a good old-fashioned love story.

Legally Blond

The pinkest, girliest, sparkliest show in town, Legally Blond: The Musical is the ideal choice if your companion is a Heat magazine-reading sort of girl. With a celeb-studded cast, hilarious songs, and some of the tiniest dogs in showbiz, any girly girl will appreciate a pair of tickets to see Legally Blond: The Musical.

Love Story

How about a weepy? Love Story isn’t just any old boy-meets-girl story, it’s one of the most celebrated tear-jerking tales of romance and heartbreak of recent times. Produced by West End legend Michael Ball, the show tells the story of Oliver and Jenny, a seemingly mismatched couple who find true love. It’s an emotional show but it’s alright, if either of you get a bit glum you can always share a teary cuddle.

Wicked

Wicked is much more than just a West End show, it’s a full-blown phenomenon. The songs have become modern classics, the sets are among the best in London and the cast are something truly special. Of all the shows on this list, this is the best one overall. Everyone from lip gloss-loving ladies to lager-drinking ladettes will enjoy the West End spectacle that is Wicked.

End of the Rainbow

The closest you’ll ever get to seeing Judy Garland live on stage, End of the Rainbow is a biographical play which peeps into the tragic icon’s hotel room during the last few months of her life. Punctuated by jaw-dropping performances of Garland’s best-loved songs perfumed by the exceptional Tracie Bennett, End of the Rainbow is the choice to impress a sophisticated lady.

Just booking a pair of theater tickets is a lovely gift which is certain to get you into your lady’s good books, but adding a hotel stay makes the whole experience extra-special.

Companies like Show-and-Stay.co.uk offer theatre tickets and hotel packages that don’t cost too much and, best of all, they only deal in top-quality tickets, so you won’t get stuck behind a pillar.