Magic carpet ride.

I ended up taking tomorrow off work. I say "taking it off work", but the reality is that I've done my hours by 4 PM this afternoon, padded out with some time accrued from a few weekends ago. I'm looking forward to it.

The plan is to get a lie-in, a quick shower and then off to the local carpet shop to see about (finally) replacing the awful-looking 1970s carpet on my hall and landing.

I've already narrowed it down to a few, from online browsing, so it's just a matter of seeing them in person, arranging measurement and then fitting. I'm hoping that won't take any more than a few hours. I could be back in the house by lunchtime. 

Nooooo!

We haven't had a work event in over two months. I messaged Ideas Girl who's part of the organising committee and she shared that their budget had been slashed. That's disappointing. They've really cut our social budget over the past few years, but yet almost demand we go into the office "to chat and network with our colleagues".

We just can't do it on a Friday evening with a couple of drinks.

She also admitted that the annual summer party is likely to be a victim of the budget cut. I don't really blame them - it was expensive and, in my opinion, there was a lot of waste. However, a trimmed down summer party could be doable. I suggested this to IG, though I know she single-handedly arranges the summer party, so I was light on the observation about the waste. She liked the idea and said she's see what she could do. It'd be less like a summer party of old and more like a more posh version of our monthly event, and I'm all for that. 

All I really did at the summer parties was drink and chat to the likes of Quiet Girl. And that's what I do at the monthly events.

Urgh.

Remember that 4 AM start from this morning? Well, I have another one tomorrow. FFS.

The good news is that I should be able to take Friday off. 

Urgh.

Did I say that I had a 4 AM start this morning? On a Bank Holiday? It sucks, right? Well, if that's not bad enough, then I have another early start tomorrow. At this rate, I'll be finished by Thursday. I bet the weather's rubbish at the weekend.

Missed opportunity.

I forgot to mention that KfW2 left a voicenote yesterday after I'd told her that I wanted to take her out for food and drinks to celebrate her birthday (which was months ago). She said that yesterday would have been perfect as her kids had gone away for the day for a football competition.

But then she also admitted that she didn't get out of bed until near 1 PM. If we had arranged to meet, out time would have been really short - a couple of hours, max. But at least she was entertaining the idea, and she didn't mention making it a shared celebration, which is what she's done for the past few times we've done this.

She doesn't get that I want to treat her, because it is her birthday. It used to be our thing - we'd not buy each other presents or anything, but we'd treat each other to lunch or dinner. It also meant, that if we did separate events, I'd get to see her twice. In recent years, that's become much more difficult. This year has been different. We've seen each other about four times already, and I'd like that to continue even if I've not seen her since the end of February.

Chat Watch (con't)

After last night's post, I woke this morning to see a few notification in the chat. Apparently the chat creator forgot all about it. AM's husband and QC1 have both posted, but no-one's actually suggested anything.

And also, after last night's post, I think I will have to call the dentist. There's no pain, but there is a noticeable hot/cold reaction when drinking. So I think I'd like to see the dentist quicker than my scheduled appointment. 

Chat Watch

So, it's been like 36 hours since I was added to a chat with AM, QC1 etc. and still no-one's said anything. This is weird, right? This isn't just me?

And in other news, not chat-related, I might have to visit the dentist. I think a bit of tooth or a bit of filling has fallen off. There's no pain, but it will need looked at. I do have a scheduled appointment at the end of the month, so if there are no issues, I can hold off until then. if not, then I'll have to see if I can see my dentist before then. 

Let's see...

Digging deeper into the AM group chat has revealed that it wasn't created by AM or her husband but by a mutual friend. Still, no-one's said anything in the chat since I was added. It's all the usual ones: AM, her hubby, QC1, her hubby, a friend of AM's from university and an unknown number.

I'm not going to say anything. I'll just let it play out. AM's only really arranged one thing that I can remember and even then she got all angry and petty because she went to a restaurant where I didn't like the food.

That annoyed me, because I'd spent years making arrangements only for her to cry off at the last minute or demand adjustments to pre-arranged plans.

So, yeah, I'm being passive on this one. Again.

Long time...

No-one's said anything in the group chat yet, though people are still being added. Due to a busy work week, I'm logging off for the week in about 20 mins and I'll treat myself to breakfast at the cafe just round the corner. I realised, when I made that decision, that I've not seen CC in ages. Months, in fact. And while I do complain about her being self-centred at times, recently she's been a lot better. So I fired her a quick message to see if she'd like to join me. She replied quite quickly. She's not available. Just me, then. I'm getting quite peckish.

Ooooooh.

I'm in the middle of a work call, so I can't really check my phone, but I've just had a notification from WhatsApp that I've been added to a group by AM's husband. It's only taken, what, two years since AM promised to "do something soon".

A two-fer.

For the past two nights, FA2 has featured in dreams. In Sunday night's dream, I was in the city where she lives and I was looking for her, but I never found her. In last night's dream, I was working in her city, but with my current workmates. On a work night out, she comes into the bar where we're drinking and I explain our history to my colleagues.

I've not thought about FA2 in a while, so featuring in two dreams in a row is interesting.