Roundup

Work's so-so at the moment. I'm in the middle of a huge project which was going fairly well, but the last few days have seen some hiccups. I don't think they're my fault (I've double and triple-checked everything that I can), but that doesn't stop me from being concerned about the issues, especially as I've already made one fairly large mistake a few months ago and dodged a bullet a few weeks ago with another one. So, even when things are going well, I've got this nagging feeling in the back of my mind that things are going to go tits up.

As much as I like the company I work for and the people I work with, this haphazard way of doing things is pissing me off and according to company rules, I can't apply for another role for about another year, so if things do get bad, my only option is to leave the company.

Again, this might only be temporary, and I do only really get this feeling when things are bad/pissing me off, but it has been a busy few weeks and it'll be another few weeks before I get enough breathing space to take some time off work, which I wanted to do last week, but had to cancel at the last minute.

Contrary to my best intentions, I did take another peek at V's Facebook friends list and she's added more people. I should have stayed away, but I'm an idiot that gives people too many chances to make amends, like FA2. I had a brief chat with FA2 recently, but it took about 2 hours to have a 15 minute conversation on MSN because she was chasing her kids around. It's always like this. I don't initiate conversations any more because of this exact reason and I really should just block her on MSN and be done with it. I really doubt she'd notice.

However, I did manage to speak to A on MSN recently, for the first time in months. A has been hard to get hold of, mainly because she started a new (and continuing) relationship at the start of the year and a new job a few months ago. She was quizzing me about V as I hadn't actually spoken to her about it before. I felt really good about talking to her about it. It was obviously troubling (or annoying) me a lot more than I'd previously thought. A's fine, too, and it was brilliant to catch up after all these months. Speaking of catching up... USHW's blog has gone AWOL. I wonder if there's any trouble? She had a few thingson her mind recently that I thought she would have blogged.

My email conversation with QC2 is ongoing... that's practically a fortnight now without any breaks, which is interesting. I wouldn't say that QC2 and I were close. QC2 is extremely private and I've been told I am too, so you can imagine how much we know about each other, but she does seem to be thawing, albeit slowly, and I guess I am with her, too. We've still to set a date about meeting for a drink, but she's got some college work on that needs urgent attention, so we've put it off until that's finished (probably the second week of September).

Finally, it's nearly the weekend and tomorrow is one of the monthly work's bashes. I've not been to one in months (since April, I think), so getting out with a few old team-mates will be good, even for just a couple of hours. If it turns into anything more than that, then I'm all for it, but if I'm home early, it will still be worth it.

The good, the bad and the ugly...

I'm not sure if the title actually is meant to say anything. I typed it, but haven't thought it through at all.

Anyway, V's added more friends to Facebook, but I'm not one of them. I've no idea if I'm still pending or if my request has been ignored. My guess is the latter, but Facebook doesn't make these things easy. Bloody site!

Anyway, frustrations with Facebook aside, I'm still at a loss about V. Her contact has always been extremely positive, and although she does have a tendency to go AWOL for periods of time, I've yet to see anything from her that says she's never glad to see me (when I lived in her neighbourhood) or hear from me (in the very few times we've communicated since I came home).

V always struck me as the straight talking type and she didn't fuck about with any of this fake bullshit, so I assumed that when she said and wrote nice things about me (all unprovoked by drugs and alcohol), that she actually meant them. It appears that she didn't (or that she's simply not interested in long distance contact). Either way, I'm disappointed and it kinda looks right now as if I'm giving up on V... another female friend added to the list of people who aren't worthy of my attention any more.

On the plus side, contact with QC2 has been great. Confusing, but great. QC2 is like myself... we don't say much unless we've got stuff to say. She has been really quite vocal recently. OK, so it's only since Monday when she replied to my text message from the previous week, but I've been arriving in work (we've been swapping emails using our respective work accounts) to little messages that are very unlike her. It was only little things like telling me she was hoping the weather stayed nice for an outdoor concert I was going to, or emailing the day after the concert to ask how it went. You know, small talk. Little thing. In fact, I'd have related these kinds of messages more to someone I was dating (or was dating) than someone that was my friend and had no romantic feelings towards me. I'm not complaining, just, well, a little confused. We still haven't set a date for meeting up, but it's less of an issue if we maintain some kind of semi-regular contact, though I would love to see her again.

I guess I'm just never going to understand women. If any female passers by read this and have anything insightful to offer on the actions of V or QC2, then please drop me a line!

Another week... with something to look forward to!

I met QC1 for lunch today. That was good. I liked that. We had a chat, which was good, but because it was lunchtime, it was cut rather short. I reckon we could have chatted all afternoon, had we not been called back to our respective places of employment. There's a chance we'll meet up on Wednesday night at a local outdoor concert, but I'll be with workmates, so it's hard to say if she'll come out for a drink without us afterwards.

I also heard from QC2 today, who's just back from a holiday with her partner. She tried to set a date (Wednesday night, naturally) so I've had to cancel. We're trying to arrange another night, next week. It'll be good to catch up with her, plus she's easy on the eye (might have had a crush on her years ago when we worked together) and it's amazing the looks you get from blokes when you're out with a gorgeous girl. QC2 turns many men's heads when she's out.

So, I've got this gig on Wednesday to look forward to, a mate's getting married on Saturday (evening do to attend) and meeting QC2 next week. I have a few days off this week plus I might be meeting FP for beers later this week, too. All in all, something to look forward to!

Contact!

Sadly, nothing from V. I really doubt there'll be anything further from her. It's a shame, really. I think we could have clicked again and had some fun, albeit over the internet.

However, today I have heard from... *drum roll* QC1, AM and FA2!

It's hardly worth talking about FA2 though. Yet another thoughtless invitation to another pointless social networking site (hypocritical of me to say that given my Facebook membership? You decide). I won't be joining Bebo, naturally. I've said it before and I'll said it again: if she wants to be in contact, she obviously knows my email address and she definitely knows my MSN address.

QC1 and AM are different though. They're unreliable in their own way, but they do eventually get around to contact every now and again. QC1 is taking me out to lunch next week (her treat) to catch up and buy me a return lunch from earlier in the year. It'll be fun to catch up.

AM recently gave birth to a baby girl. I was shocked. I didn't think AM was the maternal type. I've certainly never heard her or her husband talking about kids. My suspicion is that it was an accident, but you can be bloody sure I'm not asking THAT question! I've sent a reply, so I hope to hear back soon.

In light of AM's recent contact, I decided to send a message to QC2 (AM and QC2 used to work together, hence the mental connection). I haven't heard from QC2 in months beyond asking a favour that I sadly couldn't deliver on. Still... it would be nice to get her out for a drink and a nice chat to catch up on what she's doing. She can be unreliable, especially with mobile phones, so a reply is a bit of a lottery. I did email a few months ago, but have heard nothing since then either. Let's just see what happens...

Fit and you know it!

I've been to the gym a couple of times already this week. I'm planning on getting down for an hour tomorrow and maybe once more over the weekend and to keep up this routine of going every couple of days until it becomes habit and second nature. Once that's done, continuing should be second nature and I might actually see some benefits this time around.

Last time, when I was seeing GC, I was only going once per week, maybe twice if I was also seeing GC that week. Even then, I did see benefits but that was more to do with GC putting me through my paces and really giving me a good gym seeing to.

I don't push myself as hard as GC does, so things might not be as apparent as quickly this time around, but I'm not doing this for big (or quick) changes. I still need better playlists for my gym time though to maximise my efforts while I'm there.

I'm fairly confident that the leg will hold up to further punishment, especially football next week, but another week of leg-centric gym work won't do any harm. Once (if) I come through next week's footy match, then I can think about a more general gym routine. I have an old fitness plan that GC designed for me. I can use that as a template for this time around.

Woohoo!

I finally made it to the gym... it only took several months to summon up the smallest amount of energy to go down and re-register and then another week of "yes, I will... no I won't" decision making each day about actually getting off my arse and heading down. 

I enjoyed it. I always do. It's nice to work up a sweat (under any circumstances) and I did put myself through the paces tonight, albeit only for 45 minutes. I've passed the first test. My hamstring (because it's all about that at the moment) is feeling fine. My legs are tired (it was all cardio/legwork today), but I'm not feeling any pain in the leg.

The plan is to go another three or four times before easing back into the football at the end of next week. If that all goes successfully and my leg holds up after that, I'm hoping to use the gym more to sort out my fitness (with a little work on losing a bit of weight and body trimming/toning).

Along with playing footy each week, I should be exercising Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. That should be plenty... though I might also target an extra hour over the weekend at some point, especially if I'm not doing anything else. Getting out of the house for an hour or so is a good thing. 

I also caught a glimpse of GC tonight who has changed her hair colour. She's now a brunette. She suits it. I think that it could be her natural colour. Her hair was just too blonde and at times her roots were too dark. I could be wrong though... I'm a bloke. What do I know about hair colour?

Either way... she looked good. She had a client, so I didn't stop for a chat and I don't think she saw me. What I need to do is sort out some playlists for the gym. I had one that looked good, but it wasn't really. I need more up-tempo stuff to keep me going. Still, that's the first step. All I have to do now is get into the habit of going twice a week!

Expletive

I was wandering through my Facebook profile today after a technophobe chum (BW) sent three emails each to two different email addresses to let me know that he'd added me as a friend on Facebook.

I checked Facebook, but while there were notifications from a few people about all kinds of things, there were definitely no friend requests, so I returned the favour and sent my own request.

I noticed that there was a message that said "Friends requested" or something like that, but that was a few hours ago when I went to add BW. Going back now and I can't find any evidence that I sent the request. I get hundreds of notification each day of stuff other people do, but it seems I can't even track my own actions. (Of course, this would be handy to check the status of my friend request with V. Here's a question for any passers by: if V ignored my friendship request, do I get a message telling me or am I left in the dark?)

Bloody useless site!

The gym...

Yes, at long last I made it to the gym to sign up (or re-sign). I now have the membership card in my grubby little hands and I'm trying to get as much done tonight in the way of paperwork and general life stuff to free up some time for the gym later in the week (hopefully starting tomorrow).

Stupid Facebook!

Well, I've just checked Facebook again and V's profile is there for all to see.

I wonder if Facebook is playing silly buggers or if V is actually playing about with her profile at times, causing it to go AWOL?

Either way, it doesn't matter... still nothing from V as yet.

Grrr...

I was writing a piece on Facebook earlier for one of my online ventures, flicking back and forth onto the site to check some facts about how the site operated when I noticed that V's profile has gone.

I'm not jumping to conclusions like I did last time. I'll wait until I get home because we use an old version of IE at work that doesn't appear to display the site properly, but it's not looking promising.

Resident Evil

Sienna Guillory in Resident Evil 2 (the movie) is another easy-on-the-eye lady.

Verrrry niiiice!

Anyway... in response to my previous post, I never made it to the gym. I got caught up in fixing a problem at work, which caused me to stay late and by the time I left, I was too tired and hungry to even consider hitting the gym.

I still think it's important and I will make the effort to get down over the weekend, not just to join up but even for a workout for an hour or so.

Procrastination: it's being lazy, but with purpose!

I'm still a bit 'meh' about the whole being single thing. It's not a huge thing, just a 'meh' thing. Anyway, that's not the thing that's really pissing me off right now, although I guess it's maybe kind of linked.

What's really 'grinding my gears' as Peter Griffin would say is my lack of activity outside of work. I come home, make dinner and then settle down in front of the telly or the PC or read a book. I chill out until bed time. It's not all the same from day to day. For example, my time in front of the PC might be spent blogging, chatting on MSN to friends near and far, doing the odd bit of writing (a hobby, nothing more), keeping my website up-to-date, playing the odd game etc. but the breakdown of my day is pretty much: wake up, work, dinner, chill out, go to bed.

I want to do something more than that.

I need to do something more than that!

The first step is to re-join the gym. I've been talking about it for the past few months and procrastinating about it, too. In an ideal world, I'd have done it too. In a less perfect world, I might even make the phone call now and sign up after work. I like that thought and might even get around to it later if I can shake this lethargic feeling I've had all afternoon. That's a good start. Getting to the gym will have loads of extra guaranteed benefits over and above getting/staying out of the house for an extra hour or so a few times each week, not least getting fit, better sleep, fighting stress (I don't get stressed easily, but it'd still be nice).

What I'll do after that remains to be seen. I've been generally unhappy about my social life for quite a while now and I will have to make a serious effort to address that.

Brick

Brick is a great film isn't it?

Oh, and Nora Zehetner is simply lovely!