Last week, I spent a lovely evening with QC2, having a great secret perv. Hey, why not, she's still an extremely attractive woman, even if I am playing the "platonic friend" card these days.

Not much came from it, but it was nice spending a few hours with her, swapping news and having a chat. I was all ready to tell her about Kiwi Girl after missing out last time, but the subject never came up. We ended up talking about underwear (female) and QC2's admission that she'd bought something that didn't fit and had a credit note (but that she didn't do "posh undies") but that the top she'd bought had suddenly given her a great rack. How disappointing... she has just the figure for some really nice underwear and her bust is still exceptional, even without scaffolding. I'd never see it, mind you, but for the sake of any male that might see you near-naked in the future, wear some posh underwear!

The only other things of note are my arrangements for my trip away. I'm waiting for one final email and that's me sorted. All possible arrangements have been made - accommodation, travel etc is done and paid for. All I have to do is catch a flight next week and I'm gone, baby! I'm looking forward to seeing E within the next few weeks (and I had a funny convo with SSCW today regarding E or more accurately if there was any romantic involvement with E and myself).

Vally's day?

I managed to arrange a night out with QC2 tomorrow. I had originally suggested Thursday, but completely forgot about the annual suck-fest (this may or may not be a point of view formed because I am perennially single). Of course, QC2 brought this up, mentioning that I might have to be her Valentine and sit in a bar with loved up couples. To be honest, that's not a big deal for me, but she seemed fairly insistent that we went out on a different day. She does have a long-term partner though, so might have her own plans.

We changed the dates, of course, but I still had "Be your Valentine? Well, you know, it would be such a slog being the date of a slim, sexy, beautiful brunette!" running through my mind. Well, she is all of those things...

More socialising!

It's a busy month for me. I've already been to a Jimmy Carr gig (which was excellent) and down to my friend D's house for a load of beers and the Superbowl, followed by a day off work to recover. This weekend, I'm meeting D again along with FBS and a few other ex-colleagues for our infrequent nights out (lots of booze). No doubt I'll have adult thoughts about FBS before then and probably a few on the night, too (providing her partner isn't out). It's a pity QC3 doesn't come to these (as I've no doubt explained before), but her relationship with one of our friends is strained (being exes and all that) plus she now has a family and is possibly living with a bloke, so coming out for a night on the sauce isn't top of her priorities... shame.

In a few weeks, I've nailed down a night out with my cousin and the week after, before I go travelling, I've got a big night out with current co-workers.

I'm looking forward to it!

A story from a long time ago...

I first met R2 when she was working in a pub we did a lot of drinking in around fifteen years ago. She was trying to serve about six people all at once and left a pint on the tap, overflowing. Unusually for me, I started teasing her and we exchanged banter. For the rest of the evening, it was R2 that served me when I went for more drinks.

As we spent a lot of time in that bar, R2 recognised us (myself, BW and one other male friend) each time we arrived and soon, we were chatting quite a bit. When R2 was on her break, she'd come down and chat for a bit.

When we started bringing females with us to the pub, they quickly latched on to the "fact" that there was something special between R2 and myself, but it's not something I paid attention to. She was pretty and easy to talk to, but there wasn't a huge spark there. As a friend, she was great and we did talk about quite a few things. She wasn't girlfriend material though.

Still, my female friends (including AM and QC1) weren't to be swayed so easily and they insisted for a fair few months that there was something there, if not from me, then from R2. That didn't bother me as such though we tried to arrange nights out together, only for one or both of us to cancel at the last minute. I don't know if R2 looked upon these as 'dates' or not (though I was unconvinced that she did), but for me, it was heading to a pub with a friend.

One thing I'd pretty much known about R2 was that she had always planned to go off and live in America. About six months into our friendship, she received her green card and it was all go. We tried to arrange one final Saturday night out, but again, that was scuppered by family members visiting her unannounced. I had gone out with QC2 doing some charity-related stuff through work and was telling her all about it. She, like my other female friends, was trying to get me romantically involved with R2. During a chat at my house that afternoon, R2 called, she apologised, and that was that.

Shortly before she left, we met for lunch, ended up chatting for hours and we parted. I gave her a hug and she gave me a kiss. It was more than a platonic kiss, but not exactly a snog. It was only then that my assumption that R2 looked upon me as a platonic friend changed. Maybe she had wanted something more? Or was this a more meaningful kiss because she was leaving? After all, I've done the same with E within the past few years.

When R2 left for America, we swapped letters (this was before the internet really took hold and became popular) for a few years before, not unexpectedly, they became less frequent and stopped. The last I had heard was that she'd received an offer for a new, permanent job, near the World Trade Center using her marketing/finance degree she'd worked hard for. R2 had accepted the offer and was looking forward to the new job.

We exchanged the odd Christmas card afterwards but swapped a little small talk and that was it.

On 11^th Sept 2001, while I sat in my living room with my cousin and watched the live BBC news programme, my first thoughts weren't of the passengers in the planes or the thousands of Americans that worked in and around the WTC. They were of R2, a girl I hadn't heard from in just over three years and hadn't had any meaningful contact within five. Did she still work there? Was she in any danger?

Until Monday, I had no idea what had become of R2 when I found her, by accident, on Facebook. Now I can't decide if I should make contact again. I've had enough trouble writing an email to V, and she's a recent acquaintance from a few years ago. How do I contact a person with whom I shared a brief friendship over twelve years ago?

Still waiting!

Absolutely nothing from E, so I'm kinda left with making my own plans and she can fit herself round them if she wants. I can plan my first few weeks at least, but the arrangements for when we're due to meet up cannot be done until E gives me information. I suppose that's not the hugest disaster in the world, is it?

I'm really starting to get excited about it now!

More planning!

In my last email to E, I suggested a chat over the internet to finalise some aspects of my trip, especially those details right at the start where E had suggested she's like to accompany me. With the trip being less than four weeks away, I really need to be booking accommodation now and I was expecting E to be on MSN over the weekend, but she was not.

It's unfortunate. I'm not in work tomorrow, so I'll probably spend the afternoon finalising my plans for my first week away including the booking of accommodation and internal flights.

This lack of contact with E is slightly concerning as she's not usually this unreliable and with me spending a hefty sum of cash on the trip, I'd liked to have had more contact with her before finalising my own plans. Ah well...