Hot girls in crap movies.

Unlike, say, a Jessica Alba movie that I would watch simply because she is in it (and I love her... *swoon*), it's really not worth the viewing time just to see these lovely ladies in action. It is a horrible, horrible film.

Sienna Miller and Rachel Nichols.

I don't usually rate Sienna Miller as a looker, but she's cracking looking as a brunette in the appalling "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra" which also has the lovely-looking Rachel Nichols as a redhead.

The work issue... a step forward?

I had my meeting with my boss’s boss last week, almost six weeks after I really wanted it to happen. There were matters beyond my control though, plus I wanted to get everything sorted in my mind – timelines, what I wanted from the meeting etc.

The meeting lasted just over 30 mins and, typically of me, I only said about 80% of what I wanted. However, I was successful in getting across the general gist of my current problems, namely my unhappiness in my current role, my problems with my manager, my concerns about the lack of support from management and my desire to move onto something I think I am suited to.

I came out of the meeting with conflicting feelings. It was nice to get this stuff off my chest with someone “official” i.e. someone in my direct management chain, but on the other hand, some things that my boss’s boss said in the meeting made me believe that he would probably side with her. I was kind of expecting it, to be honest, but from a strictly logical point of view, I am in the right. He’ll have to go off and investigate, of course, but he said I can expect an answer sometime this week.

I don’t think this is going to end this week though and will play out until the beginning of next year as I think there will be further issues with my year end score (that I don’t trust my boss to score objectively, of course) and will have to contest. Sigh.

Mysterious blogger outed!

For years, I've been singing the praises of Belle de Jour, an anonymous blogger who had briefly been a sex worker, for being an entertaining read. There had always been speculation as to whether the Belle de Jour blog was actually real or something else - a writing exercise for a professional writer, for example. It didn't stop me from recommending her blog and lending her books to various (and mostly female if that makes any difference) friends, all of whom seemed to really get into the books. In fact, if you look to your right, you'll see a link to BdJ's blog. Go read it... it's very entertaining.

At one point, BdJ was even a "friend" of mine on Facebook, USHW having asked her to add me as a chum (because I wouldn't do it myself).

Yesterday, though, she outed herself to the Sunday Times as a research scientisty person in Bristol. What this means for the blog or further books remains to be seen, but I wish her all the best in her decision to go public.

The same old introspective

Confession time: Despite my anger at doing so, I've found myself thinking a lot about RB this past week. Any time I have some free time to myself, I find myself wishing things had turned out differently. Obviously, this is partly because of the minor revelation from our mutual friend, reported here and again, partly because I don't really want to be single. It might be that I'm simply using RB as a placeholder in my daydreams because she's the last person I felt I connected with or maybe she's the most likely future source of a date (sad as that may sound). Nevertheless, there have been daydreams of just doing things... comedy nights, sporting events... someone to get me up off my ass and out there doing fun stuff which then leads me on to wonder if it really is a dating thing or if it's just getting back to a socialising thing?

Personally, I think it's a dating thing. The social thing is not too bad at the moment - I'm heading out most weekends with the work crowd and that's bolstered the odd time with FP. I also have infrequent lunch dates with QC1 and AM and the very odd quiet catchup with QC2 that should stop any cravings of more socialising.

I'm hoping to pin QC2 down for something quite soon (no, not that kind of "pinning down", sadly) but she's going through one of her hard-to-find periods. Hopefully she'll be in contact shortly.

Small world

Sometimes, Facebook has a lot to answer for. Leaving a comment on the mutual friend that RB and I share, I noticed that she's "friends" with a girl I used to know, well, years and years ago. Back when I was much, much younger... back in the days when I first met D. It's always a bit of a risk visiting this girl's profile because RB sometimes posts and sometimes she appears in the little sub-section of her friends and the picture does provoke pangs of something. This is not about RB though... this is about how I live in such a small world, which I find comforting but at the same time, as someone that values their privacy, I find disconcerting.

You only have to look at the QC1 blind date situation where the girl, if I have identified her properly, is a friend of one of my cousins.

Or an old school acquaintance who's "friends" with another girl I knew from years ago, from the same time and place as D and this other girl.

I do live in a small world!

A blast from the semi-past

OK, so it's hardly years and years ago, but the RB thing was just over a year ago. Why bring this up now? Well, sitting in the pub on Friday night, this girl from this post, all of a sudden turns to me and tels me that RB is home. RB had taken herself off on a round the world trip earlier this year and, due to circumstances beyond her control, has been forced to come home early. It's still very early days. RB may yet leave again to complete the trip, according to this mutual acquaintance, but it hasn't stopped me having the odd little daydream about it.. about, well hooking up with her again.

Saying that, another work colleague who was out with us on Friday made a mention of RB being a bit odd. I wanted to know more, but didn't want to ask any questions that might indicate that I am interested.

I don't know if I am interested or not, obviously. I'd have to actually meet RB and see what happened, but I certainly wouldn't rule out meeting her. Right now, I wouldn't rule out the possibility. I seem to be friendly enough with the mutual acquaintance, so seeing RB in the pub is fairly likely, should she remain at home for any reasonable length of time.

I don't know if I'm angry at myself or not for even considering it. After all, RB was a bit nuts and her behaviour after our date left a lot to be desired, but she was interesting and cute and it's not as if I've been inundated with decent offers from that bloody dating website.