After all the hard work...

...this is the period of the holiday season that I like best. Xmas Day and Boxing Day are over, I still have a week off work and the only things to do are spend time with friends and family , more often than not down in the pub. I ghave plans for tonight, tomorrow night and Tuesday night with another potential plan for New Year's Eve. That, plus a few day's recuperation time should see me right until it's time to return to work and I'll have to start putting together my plans and goals for 2010.

The post regarding my single status still remains and stupidly watching such films on the TV as "Love Actually" and "Notting Hill" really don't help matters, and yet I still sit down knowing I'll feel crap at the end of them. If only life were that simple, eh?

Pondering time.

I have two pet hates about this time of the year... the first is being single. I think it's a horrendous time of the year to be single - even more so than St. Valentines Day. If there's ever a time of the year to be sharing things with someone else, it's now I think - pressies, meeting friends, finding some alone time

The second is that you should never spend New Year's Eve alone. This is different to the above in that you don't need to be dating/in a relationship, just that you're with friends or family (or, yes, loved ones). I've always preferred NYE as a holiday to Xmas, mostly because I'm not religious and I like the practical side of the whole New Year thing with resolutions, new goals, putting the bad parts of life behind you etc. Plus, if you're lucky, a nice mem ber of the opposite sex will give you a bit of a snog.

I thought this year was going to be a wash out in terms of New Year's Eve, but already there is a small chance that the crowd from work is having a party, which is just around the corner and would be great. I doubt there'll be too many more offers, but I hope this one bears fruit.

Xmas party season

It's the day after the work's Xmas party and I'm feeling a little deflated. I don't know why. It was a good night, but not as good as last year's. Some of the ladies scrub up extremely well! One girl, I think I've spoken about her before - tall, leggy, brunette - arguably looks better on a day-to-day basis than she did scrubbed up last night. That's not to say that I wouldn't, given the chance!

Tonight, I'm going out with D and other ex-work colleagues and they're usually good nights out. I don't know if FBS will be tagging along... sometimes she does and sometimes she doesn't. It'd be nice to see her though.

I can see tomorrow being spent in bed (although not the good type of spending all day in bed)!

Yay!

I can't remember if I've mentioned this before, but F has promised to come over and visit next year once her exams are over. Yay! I can't wait. I love her to bits and she's really good fun and we'll spend lots of time in the pub.

I think I might introduce her to the crowd from work that I'm spending a lot of time with. I think she'd enjoy their company and have some fun.

Oops!

Was out for lunch with QC1 this week which was great. Rather worryingly though, I managed to forget about it and it was only a well-timed phone call from QC1 as I was out on my lunch break saved me from an embarrassing apology to her. As it happens, I was only round the corner from the cafe where we were meant to meet, so I was able to tell a small fib about running late.

We had a great chat and it's always nice to see her. We should be seeing a bit of each other over the Xmas period too, so that's something to look forward to over the weekend.

Updates of a sort.

The work thing is over. I've been screwed somewhat by my boss and the entire management chain who are pretty much refusing to acknowledge that my boss's unreasonable criticism is borderline harassment... that has been exacerbated by the fact I've been robbed in my end of year appraisal. I don't know if I will be appealing (although the process is there should I choose) but I know that I will be making my feelings clear on the official record. I'm being marked down for keeping my team-mates at arm's length when I know they're reporting my activities to my boss behind my back and have been wrong before (and it's arguable as to whether they deliberately got things wrong). I'm absolutely fuming.

The somewhat hoped-for meeting with RB, giving my friendship with the mutual friend hasn't panned out as yet. Even with the ongoing dating site membership, I haven't had a sniff of anything in ages. I am in email conversation with a girl on the site, but she's not really my type. I'm enjoying the conversation, but this is not going to lead anywhere romantic (or physical). I realise that hoping for the mutual friend to bring RB out or set up a meeting between us is stretching the imagination a little, but it's not impossible and I still wonder why the mutual friend lets slip RB's progress every now and again if there's nothing there.

sadface

I've made arrangements to see QC1 next week for lunch which is good because I'm not a particularly happy bunny right now - all work-related. QC2 is going through another period where's she's not replying to messages - an email and a text message have so far gone unanswered over a period of about four weeks. It's be nice to catch up before or during the holiday season, but if she doesn't answer, then there's not a lot I can do.

The work thing is still ongoing. It's a fortnight since I spoke to my boss's boss and I'm still waiting resolution. Things will have to be sorted soon because I really don't want to go into my end of year review with all this stuff unresolved... mainly because I think my end of year review will provoke another complaint about my boss.

And in completely unrelated news... I still haven't done any Xmas shopping.

I have been in the pub...

... and I am more than a little tipsy.