Is a 12 year age difference too much?

As I said in a recent post, KfW2 and I, while spending a lot of time talking to each other, actually swap precious little in the way of personal information. Today, she asked a question. I've said this to many people in the past, and I'll make a point of saying to KfW2 soon: I don't talk about myself a lot, but I'll answer pretty much any question thrown my way.

KfW2 asked, in pretty poor timing, if I thought my physiotherapist was, well, I'm not going to attempt to even repeat the phrase she used, but the upshot of it was "would you consider asking her out?"

The answer was that she was too young surprised KfW2. She seemed to think that men didn't care that a 12 year age difference was important. Maybe not in a one night stand scenario, but it definitely is if I'm looking for anything more. She told me about the father of her kid (he's over ten years older than she) and said that she didn't think it was important, but I'm not sure.

KfW2 added that she thought I looked at least 6 years younger than I actually am, so I've been looking pretty cheerful since I left work.

Oh, and why was the timing of KfW2's question so poor? Well, only because it could have been the start of a decent, meaty conversation, but it all started to happen just as I was powering down my PC and getting ready to leave the building for the evening.

Apathy fades for a few brief seconds

Friday night was a work night out and I managed to spend a lot of time chatting to KfW2. KfW2 and I have been spending a lot of time together recently. I'm still amazed that we are at this stage given that I am convinced (and there was a partial admission from her) that she didn't like me once upon a time. We kind of skirt round each other in terms of actually swapping any personal information, so while we do spend a lot of time talking, we don't know each other all that well.

Friday, I think, might have changed that a bit. Rather than just swap emails and text messages, I think we actually had a proper conversation. Suffice to say, when she went home, there were the inevitable winks and thinly veiled questions. It's all for nothing though. There are many reasons why I wouldn't go anywhere near KfW2 - I work with her, she's not single, she has a kid already and did I mention that I work with her? I know my "don't date work colleagues" is a guideline rather than a rule, but dating someone you sit twelve feet from is completely different to dating someone from an entirely different department.

Also, based on some nagging from DSC tonight, I've logged into my old Plenty of Fish account and sent a few messages to interesting and/or cute looking girls. I predict that I will be back here within three days to report no replies to any of my messages. An admission, it was only partly DSC's nagging that made me log in again. Sitting, having a proper conversation with KfW2 (who's very cute, I think I should also admit), was nice. I can't remember the last time I sat down and got to know someone over a few drinks. I really enjoyed it. That was enough to let this apathy I have for dating sites fade for a bit and drum up some enthusiasm.

Girl talk

Going back to what DSC was talking about a few weeks ago regarding chemistry/spark. A quick recap is basically, DSC doesn't think spark is required when dating. I think it's vitally important. I was saying that M's fiance's friend is exactly the type of girl I think I should be interested in, but I didn't think there was a spark despite her ticking a lot of boxes. DSC asked if it were possible that friends could develop that spark and I said that I thought they could, but that would be different to going on half a dozen dates and hoping that something develops which is what DSC was advocating. Re: the friends thing... I've done it myself with a few girls in the past - QC1 and QC3 spring to mind as obvious choices, plus a mutual friend of QC2 and AM that I talked myself into being attracted to.

What's the relevance here then? I've recently started seeing a physio about some of my long-term injury problems with a view to getting back to activity in the early summer. She's cute... very cute in fact and appears to tick a lot of boxes - intelligent, similar interests in travel, active etc. There's certainly enough there that, had I met her in the pub, I'd seriously consider asking for her number. So, based on the three meetings we've had so far, I was giving this some serious thought. The one downside that I saw was that I thought she was a bit young. A bit of Facebook investigation (definitely not stalking, oh no) has suggested she easily a dozen years younger than me. That's just too much, sadly. Seven years, maybe, given my age, but a dozen is simply too much. Shame that.

Taking one step forward.

I had a spare ten minutes in work today, so I fired off a quick email to my house mate, giving an indication that I want us to start seriously think about finding somewhere else to live. I gave a rough indication of how much I think we should be spending and I gave a sample search off a property website, indicating which areas of the city I would consider living in plus the types of accommodation I would consider.

I would ordinarily talk to him about it, but I've lost count of the amount of times I've meant to say something to him recently, only to get sidetracked or for him to be out of the house himself. I sent the email just to get the ball rolling, but I don't really want to chase him up on this. Luckily, I have a fallback option. MfW is looking for somewhere new to live, and he needs somewhere ASAP. I think MfW and I would share tastes in houses, so finding somewhere would be pretty easy, in my opinion. I've also suggested to house mate that MfW could share with us - it would be nice to split the bills three ways.

I guess if house mate hasn't approached me about moving house, then I'll tell MfW that we should look together and just get on with it. my house mate can then go fuck himself.

Grrr... Part Two.

The house mate thing I'd previously blogged about is partly my own fault. Over the past year or so, I've been the one tidying the house, buying the sundries, getting the gas etc. in. Comments that he might chip in or we create a household fund for washing up liquid, toilet paper etc. have never created any offers of a few quid.

Despite the fact that my house mate's room is spotlessly clean, he rarely lifts a finger elsewhere in the house, which is weird as he has his girlfriend around. If I were regularly inviting my girlfriend to the house to stay over, I'd like to make sure that the house was clean.

So, at the start of this week, my house mate had (deliberately) not topped up the gas card and had left the house without electricity (a 5 min job online) and had owed me money for previous gas and electricity top ups. I owed him money for our Sky TV and the way it all balanced out, if he'd top up the gas, we'd be all square.

It's not the money. He's good for the money, and it's a small enough amount that I could walk away and forget about it. It's about the effort. Taking the time to notice that we're out of washing up liquid and buying a bottle on the way home from work, or the gas has run out and topping up the card on the way home from work or... well, you get the picture.

I'll make a prediction now: we're still out of gas. He's had 48 hours... more, actually, to top up the gas. He'll go home at the weekend, meaning that I'll have to go out and get the gas, take the time to walk the 20 mins to the shop and pay the cash.

A small digest.

Only bits and pieces to report... started physiotherapy today a mere two months or so after consulting my GP. Hopefully this will get sorted quickly and I can get back to playing sport and trying to drop some weight. The fact that she's quite easy on the eye is a bonus, although she's massaging my leg and not anything else. Still, back next week for further treatment and a good ogle at her (very fine) arse.

My new friend in work is also entertaining me. We've hit it off quite quickly. She lives out of the city and has a family so she's not out as often as I would like (or she, for that matter). Partly, that's selfishness on my part. I do have fun with her, but at the moment, I'm more intrigued about this friend of hers that she's trying to set me up with.

With DSC's comments in the past, I'm also semi-considering seeing what chance I might have with the good-looking blonde friend of M's fiancé. M's fiancé would be a more than willing matchmaker, I think, it's me I have to convince, I think.

Grrr...

The house mate was in the house for a whole day and a half last week and he still managed to leave a pile of dishes to be done plus left the house with electricity or gas. The dishes is a minor inconvenience, but the gas and electricity thing is annoying. Due to a previous house mate, our gas and leccy is on a meter and we need to top up via card. There's a reserve on the gas and the leccy beeps when it's close to the limit.

I arrived home on Friday night to a dark house - no lights, no fridge, no beeping. That because my housemate took the lead out of the meter, which stops it beeping. He could easily have gone online and topped up the leccy and given me the code, but he disappeared off and never said a word. The same is true with the gas. There's a couple of cubic metres as a reserve when the main supply goes done, but this appears to have been used up as well, so he used the reserve and never topped up the card.

I'm seriously contemplating moving in with another mate who's also looking for a house.