Oh dear.

When FNG and MfW left the house and the new guys moved in, I sent an extensive email with lots of helpful information and some other stuff about splitting the bills etc. and specifically our Virgin Media bill and how to pay me.

One guy, immediately replied back.

"It's too much. We should look for better value for money."

I instantly got defensive. I hate when people try and dress stuff up like that. It's not value for money he's looking for. He wants to reduce the bill. However, he doesn't know what we get for the money we pay each month. It's this kind of tightness that winds me up and all for what would probably be a saving of about £4 per month for each person.

We're currently on a friends and family deal that AM arranged for me, so we're doing pretty good under the value for money angle.

The other new guy never said anything about the Virgin Media stuff, so I never bothered doing anything about it. I noticed from my online banking last week that the complaining guy never set up a recurring payment, so I sent him a text. His reply was almost identical to his first complaining email, only this time he dropped the "value for money" angle.

I replied back telling him about AM's deal and how much that same deal would cost a new customer - AM's deal is "saving" us about twenty-five pounds per month. Paying ten pounds less than we currently do would really reduce what we're getting for our money.

"We should strip the package back to the bare bones and then only add things if everyone agrees to it" is his idea.

He then sent another text. He sent a "test payment" to my bank account. A fucking test payment. I've never heard anyone send a test payment before. It seems to me that he's being deliberately obtuse.

Seeing as neither me nor the other guy (though I really need to clarify this with him) have any issues with the monthly payment, I have a feeling that the complaining guy is going to be disappointed, but this needs to be sorted now and I don't think he's going to like the outcome.

Looking forward... (Part 2)

Hopefully, fingers crossed, this time next week I shall be sitting in a comfy bar, getting tipsy and having CH and KfW2 as company. I say "hopefully" and "fingers crossed" because it's taken a lot of frustration and organisation to finally nail down today week as our night out. I'm interested to see what happens. The last time, with people from work, CH asked for kisses in front of everyone, then had a rather strange text conversation about how much she valued my friendship.

She's asked for kisses before in front of people, including KfW2, and there's been hand-holding and ass grabbing. Will next week be a repeat?

I am very much looking forward to it regardless, but at the same time, I don't want to get too invested that it will happen in case it all falls apart.

Looking forward...

The talk that I had last week with GM also covered New Year's Eve. I mentioned how disappointed I was last year and hoped this year would be better. GM had half-suggested hosting a party. I think it was something that he had already given some thought to, and that would be cool, but I'd rather go into town.

One of KfW2's friends posted on Facebook about what to do this coming New Year's Eve and ot looks as if she is giving serious consideration to going to the bar where I encountered CB a few years ago. This has gotten me wondering if that means KfW2 will come out. In all the time I've known her, we've never spent New Year's Eve out. She had planned last year, but I think she was otherwise occupied at the time.

I know that one of S's friends from out of town is visiting. Ideally we could get everyone into the same place which would be amazing, but even now, it looks like there are more options this year.

I can only hope... and hope to be able to persuade GM, KfW2 and/or S to do what I want. I definitely can't do sitting in, not in this funk... and I don't want to be a third wheel like I was last year with S.

Beered out.

Another work night out last night - the second this week alone and a last-minute change of plans for next Friday has freed me up to attend that one as well. I don't know if I could be bothered with that one, though. However, that might just be today's apathy causing me to think that way.

It was a good night, but I'm feeling it today and an incident in the restaurant has made the usual frustrations come to the fore again.

Next week's night out with CH and KfW2 has been pushed out a few days to early the week after which caused some anger until we came up with a new arrangement.

Talking.

I'm just back from my chat with GM. I already feel slightly better and I think I managed to say everything that I wanted to say. I'm not sure that I explained myself too well in some things, but I'm blaming that on a busy night's entertaining that I did last night and the subsequent lack of sleep and hangover.

I did cover my disappointment in GB and MFF regarding CB, my online dating experiences, my subsequent disappointment in KfW2 not being more understanding, how long this has been an issue for... pretty much everything I originally talked about in this post.

I was surprised that GM's online dating experience wasn't that much better than mine (or so he claims) - he's pretty much described as a very good-looking bloke by fellas and girls alike. I would have imagined that he would have been getting a lot more messages (if not dates) than I had. While he does get more messages from me, they rarely turn into dates.

We've come to an agreement about trying to get out to meet people socially - we talked again about trying speed dating. I instructed GM that if we are out and I am pointing out cute women that he has to give me a kick up the arse and make me more pro-active (and help me with ice-breakers/openers). He asked me to do the same.

This is all just talk... but Christmas is a social season, so time will tell if this chat leads to the two of us helping each other out. I hope it does.

Woah.

A few years ago, when I was doing online dating for the first time and around the time I first "met" DSC and Date No. 1, I remember seeing a profile of a girl that may have been cute. The trouble was, it was a professional looking photograph and a weird pose, though the photo itself was striking and memorable. Couple that with a lack of info on her profile and what was there was really bland, I didn't follow up. So, she's not one of the hundreds of women I've contacted over the years.

Today, I discovered something: the photo (and presumably the profile) belongs to an actress which I discovered while browsing IMDB... and as luck would have it, I know something else about this actress... she lives next door to me.

Drinking

I was out last night with FP, the first that we've met up in a few months. Despite the weather, the bars we were in were very busy, including a stag group from out of town in my favourite bar who were far too drunk and ruined the atmosphere somewhat.

It was good to catch up and we discussed many topics. I have a hangover today though, but I can't figure out why. I wasn't particularly drunk and was drinking my favourite beer that hasn't given me a hangover in the past. Also worth mentioning is the fact that quite a few girls caught my eye last night.

Nothing to report there - no-one grabbed it sufficiently to make me want to talk to them, though there was a little flirting with a woman at the bar, but the reason I mention it is that it seems to have been a long time since I was out socially and anyone caught my eye.

It's the start of a busy two weeks - two nights out with work and an upcoming, yet-to-be-cancelled night out with CH and KfW2, a meeting with GM and who knows what else?

Postponing

I postponed my chat that was due to be last night with GM until next week. It was weather-related. The weather here has been appalling for the past forty-eight hours and as a result traffic has been horrendous. In addition, GM was fitting me in between leaving work, grabbing some dinner and heading out to a prior appointment. The traffic would have meant that the limited time we already had would be even more limited and I didn't want that. I don't see the chat itself taking that long, but I want to have the flexibility of having all the time that I need.

GM did put up a bit of  fight, but I reassured him that while I very much wanted the chat and for it to happen sooner rather than later, that it wasn't serious (as I had mentioned in the text) and could wait a few days.

Doing.

I ended up texting GM instead of emailing and I left S out of the loop, at least for now. The upshot of this sudden burst of pro-activeness is that I'm meeting GM for a coffee later this week, though only for an hour or so. That should be plenty of time to tell him what's troubling me and, hopefully, that'll kick things off.

When I say "things", I mean talking to other people, getting my act in order. I'm not expecting GM to have or provide solutions nor for him to talk to other people on my behalf.

• Current unhappiness with my relationship status
• How that sometimes social things make the first point worse (for example, CH cancelling nights out)
• How this started off being a periodic minor annoyance/funk, but has built steadily for the past 18 months due to various things and people
• How I'd like to be more active socially and not simply come home from work and sit on my own, doing effectively nothing
• I've tried talking to KfW2, but I don't think she grasps the seriousness of the problem and CH backs away any time the conversation gets serious and personal

I'm sure there are bits and pieces of other things, but this is what I want to cover this week.

Pondering.

I think that I've decided that I am going to send an email to GM and S and tell them how unhappy I am currently with the social/dating aspect of my life. It's an idea I've been pondering for a few days now, but I've no idea what to say or how to word it.

Roughly speaking, I think my unhappiness stems from recent unreliability or lack of contact from friends - GM being unavailable, S focussing on his "core" group of friends at the expense of everyone else, CH crying off nights out, GB making herself unavailable when I needed something to do last New Year's Eve - stuff that's happened over the past 24 months. There's also the online dating thing that was a Grade A disaster and unrecognised by KfW2 and finally the GB/MFF/CB thing that was the same and is the major factor in my now less-then-impressive view on GB.

As I have mentioned before, this is something that started off being a minor annoyance to making me very unhappy with that aspect of my life. I need a solution, especially to the meeting women/new people thing.

I've started, so I'll finish.

Years ago, way back in the mists of time... and if I count it all up on my fingers, it's about 25 years. FP was going out with a girl. She was nice enough and we got on, but she had a twin sister who was a royal pain in the arse. However, they had a house and hosted lots of parties.

I can't remember the details of this particular party, but I do remember being quite drunk, only me and possibly E3, at around 4AM., watching a film. For reasons I can't quite remember, even though I was enjoying the film, I never got to see the end of it. I think I left the party and came home, but the details elude me.

Regardless, that film was "The Presidio", a film that scores moderately on IMDB, but I seem to remember enjoying. Well, tonight, I managed to catch the last twenty minutes of it, at last.

And, no, it wasn't worth the wait.

Here we go again.

I was meant to be meeting M on Friday night for long-overdue drinks and a catchup. When I text him last night, he admitted that he'd forgotten all about it and that MM was going out instead. Sigh.

Then CH was on instant messenger earlier. Apparently she's on-call for work on the night that she had arranged to come out with me and KfW2.

The night itself hasn't been called off completely (yet), but at the very least, she's not going to be drinking and will, in all likelihood, be driving.

It can only be a matter of time before the night falls apart completely. Well, not completely because KfW2 will still probably come out... but I'm still angry because this was a night that CH suggested.

Planning (cont'd 2)

All last week, as a result of feeling a little low and a little lonely, I was trying to get GM (and others, but specifically GM) out for a few drinks. In a roundabout way, that happened - S turned down the invite, but then issued a counter-invite to join him and his mates.

GM decided that he fancied a fancy dress night out and that was all planned. I was due to be out with work for our usual monthly even, but I couldn't make up my mind whether to go or not. JB and the stalky fella mentioned a few posts ago spent days trying to talk me into it and somewhat against my better judgement, I agreed to go out.

I was only planning on going for the free drinks we usually get and then come home and get ready for GM's phone call... but the two free drinks turned into five... then eight... then ten. By the time I left at around 8PM, I was slightly more tipsy than I had planned and that's where the entire evening's plans fell apart.

S doesn't usually leave his house until after 10PM, so I had two hours to kill. I walked the fifteen minutes back to my apartment and watched the telly, waiting for the phone call or text message that would let me know they were on their way and I could make my way to the agreed pub and meet them.

Stopping drinking is the worst thing I can do, though. Once I was on the sofa watching TV, lethargy and apathy kicked in. When the message finally came, I was pretty exhausted, comfortable and looking out the window at heavy rain. Even text messages from JB asking me to come out weren't enough to prise me away from the house.

So, no hangover today, but a bit of regret and anger at myself that I didn't go out last night with GM. That's all my fault - the mistake was going to the work thing.