Nose-based nostalgia

Years ago, at secondary school, I was friendly with a cute girl. I had a mild crush on her, though I think most of the boys in or around her age did too - she was very pretty with an amazing figure. And, in fact, one of our core group ended up dating her for a few years. She wore a particular body spray or perfume. I don't know what it was called, or even what the scent was. I've always described it to myself as a smoky/tobacco kind of fragrance, but without any frame of reference or reason why I chose that description. I've smelt it a few times over the years (though not recently), and it always reminds me of her.

She pops up on my Facebook feed every now and again. We're Facebook friends, though we don't communicate. The friendship was never that strong, but it faded almost immediately once we left school. As I was doing some housework this morning, I tore open a packet of carpet cleaner and it smelled like that body spray... mostly. There's a scent in the mixture that says "smoky" to me. And  immediately, my mind went back to school... to the crush.

Runaround.

For the first time in a long time - months - I spent an afternoon with KfW2 and her kids. Even though it's been a while, her kids took to me again immediately. They always have, but I was wary that not seeing them for two or three months might have faded the affection they have for me.

I don't "like" kids. I've never wanted a family of my own, but I seem to get on brilliantly with other people's.

And it's tiring! I don't know how KfW2 does this every day. I'm looking forward to my bed tonight - if I don't get a good night's sleep tonight, there's something wrong.

Just nice things.

Stress has meant that my memory hasn't been as sharp as I would like... and I've been proud of my ability to remember things. It's nowhere near a disaster and I know it's very much stress-related and, I hope, temporary. In a semi-related thing, what I've also noticed is that, with being so busy in work, things I want to do during work hours get forgotten - GP appointments, workmen out to look at issues at the house etc.

I finally managed to get a guy out to look at the heating - it's not broken, but it wasn't 100%. Showers and hot water were tepid rather than hot. The guy explained that the boiler is on its last legs, so I need to investigate that before it actually does break irreparably. That's going to be expensive.

But today saw the first hot shower I've had in nearly six week and by God it was GLORIOUS.

Weird.

I had a weird dream last night that involved many aspects of my life all rolled up into one. The details are fading, but what I do remember is that:

• I was working in the job I had about 14 years ago
• Quiet Girl and I were extremely close (not in a romantic sense)
• E was there too, but I can't remember why
• Despite knowing E and QG, E and QG were new starts while I was the expert and I had to teach them the job
• Somewhere towards the end it kinda turned into a thriller/mystery kinda thing.
• I can't remember what we were trying to solve, but we never did.
• QG and I slept together - as in were actually asleep in a bed, naked, cuddling - but there was no sex

I didn't even have any cheese last night, ffs.

Oh...

Maybe I was a tad hasty with my admiration of Quiet Girl's new hairdo as she arrived into the office this morning with her hair straightened out. Still, as I had arrived in a lot earlier than usual thanks to some KfW2 flakiness, it was only the two of us, so instead of catching up on work, I sat and chatted with her a bit about her holiday. It's a work night out in a week or so, next time I'm talking to her, I'll ask if she's going. I doubt she is, but we're a social bunch and there are a few new people, so it'd be nice to fire out a general invite.

Hello again.

After being absent for a few weeks, Quiet Girl was back in the office sporting a new hairdo and looking nicer than ever. I went over for a chat. She'd been on holiday, so I spent a pleasant few minutes ogling her chatting about her holiday.

WOAH!

I'm not going to go into a great amount of detail over this but GM has split up with SG. It's gotten VERY messy, but I think GM now sees her for what she is - flaky and unstable. I could have told him that... I actually think he knew it himself, but she has gone nuclear since the two of them have parted ways.

It's only been a few weeks - I don't see this being over yet.

Oh, hello.

A somewhat last-minute text message from G last week saw me meet up with him and M in the pub on Friday night. We were due to hit my usual, local pub (i.e. the CB pub), but M's sudden appearance meant we changed venue to suit him.

"M's sneaking out for a pint" was the quote used by G.

That kinda annoyed me - I've been trying to get M out for a pint for months. I can't remember the last time we did. But I do know that M has been out recently with BR and now G.

Regardless, it was a good night, M only hung around for a couple with family duties early the next morning.

It was G and I left, propping up the bar, when I saw a really pretty blonde girl conversing with the barman. She looked vaguely familiar. It took about five minutes for the penny to drop - she'd been on a couple of the online dating sites. I'd swiped right - she had a blonde Emma Willis vibe about her. And even then, she'd been familiar. She used to be married to someone locally famous. I'm convinced I've blogged about it, but I can't find the post. Regardless... six months after appearing in the local paper talking up her new relationship, she was on the dating apps again, and by the looks of it, on a date.

She wasn't as pretty as her pics (she's stunning IMO in her pics), but "just" very pretty in person.

Another memory.

Years ago, my favourite bar wasn't my current favourite bar. But we'd go there regularly - myself, BW, AM, QC1 and the rest of the crowd. It did live music music too. In fact, it was where I met CAB, though she is not the focus of this post. This one's for R2. R2 was serving behind the bar one night when BW and I were in. She let a pint overflow as she was trying to make too many drinks at one time and I teased her about it. We struck up a kind of conversation every time I went to the bar and, to give her credit, she remembered me a few weeks later.

From then on, if I went in and she was working, we'd chat if she served me. This continued to grow to the point where, if she was on a break and we were in the bar, she'd sit with us and chat.

QC1, QC2 and AM were delighted.

"She's really into you," they'd say.

I didn't see it. We chatted, that was it. There was no flirting going on that I could tell, no physical touching to suggest anything other than a potential friend. I never knew if she was dating or seeing anyone else.

It was months later when everything seemed to click. I had a spare weekend, she had a rare weekend off, we'd mentioned our shared interest in a few bands, one of which was playing in town. So we arranged to meet. I didn't consider it a date - I'd still seen nothing to make me believe this was anything other than platonic. I called to confirm times and her flatmate told me she was in the shower and would call me back. The call never came.

The next day, I was doing some charity work with QC2 and invited her back to mine for a coffee afterwards.

We were talking about R2 when the phone rang. It was R2. She was apologetic - friends called round and she got side-tracked having a drink with them and didn't even get to the gig. She promised that we'd definitely have a night out.

I relayed all this back to QC2 who was dubious.

Our normal routine returned for a month or so until she sat beside me, one night, on her break.

She was leaving, she explained. Once she got her graduation ceremony out of the way, she'd gotten a visa for the States and was off there to live.

And she did just that, but we retained our little friendship until she left, and did manage to see each other socially a few times - a night out and a couple of lunch dates, the last only a few days before she left. It ended with a kiss. Like those I used to get from CH - slightly too long to be a peck on the lips, not quite long enough to be able to definitively say was not platonic.

She took my address, though I never expected to hear from her again... but surprisingly, she did send letters and we stayed in contact probably for four years or so. They stopped suddenly, though I didn't ever find out why. There was a chance sighting in my home town in 2009 that prompted me to look for her on Facebook and send a friend request and we've been in sporadic contact ever since. Today, according to Facebook, is the 9th anniversary for our Facebook friendship.

Lookalikes (Part, whatever)

This is adult film star Corey Chase, dressed as Supergirl.

Very nice! But just being an attractive woman is not a reason alone for posting her picture. It's also because she really reminds me of CAB. If you gave her dark brown hair, then it would be more apparent, but the shape of the face, the eyes, and the smile are all reminiscent of CAB. Perhaps even the figure, too, but CAB would never be caught dressed up in something revealing nor did she have the outstanding abs. I can't even remember CAB wearing a skirt. She was very definitely a jeans and t-shirt girl.

Pie eating.

I've had a plan to go and see my GP for a while now. I keep forgetting to do it - like a lot of things these days, it's on my list of things to do, but I get side-tracked in work (which is the only time I can call the surgery) and then repeat for weeks on end. I've had the same issue with getting people out to look at some house things as well.

Anyway, while it's not a replacement, we had a health-related event in work recently and I signed up (courtesy of one of GM's exes) for a health check.

I wasn't expecting disastrous news, but I wasn't expecting to be told that everything was rosy either. I'd say that the news was on the "bad" side of neutral without being worrying.

I'm over-weight, but not as bad as I thought. My BMI marks me as obese, just about. My blood pressure is slightly high. I'm an inch shorter than I had thought, though I'd not measured myself in some years. My blood sugar is well within limits though my cholesterol is slightly high.

This does not make my GP trip redundant. I still need to see my GP after the stresses of the past 18 months and the fact that the bad news is only slightly bad is encouraging, but still needs addressed.

Interesting!

While KfW2, CC and myself were standing at the bus stop, it was let slip that CC has a new target for her affections. I say "new" because there's always someone who has caught CC's eye.

This one appears to be a little more serious than I recall any of CC's previous "targets". I might try and get her out for dinner to see what the score is, just for nosiness sake.