I had hoped that this weekend would see our regular monthly work thing. It's been a long month and I quite fancied some drinks, socialising and a bit of banter with Quiet girl and that group of people.
I forgot it was Easter weekend, so that's never going to happen. Maybe next weekend then?
One of the guys in the office has suggested we do a "1 million steps" challenge. Essentially it's a challenge where a team of three attempts to do 1 million steps in a month. That's 333,333 steps per person, or 11,111 steps a day, at least.
Bear in mind that my current average for last year is 3837 steps, then that means I need to do 3 times the number of steps that I'm currently doing.
I've said that I'll take part if we can get a full team. The goal is tough enough with having to increase it by 50% if there's only two of us.
I was going to make a post about how I slept really well last night and didn't wake until nearly 10 AM. It was only when I sat down and started typing that I remembered that the clocks changed last night and I "lost" an hour.
But I didn't lose an hour's sleep because I still slept longer than usual, by about an hour. It seems I'm still catching up on the past few days.
I slept well last night, but I still woke early due to having a coughing fit at 7 AM. Usually, I'd try to get back to sleep but I knew immediately that that was me for the day. So I'm up, showered and ready to go. There's adulting to be done today and I am strangely motivated, so let's go.
With regards to the coughing fit and the current lurgy, the cough is gradually getting worse, but there aren't really any other symptoms to speak of. Let's hope that continues. A sore throat/cough I can deal with, but my eyes have a tendency to get sore when looking at screens when I get a cold (or similar illness), and that's my job, so I'd like to avoid that.
The illness I reported a few days ago hasn't really gotten any better (or worse for that matter). The lack of sleep over the past few days hasn't helped though. I should have logged off from work a couple of hours ago due to a few long days this week, but the urgent work I mentioned before has only now been resolved.
I reckon that means an early finish at some point next week.
I've not slept well over the past few nights and I am really feeling it today. I woke early this morning but got back to sleep. In this second spell of sleep, I had a dream. It featured two women from work. One of them was Quiet Girl, the other was a girl I've worked with briefly who gives me Kate Mara vibes.
We were at some kind of work retreat, Quiet Girl was being her usual friendly self. Maybe a little more tactile than usual, but nothing out of the ordinary. And the Kata Mara girl was also getting friendly. There was nothing more, just the three of us being a trio at a work event.
I woke up with a headache - a lack of sleep - and a desire to take today off work and get a lie-in, but I have too much urgent work to complete to even consider it as an option.
Facebook has been throwing up some random things recently. Most are pages I've zero interest in - the algorithm is a mess. It's also, for some reason, started showing me local hotels. The travel bug is hitting hard, but I've not been looking at hotels local or otherwise. The main picture was a local hotel. A nice one, too. And now the travel bug is really kicking off. And I'd quite like a lottery win so I can stay in rooms like this. But preferably one that's somewhere warm and sunny.
As someone who can't drive and works from home, I reckon it's about time that someone started a company that sold coffees door to door, maybe like an ice cream van. Surely that'd be a huge money maker?
Yup, I'm definitely coming down with something. The cough is more pronounced today, my eyes are watering and I'm a bit wheezy in the chest. Sigh. That'll teach me to leave the house.
And I'm meant to be going to my sister's this evening to help my nephew with some computer stuff.
And I'm meant to be in the office tomorrow.
Let's see how this works out.
I think I might be paying for being social at the weekend. I woke this morning with a minor headache, a blocked nose, a tickly throat and a bit of a cough.
I'm hoping that I'll shake it off soon. I've always been relatively resistant to cold and flu-like illnesses which never really develop beyond these kinds of minor symptoms. Even the few times I think I've had Covid, it was little more than a lack of energy and, during the first time, a lack of smell and taste for a week.
I'm also meant to be at an event this evening with BR and his wife, so it'd be nice if I didn't get more unwell in the next six hours.
I'm blaming the booze for a weird dream I had last night. It was a scenario that I've dreamed and blogged about before: the weekend I originally met USHW. I think I blogged about a recent version of the dream that involved both USHW and K. Last night's dream just involved K.
It was a bit of a "What if?" scenario. I've already blogged many times about how K and I had hooked up, how she wanted to properly date whereas I just wanted something casual and how that effectively ended our friendship.
Well, in the dream last night, we had gone down the casual route, meeting every few months in cities across the UK for fun. As a result of that, in this alternative universe, USHW was never offered the opportunity to share the hotel room. And so when the weekend rolled round, it was K who shared the hotel room even if she wasn't attending the social event that required the hotel room.
It was kinda weird. Despite over analysing things at times (you should see some of the conversations between USHW and me when I was trying to bed Sports Girl), what might have happened with K is something I've never really revisited. I've no idea what "something casual" might have looked like with her.
So, it was a bit of a frustrating morning, but I do like the reminiscing sometimes.
It's been a social weekend. As blogged yesterday, I met up with G ostensibly for coffee, but it turned into a couple of pints.
The night out with The Crowd ended up being just me and S. FC and Mrs FC got unexpected guests and couldn't make it. GM was always an outside bet - he had previously claimed to be skint this month.
With that, I was nearly texting S to see if he wanted to meet up. S can be difficult at times - a lack of maturity - meaning conversations feel shallow and typically film-related. But he was good company last night and the conversation flowed easily.
And then today, my youngest nephew had asked me for a favour, so I went to visit. My brother-in-law asked me to stay for dinner, so we had a few drinks and chatted.
I'm knackered, but despite being an introvert, I do enjoy weekends like this. I get out of the house and I don't feel like I've wasted my weekend by sitting in front of the TV or at the PC, doing very little.
Wouldn't you know it? A text message from G at 8 AM. He's home this weekend and wants to meet for coffee or lunch. I'm expecting a few parcles to arrive, so I'd like to be in the house when they arrive, but luckily, they're all scheduled to be delivered by lunchtime.
I've told G I can be available from about 2 PM if that suits him.
Just waiting to hear back from him.
I've been expecting G to be in contact for the past few weeks. When he was last home in January, he had said he'd be returning in March, so I've been expecting a message from him every Friday for the past few weeks.
I had offered my spare room for a place to stay as he said that it was getting a bit tough always landing down at his sister's. I don't know if he'll take me up on it, and if he does, I hope he gives me more warning than he's done the past few times he's been home.
A week or so back, I suggested to The Crowd about meeting for drinks. it must be six months since we last did it. Everyone seemed keen, though GM claimed a lack of money, so would have to pass this time around.
Today, I followed up to see if people were still interested. I think it's still the same: everyone's keen but GM definitely can't afford it.
I suggested that we might stay local if GM is not coming out (S, FC/Mrs FC and I all live on the same side of town). There are about seven bars we could choose from, including CB Pub, and I don't mind any of them.
I'm not in a rush to make that decision, i just wanted to make sure we were still meeting, which seems to be the case.
With it being the day after Paddy's Day, Facebook is full of memories of past days. It's the women who stand out: Foreign Girl was 11 years ago. She was great fun. 15 years ago there was a near miss with a girl that I regularly saw on Plenty of Fish who ticked a lot of boxes: tall, nice figure, brunette. I didn't talk to her, and I can't remember if I even tried. On the same day, one of RB's friends came out because MF was out. She was cute in a Joanna Garcia Swisher kinda way. And there are pics of KfW2, who inadvertently wore a thin black top that didn't hide her blue bra when the flash went off.
It's been years since I went out for Paddy's Day, but I don't recall there ever being a bad day out. Even the day where it was only KfW2 and I and she was pregnant was a great day out.
I knew this was going to happen. I got my eyes tested a few weeks back. I knew that my eyesight had deteriorated, though I'm not strictly due an eye test until September. But off I went to the opticians. I explained about my eye sight and what my needs are: a set of glasses for being out and about, and a set specifically for sitting at a desk looking at a monitor an arm's length away.
The optician talked me into a new set of fancy lenses for the office work. "Office lenses" they called them. Varifocals but with a much shorter focal range: up to five meters.
"I'm not sure that's right for me"
"They get rave reviews"
"But still, I don't need a range of vision, I literally spend all day either at home or in the office looking at a monitor which is exactly this far away."
I move my arm out in front of me to indicate the distance. It is literally an arm's length.
"They'll work" declared the optician.
I picked up the glasses this morning.
They do not work. The varifocals are great for up close or far away (2 meters), but for that sweet spot for my monitors, any slight movement of my head makes everything out of focus, even more than with my current/old glasses.
It's not a case of getting used to them. They're just not fit for purpose (for me).
I'm gonna have to go back to the store this week and give them the old "I told you so" speech. At least I should get some money back because plain lenses are cheaper.
I'm just back in the house after staying over at KfW2's house last evening and then going to see two of her kids play football. Her kids have wanted me to go to a football match for ages, so I was happy enough to do it this time around. And remember that post I made a few days ago about KfW2's gratitude? Well, there were hugs. KfW2 is tactile as standard and we hug a lot, but there were a couple of extra ones in there. She really was very appreciative. A lot more than I would have thought for what I thought was a small favour.
It's not like they were celebrating a big wedding anniversary or something. It was "only" a charity pub quiz that they'd signed up for.
I'm not complaining. I like getting the compliments. I like helping people out. I love hugs. But the reaction still seems a little bit excessive.
Whatever frustrations and criticisms I have with KfW2 (which are mainly around how little I've seen her over the past few years), she's always been very good at being thankful when she feels gratitude is required.
And this favour I'm doing her tomorrow is no different. She was very thankful when I initially agreed to babysit tomorrow evening and she's just sent another message thanking me and helping her out and asking when I'm coming down.
A thought has already crossed my mind, and I can't remember if I've already mentioned it, but I've seen more of KfW2 in 2026 than the past two years combined.
Six years ago, to the day, I walked out of the office not knowing if I would be back in on the Monday. I had told all around me, including my bosses, that I was expecting things to shut down quickly and that we wouldn't see each other for a while. They were dubious, but I grabbed everything that I thought I'd need: cables, pens, notepads etc. And despite not fully admitting that I was right, I saw them do the same.
24 hours later, I was out with FP at CB Pub which only had a fraction of the people it normally would for a Saturday night.
48 hours later, while KfW2 was visiting in the afternoon, the call came in: the office would be shut for the foreseeable future, and that was the last time I was in the office full time.
And this is the new normal.
Work has taken a turn. A deadline that's going to be difficult to hit because we only heard about it today... despite the fact the other team who are making the demands knowing about it for weeks and not simply sharing that detail with us.
No... instead, they tell their boss who tells their boss who tells their boss who tells their colleague who tells their underling who tells... you get the picture.
Is it any wonder the company is haemorrhaging customers?
A text message from KfW2. I knew instantly that she was going to follow up and ask for a favour. And she did.
And I agreed to the favour. It's at the weekend and I don't have any plans.
She's really pleased. She always is.
So that's Saturday night taken care of.
I woken this morning to a semi-remembered dream. It was something that actually happened: a night out with MM and MMBF. They were out celebrating their birthdays (they were born only a few days apart), and MM messaged me and asked me to join them.
What happened in real life was that we chatted, MMBF added me on Facebook (or was it the other way around?), we moved to a different bar after the girls insisted I do many shots, MMBF went missing for about half an hour before reappearing, then MM and I got a taxi and went home.
In the dream, MMBF got very tactile and when MM suggested getting a taxi home, MMBF made it perfectly clear she wanted me to hang around.
I kinda woke up at that point.
I'd always wondered if MM had any ideas about that evening. M was nowhere to be seen, so it was puzzling why I got an invite out. I'd never been shy with M or MM about saying that I thought MMBF was attractive, though I think we all agreed she was too high maintenance for me. And at least one conversation from that evening was MM trying to talk MMBF into not talking to a guy that MMBF admitted was no good for her. So had she any plans for me and MMBF? She never admitted to anything and I never saw anything from MMBF to think that anything non-platonic was on the cards.
A pleasant start to Monday if nothing else, though.
A question was asked on Reddit a few days ago: "When did you regret leaving a SO?"
I replied that I didn't regret leaving someone, but there was a person where I had second-guessed the timing. The person I was thinking of was CAB. As I've no doubt explained before, we always had an expiry date. She was going to go away for university and I had no desire to have a long-distance relationship. At best, we had six months, though I pulled the plug around the three month milestone.
Had I thought it through, I probably should have just kept on dating her. She was good fun, we had some great private fun even if there was never any actual sex (not through a lack of trying on our part) and I could easily have spent the summer going to bars with her, because that's really all we did.
A thought that only crossed my mind recently was that we didn't feel like a couple, she felt more like a FwB to me. Was that just our vibe or was her imminent departure for university at the back of my mind and putting a barrier up against any real relationship growth?
But a pleasant enough memory. And here's a picture of Anna Kendrick giving me some serious CAB vibes:
Family stuff reared its head again today, though thankfully it wasn't serious and only took a few hours to resolve. It did, however, allow me to indulge in my appreciation of women in scrubs.
It's a dry, bright, sunny day where I live. While it's warmer than it's been recently, it's not objectively warm. But from where I work in my home office, it looks warm. It's what KfW2 calls a "greenhouse day". It does give off real Spring vibes, and Spring puts me in a good mood.
In a fit of boredom in a work meeting, I fired up my phone to play a game. One of the benefits of working from home, I guess. It was a word game, though this fact is unimportant to this actual story. I just wanted to share that I like word games.
Imagine my surprise when one of the in-game adverts fired up (for a local university) and who am I looking at? Only CH!
I wasn't quick enough to grab a screenshot, but hopefully it'll appear again soon, then I can send it to her and see if there's any banter to be had about her being an internet superstar. (There won't be, but I remain the stubborn optimist.)
For the first time in ages, SSCW was in the office. We got talking, as we do, and quickly fell into our old rhythm. That usually means that I take the piss out of her and in return, she tries to be outlandish to get a rise out of me. It's never worked though, which I think annoys her a little. Everyone else that she's worked with has quickly fallen into her trap.
Her "in your face" attitude is just an act, but few people have actually realised that. Stalky Guy is genuinely scared of SSCW.
I've met her outside of work on a couple of occasions and she's been really... normal. I recall one night I was out with QC1 and she was genuinely interested in talking to me rather than getting a rise out of me.
But people are always intrigued by our... I want to say chemistry, but I'm not sure if that's the right phrase to use.
It was great seeing her again, though.
Another night of broken sleep. That's been a factor recently. But another semi-remembered dream, this one featuring KfW2. In it, we were walking around an old European city. I don't know which one, but the weather was glorious and we were just chatting about general stuff.
I don't think there was an actual point or theme to the dream, but that's the general vibe I remember about it. It, as you might expect, reminded me of the nights where KfW2 and I would go out, drink heavily and chat.
I owe her a night out for her birthday. I should maybe try and pin her down for a date, though that's probably not going to be until after the Easter holidays.
The problem with getting old and having bad eyesight is that glasses are expensive. And my eyes are suitably wonky that I need two pairs of glasses: one for doing my job (i.e. sitting at a desk, looking at a monitor) and everyday glasses for being out of the house and needing to see further than the end of my arm.
I'm fortunate that I get some money back from work - about 20% of the cost of my glasses and eye test, but it's still not a small amount of money and it's still a PITA to claim back.
I was chatting to CC a few days ago about some of the work I was planning for the house this year. Surprisingly, she was rather supportive rather than being her usual bossy self. That also prompted me to look at some smallish chores I wanted to do, like (re)paint my bedroom ceiling, and a few other small tasks that I keep putting off.
A few years ago, I had a leak in the roof which dripped water onto the ceiling of my bedroom which has resulted in a couple of patches of discolouration. I had always planned to paint over it as a short-term solution once the roof was fixed (which it has been for a while now), but really, the ceilings probably need replaced.
A while back, I'd actually taken the first step and gone over the affected areas with a sealant. Today, years later, I managed to do the second step, but it looks as if it won't work. I can still see the staining quite clearly. It might be that it will require a second coat, but I am not being optimistic about that, and I'm wondering if it's even worth the effort if I am going to replace the ceilings.
