Go me!

I'm all proud of myself. Last night, I came across a leaflet for a local artist/photographer. Hang on, let me backtrack a bit. A few years ago, my sister bought me a framed photograph as a Christmas present. I loved it. It was pretty much the perfect present: something that I liked that I would never have thought about buying myself. My house is functional. I've no qualms about buying tools, household items etc. but anything purely decorative like art or plants is a blind spot for me.

So, ever since, I've been looking out for something similar. So a while back, I found someone who was doing the type of stuff I liked. I think it was a weekend when E was last home and we were out hunting for gifts for her to take home. I got a flyer from the woman at the market and promptly lost it.

Until last night when I was doing some tidying up. 

I browsed the website on the leaflet, saw a few things that piqued my interest and looked at where I could buy. The best place for me was to return to the market that runs every weekend.

This morning, I found it difficult to motivate myself to actually leave the house. I toyed with the idea of messaging Nerdy Girl to see if she wanted to meet for a coffee at the market, but decided against it.

Then, twenty minutes later, I just did it. I grabbed my earbuds, phone and keys and got the bus into the market.

I was unsure how much the art cost, but I am sitting on some cash that I got for my past few birthdays and Christmases. Fortunately, they had was I was looking for, and it was very reasonable, so I bought two pieces and returned home after getting a coffee.

So pats of the back for me.

Go me!

I finally remembered to contact my private healthcare provider today to get the ball rolling on this foot injury that I've had for about a year. Everything I've read online points to Plantar Fasciitis, but I'm a nerd not a Doctor, Jim.

So hopefully they'll get back to me soon and I can make actual, real progress into healing , which will hopefully lead to me being out of the house more i.e. walking and doing exercise.

I'm lovin' it.

I ordered myself a new desk. It's something I've been wanting to do for a while. Working from home is great, but my 16 year old Ikea desk just doesn't cut it any more. I wanted a standing desk plus I also wanted something that has more desk space.

After some delivery woes and trying to explain what happened to someone who's first language isn't English, it was delivered yesterday.

It took me all day today to set it up because it's a two-person job. It's heavy and it's fiddly and requires an element of accuracy that's hard to get when I am shifting a 40kg set of legs around, trying to match up pre-drilled holes to the millimetre.

Still, it was built and after a few teething issues (I was convinced I destroyed my monitors trying to tweak my setup), I managed to sit and admire it. Oh, and I flooded my kitchen as I was filling the sink for some washing up, got side-tracked with building the desk then had to spend half an hour mopping the kitchen. At least the floors are clean. And the dishes are done.

I'm loving it so far, thought it has only been 12 hours, and there'll be further tweaking tomorrow when I sit down for work.

Hair today, gone tomorrow.

I cut my hair tonight. That's not unusual in itself as I've been doing it for years. I don't have the type of hair that can be styled, so I bought myself a set of hair clippers years ago and do it myself.

I think I might have cut it a little too short, though. I don't think it's ever been this short, which isn't great as the weather gets colder. Oops!

Sigh.

My attention span this week has been appalling. I'm flitting from thing to thing every twenty or thirty minutes. It doesn't matter if it's doing chores, sitting in front of the TV or the PC... I start something then move on to something else a few minutes later. Play a game? Get bored. Watch a TV show? Get bored. Start a chore that's going to take an hour? Get bored.

I'm even having issues deciding what to do in the first place. Urgh.

I am, at least, slowly chipping away at small tasks, so it's not like I'm not accomplishing anything.

D'oh.

As I am in the habit of doing, when I returned home from a day in the office, I put the bins out before I settle in for the evening. However, as I have just realised, today is Wednesday (duh!) rather than Thursday when I am usually in the office, so I've put the bins out 24 hours too early.

I did wonder why no-one else had done it.

Ah well, I'm not bringing them back in.

Hurrah?

So far today I've emailed three glaziers about doing some maintenance on my windows before the weather gets colder, I've opened a new savings account with double the interest rate of my current savings account and done some housework. That's easily the most productive I've been (outside work) in a long time.

I've got other stuff still to do - book an eye test, message KfW2 about our night out and I need an electrician for a couple of small chores that I refuse to do myself (I don't trust myself with electrics). Those are chores for this evening.

I also have a smart doorbell to mount, too, but I don't think I have the tools for that. That's not really time critical though, like the windows stuff and the electrics.

Things that make you go "hmmm". (Part 3)

Hang on, Quiet Girl's friend was effectively suggesting that I ask for her number, right? I mean, that doesn't change the fact that I'm not attracted to her, romantically, but it's still taken almost 48 hours for that particular penny to drop.

Uuuuurgh.

Another night, and another lack of sleep. this time though, reader, it's self-inflicted. I stayed up watching a charity auction on Twitch before calling it a night somewhere shortly after 3 AM, only to be up and out of bed at 9 AM because Tesco were coming with a delivery an d now I am absolutely hanging.

Urgh.

D'oh.

I dipped my toe back into online dating last night. I guess the single thing from the weekend was still playing on my mind a little. It's the first time in a while that I've browsed with intent. A familiar face popped up. A woman who I've seen before. However, my memory being what it is, I didn't think she was local. I'd assumed it was someone I'd seen when I was Tindering on a trip to the States quite a few years ago.

Certainly, for me, the photos gave off a very American vibe, including her name. However, that's not the story I want to tell. The woman is gorgeous. She has a great set of legs, if we want to get into the physical side of things. Legs are not things I tend to notice. I only call it out because I'm pretty sure that the woman in question likes her legs. Her Tinder photos are very leggy.

So, yeah. I want to swipe right and see where things go. Did I swipe right before? I can't remember. The last time I saw this woman was years ago.

I fat-fingered it and managed to swipe left. D'oh.

Hello?

I fired up the online dating apps for the first time in ages yesterday. Sadly, it was mostly the same faces, and those cute women who used to show up every so often, haven't been seen in ages (e.g. CC's friend, my sis's university friend and a few of the local minor celebs).

However, Bumble (a female-focused Tinder, for those of you who are unaware) threw up a surprise. Apparently, someone tried to message me back in March. She only has one picture but appears to be a super-cute brunette, with dark eyes. If you asked me about my physical preferences in women, that'd be my top answer.

So, frustration then.

Bah!

Listen up.

Urgh. Work night out last night with Stalky Guy and a few others. Ideas Girl even came and sat with us for a bit while my ex-boss (he who favours Stalky Guy in performance reviews) was none-too-subtle about staring down IG's top.

I drank a lot, and somehow managed to lose my earbuds on the way home. That's the second time I've done that in six months. D'oh.

Urgh.

So, guess who's just found out that he's not only put on his boxers back-to-front but also his tracksuit bottoms too?

Yup, this guy.

Fricking Mondays, man.

Thumb thing else.

Gah. Doing my monthly browse through Tinder, and up pops one of the minor celebrities that can pop up from time to time. Unlike most of them, she's one of the few I'd actually like to meet. Regardless of any romantic interest and physical attraction (ticks a fair amount of boxes there), I think she's someone who would be good fun and has interesting stories to tell. Well worth meeting, in a pub, for a few pints and some chat. I've swiped right on her quite a few times before, with no success, but you still have to try, right?

Except, I accidentally managed to swipe left on her. That's a rejection for those of you not familiar with the workings of Tinder. D'oh.

Oh crumbs!

I managed to break my toaster at lunchtime simply by emptying the crumb tray. Now, I don't want to admit how bad it was, but let's just say that the toaster kinda came with the house, and this was the first timer it had been emptied since I moved in. Gross.

Ah well, let's see if there are any decent toasters in the various Black Friday sales, shall we?

Eeeeek.

Years ago, a somewhat drunken E shared a secret with me. A family secret. Something that was bad and I can never repeat it. I still haven't. E and I never talked about it again, either. We never chatted at the time, then it was too late.

Life has moved on. E has kids and an ex-partner to worry about. She also lives thousands of miles away. Far enough to make the time different a huge factor in trying to arrange a chat. Even if we did find the time, long-distance conversations don't really go down the "intimate detail" route for me, so covering something like that in a video chat is nearly impossible.

Roll on to day. Off the back of a convo with FP a week or so ago, I dropped a quick message to BR, who I've not spoken to in some time, asking how he was getting on. And we ended up swapping messages all afternoon where it transpired that 2020 REALLY isn't BR's year. Family issues, work issues, health issues... he's got 'em all.

I always worry about whether or not I've said the right thing in conversations like this. I think I've blogged about my social awkwardness in the past. Anyhoo... the fact that we were conversing by text at least gave me some thinking time.

It was good to chat to him and I gave an open ended invite for him and his wife to come and stay at mine whenever.

Just stuff.

I was going to spend the afternoon doing bits and pieces in my back garden. It's in an horrendous state, and even though we're on lock down, with any good weather, being able to sit in the garden, listen to music and read a book would be a pleasure.

However, my neighbours are out doing theirs and I am horrendously self-conscious about people "watching" me, so I am holed up in the house. I should be out doing my daily walk... and I will do that in a few minutes.

Hopefully the neighbours won't take all afternoon to do stuff and I can go out later and at least make a start on tidying some stuff up.

Don't get me wrong, the neighbours are lovely - it's not like we don't get along or anything like that. I'm just stupidly self-conscious when doing stuff on my own. It was the same with going to gym and things of that ilk.

I did get a quote off a guy about doing the work, but it was nearly double what I was expecting it to be, so I've not gone ahead with that right now. I'll need a few more quotes to see what can be done.

Oh dear

So much for the anticipated improved financial situation. Neither my promotion nor the supposed upcoming reworking of my mortgage is happening that should have made me a few hundred pounds a month better off. The former I've already mentioned - an ongoing feeling that my face isn't fitting here at work. God know the objective evidence should have been enough. But I had thought that my mortgage was coming to the end of its fixed period with a few weeks. Shopping around had shown me that, at the very worst, I'd be just over £100 better off each month.

However, once I dug out my paperwork, it appears that I have another year to go.

FFS.

Salad Dodger.

"It's cold!" said KfW2

"It's bloody not, it's really warm!" I retorted.

"Maybe it's because of this," said KfW2 and patted my tummy.

Eeek. Am I actually noticeably fatter? I didn't think so, but I've done essentially zero exercise this year, so maybe my equilibrium has changed. It used to be about 216 lbs (just short of 100 kg).

I've done some stretching since I last complained about my bad back, but I've not yet delved fully into the yoga again. I need to sort out my eating habits too - I think I've been comfort eating since, well, about a year. Sigh.

Bus wanker!

I lost my wallet today... more specifically, I left it on the bus when I sat in a daydream and jumped up when I realised it was my stop.

Usually, I put my wallet back in my pocket after swiping onto the bus, but today I was distracted by the weather app on my phone. I need it to be dry for about a week. I'm not exaggerating when I saw the grass in my back garden it knee high, but I can't tackle it until it's dry.

So I plonked myself down on the seat on the bus, peering at my phone, with the wallet sitting on the seat next to me.  When I got up to leave, the wallet stayed where it was

Luckily, there was no cash in the wallet - I rarely carry cash these days. So even if I don't get the wallet back, I'll be out maybe £25 of journeys left on my travel pass and the cost of a new wallet. All my cards have been cancelled, though there was no activity on any of them.

All the new cards should arrive within a week, so I have the ability, thanks to my bank's mobile app, to left cash, so I'm not massively inconvenienced.

Still, it's a distraction that I can do without.