Oh dear.

Final details have been made for the plastic date next week and, unusually for me, I've been spreading the news to my female friends - USHW, CH, GB, KfW2 and DSC.

Rather worryingly, all of them are pretty puzzled over the concept of a practice date and have suggested that there may be shenanigans afoot. DSC said out right that she thought that MM had pulled the wool over my eyes and that this was all a set up because she knows my take on set ups like that. If she did, then it's bad form because I'm going into this with the intention of it being a social thing, not a date plus I am still waiting for an outcome on the CB thing, and I've explained the CB thing to MM, so she knows it's something I am interested in pursuing.

Still... DSC's comments have me slightly more concerned now than I was a few days ago.

An all-female digest.

CH's attendance at the work thing tomorrow night has suddenly been put in jeopardy by child-minding issues. It's disappointing, but unsurprising. It's happened before. That's reduced my own enthusiasm for tomorrow night, which I had been looking forward to quite a bit and although GB and MF are good company, I fancied a bit of light flirting and ambiguous too-ing and fro-ing.

Still, a lack of CH (and her insistence on drinking shots) might mean I have less of a hangover for meeting DSC on Saturday for lunch and shopping.

I have lots to update DSC on, not least the CB thing (still nothing from GB or our Mutual Facebook Friend on that score) and the plastic date thing that I'm doing as a favour for MM. That's taken an interesting few turns this week already as the initial contact came in on Tuesday night and was, how can I put it, enthusiastic. It certainly didn't seem like it was a platonic thing from the way the text was written and subsequent contact hasn't really swayed me from that initial assumption. It was a message from MM earlier today that kinda, sorta put my mind at ease when it was pointed out that the girl in question is ten years my junior and probably very nervous about meeting new people.

I still have a certain level of reservation about it all - I worry that she's looking for more than just a trial run and that I'll then have to deal with fallout. I really don't like fallout and have often made sacrifices when it looks as if it is on the cards. Turning down E3 last year after a birthday party is just one recent example, but there have been others. I guess it's why I try and date outside of my social circle, so that if something goes "wrong", then I can walk away.

I guess this all goes back to the brief few months when I was fucking FBS. I was just interested in a fuck buddy, she wanted more. As we worked together and had plenty of mutual friends, plenty of people tried to get involved when it looked like I was gonna walk away (which I was, to be fair) which really didn't help - partly because I am stubborn and while I didn't want to offend FBS, I knew that she wasn't what I was looking for in a girlfriend. I also didn't think that it was their business.

That still resonates with me, even today. I'll try not to announce plans or goals or anything that will potentially happen until I know for sure that things will pan out the way I want. That's why I was (am) keeping the CB thing as close to my chest as I can though, through necessity, other people have found out and been let in on the, well, not secret, but knowledge.

Regardless, it looks as if I will be meeting up with this girl at some point next week - we still need to arrange the details, but even that seems to be more trouble that I think it should.

Something to look forward to.

Most of this week is to be quiet. Weather permitting (i.e. no snow), I am going to make a big effort to get to the gym. I've been doing bits and pieces of other things, but probably not as much as I should have, but with a charity run to do in April, I have to start doing some proper exercise.

In addition, I have a work night out on Friday with amongst others, CC, CH and GB. Obviously I'm particularly looking to getting to the pub to spend time with CH, but I have a sneaking suspicion in the back of my mind that CB could play a part by making an appearance. That's based on absolutely nothing more than it's what I would do if the situation were reversed and I was investigating a guy for GB. With CH in attendance, Friday night will be lots of fun, but it has the potential to be extremely interesting too.

Ponderation

I've kinda taken MM up on her offer of a date with her friends and my contact details are, I assume, heading her way even as we speak. I did make a mention of the CB thing with a brief description of the scenario, so that MM knows that this is very definitely a platonic date (or, if I am being honest, the least important of the two potential dates I might have planned for the near future). Still, let's look at this objectively... it's the end of January, and I could potentially have two dates with a matter of weeks.

MM's offer has given me a reason to ponder if she was actually serious about MMBF not being my type - too sophisticated (and by extension, too high maintenance). After all, within the past three months, MM has delivered two potential blind(ish) dates to my Facebook inbox, but not once did I detect any matchmaking where MMBF was involved. M has often spoken highly of MMBF, but I don't think he ever suggested that it was worth pursuing.

I was going to say that it was a pity she didn't at least try, but given what GM told me recently about his most recent girlfriend (personable, stunning and completely high maintenance, the latter being the cause of them splitting up), that's probably not a bad thing.

The mind just boggles.

Oh Jesus .. I heard UF load the washing machine half an hour ago and walk away. I had assumed that he was just prepping for tomorrow morning, and would switch it on as he left for work. That's the sensible thing, right?

But, oh no. He's literally just went back into the utility room and started the cycle... What the absolute fuck is this dickhead playing at? He's had ALL night to stick a wash on, but leaves it until practically midnight. It'll be near 2AM by the time the cycle finishes.

Buses.

I think it took a nudge from CH (who I had met for lunch this afternoon), but GB messaged me today and said that she'd been talking to the Mutual Facebook Friend regarding CB. It then transpired that our mutual friend was going to contact CB's sister to see what plan of action they could come up with. I'm at a slight loss here, because the remit with GB was information gathering, but part of me is quite pleased that something might be engineered sooner rather than later. Or rather, things could be decided one way or another sooner rather than later.

I also decided to tell KfW2 the story, and she got all excited, but I'm trying to play it cool and distance myself from it all until something happens.

And as if that wasn't bad enough, MM contacted me via Facebook and asked if I would go on a date with a friend of hers who needs to get back in the game. Well, not a date per se, but a spot of socialising with a single friend of hers (just the two of us I assume). I'm tempted to be fair - it should be fun plus I get my own practice in, just in case. I discussed it with USHW and my plan of attack is to sleep on it, then contact MM tomorrow if I'm still feeling positive about it and confirm that I will do it, but I will try and make MM aware (without saying as much) that I have the CB thing on the horizon and wouldn't mind a spot of practice myself.

*sigh*

GB, CH and I went for coffee this afternoon. GB let slip that she still hadn't had a word with my mutual Facebook friend with CB. CH pricked up her ears at that and asked if there was a woman involved. I didn't really want too many other people to know right now, after all, this is all hinging on a chain of conversations and a positive outcome. The only people who know the full story so far are USHW, GB , GM and QC2. KfW2 knows that CB and I have a mutual Facebook friend, but not who it is. So I kinda wanted this kept quiet until there was definite movement on it whereupon CB and KfW2 would have been the first two people I would have told.

Anyway, we told CH the rough story - there aren't a lot of details to give - it is pretty straightforward, but as we only had 15 minutes, we quickly moved onto other topics of conversation, though GB promised to go straight back to her desk and start the conversation.

I half expected CH to text me later and demand further information, but she was silent on that score, even though she was very interested in potential lady friends the last time we were out. She's only back to work after a prolonged absence, so she'll probably demand answered to questions once she gets settled and back into a routine again. Or whenever we're out on our next monthly night out which is a few weeks away.

Six degrees.

There are a few reasons why I haven't outed myself on the blog  (or at least been less coy about giving out more identifying information) and why friends, acquaintances etc. are mentioned by names I've given them here rather than their real names. The biggest one is, unsurprisingly, privacy. I've always been extremely private and while I've been very frank in some of my posts here, most of the stuff I kick around is stuff I don't feel I can talk about elsewhere. There's also the fact that I come from a community where everyone knows everyone else - to a degree.

That's already been highlighted recently with the CB thing, but there are plenty more examples. K's friend from her home town has an older brother who played sport with M. Bear in mind that there are hundreds of miles between K's home town and where I live. The wife of a guy I went to school with is close friends with friends of mine from childhood. MF once dated another childhood friend of mine (she was from a completely different town). CAB had (unbeknownst to me) dated a guy I knew from school (CAB herself had gone to a different school and lived in a different town). That's only five quick examples that I can think of off the top of my head. I'm sure if I sat down and thought about it (or went through my Facebook friends list) that I could come up with plenty more examples.

But it's CAB that brings me on to the topic of the small community (or, more accurately six degrees of separation). I was having a conversation last night with USHW and CAB got mentioned and off the back of that, I went and did a little Facebook investigating. During my Facebook search, I found at least four people whose face I can remember from my time doing the online dating a few years ago. I'm actually surprised I didn't find more people I knew on the online dating thing, though I do seem to recall that E3 had a profile.

Nothing else really to say... it's something that struck me last night and it's been running around my head all day, so I thought I'd get it out there and hope that I haven't posted on the exact same subject before. I am getting deja vu about it, to be fair.

Out of the blue.

Years ago, shortly after I met E for the first time, she admitted to us that she had a younger sister. Ordinarily, this is not a big piece of information to share, but when she also mentioned that her sister was a dancer, a model and has performed really well in some high-profile modelling events, well, the blokes around the table suddenly started paying attention.

E looked each bloke in the eye and said in no uncertain terms that if we ever met her sister and any of us tried anything untoward, that we'd lose the use of our testicles. It was said in jest, but I got the impression at the time that E was fiercely protective of her little sister.

By accident or design, I'm not entirely sure which, it took years for me to get to meet E's little sister. In fact, I think I met all of E's siblings on the same night - one of E's birthdays. But it was only during one of E's last trips home that I was able to sit down and chat properly with E's little sister.

I don't know what it is - maybe I have an honest face or something - but I've always found that women seem to open up to me easily - the girl from New Year's Eve and KfW2 are two recent-ish examples. What I wasn't expecting was E's little sister to state, as we were outside having a smoke, that she needed a damned good fuck. Well, she didn't use "fuck", even though I've mentioned before that I don't mind women using it to refer to sex, but she did mention that it had been a while. Normally, I would have been sympathetic, but she then started implying that relationships and meeting people shouldn't be difficult because she was an attractive woman.

I fought the urge to put her in her place - I'm sure being an attractive woman can have its' advantages - but it doesn't mean that relationships and the like are automatically easier, especially when you consider her own taste in men (which is, to use the American vernacular, jocks).

I only mention this now because she appeared on my Facebook news feed last night, doing a bit of modelling/promotions work and looking very nice actually. I'm still too attached to my testicles to even consider making an approach though. (I wouldn't really make an approach... I'm just trying to be funny).

Gah!

So... GB forgot to say anything to the mutual Facebook friend I share with CB. The conversation was done remotely, over IM,  which I am kinda glad about, because I was slightly annoyed and frustrated. I don't think GB's ever seen me be interested in someone before (other than CH, but as far as GB is aware, CH and I are just friends and knows nothing of the vibes I'm getting off her or her tactile nature), so I thought she might have realised that I'm very attracted to this girl.

Suffice to say, GB re-iterated her intention of talking to our mutual friend, but as she's off for a few days, I don't know when this chat is likely to happen. It looks like I'll need to have another reminder next week about it.

My reporting of GB's "failure" to USHW has kicked off a long, rambling discussion about dating, the definition of "chemistry" and semi-related things that has been entertaining and reminiscent of the types of conversation we used to have years ago.

Hmmm.

I did end up going to GM's as planned and we had a good (and late) night chatting about all sorts of things. GB arrived in later and sat with us for an hour or so before she took herself to bed. There's not been any mention of CB so far, and I have kinda made the decision that I will directly ask tomorrow or Tuesday - probably Tuesday because that will give GB an entire week to get some information. I did sorta mention it in passing to GM once GB had gone to bed, but it wasn't said for any specific reason - just a comment in passing.

Last week, I was cautiously optimistic that something might happen more than GB simply getting information, but now I'm veering towards pessimism a bit, for no real reason other than I would have expected simply information to have gotten back to me by now - is she single? Is she looking to meet people? CB is starting to appear more and more frequently in my "People you may know" column in Facebook, making me more impatient.