Hello!

It's been quiet recently, social-wise, but things are picking up. I'm out tomorrow for dinner and drinks with QC1, who I've not seen in a couple of years.

I told this to KfW2. She raised any eyebrow.

"I'm out on Wednesday too. Out for dinner and drinks with *friend*"

"Well, if you see me out with an attractive blonde girl, don't get any ideas, she's just a friend," I joked.

A friend who I've kissed and asked out on a date (unsuccessfully) and was attracted to for a long time, but KfW2 doesn't know that... yet.

FBS has suggested drinks "soon". It's KfW2's hubby's birthday soon and she invited me out to that (though I'm still waiting for our own night out and the fact that she's out at the same time as I'm out with QC1 is disappointing). S, FC, GM etc. have spoken about a night out.

And... *dramatic noise* CH promised that she'd call round (I presume to my house) off the back of some bad news she knew I'd recently received. It's not a night out, but it would be alone time with CH and a chance to chat. Now, that was three weeks ago and I've not heard from her since, but under the circumstances, it'd be really disappointing if she wasn't at least in contact soon.

And there are other things going on, a little further away, but the immediate future looks social.

First down.

Usually, at this time of year, there's a gathering at D's house. Myself, D, Opinionated Guy and one or two others all gather to watch the Superbowl.

That's not the case this year as D is in the middle of a training course for a new job, so staying up until 4 AM, drinking and snacking, is not an option.

I could host at mine, but D is the real driving factor behind the Superbowl parties. In fact, this is the first time in a long time - well over twenty years - that I won't watch all of the Superbowl. I'll catch the first half maybe, but go to bed. I've not taken my now-traditional day off work, so it's an early rise to ensure I'm ready to go when KfW2 knocks on the door.

Deja vu.

About nine months ago, I matched with three attractive women on Tinder. The one I thought was the cutest of the three disappeared before I could message her and I couldn't summon the motivation to message the other two. That's not a sleight on those two remaining women, by the way, just that I won't message women unless I'm really interested in meeting.

As luck would have it, these other two have remained in my "match" list since last April, whereas anyone I actually want to message, disappears after a day or so e.g. CC's cute friend, the girl from last April etc.

But this week's been tough on me, so I was looking through my Tinder companion app. Lo and behold, the cute girl from last April has apparently swiped right on me again. I say "apparently" because the companion app has been giving me some strange results recently - girls who show as swiping right on me one day, disappear the next.

A cute friend of my sister's is one example. I don't know if I would ever message her - I'm stupidly private and wouldn't want details of my private life getting back to people I know. But she is really cute.

If I do match with the cute girl, I won't be hanging around this time around.

Bad idea.

I've thought about IG's offer again over the past few days. I know that I shouldn't, but I really need the release.

I don't even know if it's still on the table. We'll find out next time she's out and drunk, I guess. Though after this conversation recently, I don't know. People who are "old fashioned" do not make booty calls, hoping to get fucked.

Ideas Girl:
That’s men’s work and I’m gonna be single forever *laughing emoji*
Ruuude:
Men's work? Pfffft!
Ideas Girl:
Men, yes. Sweaty men.
Ruuude:
Calm yourself ffs
Ideas Girl:
While I bring them lemonade. I’m a terrible advocate for women
Ruuude:
And lemonade? What is it, the 1950s?
Ideas Girl:
If you listen to me, you’d believe it.
Ruuude:
I would?
Ideas Girl:
People in general. I’m fairly old fashioned
Ruuude:
In what way? Do you say "I do declare!" and think 20 cigarettes a day is exercise?
Ideas Girl:
A lot of ways, but I’ve never smoked in my life. It’s horrible.
Ruuude:
I wasn't being serious about the smokes, IG!

What the?

It's been an interesting week to say the least. It's been very stressful as well.

I don't have the time or, quite frankly, the energy, to get into it in detail right now, but while the stress may be gone, the fallout of the past few days will take a while to settle.

Type.

Out of the blue, while in the pub, FP started talking about CC.

"Does she ever smile?" ask FP. CC and FP have met before and, as far as I can tell, get along quite well.

FP then went on to comment on her physical appearance. He described her as "plain". I showed him her Facebook picture which shows her as being very not plain. FP thought that CC looked like Sandra Bullock. I don't see the resemblance. And she has a great figure, but rarely displays it. I don't mean that in a bad way - just that she tends to dress in black, often with a high neck. Despite having a big chest, you'll rarely get any cleavage on show. She might actually be self-conscious about it.

I mentioned that she was single and told the story of her and S's date. Then FP asked the question that I'd been expecting since the conversation started...

"So how come you and CC haven't?"

"Well, she's really high maintenance" was my reply, "and I don't do high maintenance."

FP nodded.

"And I don't think she's the casual type," I added. "Though I'm fairly sure that KfW2 thought we might get together at one point."

"Shame that, given she only lives nearby."

"Yeah, that would be handy enough!"

I told FP that CC wasn't backwards in asking about blokes. After all, she's asked about both GM and S. She seems interested in plenty of people, but I don't think many actually translate into dates or anything.

I asked FP if he had any single mates. He did, but doesn't think they're a good match for CC.

"That's a fair point, I don't actually know what CC's type is"

"What's that look for?" asked FP.

"What look?" But FP knew I had mischief on the brain.

"Hey, CC, do you have a type?" I tapped into the phone and hit "Send".

That was 12 hours ago - no reply. I've probably scared the poor girl.

WoW!

I'm a member of Reddit - a website that collates all the good, bad and interesting things from the Internet into one place.

Whatever your hobby, lifestyle, or interests, you'll find something on Reddit to interest you. These are called "sub-Reddits" and each sub-Reddit is dedicated to a single topic.

It's like having lots of little forums all dedicated to your favourite topics. Your video game of choice? Yup, there'll be one.  What about my current favourite fitness regimes: DDP Yoga and Freeletics? Yup, they've both got sub-Reddits. Adult film star Jenni Lee? Yup, there's one about her.

Browsing recently and I came across someone claiming to be dressed as Wonder Woman. Women dressed as Wonder Woman are hot (in my experience), so I thought I'd take a look.

Well... all I can say is that lingerie hasn't had this effect on me in a long time. I've always been a fan of a simple, well-made underwear set rather than anything overly lacy or complicated, but this was different. And an entire sub-Reddit where mainly women post pictures of themselves feeling sexy. It can be very adult if you catch my drift.

(This is the same lingerie set, but not the same picture that was originally posted.)

Ho hum.

Meeting requests have come out for our annual performance reviews. Everyone has a 30 minute slot, except me. I get an hour. It's not rocket surgery to predict how the first round of this is going to go, is it?

I've not had a perfect year and mistakes were made. But mistakes were made under difficult circumstances outside of my control. IMO, you can only expect perfection under perfect conditions.

Let's see how this plays out.

Stop the press!

"Women off the telly that you love" is the topic on the (mainly male) forum. All the usual names are there, but someone new popped up.

Scottish TV sports broadcaster Eilidh Barbour

Brunette, short hair, likes sports. Mmmm...

Party on.

Years ago, after K and I had sex back in 2003 (I think?), we continued to converse. K was trying to initiate a relationship while I was trying to see if we could have a friends-with-benefits arrangement instead.

During these conversations, K admitted two things:

1) She had only slept with five people (not including me).
2) She claimed she was "pretty much a nymphomaniac"

Now, it might be just me, but those two claims seem to be at odds with each other.

Contrast that with an old colleague who, forgive my colourful language, couldn't get enough cock. I left that place to start in the company that currently employs me, but by the time I left, she'd slept with pretty much every single guy in the office. I worked there for a year, but the entire department was only 18 months old when I quit.

Work nights out were interesting. She would disappear shortly after hitting the bar and, more often than not, would leave with a bloke. On one occasion, once we'd finished dinner, she took a work colleague into the disabled toilets and didn't come out for over an hour. It was almost like the red mist would descend once she had a few drinks. Or should that be purple? Oh, how I amuse myself sometimes.

We were the only temps in the office, so we often chatted when all the permanent staff were called away for training etc. She was quite open with me - I've always found that people open up to me - and she admitted that it wasn't just work nights out that ended that way.

I'm not judgemental. If she wanted sex, then why not? During one of my last in-depth, one-to-one conversations with E, she admitted to sleeping with nearly 50 people. I'm all for people being upfront with what they want.

Where I was judgemental was the realisation that she was careless. From our chats, I deduced that she wasn't on the pill, nor did she carry condoms and relied on her "conquests" for contraception. If they didn't carry, then I don't know if it stopped her. And I don't think she'd ever been tested for STIs.

We lost touch after I left until I bumped into her in a bar about three years later. She was heavily pregnant and had no contact with the bump's father. A short while later, she added me on Facebook. She had found religion and had gotten engaged to a bloke from her new church. There was no trace of the party girl of old.

The reason for this trip down memory lane? The ex-party girl in question lives at the end of my street, as I only found out this morning.

No surprises.

Unsurprisingly, I never matched with Orlaith on the dating app (from this post). I am trying to remember which one it was. Tinder? Bumble? It doesn't matter.

Imagine my surprise when I saw the trailer for this programme, though: Beauty Queen and Single. Hmmm... I pondered. Was the dating app thing actually research for the programme or had she been unsuccessful and was actually trying the app for real?

Having done some further investigation, this might be an old programme? I can't tell. I rarely watch live TV these days - it's all Netflix for me.

But have some more Orlaith pictures anyway.