Window shopping.

I'm very bored, so I have been daydreaming about moving into a nice house. Then I progressed from day-dreaming and actually went to browse using a local property aggregator.

Stone me, if one of FA2's old houses wasn't up for sale. When we were dating, FA2 had two houses. The first was roughly a mile and a half from where I lived at the time - a three-storey, end terrace townhouse.

So I spent a pleasant few minutes looking at the photos, reminiscing about the fun times. Four bedrooms, two reception rooms, a kitchen, a bathroom, a hallway and two sets of stairs, all of which were put to good use.

A short while, probably two months, after we started dating, she sold this house and moved into her last home, back in the area she wanted to live most... which was five minutes walk away.

I've never seen this other, second house on the market, but I'd have similar memories, if so, and it'd be nice to see the inside of it now bearing in mind how much work I put into it. How much would it have changed?

Lookalikes

I think that I've posted before about my early/first crushes. I've specifically called out a cute brunette who I recall had pixie features and I think I've mentioned another brunette who, in my head, resembled Cristin Milioti.

There was another girl, a blonde girl. She was the one the other boys were interested in. We connected a few years back on Facebook (I'm also friends with the pixie girl on Facebook, but the Cristin Milioti lookalike doesn't seem to be on social media). There was talk of a primary school reunion, but it never really got any traction.

Anyway, surfing the internet earlier and this picture of Donna Air was posted. And blimey, if she isn't the spitting image of my blonde school chum.

Sigh (Part 2)

Yeah, so I called KfW2 to tell her I could do some babysitting. Yes. I know. I'm a sucker for a pretty face. Or the fact she's a friend that I care for and won't see a friend in need. I still can't shake something though - the frustration or disappointment that it's taken so long to get her out.

She dropped another comment - she's going out tonight for a birthday party. Then she drops it...

"I just can't face going out any more"

Instantly, I wonder if that's why she's been so hard to pin down and even then, when I do get her to talk about a night out, that she only ever considers her local bar.

I'm probably over-thinking this, and I'm sure some of it is related to the lockdown of the past few years plus her mental health issues that I mentioned before, but it's frustrating to have this stuff brought up as a throwaway comment in a completely different conversation... much like the way she casually mentioned that she had plans for the evening of 11th June, thus rendering our own tentative plans moot, when we were talking about work.

Still, it could all fall through. She hasn't actually booked a table for the event tomorrow.

Sigh.

You can guess what's going to happen here, can't you?

I pinged KfW2 to start gauging our night out. The current, pencilled-in, date is June 11th. Now, you all know that this is a night out that I've been trying to arrange with KfW2 since January and there haved been numerous rain checks. In reality, it's been much longer, but I can't really count the two years of Covid lockdown, can I?

So, it was entirely unsurprising when KfW2 made herself unavailable even before I got a chance to talk about going out. She's made other arrangements and I really do think she's forgotten about our tentative plans. Sigh.

But, wait! There's more! Could I babysit this weekend? She's got a birthday thing to attend and she has no other babysitters she can count on. I love her kids and I have no other current plans. But part of me feels that I keep doing shit like this while she continues to forget about our tentative plans and it's been years since we last had a night out together.

That's put me into an immediate funk - I'm really disappointed. It's not either of the incidents, but rather the combo.

I mean, I'll probably end up doing it, but I can already hear USHW in my ear telling me I'm a sucker for a pretty face or suggesting that I let KfW2 get away with an awful lot (she's not wrong).

Walky and talky.

The weather was nice, so I went for a walk with Nerdy Girl. From an exercise point of view, it was great. I walked just over six miles (though due to a GPS failure it's only recorded as 5 miles). We did our usual route of going from CB Bar, through a local park, out to some tourist attractions and back again.

But part of the conversation we had was Nerdy Girl teasing me about my anxiety from last year. I was facing potential redundancy last year and interviews were causing panic attacks. I was sharing this with NG who was laughing.

Interesting. I called her on it.

"I'm not entirely impressed that you're finding my anxiety issues funny. I was stressed out for pretty much all of last year."

I think it hit her when I said that. I've often mentioned anxiety issues, especially around interviews and stuff. She apologised immediately and that was that.

So, six miles later... more blisters. I've tried different shoes and socks and I still get blisters. Maybe it's just the distance and my feet are broken?

Tactically tactile.

D arrived at my place, around mid-afternoon. I'd just finished work, so he threw his stuff into the spare room and we chatted for a bit before heading to the pub to meet with the rest of the group. Opinionated Guy surprised us all by arriving almost on time. Usually, he's hours late. While I don't dislike him the way that Friction Guy does, I do find him hard to talk to. It's the "opinionated" thing. It's rarely a conversation and more that you're being talked at.

Regardless, I was more interested in FBS turning up. I've definitely posted before that FBS and I have a history. I think I've also posted that she's been very tactile with me. It's probably not as bad as it was with CH in terms of crossing boundaries, but I do think there's something there. So, I was planning on trying to figure out if that was the case or if I was just imagining the whole thing.

When she did arrive, shortly after D and I had ordered drinks, she sat on a stool beside D. She didn't seem to be tactile with D at all. About 30 minutes later, Opinionated Guy arrived. I still didn't see FBS being tactile. Finally, after another 30 minutes, Friction Guy arrived. My surveillance continued, but I didn't see FBS be tactile at all. Between the three guys, there was barely any physical interaction.

After a few hours of drinking, going to the bar, trips to the toilets, etc. the seating arrangements had changed and I found myself sitting beside FBS. Now, obviously, there are caveats; the main one being that we were all quite drunk by this stage. But FBS was more tactile with me. There wasn't anything untoward this time out, but she definitely initiated more physical contact with me than with any of the other guys.

Though when we were sharing a taxi back home with D, she did lay her head on my shoulder. Certainly, that was the most intimate she'd been all night. I did ask her to come in for a drink, but she refused. Not that anything would have happened.

So, still somewhat inconclusive from my perspective.

Just random Friday things.

Shortly before I joined KfW2's team in work, I worked with another very attractive blonde girl. However, at the time, I was having management issues. A side effect of these issues was that the team had a night out without me. I was uninformed and therefore uninvited. I wasn't that bothered about it until the guys came into the office on Monday morning. The attractive blonde girl had gotten drunk and proudly showed off her wedding body by pulling her t-shirt up (she was wearing jeans and a t-shirt).

One of the guys, who was out, was speechless at the time. All he could say when recounting the story was that her abs were magnificent. The guys were disappointed that she was sober enough not to accidentally flash anything else.

I've been in a bit of an abs mood today, so when KfW2 told me that the attractive blonde girl was also moving to the same new company that KfW2 is, it was kinda inevitable that this memory would surface.

This is NOT the attractive blonde girl from work, but it is an attractive blonde girl with abs, Caroline Girvan (check out her YouTube channel):

End of an era.

KfW2's just off the phone. After a bit of back and forth, she's decided to take the new job. It's a big change for her. I'm chuffed to bits for her. A few years ago, it would have been a big deal for me, but I did that back in 2018 when she made her first move. 

I'm a little jealous that she was able to get it together. While money is not a driving factor for me, I'd definitely liked to have had the pay rises that she's gotten in that time.

Ah well. Things will be different in a month's time, but not that different. Will she make more of an effort to socialise, though? That is the million-pound question.

Not so Quiet.

I was bored in work today. I'm meant to be mentoring a guy and he's starting to annoy me. There's only so many times I can listen to him multi-tasking in the background then asking questions that shouldn't even be questions, if he was paying attention. Or apologies because he's staring off into the distance and stops paying attention. Sigh.

Anyway, I was getting ahead of myself. I started chatting to Quiet Girl. We swapped stories, talked a little about work and then it was time to go home. It did briefly cross my mind to see if she was interested in meeting for a coffee or a pint (after all, we do live about 500 metres away from each other), but we ended the conversation and I packed up to come home.

Hello again.

I'm heading out on Friday night with Friction Guy, D, FBS and possible Opinionated Guy. It's the first time I've seen them in over 2 years, when we'd usually see each other a couple of times per year. I'm really looking forward to it, though not the hangover on Saturday. 

D's staying over as well, so there goes my lie-in.

Loose lips.

CC called in to see me yesterday evening after visiting the bottle bank. She was literally in the house for about 90 seconds before telling me about KfW2's new job offer.

I lied through my teeth and said I knew nothing about it.

CC proceeded to tell me everything that KfW2 had told me a few days ago. It seems that CC simply can't keep a secret, having done the same thing only a week or so ago.

Note to self: tell CC nothing.