Strange dreams...

As I suspected would be the case I made do with very little sleep last night.

I was caffeinated upto the eyeballs after all the Diet Coke last night, and this made for some (not to be repeated) side effects. First of all there were a number of anxiety dreams:

• Running to catch someone, but the harder I ran, the slower I went, like running though treacle.
• Trying to explain things to people, and them just not being able to understand me, no matter how hard I tried.
• Water leaks all over the house.

The usual guff, I'm sure you are all familiar with the same things. Interspersed with these dreams were a number of other ones, of a more graphically sexual nature. In one I found myself fighting off my ex-wife who was not taking no for an answer. And in the other that I remember, I was with Sandy, and things were getting a little fruity. What is my mind trying to tell me? (If anything... Personally I am firmly of the belief that dreaming is the creative parts of the brain let free without the other part of conscious thought that keeps things in check and stops us all going wacko.)

Work was a bit comedy today, I was taken to a Thai restaurant by the employment agent that placed me at my current client, that took up three hours of lunch, and was followed by me being at work for another hour and half before I had to leave early to get the kids from their mother's place. I'll be charging for four days this week, after taking Tuesday afternoon off with the migrane, and most of Friday afternoon off too, I'd be taking the piss if I didn't.

I have just put the kids to bed, we have watched Ice Age on the DVD, and while Angel was in the bath I had my planned chat with Murray about his prodigal return.

I explained to him that this is the last time I would allow him to change his mind about visiting, that his sister needs consistency at her age, so changing his plans about was not an option. I also said we would call it a day if he insisted on turning up for whole weekends to mope about and be generally miserable too. He did do this quite often before. This all seemed to go down quite well, so I'm very happy about the end result.

He is at a preteen stage in his life, and he is about to become a teenager, so I know that things are going to get harder rather than easier, hopefully this little bump is all we will have to deal with. Time will tell I suppose.

In other news obviously there has been a lot of texting between Sandy and I, things seem to be getting a little heated. I'm trying to keep my paranoia in check, the last time things went this well was the time I got married! But there is no use in me judging all women by the last one as a standard. I'm also trying to keep some focus here too, we are not even dating, much less in a romantic relationship, its just that things seem to be going really well, so I shall enjoy what I can, and ignore the inner doubt voice where I can.

Right after bugger all sleep all week long, I'm going to fruitlessly attempt to hit the hay now! :)

More texts, pub, it must be Thursday!

Well yet more texting with Sandy today, this is becoming a rather heated text based relationship! :)

(Be advised I am using the word relationship in terms of linkage or association, rather than romance here, just in case you were thinking I was falling in love with a text girlfriend service.)

Work was most productive, I really feel like I am on my game. I am in the zone, and really hitting my stride here, I'm getting shit done, which has not been happening for about a year and half. It's nice. I feel really good.

So on the whole, on a personal level I am being appreciated by someone, I hope to get to know better in the short to medium term future. And on a professional level, I'm being appreciated, for getting stuff done, and being ultra efficient.

Of course I also went to the doctor and upped my dosage, hopefully things will improve, I'm having a 2:5 bad to good day ratio at the moment, with any luck an extra 10mg of the usual will drop this to a more manageable 1:6 or 0:7 ratio. I can hope.

This evening I have been down the pub with Dermot and Phil, all good fun. Dermot let me know that escorting his estranged wife home didn't count as date number one, on the four dates and a shag scale, nach!

I was quite proud of myself, I didn't drink a drop all night long, and I saved up my food units for the day and had a Shish Kebab on the way home, yum. (I could have been worse I could have had a Doner Kebab!) I asked for extra onions and wouldn't you know it, the onions were so hot I thought they were biting back. I should have been drunk, now I know why I don't eat them sober! Heh! And here was me thinking that the chili sauce was the hot component.

Right then after all those Diet Cokes, I suspect I may be wired for along time this evening. So I'm off to lie awake in my bed! :)

More texts...

There have been more texts today from Sandy, and of course I have returned more in kind. Their level seems to be escalating, I am attempting to avoid the paranoid self-introspection that arrives when something is too good to be true...

Other than that , went to work, worked, came home, nothing to report.

Although I did forget to mention yesterday that the diet is paying dividends, as I lost 9lb last week. I aim for 2lb a week, but I suspect I was hyper-hydrated at last week's weigh-in, so I'm cool with that much lost weight, as long as it does not become a trend. Before anyone gets any ideas I am not anorexic or bulimic.

Sweet relief, the pain has gone! :)

At long last the pounding pain of an astounding headache from hell, known as a migrane has gone, the white out of my vision has passed and I have stopped vomiting, time for another blog update...

What I didn't mention in the Dave post, that as the evening went on, a great deal of text messaging went on between myself and Sandy, it came to light that she actually quite fancied me, was comfortable in my company with in a few minutes and thought I was a gentleman too. (weird huh! :))

I guess the thinks I'm a gentleman because I didn't try and jump her, nor turn up in the middle of the night in her room trying it on. It is true, she is on the money, I am fiercely moral, and always do the right thing, even thinking the wrong thing tends to upset me.

As I'm quite sure you have guessed I think she's great, but I didn't tell Sandy that I quite fancied her on Saturday for a few of reasons:

The first is that I happen to know she is living with someone at the moment, and even though she says that the relationship is dead, I've known more than my fair share of women who say similar things and then stick around in a terminal relationship for years anyway. So if she was just getting her stress off her chest (think Venusians for those that have read the book) and wanted me to sympathise, but she had no intention of leaving him, then I would have turned a potential friendship into an uncomfortable situation. And what I was looking for was a friend not a partner. I did contact Sandy on FP after all, knowing that she had herself listed as "In a Relationship" on her stats, so I really wasn't expecting more.

The second was that I just didn't want to get involved with someone who is living with someone else. I set my self the limit that I was going to be divorced from my ex, before I got involved with anyone else, and I stuck to that. I'm more than prepared to wait a few weeks while Sandy sorts her shit out with her ex, I'm in no hurry, and wouldn't want to put her under pressure, nor catch her on the rebound.

The third was that we were getting on a storm. I thought it possible that Sandy might not have gone home, but have stayed at my place since she has a long journey home. Which as it happens was right on the money. How uncomfortable would you be sleeping at someone's house knowing that you didn't fancy them, but they did you, and you had to sleep at their home the first time you met. I know if the position was reversed I would have been very uncomfortable!

The final (and quite minor really) reason was, that Veronica the last woman I told I fancied her, went quite strange on me, which tends to make a guy think twice. Even though Veronica said, this was her problem not mine, it still puts shit in your head for next time.

So anyway when she had let that cat out of the bag, I told her I would have a chat to her this evening. Which I duly did a short while ago. After mucho chatto (she was quite impressed I managed to show nothing, and that I have a moral backbone!) she has confirmed that he will be leaving him soon (she has to do it right, as apparently he is quite prone to tantrums and is liable to trash her flat and car, eek) and I have confirmed that I am in no mad rush and that I'll be around when she is done. In the meantime we will be seeing each other as friends. I've made it quite clear nothing further will happen until they have gone their separate ways.

Sometimes I think I am too moral... :)

Piquing your interest...

And there has been news on the girlie front.

Right, going cross-eyed, must lie down before I go blind (for all the wrong reasons I assure you).

Dave

One of the things I have noticed about life, is that everyone has a mate called Dave.

I have a mate called Dave, my Dave is great, you don't see him for one to five years because he is in a relationship, and all his mates have dropped off the face of the Earth as far as he is concerned. But then once the relationship is over, Dave returns with a vengeance, he has one to five years of "good man containing the bad man" syndrome to purge, and things always get out of hand.

You are now up to date on my mate Dave.

Dave called m up yesterday afternoon, while I was at work. He was in the area, having just finished an interview with one of the companies in the City, wondering if I wanted a drink.

Now you should note at this point, I knew what I was getting into, I also knew it was Monday night, night of the alcoholic lone drinker, not the night of good wholesome fun... Yeah, I went.

We drank too much, and we ate at the first pub.

Then we went to the Griffin, a strip club in Holborn, where much alcohol was quaffed, and a lot of money was spent on strippers, and even more on private dances.

After that we headed over to Tower 42, which Dave claimed was a cocktail bar at the top of what used to be known as the Natwest Tower. No lights were on, so I suspect that Dave was just making stuff up to make the night go on longer by this point. So we headed to another bar, played computer golf against each other (I won 36 over par o his 32, not a good score I know!).

And then we had a moment of unbridled inspiration... the bar was closing and we were but moments from the Savoy Hotel and its booze!

We reasoned that we were dressed in suits, so we could probably pass for guests, and as you well know reader, guests can drink till any hour under the licensing laws of England and Wales.

So in we wandered, made ourselves at home, and ordered some dry white, talked some crap for a while, and then I ordered some more. At this point I think we were rumbled, we were told by the manager (very nicely) that he would no longer serve us as we had had too much (in my opinion before we even got there, but who was I to argue!), and it was time for us to retire for the evening.

So off we toddled, I got in a cab home, tuned on the oven and went to sleep without ever managing to put any food in it! (Luckily.)

This morning I got up and went to work feeling awful.

And just to add insult to injury, as I was just about recovered, and industrial strength migrane arrived and I had to go home at the start of the afternoon. Bummer!

So here I am sweet reader, relaying the last 48 hours to you, and now, I go to my pit to lie in the dark, and await the blindness and vomiting which will come in the next hour. Ah migranes, what fun! I guess I am paying back the kharma for yesterdays events. :)

A busy day once more

Well as far as relaxing weekends go, this one has sucked. But I'm not complaining this weekend has been a beauty, and lets face it there is always tomorrow to get a good night's sleep...

Sandy and I got up this morning around 9:30ish, had a couple of cups of tea and some good conversation, then we headed off to my favourite café, the Sunshine is the best greasy spoon in all Christendom if not the whole world, but I digress... back to the plot.

She even chose set breakfast number two! The best meal in the house, what a girl! :)

Though she did leave the bubble and squeak, so she is a flawed beauty! :D

After that we wandered down to Finsbury Park to take in some fresh air and walk off the excesses of breakfast, again great conversation, I can't even begin to tell you what we talked about, there was so much that we covered. I think to be honest we were just enjoying each other's company freely and with no hangups.

I joined her on the tube home, and we parted company discussing how she plans to extricate herself from her ex, who she can't get to move out of the house.

I had a couple of errands to run in the West End, and once they were done I dropped by Dermot's place (he lives in a tiny tiny flat right round the corner from Leicester Square). When I got here Dermot's estranged (they are not quite divorced yet) wife Carol was there too, and rater than dropping by to pick up a few things and then heading home, I ended up spending the whole evening with them.

The evening was great fun, I was introduced to the height of Aussie humour (they have people funnier than Paul Hogan!) and I introduced them to the whole Internet dating scene and the wonders of SnogLondon and FaceParty.

I also learnt from Carol, that women think that sex on the fourth date is acceptable, before that they are tarts and after that they are being cautious about their potential date (or cock-teases). I shall remember that, I had kind of assumed that at our age it had progressed to first date as sex was just not that important any more, how wrong I was!

At the end of the evening I escorted Carol home as far as our journeys remained convergent. Did that count as a first date? :)

And here I am shattered looking forward to tomorrow, when I can get a full nights worth of sleep.

Back to the job tomorrow, in at the deep end, no backup for the way ahead... Fun!

A very busy, but very enjoyable day.

The plan for today was quite cool, maybe a little tight at point on the time line, but doable...

Well up until the point when the very first bit went tits up, causing a cascade effect for the rest of the morning! Best laid plans eh!

I had to get up and pick up a parcel from the post office, then head down to Borough Market and get some essentials (Black Pepper, I cannot live without pepper!), then drop the groceries off at home, and finally get ready to meet Sandy at Waterloo station at some point in the early afternoon.

So what went wrong... I decided to just brush my teeth and leave the shower/primping and tarting up until I headed off to meet Sandy. I jumped in the car, and found that it was only firing on three cylinders, so I then had to take the car to my mate Johan's place and get the thing fixed. That took a couple of hours (who says that managed engines can't coke up their spark plugs?), mainly because I had a chat with Johan.

Then I headed of to Borough Market, and just as I arrived, got a text from Sandy at 10:50ish saying she was on the train and would be at Waterloo in about an hour! I wasn't expecting her until at the earliest 1PM, that's what early afternoon means to me. Assumption, the mother of all fu.... You get the message.

So I jumped in the car, managed to make it home from the city in 25 minutes (God was on my side to some extent this particular day!) and texted Sandy to let her know the car had given me some gyp and I may be a little later than planned. She was OK with that, so it was all good.

Dashed home, one shower/shave/dental hygiene session, some smell-nice and a clean set of clothes later I jumped on the tube and was at Waterloo for 12:10. (God was going with a benevolent travel theme for the day obviously.)

I met up with Sandy and all was good. She seemed as cool and talkative as she did on line. Yay. The nutter magnet was finally switched off. Or was it? (More later!)

We grabbed a coffee, after the morning's shenanigans, I was still in mucho need of caffeination! And then we set off for a walk down the South Bank, it was windy but not rainy and a little cold but not too bad at all. Bracing you might call it if you were thinking straight as you started that last sentence, instead of typing on auto-pilot like a fool. (Ooops, the internal monologue is externalising, YOU back in the box!)

I did suggest we went on the London Eye, but it seems that Sandy is afraid of heights, so we nixed that idea.

We stopped at the gourmet pizza place and had some great food. All the time the conversation was good, never a pause, lots of laughs, even a couple of belly laughs from me, something I have not done in too long!

Then we headed on the tube up to Camden, we had a great look round the market (I may have bought a few CDs of thumping trance) I didn't realise that there is a whole section of Camden devoted to furniture tucked around the back, that was a cool find, and I have my eye on a couple of additions to the new house (should it ever get bought!)

After that, I had a little thirst, so I suggested we head to the pub, we had a few drinks and I realised that my nutter magnet is very definitely switched on still (or may be function intermittently, I can't be sure...). While Sandy and I were chatting, a drunk Italian chap wandered up to me and the following conversation ensued:

"How to get North of here?"
Being the helpful chap that I am, I asked him, "Where in the North?"
"North, just North, how do I get North from here?"
You're probably thinking what I'm thinking here... "Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhkay..."
So I gave the most comprehensive answer I could, I pointed him in the direction of Camden Tube station (over the road from the pub) and told him to head North on the Northern Line for North in London, head South on the Northern Line to Kings Cross Station and get a train for North of London, and head south the Kings Cross and change to the Piccadilly Line for Heathrow for North of the country.
At this point, I realise he's taking the piss, but I'm having fun!

He starts talking very slowly to me like I'm a fool (understandable), and eventually he manages to convey to me that he wants to know where the cardinal compass point North is. At long last we have resolution, I point in the direction of North, and then he corrects me!

We have been wittering away for the last 10 minutes by now, and I'm not prepared to take a correction from a foreigner on compass points in the city I live in, without offering some challenge back in exchange. I decide to question his facilities for navigation in his own country of origin.
"What direction of the compass is Santa Margherita Ligure from Milano?"
"Santa Margherita, is a person, Saint Margaret, not a place!"
"No, its a town I have been there, its named after her, but it is a place I'm sure, in fact there are so many towns called Santa Margherita, that they have to suffix the name with the region so the post gets to the right town, that's why it has a 'Ligure'!"
"No, its a person, a saint"
I give up! I declare myself the winner, we shake hands, and Sandy and I make good our escape.

We headed back to my place, I had planned to cook the steak I had bought in the morning, but we ended having so much to drink, that I ended up ordering Chinese food then going to collect it.
We chatted for the rest of the evening (once I had kicked her ass at Teken Tag (totally, and she was soooo convinced she would destroy me)), then we realised she had missed her last train.

So now she is sleeping in the spare bedroom, and I, my lovely reader, I am going to my pit too.

I'm drunk and tired, so goodnight.