Another weekend over with – and another without Mark, more’s the pity. So what is it like for Mike in this strange new world of monogamy and solitude?
Well, Friday, after a particularly hellish day at work (recent staffing changes have meant a workplace I adored has gone downhill very, very badly – there’ll be more quite soon about my plans to escape) I went for a brief drink with a colleague, who is also a very good friend and has been very supportive to me throughout everything that’s happened over the last few months.
After that I met a guy I’d been chatting to online for a few weeks – Italian, over here on a visit. We met via a dating website; and though we were clearly not looking for each other, what with living in different countries and that (!) we got chatting as, international cosmopolitan type that I am, I have family in Italy and have holidayed there often. It was nice to meet him – we had a couple of drinks and a laugh and I made him quite late for his dinner engagement. It will be back to the email from now on, I suppose. Yet, it was good to meet a guy without that possibility – even though I now have a pen pal which seems a tad old fashioned (even though I have this blog and half my social-life is online anyway!).
On Saturday I went to the barbecue of a former neighbour of mine who had moved as far as it is possible to go across London and still be in it. She’s American and was celebrating Independence Day and it was great to see her and catch up with a load of her friends that I’d met before. I always like people from Anglophone countries more than the 'generic' Brits. Americans, Australians, Canadians, Irish (like Mark), New Zealanders…. I’m not British but it’s easy to adopt the cultural cynicism rooted in appalling public transport and drought orders!
Anyway, I had a good time, and great food and everyone was really nice. Of course I had too many beers but fortunately one of my existing neighbours was there and wanted to go reasonably early, so she and I travelled together, saving me from making a total prat of myself. I will incautiously admit that I do find her attractive and were I still ‘in’ I might have tried something… but of course I didn’t!
Sunday I got text messages from someone I was due to go for a drink with last Friday (whom I cancelled because of Mark’s procrastination) asking if I was free. In truth I had a lot of work to do and shouldn’t have gone out but…
We wandered along the South Bank, caught unexpectedly in the midst of a Brazilian festival which was a lot more fun than working at home! I'm not sure the scantily clad dancing girls were entirely at home in a rainy July in London, but they made up for it in jiggly enthusiasm. After that we went for a pub lunch, only mildly disrupted by the bar-staff getting into a fight. When back home In the early evening I worked on a clients’ websites until I got bored...
I did consider going online and having a bit of a cruise but in the end I realised I shouldn’t and nothing came of that impulse (reward please?) so it was a bit of tele’ (the finale of Dr Who on the iPlayer) and a glass of Chablis to tide me to bed, perchance to sleep, perchance to dream. You see, I'm a good girl I am.
But then, the very last thing on Sunday, a text came from Mark telling me all about his weekend and what he’d been doing, and wishing me goodnight. I was really touched that he made the effort after our Talk. It really pleased me an inordinate amount (he clearly has me well trained) and I really shall have to think of a suitable way to reward him. ;-p
No comments:
Post a Comment