Summer!

A month or so late, but it's finally here!

Time to strip down, mix Margarita's and find the nearest pool!

The Big Weekend

You know it's been a good weekend when it's Sunday evening, and you're just sobering up. Let's recap...

Last weekend, the plans for Saturday night fell apart, leaving me to entertain myself with a bottle of wine, which then resulted in me drunkenly calling people (sorry Cherry & Classy), e-mailing people (sorry Dr Ken), and texting (sorry ex-wife). As a result, I decided this weekend had to be different.

So Friday night, it was straight down to the pub with some of the guys from work. For those following the story, this was also the same night out the receptionist from work was meant to be joining us, but the no-show on her part leads me to believe she was just humoring me, but anyway. Since we work in the middle of nowhere, it's not that easy to go out for a drink without having to drive there, and since nobody else seemed to have the same dedication to a big night out I was planning, by booking a hotel, I was the only one drinking. Not that this stopped me in any way.

It was a good night, with the usual downward spiral of conversation, and the highlight of the evening had to be when a guy came over to our table and told my friend that one of the girls in his group had been trying to catch his eye all night, and would we like to come over; I've not heard the "my mate fancies you" in so long! It's a classic. So we headed over, we chatted, although not much really came of it, possibly due to the alcohol interfering with our capacity for intelligent and witty conversation by this point.

I decided to stick to my usual plan of vodka for the night, but uncharacteristically woke up the next morning with a hangover the size of which I've not experienced in a while. Personally, I'm putting this down to one of the vodkas being made into a vodka & tonic. Evil stuff that tonic, stay well clear of it.

Thankfully I was reasonably recovered by mid-afternoon and ready to head into London for another night out that some of the guys had organised. Because London Transport likes to mess with my life, there was yet again a bus replacement service which turns a one hour journey into about two and a half hours. Plus there was the crazy lady.

When she got on the bus, I thought she was just talking on a mobile headset as she came and sat a couple of seats away from me. As we carried on, I began listening to what she was saying, which seemed to make no sense. Then I realised there was no phone. Highlights of her one sided conversation were:

"Yes, I'd love a champagne and Guinness"
"I should eat. I need salt"
"The sheep love me"
"Youuuuuu"

For 45 minutes I had to stare straight ahead, as the slightest eye contact would have been an open invitation to her world.

Still, I made it into London eventually, and met up with the others who had already started at around mid-day, so I had some catching up to do. A few vodkas and I was well on the way, a theme which carried on into the night, although sadly cut short for me since I had to catch the last train home.

A good weekend in all, and not feeling too worse for wear at the other end of it, which is fortunate since it looks like next week is going to be much the same with a friends birthday celebrations. Now if we could just have some decent weather so that we can try and believe we're in summer...

Crash & Burn

I was going to quietly brush this story aside, but due to Jenny's request, and since tales of humiliation seem to be just as popular, if not more so, than those of my successes, I'll go ahead and write anyway.

To bring you all up to speed; last week saw a new temporary receptionist start at our office. Ok, make that a young, cute, temporary receptionist. Naturally I had to try my chances.

So, knowing that she was only here for a week and a half, there was no time to hang around, and was chatting to her within an hour of her settling in, and seemingly positive conversation at that!

We got round to the subject of company socials and I mentioned that we often have nights out with the guys from the office, and that we would be having a night out on Friday (or at least there would be once I'd organised it), and would she like to come? She would. Excellent.

Of course, this was all going too well, and so yesterday, when I started talking about when and where to meet up, she came up with the inevitable:

Receptionist: "Sounds great, although I'll be along a little later in the evening, as I've got to go and see my boyfriend's band performing."

Me: "Oh....That sounds good."


Hopefully I kept my composure and brushed it off as well as I imagined I did, and to be fair, this was a crash with not too much burn.

So, the search continues, and rest assured there will no doubt be many similar stories to come!

New Music Friday

With the weekend almost within reach again, and because it's been a quiet week with not much to write about (apart from my shameless attempts on the new receptionist, more about that next time), I decided it's time for another music update!

Now strictly speaking, this is not new music, or at least not to me, but since the sun is almost peeking through the clouds here, I thought I'd share one of my favorite summer playlists with you: "Too Hot To Move".

But, I'm going to try something different to the usual listing of music, and if technology decides to be my friend, I'm going to try and embed the player from BlogMusik, so you can actually listen to it through the wonder of the internet! Unfortunately, they didn't have all the tracks in my original iTunes playlist, but should be enough to keep you all going for a while.

There are more than 6 tracks in the list, but it only seems to show the first 6; leave it playing or skip tracks and you'll get to the rest. Let me know if this works for people, and if so, I'll have to post a few more.

Have a good weekend all!

Survived for another year

The good news is, I'm still alive after company outing on Thursday, and even better news is that I still have a job.

Now I'm sure we all remember the promises; no heavy drinking, no nightclubbing...

So, after the usual lack of co-ordination in getting people to Windsor, and subsequently having no time for a proper meal, meaning we had to settle for a quick McDonalds on the way, we were good to go. Once on the boat, someone got the first round in:

Friend: "Ok, what are you having?"

Me: "Better go steady tonight..... I'll have a vodka"

Dammit, why do I have no willpower when someone offers to buy a round.

So the party boat sailed off into the evening, the drinks kept coming, and the music became increasingly cheesy. My one disappointment of the evening was when the bar staff insisted they could no longer serve me straight vodka, and after much debate, I talked them down to a 50/50 vodka and tonic. It was disgusting, but I pushed on through.

They finally got us back on dry land, at which point we should have just gone back to the hotel as we'd all promised. However, it seems we'd all come to the same conclusion, and without even a word of discussion, made our way to the nightclub.

To be fair, this was probably a good decision, since the club we ended up in was much better than the one last year, and in no time we were on the dance floor getting hot and sweaty. My memory is a little vague by this point, but I do remember a cute* girl on the dance floor giving me the eye, and then loosing her somewhere in the crowd. Or maybe she ran. Like I say, my memory is vague.

I seem to remember leaving the club at about 2am, with the obligatory stop at the kebab shop on the way home, and yet to my surprise, was still up and ready for work by 9am 10am the next morning, all be it a little subdued and requiring large amounts of water and bacon.

Looking forward to the same again next year, and will forgo the pointless promises, and what the hell, at least I know I'm not too old of this kind of thing after all!


*She may have been cute, but at this point I didn't have my glasses on, and was on my 8th double.


UPDATE: Shameless pictures from the night are now up on Flickr

History Repeating

How time flies! Just under a year ago (10 months to be exact) there was a company outing on a riverboat in Windsor, which involved sailing up and down the Thames, drinking, going to a nightclub, more drinking, and much regret the next morning.

Well, that time has come round once again!

Tomorrow night, we'll be once again heading off down the Thames, I'll be making hollow promises about not drinking too much and being sensible, and by Friday, will no doubt be cursing whoever invented Vodka.

On the plus side, there are more people coming along this year, and in particular, most of us guys are keeping our fingers crossed that the girls from the support centre will be included in those numbers. However, if it's like last year, they'll know better than to allow themselves to be trapped on a boat with a load of drunk, lecherous men. Not that I'd be one of those, of course.

In other news, the initial consultation with the eye surgeon went well last night, although some of the tests were a little bizarre, such as the one to measure the curvature of my eye; I was a little dubious when my head was literally strapped into the machine, and even more freaked out by the ensuing light show that looked like some 60's pot party, while all the time the assistant was telling me to "keep looking forward, don't move your eyes"!

I also had some drops put in to dilate the pupils during the tests, which had the effect of turning up the brightness on my world and giving me eyes that looked like some Japanese animation character. I looked so cute.

So, it's all go for the zapping on the 13th August. I'll give a full write up on that afterwards. Well, as soon as my sight returns and I can bear to look at a screen that is.

And on a final note, I'm experimenting with the Twitter blog badge, so you'll be able to see random updates somewhere down on the right with whatever I'm up to. Because I know you all really want to know that.

I'll try and post again Friday, presuming I survive tomorrow night, and otherwise, a good weekend to all!

Ending on a high note

So after a week of gross, I decided I need end the week on a high note, so I'm going with big news! (for me at least!)

First of all, thank god it's Friday; although it still doesn't feel like summer quite yet, the skies have cleared, the rain has stopped, and it's actually quite warm. Plus I'm making good progress on a rather cheeky little bottle of wine, while watching Black Snake Moan. It's a lazy night, but a good night, plus I have the BBQ tomorrow to look forward to tomorrow night anyhow.

And so to the news; in a somewhat impulse decision, I've decided to scrap the plans for a second holiday this year, and put the money towards something I've been wanting for a long time; I'm finally going under the laser and getting my eyes zapped!

I've been wearing glasses for just over half my life now, and have decided it's time for them to go. I mean, sure, they give a somewhat false illusion of being intellectual, and have served me well over the years, but girls don't make passes at guys who wear glasses!

So I'm getting a quick checkup on Tuesday, which seems like just a formality, since they've already said I'm well within the range to have it done (my eyes really aren't that bad yet!), and so all going well, I'll be going under on 13th August! It's a mixture of excitement and apprehension; I'm totally excited to not have to wear glasses any more, although a little disconcerted by stories about being able to smell your eyes burning while they do it. I would go into more detail about how they actually do it, but I might gross a few people out, and I promised to avoid the gross!

So, that's pretty much my big news for the week, hope everyone has a good weekend, especially those off to the Live concert. Yes, I am jealous!!

And the gross continues...

Ok, so I've disposed of the doormat, because although the winning vote seems to be that it's cool, it's still cool in a gross way, and at the end of the day, I'm a little fussy about having a clean house.

But still, it seems things just keep coming to gross me out this week; for starters, the guy round the office who has certain issues with a proper washing regime. Now I'd kind of got used to it, as best you can, but it now seems that he's decided to try and address the problem. Unfortunately, as best my sense of smell can determine, he's decided to cover the problem with what smells like cheap talcum powder. The result is the most sickly aroma that has literally turned my stomach.

If this wasn't enough, I get stuck behind a Land Rover for a couple of miles on the way home with a Dalmatian in the back. Not an issue you'd think, except this Dalmatian insisted on raising it's tail and pressing it's backside against the window, giving me a delightful view of a squashed raisin for several miles.

Anyway, hopefully the week will be picking up; a friend is making the first proper attempt at a BBQ this weekend, so if the British weather can just hold off for one day, we should be in for a good one!

Ok, I promise to find a way to make the next post less gross...

Cool or Gross?

Now I know a front doormat is bound to get a little muddy, and we have had a pretty extreme amount of rain around here recently, but seriously, mushrooms growing out of my front door mat??

What do you think, cool or gross?

(I have since removed them, as it's really doesn't encourage people to visit!)