Posh Nosh and more

Dates - had a couple more, one was alright but was more like an evening with a pal, and the other was with a very short man, who defied all my prejudice about stature by winning me over by the end of the evening. However, he was very difficult to read, so don't know if that is going anywhere. Oh and have second date with the first date today, if that makes sense. Urg I'm exhausted.

Happily, did do something a bit different on Friday, going for some posh nosh with Troy at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. We spent a lot of money, despite having a special deal (it's all in the drinks!!), but the portions were generous and the service impeccable. They didn't treat you like scum that had just walked in off the street, which is excellent, as the last semi-posh place I went to for food, we had to wait about ten hours between courses, and there was not so much as an apology for keeping us waiting....

Troy was looking very glamorous, though was half-crippling herself with some lovely shoes! I'm still trying to persuade Troy to get some babies (and I don't encourage many people to do that) as she would be brilliant at that lark... I think it will happen, and then I can be the evil (not real) auntie 'Ding!

Oh and got sunstroke yesterday going on an NT trip. Typical. First sign of summer and, despite sensible hat wearing and all, had to spend the evening lying in a darkened room! Bahhh.

Date in the Diary Part Deux

Hmmm, am I going to turn this blog into a dating diary? Hopefully not... it's not my aim anyway. But seeing as I have nought else to talk about at the moment:

I went on another date with a different fellow. This was less successful. I was treading the toy boy route, and discovered it to be not altogether to my taste. He was a really sweet lad, and another total gent, but just waaaay too enthusiastic and touchy-feely. Schwesty jokingly asked whether I'd ever thought I'd see the day when a 25-year old was too young??! But alas, it has come, and my old, cynical bones won't stand for youthful, keen people any more!! So I've had to give him the old heave-ho (which even after one date was really difficult - showing how pathetic I am and how long a time it's been since I've ever had a choice on such matters!)

And oh my, I've just received a text from date number one wanting to go out tonight, which given that I'm (in a world first for my anti-social self) already going out Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday this week, is a bit much.... I might die. Hmmm, I'll have to postpone him. Oh this popularity lark, better enjoy it while it lasts! Don't worry I'll be back to my usual bored and lonesome self soon enough....

Date in the Diary

I know that there are some people keen to know what an internet date is like: well now I know! It is not too bad actually. Bit nerve-racking but not embarrassing , and for the first time in ages (or possibly ever) I was wined and dined by someone with enough money to slap down the cashola without a second thought, which (although I am not money obsessed) is actually a rather nice feeling. My date was a courteous 30-something shipping agent, who spent twelve years at sea, but now works in the big bucks world of moving oil and the like across the globe. He talked rather a lot about his work, but as the evening progressed, I realised that this was probably just nerves, and he chilled out a bit and the topic widened. I'm not counting my chickens but it was really enjoyable, and I hope a sign of the "standard" (terrible term) of fellas selling their ware to lonely dames on the tinterweb....

Too close to the sun...

Have just returned from a wet and cold London marathon with Choc Chip and (before that) a splendid night out with Monky, Choc Chip and the Swiss Miss. Monky was wearing her most outrageous rubber dress, which only someone with a blimmin fabulous figure (as Monky has) could get away with...

We got home, a few cocktails later, and managed to catch the end of "Solaris" with George Clooney. Was reminded of what a very beautiful and meditative film this is... unrushed, beautiful music, subtle performances, and (for once) a sex scene that lingers on the curves of a naked male rather than female. Must watch in full again....

Have just had the cheekiest cat waltz into the house to try and eat Da Bobster's food (again). The cheekiness is natural, I suppose, but the fact that after being manhandled out of the house no less than three times in three minutes, that he marches back in and hides under the table, to try and have another go ... well what a little git!! And he is definitely no stray. He is a very well fed kittie. Bahhhh!!

Motherless Child

I spent Sunday evening at the local folk club with Shaggy, listening to an "illustrated talk on the life and songs of Paul Robeson". I didn't know too much about Robeson except he sang "Ol' Man River" and was a serious actooooorrrr, at a time when being black and a serious actooooorrrrr didn't really compute. It was quite an amateurish talk by a tubby shantyman type with a banjo, but was nonetheless an interesting education on a man who was the equal of any (he was a talented lawyer, athlete, actor and singer) but who was scandalously shackled by a system that just couldn't see past his skin colour. Eventually he found himself even sidelined by the Civils Rights movement because of his rather naive involvement with Soviet communism (at a time when that wasn't the done thing)...

It turns out that he thought a great deal of Britain, which although far from perfect in the race stakes, was not segregated, and gave him the opportunity to play Othello at Stratford for a full five years. Unfortunately it was also in Britain where he was treated with unbelievably excessive amounts of ECT for depression, which left him a shadow of his previous self. The shantyman chap played various excerpts from Robeson's songs and speeches, throughout his lifetime. If you have not heard his singing, he has the most insanely low-deep voice, which has a resonance that could pitchfork your heart. The first song played was perhaps the one that got to me most - Sometimes I Feel (Like a Motherless Child) - an old negro spiritual:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCImJbG-OcI

A brilliant man, who also managed to have affairs with absolutely every woman he ever met. Respect and more respect due!

Backstabarama

I recently regaled Monky with some work woes which were making me anxious, and after said discussion, I came away knowing I HAD to do something. So, having already spoken informally with both my boss, and her boss, about my concerns about a certain member of staff, I finally committed something to writing - stating exactly how incompetent I thought she was. It was hard to do, and I tried to word it as constructively as I could ("not sure she is coping with the workload blah blah blah") and to my absolute shock yesterday ...

she got sacked! I'm pretty certain that my bosses must have already had complaints (probably from hospitals) but it still came as a mighty surprise. I work at a place where you would have to stick a pencil in your boss' eye, shouting "you c**t", to get the sack, so the mistakes already made must have been serious. I guess my letter was the final nail in the coffin. I'm not going to pretend I felt sad, I just felt f**king relieved, when my boss told me. Last week, I came the nearest I have ever come to a full-on anxiety attack, with quite scary palpitations and nausea, just THINKING about what my incompetent colleague was doing. And yesterday as my boss and her boss finally looked through all her files, in her vacated office, I felt a weight lift, because I knew I would no longer be part of a team that might kill someone out of pure incompetence.

I have a little bit of respect now for my bosses, but still think that they are at least partially to blame for employing this person in the first place. She was an internal candidate (among about 6 others applying from within) and it was to the absolute astonishment of EVERYONE when she got the job, above others who were clearly much better candidates. I don't like to play the race card but a cynical part of me wonders if her background gave her a helping hand, and her employment had something to do with creating a more "diverse" team. I say that only because I cannot think of a single other reason which would have made her seem suitable for the position... and sadly she was a perfectly pleasant person, supporting a young child, and losing her job will be a real blow. They have offered her a position lower down, if she wishes to take it, but it would be a brave person to do that having been sacked. So from having a job she could do just fine, she is probably now going to find herself struggling to get by - and all because of a super-shit decision by management in the first place.

So, after a slightly dramatic day (which also involved a fire in our office that fooked our server, and an emergency trip by me to central london to hand a brown envelope of cash to a stranded colleague) I fell into the local pub exhausted. C.I.Der and GingerCnut were on hilarious form, as usual, though Shaggy is still having serious personal woes. C.I.Der is fond of a party, and soon enough her and Shaggy were having their own little party, away from other onlookers and involving vices of a non-alcoholic and "high class" nature. I was slightly pissed at her and Shaggy - not least because Shaggy's excuse for this is that it "relaxes her before she goes home, and how I'd understand if I was as stressed as her" . I do understand the stress thing, but I think self-medicating against anxiety is about as disastrous an attempt at a healing process as you're likely to find. C.I.Der is a seasoned party animal but with a stable life. Shaggy is not. With Shaggy a car-crash was already on the cards, but now I find myself praying it involves a broken bumper and not a total f**king write-off.