A bit of gossip

Last night was quite chilled and organised by my standards. My friend Bridget and I routinely have a girls' night on a Tuesday night, and since she's just back from holiday in California, last night was the first one in a couple of weeks. Normally we head to the gym first for a token workout before the food and trashy tv, but she was held up in court yesterday (she's a solicitor) and I was late heading home from work, so that plan went straight out the window.

I did just have time to sneak in a run before she got to mine though, which was great as the weather was lush for it. It's evenings like that that I really appreciate where I live. In the evening sunshine the roads are peaceful and pretty, with their graceful old houses and canopies of leafy green trees. Just the faintest breeze to stop me completely overheating, and very few people or cars out to get in my way. Nice. For a novice runner though, it was quite funny knowing I had 25 mins to complete a 20 min run and get in and out the shower - just a bit of added challenge!

Just made it back in time, and avoided getting runover on my drive by a car driven by a man who cheerily waved at me. I couldn't think who it was, although he clearly seemed to know me, so I felt a little bit bad carrying on up the drive without stopping, wondering if he was one of my neighbours. He walked past me as I did my stretches by the front door and it was then that I twigged it was my landlord, Chris. For someone who normally has quite a good memory for names and faces, I always have trouble with Chris - that's awful isn't it? So I smiled extra wide and was extra cheerful as I said hi - not difficult as he's a nice guy, but seriously - why can I never remember his face???

B arrived just as I got out the shower - timing or what? I love the fact that everytime I see her she says "you've lost more weight". I'm trying, but she says it so often I tend to dismiss it now. But I love that she always has a compliment for me :o)

We talked holidays while we cooked, hers sounded amazing and I'm very jealous, and then the usual difficult task of trying to shoe-horn more social stuff into already packed diaries. We've decided on the theatre for Friday night to see Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, and a bike ride out with lunch or a picnic on Sunday, along with her boyfriend Tim, which should be good if the weather holds. I love bank holiday weekends as they just feel so deliciously long and lazy, so I'm looking forward to this one. There were a couple of other things that I'd have like to have gone along to but all on dates when I'm away over the next couple of months, although they are both coming to a charity ball that's being held next month - looking forward to dressing up as the dress code is black tie.

We settled down afterwards to catch up on Gossip Girl. Supremely cheesey tv, but I love it! You can tell the walls in our flat our thin - my neighbour Sid texted after a particularly raucous bout of giggling and squealing at the tv (it was just one of those episodes that induces cries of "noooooo - they're not going to!", "oh my god - they did!") to ask whether I was tickling B as the giggles were so loud. I should just point out that I'm very good friends with my neigbours, and B is known to be very ticklish, so this isn't entirely as weird as it sounds!

I was also checking through my emails and was delighted to find a message from a guy called Lee. A couple of months ago, I joined the dating site www.mysinglefriend.com. I'm single, but I'm pretty happy that way, an independent kind of gal and all that, but it does annoy me sometimes that living in a small town with a big group of friends, means you don't really have any excuse to meet new people. So MSF was my solution to that. Anyway, Lee and I chatted a bit at the beginning of the year and a potential date was proposed, but then I left the site for a couple of months and it appears so did he. Long story short, I rejoined last week, and thought I'd drop him a message to see what was new with him and he replied. Who knows if that means anything but his messages make me laugh, so we shall see.