Archives for February 2007

I think I have a Clayton’s* date on Sunday.

I say Clayton’s, because it really isn’t a date. It’s a business meeting with another web geek, one whom I’ve been in touch with since the insane week before Christmas (the week when I was trying to churn out a big job that I was underskilled for… (long story…)) anyway, we’ve spent a bit of time chatting on the phone, always work related, neither of us knowing anything about each other outside of how much we play with html, css, CMS etc…

Of course I suspect that there have been times when I talk too much and do the girly ‘give too much away’ thing. Not that I could name what I’ve said, I’m just fairly sure I shot my mouth off, I usually do. The reason I suspect this is that he sent me an invite to join a web-based single’s circle for the over 30’s that he’s set up (the things we geeks do for fun…). It isn’t a dating site, it isn’t a pick a mate from a list of profiles, it’s just a group of people who get together to hang out at occasional events..

Now, I didn’t know he was single, nor that he was in that age group. And I didn’t think he knew as much about me. So, while I’m all in favour of meeting new people and being part of an ‘invitation only’ group I was a little surprised to be offered the invite… And this, hot on the heels of my having decided to unsubscribe from my long standing account with my G.O.D.S (Godly Online Dating Service).

So, here we are, after a month or so between conversations and just this week I’ve both joined his single’s group and run a business idea past him which has necessitated meeting up to go over it in person. Easy enough to make the connection that it’s the combination of the two that makes the business meeting feel as though it has an ‘edge of date’ about it. Of course, if you add the fact that we’ve traded photos to make identification easier at our chosen rendezvous, the ‘edge of date’ gets a little more emphasis.

Though instead of a carrying a copy of ‘Pride and Prejudice’ bookmarked by a rose

I’ll be the one with the laptop.

*Any of my Kiwi and possibly Aussie readers will understand what I mean by a Clayton’s situation. There’s a full explanation of the phrase here. But if I say a Clayton’s date is ‘the date you’re having when you’re not having a date’ you’ll get the idea…

The invite goes something like this.

Dear Dee… Please come to my 30th birthday party at [insert v swanky cocktail bar] wearing ‘your best sexy outfit’.

A whole phrase geared to touch off all one’s least favourite insecurities about what to wear and whether you want to go when you’re comfortably upholstered AND conscious that you’ll be the straightest person there… especially as dinner was not part of the programme. Which means cocktails and no food… that’s just plain crazy, right? Or it means the whole plan is to get plastered…

Sigh. But you can’t say no… Especially as it’s the first time I’ve seen her since we moved house…

So, as insurance against getting too messy I drove. I also took a couple of local mates who were going too, this so that I didn’t have to walk into a swanky bar on my own…

But before we actually get to the event I have to get out of the house. Which I did in the usual way by closing the door behind me.

Right before I realised the car and house keys were still [ahem] inside the house.

SH************T!

Thank goodness that I’m on the ground floor. And thank goodness the bedroom window wasn’t locked. The bedroom with louvre windows which needed disassembling before climbing through (in best sexy outfit).

I broke 2 of the window panes… but did get through, face first onto my bed, much to the bemusement of Chino who seriously questioned my sanity as I came barrelling in… And I got the keys and also grabbed the spare set which are now secreted in a v safe v secret place on the other side of the front door, just in case the unthinkable should ever happen again. Happily the sexy outfit was none the worse for the experience…

So having solved that little problem I drove my mates and me to Swank Central [not its real name], one of Sydney’s popular cocktail spots.

And seriously, while it was definitely not my scene, in its defence it was a bit of a cultural insight.

It was great to watch the skilled barmen and women pour and mix some unbelievable cocktails. They LOOKED awesome (the barmen too), and surely tasted great, but at $15 a drink they’re not something I wanted to knock back one after the other (wasn’t stopping the others)… nor was that sort of frenzy something I had the pocketbook for either.

The opportunities to people watch were unlimited. I feel for the young girls dressing to impress, eyefuls of cleavage and some serious leg showing who were getting slowly more inebriated finding even the most unusual guys getting more and more attractive to them as the volume of cocktails increased.

Then there are the men and boys eyeing them off, wondering which of them they’ll get to go home with… The ratio of girls to guys was carefully managed by the door at 2:1so the guys had their pick…

Someone asked me if I’d go to that sort of place to meet guys.

The answer was [ahem] “Hell no…”

All that being said I did actually have a good time, the company I went with was good and it was nice to meet people from other facets of the birthday girl’s world… The evening passed fast enough and though we got home late, and had to go via the golden arches so that we actually didn’t starve overnight, I survived.

Insecurities intact.

It’s Friday and I have the unexpected pleasure of ‘working from home’ today as the 6ttttttttttttttttttttttt [sorry, kitten exploring] office is in the middle of a power outage. That means no computers, no email (even from home) and no loos (the clincher in closing the office, of course). Happily there is every likelihood the situation will remain right through until Tuesday evening so the staff as a whole are ‘working from home’.

Now, you may have noticed the judicious use of the inverted commas around the phrase ‘working from home’ and assumed that I was being tongue in cheek. I want to set the record straight andqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqq [!!] and assure any work-related readers that I have achieved much in the way of useful task completion since 9am this morning…

I mean, I have made my bed.
I also added a Youtube video to the movement’s website and sent an email to the global Snr pastors to let them know it’s there!
I baked muffins
I finished my novel (the one I’m reading…)
I read email and deleted spam
I played with the kitten
I washed dishes
I showered etc., of course.

I have other work things to do and they will be done before the weekend is over. It just may be that I don’t quite get 8 hours of work achievements under my belt before 5 pm today. Actually, given that 5pm is an hour and twenty minutes away, that’s a pretty safe bet…

The point I’m meaning to make is that during the course of this rather relaxing afternoon I’ve been musing about my renewed motivation to spend time knocking up confections etc. in the kitchen.

Last night it was chocolate cake, and as a single girl with only a kitten to feed I made a half recipe so that it was actually chocolate cupcakes and mini cupcakes that slaked my appetite for sweetness at 10pm last night. (Yep – you read that right – 10pm!).

This morning I was hankering for corn and chilli muffins and after last night’s up-late cooking session had left me completely disenchanted with my muffin/cupcake tins (because despite their non-stick appearance, they were resolutely sticky) I decided the only way to make muffins today was to get hold of silicone muffin pan liners the like of which I’d seen a week or two back when shopping for my dining room table. [I’ve used paper ones to no success either – still sticky due to rather low fat recipes.]

So, it became necessary to go to [gasp] the mall.

I sucked up my disdain at having to go to that plebian retail wasteland and duly made my purchase. And, as I write, I am happily munching away on my mini chilli corn muffins thrilled with my silicone muffin liners, (though I have to ask, how come when muffin trays hold either 6 or 12 muffin tins to the liners come in packs of 10? )

The thing is, before I moved I was really lacking motivation to do anything like baking or cooking. Too much effort. But my Christmas list had muffin tins and pastry brushes on it and these days wandering round a homewares store is fun AND inspirational! I’ve seen all sorts of things I’d like to have! I’m even thinking of upgrading my perfectly adequate kettle and toaster to stainless steel because they look nicer and will match the blender I’m planning to buy…

It seems as though having a place of my own has really given me the opportunity to nest. It’s kind of weird because it’s hardly as if Flick was any kind of impediment to that. And well, Chino may be a nuisance winding in and out of my feet hoping that a piece of bacon will fall to the ground while I’m cooking.

He’s no impediment either.