Usually it is my internet hook up that ties up my phone line… (Yes, I am still on dial-up … Sigh)

Tonight I was actually talking on the phone. To a friend that I last spoke to around 2 years ago.

Don’t you love having people in your world with whom you totally pick up from whence you left? it is Utterly Brilliant.

TwinSet and I were friends at my last outpost of Kiwi Living – in Northland, and she is great, a real treasure. In the years (5.5) since I left she and her husband have trained for the ministry and are now full time pastors. Complete with twin set and pearls and the odd plate of scones…

They have a small church of 40 stalwart members and a wounded one at tha sadly…. Maybe I should give them Curate’s address by way of encouragement…

Anyway, we had a proper catch up, on all our own news and the news of the members of our old parish. Planning not to leave it 2 years before we do it again…

D2 with YGM2 tomorrow … going out to explore our shared passion…

For Photography!

(Had you going though didn’t I?! )

Well…

Where do you want me to start?

The plan was lunch at a local cafe. A beachside cafe, one of my favourites. The time was set for 12.30 and we were both running late. Me because I did NOT want to be the first one there and him because he had been car shopping and couldn’t get away from the salesman.

So, my cunning, arriving late plan, was foiled. I was there first sitting waiting for my drink to arrive when the phone rings. ‘Tis YGM2. Watching me from the footpath to see if I was me…

Clearly, I was.

He joins me and we pick up where we left off on the phone last night. All very easy going and casual.

This is good I think to myself. Easy and casual… not tense and awkward.

So my first impression is … He could use some help with his choice of vestments for a 1st date. But then, most guys could use a fashion sense transplant right? This is not a major strike against him.

We are so busy talking that it takes some time to decide on a meal …

I had just had breakfast with the girls so opt for a salad – and no, I am not the kind of girl who is afraid to eat in front of a guy. One doesn’t develop a fine comfortably upholstered appearance by being reticient with food… I am mature enough to be fairly settled in my skin these days and so choosing to have a meal was not awkward at all.

YGM2 orders the steak, well done. I find this unusual – he is Sth African and orders well done steak… In my mind well done and steak are mutually exclusive … and he appeared a wee bit embarassed to order a full meal at lunch time which I thought was funny… but this also was not a major strike against him.

Time passes, as does the meal and, skipping dessert, in favour of coffee (ok the comfortable with food may not extend to dessert…) all the while the conversation flows freely, covering such varied topics as family, growing up in the country and then Africa and it’s history and politics.

We then of course leave the cafe, with him paying (I may be a feminist where baby showers are concerned, but not dating…) and we take a walk along the waterfront. Bear in mind I am wearing my vanity shoes… You know girls, the pair that are stunning but half a size too small … I fear for my toes but am forward enough to tell him about the vanity shoes as a caution not to go too far, or too fast!!!

’tis a lovely afternoon. The sun is shining on us and all is well. We walk to the headland and take a seat in the sun continuing to chat away about everything and nothing. The whole time my little radar is going… Do I like him? Do I fancy him? The answer is, as yet, unclear. I do not dislike him at all and we are comfortable together. This is a nice place to be for now I think.

We talk for quite some time until the shadows start to encroach on our seat and we wend our way back towards the car, actually stopping in the sun again to talk some more. (The feet are holding up surprisingly well…)

The thought in my mind then becomes, “clearly he is free for the evening, I have an offer of drinks at the pub with the girls and I am wondering if I want to take them up on it”.

I decide yes.

The thinking behind the decision is this… YGM2 made no definitive offer of a new plan. I was not keen to be making the plan, after all – the plan is the guys domain, ask Dr Venus and Mars. I think if YGM2 had said, shall we keep hanging out? Would you like to see a movie or something? I would have said yes, but as he was clearly waiting for me to come up with the goods I decided to opt for the girls. This is not a major strike against him though.

So we make it back to my car … the awkward “what is the appropriate farewell?” moment arrives… we opt of a hug with a kiss on the cheek. This is accomplished with little fuss but the hugger (him) perhaps held on a little too long for the huggee (moi).

I am left thinking … uh oh … I am in the “treading cautiously” camp … he may be in the “woo hoo, full steam ahead” camp…

Time will tell …

He definitely isn’t an axe wielding maniac…. that is a definite strike in his favour.

Rescheduled D – Day to Saturday …

D-Day – Departure Day.

A whole new start tomorrow – at 5pm with all my belongings into two file boxes off I went… Parking the boxes on my new desk ready to unpack 1st thing tomorrow!!

The hardest part is trying not to look deliriously happy when the girls in my office are all teary!

The crazy thing is I AM JUST MOVING ACROSS THE PARKING LOT!

Sigh – it is kind of the end of an era, I have been part of the Music Department for almost 3 years … So it strikes me as strange that I feel so ambivalent! It may have something to do with the fact that my previous boss was a head case, and since he left 5 months ago I have been in limbo – having some meaning and purpose in my work is definitely something to look forward to…

Anyway, tonight turned into an impromptu dinner party, which turned into an impromptu farewell party… Bliss, Surf, Kaffin, Tez, Skeet and I had a roast dinner, (may I add…brilliantly turned out by yours truly) and a couple of bottles of wine (hmmm…wine… lovely stuff) and more than enough laughs to keep us going into the middle of next weekend.

There is something priceless about such great company.

There is also the occasional dilemma.

Because we are such good friends and have worked together for so long, the girls (Kaffin and Skeet) and I are pretty much an open book with each other – so, they know about YGM2.
Bliss and I live together, she clearly knows about YGM2
Surf and I talk about all matters to do with relationships but, I hadn’t had an opportunity to tell him about YGM2 yet, i really didn’t need to as Kaff and Skeet told Surf about him… So Surf was dying for the inside track BUT…

Tez, is totally in the dark. Tez is a bit of a dilemma for me. He is my footy buddy, I have always been rather soft on him and for the longest time Surf and the gang have been hounding me about just grabbing him, giving him a good old pash and seeing what happens. I was not prepared to take that course of action… I always rather hoped he might do it instead…

So tonight, here I was with Surf dying to talk about YGM2 and me not wanting Tez to know until there really is something material to report!!! Right on the horns of a feminine dilemma – of course Tez was aware of a subtle undercurrent of news he wasn’t a party to. As usual, I was acutely aware of his attention being on me rather a lot (this is pretty normal and part of my massive frustration that he never made a move on me…) wondering how things would change once there was something to report and how to tell him!!!

Guess there is no point in saying anything until there is something to say! However, I would be lying if I hadn’t wondered if my being sought out by someone else would give him a kick in the pants…

Sigh

The Song in My Head in the Morning #10: Today: Iona (Bliss’ kickass song from last night)