Wear something bright at work. A declaration of love and Snow! Yes, snow!

Monday January 20^th.

Swimming in your own local pool is so much nicer than guesting in an unfamiliar one; even if it is a Cumbrian one. The scenery may be nicer but the weather certainly isn’t! Sarah was pleased to see us back and ready for a new semester. [I tried to explain it was still the old one but the sheer illogicality of it hit home even as I was attempting an explanation.]

Only 75 lengths today. I am taking it steady. Plus the pool seemed busier than it was before Christmas, Sarah’s explanation is the fact lots of fogeys have made New Year’s resolutions to get fit and swimming is the easiest. She thinks the numbers will be back to normal by about March.

We had “Beat the Blues on Monday” day at work. Everyone was encouraged to wear something bright on what has been claimed is the most depressing Monday of the year. Luckily Mrs B gave me a heads up about this last week, so I went in wearing my Art on my sleeve [and chest and legs and round my bum]. I have a pair of leggings inspired by Mondrian and a matching sweater, so coupled with a black mini skirt I wore those today. I put the mini skirt on to preserve my modesty. Without something there the leggings do reveal rather too much of my important little places to the world.

Mrs Briggs herself was in full Barbara Cartland mode with the pinkest two piece suit you have ever seen. I thing it must have been issued with sunglasses when it was new. She found it in a charity shop near where she lives [that comes as no surprise] and thought it would be ideal. Imagine day-glo Barbie pink magnified to the power of infinity! That just about describes the colour.

Lots of the guys had obviously discussed what they were going to do and they came in loud waistcoats. That was a really clever idea. What was perhaps a bit childish was the way they went around with their jackets buttoned and asked people if they wanted a flash? Then they’d undo their jacket and dazzle us with their waistcoats. The first time this happened I thought it was funny, by lunchtime I was armed with my staple gun and was threatening to zap anybody who flashed me. Rather unsurprisingly, lots of the guys came to get stapled. I did behave a little naughtily to Christopher, in accounts; I went up there on some spurious pretext and stapled his tie to his desk! [That may have been a mistake in retrospect as a few of the accounts people came down asking for their ties to be stapled too.] 

We were like a set of big kids really.

Even Mr Carr had joined in the spirit of the thing with a waistcoat which looked like he had been sick down his shirt! Well, that’s what I told him it looked like. Hey, he has dated my Mum, I can afford to be cheeky to him – within reason.

Back home dinner was ready and waiting and Laura all scrubbed and ready to zoom off to the restaurant. This will be her first day this year. She drove herself down in Quokka as I was feeling whacked. I guess it is the first day back syndrome. It certainly affected Lollster. She came in after work, sat in the recliner, and was asleep before her cup of tea was made. It was at a moment like this I wished I was stronger, I would then have lifted her up and carried her upstairs into our bedroom where I could have undressed her at my leisure before tucking her into bed for the night.

I shook her awake and told her this so she said OK and leapt into my arms wrapping her legs round my waist and locking her ankles behind my back. She is only 8 stones but I am not an amazon! My knees buckled a bit and I had to say that I didn’t think trying to carry her upstairs was a good idea.

“Wussy wuss wuss!” Was her reply. 

So I bit the bullet and had a go. I couldn’t quite make it all the way up the stairs [they are quite steep] so I sat her down on the top step. She lay back onto the landing and said, “If you backed down about three steps you’d be at the perfect height to nibble my love bump.”

I called her a dirty little trollop but backed down and did as she suggested. First through her tights and undies and then at the unclothed spot after I had removed the restricting garments. We didn’t actually tumble into bed for at least 40 minutes!

Tuesday January 21^st.

Walked the puppy and swam as usual this morning.

Up to my usual 100 lengths today as I was feeling invigorated after our evening entertainment.

Work was much calmer to day and far less silly than Monday.

I met up with Laura in town for lunch and we had a window shop too. It was quite sunny for a while and the Winter Gardens were beautiful as always. I love the fact that the new Market  is now at this end of the town centre so we had a stroll in there too. I told Laura how much she would enjoy going to Fremantle market in the summer. It is a brilliant spot, even though it is relatively small.

Back home to another waiting dinner. This is something I could get used to every night. After the meal Laura rushed off to the restaurant again. This time I fell asleep in the recliner.

All in all a much quieter day today than Monday. Thank goodness.

Wednesday January 22^nd.

Usual morning routine slips into place as though we’d never been away. Had a Skype call from Dad saying he and Louisa are coming back on the 8^th of February not the weekend before and could I be an angel and collect them from the airport? I knew he’d rope me into doing it. He sort of pressured me into house sitting in a way, and I guess he does look after Callie for me when I am away so it’s not too onerous.

Jill told me Annabelle had got a boyfriend! I am not sure how I feel about this to be honest. I had a horrible knotty feeling in the pit of my stomach when she told me but then she went on to explain he wasn’t really a BF just a guy she had been paired with in Science and he’d been round to work on their presentation for the class. Annabelle was scathing as hell about Jill calling him her boyfriend and was quite catty about Jill’s ex going with someone else while he was still supposed to be going out with her. This is a side to the girls I haven’t seen before and it is not very nice. I told them both that I didn’t want a pair of Tasmanian devils as nieces. I threatened to hang up if they continued to be unpleasant to each other. Suze appeared and told me that I was seeing a warts and all view of them. I think she was annoyed too, I have lived with them for a couple of years and I know what the warts and all reality is like. It isn’t what they were doing. Suze said she’d send me an e-mail.[This is code for something has happened and she can’t talk about it in front of the kids.

I am sort of dreading getting the e-mail.

Work was the same as yesterday. Which means it is back to normal. Christopher came to ARR during the lunch hour and sat on my desk and told me that he really, really liked me. [I don’t need this.] He knows he has no hope while I am involved with Laura but if we ever split up would I consider giving him a chance? I suppose it must have taken a lot of guts to come down and spill something like that out to me. I guess I am also party to blame for behaving like a silly schoolgirl on Monday and pranking him with the staple gun. If I hadn’t done that I bet he wouldn’t have been sitting on my desk this lunchtime.

He went on about how he knew I had dated guys in the past. He referred to Alan and how we’d been together for almost a year. How he’d been really happy when we broke up [thanks a bunch] and then really sad when I “came out” and told everyone about Laura. All the time he was talking I was thinking, “I don’t deserve this rubbish. Why is he forcing me to listen to his bleating? “and “Oh, just shut up and go away!” Part of the problem is I need to tell him to just shut up and go away but I can’t because I don’t want to upset him. It is not because I secretly fancy him or something, because I know I don’t. [I have known this for as long as I have known him.]

I sat with Mrs Briggs during the afternoon and she told me that I had to do what I found difficult. That is, tell him to shut up and go away. I am going to avoid him all the time and not ever go up to accounts again behaving like a stupid school girl. If he says anything again I will try my best to tell him where to get off.

Laura was waiting with the meal again. Rah rah rah. Why would I want to exchange what I have for something unpredictable and unreliable and whom I don’t fancy at all? Sadly Christopher can’t see beyond his own desires. If he could walk in my shoes for even a minute he would understand.

I drove Laura to the restaurant after dinner and collected her at just after 11pm. Dominic and I had a chat about life and love and relationships. He claims that because she is so happy at work that makes her a better waitress, which is why people give her so many tips. He also thinks it is our relationship which makes her so happy. He is sort of dreading what will happen when she finishes her degree and he will lose her for good. He has over a year before that happens so he’ll cope. It sort of makes me wonder too. Will there be work for her specialisation in the South Yorkshire area? Will I find that I lose her too, if she has to move to where the work is? That is what graduates have done since time immemorial [moved around the country / planet for work]. I was just lucky to find something on a plate in Sheffield. I think I may have a guardian angel, sometimes.

Thursday 23^rd January.

Snow! We have had some snow! Not all that much and it cleared pretty quickly. The town itself seemed untouched [that is nothing new] but up her in the foothills of the Pennines, the white stuff has fallen. The first of the year.

Callie and I encountered spiky rain on our walk this morning [Callie’s name for hail] and she was not a happy puppy walking through rain which hurt her. After swimming [which was also snowless] our back yard, between the conservatory and the Odessa Steps to the garden had a centimetre or so of covering. 

By the time I had showered again and had breakfast the lovely whiteness had gone to be replaced by more rain. Our weather has become very wet lately. I don’t think I’ve been singing too much to make it happen!

Laura is pretty excited about some statistical analysis they are doing as part of her course. It is all about medicine and drug effectiveness and sounds fascinating. She is looking forward to the probability aspect of it as this is where it gets really “wild” [her words]. When she goes on about her work she gets as excited as I do talking about books I have read. [They are my real passion.] Quite often though what she is saying goes right over my head. At these times she will stop and try to explain to me in terms I can understand; she says this is a brilliant way of cementing the ideas in her own head too. It is good for me to be a dunce at something, I suppose.

At work we had a visit from the High Class escort whom we defended successfully against her tax evasion case. She was her to see her solicitor on another unrelated matter. If you didn’t know what she did for a living you could quite easily think she was one of the law staff who work at XXX & Y. She was in the lift as I was heading up to one of the high offices to deliver some case notes. I bit the bullet and spoke to her. She is very ordinary really. She may look a million dollars but she sounds as down to earth as you and I. I asked her if would be possible to have a chat with her at some time about something which had been on my mind for a while. She gave me a business card and told me to call anytime to make an appointment. I think she may have thought I was employing a euphemism to disguise the fact I wanted lesbian sex with her! Little does she know.

After work another meal was waiting and Laura was happy as Larry [whoever he was] as she has a placement in her next term doing stat. analysis at the Hospital just down the road from the University. I knew the placements were in the offing but she hasn’t really talked about it much, so I assumed she wasn’t too bothered. It seems the placement will be doing more of what she was talking about this morning. How weird a coincidence is that? It is going to be one day a week from the start of February until the end of June. She will be told which day of the week when she goes to the next meeting about it.

I drove her to work again and was surprised to find Dominic wasn’t there. He has rushed over to Italy, today, where his Grandmother is dangerously ill. His Grandmother? She must be amazingly old as I am sure Dom is in his fifties! Maybe she gave birth to his Mum when she was just a bambino herself? The staff seemed to be coping as usual in his absence, which is probably not a bad thing.

The white stuff of this morning had been replaced by nastier white stuff as we pulled back onto our lane after Laura had finished. The crazy paving has become a psychopath as it is covered in a sheet of ice. 

When I took Callie for her final walk of the day I stole a bucket full of salt from the salt bin and sprinkled it all over the path as we made our way back to my house. I suppose people in the rest of my row will be pleased it has been done, unless it warms up overnight and gets washed away in the rain which is bound to follow! Then they will be none the wiser. Ho Hum.