A Certain Romance

Charlene and I took a slow, romantic stroll along the Canal du Midi over lunch. It wasn’t that we were going to sneak away and make passionate love in the midday sun, on a bed of fallen leaves by the water’s edge – not romantic in that sense. More that it was a guy and a girl getting away from the hubbub of the group to spend a little time together, enjoying each other’s company without interruption.

We sat on the bank, Bonjour!-ing at passing cyclists, and talking about our lives. I talked about Liz B, and about Pippa, about Rigby, about Sonya and about Liz. We dubbed her Elizabeth II. Chaz talked about being engaged, and not being engaged anymore. We sprawled and laughed, listening and smiling. It was one of my highlights of the whole trip.

As we walked back up through the terraced garden, our assembled friends were leaning over the top balcony, sizing us up. Have those two, they wondered collectively, been having sexy time? Vinny asked me straight up. I shook my head.

Happy birthday to Lu

As I was walking to the shops to buy some eggs, I texted Lucinda, wishing her a happy birthday . "Oh DTRMCR thank you v much what a memory!" she replied. Several of my friends - Zoe, Jordanna, John M - and acquaintances - Nic, Jon Lyall, Lucinda - share a birthday on this date. And after last year - when Paul, Dunk and I saw Mark Morriss at the museum, then met Lu and Liz and all at Trof - how could I forget? Sometimes I think that having a blog means I'll never forget a significant moment again.

Nostalgia swept over me, and I found myself drifting into the mind of myself a year ago. It's been a period of great change for me.

This time last year I lived with Paul on the West Didsbury side of Withington. Since then I've lived in two different houses in Chorlton, and with five and a half different people. Five and half, because I have three official housemates in Stretford, but I think Dunk should figure in the count too. Ryan replaced Paul in some ways, and not in others. Domestic affairs have had a massive impact on my daily happiness, a fact most demonstrated by how happy I feel now at 106. Living with Kate is brilliant. Big changes. Good changes.

This time last year I was dating Liz, though in hindsight it was quite clearly coming to an end by the now of 2008. Since then we've broken up. Actually we've broken up twice, or three times, depending on how you count things. There was that awful situation in November and December, and the tears we wept afterwards. Beautiful, brave Lizzie. In between, a brief fun month of Stephanie. Over the summer, an ill-advised dalliance with Miss F from work, and the odd handful of flesh and nothingness now and then. Another important factor happiness-wise. Liz was the biggest deal for me romantically since Rigby, and in some ways more so. For example, sometimes it felt like I was dating a woman, rather than a girl. I don't know if I've learned anything about romance in the last year. Muddle on, blind man, beware the ditches out there...

This time last year I had two prominently chipped teeth in the front of my face. Lucinda, the birthday girl, fixed them for me. Looking back at 2009, I think having my teeth repaired will be the main thing that other people remember about my year. Everytime I clean my teeth in the morning I think of, and feel thankful for, Lucinda's amazing generosity and kindness. I feel like my smile works better now, and I'm much more confident about using it. Lessons? Erm...? Use interdental brushes?

This time last year I was starting to hate my job. Despise my job in fact. Lack of purpose was the main cause, and mostly down to the hand that was on the tiller. Since then, things have got worse, and then much worse, and then steadily better. Studying for my Market Research qualification, and the management course I started last month, has kept my mind busy. And my colleagues see what I see too. I feel much more in control of things at this stage than I did this time last year.

Running. That's new too. Cycling. Yup. Owning Batman comic books too. Good new.

My blog was two years old about a week ago. I'd wanted to do a Year Two summary to commemorate it, but I didn't remember the exact date, and ended up missing it. I wonder what Lucinda would think about my memory if she knew.

Liz and Liz

Liz B, my first ever girlfriend, got married yesterday. I just saw the photos on Facebook. It made me think it'd be a good idea to tell Liz S, my last girlfriend, that there are no hard feelings on my part. I like the idea that you can be friends with your exes.

I'm only really friends with one of them though.

So it goes.

I still don't like Alton Towers, five years on

I met Lucinda for part two of Operation Toothfix. She’d offered me a lift into Bolton last time, gem that she is, so we got the chance to have a bit of a chat on the way. Conversation meandered from the car seat being very reclined, through to Alton Towers and the story of my disastrous visit there with Rigby all that time ago, and naturally on into the realm of relationships with exes. I was very conscious of not wanting to put Lucinda into an awkward position vis-à-vis Liz and I. Luckily we kept our discussion quite general. We talked about how people drift into and out of our lives. Sometimes you can control how that goes and sometimes you can’t.

“Are you seeing anybody at the minute David?”
“No.”

We had a moment of silence, and then we started to talk about holidays.

My treatment was really fucking painful. A deep clean isn’t pleasant for the patient, and I doubt it’s much fun for the dentist or the nurse. But my teeth felt amazing afterwards. The root canal stuff went pretty well too, Lu said that the lack of discomfort and swelling was a pretty good sign.

No Thornton’s this time round, but I’ve got big plans for next time…

"You have received a message from..."

You have received a message from... WHO? Wow, I thought she'd disowned me... oh... it's a group message