A week of discoveries

It’s been a long week. Again.  My laptop helpfully confirmed this today when it showed me a document it had recovered after it went into melt down on Tuesday.  I could have sworn I only created this document on Monday, but look at the date:

b7

412 years seem to have passed since I created it.  No wonder I’m feeling in need of the weekend.

There have been other discoveries this week:

I can smell a dead bird at 20 paces (thanks Norman cat).  Unfortunately when it is 11.30 pm and I have been awake for 19 hours and removal requires lifting a very heavy king sized bed, straight thinking goes out the window.  I Febreezed my bedroom sufficiently to drown out the smell of a flock of dead birds and then couldn’t breathe in there for the thick haze of air freshener.  I also dumped the bird rather unceremoniously in the kitchen bin which proved to be a mistake as, combined with the smell of mouldy oranges that had been languishing in there for a few days, I threw up the next morning when I opened the bin to empty it.  Oh, the joys of having a cat and a tired brain.

You can grow a Herman friendship cake from this:

 b6

To this (well, once you have added a few bits and bobs and put him in the oven).  Delicious.

 b3

 You can go almost an entire day without actually looking at yourself in mirrors.  When I finally did at the end of the day on Wednesday, I discovered that far from the sophisticated look I thought I had pulled off that morning (my hair is now actually long enough to require some hair gunk to flatten it a bit), I’d missed the large section right on my crown and looked like Mr Majeika:

b2

And in my hat, I look like Jiminy Cricket:

b1

Only without the umbrella.  I don’t use umbrellas as I have an uncanny knack of poking people in the eye with them.

A bar can actually disappear.  Well, almost.  I’ve been going to the same bar with various groups of friends for years as it’s right by the station and means you can leave it right to the last minite to run for the train.  Wednesday night a group of us planned to meet and…no bar.  Just a shell and dirty windows.

This led to the discovery of another bar which was far more upmarket a few doors away.  I think I brought the tone down somewhat though when I walked in looking Jiminey Cricket like (carrying a red spotted satchel rather than an umbrella), removed my hat to reveal my Mr Majeika look, ordered a bottle of house white and got all over excited when they bought the wine to me in a really posh ice bucket along with some free nibbles.

And finally, my friends must think I’m really odd.  I was telling them that I had crocheted a mobile for Little Pea and they looked disconcerted   I know my current obsession with crochet isn’t exactly exciting but I ploughed on, describing these:

b5

And then they looked relived.  They had both thought I’d crocheted a mobile phone.  Ok, I can be odd, but really…?   :o)

b4

Posted in Cooking, Pog Life, sewing | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Could we rule the world in tracksuit bottoms?

Something ever so slightly odd just happened.  I need to tell you about yesterday to give it context.

Yesterday Mum, Dad and I met at the local DIY store to get the things we needed to lay a patio at Pog Towers. (We needed industrial qualities of sand and pea shingle and therefore needed both cars to spread the load a little.)

If you’ve never been to a DIY store before it opens (I know, I must officially be a grown up to be there early on a Sunday), I highly recommend it for entertainment value.  The car park slowly fills up, 10 minutes before open all these men saunter to the door and 5 minutes before you could mistake it for something like the Harrods sale.  There were about 20 blokes almost, but not quite, jostling to be first through the door.  With no make up and dressed in the dirty tracksuit bottoms and hoodie I’d been wearing the day before to dig, destroy and replace various parts of the garden, I fitted right in.  There was no gentleman-ness when the doors finally opened and we all herded in together.  And I liked that.

We had too much sand and not enough pea shingle to completely finish the patio so my job on the way home from work tonight was to go back to the shop and replace one for the other.  I mentioned this to a fellow commuter as we walked from the train.’ So your husband is building a patio?’ he asked.  Indignantly I replied that no, I was.  Then rather spoiled my indignant look by adding ‘with Mum and Dad’.  But still, you know…

I got to the shop, lugged the sand from the boot of the car and went in to ask if I could do a swap.  I realise I looked a little different – boots, skirt, floaty long cardigan and make up –  but I was told ‘I’ll get you some help to lift it’.  Now, these bags weigh a lot.  It’s just about the limit of what I can lift from the ground, but I’d lifted seven bags several times each yesterday and I felt after the ‘husband question’ that I kind of had a point to prove. ‘I’m good thanks’ I said wandering off, steering my trolley into various displays (some things I just can’t help being rubbish at).  But then, no pea shingle (this had to be confirmed by two assistants who both seemed to think I must have missed it.  I hadn’t).  So I got my refund and went to the DIY place down the road.

Where this time a very well meaning gentleman assumed that I needed to be shown what pea shingle was before he lifted it for me.  I thanked him and said I could manage, but as I paid I was told the lady would call for help to lift the bag into the boot of my car.  (I declined politely).

So it could be a coincidence that if you wear knackered old clothes and look like rubbish you are accepted as capable and if you look smart (ish) and wear a skirt, you need help.  I could also be being sensitive – I get that way at this time of the evening when I’ve been up since silly o’clock, but I don’t think so.

Interestingly (or maybe not), I had to write a blurb for a ‘Women’s Event’ at work today on how to climb the corporate ladder.  I’m thinking of telling them cancel it and instead send a mail to the group suggesting that they give up with the suited and booted look.  Tracksuit bottoms and hoodies, especially when coupled with a lack of make up and a liberal spreading of garden, may actually do the trick if you want to be seen as capable and equal with men.

Ok, maybe not, but it’s almost worth trying :o)

My crochet snails are starting to improve... (well as lovely as the patio is, it would have been a very colourful photo)

My crochet snails are starting to improve… (well as lovely as the patio is, it wouldn’t have been a very colourful photo)

Posted in Pog Life, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

My Lovely Sisters

I’m really lucky.  I have the most amazing sisters.  I’ve had a rubbish week, but 20 minutes in a car with one and 20 minutes on the phone to the other and I am a happy Pog again.

I’ll give you a couple of examples of their loveliness (daftness? ) this week:

Me (still slightly panicked): I had a dream last night that we were stuck in an apocalypse and I didn’t know if we should take Norman cat with us or leave him as it might be safer where we were and then I couldn’t find a bag to put him in and…

Sister 2 (completely calm and serious): Don’t worry.  If we are ever stuck in an apocalypse, we will definitely find a bag and take Norman cat with us.

And somehow that made all the panic go away.  :o)

The same day we were in my car and I’d noticed a warning light flashing on the dashboard.  For some reason car warning lights terrify me and I get all hot and sweaty.  I tried to work out what it was before giving up and spluttering:

‘There’s a red warning light on and I don’t know what it is and do you think the car might be about to go really wrong?’

Sister 2 took one look at said warning light and informed me that I was driving with the hand break on.  Ok, a little embarrassing, but still a :o)

And Sister 1 has managed to turn something I hate into something I am quite fond of.  Where I have damaged my hair I have one small bald patch (we’re almost at comb over stage on that though, so that’s good) and one larger, long stripe.  I was feeling a bit sad about my ‘big bald patch’ and Sister 1 told me it is not a ‘bald’ stripe; it is a ‘go faster’ stripe.  And who wouldn’t want one of those?  I’m almost (but not quite, I admit) proud of it now :o)

Sister 1 also produced Little Pea who I got to spend lots of time with last weekend.  So for your amusement, here is me, my go faster stripe (hidden from the camera, but there) and the very gorgeous, Little Pea.

Me and Pea
Me and Pea

Thank you Sister 1 and Sister 2.  You’re the bestest, daftest Sisters for always making me smile :o)

Posted in Pog Life, Trichotillomania | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

The grand opening of the West Wing

For the last five days, utter chaos has reigned at Pog Towers.

I’ve mentioned before (possibly a couple of times) that I live in the teeniest house in the world.  Perhaps I’ve not explained it properly though, as a few people have been a bit surprised when I explained the set up to them.  So, just so we all understand, Pog Towers is a terraced bungalow.  You come in the front door to the lounge and kitchen (one room), go through to my bedroom (passing my bathroom as you do) and step out onto the garden from there.  Only now you don’t.  Now you step out onto the West Wing!  Yes, I now have FOUR rooms! (And do you now see why I keep calling it the teeniest house in the world?)

On Monday morning, the back of my house looked like this:

Well, Id taken up the rest of the patio, but this is roughly what it looked like

Well, I’d taken up the rest of the patio, but this is roughly what it looked like

con 1

And now it looks like this:

con 3

con 2

Yes, I have a conservatory which, when decorated, will be my room to work on, sew in, and when the evil children from next door are playing at 2am in the room that shares a wall with my bedroom, it will be to sleep in too :o)

It hasn’t all gone to plan (you didn’t think it would did you?)

  • The builders had to adapt their barrows to wheel the garden out and the concrete in as normal size barrows wouldn’t fit through the house
  • They then discovered they couldn’t actually get the framework of the conservatory through the house  so they had to climb ladders on either side and pass it over (I am very glad I wasn’t around that day)
  • Norman cat has not enjoyed the intrusion and refused to come anywhere near the house until everyone else had left (resulting in slightly panicky feelings from me when I’ve not been able to find him)
  • Norman cat is not happy with his new cat flap.  Last night I was woken up to meowing four times as he’d gone out his normal cat flap and had a panic when he’d ended up in a room he wasn’t expecting requiring use of another cat flap.  Training with ham at 2am isn’t my idea of fun, but at least I got a bit of an insight into having a Little Pea (Sister 1, I am fully aware that Little Pea is a little more demanding when he keeps you awake at night, so sorry about that comparison, but it is the closest I’ll get!)
  • It turns out it’s best not to request that a carpet man comes to measure up before the walls are actually finished (well, I got all excited!) but happily that was worked around too.

I have a funny feeling that once it’s all done, Norman cat will view the West Wing as his personal oversized cat basket.  And it’s his birthday tomorrow so I guess that will reinforce the point…

So this bank holiday weekend I will be painting the brickwork and deciding on carpets.  Well actually, I’ll be doing that tonight.  As one of my managers said the other day, you just have to ‘get sh*t done’ and that’s what I am going to do.  With a glass of wine in my hand in celebration. :o)

Posted in Pog Life | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Argh!

Honestly is good.  I like honesty.  I have decided that it should come with a caveat though:  Gentle honesty is better than hurtful honesty.

This observation is the result of two people being a little too honest with me last week.  The first informed me that ‘oooh, you can really see your bald spots can’t you?’  True maybe, but there are possibly gentler ways to remind me of something I am painfully aware of.  The second was when I was told unless Bradley could come out of retirement when we met up, they would rather not see me as ‘I don’t like how you look with such short hair’.  Interestingly, this particular person has never seen me with a shaved head.

So promptly, all the loveliness and support that people had given me went out the window and I went into hiding.  I’d not actually been into the office since Monday the week before (the Pog mobile had a succession of critical illnesses that meant a few days of intensive care at the garage, and resulted in me being stuck in Bumpkinsville) so it all rather got out of hand.  This Wednesday though, I had a big meeting that I run and I had to go into the office.  Coached through a few panic attacks by some incredibly patient friends, I got my act together, left Bradley in the bathroom and went in.

I’ve mentioned before that we have amazing photography around our office.  On one floor, the lifts are covered with a huge image of Bradley Wiggins (the real one, not the one currently languishing in my bathroom).  To demonstrate my newly resolved braveness I took one of those awful I’ve-taken-a-picture-of-myself photos with my phone.  I opened it on my laptop and posted it on Facebook as I thought it would make people giggle.

Anyway, back to the meeting.  It has around 3000 invitees from all over the world, realistically, around 700 join.  Still quite a lot though…  Big manager and his management team gathered in his office and I took a really deep breath as I walked in with my slightly baldy, fluffy hair.  I got some looks but…actually they rapidly paled into insignificance as the meeting went very, very wrong.  I wont go through the utter chaos that followed, I’ll just skip to the giggle:

We use a ‘thingy’ called WebEx on these calls so that people can follow the presentation that is going on.  I create the presentation but in the meeting someone else moves the slides while I field questions that come in.  Around 10 minutes into the call the WebEx session terminated.  (For once it wasn’t my fault!)   On top of the other things that had already gone wrong, total panic ensued in the room.  After a few minutes I worked out that I could set up a new meeting myself, send the details to all 3000 people and pick up where we left off….kind of.  I would need to run the presentation to do this though.

Unfortunately, with this WebEx thingy, you can share an application (so in this case people would see the slides) or you can share your desktop (so everyone can see anything you are looking at).  This is unfortunate as by this stage I was a shaky mess, trying to look in control.  I shared my desktop rather than the presentation.  And guess what was open on my desktop at the time……?

You guessed it:

me and brad

Yup, that’s me and the other Bradley. I’m really hoping most people wouldn’t have seen it before I corrected the view.  If they did though, I guess it was probably more entertaining that the slightly more standard slides.  On the upside being in the office and seeing people suddenly became less of a big deal.  Staying there and successfully finishing the meeting was more important.  And that is what I did.

Hooray, hooray, hooray that it is Friday though!  :o)

Posted in Pog Life, Trichotillomania | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Bradley goes into retirement

I have a bit of a ‘thing’ around the number three.  Some might call it Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.  They might be right.  I have to ‘check’ things three times.  The windows, the front door, the car doors (the door handles are on the verge of falling off the car as I check them three times, but then I have to check the car three times as a whole, so I wrench each one up nine times every time I leave the car…)

Anyway, you get the idea.  I decided to turn it on its head and turn it into a positive though, when I realised something on the 3rd of this month.  It had been three months and three days since I’d shaved my head and my gorgeous nephew, Little Pea was born.  I took it as a sign.  And I’ve not shaved my head since.  I’ve also not worn Bradley. And it has now been three months, 18 days since I pulled ANY hair out!

Now, when I developed this plan I thought about the head shaving, the wig wearing and the hope that one day I’d have a real hair style again.  What I didn’t think about was the in between phase.  I currently look like a cross between a tennis ball and someone who had had a lump of Astroturf pasted onto their head (Mum informed me that’s not the case – ‘your hair isn’t green!’ – good, well I’m glad that is the one difference that springs to mind).  My hair has grown back really dark – apart from more than a sprinkling of grey – , so you can’t miss the dodgy-ness of it.  I also have two small bald patches that I think may stay with me forever and a dark stripe across one side.  I look stunning! (That’s sarcasm, in case it doesn’t translate in writing.)

roughly what I currently look like...

roughly what I currently look like…

It got worse though.  Last weekend I thought I would make myself a hat as all my current ones are woolly, and it’s getting a bit warm for them.  So I sat outside all Sunday, making the most of the occasional sunny moments.  Oh, the irony of sitting outside making a hat that I really should have been wearing…because, of course, I burned my scalp.  So then I had peculiar hair poking from a shiny red beacon.

By Monday, even if I had wanted to wear Bradley, I couldn’t – I could only just put the hat on, my head was so tender.  I trotted off to work in my newly created hat and sat in my corner with my head down so nobody could catch my eye and ask why I was wearing a hat indoors.  Then in the afternoon a lady on my floor who I don’t know very well walked past and I looked up (stupid, stupid me).  ‘Are you cold?’ she asked.  I must have looked confused.  ‘You’re wearing a hat’ she informed me.  I’d not practiced what to do in this situation.  So I did the trich-in-ten-seconds version of the story and waited for her to walk off, embarrassed.  She didn’t – she asked me to take off my hat so she could see what it looked like.  She told me I looked better without it and I should leave it off, so I took a deep breath and did just that.  I admit I got a few odd looks, and a few people stopped their conversations when they saw me.  When I went to the kitchen though, two lovely girls who know the story cheered as I walked in.  That made my day :o)

My car went bang on the way home and I’ve been stranded in Bumpkinsville while it gets some TLC so I’ve been into the office since.  Next Monday though, I’ll try again.  I might even make it to the toilets with a naked head (this involves waking from one side of the office to the other past a hundred or so people).  And if I chicken out, it’s ok because I made a second hat.  And I’ll definitely be wearing it if the sun comes out again. :o)

Posted in Pog Life, Trichotillomania | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Making mutants

This weekend I showed Sister 1 my newest creations:

 crochet 3

He is supposed to be a bird.  I acknowledge he likes like a mutant.

The next attempt was a little better:

 crochet 2

But then I let myself down again when I tried to branch out:

 crochet1

When I had finished showing her the crocheted mutants, Sister 1 took out her phone and showed me this:

crochet 5

I don’t think there is much I can add really…!

EXCEPT:  Sometimes you just have to keep trying.  I decided to try something a little different, and I managed this:

 crochet 4

I quite like it.  And it proved to very useful yesterday.  I’ll tell you that story next time though :o)

Posted in Pog Life, sewing | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Lessons of the week

It’s been one of those weeks where I wonder if it’s just me that’s a bit odd or if other people are just quieter about it.

I have discovered that:

  • Bradley now does interesting ‘curling’ when part way through drying.  This causes complete panic when you discover it at 11pm and have to be wearing him in 6hours time.  The panic results in having to mime at Sister 2 from the front door as though she can sort it out from her bedroom window.  (Happily, the curling relaxed somewhat by morning but I have a feeling Bradley wear-ings are numbered.)
  • It takes 2.5 hours to cook 102 cookies.  It takes significantly less than that for people on my floor at work to eat 70 of them (I shared the remainder between Sister 1, 2 and me).  There were no notes this time, but the fact that they went so fast made me smile.

pic2

  • If you’ve had a long day and get home to find that your neighbour has leaned 3 foot over into your garden and cut your bushes AGAIN, it becomes very easy to march over to his house and tell him what you think.  There are however, possibly better conversation starters than ‘Will you please stop trimming my bush?’ 
  • When you see Mrs Brown in the wine aisle at Tesco, you don’t have to start a ‘Mrs Brown, how are you?’ conversation.  Especially when Mrs Brown last saw you 32 years ago when you were one of over 20 children in her class.  For the record, Mrs Brown handled the situation admirably and amazingly, hasn’t changed a bit in that time.  I have a really soft spot for her as not only did she tell me that freckles made you beautiful when I wasn’t liking mine, but she let me name the class fish after my sisters when they were born :o)
pic1

This is what I looked like the last time Mrs Brown saw me. And those are the fish names after my sisters behind me!

  • It can be quite amusing when the man from Orange calls you up with ‘amazing offers’ and you decide to play along.  This one went something like:

Him: How many of you are there in your house?

Me:  Me and Norman.

Him: Does Norman have a mobile?

Me: No, he doesn’t.

Him: Well we could offer Norman a really good deal on a handset due to your custom.

Me: You could?

Him:  Yes we could offer him <I can’t remember the details>.

Me: I don’t think Norman really wants a mobile thank you.

Him: He wont get a better deal anywhere else.

Me:  I’m sure he wont.  It’s just he’s missing the required opposable thumbs to make full use of the offer.

Him:  Sorry?

Me:  Norman is my cat.

Him: (wistfully) We could earn a lot of money if we could teach cats to use mobiles.

Credit where credit is due.  That was quite a good response.

pic3

He may not have opposable thumbs, but he does have the man gene required to take over more than his share of the sofa.

Anyway, I’m off for my weekend now.  Have a good one, all of you :o)

Posted in Cooking, Pog Life | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

A Crafty Day Out

A couple of years ago. Lovely Mummy of Gorgeous Godson and I decided we would stop giving each other birthday presents.  Instead, we’d spend some time together doing things – no partners, no children and no cats (not that I have ever taken Norman out, you understand.  I’m odd, but not quite that bad.  Also, he hates the car).

On Saturday we went on a day out Lovely Friend had found that was my idea of heaven:  The Creative Stitches and Hobbycrafts Show :o)

There were demonstrations and things you could try out (I have a feeling Lovely Friend could be a great felter should she fancy) and a world record being set for the longest knitted chain.  But my very favourite thing was ‘Above and Below the Waves’.  One lady – Alison Murray –  organised this, and over 2000 knitters from around the world contributed to it.  It’s a three dimensional undersea tunnel including a beach, mermaids, see creatures and a beach.  And it is ALL knitted!  As if that is not amazing enough, the lady collects money for charity when she displays this work of art and so far has raised £18,500 for the RNLI with this one!

knit1

(terrible photo but it shows you the size)

(terrible photo but it shows you the size)

knit3
knit4In case you are the sort of person who this particularly appeals to, there is another installation being planned by Alison and anyone can send items for inclusion. You can find all the details here:  http://all2knit.co.uk/index.html.  The next includes all textiles crafts so, as I can’t knit for love nor money, I’m going to attempt a spot of crochet – something I’ve learned in the last few weeks.  I just have to get used to following the pattern.  All I achieved last night was what looked like a genetically modified monster (and that definitely wasn’t what I’d intended!)

Thank you Lovely Mummy of Gorgeous Godson for a lovely day out.  And to Lovely Daddy of Gorgeous Godson for letting me borrow your wife while you had the boys for a day :o)

Posted in sewing | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

What do you think?

Can I ask for your help, you lovely people?  I know that’s not how my blog works usually, but hey, a change is as good as a rest and all that.

I would love to hear your views – either in the comments section below or on Facebook – on an e-mail exchange between me and the Introduction Agency I joined.  I’m pretty sure that I wont be receiving any more introductions or  getting my money back (it will all become clear if you read further) but …well, I’ll just stop waffling and let you read.  Sorry, it’s rather long, but it’s not often you get to read someone else’s  e-mails is it? ;o)

Last month I told you how I was having a proactive few moments.  At that point I’d sent this mail:

‘Thank you for sending through XXX’s profile – you’d actually sent it to me last year too.

I’ve spoken to a few people about the two dates I have had with you so far and they have expressed surprise that I’ve been matched with those I have.  I’d be the first person to agree that you don’t have to have a large number of things in common with a partner, but I do believe you have to have some similarities – in outlook or beliefs – or there is absolutely no common ground to build on.  YYY was someone who I would actively avoid if I had met in any other social setting – and that is irrespective of his views on smoking.  As I said to you after each date, I’d be happy to give you some feedback on both if that helps with future matching.

Based on this, my friends suggested that I ask you why you have matched me with XXX?  It is very hard to tell much about him from his profile (who doesn’t like having dinner with friends or going abroad?) and  I don’t want to waste his time, or mine.  I’d also like to avoid a repeat of the last date.  It was funny once, I think if another date was that bad though, I’d probably not see the funny side (and may consider joining the nearest convent!)’

I tried to make contact every week after that, just saying ‘can you get back to me?’, then I got a bit fed up and yesterday I sent this:

‘I have now been trying to contact you for a month:

  • 8th March – e-mail below
  • 15th March – e-mail below
  • 22nd March – phone call
  • 2nd April – phone call
  • 3rd April – phone call

I am disappointed that I have not heard back from you on any occasion as I only wanted was find out why you had suggested your most recent match (4th March) and provide some feedback on the two dates I have had (as I offered after each) to help with future matches.  I understood that you encouraged both these activities as, ultimately, it would help you increase your success and reduce the likelihood of me having another, slightly distressing date.

I would appreciate understanding what issue has resulted in this scenario where I cannot contact you.  If for some reason you no longer want me on your books, please explain why and refund me the money owing.  As I paid £XXX for 6 introductions the refund would be £XXX.

If there is any other reason that you have not been able to return my mails or calls, let me know and we can start again from my initial e-mail below.

I joined your agency due to the personal service that you offer and the fact that you are a new local business that I wanted to support and promote to my friends.  Sadly my experience of the personal service is not a positive one at the moment.

Please contact me within the next 5 working days either with a refund and explanation, or to respond to my mail of the 8th.’

Exactly one hour and 18 minutes later I received this mail:

‘I was so surprised by your email after the proposed introduction that I needed to assess the situation.

I need to remind you that terms state you will not show profiles to other people for confidentiality – which you have broken.

The extremely reduced rate you joined at was at your suggestion in return for blogs – we received one.

XXXX, the match proposed, is an excellent guy and yet you were very dismissive.

There is no refund due and I will have to give thought to whether we will be able to provide more intros considering your negative attitude.

We will be in touch in due course.’

Slightly stunned, I responded with:

I need to remind you that terms state you will not show profiles to other people for confidentiality – which you have broken.  I’m sorry, I think you have misunderstood what I said.  I have talked about my dates to people which is why it was then suggested I understand better from you how you made further matches in general – hence my mail.  I have not shown anyone any of the profiles.

The extremely reduced rate you joined at was at your suggestion in return for blogs – we received one. (See your email of 9th Dec: ‘how about £XXX membership and when I have the page on the website, you could give me a testimonial please?  I will want to add a blog to website too in the new year so maybe then you can give me some pointers?’)  This was the only thing you actually asked for from me.  Yes, I did also offer to blog on each of the dates in addition, which I did for my first one.  I am happy to do so on the second date but as it was such a negative experience I assumed that you would not want one on that.  You never asked for any on additional topics either when we originally come to the agreement or since.

XXXXX, the match proposed, is an excellent guy and yet you were very dismissive.  I am sure he is lovely.  But based in my recent experience I wanted to understand more about why he was a good match for me.  I was not being dismissive of his profile or even of meeting him – just asking questions to protect myself which I don’t think is unreasonable.

There is no refund due. I assume that you will refund me if you decide to offer no further introductions as clearly nobody would ever be expected to pay for a service that wasn’t provided.

and I will have to give thought to whether we will be able to provide more intros considering your negative attitude. I actually find this hurtful.  I had a bad experience as a result of one of your introductions but made light of it as I realise that you wont get it right every time.  I did, however, want to ensure that the same thing did not happen again so I asked questions and offered to provide more information to you so that matches stood a better chance of working.  I don’t see that as negative – I see it as sensible.

I have to say, I am upset by your mail below.’

And then…nothing.  I guess as the first reply took a month I shouldn’t be surprised.  I’ve been called a lot of things (with justification) – Drama Queen, Worry Wart, paranoid…but negative?  And effectively un-dateable as a result?

So over to you.  What do you think about it?  I’d really like to know :o)

A smile from this weekend :o)

A smile from this weekend :o)

Posted in Dating, Pog Life | Tagged , , | 13 Comments