Having had a lovely weekend I troop into work on Tuesday feeling quite chilled and able to deal with anything! My stomach is playing up but then considering the raspberry cocktail and vomiting incident and the excessive amount of trifle I had eaten whilst watching Charlton Heston’s overacting its only to be expected. I take some of my medication and get on with the day.
Work is reasonably busy and I am knee-deep in another pile of CVs trying to find candidates for specific roles but we have some success and this will hopefully end up in the money rolling in. On the TB front I have been chatting to someone new who I think I mentioned in my previous blog. He was due to ring me at the weekend and didn’t then said sorry and re-scheduled and then failed miserably again! At this point I sent him the usual thanks but no thanks text. He countered with I will call you in 30 minutes…I checked my phone and then carried on watching Ben Hur..spoon and trifle in hand!
At the 35 minute point I took the ball by the horns and text boldly “Times Up” . Two minutes later my phone rang and there he was. We had a fifteen minute chat and got on quite well and with arrangements made to talk again and meet next week I was happy. There is nothing worse than spending loads of internet and texting time on a prospective date only to have them vanish into the ether before you have even checked their pulse. A certain Irishman comes to mind!!
One of my other TBs that lives abroad and was back in the UK to see his parents but miles up-country phoned for a chat. He is a sweet guy and hopefully sometime soon we may get to stage two having met already. Distance being the obstacle which has prevented us so far from getting naked.
So my week was swimming along quite nicely..I met up with my Girlies on Wednesday in the local pub and had a nice lively evening full of banter and debate. Thursday loomed and I couldn’t believe that the week was nearly over already. New TB text to catch up and wanted to arrange to meet We discussed options as he isn’t that local then he asked me to look at his CV as he is looking for work. This I did and when asked my opinion I said content was good but it needed tweaking. He didn’t seemed to take criticism that well but agreed to it and so tweaked it was. He liked the end result and was pressing me for a meeting I offered a couple of ideas but because of my morbid fear of motorways and places I don’t know I tried to suggest he came in my direction. He got very shirty and called me selfish. Hmm my female intuition was telling me to swerve this one.
I pointed out that selfish people don’t rework CVs just to be helpful..and thought to myself that he was getting on my nerves. Some of my previous TBs had travelled a lot further and on a regular basis. He back tracked and said lets re-arrange but frankly alarm bells were already ringing so loudly he had transformed into Quasimodo!! in my head. He then digressed into sex texting. I played along for a bit but then said Id rather not as we hadn’t met! His retort not only rude was downright aggressive. That’s it I thought this one has a very big chip on his shoulder and instead of me should serve it up with a large piece of cod!I text back immediately “Ok one tantrum too many Bye”! He tried to brush it off and called it “Banter” I said sorry not to me!
His reply confirmed my fears it was “Wow ! its you that owes me!!” This man/boy clearly has some serious issues and is totally deluded.. another one for the delete button. My instincts were at least working well but what a complete waste of time!!.
I spent Friday with my head down at work and made some serious headway in the enormous pile of CVS that had been threatening to drown me and left the office on a high. Saturday was a busy one. I went for a run which I am now beginning to enjoy and feel the benefits of and then went shopping on foot with Laura and Matilda. We included a visit to the Fancy Dress shop we were fast running out of time to get our outfits sorted for “Butlins Reloaded” at the end of the week. As it was Kate’s birthday she had chosen our theme and fancied making some arrests! One way to get a date for the night ..handcuff your victim. The shop had a few things but we decided that Ebay offered a better choice and once home our outfits were ordered.
Then it was off to the betting shop as it was “Grand National Day”. It is a family tradition of ours to bet on the National in remembrance of my dad who died eighteen years ago on April 11th. He loved a little flutter on the horses and the Grand National was the highlight. Back in 1994 terminally ill and in bed we all went to spend the afternoon with him and watch the race. His horse Minnehoma romped home in first place and he was delighted. I remember the joy and sadness all rolled into one that day and so rather than stand looking at a rose-bush at the crematorium we bet on the National and remember my dad!.
I had briefly looked at the runners and picked four setting myself a limit of £20 to bet. Then I changed one of the choices! Seabass, Ballabriggs( that I had won with last year) Synchronised (The favorite) and Rare Bob. Then on impulse I crossed Rare Bob off my list and replaced it with Neptune! Something about Seabass and Neptune seemed to go together. Once in the betting shop I found out that Seabass was now the joint favorite along with Synchronised! I was surprised as Seabass was sporting a Female jockey and women had yet to stamp their mark on the national. Then it was off to the pub to get a front row seat.
The race was very exciting with Sychronised getting loose at the start and having to be recaptured . On the downside there was lots of fallers. It’s very unpleasant to see those magnificent animals hit the ground and how there are not more injured jockeys is beyond me! I was screaming at the top of my voice when Neptune pinched the lead of Sunnyhill Boy by inches. I had first and third and I remember thinking in my head “Thanks Dad”. I was £100 up Brilliant!. Of course there was a great deal of sadness after the event when it was announced that two horses had to be shot one of them being the earlier escapee Sychronished!
No one likes to see animals in distress and facebook was alive that afternoon with people calling for the race to be banned. Having owned a horse for more that 27 years I understand them more than most. You can’t make a horse do anything it doesn’t want too. If it it’s not in the mood to jump it will just refuse and dumps its rider..believe me I know. A horse can fall on the flat and stumble and get injured over a two foot fence but these beautiful creatures and man have had a relationship that goes on since time began.. almost.
I agree there is room for safety improvement and maybe less runners would be the way to go. Forty animals all trying to jump at once is a lot, maybe thirty would be better. They could reduce the drop on fences like Beechers Brook and maybe lower them a bit. But we need to remember that racehorses are bred for a purpose and without the sport they would not exist and during their life they are treated and cared for like Kings . The sport employs thousands and give pleasure to millions so banning it is a step to far. But lets hope they make some safety changes. It would be great to end the race with no fatalities.
I spent most of Sunday tidying house as I had a film crew coming on Monday. I was hopefully taking part in a documentary for channel 4 about being a middle age woman in 2012. I daresay the word Toyboy will be on the agenda and I think my role is to give a positive voice ! Shouldnt have any problem with that I’m still living life to the full age being no barrier!. After all they say that your only as old as the man that you feel. That makes me on average about twenty-six Ha!
