Members' News

I originally supposedly posted this yesterday, but it didn't take. Sheesh, I think I need a lobotomy as I have a funny feeling that I just closed down the window instead of hitting Submit Reply...whoops.

Redneck, that is exactly it. I get intimidated being around people my own age, even girls, and I tend to either clam up or babble (ending up looking like an anti-social freak, or...well, a babbling idiot). Not many people in work know the real me, and I have few friends (though the ones I do have are like sisters)

I was discussing this whole lack of dating thing with one of my friends in work. She now wants to set me up with a friend of her boyfriend. I have never met either him or his friend before. And they are from half way up the country. Which adds a new element to it. The last relationship I had was long distance and that didn't exactly work out for the best. And now I am quaking in my boots. I chewed off three nails while I was talking to her about it. Oh. Good. God M. Get a grip! It's only a date and people do it all the time. Right? It's a pity they don't give tutorials on dating. I'd sign up immediately!

In my capacity as the board academic let me just spin of a quick tutorial on dating (cos I'm such an expert but I'm a social extrovert married to a complete introvert I may have advise thats worth it):

Rule 1: Relax
Dating is supposed to be awkward. The best mindset to go into it with is that it doesn't matter whether you end up even liking the person but to just enjoy the evening out.

Rule 2: Avoid double dates
Only go on double dates when its to do a group activity like karaoke, ten-pen bowling etc. Do not in any circumstances double date over just dinner or drinks. This is just a recipe for the conversation to revolve around the existing couple with both members of the couple putting pressure on the single people to all of a sudden express love at first site. Too much stress and to be avoided.

Rule 3: Activities are better than dinners
First dates should be simple, a simple local restaurant will suffice. 5-star says pressure. Although doing first date activities that are more casual and will bring up their own conversation is helpful. Dinner involves sitting across from someone and having to try and make conversation out of thin air, often difficult for an introvert or nervous person to do. Try indoor rock climbing, rent a canoo and paddle the lake (do not go down class 5 rapids), or go to the zoo instead. These are fun, require you to talk about things other than your work/life aspirations in a vain attempt to see if you want to marry a person after 5 minutes, and they show that you are a creative and interesting person, even if your not.

Rule 4: Bathe
This rule is fairly self-explanatory but the sense of smell is under-rated in the mating game. Smell has direct links to memory and emotions which none of the other senses has. You should smell good. I don't mean smother yourself in cologne/perfume, but before a date shower, deoderise, brush teeth, rinse with mouthwash etc. Where cotton or other breathable fabrics that won't start to smell if you sweat, your nervous enough withour that plume of underarm sweat making you smell like a gym... To avoid this follow Rule 1.

Rule 5: Be yourself
Whether that be shy and introverted, loud and obnoxious or with a strange obsession with the technical specifications for Starfleet vessels. Dating is a prelude to further closeness, theres no point trying to cover all apparent eccentricities on a date, they will come out eventually and its better to work out if they will be accepted sooner rather than later. Besides the more honest and open you are with them the more likely they are to be open with you.

I was going to leave it there but I had to add...

Rule 6: Relax and have fun you lucky bastards who still have the option rather than us poor married sod who have to put up with the oddities and eccentricities of the same person for ever and ever...

Oh it doesn't have to be forever, but I don't really recommend ending a marriage except for drastically good reasons and having eccentricities isn't in itself a good enough reason. It is an unfortunate reality that you often end up with someone else who has the same eccentricities anyway so you could probably save your self a lot of trouble learning to be tolerant, or even accepting.
Dating does seem like a hard thing to require of people. I don't know what I'm going to do if I'm in that position again ( and yes i know I'm likely to be better of if i am). Good luck to all singles looking to find someone and to all married folks who have someone, Lord knows that can require just as much effort some days .

I haven't had a smoke in a week and 3 hours. It was pretty easy up until two days ago. Since then I've just really wanted one. Not need. Not fits. Just really, really want one. I'm still not sure if I've got the will power to not smoke again. If it eases up I'll be ok, but if it remains this intense, then I may buckle. I ate a big meal for lunch today and that was probably the most I've wanted one so far. Mornings aren't too hard to not smoke, but as the day goes on the more that I want one.

I'm trying to stay around people the whole time. I know if I get by myself for very long that I'll either get depressed, smoke to pass the time, or both. Probably both. Any hints and suggestions from people that have kicked the habit? Does it get easier pretty soon? (please, please, please say yes)

Spiky, I think the natural muskiness is a big come-on with the women. That's why I don't follow rule #4. I mean, the smell of sweat and body odor turns women on, right? What better way to show a woman you want her than to show her your muskiness, it's all part of being manly.

Well if you think so I could say its only half-hearted to just be smelly... you probably should spray up against trees to mark your territory too...

Every day, I thank anyone up there for letting me find the love of my life in a guy who first became a friend, so I have never really had to go through all the niceties of dating, because I would probably suck at it. Big time.

As for news, I am currently at work, preparing to launch the iPhone exclusively to my company, nationwide, and I'm kind of on my own after only a month at the job. No pressure.

Oh, and Maze, long distance ? In Ireland ? A country you can cross in about 2 hours drive ? Meh.

Redneck
Would your Doctor provide any support to help with the stop smoking. It doesn't necessarily have to be with medication but they may be able to point you towards groups that provide support and practical advice.

3 and a half hours I'll have you know! And with traffic you can add another 2! Neither of us had cars so we were relying on Irish Public Transport. Which meant that it took nearly a day for me to get to Dundalk. Of course the fact that he was a lying SOB kind of made it harder. Meh.

Meh, nonsense, Dundalk is just up the road...

Ahem, it's across the country and then up the road.

Not from here it isn't... it's only 2 stations down the train track from home, you silly person.

Yeah...well...uh...YOU SMELL! Ha!

From here, it's a 1hr bus journey, 30 minute / 1 hour wait in the train station, 3.5 hours on the train (probably standing)- longer if you have to change trains at Limerick Junction because that train has to come from Cork to pick you up, which means you are standing on a train platform for god only knows how long, usually in the rain with no shelter. If you are lucky, it's not snowing - run across Dublin city, wait for however long until the next train to Dundalk then it's only 2 stations up the track from home. So long as there are no suspicious packages on the train tracks which mean you are sitting dying for a cigarette wondering what the hell is going on while a couple of Gardai stand around scratching their heads for two hours until the bomb disposal unit turn up and tell them it's a plastic bag full of...drumroll...NOTHING!*


*I've said it before, and I'll say it again. I have issues...

Thats pretty funny ... anyone who takes a first date to a Karaoke night needs a serious talking to.

At least this is true for Karaoke in my area which is, at best, a poor excuse for entertainment and, at worst, a gratuitous display of drunken and tortuously soul destroying exhibitionism. It may be different for you guys though.

R.

Randywine, that's pretty much the same idea I have of karaoke.

What part of Ireland do you live in, Mazekin? Honestly, snow? I've seen more hail there than snow!

Katkal....how fast do you drive? And how did you get the flying car?

Oh, it probably hasn't always snowed. Hail, sleet, snow, freezing cold rain - but, unless its in the middle of the summer it has been rotten in Limerick Junction. You know yourself Roisin, we don't get proper snow here. If it was during the summertime it rained. I don't think I have ever been waiting there in the sunshine. It is probably just my luck working against me but I have no good memories about that place. A station with nothing in it. I will admit, it has been a a long time since I have gone to Dublin - last time was for the TP signing in Easons, so my memories have probably been corrupted - but the name Limerick Junction will always remind me of being cold and wet praying for the stupid train to come and that it is only half full. And that the old man beside me would stop telling me about his cows. I always get stuck talking to the old farmers and the little old ladies no matter where I go. I've a friendly face, I suppose

Oh, and I'm from Clare

I don't drive, the 2 hours was a rough estimate from a taxi driver. And I don't quite believe it either, it was mainly just to pick on mazekin.

Maze, that means you must definitely come up to Dublin soon, yes you should, and I'll show you around the beautiful sunny beaches up here. It never rains here, and there are bananas growing on the banana trees, lalalala...

Yeah. I need some sleep.

I'm cancelling any future Ireland vacations,due to your descriptions of the public transports

Noooo - don't cancel! Just hire a car! Seriously!...Of course, that then means that you are in danger of meeting me on the road. Uh...I'm a good driver! I swear ::fingers crossed:: Only one dent in my car so far!

Karaoke can be a very good way to meet people, but it is weird to be singing some of those songs when you have certain thoughts in mind, or even if you don't. One night I sang Kathy's Clown, and one of my coworkers was there, someone I don't have a romantic interest in even if we do hug occasionally, thing is his wife is named Kathy, oops. I don't think I can recommend it for a dating activity even if it did get me involved with someone once. I still want to make him sing "Picture " with me, just for the cheesiness. I don't know if he will, he did sing "Fat bottomed girls" the other day and kept a straight face. I don't have much of a chance left for that though, one more week.

I can hardly bear to think of driving on the left side of the road.

It's actually not too bad, it only took Reg about half an hour to get used to driving a car the wrong way round... although having a co-pilot to yell "on the left, on the LEFFFFT" every now and then is a good idea...

I am currently waiting for news of our stuff, the whole thing is a total mess and we have been totally stressed out since yesterday by the blatent incompetence of the movers. I am now officially worried sick about the stuff actually arriving, things going missing, the guy getting lost or having an accident, hell, right now I wouldn't be all that surprised if the ferry got struck by lightening or beamed into space by pineapple-pizza-eating space pirate aliens.

Apparently the actual guy who turned up with the truck wasn't too bad but his boss seems like a total idiot, he sent just the one guy, when we said quite clearly that there was furniture to be moved, and it's a long drive all the way up here... He claimed he didn't have the address when we sent it to him weeks ago, claimed we had over 18m3 of stuff when the storage space we were renting was only 17m3 and it was half full. The van/truck already had someone else's stuff in it when it arrived to be loaded, and I have no idea how they separated our stuff from theirs, if at all... Seriously, if anything more important than an egg-cup goes missing or gets broken, I am going to sue his sorry behind all the way to hell and back, and he will be paying for the petrol.

No Kat,just ride in the car with him and shout "leeft" for a few hours

No, that's no way near bad enough, I've been doing that to Reg for the last 10 years and he's still around and doesn't even complain.

The latest news is that they'll finally be arriving tomorrow, probably in the morning, instead of today. At least there are two of them in the van, good job too because Reg is working tomorrow (it's St Patrick's here, but as he works for French clients he gets French bank holidays off, but not Irish ones...) So I'll be all alone to check everthing's ok and deal with them, my fingers have been crossed for so long I'm getting cramps.

Best of luck, Katcal.

I have fun at karaoke but can't sing... this lack of talent doesn't stop me though...

I was a bit stumped at the time for an activity that would be fun and would allow everyone to feel like a self-conscious goose, not just the people being set up. Maybe ice-skating or tenpin bowling would be better options?

Oh and Kat, all removalists are mentally challenged. They move furniture for a living, such tasks doesn't require the IQ of a brain surgeon but rather an individaul who can get their name right on the third try when asked "what's your name?"

Good luck mate.

Oh and bums up for St. Patrick's Day.

Yeah, you see I wouldn't have been all that surprised if the actual lifters/drivers were not the brightest sparks in the fireworks factory, but actually, so far they have been a lot smarter than the boss. Lifting and loading may not be the most brain-challenging job but running a company, coordinating and dealing with clients does require a bit more... But then it says "removers from father to son" on the card, so maybe the dumb son inherited a business he had no idea about running.

Oh well, we'll soon see... I hope this is over by 12:30 so I can at least watch the parade on TV.

Got a job in England. I am starting next Tuesday. details will be forthcoming.

woah ! :shock: wow, well done Avgi, keep us updated !

Your avatar look sless than happy...

Congrats though.

Congratulations Avgi!

Yes, that sounds like a wonderful end to the job hunting, Avgi. My best wishes for you.
I'm a single woman again, at least as far as i can tell anyway, Tim did a stupid thing then compounded it and now he's a fugitive from Justice and I'll never be able to see him again. Not how i had planned for this to go at all.
But I had a call from a certain philpsophy instructor I met a while back and he is planning on visiting Thursday. we had started talking just before Tim asked to come live with me and now he's just in time to cheer me up. I hope it works out that way. If not there is always the Kingdom of Loathing. I may be just a Toad Coach now but soon I will have more moxie then I know what to do with. thankfully they shut down for maintanence at night. James told me I needed to play and I did for just a few minutes tonight, I think he's right. It is our last week with James and I'm going to try to have as many good memories as i can.
All in all it has been a very lousy month, if Scott is the one maybe it will be the best month ever but sofar it has been one of the worst ever,I even had food poisoning day before yesterday. and the dog is eating the furniture.

Pardon me for sounding Australian here but Crikey, Tamyra, that's quite a week ! :shock:

Our removal guys finally got to us yesterday evening at 8pm, having missed their morning ferry due to being complete gits and not realising there was a 1 hour time difference between France and England. Of course, this was the ferry company's fault, obviously, and them getting hopelessly lost was the fault of Irish roads (although the way from Dublin to our place is as simple as can be, straight up the first motorway you can find) and not the fault of their crappy GPS that couldn't even find our town let alone our street. But hey, everything's arrived, as far as I can tell, the important and fragile stuff is all whole, all we need now is furniture to put all this stuff away !

Well that is a relief,I hope the furniture is an easier feat. I get an extra day off this week which will wreak havoc with my paycheck especially since the food poisoning took one day already and I traded with someone for yesterday, I get to work that day April 6th. But since it will help me get ready for Scott and maybe spend a bit more time with James I'll be glad of it.
Today I had an easy time and good thing too because I wasn't as much improved as I had hoped, I had all I could manage picking fries up in the crow's nest(that is the name people have given the new retail inspection post). One more day of that and I have four days off. I think I need them.

Well I got the first letter for my possible reposting to my main campus up in Fife. Well basically its not suitable for me so I don’t know why they sent it to me but you can never understand HR people or female mangers who keep your co-workers in the office until 8:30pm when they should finish at 5pm and they have a home life just like her. Well been busy at work and can’t wait till the weekend. I get Monday off and I’m going canoeing with my parents.

A little bit of joy on the job front as I have found lots of jobs in Edinburgh with good hours and in the sector I wish to work in one of them is a live in receptionist job. So it looks like I have a lot of work to do over the weekend but if it means a better job then all the better.

Good luck with that peapod...

Need sleep. Insomnia is a bitch especially when after being awake till 5am in the morning you wake yourself up at 6am laughing because you were dreaming about something from a John Candy movie. Stupid brain.

I was going to make Tablet tonight but I turned away for a few seconds when it was coming to the boil and burnt it. Now I have to throw it away, get some more ingredients and try again tomorrow. It's such a waste!:sad:

Sorry for my ignorance, but what is Tablet?

Scottish sweet similar to fudge, but not fudge.

I now must go and buy some from the local shoppe.

mmmmmm sugary ...

Hooray, finally got time to be on the net!!!

Good luck to all those with new jobs, and those still seeking.

Hope you're feeling better Tamyra, and love does come knocking. Me I'm all loved up! Things are going well, really well irate:

My mouth is now watering at the thought of tablet... mmmmm. Tablet is harder than fudge and just melts in the mouth. A friend who's not a good at cooking or baking somehow has the knack for making some of the best tablet ever. Must go into begging mode next time I speak to her.

Glad to hear you've got all your belongings Katcal - one of my colleagues partner runs a removal firm, and she sometimes helps out. She comes back with some cracking tales - both about her OH and the clients! The best laugh was that she was moving home - bit of a delay on the entry date, so when they got the notification there was no removal van available.

Argh gotta go - being disturbed yet again!

Well I spent the day helping James with packing a vanload of stuff, he'll be back Sunday for a final D&D session, they have to do his character in I guess. Monday is the going away party.
I'm a lot better, I should be headed out to my folks right now but I have a couple of things to do before I go, like eat, and figure out what I want to wear tomorrow at my uncle's easter party. Maybe I can find something semi springlike and halfway decent, but I'm not confident. I always run out of time and inspiration. the faux suede skirt I sort of want to wear has disappeared into the mountain of clothes in my bedroom but it is dark brown and not exactly springlike.
I'm sort of resigned to letting love come to me when it will. I have a lot to clean up in my life now. I should have the mess cleared up before I ask someone to come share my life. Hopefully that won't take too very long. Mean while my friends have a way of making life good, you guys are among that company. Thank you all.

Perhaps James's character could have a crisis of conscience and go into a monastery or what ever's appropriate for the game.

Milking rancid yak milk in Tibet.. I s a good career option for a D7D character that allows for return possibilities in the future. I mean there's only so long you can milk rancid yak milk before you ask yourself: 'WHy?"

Easter long weekend is going great... there's been lots of football and its cold so I've been making soups and stuff. Tonight friends are over for dinner and I'm trying out a new reciped for bolognaise... How can you change bolognaise I hear you ask: Wel this recipe involves whole bits of beef slow cooked (in the slooooowwwww cooooker) for 9 hours, its then shredded and added back into the sauce. I'm also going to attempt fresh pasta too so there's no rext for me today... except for the next 9 hours where I plan to do as little as possible.

yep, easter long weekend is great, except for friday night when our neighbours decided to prove to us how thin the walls actually are between our houses (they are the other side of the semi) by partying until 3am despite me going over just past midnight to ask them to shut up a bit. Karaoke at home should be a felony. Porbably the only one worthy of the death penalty. If I ever hear Dancing queen again, I will rip my own ears off and eat them.

Why, cruel world, whyyyy ?

I sang Dancing Queen on Thursday, but it was decently in a bar and only once. It was snowing a little the last couple, three days but not a whole lot around here. The Rancid yak milking sounds good but James probably won't be coming back to Park Rapids when he gets through in Korea, he probably will be moving to Duluth. I'l be keeping up with him at KoL and Facebook.
Yesterday I made a snowcat with my brother Sam, boy did that bring back old memories, old old memories. today I'm just chilling til D&D, I haven't any sense that my philosophy instructor is going to see me, but maybe he'll shock me

I’m sitting in my sitting room scratching. Not a nice picture to paint, I know, but that’s what happens when you change your washing powder and your body doesn’t like it. I’m itchy like CRAZY!!!!

Hectic weekend this one – aside from the allergic reaction to my clothes – a really good friend left work for pastures new and I’m really going to miss her. She was the first friend I made when I joined the company, and even though I’m delighted to see her go and do what she went to college to do, I’m also sad because I know that I won’t hear from her much any more.

I finally had my washing machine brought inside from the shed, and the nice young lad that installed it found a little bit of a problem for me. It turns out that the pipes for my kitchen sink had been leaking since they'd been installed. Me = not a happy camper. I had to go shouting at the plumber who installed it to get him to come back and fix it. Thankfully, this time there was no mould. If there had been I think I would have killed the man with my own bare hands.

Then my mother’s diverticulitus flared up again. About ten years ago she had to have sections of her colon removed and she’s been free from it for the last seven or so years, but suddenly since Christmas she’s had two bouts of it and the antibiotics don’t seem to be working any more. I feel really sorry for her, not just for the pain which is nearly incapacitating her, but also for the fact that anything she could do to help ease the suffering worsens the whole diabetes problem. Diabetes – eat more roughage. Diverticulitus – eat no roughage. She was given a letter from her doctor on Friday in case the pain got worse. If that happened, she’d have to go straight to A&E and go on an IV of antibiotics. Bugger. Thankfully, that hasn’t happened yet and she is mildly better. Unfortunately, it seems that two of the idiots I am closely related to really couldn’t care less and didn’t even bother phoning to see if she was ok, let alone calling around. And one of them only lives 5 minutes away. Stupid self absorbed c*w. I could seriously throttle her right now. It seems, however, that the shine is going off my parents Golden Girl and they are beginning to understand why we’ve all been rolling our eyes at her for the past god only knows how many years. My father was seriously not happy.

And, on Friday my best friend rang me in tears to tell me that her boyfriend, the father of her (difficult) 8 month old baby has left her and moved out. Long story short, they are both bull headed people but he was more stupid and bull headed than her (and I’m not biased – well, not much – if I thought she was wrong, I’d tell her. I have done so before and I will do so again and she knows it.) Perhaps what happened was for the best, perhaps not. Only time will tell. Unfortunately, there’s the long wait to find out the way things will lie.

So this weekend was mostly spent re-washing clean clothes, scratching, helping out at home, trying to convince my friend that everything is going to be ok, helping my father badmouth the Golden Haired Child, and trying desperately not to scratch. I have no willpower.

Aaaaand lastly I’m just coming off a Diabetic low so I’m a bit doom and gloom right now. I’m tired, but I can’t sleep because of the stupid itching. Even a shower didn’t work. Rats, damn and buggerit.:sad:

Sorry, I mean; happy thoughts, happy thoughts, happy thoughts, happy thoughts, happy thoughts...etc...

Didn't one of the ABBA people die recently? I thought that I heard that on the news within the past week or so.

It wasn't one of the group. It was their regular drummer, he also performed with other groups.

Maybe it's like a snowman but with pointy ears...

Thanks, Megan and Hsing.

It was like a snowman with sort of pointy ears, Sam found twoblack pebbles for eyes and I found a triangular pink pebble for the nose. I'm un the beige coat and Sam has a little boy (Connor)on his shoulders. I also finally have a picture of Mimi