The fine art of Friends With Benefits

I have recently been spending time with a blast from the past. Matt, who the keen eyed of you will remember I met at the start of the year (first impression, Daisy's thoughts, post date, update, drunken text), occasionally sent me messages that we should "hang out". I'm not the kind of girl who actually thought that this meant he wanted to hang out!

Recently with work easing a bit and a couple of not so great dates under my belt (updates to follow), I thought it might be fun. It has been fun. With Matt's interests revolving mostly around cycling, climbing and bike engineering and mine being as far removed from that as possible (TV, eating, painting my nails...), then I didn't see any issue with some fun without stings or emotions.

The problem that I am finding is that the more we talk and spend time together, the more I enjoy being around him. We have far more in common than I thought and, heaven help me, we are now starting to share personal details about our lives with each other. This is not helping me stay detached from the situation and with that in mind I have been devising a set of rules for myself to keep things purely in the "friends with benefits" camp.

1. Don't fall in love.
2. Never stay the night
3. Keep conversation light
4. Don't meet the friends
5. Don't go out in public together
6. Never discuss deep personal secrets
7. Don't cook for each other
8. No spooning

We have currently broken rules 2, 3, 6, 7 and 8.

DAMN IT!!

Starting Over: My New Job

Change is hard, even if it's by choice and something you have been considering and then preparing for months in advance.

I don't like change much. I don't hate it but I can find it difficult to adapt to big changes. The biggest change I have faced in a long time is changing my job. I am the kind of person who up until recently just fell into jobs. I trained as a teacher and eight years ago during the summer holidays I decided to take a temp job, I never left that temp job until recently. 

I had been feeling like I needed a bit of a change of pace. I was unhappy and needed to make a big life change so I started applying for new jobs. After some tough interviews, the first ones I'd had to do in about 10 years, I was offered a new job. 

I have now been in my new job for about 3 months, since I last posted on here! It has been a difficult transition for me. I knew a few people going in as I work in a niche industry, however it was like starting from scratch again. I had forgotten how long it takes to build friendships with colleagues and how exhausting learning new ways can be. 

Finally, I am beginning to feel like myself again. I had a few bumps along the road where I was not sure if I would make it. The support of my close friends and family helped and I know that soon I'll be soaring once again.

In preparation for feeling like the happy-go-lucky version of myself from yesteryear, I will be dating again and sharing the stories as well as my general love for sparkles and pretty things. 

I'm back!!

Reading Reality

When 2 of your favourite things come together you have to jump on it right? Suddenly I realized that I could combine my love of books and my love of reality TV by reading books written by reality TV personalities. I know... I probably should have worked this out earlier, but this realisation made me really excited.

Onto Amazon I jumped and I bought a selection of books (second hand where possible) and patiently waited their delivery. They have finally all arrived and I am very excited to get stuck in, starting with Most Talkative by Andy Cohen. The rest of the titles I have in my pile are -

Most Talkative - Andy Cohen 

I Didn't Come Here to Make Friends. Confessions of a Reality Show Villain - Courtney Robertson 

Drinking and Tweeting - Brandi Glanville

Spelling it Like it is - Tori Spelling 

Let Me Tell You Something - Caroline Manzo 

The Andy Cohen Diaries: A Deep Look at a Shallow Year - Andy Cohen

The loveliest pile

I can't wait to share my thoughts on them all.

Power Ranking: Podcasts

I like to number things in my head. It is a weird thing to do, but it makes me happy. The rankings are variable and as soon as something new comes into play I start again. For example I will have my top 5 TV shows, but as soon as there is a new show I take a liking to I will re-evaluate. I was listening to a podcast recently where Juliet Litman was mildy mocked for power ranking everything in her life! I felt happy that I was not the only one and established that this should be something I share.

Today I want to share my current top 3 podcasts!

1. Happier with Gretchen Rubin
Firstly I love Gretchen Rubin's voice, I find it very soothing. For a podcast giving life tips on how to be happier this is a must. Secondly I find a lot of her advice actually doable and easy. Little tips like giving people a warm greeting first thing in the morning and setting an alarm to tell you when to go to bed. All of these tips are great and I like her easy conversational nature she has with her arty and creative sister (who I relate to the most).
Click on the link above for ways to download

2. The Right Reasons
I love reality TV and listening to others talk about reality TV is a must for me. Here Juliet Litman and David Jacoby talk about the Reality TV they have watched for the week. I will admit that I have started watching some shows just so that I can enjoy the conversation even more as I know what they are talking about. Since I find this a guilty pleasure listen I can't put it at number 1, but this is a podcast I like to save for myself to savour on the weekends.

3. How Did This Get Made?
Since I listen to most of my podcasts walking home from work, I like to keep them light. I find that after a tricky day at work, listening to 3 comedians I like pick apart "bad films" asking themselves "How did this get made?". I have probably been seen laughing to myself with my headphones on walking down the busy road to my house. The harder I try not to laugh the worse it becomes. Anyone who likes dry observational humour or likes either; Paul Scheer, Jason Mantzoukas or June Diane Raphael should give this a listen.

I'm off to make myself a power ranking of things to power rank, and work out a picture to accompany power rankings... I'm excited!!

Current Obsession... Vintage Hair

I aspire to hair like this...

Have you ever been drawn to an era without really knowing why? You find yourself wondering what it would be like to live then and how you would fit in. For me it’s the 1940’s. I’m not sure why I like the 40’s so much. For me I grew up loving classic films with His Girl Friday and Rebecca being my favourites, or any Hitchcock really (the earlier ones are great!) and I think in a strange way I could relate to the characters and wanted to

Update 5

Oh my, what an update to have. I have a 2^nd date, a drunken texter and a flake to update you on!

First off, yay for my guest blog post on Mairi’s blog!! I’m excited to be included. Enough chitter chatter though, on to the men!

Paramedic Rick: Still nothing from him, Ben wonders

The Dye Job Part 2

After being disappointed by the colour from my last home dye job (which was still too dark for my liking) I decided to try again. This time I took my friend on a hair dye shopping expedition. She seemed really keen and excited for me... that is until I picked up a box of bleach proclaiming that "this will do the trick". I'm not sure how she thought I was going to lighten my hair without using bleach.

Bleach and more copper