Chalk Farm Run

The weather is finally getting colder, so I made my way out to Chalk Farm for this week's run with gloves and a long-sleeved shirt.

I arrived and saw DD, as he'd promised he would be there, but didn't really chat to him at all, although he always seems a bit distracted when his ex is around. They've stayed friendly, but I can imagine it's still a bit of a puzzle. I just ended up chatting with all of the other people who happened to be standing around. Went out for the run, and actually managed to keep pace with the group reasonably well, but when an opportunity arrived at Camden Town to turn up the road and just run straight back to the pub, I took it. I'd been out for an hour and had gotten my exercise, so I wanted to go back to the nice warm pub!

I got an extra treat when I arrived back at the pub, to find that Matt was there! I absolutely was wiggling with excitement, I was so happy to see him. I hadn't seen him since shortly after he started his new job, so it was good to hear about how it was all going, and how he and his girlfriend were thinking about moving towards my end of town. How great would that be?

Bum Bandit caught me at the bar and gave me £10 to buy a round while he went and grabbed his bag, but I was unable to get the attention of the bar staff before he returned. He bought my Guinness for me anyway, and although we didn't chat too much throughout the evening, I thought it was sweet how he always sees me as somebody he needs to watch out for.

I actually spent most of the evening chatting to Lex, who pointed out we hadn't just caught up the two of us in quite a while. There was a little bookshelf where we both managed to squeeze in, and so we sat side-by-side and just talked about the most random crap, a usual Lex conversation. When he got up to go get another round for the two of us, I saw DD walking by me, so I made some comment, and so DD squeezed himself into the tiny bookshelf with me. His ex was gone, so now he felt like paying attention to me.. I find DD so peculiar, because it's like being back in elementary school where boys who liked you would pull your pigtails and chase you around on the playground. I think his actual feelings towards me are similarly conflicted, like those of 10-year old boys ("Girls are gross!" "But weirdly fascinating..."). He likes me, as I can't turn around without finding him there, or squeezing in to sit close with me on a tiny bookshelf. Yet, he also has some issue with me, which I can't quite put my finger on. He's almost insulting when he talks to me, as much as he always obviously wants to talk to me...

We were then joined by Caroline on a chair with us, and the conversation turned to "bad date stories". DD told this absolutely hilarious one about a double-date he went on with his cousin when he was 16. They went to some run-down seaside town on a Sunday where nothing was open, except for a tattoo parlour, where the girl who was there as the "plus one" for his cousin decided to get her tongue pierced as the first thing to start the day. So of course it swelled up and she couldn't talk all day, and it pretty much set the dynamic for the date from there. Apparently the girl that DD liked then also preferred his cousin, and the story ended up with his cousin going back and sleeping with this girl on another occasion and getting chlamydia from her. So a great story, all around!

Caroline told some absolutely hysterically funny stories about accidentally distributed sex tapes (OMG, made me glad I've never made one!), and of course me...well you know I don't suffer for a lack of "bad date" stories!

It was funny because at one point the three of us then were remarking on the fact that we are all single, which Caroline blamed on being tall (she's about six feet), DD on his attitude, and then DD said the sweetest thing when he told me, "But you! How are you single? I mean, look at you!" As I said, he likes me....somewhat. Although was kind of intrigued that he thought my best feature was my looks, not my personality or intelligence I'd never really thought of that as my best selling point...

Finally, when it was nearly 11:30 and they were closing the bar, we all headed out to grab the Tube. I ended up sitting with DD on both trains, where we got back into the insults ("You live a very sheltered life..."), but where you could tell that he was intrigued by a comment I'd made earlier where I insisted to him, "Despite it all, I DO like you, you know..."

"Really?" he replied in absolute disbelief. "Why?"

Some days I wonder... I don't think anything will ever happen there, because quite frankly he'd make a rotten boyfriend ("It's just my personality", he explained to me), but he still makes me laugh, and is always good for a smile every time I see him. And you've got to enjoy having a boy like that around...