Pac Man

I had my usual appointment with my personal trainer in the morning, which was as deadly as usual, but at the end had a majorly exciting upside, when I realised I could cross my legs at the end of the session!  Very exciting development, and a nice milestone to remember that I am making progress.

During the work day, I chatted to the Tall South African (as per usual, where I entertained him with stories about PacMan), and then found myself online chatting with Kellogg Boy, and so tried to encourage him to take some time out from working on his thesis to come to PacMan.  After all, if the Young Dutchman is going to be out of town, I need somebody else around to entertain me, right?  Alas, in the end he decided he couldn't spare the time, which was such a shame.

So after work I headed out to PacMan, where I got to see quite a few faces I hadn't seen in a while, including Zu, my old flatmate!  She'd moved back from Abu Dhabi some time back, but I hadn't managed to catch up with her since she'd been back.  Such a shame, we barely had time to shriek, say hello, and share hugs with a promise to catch up later, before the whole thing was starting and I needed to head off to the drinks stop.  (Due to my knee being in such rubbish shape that I can't run, I was instead volunteering to man one of the drinks stops for the evening.  Still a good way to participate and have fun though!)

(A quick explanation here:  PacMan is basically a giant game of tag, played in Leicester Square.  Most everyone is PacMans, but there are a few ghosts running around and tagging people.  The objective is to make it to one of four drinks stops around the square without getting tagged.  Basically, a giant free-for-all game of tag with drinking involved).  

I didn't manage to spot DM before I headed out to the drinks stop, but I wasn't there for long before he found it among the runners and came over to say hello.  We stayed chatting for a while, and then he suddenly asked me, "You speak Spanish, right?  This meet-up group that I'm a part of is meeting on just the other side of the river.  I think I'm going to go over there."

Notice, however, that he did not actually say, "Do you want to come with me?"  So I shrug my shoulders, and off he goes.  I stayed for the end of the run, and once it was time to go back to the pub, I walked back with Cookie, to have a good chance to catch up with her.  She'd finally ended things with her ex-fiancee (who had wanted to get back together with her), and had taken up with her married boss again.  Not sure what I think about that, but I try hard just to listen and not be judgemental. 

Once back at the pub, I realise that DM had texted me some time back, asking, "Are you coming?  I got us some beers."  No idea why the guy couldn't have just invited me along in the first place, but so it goes...  I ended up chatting to Cookie and Matt for a bit, but then headed back over to the park.  I found DM, he gave me a beer, and I chatted with the others present in Spanish for a little bit.  (DM's Spanish, while having a terrible accent, actually had a better grasp of vocab than mine did, reminding me that I need to practice!)

When I found him in the park, he was happy to see me ("Where were you?  I missed you!"), but tried to act cool about it ("But hey.  Cool.  If you feel like joining...)  I felt like I was dealing with a 16-year old boy, who likes a girl but tries to act indifferent. Why do 16-year old boys do that?

So I sit, chatting with him and the group for a bit, when he decides he wants to go on a fairground ride nearby.  "That looks fun, don't you think?  I think I'm going to go on it.  I mean, it looks awesome!"

Again, please note the lack of invitation, at no point does he ask, "Do you want to come with me?"  So I just stay put where I am.  To have him return 15 minutes later saying, "That was so much fun!  You totally should have come!  I had to ride it all by myself!"  {Sigh!}  I'm so tempted to point out the obvious, that he should have asked me to join him, but I restrain myself...
The entire evening continues like this, where he doesn't make any effort to talk to me, but as soon as I'm off in another group talking and laughing, he seems to find an excuse to stop in and check in with me.  OMG, is this why I hated boys in high school?

Finally, as it was getting somewhat late and I was worried about all of my things back at the pub, I walked back to the pub along with DM.  As we walked, he told me stories about getting angry with friends who didn't respond to texts, and even de-friending Scottish Lawyer Guy on Facebook after he didn't respond to a message about being in Jersey.  I'm surprised at how harsh he is with people, and insecure about people's motives for things.  (i.e. Don't you often consider that people who don't get back to you right away are just busy, and not that they're trying to be mean to you?)  As we walked and talked, I realised with a bit of startled horror that this attitude meant I was actually one of his oldest friends.  He even admitted as such, telling me that he granted me a lot more latitude than he did most people because I'm one of his closest friends.  Now that came as a surprise...

We got back to the pub, I bought us a round of drinks, and we spent some time socialising and chatting to people.  I realise I should have been here, rather than with DM in the park.  The pub closed at 11, so many of us wandered on to O'Neils, but given that we were a large group wearing funny shirts, the bouncers didn't want to let us in.  

I figured then that it was just a good time to head home, but DM wanted to start an argument with the bouncers.  How childish..  We then ended up walking around a bit, just the two of us, where he totally belied my original impression of him as laid-back Australian by continuing to remain fixated on the pub that wouldn't let us in.  

The group finally ended up at LVPO, where I was surprised after buying our rounds earlier, DM didn't buy me a drink, until I finally just figured I would get my own.  I stayed chatting to everyone for a bit, but finally decided to head off in time to catch the last Tube home.

Given how little attention he paid to me at the end of the evening, you can imagine my surprise when the minute I walked in the door, I was bombarded with texts asking if I was home safe, telling me about the food he'd picked up on the way home, and just basically continuing a conversation we were never having when we parted company.  WTF?

Chatted to him for a bit and then went to bed...I'd had enough of bi-polar boys for one evening!