Adorability

I'm in what is becoming my de facto (non-local) local, and I've spent the last hour or so completely entranced by a totally lovely boy. He and his family have just left, after what seems to have been a birthday meal for one of their number, and I have no doubt that I'll never see him again - another 'ghost' - but his beauty, as in the case of so many of his predecessors, has left me happy-sad, happy to have been relatively close to him - twenty feet or so close, at least - but achingly sad that he, or anyone like him, could never be mine. I've written in the past about how my attractions are like a life sentence without hope of parole. Tonight has just reiterated that sentiment.

Love & best wishes to all
Sammy B

Surprises

Of a mixture of kinds. The first, last night, was certainly unpleasant - my old 'London local', the Wetherspoons I used most often when I was in 'domicile-ville' before, has closed down, seemingly in just the last few days. There is another branch of the chain nearby, which I'd heard might be going to close, but for my old haunt to have gone was a bit of a downer.
The next surprise, this morning, was a genuine case of bemusement, as I received a social media 'invitation' from someone I'd had several - differences of opinion, shall we say, through the comments section of this blog. I don't do any kind of social media (unless you count Blogger, of course), because I'm as determined as I ever was to keep my 'real' life and my 'cyberlife' as far apart as possible, but, given some of the things the person concerned has said about me in the past, and, indeed, my robust replies, I can only describe the invitation as inexplicable.
The last surprise has been a pleasant one, though - a buckshee early finish to my late shift at work, because of one of my colleagues was staying on for some overtime. Would I rather have done an extra two hours at work, or headed, as I have, for the pub? Guess!

Love & best wishes to all
Sammy B

Summer's end, once more

Autumn tomorrow, I can barely restrain my delight - or not, as the case may be. At least yesterday brought a little sunshine, both literal and figurative, as I travelled down to 'uni-town' to spend the afternoon with K. It was as pleasant as I could've wished for, lunch, drinks and conversation, but, as usually seems to be the case, it's been followed by bad news. The 'check-out' report on the flat was even worse than I'd been anticipating, and might well have financial repercussions, beyond the loss of my deposit, which I'd already resigned myself to. Life, just lurch from one disaster to the next, why don't you?

Love & best wishes to all
Sammy B

Non-metropolitan

Officially. I went through a rather farcical 'check-out' procedure at the flat this morning - the estate agents' person turned up ridiculously late, due to a screw-up at their end about the appointment, so I pretty much handed her the keys, and left - but it formally marked the end of my three and a half years of living in London. I know K is determined to return to the capital once she's finished at uni, but will I ever find myself living there again? The short answer is that I have no idea, but it's certainly not something I would shy away from, if it could be achieved affordably. There's a big part of me that would love to go back to Cornwall, but the part of me that favours London isn't so far behind. Time, as ever, will tell.

Love & best wishes to all
Sammy B

Plus ça change

I'm in 'domicile-ville' Wetherspoons for the first time in three and a half years, and a little more, and, frankly, it's as vile as it always was. As is 'domicile-ville' itself. With hindsight - that most useless of commodities - I'm wishing already that I'd been more proactive and found somewhere affordable in London to move to. The saving grace, I guess, is that I'm not tied to any sort of tenancy contract at my accommodation, so if I do find anything back up in the 'Oystercard zone', I could go at fairly short notice. It might be sooner rather than later.

Love & best wishes to all
Sammy B

Working like a dog....

....to achieve a thoroughly suboptimal outcome, certainly from my perspective. Although the 'last rites' won't be played out for another week, when I go through the 'check out' procedure for the flat, for all practical purposes, neither K or I live in London anymore. K worked as hard as I did, to be fair, but she was far more invested in moving to 'uni-town' than I was in my relocation back to 'domicile-ville'. And she didn't have to drive the bloody van, which had definitely not been designed with people with my length of leg in mind. I've pretty much always enjoyed driving, but the past weekend's experience, after my not having driven at all for well over three years, was, frankly, no fun whatsoever. To spoil my mood still further, all the 'humping and dumping' I was doing culminated, yesterday morning as I was two-thirds of the way through moving my stuff from the van to my first floor room, in my suffering very painful, and, in terms of what I was doing, debilitating muscle spasms in my (dominant) right arm. It's still more than a little sore now, the upshot of which is that while I managed to get everything into the room, eventually, the floor looks like a jumble sale, with numerous bags and boxes of my belongings still needing to be unpacked and put away. It will be done, hopefully sooner rather than later, but it's thoroughly frustrating that I wasn't able to finish the job yesterday, as I'd originally planned.
Even if everything had gone totally swimmingly, though, one inescapable heartache would still have been there. The fact, of course, that unless something completely unexpected happens, I'll never live under the same roof as my girl again. I have no doubt that we'll always be close, but phone calls, however frequent, and the occasional meeting are no substitute for sharing a home. I'm going to miss her, more than I can say.

Love & best wishes to all
Sammy B

It worked out, in the end

Pretty much by chance, though. After Tuesday's amiable, if not fond, farewell, I didn't really expect to come back to 'regular haunt' Wetherspoons, but my doings today, most notably going down to 'domicile-ville' to pick up the keys to my old new accommodation, didn't take as long as I'd imagined, so I've found myself back in the pub I've used the most since my local closed last year. And, much to my surprise, Daniel is working, even though Thursday isn't usually one of his days. And he has pulled what will be, unless something totally unforeseen happens, my last pint here. Nothing more to add, really. I'm just pleased it was him.

Love & best wishes to all
Sammy B