...going swimmingly in my relationship with Nooma. We hang out with each other as much as possible, and email and text each other during the day on most days. I've met the parents and her dogs. And I get on quite well with her boyfriend. Gah. He even popped in to see me at work. During chit-chat, he asked what I'd done the evening before. Amongst other things, I told him that I'd been round at his girlfriend's until two in the morning. Although nothing happened, I still felt rather guilty; and this may have betrayed me, as I could feel my face starting to flush. I hope he didn't notice.
On the following evening, I had a choice of hanging out with Nooma in one pub, or with Smiley Surf-Shop Gal in another. I chose Nooma. Which is foolish, as I should be making an effort to get to know SSSG better, being as she is the more viable option. But...
Nooma works in a petting zoo. This is a section of an email she wrote to me on Saturday :
I've just returned from pet handling where one of the guinea pigs jizzed in front of the children! And that is a true story. Pet handling is one of my favourite [place of work] activities, for 2 reasons. 1) I like handling pets. 2) Pet handling allows me to interact with small children, and although I don't much like small children, this offers a great opportunity for me to conduct one of my favourite HOBBIES, which is asking children what their name is, and then getting annoyed by the answer because all children these days have ridiculous names. Here are some real-life examples of stupid names I have come across in [place of work]:
Teagan (stupid name of today)
Jordan (stupid name of every day. Boy and girl)
Shaniah
Keanu
Kelsey (stupid and usually pronounced KelseeeeeeeYAH as the child with this name is more often than not from the valleys)
Chinzia (stupid made-up gypsy name)
Ronan (stupid because the child with this name is obviously named after the greased up tinker fronting the pop sensation 'Boyzone')
Shaznay
Star
Nikita-Star
Taylor (girl and boy, but most stupid for a girl)
Paige
Shaynee
Candy
Dori (stupid boys name- made up surely?)
Keeley
Rupert (stupid in a different way: it is pretentious and annoying, compounded by the fact that this particular child was wearing a cravat)
Sam (not at all stupid, but this child was wearing LEDERHOSEN so is worth a mention)
Pagan (my all-time favourite)
I hope none of these names are your middle name, or the names of any of your relatives.
She is brillness itself, as is illustrated above. She is racing ahead. I need to give SSSG a chance to catch up. Although the real tragedy is that I will actually never get together with either of them.