She says yes, she says no....
She says yes again...after Sunday, H has decided maybe she does want to take things further after all. We're keeping things fairly casual, but we are going to keep trying to get to know each other. All sounds good to me.

My back hurts. Not incredibly badly, but it's tight and painful. I've booked an appointment at the physio at university. It's just bad enough that I don't want to run or do any major exercise, sometimes slightly worse than that. I'm sure all I need is a few stretches and I'll be fine, so that's what I'm hoping the physio can show me.

Major achievement at work, completed a pathfinder for sport/physical activity research. It's basically a list of the resources that you would use to find out about a whole bunch of topics related to our work. It's taken me long enough, but finally the first draft is finished. I've knocked it into HTML as well, so should be available on our intranet soon. All going well, might put it up on the web as well.

No study, so spent last evening playing Civ3 (I still suck) and tonight am heading down to the quiz as soon as I finish typing this. Today, we win. Perhaps.  
| ¶ 5:12 pm

  OK, maybe just stand there a little
After a busy week, I think I can be excused for having a quiet weekend.

And you know what, the weather was miserable anyway. Left me with no motivation to go out.

I did make the NZ Dating Trivial Pursuit evening, which was fun. I'm starting to think they're a good crowd of people, and I'm glad Adrianne kept inviting me to these things till I eventually turned up. And I found out that Yvonne likes the same sort of music I do, so we've got plans to go to 24 Hour Party People next Friday. This is good news. I don't know many people who'd be keen to head down there, so I'm glad I found her.

Saturday was meant to be a party at our CEO's place, but I couldn't be bothered going, I was too tired and it was wet and miserable. So I stayed in and watched sport and read (Pollen, by Jeff Noon - a little disappointing - not as good as Vurt). Sunday was a quiet day, but did manage to go for a jog and went round to Helen's for dinner and very fun but meaningless sex. Damn it, if only we had the chemistry in the rest of our lives that we do in bed, we'd make a great couple. On the bright side, at least we can have the sexual chemistry when we want it :-)

A very pleasant end to the weekend :-) 
| ¶ 10:00 pm

  Don't just stand there
It's been another busy week. I'm pleased.

Tuesday was the quiz night, as mentioned. Wednesday I went to my meditation class. It was one of the best yet. Very, very positive. I came out with a big grin on my face that lasted all the way home. Thursday we had drinks at work, which was fun, and then I went off to the Opera (Rigoletto), put on by Opera NZ at the St James. My first opera. I only turned up because Laurie was in the chorus, but damn it if I didn't enjoy myself. I enjoyed it even more when I noticed the sur-titles, and realised that I could actually follow what was going on. (I missed them at first because I was looking above the stage, and they were off to the side, under the stalls).

I do have to remember that there really isn't much point in expecting to actually see Laurie if I'm going to persist in sitting in the cheap seats. I was right at the back (maybe 2 rows from the back) and I was far enough away that I couldn't make him out. Had a good time though. Probably good enough to want to go back.

Tonight is on the downlow, I'm playing Trivial Pursuit with some NZD people. Nice and relaxing, which is what I feel like (I'm tired and I got up at 5.45 to come into work to watch the soccer on the big screen). 
| ¶ 4:56 pm

  Well, that was quick
Helen and I called things off tonight. She was the one to say it, but she was right. It was fun and all, but there isn't a spark. If we kept on as we are it would be perfectly pleasant, but we'd really just be passing time. And she doesn't want that. Which I understand. Right now I'm perfectly happy to just pass time for a few months, but I can understand that she isn't.

So, back to being single again. Oh well.  
| ¶ 9:56 pm

  Hah! Music and books!
Recent purchases:

• Infinite Jest - David Foster Wallace


• Brief Interviews with Hideous Men - David Foster Wallace


• Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson


• I - The Magnetic Fields (16 songs all starting with the letter "I" - Stephen Merritt does it again)


• Brand New Night - The Cash Brothers


• A Ghost is Born - Wilco


• Drill a Hole in That Substrate & Tell Me What You Think - Jim White

 
| ¶ 5:44 pm

  Things that help my mood right now
Random list of things to help get over a broken heart:

• Turn It Around - Husker Du. Just listened to this for the first time, and it struck a chord. (/resists temptation to make 'chord' joke).


• Emails from my mother, telling me about the times she went through the same thing. "It hurt at the time, especially as I was away from home in a strange town. But if that hadn't happened, neither would you".


• Paul Kelly, lyrics to Bradman: "they say the darkest hour is right before the dawn/and in the hour of greatest slaughter the great avenger has been born/but who then could have seen the shape of things to come/in Bradman's first test he went for 18, and for 1". (It makes sense to me, OK?).


• This article - a truly awesome piece.


• Buddhist meditation and philosophy. They have good things to say. The classes I'm attending leave me happier and calmer. Bodh Gaya Buddhist Centre (Manners Mall branch).


• Badly Drawn Boy singing "sometimes you've got to rewind, to go forward" (Have You Fed The Fish?)

More as I think of 'em... 
| ¶ 9:39 pm

  Things that make me smile, at least a little
I'm getting on pretty well with Helen. She's funny and we have a good, easy banter going. Both online and in person. She's smart, and cuddly and she likes cuddling with me. Just the thing I need for a cold winter. We've been seeing each other reasonably frequently, but not so often that it's totally obsessive - we're talking two to three times per week.

This last weekend was good - we started out by playing pool at the Ballroom (she kicked my ass, 6-3, but I swear I had a run of bad luck, and how can I be expected to play on proper sized tables anyway?). Then went for dinner at Little India on Allen St. It was drunken fun, and then we caught a taxi home in the rain, with the taxi driver giving us a share of his wisdom, mainly about how he spent his youth drinking and smoking weed all the time, till he had a sudden revelation that it was boring, and stopped dead. He had a good banter, anyway.

Saturday afternoon I staggered home and cleaned up, then Kaaryn came over to watch the rugby. Good result, but Shaw's sending off really rendered the whole thing academic - there was no way England were going to win after that, which is a pity, they'd started with some fire and it would have been a tough match.

Sunday I slept for 12 hours, then went to Helen's house where she cooked dinner. Coq au vin, and very nice it was too. Throw in some icecream (I provided the ice cream, OK?) and some wine and we were both happy. Only problem was, when I got home I couldn't get to sleep, which means I overslept, missed both of the soccer matches. I have to start waking up earlier dammit, the tournament is nearly over.

 
| ¶ 9:08 pm

  That Damn List Thing
From a US-based music 'zine by the name of Splendid comes a rather amusing set of lists. We're talking '13 Rock n Roll Public Service Announcements', 'a 17 Song Tribute to Gay Marriage', 'Fucking Brilliant: 18 Songs the FCC's Not Crazy About Either', '18 Other People Jack White Should Beat Up', and my favourite '24 Ways Record Geeks Are Different From Other People':

Record Geeks Normal People
*Believe that Arthur Lee's Love *Believe that love is the end-all,
is the end-all, be-all of human existence be-all of human existence
*Require three days of heartfelt listening *Need three years of high school
to discern the meanings and Spanish to decipher the trivial
motives of Yo La Tengo meaning behind "Yo la tengo"
*Define "going out" as spending the day *Define "going out" as socializing with
poring over the used vinyl section of friends at the local Starbucks and
the local music store looking for a clean discussing normal things like the latest
copy of a Brian Eno collaboration with episode of Sex and the City.
two German guys called Kluster  
| ¶ 2:33 pm

  Back, updated, life, love and pain
I got halfway through updating the old diary entries when something happened to render them superfluous.

Cory got a new boyfriend. And not a boyfriend in the sense of "well, I'm really in love with you, Si, but you're on the other side of the world, so I'm going to date him in the meantime". In the sense of "we're in love". I'm not going to go into too much detail here, just say that I met him when I was over visiting her, and he is a cool guy. She could do a lot worse (and has done) and he's plainly in love with her. This is a good thing. Her and I had a somewhat unpleasant exchange of emails but we cooled down and made up. We're not in contact at the moment, but I imagine we will be again, eventually.

Bear in mind, I hadn't heard from her in around a month when I heard this, and I had been getting on with life. In fact, I was feeling happier than I was when I was trying to have a relationship with her. Weird, but I feel better alone than trying to make that work.

Anyway, my single state lasted about 3 weeks longer than hers did. I'm seeing someone I met off NZ Dating. Well, I'm not officially seeing her as of yet, but I think it's pretty obvious that we will be eventually. It's good. She makes me smile and has a brain and likes sex and everything like that. Can't really ask for anything more ;-) 
| ¶ 5:46 pm