Hello again

I’m back- after a migration to another blog* and a period of silence and even, dare I say it, mild enjoyment. Let me bring you up to speed on my life. Forty and a half and a bit more than that. Just come out of a relationship, I suppose you could call it, which lasted about 3 months to the day (I’m not prepared to scroll through my Whatsapp messages and check). I’ve got quite a few notches on the bedpost-maybe more than average- but actual days in my life I could call myself in a relationship have been so very few and far between.
 Partly because I’ve lived all over the place and have not stayed anywhere long, partly because I’m not ready. How can a creative person who can’t afford to live with creative types be called ready? I dated a lovely woman quite by chance through OKCupid but after I made it clear I might (MIGHT) leave her and go to university sometime next year (I'd made that quite clear on my OKC profile as well) she dropped me like a hot potato, which is my new OKCupid name. So I’m back on the dating scene, facing yet another summer in this country without a girlfriend. I think it's been seventeen years since I sat on an English beach with a woman. Well, there was Sanna in Cornwall but that was platonic.

* You didn't miss much. Here is an excerpt from last October:

Yesterday the guy who sold me my old fridge texted me to say he might have found the salad crisping drawer that goes with it, if I was interested.  It was an agonising decision.  A six mile round trip by foot to pick up a grubby drawer that might fit my fridge?  I decided I might as well.  This is what my life has come to. 

What happened to the 10th?

I don't know.  Anyway, today the magic item arrived.  I cannot speak of it in anything other than hushed tones.  I have high hopes for it.  It shall be kept in a discreet place etc.  I have also implemented a points system to measure productivity.  World, here I come!    

Analysis

Yeah, we had a really successful induction yesterday and then it was just totally flat like we'd said everything there is to say.  Like meeting your soulmate and then getting bored of them.

Mind you, I was completely whacked.  I had walked to Westwood and back feeling nauseous and generally under the weather and I went to bed early.

Watching this space

I went to bed early Tuesday evening with fluey symptoms and was in bed for most of yesterday.  However, I did get a message from someone on OKCupid who had responded to my 'like' and we ended up having a long conversation about ghosts, NDEs and her hobby, being an Elf rock star, amongst other things.

40

I'm 40 years old...Taking stock, I note the following.  

1.  I live in a mice infested bedsit.

2.  I am 1500 pounds in the red on my MasterCard.

3.  My income barely feeds me, let alone pays off credit cards.

4.  There is nothing on the horizon.

Just been to China and I'm glad I went but the overall experience was about learning about the gulf between how I imagine things will be and how they inevitably are.  My last night in Hohhot I was alone and the big 40th celebration in Xi'an was neither big nor much of a celebration.  Seeing the plight of Nana,  the disabled girl I occasionally visit, reminded me temporarily to feel less sorry for myself.  

Nonetheless, I have a plan.  Four days into my forties and no sexual intercourse as yet but plans I say are hovering in my Mac's hardware on a small file called 'Sex Plan'.  If it becomes relationship plan then that is all well and good but I don't want to get ahead of myself.  

Put simply it's a three prong scheme involving improved income, exposure and appearance but the fine details I would rather keep under wraps.

Watch this space, as they say.  

Eyes Wide Shut

I watched Eyes Wide Shut for the first time last night.  I'd not been in a hurry to see it after the lukewarm reviews it got but I was pleasantly surprised.  In some ways I think Kubrick is overrated- his stories are quite weak- but then again there is just something about the way his films are made that makes them interesting to watch.  The only director I can think of that exists at a similar level is David Lynch. 

Same forecast

Well not unless you call looking for Hohhot's red light district on Tencent Street View positive... 

I was kind of wowed by this find and went for a wander around Hohhot and Bayuquan yesterday and today.  I should be revising but I can't help doing things like searching for the best mash up combinations I can think of on YouTube.
 
James and I also talked about the 'Shakespeare' interview; "Or should I say Nellie?"  James said.  We're both a little bit sceptical about this one.