Friday, 24 March 2006
Lets Meet, Lets Not

8.00 No contact from Lisa.
8.45 Left the house. Cycled and arrived suitably sweaty to the training centre. Only half the candidates turned up. Lisa did not turn up - as I said and as her email implied. I asked for S’s phone number but was refused. Luckily one of the guys remembered his surname and I used the Internet to locate his address (luckily it’s an unusual surname). I did ask one of the staff to ring him and ask get his permission to give me his number - they never did. But staff member Sxxxxx is notorious for her promises and lack-of-memory-recall.

Breaktime another candidate turned up and tells me of her family problems that would make any of us grateful for the family we have.

12.45 Half Day: Still no contact from Lisa
I cycled to S’s house. He was not there. So I left him a note, the address and a map to XXXXXXX. I then went shopping. I purchased a designer T-shirt, 2 plane white V-neck T-shirts and 1 pair of jeans. The purchase of the designer T-shirts was amusing as I couldn’t find the fitting rooms so was stripping in public (waist up). And why is it before you strip its empty THEN as you strip people walk by. I failed to find a comfortable pair of trousers. I finished shopping at 4pm. I cycled home. I had some food.

5pm. S phoned. He got my message and said it wasn’t needed as he’d bumped into Dickhead in town and he’d bumped into Lisa in town. Lisa had conveyed more info to him than I had. Lisa had said she’d be at XXXXXXX at 10.30pm. So S and I decided to meet elsewhere at 8pm and then make our way to XXXXXXX afterwards.
It was funny as I was talking to S on the phone dressed in just my boxer shorts. The lil guy bursts into my room tries to grab my attention and fails. He then grabs the back of my boxer shorts and pulls them down to my ankles. Luckily no one else was about. I carried on talking to S in a naked state with the lil guy laughing his head off.
I dressed, got the nod from my sister and set off.
I met S, we attended a function which kept us busy until 9.30pm. He had a kebab and we caught a bus to XXXXXXX and got in about 10.30pm which cost us 500units each. We searched and failed to find Lisa. S sent a text to her.
11pm she texts back “Just finished eating - be there soon“. 30 minutes pass. We wait facing the front doors. Still no sign of Lisa. Then S checks his mobile and Lisa has texted “They won’t let us in, are u still in there?“. S says it’s 5min old and goes into the foyer to find her. She’s not there. S texts back “Where are you?”. She texts back, “We are heading to YYYY“.

We leave feeling angry heading to YYYY. Why did she not wait for us before setting of to YYYY? The walk to YYYY is like a simmering kettle heading to boiling point.

At YYYY, we see Lisa and her friend at the door. She seems a little shocked. S was on the mobile to her as we approached her and didn’t like the smile she gave her friend as she was talking to him - like a conspirational smirk. After a brief talk we decide to go in. S pays for all 4 of us at 300units each. But once inside the girls seem to stick together and we feel left out. They hang around the bar and S notices they seem to know the guy behind the bar. So far there’s been no greetings, no hugs, no enthusiasm, no apologies, no reactions. S gets Lisa to introduce her friend. Her name is P. L gets some drinks and S hands me a half coke - I don’t know who got it (He’s been drinking Tequila and cokes at XXXXXXX). S then wanders over to the side of the club. Lisa and P stay by the bar. I hang around nearby waiting for some kind of inclusion. Then I wander over to S and we discuss the coldness and the feeling of not feeling comfortable. S decides to leave. He says his goodbyes to the girls and heads out. I wander over and Lisa is busy with 2 mobile phones. I ask if she has managed to contact the rest of her party in XXXXXXX. She says that’s what she’s trying to do. Her own phone is out of credits. She is deep into using thumbing away on the phones.

Finally we begin talking. Lisa’s friend is P who hails from Portugal too and is intent on heading back to Portugal in 2weeks time having spent 7 years in this country. I explain why S left and how I felt. She pleads being “that” way when trying to please too many people at the same time. We hug as we accept each other’s version of the evening’s events. We stayed until around 2.30am. P’s boyfriend turned up around 12.30am which made her smile and begin enjoying herself. No one wanted to dance. The whole evening was spent in chatting. However it seemed to go swiftly. One shock was seeing Lisa smoke - she only smoked the one-half the whole evening. I watched them read the emotion on my face and pass face expressions amongst themselves. There were pauses when I wished I could just place an arm over her shoulder but never did - well the myth of the boyfriend is still unproven and her friend would know the boyfriend if he exists so how could I even venture into that zone?
As we left I gave Lisa a hug and a peck on the cheek. Her friend also came over to say bye and I did the same to her. I shook P’s boyfriend’s hands. They headed over to the taxis. I headed off in the opposite direction. I was lucky enough to get a lift home - not with them though.

Probably just as well I did not dance as the new shoes ripped into the back of my left ankle.

Overall I enjoyed the openness of our conversations. She confirmed that it was her sister who had broken Internet contact with me (the week she was sick). Lisa had apparently explained the situation to her and her sister had said “Ahh” - as in “ahh that’s sweet”. Lisa said for her it took ages to ensure a friendship. I said with me I knew instantly when someone was to be a good friend. She said she was deeply shy.