Old and New Friends

Another balmy, long spring-like weekend come and gone – don’t they fly past so quickly??

It’s been a busy ol’ weekend, and as always, I pick up the ball in one court and promptly fumble it in another.  Not too drastically though. 

I spent Friday with new friends, when Sarah who-I-work-with very kindly invited me along to her Royal Wedding shindig up in the lovely Clifton village.  At her request, I baked a cake as my contribution to the lunch buffet (ginger cake – a new recipe and totally yum!), and mooched on up on Friday morning.  New, and very nice people, and a fun couple of hours watching the Royal Proceedings, and mostly providing our own alternative commentary, followed by a very tasty buffet lunch.

Please be rather proud of me – I kept my head and didn’t blow everything at the buffet table – there were loads of yummy items on offer, but I just picked what I absolutely wanted and then stayed away.  I was very restrained, comfortably full, and rather pleased with myself when I left :o)

Now all I need to work on, is toning down my behaviour in front of new people and just being a bit more myself!  I come across as very confident as I tend to act the fool / make everyone laugh / provide the running commentary and banter when I’m in a group of new people.  And that’s fine, but even I’m conscious that I can be a little too much sometimes.  Confidence, Sue! Confidence! And then I can just turn the volume down on myself a little.

Friday evening, I headed up to Kidderminster to see Jo for a couple of nights.  She sprang on me at the last minute over the phone that another friend Hayley would also be there for the weekend.  Fine, as I’ve met Hayley before and we get on pretty well.  Jo then sprang on me, once I’d actually arrived, that another friend, Ellie, would be there on Saturday.  Not fine.  Ellie is very definitely Jo’s friend, and not mine. 

We were friends, close ones in fact for around 15 years, but the long story short is she burnt a lot of bridges and our relationship will never be what it was again.  I know it’s difficult for our mutual friends, as we’re still a close-knit group from school, and for there sake I’m polite to her, but I know that they all secretly still hope for a magic reunion.  Which is never going to happen.  Once lost, my friendship is lost for good.  But I honestly could have killed Jo for pulling that stunt.  She knows we don’t get on, and although I tolerate her for the sake of manners, I don’t enjoy spending time around her.  So to force an entire day on me was definitely not funny.  I did say as much to Jo, and she countered that she hadn’t told me before because she didn’t want me not to come, but it was the only day Ellie had been able to see her.  I put a smiling face on it and made the best, but don’t you hate it when that sort of occasion comes up??

In fact, the day went off without a hitch – Ellie was in one of her good moods when she can pretty much charm the pants off people, and I could almost believe that we were still friends, except that I know she cannot be trusted and that this is just one side of her.  Anyhoo, the four of us went for a lovely sunny walk along the canal to Stourport, had a picnic, went to the fair and had icecreams before returning home.  I tracked all my food as I went, via my iPhone, which was great, but the funfair rides literally left me wanting to hurl, and you have never seen a greener face on the bus-ride back to Jo’s.  I was worried I might actually hurl before we got off the bus – such a relief when it stopped!!

We had a BBQ on Sat night, without total gluttony, I might add!  Food is great at the moment, and I can feel the recent bloat fading away (literally).  The bit where I’ve dropped the ball a bit this weekend has been the running.  I was too sore, and out of time, to run on Friday, so I didn’t.  And I hadn’t packed my running gear, so there was no running for me yesterday. Obviously, the walk was good exercise (a nice 6 miles), but I refuse to feel guilty about deviating from plan.  Tomorrow, I simply pick up where I left off and carry on.  We do the best we can, and occasionally life gets in the way – we don’t let it get us down though, we work around it.

And on that note – I’m off to Hannah’s for a veg heavy tea and some silly movies now – ta ta!!