Yesterday was all about decluttering.

(my yoga room – why yes, that is my vision board, and yes it does have pictures of pugs on it!  What?  They inspire me!)

Tidying things into boxes.

Getting rid of how many DVDs?!

It’s amazing how much stuff a person accumulates?  The worst thing is that we only moved here in September.  I can’t believe I just packed and then unpacked all the clutter and didn’t get rid of it before we moved…..

Anyway, it’s done now.

Today was the hottest day of the year so far.  So there was a BBQ and my brother came along.

And then England played a dismally awful football match and everyone was depressed.

But as long as cats get food, they don’t care!

Et tu reader?  How was your weekend?

Readers, remember this post?  In which I told how Himself and I first met.  Remember how I said it would be continued?  Well it will be I promise.  But in the meantime Himself has decided to tell the story from his point of view.  Funny how boys always remember things differently eh?  And always end up in strip clubs.  Aha, that’s intrigued you!  Over to Himself…..

(my two boys – asleep – typical)

I have fond memories of that time and it always makes me laugh and wonder how we managed to pull it off and end up together!!

Like Rachel, I’d had a string of disastrous dates before we met. One of them had a beard and stalked me with regular weekend phone calls. These dropped down to fortnightly and then monthly until they finally ended on New Years Eve. Presume she found new blood. Needless to say, I ended up being a bit scared of women and dating and gave it up as a bad job and decided to focus on my career (ha!).

Then one day I was at work doing a load of audit paperwork (zzzzz) and I decided to log onto an old postboard I hadn’t been on for a few years. I was just browsing around and saw a message from this girl who was going to York for her holiday. I wished her well and waited anxiously for her return. I’m from Yorkshire and was eager to hear her tales.

In the meantime I made friends with others (a rarity) and we all arranged to meet up to see a really fantastic local band I knew. When Rachel came back, we invited her too. She was reluctant but I convinced her in the end.

I remember hanging out by the ladies toilets wearing my Foo Fighters T-Shirt so she’d recognise me. The toilets were by the pool table. I don’t just hang about ladies toilets trying to pick up chicks. Anymore.

She was wearing a big furry coat (it was very cold) and underneath it her NMA T-Shirt and a purple scarf.

I look a tool. I had hair. (I look truly terrible also, why is one of my eyes closed? And I am sooo thin and not in a good way – R) I spoke to her for a bit and it seemed like everything I said was of no interest or we just had conflicting views. So I went off and danced. Apparently she was right behind me and I hit her in the face. I don’t believe her!!

It was then suggested that we go the strip club behind the pub. This was a really, really seedy place. I was having a generally bad time in life. I was so poor I wasn’t buying my drinks and relied on charity and someone even paid my 50p strip club entrance fee. It was a depressing performance. The acoustic version of Evanescence – My Immortal was not made to strip to!

I was on a bit of a bum note and then Rachel said she was leaving as she had a class the following morning and my flatmate tried to draw directions to the station in a beer puddle. He ended up taking her there himself and when he came back he had a massive grin on his face as he told me he had kissed her. I was gutted!

Fortunately, he was a bit useless and it didn’t work out and I got to pick up the pieces!! One Friday night, Rachel wasn’t feeling too good so I offered to go round and cook her dinner. This would’ve worked out perfectly if she didn’t live all the way across London. I got the food from my local supermarket and watched it rapidly defrost down my leg while on the train/tube. Rachel came and picked me up in her car because I was scared of being stabbed. The tube station had one of those police signs out saying a murder had occurred recently. Apparently this was a regular thing. Too much for this country bumpkin! (I lived in Wood Green, when you live there you get used to these things and forget how it looks to others – R)

I remember we had a really lovely evening together.

Over the next few weeks, we traded CDs and mix tapes (so 1989!) and decided to go to another gig, but this time just the two of us. We flirted a lot in the queue and if I have one regret, it was not kissing her goodbye in the tube station. A couple of days later I told her I couldn’t just be friends. Then a couple of months later I told her I loved her.

The rest is history!

~~~~

So there it is folks. On our first date I kissed his flatmate and he went to a strip club. I told you it wasn’t the most auspicious of beginnings. Still he lived in a much nicer part of London than I did so I was soon eager to move in with him!

Himself blogs sporadically at Iron Thumb. He takes awesome photos (which you can see on his blog), is an IT genius and hilarioius in a very British way.

(source)

Readers I am lovin’ pugs more than ever right now.  You all know how much I covet a pug all of my own.  So much so that Himself bought me Pug the beanie pug for my birthday.

But the real deal, real live pugs, oh my!  And yesterday as I was cycling along who should I encounter but two, count ‘em, two pugs off for a walk.  Oh readers, I was overcome by their wiggly tails and their funky pug faces.  So much so I had to get off my bike for a moment to recover from the cuteness!  Would it be weird, if I saw them again, to ask if I could pet them, just for a minute?

One day readers.  One day I too will have a pug (as I type the cats are looking at me with a “bring a pug into this house and we will kill it” type look on their faces).

Also:-

*  Oats with blueberries and banana on a warm sunny morning.

* Knowing I’m doing good to others even if I don’t want to be there.  There is a complex lesson in that juxtaposition.

*  Strawberries.  Wimbledon. Sunburn.   Britain doesn’t get a lot of summer heat and sunshine but when it does it’s very unique!

*  Looking forward to a weekend of decluttering (sad I know).

Readers, what do you love this fine Thursday?