I know it’s a bit late to say happy new year and all that, but January has been kind to me (mostly) and I have been busy and preoccupied with other matters.

One of my favourites came round this month to do some DIY. DIY is a never ending job let me tell you; there’s always something that needs doing anyway. I am so lucky to have my slaves willing to do stuff for me as well, especially the things that are beyond my capabilities. I even have another favourite who sometimes just wants me to do whatever I like during the booking. And this is non work related! Whether that’s just watching television, him cleaning out my kitchen cupboards or just chatting over coffee.

You can’t get better than that!

If someone asked me back in high school what my dream job would be, I would never have said in a million years it would be this! But here I am, twenty something years later, living the dream!

I wish you all a good 2022.

Yes, you read the title right. I had the misfortune of meeting a man last month whom I ended up on a date with. (What was I thinking?!)

The night I met him started out innocently enough. I wasn’t going out looking for a man to date; it just sort of happened! I only met him briefly as well before he gave me his number and I didn’t think too much of it. But he seemed nice enough, so I made the mistake of texting him. I only expected a reply out of politeness to be honest, but I began to think something more when he texted me non stop for five hours.

I didn’t hear from him at all then that weekend, but after all those texts I wasn’t disappointed; I was certain I’d hear from him again. And sure enough we arranged to go out for a ‘proper’ date the following weekend.

I admit I was flattered. He seemed nice enough and was very charming in his texts leading up to our date. But that should have been a HUGE RED FLAG. The charm! He insisted he wanted to get to know me before things went any further and I had no reason to disbelieve him.

The date itself was okay. He may have moaned a bit too much about his ex for a first date, but that was nothing major. However, I did think it strange that all the women in his life he claimed were narcissists … another red flag, perhaps. Especially as narcissism is a male dominated trait. Psychologists says it’s as high as 80/20!

Anyway, the date went okay. He was polite and gentlemanly with somewhat tightly closed body language. I picked up on this straight away to be fair. I was relaxed with open body language, so I thought he may have copied me. But no.

I gave him a hug and a kiss when I left but when I got home his demeanor somewhat changed. He kept saying he thought I wasn’t interested in him because I made no mention of sleeping with him …

What???

I was baffled by what he initially said to me. And no man who I’ve ever been on a first date with before has said that. What a ridiculous thing to say!

Anyway, as the week progressed so did his attitude. Gone was the speech of ‘getting to know me’, this man just wanted sex … for free, shock horror! If he was going to treat me like a prostitute then at least pay me!

You’d be forgiven if you think this man was 20 with hormones raging. But all the men in their 20’s whom I have ever met have all been far more respectful than this. This man is eleven years older than me and I’m in my 30’s.

So once he realised I wasn’t going to sleep with him he said delete me and move on. I think that was the best thing he’s ever said to be fair.

And yes, he really is called Mr. Arse. Or arse is another name for his surname. That’s as far as I can go in naming and shaming him. Pity really as the next lady who he manages to snare may not be as lucky as me.

… To your work shoes!!!

I’ve had these shoes for the full six years of my career and they are by far the best pair of smart shoes I’ve ever had. I bought them especially for this job from a retail outlet store and everything about them is just perfect. They have the right heel size, the right colour and a nice style about them.

I love them so much that it’s been a real struggle to buy new ones. I will still wear my old ones for certain bookings as I can never throw them out. Even when they’re battered and bruised which I admit is still a long way off, I still want to keep them. Maybe I should buy a little glass cabinet for them and store them like a delicate antique on a velvet cushion.

These shoes have so many memories attached to them. From the good, the bad, the ugly to the absolute hilarious times I’ve had whilst wearing them. And the good times certainly outweigh the bad which is the most important thing.

If these shoes could talk they’d write a bestseller I’m sure!

Although this month has been quieter than previous months, October is still my favourite month of the year for all sorts of reasons.

I’m a big winter fan, so I think October is the month where we finally see the weather change and the nights draw in. And that’s the perfect excuse to sip hot chocolate under a nice cosy blanket with the fire on. One of my regulars (thanks Romeo) bought me some hot chocolate over the summer and it was nice to try that, but I think you can’t beat a cup of chocolatey warmth on cold, dark nights. However, having said all that, I don’t think it’s been that cold of yet. Just mild and wet.

I like Halloween which is also in October. I don’t like it for trick or treating or anything like that or even dressing up, but I love the ghost stories that are synonymous with the event. I went on a ghost hunt at the start of the month which was amazing and I think I might have seen my first ghost, too! If it was paranormal then it wasn’t anything like I expected it to be. It wasn’t scary or frightening, it just looked like a normal person. A solid black silhouette that walked down the main room of the building!

I have another ghost event at the end of the month, so I’m looking forward to that and then I have a couple of ghostly things to look forward to next month.

I hope you’re all having a nice month, too.

Well, instead of focusing just on one topic, I thought I’d talk about a few different things for this month’s blog.

I’ve finally managed to get my tax return sorted for last year. I usually start it in May, but this year I don’t think I started it until June. I knew my accountant was busy sorting out all the grants this year, so I thought I’d be lazy and procrastinate.

And last week, I spent a small fortune organising social events for next year. I think I’ve gone a bit overboard as I’ve not been able to do much for nearly two years, so I’m making up for it.

I had a funny moment with my postman the other week, too. I had missed a parcel, so I’d scheduled a re-delivery. Then I had to change the date of a two hour booking with a lovely man, so my parcel was now arriving that same day. I could only hope my postie would come early, but needless to say he didn’t and he ended up banging on the front door in the middle of the booking. Talk about bad timing!

I also can’t decide on my hair colour and style at the moment. I’ve been a few different colours over the years, but I’ve been my current colour the longest. I think it suits me more than my natural colour to be honest.

Well, fingers crossed we have an okay winter with the virus and the weather. Much love to all my regulars and new people who have come to see me this year.

I’ve known this man for around five years, or should I say I know of him. I’ve always thought he was nice but as he wore a wedding ring, I thought nothing more if it.

Until the start of the year when I heard he’d split from his wife. I knew I had nothing to lose if I asked him out on a casual basis (I think it was on a casual basis, that’s how I wanted it to come across!) And he said yes, quite enthusiastically.

Nothing came of his answer though, so I thought nothing more of it. And then I bumped into him again a month later and he said he was still going to come round. You’d be forgiven if you thought I had brought it up again, but I did no such thing. By now, I thought he’d given a pretty clear indication of what his intentions were, so I didn’t think there was much point of going over old ground again.

I did however text him the following week to try and arrange a date, so he said he could come round one night after work or on the weekend if I was free. Again, keeping it casual I said that’s fine just let me know.

And as predicted I never heard from him again.

So never being one to chase I’ve managed to avoid him for the best part of four months. Which has been quite difficult considering he lives near me. But mercifully he doesn’t seem to be aware of his surroundings half the time and on several occasions I’ve walked past him and he’s been oblivious. So much so I’ve thought he’s been trying to avoid me as well.

Until last week he walked past me in town and said hello. We had a ten minute chat and then he sent me a random text to say it was nice to see me. And then whilst out watching the football with friends I saw him again and we kissed. Quite a bit.

He says to his friends he doesn’t want a relationship and that’s fine by me! I just have to find a way of telling him that.

I’ve never been a fan of them. And living in a touristy town we get swamped by people all the time, even when it’s bad weather.

But this bank holiday has to have been the busiest yet after the last year. You can hardly blame people wanting to make the most of the weather. After all, many doubt 21st June is going to happen as planned as the Government have always moved the goal posts. And judging by the swarms of people in the town on Monday, people have definitely had enough of this so called lockdown.

I think people would be more inclined to listen to the rules if we hadn’t had such success with the vaccines. I’ve had my first jab with my second one in mid July and I can’t wait even if I do suffer the side effects. Everyone who is vulnerable will have had the jabs by now, so even if infections do go up, the death rate may only increase slightly. And I do still think death rates from other causes will be higher.

So, I did what I usually do on bank holiday weekends and caught up with stuff I’ve been putting off, namely my tax return. I was thinking about cocktails, but the bar I was going to go to is closed at the moment, so I will have to wait until I can go somewhere else on the weekend.

I hope you all had a nice bank holiday and hopefully this weekend I’ll be drinking Pornstar Martinis somewhere.

Since this pandemic, I’ve been thinking of doing something different to go alongside this business. And after months of research on my chosen subject, I can proudly say I’ve managed to set up another career.

I’m not going to say what it is exactly, but I can run the two businesses alongside each other despite them being entirely different. I really am so pleased because the past year has enabled me to concentrate on doing something completely different, something in a field which I never thought I would do.

It’s also been interesting to learn my new job and while I don’t think I will ever give this up entirely it’s nice to have something else to do.

It’s Pancake Day tomorrow and for some reason I am quite excited about it!

I never usually celebrate it or Valentines Day for that matter, but this year there is something different. It’s probably due to lockdown and the fact I can’t do much else! I always seem to forget about this particular day.

I’m not going to make my own. Oh no, that’s far too much messing about and cleaning up afterwards. Instead, I am going to treat myself and order some in. They’ll be much nicer anyway and I will be doing my bit helping out other businesses.

I don’t have many takeaways as it is anyway. Maybe once a month if that. And during lockdown, I’ve not been tempted to have more even though a lot of people have increased their consumption.

I will probably have another takeaway for my birthday and that will be it until later on in the year.

So, whatever it is you’ll be doing tomorrow enjoy your pancakes!