Sunday, Jan. 11, 2009 - 01:41

Alas, as is the probable result of having not written my diary since last weekend (due to tiredness - as has been indicated by the fact I slept in till half three this afternoon, despite only going to bed at a late but not ludicrous two a.m. this morning having been chatting online) here is a disjointed selection of points all of which are relevant to the past few days in some greater or lesser manner:-

1. Workwise - in a manner restricted to just stuff related to the work I have been doing - it has been an OK week. There's been a higher level of stress than I have experienced for the past few weeks, and I've had to have slightly mutually assertive 'discussions' with one of my bosses regarding an audit visit I am due to do next week in Scotland, and also regarding the results from an investigation I carried out (and the conclusions I drew). It's been OK though.

2. Regarding some of the interpersonal stuff though at work, it's been a little blargh in places. I've hardly spoken to JR as a result of some of the discussions I had with her sister last weekend. I guess I've just felt that JR has spread herself a little thinly and hence I've been putting in the 'usual' amount of chatty friendliness (i.e. texting her after work to ask how her day's been, and chatting to her a bit in the lab when I've had the chance between things I've been rushing around doing) but haven't been stressing when she's hardly returned my texts in any detail and has been online very little too. We had a bit more of a chat/banter on Thursday and I felt pretty calm about things - she was saying she's been pissed off and down about a situation with some bloke who has been annoying her.. Iassured her things would sort themselves out and kinda said she had to sort it out herself if it was making herself pissy.

3. Regarding the sister though, a lot more activity w.r.t. regular texting and long chats online most night till the wee small hours on some occasions. It's not been all that flirty, but it's been in depth and frank and intimate w.r.t. sharing confidences and stuff. I like the way things have developed into that sort of close friendship, even if it's different from.. say.. the way JR and I were close friends a couple of months back.

4. I was worried for a bit that JR's sister and the bloke she split up with last w/e would get back together, as she was vacillating and regretting a bit. In the end though she persisted in her steadfastness, he showed truer colours, and the split was sealed as irreprable. I chatted to her for a long while this evening, which was pleasant and slightly flirty in places (albeit amusingly on the same domestic 'we are a couple cooking for each other and tucking each other in bed' theme as I occasionally indulged with her sister!).

5. Andy Murray won the Qatar Open this evening, which was quite good. It's been not a bad (understatement) year so far from the Scot - he's beaten Nadal, Roddick and Federer (twice, I think), got two titles, and is unbeaten coming into the first Grand Slam of the season.

6. I think I need to come up with a thought-out viewpoint on pornography. I think I am of the age where if I am going to use it, I can't justify it via the old chestnut of it being 'what young men *do*'. I'm not wholly convinced by feminist viewpoints that women are being exploited (not all of them anyhow - one has to imagine that professionally produced porn uses professionally treated and paid actors and actresses, and most of these enter the trade willingly and are suitably rewarded), despite what an ex-paramour once said about her unpleasant observations/experiences working as make-up artist on a porn shoot. That said, I'm not wholly comfortable with the whole thing either w.r.t. the extent to which a lot of the action and focus is on fairly marginally 'normal' types of sex, and that the boundary is often straddled and crossed to a big extent. There's indulging peoples fantasies, and there's the fact that you are perhaps encouraging them by doing so, which is a problem where minds are weak and desires are abhorrant.

7. I watched the last episode of series 2 of 'The Book Group' and very mixed it was too. The second series wasn't as positively impacting when I first watched it, as compared to the first series. However, looking at it a few years down the line, there is a lot of good stuff in it. Mmm Janice and Dirka are fab though :-)

8. In the day's football, Wolves lost 3-1 at home to Preston, but remain on top of the Championship (albeit by only 4pts). Stoke played Liverpool in the evening game, which ended in a 0-0 stalemate. In the afternoon games Arsenal 1-0 Bolton (a late Bendtner winner), Aston Villa 2-1 West Brom (Villa moved into third after this lunchtime kickoff), Everton 2-0 Hull (eeeeasy), Middlesbrough 1-1 Sunderland (late equaliser conceded by Boro.. typical of them!), Newcastle 2-2 West Ham (sounds like it was a good game). Oddly for the top division, the games between Portsmouth and Man City, and between Fulham and Blackburn were both cancelled. Ooh was it a bit cold down south? Bloody Southern poofters!

9. Everything that you give in to, everything you'll ever need. Is locked up somewhere deep inside of me. And you gotta know, but more importantly. You've got to stay, and hold me while, we live this fantasy!

10. Ravens beat Titans 13-10 tonight in the AFC Div P/O. It's currently 7-7 between Falcons and Panthers in the 1st Quarter. Eagles play Giants and Chargers face Steelers in the morrow.

11. LISTENING TO:- Stuck some tunes on in the 'genre' of folk this evening, which gave me some nice tunes. Bon Iver has some pleasant stuff on there, and I liked a Leonard Cohen cover by some lassie which was on a magazine cover CD.

12. I didn't like the fact Norah Jones was somehow classed as folk on iTunes. Not 'cause I didn't like the record, but 'cause it wasn't what I wanted to hear.