Quick roundup

Facebook is officially evil and has eaten away at my minutes. I shall find myself homeless and penniless begging for free minutes at internet cafes, praying for someone to start a food fight or buy me a virtual cocktail that can decorate the all important wall. It is a bit sad, but it has taken stalking to a whole new level that cannot be good for my overal mental health and relationship tendencies in the real world. So I'm flirting with a number of unfortunate young men to ensure that I keep a good balance of real and virtual, and, well, keep an oar in. Plus I find that if there are many irons in the fire, as it were, there is less chance of me stuffing it up with any particular one of them. Cunning.

Activities to date - went diving at the weekend with J, who recently returned from the UK where he spent a couple of years dealing with not very nice family stuff. Once it got sorted he realized that it really does make sense to live in the sandlands, so he came back. Which is tremendous really as I can add him to my do-ers group now, veritable action types always good for an adventure or two. Anyway, good diving, amazing viz of more than 12m, and at the end of the second dive we sat on the ocean floor with about 6 or 7 turtles going about their businesss around us in the crystal clear waters, seemingly ferrying stuff to the mama turtle sitting in a sort of hollow in the coral. Amazing. However some sap had sucked his tank dry half way through the dive (I had 110 and j had 120 left by the time said sap had also sucked the dive guide's tank dry as well as he refused to surface) so we didn't get to stay and play with the turtles. Instead we went and sat on the boat, cleverly forgetting to apply more sun cream meaning that we are both now burnt. I have a bright red nose. I'm not sure what he burnt as i only read it on his facebook profile. See? A scourge.

On Friday we chilled out by the pool at M&Ds - Desert Palm. It is a really tranquil and beautiful place, and it was a lovely chilled fun and generally quality group of people, which made it really special. B kept doing this mini-cheshire-cat smug grin look thing, and letting out little happy sighs, which was both hilarious and really gratifying all at once. It is a very special feeling to share that kind of happy relaxation with a group of really good mates. We trooped back to the prentals house once the sun really had gone down, though I need some convincing that it was time to go. Nick & Ferg bbq'd, S made salads, and I supervised, very convincingly. I also organized the teams for Trivial Pursuits. I hadn't thought about it, but it is remarkably trickier to play with a game that is approximately 15 years old. Most of the arts questions are actually nearly impossible if you are under about 55. Still quite amusing though.

Continuing the working backwards theme - Thursday night saw a very similar group of us in Bahri Bar, one of our new favourite venues, sporting both a fantastic singer and a lack of offensive action in the volume department, meaning you can still actually talk. Does that mean I'm getting old? I think it does. Ach well. The occasional night out wearing school uniform and dancing outrageously to come on eileen and walk like an egyptian at Tim Cheddar's regular nights at the Lodge can offset my increasingly mature tendencies. Perhaps I used to occupy the middle ground and am now just moving to extremes? Discuss. Who knows?

Other than that, lots of work. Finally signed the evil scablands client, which is a joy as now they have even more reason to summon me up to the scablands at a moments notice. It happened today - got the call at 1130 that I needed to be there at 1. That is physically just possible, with zero down time between hanging up and starting the engine. Obviously that wasn't qutie possible so I limped on to the corniche at about 2.30ish, only to be foiled in my attempt to sit at the back of the meeting and facebook for the duration, so I actually had to pay attention and ponder whether a powder room is necessary for a two bedroomed apartment and whether or not that qualifies it as a premium property or only middle tier. I honestly thought I was supposed to be doing financial PR, someone is having a laugh. It's definitely not me, that I am damn certain.

I now intend to spend the coming weeks attempting to step away from the FB silliness, and getting back on track with gyming and blogging and other harmless pursuits that don't involve stalkerish behaviour. Bring on the winter when outdoor activities become viable again and the hormonal levels stop climbing the walls and come back down to safe levels. Can't happen a moment too soon!