Dear Diary

I feel that we are a bit behind with everything that has happened over the past week. This entry is to catch you up on the main highlights of the weekend. The next entry will have a little more zest to it, promise.

On the day of the camping trip, Karate Kid and I spent the morning packing and then grocery shopping. I ended up driving because my car is more reliable. The drive to the campsite took two hours and I enjoyed spending that time together. I was aware, however, that Karate Kid had said the night before that he had planned to divulge to me information about himself on the trip down, such as, his past relationships, why he doesn’t have a passport, plus other things that I’ve forgotten. This ‘promise’ was without any prompting or prodding from me. Of course, it didn’t happen and I cannot say that I wasn’t surprised. I couldn’t tell if he was just saying it the night before to pacify me, or if he actually had intended to open up to me but chickened out.

Instead of talking about himself on the way down, Karate Kid did feel the need to share some gossip. He told me that The Lawyer and his girlfriend had broken up. This was sad news because they seemed to get along relatively well. If you’ve read some of my earlier entries you may remember The Lawyer from The Group Weekend Getaway – Entry 22 way back in January 2017. Per my friend of confidence, allegedly, he was interested in me at the time but chose to pursue this (now ex-) girlfriend because he couldn’t tell if I was interested or not…..I was offended and decided that if they ever broke up he would never be an option because I don’t sit well with coming second to another woman.

Karate Kid had always been jealous of The Lawyer because we got along so well at dance parties and on the weekend getaway. Karate Kid was much lousier back then, which is why I didn’t care too much about his feelings so happily enjoyed the attention from The Lawyer. Things have changed in a year, though. So, after hearing this new gossip I paused and then took a moment to comfort Karate Kid that I had no intention of pursing things with The Lawyer now that he was single again. Karate Kid tried to appear that the thought hadn’t even crossed his mind. I was sure that it had.

Besides holding a grudge for being passed up for his (now ex-) girlfriend, I was also sure that The Lawyer was interested in another girl from the dance scene now, and Karate Kid felt the same……It all suddenly made sense – I had seen The Lawyer with this other girl from the dance scene when I was out exercising on 30/12/17 (but I didn’t report it to you, sorry, I didn’t think it was significant enough). I saw them both and went over to say hello. Out of politeness, I asked where The Lawyer’s girlfriend was and they both didn’t really answer me. Me, not really caring too much about her, didn’t think much of it and asked my next polite question. After I finished my walk they were still around and so we all went to have dinner at a small restaurant close by.

Another penny dropped…..I had invited both The Lawyer and his girlfriend to the camping trip and The Lawyer changed from ‘going‘ to ‘not going‘ maybe a month ago. I like to have clear numbers when organising events, so I changed his girlfriend to ‘not going‘ too as I assumed that she wouldn’t be coming…..but, after a few days I needed more numbers and I saw that the other girl from the dance scene was going (who I thought was friends with the (now ex-) girlfriend….)…..soooo I messaged the (now ex-) girlfriend to ask if she was still coming despite The Lawyer not going because her friend (the other girl from the dance scene) was still going. The (now ex-) girlfriend never replied to me and I didn’t think any less of her than I already did. Now I understand why….she didn’t want to tell me that they’d broken up and also that the other girl from the dance scene was her biggest competition at the moment.

Interestingly, Karate Kid told me that The Lawyer had suddenly decided to join us for the camping trip….he thought it was because the other girl from the dance scene was going…..how interesting. I was curious to observe their interactions that night at the campfire.

I realised as we were driving down that I needed to send an important text message whilst I still had reception….It was to the guy from dance that I don’t have a code name for yet. He’s the one that wanted to take me out for chocolate or dessert to celebrate my birthday. Last week I had agreed to meeting him the day after the camping trip for brunch…..that was when things weren’t going so well with Karate Kid, but we had since had a talk about expectations and it no longer felt appropriate meeting up with this guy…..of course, when we got to the campsite I didn’t have reception to send the message.

Karate Kid and I organising the three cabins that we had booked once we arrived. Because I had no signal on my phone Karate Kid was the main point of contact for our other friends. Slowly, one-by-one, everyone arrived. Some people didn’t arrive until well after dark. It would have been a scary drive up the mountain seeing as the road was sometimes next to cliff edges…but I guess you wouldn’t know in the dark.

We all cooked a barbecue dinner together and talked. The Lawyer and the other girl from the dance scene did interact, but only like friends. I must admit that I was mildly disappointed, but also understood that maybe it was ‘too early’ to let people know considering no one really knew that The Lawyer had broken up with his girlfriend. The other spanner in the works was that the other girl from the dance scene is moving overseas to work indefinitely as of June….I’m sad to see her go because I like her. Apparently, she had a bad breakup not that long ago and this is her way of starting fresh.

We all went to be relatively early so that we could be up in time to start the walking track before it got too warm later in the day. I found it really hard to sleep because I was too hot in the cabin but too cold to take the duvet off. My tossing and turning kept Karate Kid up for a lot of the night. We were sharing with three other people but I don’t think I woke them up. At one point he asked me if I was okay. I thought that this was really sweet of him. I said that I was thirsty and hot. He got up and searched around in the dark for some water and brought it back to me.

The next morning, I was the first one to wake up as I was officially the unofficial group leader. I dragged myself out of bed and got ready. My next task was to gently wake everyone in the three cabins so that we could start the walk on time. It was the same track that I did on 8th December (This Time I think It’s For Real – Entry 168)…you know, the track that I thought would only take 1 hour but ended up taking 3 hours and I was suffering by the end of it? This time, yes, this time, I was prepared. I was also committed to getting my troops from point A to point B and back, safely. There’d be no time to stop and smell the roses. I asked Karate Kid to carry extra water in case people in the group didn’t bring enough with them.

People herding is always difficult, especially in the early morning. We ended up leaving half an hour behind schedule which made me walk faster along the track. We needed to get back to camp before the day got too hot. There were two lookouts and one waterfall to see. At the first lookout everyone gasped at the views and took photos. It wasn’t until we were partway along the next segment of the track that Karate Kid realised we were missing two people….they had tried to call him on his phone but he no longer had reception to call them back.

Karate Kid was upset with me because we had lost them (I guess people need to blame someone and the unofficial leader is an easy target). There were thirteen of us in total and I was focused on leading. I didn’t feel that it was my responsibility to keep everyone together, especially considering that we were all adults and that the couple who were lost were likely making out or taking couple pics at the lookout and not paying attention. They had arrived last the night before and had made us 30 minutes late that morning by taking long showers. I know it sounds ruthless, but all the evidence points to it being their own fault.

Being unofficial group leader, I had to make the call. Do we leave two troopers behind missing in action? or do we go searching for them? Despite Karate Kid’s distress, I had to act in the best interest of the group – we would leave them behind. My reasons were that:

• They were a couple and were safe together
• We had no idea where they were and assumed that they were back at the start of the track
• We had no idea if they were coming to find us or if they’d decided to go home
• We didn’t have an extra 30 or 40 minutes to all go back searching for them. It was going to get hotter as the day went on and we needed to look out for ourselves, and
• We could send for help if we didn’t find them by the time we got back to the campsite.

We did make it to the waterfall at the end of the track after walking for 2 hours. We spent maybe 20 minutes there enjoying the scenery and resting. Just as we were leaving, the couple appeared on the track. They were sweating and irritated. Apparently, they’d stayed behind taking photos and then ran along the track to catch up. They realised that they were lost when they made it to the start of the track again. I was impressed at the good time they made in order to catch up with us.

On the way back, I split the group into two as we needed to empty our cabins for checkout. I ran ahead with two other ladies and the rest of the group took their time. We made it back in time for check out and then prepared a barbecue breakfast.

Poor Karate Kid had a sore back after the walk from carrying the 3 Litres of water that I’d asked him to carry for the three hour walk….I kind of felt bad about it. Especially because no one needed extra water so he carted it the whole way for no good reason. I told him that I’d give him a massage when we got home later that day.

 

Of note, Shy Guy and Nice Guy attended the camping trip. Nice Guy doesn’t show me as much attention anymore (he treats me more like a friend than a potential partner since realising that Karate Kid and I are seeing each other). Shy Guy still seems interested but my body language shows that nothing will ever happen whilst I am with Karate Kid.

We all eventually parted ways and started the journey home. Karate Kid and I were exhausted by the time we arrived to my place but I still made us lunch and gave him the massage that I’d promised (it was my fault that his back was hurting). We decided to have a nap so that we could go dancing that night. Before sleeping I sent a message to the guy I was meant to be meeting for brunch the next day:

“Hello XX 🙂
This is Anastasia. I hope that you’re having a nice weekend so far.
This wknd things have changed a bit. Karate Kid has asked me to date him exclusively. We have had a chat and he’s not at the stage where he’s comfortable for me to meet one on one with male friends. Dancing is still fine as we are all dancers and understand the scene.
I’m really sorry but I won’t be able to meet with you tomorrow, just to keep things comfortable for us all on the dance scene.
Thank you so much for the invitation, I really appreciated it and would have loved to share a birthday outing with you.
Looking forward to a dance with you tonight if you’re at the dance party :)”

He replied back in the early hours of the morning:

“Hi Anastasia 🙂 no worries at all i do understand! i must have missed you last night i came later on though. Enjoy your day and see you on the dance floor sometime soon!“

Karate Kid and I didn’t end up going dancing that night because we were too exhausted. Apparently, everyone else from the camping trip didn’t make it out dancing either that night. I didn’t need to explain to him why I didn’t end up going, I simply replied:

“Thanks XX 🙂 shall see you on the dance floor soon“

The next morning I made Karate Kid and I breakfast. We didn’t go for a walk because he seemed to be getting sick again. The last time I made him go for a walk when he was a little sick he ended up with a bad head cold for a few weeks….so I decided not to push him this time. That morning, he sent some message to friends and organised a lunch at Yum Cha for us with mutual friends who are a couple.

At the Yum Cha lunch they were both curious to know how long we had been seeing each other for. Karate Kid squirmed with the question so I took over and said that it hadn’t been very long at all. The couple were relieved to hear that it wasn’t old news and that there were still a lot of people who didn’t know.

Karate Kid did invite me to go with him for dinner with a group of friends of his. They were meeting because an old friend was back in town. I was flattered by the invitation, but I really wanted to go out dancing that night (priorities people). I told him that I’d relax at home and conserve my energy. Karate Kid was okay with this and said that he’d come back to my place afterwards so that we could go to dancing together. This surprised me, but in a good way, so I agreed with the plan.

At dancing, Karate Kid and I had the first two dances together. He asked me to dance a couple of times that night. Shy Guy asked me to dance a few times too. Do you remember Mr Lady’s Man? the star of A Moment For The Forgotten – Entry 146 in October 2017? Well, he was there and also asked me to dance one song. I hoped that he’d see me with Karate Kid and figure out that we were together.

Nice Guy didn’t go to that party…it turns out that he was having dinner with my girl friend that I’m trying to match him up with. He offered to help her set up her Nintendo so that we can have an (unofficial and unbeknownst to them) double date playing video games at her new rental apartment.

 

I’ve been in two minds about replying to The Millionaire as well. Technically, we were meant to meet up last week or on the weekend but I didn’t respond to his last message. He could be busy or he may think that I’m playing games. Seeing as Karate Kid and I have had a more serious talk it makes it less appropriate for me to meet up with certain guys, The Millionaire, being one of them. On the other hand, he is a long term friend who I enjoy having stimulating conversations with. I’m also proud – he should be following up with me, not the other way around.

 

Okay, Dear Diary, I think we can safely say that you’re up-to-date with most things that happened over the weekend!

Anastasia

 

 

IMAGE: [JANA GOUTHOVA]  123RF.COM