My knee feeling sooooo good!

I woke up today with my knee feeling the usual pinch of pain/soreness from yesterday's basketball. Despite that, I elected to walk to work anyway.

My work day was ok. It started with the "what the hell am I gonna do?" feeling, but I soon busied myself with organising tomorrow's conference and answering enquiries throughout the day. I went to get a quarter chicken for lunch and ate it in the office, as usual.

I noticed that Nunjo didn't have lunch, so I went to give her a Flake. I said "last one...we start with Cherry Ripe next" which made her laugh. I was about to walk out but then she asked how my weekend was. I started to tell her that I washed, polished and waxed my car, but then her phone rang and I told her to take it, and walked out.

Our corner was kinda quiet today, with just Nunjo and Moira around. I can't help but feel that Moira and I have become a bit distant ever since she got the three week promotion over me, even though I do make efforts to joke and that. Also, while we were 'fighting' for it, I noticed she always tried to poke holes in my logic whenever I went to ask her for help. Geez.

Anyway, Clare and Mary were at court together. I can't help but feel a bit left out. Mary seems to favour Clare, and she can also be seen talking with Moira in her room with the door closed. Nunjo probably gets neglected as well, but I feel not as much as me, because I'm the only guy. I'm not accusing Mary of nepotism, but objectively speaking, if A and B are going for a promotion and the supervisor is always talking to A and not B, guess what it's gonna look like when A gets the promotion?

So yeah, lately I have been feeling neglected.

But anyway, somewhere during the day, my knee started feeling good. Like, really good. It felt 'loose', almost as if I had never had the surgery at all, and that the only difference was my mentality.

I went to the gym after work and did the bike, rowing, weigths, abs and lunges. Massive workout. I felt so good that, as I walked to the bus stop, I saw a bus and decided to run for it. I felt free.

I made it too :)

Kainan 1-2

Despite my late start to the day, I think I still got quite a bit done today.

At about 10am I went to the courts to test out my knee. I was pretty sure I could play today, but how effective I'd be was another question. Not long into it, it started to rain. I quickly did slides across the three point line and then went home.

I had a bit of a nap and then when my parents came back, I went downstairs to work on the car. I went to buy some wax first from Auto One, and then polished the right front side and then put the wax on. Then I drove to the gym and did rowing and abs.

I bought a black permanent texta to colour in bits of rubber on my car which had been scratched. I did the colouring in when I got back home. I think it looks ok.

I caught the bus out to Town Hall, caught the train and met up with Nick and Bo at Central. Having Nick back was definitely different in terms of dynamics. I found that I didn't have to put up with Bo's sometimes unfunny jokes by myself.

I tried to be interested and asked him about his trip and how he lost his wallet and that.

We were running a bit late, mainly because I got out of the house a bit late. We wanted Jim to pick us up from the station but he said he was already at the courts, so we walked. What slowed us down was Bo's thongs breaking apart, so he had to change shoes, and so did Nick.

When we got there people were just warming up, so we still had time. I started, even though I wasn't sure if I was even good enough to start. The only thing that kept me excited about this game was seeing how Nick and War would fare together.

The effect was instant - the other team got scared as soon as they drove and were confronted by Nick and War. I had predicted that, but the other thing I predicted was that we'd have no offense. We found it hard to get it to the big guys, and didn't really have any outside shooters.

We got called for some shit fouls early on. We actually had seven team fouls with seven points. We made a bit of a run at the end of the first half and it was within range.

I think we led at some point of the game, which was pretty good, cause the other team is undefeated (Aesthetics). But we seemed to fall in the second half, mainly due to Nick being in foul trouble. I really hate it when MJ or someone else calls off the 1-3-1...IT WORKS! STOP CALLING IT OFF!

Everytime we did it, we forced the other team into an error. So why stop it?

I thought I hurt my knee a bit with an abrupt stop, so got myself off, but then went back on when someone else wanted to come off.

I didn't score, which I think was pretty bad. I missed a fast break lay up and then screwed up another fast break. I need more practice, but at the same time, I am scared as hell about my knee.

Losing feels like shit. Bo, Jim, Nick and I went to Macca's afterwards. I really wanted to talk about the game, and Nick did too cause he was pissed off, but Bo always changed the topic by talking about something stupid like his kettlebells or Mike. I am beginning to get annoyed with him because after every game he always says he needs to get fit but does nothing about it. I hate people like that.

We did havea bit of fun on the train though, passing the ball around to eachother, making a game out of it by using only our right hand, or only our left hand.

Nick asked me how my knee was, I said it felt like it was going to hurt tomorrow. Which is half true...it hurts now.

It actually hurts like hell right now. It's that sore/tired feeling. I really really want to take a break for a few weeks and strengthen it by focusing on the bike and rowing. But at the same time, I want to work with Kainan, because we have a real shot at winning, if not this season, then next.

I just feel so angry right now about my knee. Imagine if I had never been injured. I feel like a disabled person sometimes...

Money Mode

Geez, it's been a bit since I've posted. Just been a bit busy lately I guess. I'll start with today.

Yesterday I bumped into Phil at the gym. I always find it a bit awkward to talk to him one on one, so tried to talk about Carry, HHH and Bush and all that. As I was going home, I thought more and more about money. And how to make it.

I'm not sick of my job, but I am sick of waiting for the fortnightly pay cheque and having a limit on my income. I just want to do...more.

To make things worse, I had a fight with my sister last night. It started as I was watching Mortal Kombat (btw, Liu Kang ends up with 10,000 year old Kitana???) and my sister wanted to use that puffer machine. I thought it was a bit inconsiderate of her to turn on the loud machine while I watch tv, and this time I decided to say something, so I asked if she could do it elsewhere, and she said no, and started swearing at me.

I took the machine away and she started hitting me, then my mom came out and she said I hit her. Fucking hell. Then she said she was making the mortgage payments, which really set me off, because it was like I was freeloading. Like, who pays for the car???

But I knew, deep down, I was the bad one because I had wasted so much money gambling and punting. That was probably the real reason why it hurt so much.

So anyway, I had heard about the creator of Red Bull finding the product in Thailand and then selling it in the Western World, and I figured that was something I could possibly do. So I wanted to get the guys together and pitch the idea to them over lunch, and organised a lunch for today.

I washed my car at around noon, then quickly went to the factory warehouse near Shuing's place because I had lost my black Reebok bball jersey in the wash and wanted to get another one. They didn't have it so I went to pick up Thai and Malay. Then we picked up Brain and I took them to an Indian restaurant near my work. I always pass it, and it's been there for at least 10 years, so figured we should give it a try.

We (or they) started off with some normal chit chat, and when Brain's upcoming work trip to Thailand came up, I thought it was the perfect opportunity to bring it up. I told them about the Red Bull story, maybe didn't deliver it as convincingly as I would've liked, but the fact that I could get them to agree on the stupidity of waiting for fortnight pay at least got them onto my wave length.

We eventually agreed to think of ideas to make it rich. Thai was fairly honest (as usual) saying that his ideas would most likely involve the internet as that was what he knew well. I said that was great because it was good to have different perspectives. He wanted to sell apps, I wanted something bigger. Brain was definitely in, but had no ideas. Malay was in with the crowd, as usual.

After that we went to Meet Fresh for dessert, and toyed around with the idea even more. I wanted to travel overseas next year to look for opportunities, but only really got to ask Brain about it, and he said yes, although not sure if he had the power to say no.

G messaged us asking what we were doing, so we ended up meeting him at Supacentre. We just browsed JB Hi-fi, and when G arrived he told me he saw Ele. I messaged her and she called me later saying I was rude for not saying hi. I explained to her that it was G who saw her and not me.

Then we went to Chinksford for a coffee. I felt kinda ripped off that after we all sat down with our drinks he told us they were closing in five minutes. Like he could've told us that before we fucking paid.

So we sat on the street for a while talking. I wanted to avoid the topic of business because G was around. I wasn't so concerned about G, but I didn't really want word getting back to Shuing.

Then we went to the car wash to wash G's car. Thai left while we were waiting cause he needed to go to the toilet. After washing his car, we went back to my car and I drove Brain and Malay home.

I am still in money mode, trying to think up ideas. I think I like my basic idea of taking something from the East and bringing it over here for sale - but what?

Kainan 1-2

Woooo!! Winning is such a good feeling! Even my knee is actually feeling good!

I played tonight despite feeling day-to-day (actually, more like minute to minute). Yesterday I went to the courts early to test my knee wearing a brace (very eager) and came away not feeling too confident. I also went to the gym to cycle to strengthen my knee. I then went to watch Real Steel, which was a decent enough movie.

This morning I washed my car, and felt that if I turned my right knee inwards, there was a bit of pain. I suspected it may be a torn MCL or something 'inner', but not really sure. When I tried it with my other knee I could feel something like that as well, so maybe I'm just paranoid.

I walked to the gym to focus on more knee exercises, and then went to the court wearing my brace, running up and down the court. I found myself to be pretty ok with running up and down, but not very confident changing directions. Hmmm. So still minute to minute.

I also went to the office to change clothes, and then came back home to watch Source Code, because Ele seems to want to talk about it. It was a pretty interesting movie, something I would've enjoyed in the cinemas.

I decided to suit up for the game. Initially my plan was just to show up as a back up, but now I felt ready to play. Lucky too, since we didn't have MJ, War and Nick (who came back to Sydney today).

I started, and the brace felt really good, it gave me the support and confidence I needed. But that wasn't enough to eliminate my fears as I had a fast break and blew the point blank lay up, but luckily Bert finished it off.

We were down at halftime, and didn't do too well in the beginning of the first half. Call me selfish, but I felt that we could only execute 1-3-1 when I was on the court, and that led to us playing better when we did that, so yeah, I think I made a good difference defensively. We caught up and won the game 35-31. Bo and everyone was saying the 1-3-1 worked, yet Blackhole surprisingly and selfishly said his three "cracked it" - referring to his three that broke the tie at 27.

I was surprised to hear the other team tell their guards not to panick, because they looked like tough little bastards. So I scared them? Wow.

Anyway, sooooo good to win!

Teddy Bears' Picnic / Kainan 0-2

Haven't blogged for sooo long, mainly because I've been out and about a lot.

Last Friday (not yesterday) I was supposed to meet up with Roy for some computer games, but I made up an excuse about being sick and called it off. Instead, I met up with Ele and we walked down the main street together.

As I was walking up the stairs to my place, I felt like I had made the right decision.

Then on Saturday, I went into the office to do a bit of work. I was considering punting or watching a movie afterwards, but in reality, I knew I was leaning very much towards punting. There was a shop I heard of which I wanted to try out, and I even got as close as to checking out the map for it, but alas, I was saved by a message from Malay suggesting lunch.

I went to pick him and Brain up and then we went to the shopping centre near me for lunch, and we all had KFC. It was good to catch up again, but we were so close that it felt like there really wasn't any catching up to do, it was kinda like we picked up where we left off.

I asked Brain about the gym, and he annoyed me by saying he doesn't go as much anymore because the people at work he used to go with no longer work there. Like, seriously, is it really that hard to do something by yourself??

After we ate we went to JB Hi-fi and had a browse. Malay was interested in a cover for his upcoming iPhone 4S, Brain wanted a new phone (but obviously never made a decision) and I wanted to get a new hard drive to have movies copied onto. I did end up getting it and paying with my credit card, despite not really budgeting for it, but I figured that $70 would cover more than the cost of movies I'd get in return.

After that we went to Thai's place for him to copy me some movies. He was very generous in doing so, and I had to return my car to my dad so I drove off and came back while the movies were copying. I felt like a freeloader so I bought six Cherry Ripes on the way back, and coincidentally bumped into Malay and Brain who were at a convenience store also buying stuff. I remember thinking "damn, these are good friends". It was like we had all been thinking of the same thing. I could just picture if we were with G, he'd be the one holding back.

So we went back to Thai's place with a bunch of food, and watched some Youtube videos while the movies were still being copied. I remember seeing his wife come and go with the baby, and I thought to myself how I didn't want a life like his (without any diisrespect) where I'd live in the back of my parents' house with my wife and child. I wanted a better life, and the thing was, it was easily achievable IF I didn't gamble and punt.

We all left in the afternoon, and I went home to change and went out to the city to meet Roy (yes, I did end up meeting with him after all, he had suggested meeting by ourselves, instead of with his friends like before, which I didn't feel comfortable with).

We went to a Vietnamese restaurant, where I had a drink and watched him eat his food like a slob. He was a nice guy, but like G, he could use a few lessons in table manners.

I must admit, my ulterior motive in coming out was to see if I'd have any chance of seeing Tin Tin again. So I asked if he had seen Joyce lately, and he said no but he would be seeing her next Saturday with Tin Tin as they were going to Jambaroo. I waited for him to invite me but it never came, and for the rest of the meal I was bored out of my mind talking about computer games with him while thinking of a way to get to see Tin Tin.

We went to a nearby internet cafe afterwards and played Command and Conquer for nearly three hours. I was quite into it, although I think he got bored after the second hour as he suggested another game, but we couldn't find anything suitable so we returned to Command and Conquer.

We walked to our usual bus stop after that, and on the way I brought it up again. He had said earlier that he might need to rent a car for the trip, so I said if he needed a driver then I could be it. He didn't say anything, and so I was pretty sure I wasn't going to get an invite. Bastard.

Anyway, I've now decided that it was probably a stupid idea to meet up with him in the first place, as he is the sole link which identifies me as the user on the forum. So I'm gonna try to avoid him from now on.

Sunday
I was about 15 minutes late in picking up Ele for the Teddy Bears' Picnic. I drove to her place and parked downstairs while I texted her. Gosh, I felt so...I don't know, but here I was, picking up a girl I still liked, who was married.

We drove to Bill's place, and had some on and off chat during the drive. She remembered that I hadn't eaten breakfast, and was mindful of it and suggested stopping at Macca's, but I figured we were making good progress so I could eat later.

Bill's place was kinda nice. It was situated far off the main road, but the block of apartments there were really new and I could picture that place as one of my dream places to live in as a bachelor. He had a car accident the day before, hence why he couldn't drive.

We drove to the race course, which wasn't that far away. We parked next to this lady who parked way too close to the line and didn't bother moving her car, so it was a bit of a squeeze for Ele to get out. I thought "damn, if this was the type of people volunteering, then it wasn't going to be a pretty day".

But I saw that it didn't affect Ele, as she happily strolled through the entrance as we were trying to find our way to the registration place. When we found it, we lined up with other volunteers to sign up. Ele was pretty excited when it came to picking up our pink shirts and red caps. She suggested we swap phones for the day and take photos of eachother, so we took a few photos of eachother with our new shirts on.

Bill wasn't in our group, so we looked for our own face painting group, and found them with relative ease. I was expecting everyone to be "YAY! WELCOME!!" but they sorta just stayed within their own groups while Ele and I stood around. Finally the lady in charge of our group came around and led us to our spot where we'd set up the stall.

From there it was a bit easier to talk to some of the other people as we talked about how to set the place up and what we would do. We had met this guy earlier who seemed to be standing around awkwardly, called Ben. So Ele and I welcomed him into our mini group. I was surprised at how many girls there were there, and not just 'females' but girls who would fall into the 'dateable' range. It was like I had hit the jackpot, and couldn't decide which girl to 'target' because there were so many.

Ben and I had silently taken the role as queue marshalls, with me being a little more active in recruiting and welcoming customers at the front. It started off just a tad slow but things picked up rather fast. There was this one girl who was quite cute, who hadn't had a chance to paint a kid's face yet, and who I was always trying to get a kid to her but somehow the kid would always detour or get cut off by another volunteer. So I thought we may have had a thing going there, but I found it hard to approach cause she was within a group.

I could see Ele was having a tonne of fun, even though her first kid was crying, lol. There was a 'couple' there by the name of Elaine and Tim, who I thought were just really close friends, cause he acted kinda gay and she was always touching him, but Ele said they were a couple. If I was a bit younger, I would've thought she'd be almost my perfect type - not too attractive, but pretty, and very very outgoingly friendly.

It was kinda hard work to stand and walk around in the sun marshalling the kids, but it was good to see everyone having fun, especially Ele. I even bumped into Eliza from work, and I was hoping she wouldn't have that suspicious mind of me being at an event like this and working in the areaa which I work in.

After a long long time, Ele, Ben and I went for lunch. It was a late lunch, since others had already gone, and Bill couldn't wait for us. I was hoping for some hot food, but had to settle for a sandwich and drink. Elaine and Tim later joined us, and I found myself being a little shy around Elaine. After lunch Elaine suggested walking around the stadium, but Ele got stopped by some friends/colleagues when we started, so Ben and I just tagged behind Elaine and Tim. It was kinda fun to see everything, and I definitely had no regrets going even though at first I was a bit reluctant.

When we got back to our stall, there wasn't too much to do so I finally got a chance to sit down and rest my knee. I realised that by now my knee was aching with that 'tired' feeling.

Earlier I got to paint Ele like a cat with pink paint, and she looked really cute. She had also painted a star on me. Now I was painting a smiley face on her wrist. I also got a girl to paint a bee on my arm, hehe. That was when I got to flirt a bit with one of the girls, who was playfully teasing me about painting. All day I had thought she was a bit stand-offish, but here she was teasing me - it fed a little to my confidence that girls were most of the time defensive rather than stand-offish.

At the end of the day we all packed up rather quickly, then Ele and I went inside to wait for Bill. We drove back to Bill's place and Ele wanted to go in and have a look around, and they were talking about financing the property and all that. I admired his place and kept telling myself that this was what I should save up for, not stupid gambling and punting. However, I was quite surprised when Bill said that his interest payments alone were $2,500 - I thought there was no way I could afford that.

The drive back with Ele was interesting, as we talked about my finances. She really wanted to know what my money went to - if only she knew. I knew I was getting close to fire so kept quiet and tried to change topics. But I could tell she was pretty intent on helping me, which I appreciated and knew she was a good friend.

I dropped her off at home and then went to pick Bo up. I felt a bit weird, it was like I had to shift modes from Ele to Bo. I was tired, but excited at the same time from the earlier festivities.

Although I had brought my uniform and shoes, I knew I wasn't in physical form to play, as my knee was still hurting. It was a little painful to watch from the sidelines as we were beaten by a team I was sure we could beat. Having War on our team made a huge difference as he adds a lot of size. One thing that annoyed me, and I saw this coming, was Jim. The other team would cherry pick, so I asked him to drop back to cover it, and he didn't like it because it took him out of the offense. Like I said to Bo before, Jim is not a team player.

I wanted to stay and do duty but Bo said he had to go because of his assignment so we left and I drove him back home.

Kainan: 0-1

On Sunday I did the unthinkable. After bumming around at home, I secretly hoped my parents would come back in time for me to go to the casino. But I wished they hadn't. I drove off to the casino, wanting to win back the $300 I had spent the previous few days.

I withdrew $700 and played colour. After the first two spins, I was up $100 something. I should've left. But I kept playing and hit an unlucky streak. Not only that, but I missed a really good streak. Fuck.

There was an old lady who was just sitting there and not playing. She pissed me off. Probably because I was losing.

I walked out of the casino feeling like shit.

I drove home and got ready for the game. I met Bo on the train again. He asked me about Jim's friend, Kim, which I knew he would. I said she wasn't my type. We also talked about his pending 10,000 word assignment.

We got there at about 5:30pm. It was a buzz to be back at this comp. I saw the bald ref who looked the same after all these years. Carter waved to me as he lined up during a free throw.

Soon, Alex came, then Jim, then MJ and Bert. That was it. No blackhole either. We looked at the other team warming up, and they were all taller than us. We didn't even have a ball to warm up with. For some reason, MJ called off the 1-3-1 because they were bigger than us. In hindsight we shouldn't have done that. In hindsight I should've been more assertive.

We had the bald ref. I went up to him before the game, held his shoulder and said "I see you've been keeping fit".

We got off to an ok start, trailing not by much. The one time we did run 1-3-1 we forced a turnover. But by halftime, we were down by a considerable amount. I had also missed two free throws badly.

I tried to play harder in the second half. I hit a long jumper (fluke) and had a floater rattle out on me. I chased down a ball and ran the fastbreak down the court, leading to two free throws for Bo. Although it was clear we weren't going to be victorious, I still wanted to make a game out of it.

Then when I caught the ball on the left side, I drove baseline and jumped. I had nowhere to go. Three guys converged on me and luckily, it was a foul. But I felt like I took a hit to my right knee. I didn't land badly or anything, it was just the impact of three guys jumping at me. I hit both free throws and played the rest of the game, silently swearing at Jim for wussing out on the bench.

I remember during one moment on defence, I was thinking about my casino loss earlier. Great, so much for focus.

I felt so terrible after the game. Like I said to Bo, I don't think I could take two losing seasons in one season. I felt so down.

Jim, Bo and I went to Macca's. I wanted to talk about the game but it was clear they didn't. Bo and I caught the train back. I went home feeling like shit.

On Monday I woke up, and my knee was in pain. Not too serious pain, but just like it had taken a big hit. The feeling is kinda hard to describe. It's almost like the initial twisting the knee feeling, but there was no swelling, which I think is a good sign. It hurt to walk, but I wasn't limping. It hurt to stretch and straighten it.

The pain got a little bit worse as the day went on. It got so bad, that I went to the gym during lunch just to use the bike. I had an inkling that it would make my knee feel better, and it did. It was like medicine for my knee.

I went to the gym again after work.

Today, I woke up at around 1am. The last image I had before waking up was seeing a message on my phone from Naby. It seemed so real that I went to my phone to check it. But nothing.

My knee felt a little bit better today. Now it just feels like it's tired x 10. I had to sit in for Bec in her trial today, just playing telephone calls from CDs. Luckily nothing went wrong. I couldn't help but keep thinking about Naby.

After work I went to an internet cafe and tried to play Command and Conquer, but it didn't work so I played some other games before going to the gym. Can't believe I had time to do that despite staying back at work until 7pm.

Oh yeah, so last night there was a program on Four Corners on brothels and human trafficking. I read about it on the forums first, then eagerly watched it on my phone to see if there was any footage of me walking into shops. It was a real scare. I could picture myself handing in my resignation the next day. Words cannot describe how relieved I was when the program finished.

Also, how coincidental do you think it is that my knee problem comes again on the very same day I lost a chunk of money gambling? Is the devil trying to tell me something?

Kainan: 0-1

Feeling very, very frustrated right now. I feel like a loser, and don't know how I'm going to deal with losing twice every week.

I feel like punching walls. Seriously.

A hangover of girls

Wow, so many girls this week. It's almost unbelievable.

Wednesday
For some reason I felt really stressed at work. I just had that feeling behind my eyeballs like they were going to burst into tears all day. So I was a little bit relieved when Turk unexpectedly came to ask me out to lunch. I'm not sure what her motive was.

We went to the pasta shop on the corner near our office. There are two Asian girls there who are quite attractive. I think I have inadvertently stared at one of them before from the outside, so maybe they recognised me. I say that because I got a bit of a 'cold' vibe from one of them as I ordered. Or maybe it's just me.

Anyway, we went to Hyde Park and sat near the water to eat and talk. We talked about work and our careers. She asked if I planned to stay here or go to the bar, be a faimily man or be focussed on my career. I actually told her that I envied Steve, because he had the job, and the family. She seemed to appreciate what I was saying.

Back at the office, I had previously cancelled on a dinner and movie organised by Olga for our team, because I forgot our bball season started on Wednesday. Turns out Nunjo cancelled as well, because she had to work late with Lincoln. Ogre made fun of her saying she should drive him out to dinner. At first I felt a bit...threatened, but later when Lincoln arrived and I saw him in Nunjo's room working, I told myself that the way I felt was silly, merely hyped up by Olga seemingly dirty mind.

After work I met up with Ele again, as she had one more document for me to sign. I took her to Y2K and we shared some curry fishballs and I had a dessert as well. She told me about her past as a girl in her early 20's, who enjoyed clubbing and had smoked but never got addicted. She also mentioned her boyfriend cheated on her.

So yeah, we got quite 'deep' in terms of her revealing her past to me.

After that I had to go back to the office to change. I saw that the lights were on so people were still on the floor. I saw Nunjo and Lincoln working away, and once again told myself that Ogre is just an idiot for saying the things she says.

But when I approached the change room, I saw that Genie was still in her room working. Hmmm...that may explain why they're not humping away in their room. Ok ok, so I admit, my mind isn't the cleanest after all.

Genie and I talked a bit, and I closed the door when I told her how slow DS had been in forwarding me an email despite being at his desk when he received it, and only sent it to me when I walked past his room, lol. I closed the door even though no one else was around just to be safe. Then while we were talking, Nunjo came in. She told me she was going out to dinner with Lincoln and asked me to message that to Ogre. When she left, Genie gave me a "wtf?" look and told me not to, and also brought up again the fact that Nunjo last time shifted her sentence matter onto me.

Yeah, I really don't know why Nunjo asked me to do that. And now my perception of her changed. Homewrecker? I knew there was a reason why a decent looking woman at 33 was still single.

Anyway, I went off to bball. As I approached the meeting point, I saw a guy sitting on a ledge. I saw that he was black, not nothing else. I thought it would've been funny if that was Any cause we used to meet here. Later on when I walked by him, it turns out that it was Any! We chatted a bit, he said he was just hanging out, wanted time out of his room, then Bo arrived and I thought I sensed a bit of tension there. Bo must've thought Any would be playing.

So Bo and I went to bball together, don't know where Phil was as he wasn't answering his phone. I told him about my upcoming date with a Japanese girl from Oasis (Nolly) and he thought she'd be ugly because she didn't provide a picture. On the way there, I may have disclosed a little too much to Bo. He said he would be paying off his debts sometime next year, and I said I would be in January or February. He asked me what I had spent my money on and (jokingly?) asked if it was escorts. I said "yeah, triple A" and then diverted it with a Mike joke, which always seems to work with Bo.

It was a little refreshing to see the beginning of the season, despite the last one only having ended a few weeks ago, and also despite the fact that we'd face a sure loss because we had lost white Mike and were without Nick.

Before the game, Angelo pulled me aside and, in his friendliest tone possible, almost pleaded with me to take the ball closer to the defence before passing, lol. Ok, that was enough to get the message through.

One and Phil started on the bench. To our collective surprise, we actually kept ourselves in the game for the first 10 minutes - without any scoring from Angelo. His friend got some baskets, and Bo got some baskets. Despite the other team being bigger, I actually thought we had a chance.

Then they had a guy come on who just destroyed us totally. He was soooo fit, he ran from end to end of the court with ease, scoring bucket loads at a time.

They even pressed us at the end with a 1-3-1. I managed to draw a foul by running into a defender, which sent me to the line, and I hit one free throw.

I got that feeling again where, we were just so out-beaten that I felt like I wanted to take them out. Hmmm.

Bo, Phil and I caught the train together. We were talking about the other team when that guy arrived. He said hi to us. I was like, damn him for being so friendly making it hard to hate him, lol.

Thursday
I was so angry with myself for being 'unfit' (compared to that guy) that I went for a run at lunch. Ran up to KGV with differing paces. It felt nice, but I walked back to the office.

After work I got ready to meet with Nolly. I changed into my nice pants, put on my nice shoes and my new dark purple tie. Daaaaaayum.

It was raining a bit so I took my umbrella and headed over. As I approached, I saw a girl standing there on her mobile. I thought "if that's her, maybe I can leave". But it wasn't her. A short moment later, she called. I looked to my right and she was there, and we both knew who we were.

She was probably better looking than I expected, mainly because I had lowered my expectations. I wouldn't have picked her as Japanese, but her accent seemed genuine.

I asked her if her name was "Nolly or Norri" and she said either, that they are the same. We started walking down the street. I asked her what she does and she said she is a massage therapist, and studies beauty therapy. You could imagine what my mind was running off to by now.

I opened my umbrella because there were a few drops, but she said it was ok so I closed it. I took her to that restaurant where Fat Pat and us had dinner. The place was a bit empty, maybe because we were early, so it made me question whether I even needed to book a table. But I guess it showed good preparation.

We sat at a booth, and I noticed from earlier that she had several bags with her. Now I could see that there was a towel and several bottles of lotion inside, so guess her story of beauty therapy holds up. Also, maybe it was because she had just come from school like she had said, but she wasn't really dressed for a 'date'. It seemed like she hadn't really 'prepared'.

I tried to inject some fun into the dinner by ordering the water slide and the roulette dish, but she wasn't really up for it, which was cool. We decided on the dishes, and I was like "it's soooo much easier ordering with a Japanese person!" which was true, lol.

We talked about her work mainly. She talked about her previous boss who was crazy, and her current boss who is not crazy but just panicky. She said she works three days a week. I kept thinking that maybe she was a ML but she later disclosed that it was a massage shop in a shopping centre in Burwood, and I am fairly sure the ones in the shopping centres are legit. One thing I noticed was that her hands were 'rough', the type of hands that become apparent when they have gone through too much manual labour.

She said she is living in shared accomodation, and that her family is in Japan. When we learned that we each had cats, the conversation became much more lively and funny, as we joked about the habits of our cats, and she said she had a cat once that managed to scare a dog, lol.

I'm not sure if she had a cold or something, but I noticed she was always, like, squeezing or tweezing her nose with her fingers. Also looked down a lot, not too much eye contact.

To my slight disappointment, we didn't talk about me much. I reckon around 80-90% of the dinner was talking about her. Not sure if that's a sign of selfishness or disinterest.

She did say she was going to Japan next Friday for three weeks to attend a friend's wedding and to arrange her visa. I was thinking "god, why are all the girls I meet going overseas?" She also said that she only intended to stay here for a few years.

One note: the waitress serving us was kinda cute, but other than that observation, I didn't pay any more attention to her. Why is this relevant? Keep reading.

I also noticed she had two phones, which only served to strengthen my suspicions that perhaps she was a WL or ML. But it turns out that one is her Japanese phone used to organise work in Japan.

We had that dish where we had to cook it, and I must say, she did a much better job than we did last time. It even tasted better, and it was cooked faster. Amazing.

We pressed the button for the bill, and then her Japanese phone rang. She was on it while the bill arrived, so I thought it was a good way to avoid fighting over the bill. I paid it, which was cheaper than I expected, only about $60-ish.

We had talked about dessert and I said there was a place nearby, so we went there. We went in and had some ice cream. She said she really likes ice cream, and I noticed she finished it fairly quickly.

We talked about technology in Australia compared to Japan, and she said she needed to buy a new laptop and would do so in Japan.

We were probably at dessert for about half an hour. I went to the counter to pay, and it was just $20. Maybe it's something I picked up from the date with Caz, but I kinda expected her to offer to pay at least for the dessert. Never mind I suppose.

I walked her to Town Hall and confirmed that she was leaving next Friday. I said we should go bowling when she comes back (she had said before she likes bowling) and she said yes, that she comes back in November.

And so, with that, my fourth date from Oasis concluded.

Friday
In the morning I had to do a mention for Bec. I was a bit taken by surprise because I had only gotten to the office at 9am and I really needed to go to the toilet. Also, I had just changed into my 'wear and tear' black pants which meant I'd need to change again.

But everything went ok, as I met Goh from the other side and we got a date from the Court. Then the rest of my day was a bit bludgy. I swear I feel like I've been slacking off the entire week. Am I burning out, or have I become a public servant slacker?

Anyway, after work I was to meet a guy from the whoring forum. I know, it's strange, weird, and sad. I don't know why I agreed. His forum name is 'RoyalFlush', and his name is Roy. I actually have never really paid much attention to his posts, but I did pick up some similarities between us, in that we weren't always necessarily in the game for sex, and we always created off-topic discussions.

I was actually second guessing my decision right down to the last minute. I even asked myself whether this was even legal.

Is what you talk about on the forum illegal? No.

Then it's ok to meet him.

A small part of me also thought maybe he was an undercover cop. I could just see myself in a police cell now, embarassed, and career finished. You could see the headline now: "Men meet eachother off internet brothel forum". Sounds great.

I got changed into my casual gear and went to Chinatown. I saw a triad looking bloke with a friend on the phone. I thought if that's him, then I'm getting the hell out of there, which gave me an idea - next time I meet someone, anyone, I can just stand from a distance and have a look at them first before committing.

Anyway, he called and we found eachother behind a candy stall. He was very different from the triad bloke I had seen earlier. My first impression of the guy was "whoa, he's ugly", but as I heard him speak in his Indonesian accent, I could tell he was a soft, friendly guy.

We went to a restaurant nearby upstairs where we had gone with Ele and co. after our cherry picking trip. It was a bit awkward at first - I wasn't sure what he wanted to talk about, how open he'd be about things on the forum, and what topics I should avoid (obviously stuff like where exactly do you live and work).

I thought it was almost like a man-date as we sat at a table for two facing eachother with wine glasses. We both ordered the steak and had a side of fried fish.

We got a bit of background info, apparently he works for himself or his dad's business making labels for water bottles. I must admit I was a bit frank about things; I had gone into this thinking we were both anonymous so we would be free to make confessions.

But he did refuse to answer one question, which was where his regular girl works. Fair enough I suppose, I sure as hell wasn't going to tell him about Naby. I thought, if he asked, I'd tell him about Jenny/Emily and Lily and use them as my 'present' regulars.

We also talked about business and shares. I found it slightly refreshing that he had a business mind. I am a lawyer, which means I am an employee, so I think like an employee. This guy thought like a businessman, always trying to come up with ideas on how to make money, which I admired.

He told me he was meeting a WL and her friend tomorrow for dinner and bowling and invited me. I was a bit surprised, and flattered. He made it sound like he wanted to check me out first, and now I had passed whatever test he had so he felt trusted enough to invite me. I thought it'd be interesting, because she may be hot, and I've never really out with a prostitute before. Also, I thought it'd be kinda ironic that I'd spent the last 18 months and an enormous amount of money on trying to a dinner with Naby, but here I was going to meet another WL without even having met her first!

I mentioned to him my date the night before and suggested showing him the restaurant because it was a nice place to take girls. So after dinner we headed over. The cute waitress greeted us, and Roy told her we were only here to look. She said she remembered me. We had a look at the menus and then walked out. She was cleaning the tables, and asked us where we were going. I said nowhere and asked her if she knew of any good places. She said "here". I said I'll be back and she said "I'll wait for you".

As we walked off, Roy said she may have been interested. I dismissed it as her wanting a return customer.

We went in search of a dessert place, and made some comments about some hot girls who were around. But when I showed him Y2K, he didn't seem too interested and suggested ending the night. Alright, I was fine with that. I wasn't sure if that was genuine or if he had changed his mind about me, but I wasn't going to force him to do anything.

He said he was walking to Central so I said I'd walk him there even though I had to go back to my office to get my bag and stuff. When we got to the end of the hobo park, we stood there talking finally about topics relating to the forum. It was more of a philosophical discussion on whoring which touched on money, but it was a bit of a bonding session I suppose.

I was ready to part when he suggested we go play Command & Conquer. I hadn't been to an internet cafe for ages, so I was all up for it. We found one on the main street and went up. It was the worst customer service ever. We paid and the guy just told us to go to any computer, which we did, but we couldn't get it to work so had to go from computer to computer, and when Roy asked the guy for help, he didn't get any, instead just sitting there playing on his mobile phone.

We spent about half an hour getting things to work and then played Command & Conquer and then played Counter Strike. It was fun, I think I'm addicted to Command & Conquer now.

After that we walked back to Central where we parted when our buses came. Interesting night.

Saturday
Met up with Bo on the train to bball. We got on at different stations and tried to meet on the train but we got into different carriages, and there was a guards compartment in between us so we had to wait until the next stop (which was more than halfway through the trip) before I could get out and go to his compartment, lol.

We talked about my date with Nolly, and he said I should go for the cute waitress lol.

Jim was at the station to drive us to the courts. When we got there, no one else from our team was there so we played a game first, and then Alex arrived, and when the blackhole arrived I drew up our 1-3-1 play and we began working on it.

It didn't work so well against the first team, but it really took the next team out of it's routine. Kenneth was taking the ball up and was absolutely shell shocked at what we did. He jumped up to pass, and when he saw there was someone to intercept it, he came back down with the ball (travel) and called a foul. I was just glad it worked.

It worked for the rest of the session, getting us turnovers and interceptions and easy baskets. The team thought it worked great and I was glad that we had found something we believed in. This was actually quite important - if I had suggested this play and it didn't work, I would lose cred within the team, and we might even give up trying to organise anything at all.

After training, Bo asked me to go with Jim to meet his friends, wanting to set me up with a girl called Kim. I would've preferred Bo to come along because every social situation is easier with him, but he had to go home to do his assignment.

I was a bit reluctant at first, but he kept asking so I relented. My main concern really was because I was to meet Roy for the dinner at 6pm.

So Jim drove me to Cabra. I was a bit nervous meeting a whole bunch of people I didn't know, but at least I was with Jim. As we walked through the busy streets of Cabra, we bumped into his friend Steve who was also looking for the coffee place. It was a little awkward at first cause Jim didn't introduce us, but then he did and we got some chit chat going. He seemed like the really funny, always joking type of guy. He said he used to play ball but tore his tendon in his foot.

Anyway, we eventually found it and I was surprised at how big the group appeared to be. There were like three other guys and about five girls. What made it worse was Jim saying he didn't know all of them.

Anyway, I was introduced to the group. Two other guys were called Jimmy, so that was easy to remember. I didn't get the name of the other guy. I sat next to Kim, who seemed like the loud and little naughty type. Next to her was Mandy who was kinda cute, and then there was another girl and a girl called Thuan who was kinda hot.

I talked to Kim a bit, she is a lawyer in the Cabra area. Apparently she works Saturdays and after work she always organises these get togethers. It started raining a bit so we moved inside. Seating arrangements weren't the best here because I was at the end of the table with the three Jims and next to Kim.

Jim spent a bit of time talking to me about his iPhone and showed me the game Angry Birds which I have become addicted to now. The other Jims started being a bit more talkative. One of them seemed a bit stand-offish, but not sure if that was because his English was bad.

Then they decided to go to Yum Cha, so we walked in the rain to the restaurant. I sat in between Jim and Steve. I kept stealing glances at Mandy and Thuan. Mandy seemed like a nice girl, but she was incredibly short. I didn't realise how short she was until we went on the walk to the restaurant.

Towards the end Steve started talking about world finance and the whole Europe/Greece thing, and the guy whose name I cannot recall chipped in, so the whole table conversation was just that. I noticed that this became incredibly boring for the girls as they were all silent. Hmmm. Silent lesson learnt - stay away from money, it is boring with most girls.

After that we left and most of the group parted. Thuan wanted coffee, but I really had to go and Jim knew this so we left. He was going to drive me to Granville station but I said I needed to go to the toilet so asked him to drop me off at Westfields Parra. I relieved myself there and checked my phone. Roy had sent me a message asking if I go to Granville much. I thought he meant if I was ok to go to Granville for dinner tonight, so I said yeah, and he said the WL works in Granville and he didn't want to risk her recognising me, so he uninvited me. I said that was cool but I explained the misunderstanding and he re-invited me again. I thought it would've been pretty bad if he knew I was in Parra right now, even though I hardly go there.

So I caught the train and bus back home. I was really short on time. I had a shower and got changed. I was thinking I might need to catch a taxi, but luckily a bus was there when I went downstairs.

Roy called me as I was heading towards Chinatown, saying he was already there. I walked through and made my way to his end but couldn't see him. I called him and turns out we were really close to eachother.

One of his friends Henry was already there. We talked a bit, he looked like a nice, decent intelligent guy. He was an engineering student. They spoke in Mandarin to eachother but he could speak fairly well English to me.

I was thinking in the back of my mind what this WL would look like. On my way there I had seen a girl who looked like Naby. Or maybe she didn't, but I'm just going through that phase where a lot of girls will look like her.

Finally the girls arrived. Apparently they had arrived before but they went off looking for a restaurant. Roy introduced them to Henry and I. Joyce was the one who is the WL and was Roy's friend. She was short, a little chubby, or at least 'normal' weight. The first thing that struck me was that she did not look like a WL. I mean, she looked very normal and average. She wasn't even the type who wore a short skirt with cleavage hanging out. She was just very...normal.

Her friend was Tin Tin - long hair, thin and big ear rings. I wondered if she was a WL. They seemed a bit shy, as they hid behind Henry and spoke amongst themselves, while the three of us talked. Then the last friend, Tim, arrived. He was a guy about my height, probably a few years younger, white, spikey hair and glasses. When I first looked at him I analysed him to determine if he was a threat. At first I felt he was, but that feeling wore off throughout the night.

So we walked up the street and came very close to that Japanese restaurant where I took Nolly. We stood around a bit trying to decide where to go. Finally we chose a hot pot place and went upstairs. I was a bit conscious of the seating arrangements, mainly because the only person I knew was Roy and everyone spoke Mandarin.

I walked last, because I didn't want Roy to think I was trying to cut his grass. The girls had taken a seat on one side of the table, and Tim and Henry had taken the other side. To my surprise, Roy sat next to Tim, leaving me to sit next to Joyce.

Wow, I'm sitting next to a prostitute!

They exchanged some words in Mandarin to the waiter and then the guys went to get food from the buffet. I went as well since it'd give me something to do. We all returned and took our seats again.

At first, there wasn't much conversation involving me. I sat there not understanding one word of Mandarin, but to be honest, I was kinda used to it for two reasons: 1) I'm an introvert, and find interest in just sitting amongst people; and 2) I've been through this many times with Ele's group.

Somewhere in the middle of the dinner, Henry started getting me involved in the conversation. He was asking Tin Tin where she thought I was from. He said she would have three guesses. I confirmed with them what they were talking about and said she could have five guesses, lol. She really tried to think, and got the first one wrong. But I think Joyce ended up getting it right.

God bless Henry for getting me involved.

But it didn't stop there. He then asked her to guess what my occupation was. One of the guesses was police, and I said "very close" and Joyce's next guess was immigration, lol.

Tin Tin seemed a bit shocked when she found out, and even more shocked when I told them the case of the guy pulling out an eyeball.

Despite her poor English and my poor Mandarin, we managed to have a bit of a conversation with the help of Joyce. Sometimes Joyce would lean back so we could talk and she would translate. Tin Tin told me she was a singer and said there weren't many places to sing. She also said her time was limited as a female. I said she could be the first "old singer" which made everyone laugh lol.

I find that I am starting to build a strange attraction towards girls who can't speak English. It is soooo cute! At one point she wanted to say something, thought about it, and then just said "I know". I said "I know too" which just made her laugh.

There was a point where all the guys left the table. I decided this was my opportunity to chat with them a bit more. I was very careful not to ask Joyce what she did. I just asked where in China they were from, and how long they'd been here. Joyce said she'd been here seven years, and Tin Tin said she'd been here for one.

I found Tim to be a bit quiet. He reminded me of Brain. I did try to get him involved, by telling him he had to eat more, as he seemed like he hardly ate. Also, Tin Tin told me the same thing, twice. The second time she said they all spoke Mandarin and felt I was lonely, so told me to eat.

Whilst Henry was the nice guy spreading conversation amongst everyone, Roy was a bit quiet at times. Sometimes he'd have a chat with me about food or video games, but he seemed a bit reserved (not as much as Tim though).

After dinner, we went downstairs to pay. I noticed Tin Tin had a $100 note which she pulled out. Hmmm.

We parted with Henry as he had a birthday to go to, and the rest of us walked to Darling Harbour for bowling. Again, the girls held eachother and us three guys trailed behind. We stopped briefly at a restaurant with live music, and Tin Tin was recording it. I couldn't help but think at times of Roy and Joyce together, or trying to picture her as a WL. I still couldn't believe I was out with a WL - it wasn't difficult, whereas I've spent 18 months with Naby and still couldn't get a yes.

When we got to bowling, we had to wait a bit for the people before us to finish, so we played those skills testers a bit. I lost $6 and that was as much as I was willing to spend, then I watched on as Joyce and Tin Tin tried the same game to win a prize. I could tell Joyce was a bit addicted like I was.

Anyway, we got a lane eventually, and again, the seating was such that the girls sat on one side and we sat on the other for most of the time. I wasn't really serious the first game, trying different funny styles of bowls, but then halfway through I thought "fuck it, I'm winning this" and did end up winning it.

The second game I didn't do too well even though I was trying to win. Roy ended up winning. I did try a few experimental bowls with Joyce, daring her to bowl with her left, and with her eyes closed.

At one stage I went to sit next to Tin Tin while Joyce was bowling. I showed her a picture of Tin Tin the comic, lol. She thought that was pretty interested. She later showed me a picture of a dog and a cat. I asked if it was hers and she said no, so it seemed like just one of those cute pictures off the internet. I showed her a photo of my cat and she said it was fat, lol. She then showed me a picture of her holding a dog. I asked how old and she said two months. But in the photo, she looked haaaawt! Roy even thought it wasn't her, lol.

She actually wasn't a very good bowler, but she was definitely the most animated. I couldn't help but check her out when she bowled. She had a really nice, thin waist.

After bowling, we made our way back to the main city. Chinatown in fact. We had done a full circle. We parted ways at the lights near Market City. I waved goodbye to Tin Tin, and she seemed to give a bit more of an energetic wave to me than, say, Tim. Hmmm.

The three of us walked towards Central. Tim parted at one bus stop, but Roy and I kept walking. We talked a bit at his bus stop, before being approached by some drunk guy who wanted to talk, so I said we should go to another stop.

We talked more on the way and at the previous stop. Just about the night, networking and that. I did mention social rice and we made a weak arrangement to go to whatever event they have next.

After a while his bus came and I walked to my bus stop. By now I was feeling a little bit 'toey' hehehe, having spent an entire night with a WL and thinking about it. Not that she was my type. I don't think I'd pick her in a lineup, but the fact that she was made me think about it constantly. So I went home, took the car, and wanted to try a new shop. I tried 647, told me to come back in half an hour, so I went to 130, and they were full too. Damn, who said there was a recession?

I went back to 647 and went in this time. I waited in the room a bit. Then I was asked to go into a bedroom where I waited some more and a lady called Sammy came in. She asked "ok?" but she was too old so I said I wanted to see others. I waited about 15 more minutes before another lady called Tracy came in. She was a bit older too, so I asked to see. Then the head lady came in and said that was all there was. It was 1:15am by now and I just wanted to get it over and done with, so I paid $150 for an hour for Tracy.

Nothing much happened, just had sex where I constantly thought about Naby. I laid there afterwards and she massaged me a bit before I asked her to lie down next to me. I held her hand as she placed it on my tummy and we laid like that for a while before I decided to go home, about 20 minutes before the end of the session.

So yeah, I'm feeling a little tired of women right now. Just have a hangover of girls.

Dessert with Ele

I didn't wake up at 4am today. In fact, had quite a good sleep.

Walked to work again. I was expecting Mary but she messaged me saying she wasn't coming in today cause she only arrived last night, which was a bit of a surprise, and I think it put DS off a little. He came into my room and asked if Clare would be alright. I said yes, and he paced back and forth a bit and added "it's just that Clare is a bit junior". Not really sure what he wanted me to do about it?

Not sure if it was the three day weekend or the whole Naby thing, but it actually took me half an hour to settle into work mode. I just seemed to stare blankly at my monitor for a long time.

But even when I got stuck into a brief (got through two in a day) I still found myself thinking about Naby. I guess my mind really is treating this like a break up.

Ele messaged me in the afternoon asking if I could meet up to witness some documents for her. I said sure, and my plan was to do that then go back to work and then gym, but when I met her, I suggested we find a place to sit and she asked if I wanted coffee or ice cream. We ended up going to Meet Fresh, a Taiwanese dessert place in Chinatown.

It was pretty groovy, and we had a lot of good talk. At first I was a bit quiet because I knew there was something I wanted to talk about but couldn't remember. Also, seeing all the young Asian girls around, it didn't help at all to forget about Naby.

We talked about finance, and then I finally remembered what I wanted to show her - the Alessio Rastani interview. I showed it to her and she seemed interested and I felt like things really clicked from there. She told me about Vivian having five investment properties, and then we later touched on my finances, and she seemed to care enough to want me to save and invest in property.

Anyway, I witnessed her documents and we left. I walked her to Central and then went back to the office to change. Although it was late now, closing in on 8pm, I still went to the gym. As I cycled, I thought about Naby, and couldn't help but wonder that maybe she really didn't know why I was angry - I mean, after I asked her about dinner, we did talk a bit about her Gold Coast and HK trips.

Hmmm...must not think about it. Anyway, I'm texting a girl now from Oasis about dinner on Thursday. Am I rebounding?

Lucky 15

Yesterday morning I drove to the Wick for gym, probably got there around 10am. I felt like I had a lot of energy to expend, probably from the whole Naby thing. But I just did the usual as I had semi-planned to go to the casino and that thought was taking over.

I went downstairs to get a Quarter Pounder, my first junk food burger in like three weeks. Then I drove to the casino. I tried to pay for parking but my credit card nearly got stuck because the parking meter was wet, so I just figured I'd stuff it since I didn't plan to be there long.

I went in and exchanged $600 in $100 chips. I had decided losing $600 was enough, given my recent progress. In fact, I actually felt like losing it all, because I told myself that if I did, then I'd have enough money to go whoring - I wanted to try a new shop. Maybe it would help me get over Naby.

I went to a table with a few 'Australians' who were just having a gamble for fun. You know the type - they may go to the casino for the special occasion and have a beer, but aren't regulars and have absolutely no better strategy. I placed $100 on the third column and $100 on black as the wheel had already been spun.

It landed on...15!

I couldn't believe my luck! Not only did it get me $300 on my first spin, but look where 15 is - between 32 and 19, both numbers where I would've lost. Fook!

I gathered my winnings and stood around a bit, tempted to try to win a bit more. I had already won back the money I wasted seeing Naby the previous day, but now I wanted some more to cover another whoring session.

I stopped myself, telling myself "no, that is greed". Then I went to the cashier and cashed out. It is ALWAYS a good feeling to walk out with a gain. As I headed back to my car, I told myself that I could be walking out -$600 right now, but instead, I am walking up +$300.

I drove back to the Wick to get some chips to watch the NRL grand final, and then went home to give the car back. My parents went out while I bummed around at home. When they came back, I was bored and went out again. I drove to the shopping centre near me. I had a browse of JB and then Myer. I was checking out the business shirts and this cute Indian chick asked if I needed any help. I politely declined and kept browsing.

I saw that it was 30% off ties if we bought two or more, and there was this one dark purple one I had had an eye on for a while now. The package said one was for $34.95 but two were for $49.95 so I figured if I got two then it'd be 30% off that latter price.

I went to the cashier and it was that Indian girl who served me. I asked her if it was 30% off and she checked for me and said yes. I think she mis-understood me because the discount turned out to be a bit less than I had wanted, but eh. Anyway, she asked if I had a Myer One card and I said I do, but I left it at home. She said she could call up for my number, which she did. I had trouble writing down the last number because the piece of paper was moving, and she held it down for me, which was a nice little gesture.

I don't usually initiate conversations when buying stuff, but I felt pretty open so I said to her I was at the city store the other day where I bought a pair of $130 shoes and told the guy I didn't have my card, only to be told they couldn't do anything. She said they could've called up like she did.

I went home after that, and watched the NRL grand final. I was going for the Warriors, but didn't mind Manly winning.

I went to bed at around 10pm. For the second night in a row, I woke up uncomfortably at 4am due to the Naby thing. Although my brain knows better, my 'emotions' is treating this like a real break up, and I'm having a wee bit of trouble dealing with it. Oh well, I'll be over her soon enough, just like last time.

Also, constantly thinking about money really takes my mind off her. Given my $300 win, I am deciding whether it should be all applied to my credit card which is incurring interest, or give a bit towards my high interest bearing savings account to be used towards paying off the other credit card which is not incurring interest.

How I feel now...

In hindsight, I probably shouldn't have replied to her message at all and just ignored it. I feel like I told myself to reply just to keep things 'cool' in case I ever see her again, which I never will.

Since yesterday's post, I've been feeling heavy inside. I don't know why and can't explain it. I know I shouldn't feel this way, because 1) I knew it was coming; and 2) I think I was just looking for something that I shouldn't have been looking for (ie. something outside of the shop, and she just wanted to keep it in the shop).

But despite the logics in my brain, I do feel this way. I feel like I've just broken up with a girl.

But I keep thinking about that line "if a woman has become the goal in your life, then you are lost" and it makes me feel soooooo much better! It re-aligns me with my goals in life, which right now is to save money, possibly for a house.

I keep reminding myself that money is the most important thing. This is a good life lesson indeed. Maybe I'm just getting old and more mature, but I'm tiring of this game with punting, and maybe even with all girls in general.

I just want money...

End Naby, end

This morning I got to the courts just after 9am. There were already some people there. I just felt like doing whatever, not necessarily working on my shot. In fact, I felt like playing a game, but there was a couple there, and on the other end of my court were two kids, so not much could be done.

I did end up working on my shot, just to pass the time in hope that a game would eventuate. I made myself hit 30 shots, ten each from the elbow, free throw and the other elbow. I really started to feel comfortable on my last set of ten. My knee was feeling just fine.

But I didn't want to get too tired or hot, so I left after that. I went home, had some garlic bread and a shower, surfed the net a bit and tried to nap. I felt my knee was a little tired. I didn't mind falling asleep and missing out on Naby at 3pm, I told myself. But I couldn't sleep, so surfed the net some more before my parents came back home at 1pm.

So I had some time. I thought of gambling before going to see Naby. Maybe I could just win $100 and leave. But then again, I didn't feel like I needed it. Given my recent small fortune in reducing my credit card, I didn't really want to jeopardise that. So instead, I found something old in my wardrobe which I was pretty sure I'd never wear again, and went to the Wick to donate it. Felt good.

When I returned to my car, I called the shop and made a booking for 3pm. I realised I had forgotten my free movie voucher which I had won from my office, so I went home to get that. The plan was to go watch Crazy Stupid Love afterwards.

After I got my voucher, I headed off again, this time taking the short cut I had found when I went to dinner the other night with Bush, HHH etc. I got there about 20 minutes early, but went into the shop anyway. It was a strange feeling. I was familiar with the place, but it was as if I almost didn't want to be there. I didn't want any part in this world again. The shop seemed the same, nothing had changed except there are now some curtains in the lounge area close to the toilets.

I went to the first waiting room to the left and paid, then went to the bathroom and returned. I heard some girls coming in, presumably for their shift. I wondered if Naby was there. I started playing Soduku on my phone and then the guy called me.

I was a bit nervous. I came out the door to see Naby standing there. I noticed her hair was even more dyed orange and it was all out and down. She led me up the stairs, no hand holding I noticed. Towards the top, she turned to me and said long time no see. I asked how long and she said a year. I said it was two years.

I wanted a peck on the lips when we got into the room but didn't get it. I felt like there was a distance between us, due to the amount of time we hadn't seen each other. I placed my things down and she asked if I had been busy, then she went out to get the towels and stuff. I started taking off my shoes and she came back. She said my face looked slimmer. She noticed my new phone and said Samsung. I was like "ah, you know?" and she said yeah. I asked her what phone she had and she said iPhone. We started taking off our clothes and went to the shower.

I didn't really know what to say, so it was quiet for a bit. We did make eye contact a bit and I noticed her extra long eye lashes. When I turned around I asked her if she had finished school and she said yes. I asked if she passed and she said no. She said she wanted to study next year, but said she passed her exam, although she found it very hard.

I dried myself when finished, and when she finished I pretended to be a robot and hand her the towel like one, which made her laugh a bit. I said her head had gotten bigger, and she said it was because she was slimmer, and went to the mirror to check and then said no. I said yeah and she laughed and said no.

She sat down on the bed, I wasn't sure how we would proceed. No kissing so far. I was massaging her head and upper body and she said "choar" meaning cold, and then laid down and pulled me with her, so I got on top of her and we started kissing. I kissed down to her breasts and started licking around. When I moved to her left breast she said 'tickle' in Korean so I went back to kissing her lips.

After a while of that, she started putting the condom on and some lube. I entered her and we started at it. It got pretty heated as we kissed a lot and she moaned a lot. Also we would 'pretend' to kiss, making 'popping' sounds with our mouths. After a long while of that, I asked to change position, so she got on top and after a while I finished. She did her usual thing where she wiggles around, looking down at me. She got off a bit then got back on me which made me groan and she laughed, then she really got off me.

She laid down next to me and asked if I had been busy and I said yeah. I told her Monday was a public holiday and she seemed surprised and interested. She started telling me about her upcoming plans. I asked if she was working six days a week, she said mostly five, with Sundays and Mondays off, but six if there weren't enough girls in the shop.

She said she was going to the Gold Coast soon, with her friend who would be arriving in Australia from Korea tomorrow and a friend from another shop. I think she said she was going on the 10th for a few days. I asked what she was going to do there and she said see Seaworld, Dreamworld and that. I asked if she had ever been and she said no. I said I had been to Seaworld and she asked if it was fun and I said yeah. Part of me was thinking I wanted to go with her.

I asked if she would be going to Korea soon and she said next year. She said she was going to Hong Kong later this month because it was her birthday. I was like "really?" because I thought her birthday was in December. She said her birthday is 24 October.

I rolled over onto my tummy and gestured for my phone, which she brought over. She said "photos?" so I showed her the photos I had on my phone, which were mostly of my cats, and some of the dinner with Fat Pat that night and of Bo and Mike at basketball. She asked why there weren't any of me. By now she was smoking a cigarette. I switched it to camera mode facing us, and she instantly turned away and put her hand over my phone. She said something in Korean sternly - very sternly.

That was the crystallising moment for me. This was the real her. This is how she really felt about me. It put my disillusions at ease by killing them.

I pretended like nothing and then opened up a game for her. It was one where you had to catch the arrow, testing your reflexes. She failed the first couple of times, and I was like "ok, you gotta save me, catch the arrow", but she still failed and I pretended to be hit by an arrow and rolled onto my back. She rolled next to me and had another go but failed, and I pretended another arrow hit me, and she laughed.

She asked me if I had something on my phone and mentioned iPhone but I couldn't understand her. Then I switched the memory game on. At first I thought she was really bad, but then it became evident that she was pretty decent at it. She even did the hard level quickly. She said she has a good memory and I asked her when my birthday was, and she said 28 June. I was surprised she was so close, and I told her it was 29. Gotta give her credit for being that close.

I had been thinking about asking her to dinner all along, hence why there were moments of silence. I didn't know how to bring it up, but now that we had gotten a few laughs, I decided to throw it out there. I hugged her tummy and said "when are you going to come to dinner with me?" and she said "I don't know". That was it for me.

I had her put the phone back and I laid there with my right arm above me, left arm spread out to the side. She leaned in next to me, and was touching my chest. I just stared at the ceiling, thinking about how I had just blown $220 for this shit. I then slipped my left arm out from under her and laid it across my body, so now she was facing my biceps. I was deliberately doing the cold body language.

I stared at the ceiling some more as she had one leg over mine and was still running her fingers on my body. I decided that maybe by closing my eyes time would pass faster. It didn't. I got up and asked what the time was and she said "a year". I looked at the clock and saw it was 3:30pm. I had been thinking of this moment where if she declined my dinner invitation then I'd just get up and leave, but I couldn't bear to do it now, so I laid back down.

After more of laying there, sometimes looking at the ceiling, sometimes resting my eyes, I finally got up. I said "shower" and went to the shower. She asked something, can't remember what. I couldn't get the bloody hot water to work so I just had a quick cold shower. She noticed and asked something about the water and I just mumbled something back. I figured it was a good wake up call anyway. She showered after me and we got dressed in silence.

I grabbed my stuff and she was standing there, and said "you first" at the door. I opened it and walked out. She said something like "annyung" and I ignored it. I walked down the stairs. I didn't want to get her into trouble by being so obvious as to leaving early, but I realised the guy would've figured it out as long as I left before he rang the buzzer. He looked at me, his face wanting to know what was wrong and why I was leaving. I just nodded at hime as he opened the door. I heard Naby's voice say "bye bye". I didn't even turn around or acknowledge it and I walked out.

Part of the reason I had decided to leave was because when I got there, some clouds were dark and I felt bad for making my dad go to work in the rain catching public transport. So I figured if I could get the car back in time for him, then he wouldn't have to wait in the rain for a bus.

As I drove back home, my mind was racing, even though I half knew this was going to happen and had told myself to expect it. I sometimes checked my phone, half expecting a message from her. I figured, if she cared at all about me, she'd send a message.

When I got home, I saw she had sent me a message.

Naby @ 16:01 - I think u angry with me. Why? Tell me..

I'm going to reply now.

Me @ 17:05 - I'm not angry, I just had to go...see you next time