I put the link to my pitas in the sidebar on the archives page. I could put it in the entry sidebar too, but if you're here to read entries, read entries, don't go off on a tangent. (So says the girl for whom "tangents" is practically a middle name.)

After waking up late last night I went online (well, what else was there to do?) and fattened up my pitas with several posts, the most interesting (generally speaking) being the last five on the first archived page. Well, when I say "last five" I mean chronologically. They're the first five on the page, of course. So I spent ages playing Fling the Cow, finally logging off around 4am and going back to sleep.

Forget what time I woke up this morning but the first thing I did was make a new layout for my pitas - rather more colour-coordinated this time, if rather pink. ^_^

Pink is actually my second-least-favourite colour.

Anyway.

I didn't finish reading Clay's Ark, I just got to a point with it that it was making me too uncomfortable (I have read it before and remembered roughly what to expect). I decided I didn't need to feel I had to get through the whole "Patternmaster" series (which starts with Wild Seed and ends, as far as I know, with Patternmaster, with Clay's Ark being a bit of infill/backstory for the latter)... and put it back on the shelf.

So.

While I was working on my new pitas template H rang, except the caller ID said "Restricted" and that usually means it's my mother (she has an unlisted number - doesn't show up on caller ID). Given that last time we (my mother and I) spoke we agreed I would ring her Tuesday or Wednesday night, I couldn't think why she'd be ringing me earlier than that unless something was wrong, so I answered with some trepidation.

But no, it was H. He might have been calling from work - although I do have his work number programmed into my phone so if he's calling from his desk it should show up in caller ID with his name. Hmmm. Anyway. He was apologising for not having rung me.

Given that I saw him three times last week and most recently on Saturday morning I wasn't too sure why he felt he needed to apologise - I wasn't expecting to hear from him til tomorrow (the regular Wednesday call), and said so.

He said his phone (meaning his mobile aka cellphone) had been cut off again (third time in about 6 months) because ... oh, long story, but to do with how his and K's mobiles and K's landline account were all bundled together on the one bill because of a special deal with Telstra (phone co) and K was refusing to pay her part of some international calls and the whole bill was $1100 (AUD) and he didn't have the money...

"I don't suppose you're going to let me give you any more money," I said, mentally crossing my fingers against the chances of him asking for a substantial portion of that $1100. "No," he said, quite firmly. (Phew!) "Actually, I was going to ask you for five dollars. I'm just so broke. I need to eat." he said, then launched into another volley of apologies.

A little voice in my head said, see? only rings when he wants something...

I said I'd give him $20 and he said no, it was too much, payday was Thursday...

"Doesn't sound like you can break a twenty, though," I said gently, "and I only have two twenty-dollar notes and some piddling change on me."

So he came by about 10 minutes later and I gave him $20 and told him to have a decent meal and not to worry about what he owed me - it was only money and there are things I care about more than money...

He said we'd get together soon. Good.