The tension seems to have subsided. On Tuesday, my coworker and I received a warning for coming in late the previous week. My coworker used his relationship woes as an excuse which was actually legitimate. His girlfriend is pushing for him to settle down despite his reluctance. In the past year, they broke up once for a few months before getting back together and during that time, he found numerous ways to set himself 'free'. He took a motorcycle course and registered for flying school. After receiving both licences, he went on to actually buy a small airplane and is currently in the middle of negotiations to buy another. I've been helping him with the deal a bit. The purchase of the first plane may seem odd at first but has actually become a half decent investment. The reason is that his flying school leases the plane back from him for their students to train on. After he had upgraded some of the instruments to a new digital GPS system, his plane was booked solid.
I seemed to have been one of the few people which he has spoken to about his relationship problems now where I finally just asked him what exactly it was that he was looking for in a relationship and if he left her, what would he do in the next relationship. What caused the breakdown and is he willing to work at it to fix it. This way there is less time wasted procrastinating and sitting on the fence while his partner is desparately trying to pull him onto her side. While discussing this with our boss after the warning, our boss began to tell him about his path towards marriage. He had left his girlfriend in Australia but around eight months later, she came to Canada where he then decided to grow up and commit.
No relationship is perfect and there's always something that you'll have to put up with or just accept. I told him something which was once told to me. That was that there are three types of relationships in your life. The first one is for love, the second is for the family and the third is your companion. Someone you grow old together with. Plus if you were lucky, you'd get one that covered two or three of them. Which one would my coworker choose to tackle?
In the real estate course which my coworker and I have been taking, one of the motto's which the head instructor always says is 'reading is not learning, doing is learning'. Basically, you have to take action and do something. Whether it's right or wrong is of no importance because just sitting there will not get you anywhere. My coworker could choose to end the relationship and move on or stop fighting the inevitable and put some effort into fixing it. After listening to my boss and myself, I found out yesterday that he chose to fix it. They will be moving in together at the end of this month and he signed them both up for some spanish classes. So somewhere, maybe the things which I have been telling him or that of our boss has sunken in.
All that I asked of him at this point was that I'd could partake in the hooliganisms of his bachelor party and attend his wedding. I needed a reason to wear a suit because I hardly ever get to. Even though I actually like wearing them once in a while.
As for my excuse to the boss, I just told them that it was health related and that I did not want to discuss it before sending them a proposal to have some of my banked holiday time reinstated. They had taken it away citing lack of funds on their part but I still have some leverage with the legal system. I eagerly await the response from the board of directors. The extra days will hopefully be used for a road trip to San Francisco in October.
A restaurant called the Elephant Castle which my coworkers and I have frequented often held an anniversary bash last night. We received invitations for the event which came with some free english style food, beer and a live band called the 'Frayed Cats'. Everyone was made to wear name tags as though it was some sort of networking or dating convention. My coworker and I went there to toast the day when we both would finally leave our company.
Tonight I had dinner with some friends to discuss plans for the days spent in Los Angelas. Seven of us are going on a one week trip, half of which is spent on a cruise down the coast while the other half is in L.A. Disneyland being one of the destinations and possibly Universal Studios or a tour of NASA which my cousin works at. The itiniary for the cruise, is that it will be a non stop eating fest. At least, that's what I am told. Pictures should be plenty as I found out that one woman in our group came back from Disneyland with eight hundred photos last year. All that from just one week. And before I forget, I cancelled the film scanner order. After waiting two weeks, I called them to find out that it was on back order until the end of this month. I think I may reconsider buying a digital camera again as I look elsewhere.