One of my friends wished me health, wealth, happiness and sanity this new year’s. I wonder whether I should expect the the first three at all, considering it is day three of 2011 and my sanity is hanging by a precarious thread.

I would like to apologise to my readers, because I try and keep the tone of my blog lighthearted and upbeat, because my sense of humour usually comes to my rescue with weird situations. However, this time it has failed, and I have the uncomfortable sensation of drowning.

(This lapse of humour is largely due to severe insomnia last night, where I must’ve slept for all of 2 hours. I gave up trying to sleep at 5, got out of bed, wrote an article for a client, watered the plants, filled up the water bottles, played with the puppies outside, teased the father and dog, exercised, had a bath, got dressed and got my butt to work. Also, I had a lengthy meeting with my designer, in an effort to bring her up to speed with the latest developments of our newspaper. So, in short, I am effing knackered.)

I was getting merrily on by, when J picked a fight with me because of the stunt I pulled on New Year’s. I should’ve known I would pay dearly for that moment of fun. *sigh*

So anyway, last night we (the family) went out to a restaurant that I’ve been meaning to visit for a while. As an unrelated aside, J is distantly related to the owner. The owner turned out to be a charming individual, who hit it off instantly with my folks. It so transpired that his wife is a pediatrician, and dabbles in child psychology. So of course my mother was jumping for joy, because I have been on the lookout for one for my paper.

So I make plans to meet up with him the next day, as I didn’t have my card or phones on me to exchange contact information. So this afternoon, after the fight with J, I trudged off to the restaurant.

To be greeted very warmly by this person, and kissed on both cheeks and pulled into a tight hug. The part of me that has been severely damaged by the touchy-feely ‘uncles’ in my past recoiled a little. (I’m not over-reacting – this was a BUSINESS meeting.)

I sat down at the table, and we proceeded to exchange life stories. To say I was a little thrown is the understatement of the year. I was racking my brains as to how I could steer the conversation to the all-important newspaper – which was the reason I was there in the first place.

I did somehow manage to do that, but the conversation was peppered with gratuitous compliments that made me VERY uncomfortable. He also asked searching questions about my ‘relationship’ with J, and I couldn’t put him off without sounding horribly rude. He was a kindly gentleman after all.

Until I came to the part where I told him I broke it off with J after I found out about A. To which he calmly replied, “But that shouldn’t stop you.”

I did a credible job of preventing my eyes from starting from my head, but there is so much endurance a human being has – because wild horses couldn’t have restrained my tongue from saying, “It certainly did! I don’t get involved in situations like this!”

To which he shrugged nonchalantly and said, “Well, my wife and I have a very open relationship. We are individuals, we perform our responsibilities and we lead free lives.”

Okay. Karishma Sundaram is officially ready to bolt. She laughs uncomfortably, and somehow steers the conversation back to J, because that was actually the LESS awkward one.

(The life I lead is BEYOND ridiculous.)

I tell him that I expect honesty in any relationship, and J should’ve told me about his previous involvement with A before embroiling me in this mess. To which he replies with a grin, “It’s not hard to see why he must’ve been blown away by just looking at you. I reckon it would beyond anybody’s control not to fall instantly in love with you.”

I squeaked out a ‘thank you’ while my soul was cringing in horror. I made a big production about going back to the office and having lots of work. It still took me another half an hour to extricate myself from there though. There were more random remarks that made my skin crawl, including ones like, “Do give me a call if you ever fancy a drive.” or “Anything you need at all, please let me know.” and "not to forget, “Oh you are so close by, you must drop in frequently.”

Can someone please tell me WHY this happens to me?