A Belated Blogday

Something passed me by a few days ago... my blogs birthday (which coincidentally was exactly two years after Bloggers Birthday).

As always check out the original blog. 5 years, more templates than I can count, and 1129 posts later and I'm still here. And so, thank you very much, are you Dear Constant Reader.

Please leave me a comment today if you're passing by... even if it's an insult, an anti homosexual tirade, a smutty story or spam....

Allsorts

It has been a busy weekend.

Saturday included: breakfast in a cafe by the station, shopping at the market (mmm.. dried mango), the kids arrival, and we restocked the aquarium with many fish (speaking of which check this out)...

Sunday: breakfast at McDonald's, shopping, the kids departure drinking at the North Pole and the Richard the 1st and a Chinese for dinner.

Monday: another cafe breakfast (even Jae had eaten too much at this point), Jim's mum's departure and a relaxing evening.

Today we had some drinks at the Ashburnham Arms and some fish and chips. Why are all take away staff sooo nosey? I mean where I live and who I sleep with should be my own business (and of course yours Dear Constant Reader) but every take away near here could give you a run down on my life. NOSEY! The best question is always to me when Jim is about "Is he your Dad?". Well actually...

Happy Bank Holiday

To all my British readers... have a brilliant Summer Bank Holiday!

While my British readers are off at do it yourself stores stocking up on goods for home projects that will never happen I would encourage you to visit Strawberry Kiwi. Although the blogs writer says her entries are slightly amusing they are actually fairly diverting. Good for a laugh or two anyway. Check it out!!

Friday

Hmph. Yesterday proved even half a day of customer service is a living hell. Anyhew... after I stole away at 2pm I headed to the train station to meet up with Jim's Mum and take her to her hotel. Had a couple of pints with her in the Attitude Bar. Got home, had a shower, and then out again with her and Jim to Il Bordello in Wapping.

Il Bordello is my favourite restaurant in all of London. It's an Italian, with wonderful service, awesome food and portions that make even my eyes water. Trust me if you don't like it, good food is probably not your thing.

And the area it's in is lovely at night time. Wapping is so peaceful and somehow the old dock buildings and the moody lighting make you feel like you've gone back in time to the days of Jack the Ripper. Wonderful (not the Jack the Ripper part, but you know what I'm trying to say!)

Let's end the day on a song... all together now...

It's A Little Bit Funny

I've spent most of the life of this blog, and a long time before it's birth, moaning about wanting to get away from Folkestone and start a new life.

Well it's been 15 months since I finally did it, and it's a wonderful new life I have. But I never expected to miss Folkestone. I used to complain no end about what a horrid place it was. The rude boys (aka the proto-chavs), the whole of Hythe and Michael Howard all joined together to make it a throughly unpleasant place to be.

I got a message from Ben this past weekend to tell me our joint friend Becky had given birth (a little girl called Emily Grace) and I felt a little pang of homesickness. For them, for Laura and Zoe and Sam, for the TVW crew and for sightings of MT (and the sexy bouncer). I actually miss the Leas Club, Wetherspoons, Skuba and Gees. I've not quite found somewhere that I feel quite as much at ease in as I did in those places.

I suppose in a way I don't miss Folkestone per se. More I miss familiarity, friendships and comfort. I think it's about time I got myself back down to Folkestone for a couple of days to catch up. CALLING ALL FOLKESTONE READERS (i.e. Dear Not So Constant Reader ;) ) any dates your all free?

It's funny how you can't go home again, but that'll never stop us trying.

The Shadow People Redux

My conversation last Thursday must have freaked Sam out as she discussed it with the rest of her team. I found this out this morning when the new marketing girl came up to me and told me how she'd seen shadow people too. She was just as baffled as I was and a bit annoyed that I didn't know anything more about them than she did.

She said she'd been staying in a friends room with two other girls, and sleeping on the floor when she was quite young. In the middle of the night she woke up with a start, opened her eyes and found a shadow standing over her. She didn't feel scared but turned to face away from him, to find another one "patting" one of her sleeping friends. She soon fell back to sleep. In the morning she put it down to a dream and didn't mention it... until her other friend said "I don't want to scare you, but last night there was a shadow man standing next to you while you slept". At least my story I can sometimes, in the bright light of the day, convince myself I'm a loon. She had witnesses.

A couple of years later she saw a shadow again in her room... this time he was acting quite menacing and she was terrified. EEK!

See... I'm not the only insane one.

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Snakes on a Plane

I saw it last night. I wasn't disappointed. It was the best movie ever. It won't rock your world. But it will entertain you for an hour and a half. There's cute guys for me and tits for everyone else. And there are snakes.. on a plane. So Cool!!!!!

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The Consumer Culture

I hate consumers. Customers I don't mind. We're all customers. Consumers are a whole different ball game.

We all know consumers, you might even be one yourself. Consumers seem to believe that because they are paying for a service or product they deserve to be treated as Gods, and get pissed off when they don't in such a major way that I sometimes worry that they might suffer some form of heart failure. Their expectations can sometimes be completely unreasonable.

For example. They'll ask for a standard next day delivery (and yes there is a priority option on my company's website) then moan when the goods get to them late afternoon THE NEXT DAY. What is that all about? No one suggested the goods would get there early, it says next day by 5pm. If it was just one or two people I'd just put it down to them being arseholes. But everyone seems to be at it.

Everywhere I go I see consumers who WANT WANT WANT and there's no arguing with them. They seem to forget that the faceless companies they moan at for no valid reason contain numerous fellow human beings who are just trying to make ends meet. I cannot stand the attitude people take with those who serve them, they treat them like slaves without any respect. They shout at them, berate them, make fun of them, make unreasonable demands of them and generally act like 5 year old prima donnas.

Now I know a lot of you are reading this and going "Yes well I've been treated badly by service personnel." I'm sure you have. But statistically what do you think is the more frequent scenario. The customer being an arse or the "servant". I don't often see shoddy service in shops for instance (I mean it'd take a lot to get the checkout procedure wrong) but I see bad customer attitude EVERY day.

Am I the only person who thinks about others when in a shop/cafe environment? I smile at and thank everyone who helps me. I ask polite questions if necessary. I make sure I always have my money ready when I get to the till rather than hold up the queue by hunting around for my money only when asked for it (as if the concept of handing over money in a commercial building is a novel concept). I avoid bothering members of staff unless absolutely necessary (I will always take the automated option rather than inconvenience someone else). It's just polite.

So next time I hear someone being sarcastic to a member of staff for no reason, or belittling someone maliciously, I'm going to get involved. All 6'9" of me. I cannot stand back and let people treat others in any other way than is proper. What right do I have? The right to live in a country without the scum that seems to permeate our lives with their selfish attitudes, their thoughtlessness and their ability to hold up the queue I'm in by starting an argument.

Wiki Wiki Wiki

I love Wiki's. The Wiki Index is an absolute treasure box.

So there's a Star Trek one and a Battlestar Galactica one. Fair enough... but then there are one's for... the Muppets, the X-Files, the Simpsons, the O.C., and Buffy... there is a wiki for everything

Gotta love it.

It's Such A Coincidence

It is amazing the amount of celebrity (or at least infamous) men who end up (quite by chance) in gay bars. Obviously they don't have a problem with this, and they appear to make a lot of friends quickly. Without fail these same men end up inviting a guy/some guys back to their house to continue the evening.

Often a time back in Folkestone I'd go down a gay bar and make such good friends with strangers I'd invite them back for some completely innocent chats. It's a completely normal thing to do. After chatting we'd play scrabble.

That's why I'm shocked by the innuendo in this article about a former member of the IRA who has been viciously attacked by some gay men. Can't a man just go to a local gay bar for a few drinks and make some friends without it being suggested he's into S and M??

Sarcastic? Moi? Some mistake, surely?!

Digging It

Robin Williams plays Spore!!!



Ok... I'm really sad. But Aren't this wonderful?

Ricky Gervais does Microsofts training video. This is wonderful.

When The Family Came To Call.

Today we were visited by the family. As is our custom we spent the whole morning tidying the house. We were terrified by the doorbell three times thinking they'd turned up early to find it was only the postman, Jehovah Witnesses (my first set in Greenwich... will work on them next time when I'm not busy) and the gasman.

Being the wonderful host Jim is, we soon had piles of sandwiches, wraps, crisps, bicuits and profita rolls ready for Mum nd Beth's arrival.

After we'd polished off those we had a few drinks at the Ashburnham Arms, perused the market and had some drinks in Attitude at the Novotel (in the company of a Ghanan wedding party who looked absolutely fantastic). George and Tony finally appeared from a successful Millwall match, polished off a chicken and then everyone went home and we could relax one more.

This guy is so hot I thought I'd show another picture of him...

Shadow People

You are going to think I'm insane. Bear with me, I just want to get this down for any future me that might forget.

Yesterday at lunch the conversation turned to spooky happenings and I told my scary story. This started me wondering again about the mysterious Shadow People and so I went off on a mad trip around the net through many scary and downright weird sites looking for info. All sorts of the same old rubbish.

Yet something freaked me out on one of them. It had an article about two hooded shadows. What was freaky was... I've seen them. When I was a child I thought they were two witches. I'd often see them running past a window, or just catch them running down a hill outside, or along the overgrown abandoned road next to our house. I'd see them for a good few seconds, it was a fleeting but certain sighting on many occasions over a number of years. I'd always thought they were figments of my imagination. They were fairly short, like children. I never saw them looking at me (they tended to have their backs to me as they fled), so I couldn't see their eyes and so I never really connected them up with the Shadow Man. But freaky! Scares me SILLY. I hope I sleep tonight.

Today was a good day at work. We had a new starter. This usually makes me happy as it means I get to train them up and not do any real work. But he was so funny and intelligent that by the end of the day, sitting in the Riverside Pub in Vauxhall, I was smarting from laughing so hard.

And an email was sent to me with the following picture... it made my day ;op

Ask Brent

The gorgeous Brent Corrigan has set up an Ask Brent feature. Go check it out!!

Ouch... My Head Hurts

I'm going to say it just the once; I'm never drinking again.

I went out last to Floridita in Soho with work for an accounts do. Service was so slow to start off with that I thought I might manage to make it to midnight sober. Alas. It was fairly cool if a little quiet (in a bad way).

Several people got way more drunk than me so woo... I did not embarrass myself.

Had to wander home down Old Compton Street. Within seconds two teenage hustlers had cornered me, they couldn't have been 16 yet, looking for work. I gave them my newly developed "Leave me alone smile" which is a normal smile with just the right amount of "If you don't back off I'll tear out your throat with these teeth" added to it. It worked a charm.

It was also good at clearing my way through the yobs who were noisily making a nuisance of themselves all the way down Charing Cross road. When I used to come up to London from home I must have worn ruby tinted glasses... I never used to see this much scum back then. Nowadays London seems to be populated by idiots who shout and sing badly. If they were doing it in a pleasant happy way I wouldn't mind, but they tend to be shouting threats of murder and singing about acts of violence against the guys walking in front of them. Joy.

Today I work up with a lovely headache and caught the train with our neighbour Melissa. She spent the whole journey telling me how bad I looked. :)

The Future - Part 2

Hmm... so... kind of randomly I went on monster.co.uk. I've been thinking about my future but I wasn't seriously considering a new job right this instant. However logging on reactivated my account.

Monster allows employers to search for CV's of prospective employees. Despite my CV being a year out of date my phone rang at least 10 times today with people seeking to contact me (which made my head grow a little. Nice to know I'm sort after!)

Anyway, it's prompted me to decide to update my CV. Wednesday evening. Just in case.

It's not that I hate the company I work for. I love the people and the company has taken good care of me. I'd rather not leave it. But I can barely maintain my professional attitude towards customers any more. Some people are so rude/stupid/bizarre it drives me potty. I need to escape customer service...

Here's My Bright Idea

It seems bizarre to tarnish an entire community just based on the actions of a couple of dozen people. But that's what the BBC seems to want to do. Today BBC News 24 kept referring to the "enemy within" and wondered whether we'd feel the same about our Muslim neighbours after the current terror alert. Then it had people commenting on how terrorists are created by alienation from society and we should try and engage with Muslims more.

Terrorists are criminals. Just as I laughed at the idea of a gay man becoming a burglar because of homophobia only an idiot would believe these guys suddenly become terrorists just because they were faced with prejudice and felt unloved by the "white folk". I'm sure that terrorists rationalise things that way, but it's a joke.

Terrorists tend to be young and male. They are in my opinion similar to the white yobs loose in the country. I.e. they are nasty, stupid idiots with nothing better to do with their time than cause upset and misery. It just happens that these home grown terrorists of ours want to use bombs instead of broken bottles and knives to make their mischief. Just look at the kind of people involved in the Troubles in Northern Ireland... yobs, criminals and the stupid.

I really think we should stop calling them terrorists (I think theand just refer to them as murderers, attempted murderers and the new term "power crazed bastards". That way we can all remember that whatever they say they believe they don't speak for the majority of Muslims in this country who have been loyal subjects for many years from the days of the Raj to the 21st Century. So would our media stop attempting to break up our country into seperate "communities".

On a lighter note...

Travel Chaos In Perspective

While most of us have expressed concern over the "averted terror attacks on planes" (inverted commas as none of this has been discussed in a court of law so we only have the polices word for it, not that I don't trust them...) I'm glad to see travellers in our fair nation have managed to keep things in perspective.

"We're less worried about the security situation and are more concerned about if we're going to be compensated, especially if we now have to get to France by Eurostar" Phillip Edwards, 55, from Uxbridge. This Dad has his priorities in the right place.

"I'm not scared about flying, I'm more worried about whether it's going to cost me extra and the fact I've got a 24-hour flight with nothing to read." Courtney Vane, 21, from Australia. BBC News brings us such interesting angles on these kind of crisis. I really was wondering if anyone had considered all those poor bored people who'll be flying home tonight.

"When we reached the check-in they told us our flights had been cancelled and we weren't allowed to take on our hand-luggage on to the next flight.

"We then had to buy £109 suitcase to put our hand luggage in. I'm travelling with my jewellery and can't take it with me on board. I hope it arrives home safely." Carmen Lopez, 40 from Ohio, USA. Well I'm sure in an expensive case like that your jewellery would survive a cataclysmic explosion on your plane, so don't you worry a bit!

"I can understand how people are worried about security but the airline has not been helpful.

"We should at least have been given something to eat and drink, as well as money to phone home to tell our families that we will be delayed." Charlotte Demant, a 25-year-old make-up artist from Denmark. You're so right Charlotte how thoughtless of them. All those lazy airport staff sitting around with nothing better to do could come and wait your table and give you some pocket money. Heaven forbid you'd have to fend for yourself in the wilds of Heathrow.

It's not that they felt these things. It's that the BBC used our money to bring us these insightful views. Thanks so much.

Heathrow

It's Not Just The Government Who's Invading Our Privacy

So the police are investigating allegations of phone tapping on calls from the Royal Household at Clarence House. These possibly (IMO probably) involve the News of the World.

I can barely conceal my anger at the current state of the Governments treatment of privacy. I don't need to conceal my anger over Rupert Murdochs obvious disregard for our laws and privacy... this is disgusting!!!!!!! I'll watch with interest to see if the NOTW is implicitly implicated.

Imagine the New York Post tapping the Vice President's phone. Heads would roll.

Eerie

Oh... how I miss this prog..

The Future - Part 1

It really is time to get off my arse. Customer service is a fulfilling and useful occupation. It is also a slow and painful form of torture. Hell is other people. And other people seem to want to drive me insane by phoning me and being rude.

So... what do I want to do? If I asked my family they'd suggest joining the police (I think my poor eyesight means I can't) which would fulfil my Nan's dreams. If you asked my Mum she'd inform you there is nothing in the world I'd rather be doing than bobbing up the Amazon in a raft studying the flora and fauna. She is of course omnipotent and quite correct. But I really think that particular dream of mine is about as likely as my dream of winning the lottery, having a harem of hung, muscled tops and making the world a better place.

So ideas on a postcard people. Give me some ideas... inspire me!

The Confederate States of America

Today I saw C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America. Ever since I first saw Ken Burn's Civil War I've had a quiet interest in the American Civil War. I'm also an alternative history freak. So I was looking forward to the movie. It was okay. I very much doubt slavery would have survived into the 21st Century, and I also doubt whether the Confederacy would have annexed the North. They didn't like the Yankees to start with, why would they want to occupy their territory?

But it was somewhat interesting as a look into the strange society slavery produces. The mind boggles.

Technorati : america, confederacy, movies

News of the Queers

Oh.

A Welsh burglar was spotted for a novel reason, and had an even more novel excuse. Out of the four participants in a burglary he was the only one apprehended because the victim recognised his distinctively camp walk. Being the "only gay in the village", as the press has predictably named him, must be hard. So hard he blames it for his criminality!! "His lawyer, Eugene Egan said Williams was reacting to 'being teased about his sexuality. He is an openly gay man and quite camp. The local youths all know what he is like and they tease him mercilessly.'"My heart bleeds.

Either Brent Corrigan has gone insane and returned to the arms of Cobra and those who have used him or Cobra's "King Cobra" has given up his sanity in his quest to discredit the Brent. I'm guessing it's the latter. Yesterday I received an email from Cobra (I don't actually remember signing up but probably did) claiming Cobra and Brent Corrigan were still working together. If any of you have seen the pictures and videos on Cobra's not-so-official Brent Corrigan page he'd be crazy to get back into bed with a company that obviously wants to make him an object of disgust and amusement. It's hard to make a naked Brent Corrigan seem disturbing (being the gorgeous man he is) but Cobra sure are trying.

No official response from Brent yet but I suspect he'll have a few things to say. Go send him a shout out of support.

Looks like 2006 is going to be the year of the gay movies Shock to the System, Another Gay Movie, Quinceanera and The Night Listener. Hollywood is mainstreaming homosexuality, just as America's sending it back to the closet. Banning gay marriage is nasty. Why not just not have it??

Gay man jailed for passing on HIV. I know this is an area of controversy and a lot of AIDS workers are concerned it'll criminalise the HIV/AIDS infected community and set back the cause of sex education. However, surely knowing you have HIV/AIDs but continuing to have unprotected sex (even protected sex) with people who haven't any idea of your status is at the very least immoral? Sure it takes two and both parties are responsible. But both sides need to be equally well informed to make responsible decisions don't you think? Knowingly spreading HIV/AIDS is assault in my opinion.

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Avenue Q

Last night I headed out to see Avenue Q with people from work at the Noel Coward theatre. Despite not having been there before I knew where it was, but would anyone believe me? Oh no... so after much arguing we finally arrived (and gee... it's where I said it was!) and settled down. I was in the back row of the stalls with no one behind me... for a socially conscious tall person this is known as BLISS.

Having had the music from the show stuck in my head for the last month I knew all the jokes and the plot. However this did not deflect from the fact it was a blast. So much energy and enthusiasm all up on stage. Christmas Eve (played by Ann Harada) was awesome and the guy behind Princeton (Jon Robyns) was a cutie.

Pictures here

I loved the show, go see it.



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The Queens Speech

Last month marked one year since I restarted this blog. This month marks 5 years since this blog was born. A lot has happened so I think it's time to take stock.

As you can see from the image below my blog has gone from strength to strength in the last year, visitor wise. This is mainly due to the Kevin McDaid debacle, being linked to by The Guardian, Brent Corrigan and some helpful links from many a good blog. In fact all this linking means I've got a higher page rank than the company I work for!! Yay! I'd also like to thank every man who has gone topless for photographs... you've really helped bump my Google Images results up! :o) Last month we broke 100,000 visitors (70,000 in the last year) and 11,000 visitors in one month.



Over the last five years this blog (and a few pretenders) has been my constant companion. It's been there for me for me to dump on through suicide attempts (how immature), run away successes, changing jobs, dumping boyfriends, being dumped, multiple "shags", that time at uni and many a visit to a strange town. I know this is all a bit navel gazing and self important. But, Dear Constant Reader, this is my diary. No one forces you to read this stuff. It's all about ME. My blogs entire purpose in life is to be selfish, arrogant and inward looking.

I've always hated those who poo-poo blogging. Blogging is what you make it.

Nothing Much To Say

I'm at a loss today, so tell me something interesting or just say
hi!!! The comments facility isn't there just for fun... it's there so
you can make me feel loved. ;op