A Night In Soho

Last night, after work, Jim, Denis, H and I headed to Yauatcha for a meal (although we managed a quick drink in The John Snow, it's a Sam Smith's pub and sadly I decided to have a bourbon and coke. YUCK!).

Yauatcha is a dim sum restaurant in Soho, and one Jim had I went to a couple of times back when we first started going out. Back then the food was delicious but the staff were... RUDE. Well... there has been a pleasant surprise. The food is still delicious (again must recommend the Venison Puffs which are practically heaven in a foodstuff) but the staff are now friendly, attentive and pleasant! It was a very good night, finished off with some beers (well I had a beer, the other three sampled the wide range of fruity ciders available) at the Crown and the Two Chairmen, which was a pub with good music and good atmosphere despite what the reviews say!

When I say finished off, obviously we did stop for a quick JD and Coke in the local where we dropped off Denis, H and... my phone.

It was a good night, in my opinion!

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Grégory Mahé: Reasons Rugby Is Better Than Football

Mmm... French and a rugby player. Doesn't get much better than that in my opinion!






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Harvey Grammar Porn Star Teacher!

Many moons ago, Dear Constant Reader, I went to the Harvey Grammar School in Folkestone. It was a place where even a mild case of intra-teacher romance was the talk of the halls for months. So I can't imagine what must have happened the day one, quite adventurous I suspect, boy found naked pictures of his PE teacher, Sam Handley, on the internet!!

Oh that must have been almost as big as the time my form tutor was suspended for... erm... extracurricular activities with Scouts. Well that's the story we told ourselves and stuck to.

More on this story here, where you'll also find the incriminating NSFW evidence, again NSFW!! He's not bad either, mmm... wish someone hot like him had been teaching PE when I was there... if they had been I probably wouldn't have cheated so much at athletics ("Hmm... we'll call that jump 10 metres") and coasted through because the Head of PE was also my neighbour.

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So... erm... this is awkward. How have you been? Yeah, I'm starting to become a bad blogger. Sorry!

What have I been up to? Erm... nothing! Hence the lack of blogginess. Erm... I'll blog more once I've actually done something... anything...

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Michael Witt: Another Reason Rugby Is Better Than Football!

Michael Witt (born 1 January 1984 in Toowoomba, Queensland) is an Australian professional rugby union footballer who currently plays for the Otago Rugby Football Union in the Air New Zealand Cup. He previously played rugby league in the National Rugby League competition.

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All Change Please?

Are their big changes ahead in the lives of Jim and Jae? Possibly. Little spoken dreams of moving out of the big smoke and back into the country have slowly come together into something more. Not quite a firm plan, but certainly a firm shared desire on our parts to move to Kent. I want to go to get away from London and return to the warm embrace of familiarity and comfort that is my home town. Jim wants to get away from London, save lots of money and live by the sea.

So what are the benefits:

1) I'm tired of London. A little time away might bring back my rose tinted glasses and return London to my favourite city, like it was in 2005.
2) I'm useless at keeping in contact with my friends in London and outside of it. Being back home should make keeping in contact with my mates there a little easier and having friends in London should mean I come back to visit every so often!
3) more house for our money. One bedroom flat on a busy road in Greenwich versus three bedroom house on the seafront in Folkestone? No contest really is there.
4) Fresh air
5) Wonderful scenery (Kentish men are really, really hot).

And the drawbacks:

1) Public transport is so much better here in London and as a hardcore pedestrian this is has allowed me a level of freedom I simply don't have back home.
2) Employment options are limited, the pay very much reduced and career advancement nearly non existent. Whilst part of me thinks "So what? I DON'T WANT A CAREER!" (and to be perfectly blunt, I don't. Life is too short.), I do want to at least try to pull my weight with money in this relationship.
3) Erm... err... erm...

Yeah I'm sure there are actually lots of drawbacks and perhaps it's a case of the grass is always greener, but one must sometimes take a leap of faith. So whilst Jim plans exactly where he wants to live, I've dusted off my CV and put it up. Dear Kentish Constant Readers keep an eye on the Herald jobs section!!

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Reasons Rugby Is Better Than Football 5: David Williams

Mmm... I think his teammates made the right move when they gave him a shave!

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A Way Away

Been a busy few days, sorry I haven't been updating you, Dear Constant Reader. But I'm sure you knew I wouldn't be away forever!

Thursday, Jim and I broke the diet.. again and had drinks and food down the local. I perved over the New Hunky Barman (who Jim believes is an emotionless automaton, whereas I am more gracious and consider him a "himbo"). Jim was very... erm... jolly? Whilst playing with the pub cat (Pamula) an American couple in the corner politely introduced themselves to me with handshakes and formal standing up. For all I mock the Americans, they are often mindbogglingly polite in person. You've gotta give them that.

Had a nice evening, lots of chatting and laughing.

Dragged myself into work on Friday, and then dragged myself down The Old Suffolk Punch for a leaving do for Julie, who trained me when I first started at my new job. It was a lovely evening, lots of chatting and fun.

Today Mum and the Twins came to visit. Jim cooked up a storm in the kitchen and all was good :D

And that is all for now...

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4 Reasons Rugby Is Better Than Football

Gonzalo Tiesi, Will Skinner, David Strettle, and Jordan Turner-Hall.

Yoinked from Tottyland

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Cruising The River Thames

Friday night, and I was pleased to be home from another week of work. Jim's Mum had arrived from Glasgow during the day so after a brief wash and change of clothes I headed down to meet her and Jim at the local. We had a few drinks with the (off duty) Antonio, and discussed the future of Brazil in world affairs (well Antonio and I did anyway!). Charlie, who was having his last shift behind the bar before he moves to Paris, helpfully mocked Jim and his Mum's Scottish accents. Awkward, but funny.

After taking Jim's Mum to her hotel, we settled back in at the local to say goodbye to Charlie and chat with a few regulars. I told Jim about my crush on a certain someone (who shall go unnamed) which surprisingly surprised him. And then it was time to go with an awkward hug for Charlie (I'm not a huggy sort of a person). Jim managed to avoid shedding a tear, something we should all be amazed by.

Saturday, I was up early and discovered via a Facebook chat that Mum had told my step dad last night she wants a divorce. I'm going to call my siblings later on today to try and make sure they are ok but a Facebook chat with Bethany suggests she is... After that little piece of drama we were up and away to Maggie's in Lewisham for a diet-busting cooked breakfast. Yum yum. Jim's Mum enjoyed it just as much as Jim and I predicted the first time we ever went there. Maggie's Irish charm made us all smile. Following another scarily healthy shop at Tesco's we wandered down to Greenwich Pier to catch a City Cruise ferry up the river. It's no Thames Clipper (as we went on the other week) but that is to be expected as they serve different needs... City Cruises are for sightseeing and are accompanied by a commentary given by a crew member (who come in varying degrees of interest and knowledge, but as they say they don't get paid to do the commentary just keep as afloat).

The Thames was very busy as it was the Thames Festival, and there was steam boats aplenty and stuff going on all along the banks. We got off at Westminster and had a wander by the Palace and the Abbey. I foolishly went to get a bottle of water in the Tesco's by the tube station and discovered it was in fact a one aisle assault course. Never again.

We then caught a boat to Tower pier and another home to Greenwich (the final trip had the best commentary and we even discovered where Cher used to live... he was certainly the most knowledgeable of the three commentaries). We had an evening in with Jim's paleo curry. Yum. Pictures of the day can be found on my Flickr.

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Reasons Rugby Is Better Than Football 3: Wes Cotton

He may be nearly as old as my Mum, but he sure had the body; Wes Cotton (we'll forgive him for being in Rugby League... it's still better than football).




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September 11th Still Hurts

You know I'm a cynical, heartless bastard when it comes to mass media "events" like the death of Princess Diana or September 11th. Not to say I don't feel sad for the victims but the media buzz about it tends to make me keep my distance from any public displays of grief, which I find very fake.

Yesterday we were watching the September 11th memorial and started chatting about our "experiences" of the day. Then we started chatting about the horror suffered by those in the planes and in the buildings. And I'll admit there was some crying (not on my part but a teary eye I'll admit) in the break room at work. Millions die every year in allsorts of hideous ways. But there is something about what happened on September 11th which puts the events in the upper echelons of human misery... the way the people on the planes suffered. The way the people in the buildings suffered. All live on television. There are few more horrible ways to go.

We must never forget those people who died that day.

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Equal Opportunities To Be Weird

Today I had a rather interesting session of Equal Opportunities and Diversity training, where I managed to destroy some poor soul's idea that it was better if we all just became like each other in "one England" rather than allow all the different "foreign" cultures in "England" to thrive. I pointed out that we, and all countries on this planet, will always be multicultural... and always will be. A small round of applause followed by robust defence of the United Kingdom and our native multiculturalism (Cornish, Welsh, Scottish, Yorkshireman etc.). Very pleasant. Plus defended my rights to marriage against the same poor soul's suggestion we had gone all the way we could towards equal rights in the country.

However some guy spent the entire time drawing a picture of me, which unnerved me somewhat. I would have thought it would have been more polite to ask before one begins to draw a portrait of a colleague. Natalie, who was with me, was equally disturbed by it.

Oh well, never thought I'd enjoy an Equal Ops session!

Jim's Mum is down tomorrow for the weekend, which means it'll probably be a good one :D

This blogger works for nothing but the joy of writing but always appreciates things bought from his wishlist

Reasons Wrestling Is Better Than Rugby (Sometimes): Andrea Minguzzi

Andrea Minguzzi, a gold medal winning Italian Olympic wrestler. Some guy called "Steve" pestered me to do a post on him... ;)



Nice view!





This blogger works for nothing but the joy of writing but always appreciates things bought from his wishlist

Reasons Rugby Is Better Than Football 2: Danny Care

Danny Care may be a little small for my liking, but you would wouldn't you? He is gorgeous.




This blogger works for nothing but the joy of writing but always appreciates things bought from his wishlist

A Night On The Town

As you may have guessed from the blurry, drunken pictures posted here last night, I took a dive off the new lifestyle wagon and landed in champagne, wine, Staropramen and a really lovely cinnamon ice cream.

It was Karen's birthday (again) and to celebrate an even larger group than last time headed into London. Jim, Denis, H, Karen, Hillary, Graham, Antonio, Mark and Jo were in attendance. We made our way to Ev Restaurant. It's a huge, clean, and rather lovely Turkish restaurant hidden near Southwark station. Jim, Denis, H and I had the Tam Menu (all of it) and it was delicious!

After that we headed to a nearby pub called the King's Arms, and thought "I've had sex on this street". Yeah.. I certainly got around.

Had a really great evening. :D

This blogger works for nothing but the joy of writing but always appreciates things bought from his wishlist

At this point this is how i see things.

At the train station

In the king's arms

The wheel

At Ev

Reasons Rugby Is Better Than Football 1: Sandor Earl

When Only Hot Will Do has more on him, with more pictures.

This blogger works for nothing but the joy of writing but always appreciates things bought from his wishlist

Basshunter

I've got a real thing for Basshunter right now (don't ask me about his music... I have no idea, too busy imagining allsorts of naughty things with him). Something about a cute guy with a Northern European accent (in this case Swedish).




This blogger works for nothing but the joy of writing but always appreciates things bought from his wishlist

Five On The Fifth: Greenwich

See The State Of The Nation UK for more on Five On The Fifth, where one takes 5 pics on the fifth of the month and publishes them online. This week has a Greenwich theme... as that was easy. ;)

The wind turbines at the Peninsula Sainsburys store.

Gibbs The Bearded Dragon

Queuing for the ferry

The Royal Naval College

Statue of George II in the Grand Square of the Greenwich Hospital

This blogger works for nothing but the joy of writing but always appreciates things bought from his wishlist