come back to what you know

All In My Head

There has been some brilliant songs this year... some of my favs:

The Darkness - I Believe In A Thing Called Love

Kosheen - All In My Head (can words describe how fabtastic this song is?)

Danni Minogue - I Begin To Wonder

Christina Agulliera - Fighter

Plus some ones from times past that I have only just discovered:

Mr Sandman (!!!)

Anything by Dressy Bessy

Anything by The Dixie Chicks

My family went to Barcelona on Thursday leaving me in charge. Silly people. Friday seemed to be just one long commute to and from work. Fun.

Gareth came over last night which was... GRREAT. :op He has gone to work... I need to tidy the house before he gets back.

Planning on going to the Air Show in Folkestone tomorrow as that'd be so cool! I am glad its back! Woo!!!

Folkestone Blogging

As you know I keep my eye on Folkestone blogging activity or try to anyway. So here are two new blogs with vague connections... plus one that should be in my favs but I am too lazy to amend my template...

Let Me Blog

The Stan Files Blog

Blue With Stars

Did see some others but could neither confirm or deny that they were Folkestone blogs...

Everything Is A-OK

After the depressing picture painted by my review (see below) I thought I should remind you of good things in my life.

1) Gareth. Smart, gorgeous, funny and, above all else, random. I love him. Just listen to the rythmn of my heart if you don't believe me.

2) I have been in continuous employment for nearly 15 months now. That is a very good thing indeed.

3) My group of friends seems only to have diversified instead of dying out after everyone went to uni.

4) I do loads of fun stuff.... this year I have:

i) been to an Avril Lavigne concert at the Brixton Academy

ii) been to both London and Brighton Pride.

iii) been to London often to: see Ben, see the Lion King, go to the museums, or just get plain drunk

iv) had a lovely trip to Sheffield

v) finally returned to Brighton and faced my demons.

vi) discovered the joys of Canterbury

vii) had lots of random fun.

And it isn't over yet.

5) I have discovered that there are people out there who really like me and, despite what my brain says, they aren't pretending! Woo!!!

6) I have discovered I like me.

7) Altho I find the family stiffling things are much better at home.

8) I realised the skys the limit.

More soberly: 11/09/2001 echoes.

Judgement Day

The new computer system at work really smells and generally makes life difficult. Grr....

I went to the Leas Club yesterday with Zoe and Jodie. We were joined by *deep breath now* Arron, Robin, John, Elliot (ringleader), Claire, Smiley Laura, and Kim. Now that's a gathering to make even the coldest heart glow. Twas just like old times.

Robin told me an amusing story about how some rudies had driven up to Skuba and started blasting out that Gay Bar song, and got beat up. By the patrons. Ah, that makes me smile with a certain evil glee. Divine justice perhaps? Forget Stonewall. We have Skuba!

The cute conductor on the train gave me a pound off my ticket today. What a sweet heart.

OK..... I have been reviewed! Yes The Weblog Review finally has my site listed! Woo! Read the review here. I was expecting it to be really awful and scathing. Turned out to be quite good although reading that has made me think: am I not the biggest drama queen ever???

I Begin To Wonder

This summer will forever morebe epitomised by "I Begin To Wonder" by Danni Minogue. It is just such a terrific song.

So how is everyone? Did you know this weekend has been my blogiversary? Two years, and still just about limping on!

The run down:

Friday I went out to the Leas Club with Zoe and John. We were briefly joined by Jodie and a couple of random girls who were cool. When I asked of any ideas for a random trip one said "Cabury's World!". Now that's a girl with the right idea! Gem appeared for about two seconds. Saw the sexy bouncer in civvies. Mmm...

I put Cher on the jukebox but the evil and cruel bar staff skipped it. Thats Cherophobia! So let's all Shoop Shoop a little! Be proud!

Matt, Sam and Maria (Matt's girlfriend) appeared which was lovely. Got quite tipsy.

Saturday I caught a train to Gareth's (after a random phone conversation with a girl named Sarah who works in Gareth's Co-Op), we had something to eat then he drove us down to Jon's and we all got into his very nice car... two drinks holders in back. Quality. ;op

We headed down to Brighton (don't go back for two years then return twice in a month!) where we wandered aimlessly until Jon decided we should go in Charles Street (tis a bar not a road) because there were some cute guys outside. Was nice in there, but a bit too, erm how can I put this without sounding nasty... a bit too conceited. We headed to the Pier (an actual pier not a bar) where there were fireworks, before wandering some more and going into Charles Street again. After that we went into Revenge where I trod on lots of people, accidentally elbowed the rest in the face, and made a general drunkern fool out of myself. Was great fun. Then we got a burger and Jon drove us all back to Ramsgate (a trip I don't remember but am promised it did occur).

Sunday watched There's Something About Mary, Jon drove us to his, we picked up Gareths car, we went to Canterbury (Bar 11 don't you know), and then Blockbusters. Watched Final Destination 2... scary!!! Only because you can't stop death! Ah!

Monday we lazed around all day, I had a random conversation with Gareth's sister, I said the wrong thing to Gareth (big mistake), we went into Canters, had a meal at Bar 11 (you guessed??) after a drink at Spoons (am I just getting too predictable??). He drove me home, we watched Cheerleader, and that is how we got to here.

I am sorry to anyone I haven't replied to message wise... have had NO CREDIT and am on a strict (i.e only one bottle of Pepsi Max an hour) budget.

'when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: "Free at last! Free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"' - Martin Luther King

Full Text

Let's See What You Think You Saw

Tuesday me and Zoe made a foolish error and attempted to go to the cinema. On cheap Tuesday. Fools! So it was absolutely jammed packed, never seen it that busy, after spending ages trying to park, we got into the cinema to find Pirates of the Caribbean was full. Shucks! Headed to Blockbuster and rented out the Waterboy which was ok.

Wednesday I did some floorwalking at work. It's so busy at mo. :o( And Total Plonker (TP - formerly David the Old) was going on blaming his gay neighbours for being noisy as they didn't have children. Yes that's right. They are noisy because they are gay. That's straight logic for ya!

Thursday I went to the cinema with Zoe, John, and Claire and saw Pirates which was totally great. Johnny Depp shivered my timber. Mmmm... (sorry about bad pun!)

Friday did final training for new system. Old system closed today. New one up on Tuesday. Eek.... Was late for work... got stuck behind cows. Darn the country side!! TP kept calling me clever and stuff.... I hate people who think I'm intelligent... they don't begin to comprehend the disaster of asking me for help!

Tis Bank Holiday Monday coming up so it's a long weekend for me! Woo!!!

Where Fort Art Thou Oh Blog?

OK Thursday Gareth came over, picked me up and we went to Ashford, had a drink at the Man of Kent and a Pizza Hut. Good to see him. Friday don't remember what I did. Oh wait yes I do. I lost Friday to Sim City 3000.

Work on Saturday was fun, very quiet on the phones, so the four of us (me, Stacey, David (the nice young one) and Kelly) sat round sending funny emails. Haven't laughed so hard in ages. Discovered mum has an obsession with the Darkness. She is a crazy mum. Saturday night Mum, Tony and Debbie went to my Uncles Nic's 40th Birthday fancy dress do. Mum was wearing a very fruity hat, Tony dressed in a bright tropical shirt and wearing rastafarian hair and Debs in a pink dress with a blonde wig. The whole street turned up to stare. Most exciting thing to happen in Lympne since the last time a zoo keeper got squashed by an elephant.

Gareth showed up to help me babysit Beth and George. Don't be too shocked but I cooked us a Mexican for tea! (Thanks to El Paso!) And we had a lovely evening. Gareth stayed the night.

Sunday got up discovered hung over Graham and Debbie downstairs, plus some hilarious stories about Uncle Derek. Mwhahaha.... Me and Gareth escaped to Canterbury for lunch at Bar 11 (Thai Green Chicken Curry was yummy!!!!!!!!!) and bought DVD's. Mine were Halloween 2 and But I Am A Cheerleader. Went home discovered Uncle David, Uncle Nic, Auntie Martine and Nan had turned up. And Mum (cruelly) introduced Gareth to them all. Poor G. Found him on my bed hiding under pillows going "VERY SCARY". He he....

Watched Star Trek Nemesis... hmmm... can;t decided whether I like it or not. Then G went home, and I watched my DVD. Cheerleader was pretty cool.

Can't seem to find the energy to bother with this blog much any more!

The Way Of The World

Work has been very hard, think I am suffering from tiredness. So to remedy this I have taken today off. It will be a day of relaxation and stuff. It's pay day tomorrow! Joy! *does small but effective dance of celebration*

I have been reading too many Bill Bryson books. Again. Thus I have got the travel bug. Hmm... Anyone wanna do something very random on a budget? Go on. I dare ya!

Zoe was very sweet yesterday and went a picked the twins up from their summer care place and took them to see Piglet's Big Movie. Thanks Zoe twas very kind and thoughtful of you!

Borderline

Yesterday's day off was very boring. Around seven thirty mum dropped me off somewhere in Sandgate (I was in the mood for a walk).

As I wandered a long my phone rang. So I threw it on the floor and smashed it into a thousand pieces. As you do. I am so clumsy! Got a few pieces together and manage to answer the phone. Twas John checking where I was.

As I walked like a zombie towards Gee's, with just one thought running through my head "Coke, coke, coke, coke" I was awoken by a shout of "JAE!" from the direction of FHODS (Folkestone and Hythe Operatic and Dramatic Society??) Twas Her Blogginess Emmsy. Praise be. She rocks. Sorry I was a bit distracted. I am not sleeping well cos its so hot! So am a bit dazed!

Got to Gee's bought 4 Diet Cokes, and took em to the beach where I found Claire, John and Elliot loitering with a tennis ball. We throw the tennis ball to/at each other for a while before Elliot decided to bury Claire on the beach. As you do.

Zoe soon arrived and we headed back to Gee's where we sat outside and tried not to sound geeky. Failed....

Zoe gave me a lift home. Today I barely managed to survive at work. Was just in a tired, heat induced daze. Angela was most annoyed. "We are not amused with you today". Did something deeply shameful today.

I gave the impression I was straight intentionally to a mate. I have only just started getting to know Russell, and was using my neutral phrase of "my other half" in conversations. When he goes so you like her then? Instead of saying "tis a him" as I normally do I went "Yeah a lot".

I am deeply ashamed of myself. Just didn't want to scare him away. Grr... *hits self over head*

Otherwise am pukka 'cept tired!

In Order To Love We've Got To Be Strong

Yesterday it was incredibly hot. Hotter than any heat wave in our modern history. Do I care? Not really. It's something Governments should worry about not people like me!

Uncle David stayed the night Saturday. David, Mum and I had breakfast at the table and as I sat there innocently eating my Weetabix Mum goes "Didn't you see Pete Burns at Pride when you went to London?"

I looked up from my cereal, we had never mentioned anything to do with my sexuality in front of the rest of the family. "Erm.... yes...."

"How cool is that David?!" she squeals.

"Very cool"

Did I miss something? Have my family been abducted and replaced with clones?? Hmm....

Spent most of day in garden, Gareth came down in the afternoon which was very cool. Or hot. We had a barbeque, quelle surprise we always have a BBQ. Managed to realise a childhood dream of mine which was to watch David terrorise someone other than me with his tickles. The lucky victim was George. Feels good not to be tormented! Gareth stayed till late, and as he left he goes "You look just like your uncle David".

Hmm... everyone says this... always have, but I don't notice it!

Brighton Pride And Other Things

Ok. Friday (nothing exciting happened Thursday) at work David (the old, there's two and this is the one that annoys me) started insulting gay men and women vis a vis the whole gay bishop row. It annoyed me enough that I lashed out, using all my A-level Religious Studies abilities to destroy his argument. After that, a bit deflated, he goes "Well what with you going to Brighton and your defending of gay men, people might start to talk Jason." This was when everyone else in the room (who all actually have spent the time getting to know me thus know I'm gay) laughed at him. Ha ha! Pride power!

After work Zoe came and got me and we went and saw Legally Blonde 2 at the cinema ("Your. Dogs. Are. GAY!") Which was cool. I stayed over her house, and in the morning quickly (ha!) got my haircut at the barbers which was stupidly busy for 8.30 in the morning!

She came and got me and we headed off to Brighton, via Jon's house where he and Ben (covered in glitter of course) followed us in his car. They soon over took us, and we headed into traffic. The M25 is hell! Oh well wasn't too bad. We got into Brighton, to discover Ben and Jon right behind us. They had stopped at a service station, had something to eat and still caught up with us!

Zoe made an executive decision and we parked in Varndean Road which turned out to be quite near Preston Park where Pride was. Went to Pride, where there was a huge fun fair filled with extremely scary rides!! There was stalls everywhere! Porn, wigs, t-shirts. After watching the end of the parade, and a fancy dress contest we wandered around. Meet up with Saul (see London Pride post). I bought Zoe a rainbow bandana (kept saying banana). Zoe got a henna tattoo. Me, Zoe and Ben went into a tent that was advertised as a circus. It was in fact a scarily sauna like line dancing tent of doom!!! AH!!!! The cabaret tent wasn't up to much, we saw the most bizarre touch rugby game ever with trannie lines men with pom poms.

The pole dancing display was amusing, the Red Devil van was selling lovely drinks called Ice Burst and gicing out water pistols.... Zoe kept getting me.... he he.... when we got to the Amnesty International stall (I give em £4 a month so I was not to be parted from any more of my money!) the lady was talking to us and said "Amnesty supports gays, lesbians and transsexuals" (gives Ben a knowing look). Was most amusing, guess it was cos Ben has just been at the wig stall. I won a dolphin toy (now named Dolph) on a grab a bag competion. After getting some noodles and watching some martial arts (how oriental!) we got bored and decided to head into town. Via the car. Which involved a lot of walking.

Now. Bearing in mind this was my first trip back to Brighton since it sent me insane (have you all read my January 2002 posts?) I thought it might be scary going back. But turned out to be just like slipping back into comfy well used slippers. We went to Spoons (of course!!) which was rather posh for once. Then headed to St James Street, after a stop in a pub which was really hot, and where Ben kept twitching his legs, we decided to walk up and down the street like plonkers till Jon made an executive decision and we ended up in the Queens Arms (just opposite the Kings Arms which is strange). They were having a Camp Attack in there. Was ok, if very small! Went to Safeways, where I bought an Argus (ah the memories), got taxi back to car, Jon went off gallavanting and Zoe kindly drove me and Ben home. Thanks love.

Thanks again to Zoe for driving me there and for not running away scared!! He he...

Pride links:

Here

And here. Kent police were there too which almost makes up for them not being allowed to wear uniform in the London parade... almost...

Part Of The Process

Per tu Natalie:

Gareth meeting my folks seemed to go scarily well. He seemed to like them, and they seemed to like him. You could say that was a good sign. Althought I am reluctant to say that people liking my family is anything close to resembling good! (See I am still a teenager at heart!)

I saw Muriel's Wedding last night which was very, very cool. Can I move to Sydney?

Work today was bearable, had lunch with Stacey and Patricia at Sarah Janes (which is the cafe me and Mum also "do lunch" in). After work Gareth and Rhianne came and picked me up and we went to Cineworld and saw Terminator 3 (phwoah Arnie... mmm....). Twas very good.. a bit of a soppy ending tho, which almost let it down. The car chases were excellent, and the jokes amusing. Plus Gareth was there which is always a bonus!

Good Luck to .Gene Robinson. Now I must say joining a church that is Judeo-Christian was a tad silly for a gay man. Specially as "Christians" love to quote from parts of the Bible Jesus wasn't in. Which seems a bit bizarre to me. I mean if you are going to devote your life to a bloke, you should at least hang on his every word, and not listen to some bloke named Paul, or to those parts of the Bible the Pharisees so loved.

Just my two cents on a religion I don't even begin to comprehend.

Ok. Plans:

Am going out Friday with Zoe.

Saturday: hair cut, then Brighton Pride hopefully. With (subject to change) Zoe, Jon, Ben and even maybe a guest appearance of Gareth.

Friday 15th: pay day, the worlds my oyster... mmm... oyster....

First week of September: erm.... think me and Gareth are supposed to be going somewhere... must talk to him about that

Meet The Folks

Gareth came round last night, and we sorted some things out yet again. Which was cool. He then had to come sit in back garden and meet Mum, Tony, and the Evil Twins. Very scary indeedy!

Feel a lot better today. Work is so busy at mo tho and because everyone is on holiday theres no point in me floorwalking, so I don't. Was staring at the electronic boards that give us statistics when suddenly a message appeared "Jason stop looking at me and do some work". He he....

I am babysitting tonight.

Ben seems to want to come to Brighton... seeing him three weekends in row... very scary!

OK as always when there's a problem in my family that needs sorting via a massive amount of snooping/stalking/impersonating or just plan defrauding, my family have turned to me. They wanted to locate someone who was upsetting David. So I handed them a map to his home, a note of his neighbours names, and his phone number. And they didn't even bat an eyelid. I mean, even I'm scared by how easily I do that!

No I Can't Explain The Pain You're Going Through

Weekend has had its highs and lows. Saturday I managed to get £20 from Mum without asking! Jon came and picked me up and we went and got Ben. We went to Skuba where I saw German Steph from Eurotunnel, and scary old lady I danced with a while back. Ben proceeded to cover everyone and everything in glitter! We left there and went to Bar 11 in Canterbury, which was cool. Shut Ben's thumb in a car which wasn't very cool! Oops. He was very brave.

Then we headed to Caddies/Woody's and danced. I may hate dancing but it's always good to be with mates. Cool Saturday.

Sunday I awoke on Jon's settee, smelly, tired, hungover, and glittery! Oh well... Ben and Jon awoke and we went and got ingredients for a fry up. Ben cooked and we ate our breakfast on the balcony overlooking the sea. Very sophisticated!

Jon gave me a lift home, got a text from Ben saying he couldn't get up his road to his house because this had occured half way up it. Eek!

Zoe came and got me after I freshened up, and for the first time in years I left the house without wearing any denim. Went to the beach with her and Annie (woo!) which was fantabulous. Zoe covered herself in orange ice lolly.

Dropped Annie at home, and picked up John. Went to Zoe's, shortly followed by Jodie, Russell and random bloke. We all ate copious amounts of pizza before me, Zoe and John headed off down to Gee's. Matt soon arrived and he made me laugh a lot (quote "What were you still funking your shaky thing?"). Very good

I do apologise to all present if I was rather mopey and dismal for the last hour or so. Will make it up to you all.

Right now, just before I go to bed, I feel horrible. Am I a complete and utter wanker or something? Going to bed now, hoping I feel better this time tomorrow. :o(

Spent yesterday in training. At lunch me, Patricia, Stacey, David, Lisa and Jackie went and had a drink over at Brewsters, where we started an argument over change, which turned into a racous, which turned into Patricia belittleing the staff while everyone else hid behind a pillar.... eek!

Everyone at work got bought a Happy Meal... Jackie gave me hers... Got two Transformer toys! Woo!!

I think the new computer system should be quite an improvement really. I am crossing fingers that I won't completely forget everything when it goes live!

Tonight, despite have absolutely no money now I supposed to be going out with Ben and Jon to Skuba/Caddies. If I can get money it should be a laugh!

Am missing Gareth at the mo. :o(

OK something to do in London next time I/we go: a BBC tour. Suggested via one of my random conversations with a BBC freelancer. Don't ask!

On a positive note: Good News.. ish