Sunday, April 29, 2001

Aeuauueeuegh. At least I think that's how you'd spell it. Sunday very early afternoon, and I'm round at David P's. Well I kipped over here last night and haven't left yet, so don't go thinking I'm up and about this early on a Sunday. Well, what a weekend so far.
Friday evening: Drinks in the canteen at work to celebrate my leaving. We managed to spin those out until about 7pm when the hardcore few headed up to the Academy. Some drunken phone calls whilst imbibing more vodka, and 4 big bowls of chips later... I stumbled home and had arranged to meet Darryl down at the Kazbar in Clapham. A couple more sherries there, and suddenly we were down the 2 Brewers. In a shock move. It was one of those evenings that somehow gathered its own momentum and so after lots of singing and dancing we were in Sub South by 2.30am! The music, shocking at first, picked up and by the end it was really good - quite hard like Trade. Darryl and I were swept out at 5am and decided to go back to his and chill. Think we played nearly every Eurovision Song Contest entry from about 1990 onwards and just nattered. Managed to make yet another bizarre connection - the third guy I ever slept with is a good friend of Darryl's and in fact Darryl was over at Andy's house for a 40th birthday party just the other week! Weird. But fun.
Saturday: Rieg arrived at about 9.30am to accompany Darryl to Ikea, and at that point I decided to head home. Showered and watched telly. Nick arrived back from the gym. We nattered a bit and then eventually headed into town. Met up with Stevie P, Baby Tom, David P and Little Andrew in the Edge and had a refreshing vodka - for medicinal purposes obviously. Me, David and Andrew then went shopping, but it turned into more of a coffee shop crawl than anything else. I managed some food at about 4.30pm, which was nice. I finally succumbed to the lure of sleep and headed home. Dozed for about an hour and a half before getting my stuff together and heading round to David's. Chatty Paul and Andrew were already in evidence, and the four of us drank lots of vodka, sanced round the apartment to Out and About and ate Chinese food - lovely. Down to Hope for the remainder of the evening - primarily to help David celebrate his birthday. The gangs were all there. David's lot, us lot, Darryl and Rieg, Mike, Nick, Jason, Karl, Rob and Wayne, Nick and his lot (out for Peter's birthday), Scally... great fun. We danced the night away. Boy did we. And finally home here to David's about 5.30am. More vodka and chats - one to Big Steve(!) and finally crashed out gone 6.30am. Nice weekend so far, and we've still got the Vauxhall to come!!

Saturday, April 28, 2001

So, that's it. It's all over. Bit of an anti-climax, but I can now get on with all the other stuff I have to organise before I go. Chrysalis Radio - it's been an interesting 15 months. I'd like to say great. The first 4 were. The last lot, nah. Some of the people I'll miss such a lot. You know who you are. Adieu.

Friday, April 27, 2001

Can't shake this completely detached feeling. Think it's a combination of stuff - work finishing (it's probably a bigger thing mentally for me than I'm giving it credit for); being really full of cold for that feeling sorry for yourself/fuzzy head feeling; lack of sleep (the cold thing again); house buying but trying to not think about it; money (kind of dependent on what happens with the house); going to Oz and all that it entails (new flat (sorted); new job (not sorted); men (most certainly not sorted!)). No wonder it's all getting a bit much... maybe I should just take it easy this weekend. Now, how many times have I said that? Maybe this time I'll listen to my body. It's in revolt.
LAST DAY AT WORK!!

...but I'm still not excited.
Blogger's still playing up. Posts going AWOL. Hmmm.
So, it's my second to last day at work. I guess I should be feeling like it's the end of an era or something. It's the last time I'll work in this country for a long time - maybe ever. So, why don't I feel anything at all?

Thursday, April 26, 2001

Hmmm. Blogger's playing silly buggers. Maybe I can kickstart it into action...
Apologies to all for lack of updates yesterday. I've been struck down with some dreaded lurgy (some might call it a heavy cold) that's reduced me to a coughing, quivering pile of (mostly) phlegm. Nice.
Jonathan has details of what happened at the quiz, and what happened afterwards, but not what happened after that...

Tuesday, April 24, 2001

We ran out of shower gel this morning. However, in the bathroom we have some hand wash with tea tree oil and mint. It makes your hands cold when you use it, in a kind of minty fresh kind of way. After this morning, I recommend caution before using it anywhere below your navel. Ay caramba.
OK, so my latest flat offer has been accepted. I'm trying not to get too excited as the last one fell through. Touching wood at every opportunity... if you know what I mean!

Monday, April 23, 2001

One of the things to do as mentioned on the blog is calming down. Face it Davie - it's not going to happen before Oz, now is it? Not if this weekend's activities are anything to go by...

Friday: Quiet drink in Barcode for Little Stuart's birthday. Most of the Vauxhall people were there, and it was mad. Some friends of friends were over from Oz, and so a hardcore posse ended up at Fiction. Great fun, lots of laughs. Stumbled out of there at 5.30am and crashed out at David P's.

Saturday: Up and home. David came over and we went a househunting. Thanks again Scally for ferrying me around - it was a great help! And nice to have something big throbbing between my legs. Matron. Offered on another place. Fingers crossed. Home to veg a bit. Ate a jelly sweet and lost half a filling :o( Round to Steve and Steve's for dinner for Little Stuart. Really nice time - good food, good company. Had arranged to meet David, Paul and Pete and Paul (Oz guys) in Crash at midnight. Did so. Lots of other people there too. I finally really enjoyed a night there! Yippee! Crash's music is the normal bugbear, apart from the guys with attitude. Well they at least got the music right for once. Kind of harder than the Vauxhall, and a bit funkier too. DTPM-esque. Great. We'd then arranged to go to Trade, and having phoned Nick to see where he was (he'd overslept!) we hit there at about 5.30am. Danced our little socks off until around 11am, when Nick and I decided to walk home. As you do.

Sunday: In around midday. Decided the only thing to do was listen to trashy old 80s CD singles. Corona, Undercover, Urban Cookie Collective, Dannii... you get the idea. Crashed out around 2pm and slept until 5pm. Shower, change and down to the Tavern. Caught half of the show, which was very, very good. A slightly peripheral crowd there last night, but suddenly all those people gelled into one big happy family. One even bigger happy family I guess. Just fantastic. Music a little different too - a few more different oldies and all the better for it. Swept out of there with the rest of the trash at midnight. Didn't think I was a twin tub washing machine this week. Apparently last week I did. Oops.

4½ working days.

Saturday, April 21, 2001

Don't even ask me where I got hold of this link to the Golden Haired Goddess™, just go and gawp (primarily at the hair). The bio section contains the immortal bit of writing '... the role was part Fatal Attraction and part Mommie Dearest... Once again Fawcett gave the performance of a lifetime'. Think about it for a minute...
Ow. One of my teeth hurts. I think I need a filling. I'm actually one of those weirdos (note spelling Tony!) who can have fillings without injections. Yes I know. FREAK! For those of you who don't enjoyed being drilled quite so much, as it were, click here.
It's still really depressing looking for new flats. I've been spoiled by the niceness of the last place. Curses.

Friday, April 20, 2001

It's their website, and they'll cry if they want to. Sad. Very sad.
Overheard on the Chrysalis minibus this morning: "Well how would you like it if I sat in front of the telly and tweaked my nipples?"
I'm in a better mood today. Pissed-offness has turned into defiance. I will find a flat, and I'll find one this weekend too. Thanks to Scally for offering to buzz me round places tomorrow, and thanks again to everyone for their sympathy. It's ranged from the soft platitudes 'These things happen for a reason', 'It just wasn't meant to be', to the hugely optimistic 'Hope a house fell in your lap'. Better take those ruby slippers off then, just in case. Also as a couple of people have pointed out, and now I've poked my head meerkat-like out of my mire of self-pity... I am healthy, I'm happy (!) and I'm moving to Australia in 8 weeks. Things could be a lot worse. Thanks kids for my verbal slappings. Consider me having pulled myself together.
Right, that's it. I'm out of here for the day. I've had enough. Weekend plans have now changed. No trip to York. Staying down here and househunting. Thanks for all the kind words from everyone today - you know who you are... I'll keep you informed.

Thursday, April 19, 2001

Fighting the mood. Failing. Fighting the mood. Trying at least. At each successive property search online, my mood sinks back to where it was. Can someone organise some sort of divine intervention please? Thanks. Or at least write to me and cheer me up...
Ahh, Thursday. Still in as crap a mood as yesterday. I know I need to lighten up, but frankly, I'm happier wallowing in self-pity for another day.
Well my day can't possibly get any worse. The vendors have just pulled out of the flat sale. Fantastic. Just what I needed to hear to make my day complete. Today sucks.
Get me out of this shithole someone please.
Oh dear. Mood's a-sinking. This work crap doesn't half interfere with important personal stuff, like blogging and email. Doh.

Wednesday, April 18, 2001

Quiz night last night, and my turn to write up the events. A full strength team for the first time ever - me, David, Jonathan and Darren. Following on from last week's eventful night Wendy themed the quiz all about fire and burning. Thus before the quiz had even started we guessed several songs that eventually became answers - it was more a case of slotting the songs in the right place! We knew lots of related stuff: identified 'Babylon's burning' by the Ruts in a nanosecond; knew who accompanied Tom Jones on 'Burning down the house' and could name all four original members of Bucks Fizz ('If you can't stand the heat...'). We had no problem with the three Earth, Wind and Fire tracks and knew such diverse answers as Sparks, Ash, the Ohio Players ('Fire) and the Trammps "... with 2 M's!!" ('Disco Inferno'). We didn't know a Primal Scream track called 'Burning Wheel', were our usual year out on the Guess the Year round and didn't know Mick Ronson wrote a particular song (that I can't now remember). All in all we dropped 4½ points to register 15½ - a full 1½ points behind the eventual winners. But they didn't win the cash. That's ours next week...
I get my coffee from the same place every morning - Coffee Republic in Notting Hill Gate. They've had a high turnover of staff until recently, and for the past few weeks have had the same team on early shifts. One lovely blonde girl has made me very happy (that's a first!), in that she now remembers my order. I walk in and say 'Good morning'. She replies with 'Hi, tall decaff latté?'. I say 'Yes please'. Other non-regulars look at me enviously. I like that. It somehow makes me feel like I belong! For another 8 days.
Minker la-la.

Giant was interesting. You'll probably have read about some people's nightmares on assorted blogs anyway, but I'll add in my whole ten pence worth. The evening started nicely with a quick pre- pre-Giant drinks drink at Stevie P's. Then onto Paul and David's for the official pre-Giant drinks. Lots of chatting and drinking and generally ramping up in preparation. We split into a car's worth and a taxi worth of people to make the short trip from Paddington to King's Cross, and it turned out to be a fortunate move. I went with American Thom, who very, very fortunately knew people in the queue. Right at the front. We blagged our way in!! Normally I hate people that do this, but having heard subsequent 1½ hour queue nightmare stories from those people who waited WITH tickets, I feel less guilty. Overly zealous searches for drugs on entry - everyone was treated like a dealer until proven otherwise. Things like chewing gum taken away - why? Once in we joined the coat check queue, until someone sneakily told us that you could push in round the back. We did that too. Whatever - I'm leaving the country.
Once in, I had a great time. There were 5 areas:

Heaven: Trashy dance. Podium in the middle. We spent no time here.
Crash: Surprisingly good music. Kind of slightly harder or funkier Vauxhall. Bore no relation to the music they play in Crash proper. For that we can be thankful. Spent bits of time dancing here, with Little Steve, Drew, Andrew and Stuart.
Trade: Excellent. Probably slightly lighter than normal, but great atmosphere. Spent most time dancing here with Nick, Kay and Tara, Mark, Dave (cor!), Danny, Jason, Rodger and Tony. Great fun.
Down to Barcode: Our meeting place, that worked very well. Less dancey, more social. Ran into heaps of mates.
Down to the Hoist: Faux-sleaze. Apparently there was a dark room. No investigations undertaken.

Other people have said it was too crowded. Sure, it was busy but the people added to the atmosphere and I don't remember being overly pissed off at the hoardes of lovely, sweaty, mostly bare-chested men. Funny that.

Leaving wasn't such a bed of roses. We decided to try and beat the queues by leaving at 5.35am as it was due to close at 6am. We failed. However it wasn't a complete failure as we were in the first batch that eventually got out after about 45 minutes. What a crush. If there had been any sort of emergency, a fire for example, we wouldn't have had a hope in hell. Scally commented on the difference between the smoothness of the whole Mardi Gras party in Sydney compared to Giant. I couldn't agree more. And that copes with 25,000 people versus a measly 5,000 or so at Bagley's. Still, all in all a fun night. Good music, good company, good times.

Back to Stevie P's to chill. Fantastic. Thanks Steve once again from your many grateful mates. Spent most of that time entwined with Dave and Tony. Talking and minkering. Fabulous. Left there at 3.30pm having not slept. Home and showered. Got Mark and Dave from down the road and hit the Vauxhall. Great night. More than a little minkered by the end of the night, but great fun. Nick joined us, as did Steve, Rob & Wayne, Karl et al. Lovely. Home and bed 12.30am.

Happy Easter!!

Tuesday, April 17, 2001

Ohbejesus.

Sunday, April 15, 2001

Happy Easter to one and all.

It's update time. I last left you Wednesday afternoon and coz of Blogger being down that's the last thing. Wednesday night was dinner at Darryl's. Had a great time. Went via the landlord's place to get spare keys to replace the ones we threw out with the rubbish. Darryl then cooked a fab Thai Green Chicken Curry and we drank too much white wine and put the world to rights. Home at about 11pm ish, when I got a text from David P. Called him for a chat as I wanted to run the idea of me leaving earlier for Oz past him. Brett's coming to stay for 4 weeks and it would mean that I'd only be here for the first two. The phone call from my end (coz of almost one and a half bottles of wine) went something like this:
"Rant, rant, rave, rave, blah, blah, '... but are you sure you don't mind me gong while Brett's still over here', rant, rave, blah, blah, '... but I feel guilty about not being here when Brett's here', blah, rave, rant, blah, '... you'll have more time to spend on your own with him', blah, rant, rave, rant, blah, '... it's too good an opportunity for me not to', rave, rant, blah."
You can imagine. The reason for me going earlier will be explained presently. Fell into bed.

Thursday:
Work. If you can call it that. Called David Bassett in Oz, and said yes to his flat. Oh my god. This means I have a place to live in Sydney that a) sounds great, b) is conveniently located, c) is affordable, d) is being rented from someone I know and e) it's sorted! It means so much less hassle. Thanks David. For my 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom, 7th floor, balconied, views of the Opera House, swimming pool in the complex apartment. Can't wait. Thursday night I was as good as my word and went to the gym again. Various people had called trying to tempt me out. Post gym I met Steve's (Big and Little) and Stuart (Little) in Barcode. They'd been to the Yard, which apparently now looks like the inside of Chariots sauna after its refurbishment. Nice! David (Swish) and Ian were in Barcode too. Beers, then for some reason onto Escape. Ick. Too many pretty boys. Too many drunk girls. Too much hair product. On the boys. Big Steve lost his front tooth. Then we found it after 15 minutes of searching. Decided to go to Crash. Loads of people there, but I was being good so only stayed until 2am then home. Well done.

Good Friday:
Nick and I managed to be up reasonably early and hit the gym. Yes, again. Shopped on the way home then decided to go into town for non-food shopping. Too many people, so within an hour or so we were in Comptons. Jasons assorted, Darryl and Rieg were there too, and suddenly it was 7.30pm and were were minkered. How did that happen? Home to smoked haddock, crushed new potatoes with black olives and truffle oil, cabbage and spinach. I was feeling a bit Delia, OK?? Out to the Kazbar to meet Darryl at 9.30pm. Lots of too loud singing to trashy songs - the perfect limber up for the Brewers. David (Scally) joined us, and a few others we knew were there too (Roberts various). Of course, we couldn't stop there and despite Nick being sensible (and a bit jet lagged) and going home at 3am, the rest of us hit Substation South. Paul and Ian were there, as was Jonnie B. Minker la-la. Home at about 6am. Oops. Bed.

Saturday:
Up at about 11.15am. Internet shenanigans as I couldn't really function much beyond that. Into town for hair cut at 3.30pm and chat to Warren. Wandered round and finally had a panini and coffee. Couple of beers with Jason in Comptons again! No... !! Home and Nick and I got chinese takeaway, and stumbled upon a Sex and the City night on E4. Fantastic. Bed just before midnight as posted. Zzzzz.

Easter Sunday:
So far, not much. Slept until 10.15am. Coffee and Simpsons. Nick and I had brekky. OK - lesson for you all now. Do not buy fruit milk. Fruit milk is the work of the devil. It's so evil it's not even on the web yet. It's a mix of milk, mango and apple juices and it's attempting to take over the world. By itself it's not bad. Bit like those yoghurt drinks. It says on the pack though that it transforms your porridge into a 'delicious taste sensation'. Lies. It transforms your porridge into 'something you could re-plaster your walls with that just happens to smell of warm mangoes'. Avoid. For all our sakes. We've just been chatting since, watching MTV, drinking coffee and I've been mailing and blogging. Gym at 3pm then a bit of running around sorting stuff for people. Then pre-Giant drinks somewhere - Robert's? David and Paul's? Then Giant itself. Should be a laugh. Never been to one of these 5 venues under one roof things. Fab. More news later kiddies.
Saturday night, 11.40pm. In a shock report, Dave is heading for bed. No really. Alone. Full update tomorrow - Blogger problems and Easter have restricted postings. Nighty night.

Thursday, April 12, 2001

I'm being good today. I've made all those calls you never get round to making. I'm feeling virtuous. All this after the gym last night and again tomorrow. Go Davie!

Wednesday, April 11, 2001

Following the Dutch decision to legalise euthanasia, my friend Carol in the office has come up with the most fantastic idea for a game show. People who want to die compete in a quiz round, the loser being put gently to sleep live on air. Her working title? "Is that your final answer?"
I can't shake an impending feeling of doom. Hopefully this portent is inaccurate. It may have something to do with last night's dream...

I was in Australia with my mate Brett. We were on farm somewhere (not Perth where he lives, or Sydney where I'll be) - some sort of sugar cane farm I think. I was wearing a denim jacket with no buttons, and Brett was making me make some fasteners out of paper clips (listen, it's a dream OK? Weird stuff is meant to happen.) Then we realised we were being stalked. We went outside and Brett gave me a gun. So, in amongst the sugar cane we were stalking this unknown assailant when I saw him. I pointed my gun and shot. My gun turned out to be a camera, and so I got a lovely picture of the attacker as the flash went off. I tried a couple more times and just got a couple more pictures. I then realised the attacker was approaching me and getting nearer and I could do nothing. I then realised for some reason what I could see was mirrored and that he was behind me. As I turned he was pointing a gun at me about to pull the trigger. I was completely helpless. I punched out in a vain attempt to disarm him... and that was when I awoke with a sore hand having punched the wall of my bedroom. Freaky.

I slept very badly after that and am tired now. I know I'm taking a lot of stuff on right now, so maybe it's working its way out through my dreams. I hope that's all it is. Though having done a bit of impromptu dream analysis maybe I'm not so sure. Guns mean 'violence, threat, aggression and danger ahead'. Shooting means 'destroying aspects of one's self, there is a deep wound within myself'. Great. Another site has these symbols as meaning that 'there is a major life change ahead'. Well they got that right.
I went to the gym - yippee! I had a lazy night otherwise - laundry, bought some flowers, vegged in front of Buffy. Perfect.
No pop quiz for me tonight. I'm ditching it in favour of a good, long and hard gym session.

No I am.

Really.

Tuesday, April 10, 2001

2 and a half hours of brainstorming this morning. How dull is that? We talked about:

Wine
CD releases
Slendertone
Boddingtons
Camelot
Online club listings.

Less than 12 days to go. It can't come soon enough.
I've been illin'. A day of nothingness. Chats to Big Steve, Tess, Stevie P and David P. Pokémon and Voyager - as much intellectual stimulation as I could muster. Finally bacon and mushrooms on toast. Feel better. Early night beckons...
Oh minkered is me.

Friday was fine - a few quiet beers with ex BA colleagues in Windsor. Curry (very nice) and the train back into town slightly worse for wear. As predicted, resistance to the Royal Vauxhall Tavern proved useless. I tipped up there at about 11.15pm as there was a special night on as it was Jason's (who runs the place) birthday. A few of the gang were there - Steve's Big and Little, Paul, Gary, Darryl and Rieg, David's Quiz and Scally. Of course we couldn't leave well alone, and after a couple of hours or so suddenly seemed to find ourselves - as if by magic - at Substation South. It was quite a lot of fun, and the minkered continued. I was in a strange mood though, and so by the time I decided to leave I'd sunk into a very low mood. Not sure why. A bit of uncertainty about everything I suppose, and all the flat buying/emigration stuff can seem daunting from time to time. I walked home, and in that 40 minutes or so sunk deeper into a mass of self-pity. Came home to a message from Tony that kind of threw me a bit, and I stupidly ended up taking some of my mood on him, which was unfair. Apologies matey - it was out of line. Bed.

Saturday morning, and no real mood improvement. Slept late and did bugger all before going to meet David P for coffee and shopping. David let me witter on for about an hour over the coffee before we actually ventured shopwards, and he did make me feel an awful lot better. Thanks matey. It's funny how certain people end up being incredibly important to you after only knowing them for a short space of time - and you, Uncle Chopmeister, are one of them. I bought a great new jacket, David only splashed out on a new watch and a t-shirt. Ended up for a quick beer at the Edge where, oddly enough, we passed a good 45 minutes talking about anal intercourse. As you do. Evening was much quieter. Up to Stevie P's for some grub and wine. Nice, relaxed and perfect. Watched Top 10 Electropop Pioneers on C4 which was fantastic for the musical memories alone. Then caught a documentary about an English woman trying to break into porn films in the USA. Scarily watchable and poignant. Bed at midnight. Yes, on a Saturday night. Not been out. Oh no. Marvellous.

Sunday up at about 9am. Hadn't slept particularly well mind. Steve dropped me off at the station and home I came. Pottered. Showered and shaved and into town for a bit of a look round and a sandwich. Big Steve called to say a few people were in Comptons. I joined them, bumping into Steve and Craig on the way. A few beers and then Vauxhall time. Absolutely rammed last night. Not sure if the sunshine had maybe made people think it would be good to go to stand outside, yet upon arrival the weather had turned cold and rainy again so more people than you'd think humanly possible were all packed sardine-like into the pub. Still, a great night as ever. The gang were pretty much all there and much minkering was had by all. Minker la-la. And talking of la, me and Chatty Paul may have gone on to LA3. I may have gone to chill at the Orange. But you'll never know for sure...

Saturday, April 07, 2001

OK - now I know that I've been banging on about this to anyone who will listen, but... the currently ubiquitous "M&S Presents The Girl Next Door - Salsoul Nugget (If u wanna)" will forever be known to me and my mates as the 'Bag of Revels' song. What does she sing? It's probably something along the lines of "If you won't unlock the rebel we'll debate all through the night". However, when minkered, it sounds more like she's singing "If you want a bag of Revels or a bagel through the night". Trust me. Sing that once, and you'll never be able to hear it any other way again. I thank you. (P.S. Can you believe there isn't a packshot of a bag of Revels on the Net? Scandalous. Someone scan one in quick!!)

Friday, April 06, 2001

Resistance is futile. (Thanks to David for all his hard work on this - kept us amused for weeks mate!)
Fancy a cheap trip out of London? Or in fact anywhere on the GNER network? They've got a special offer of £5 single/£10 return for travel anywhere on their network between 23 April and 3 May - and yes, this includes Scotland. You'll need to book by 26 April mind you. Go here and follow the link to £5 single. Fantastic!! Let's get out of here. I'm going to see my Daddy. No, my real Daddy.
Am slightly bleary/beery eyed this morning after last night's beers. Nothing major, just a little woolly round the edges. Be gentle with me.
OK, I can't remember where the hell I got this from. This probably means I'm going to put this up without a thanks and get hate mail from someone. Apologies. It was the top left one that particularly made me grin. And think all Egyptian :o)
Take a peak at this. Not done for commercial reasons, just a home page that's slightly mad. Have a good look round - the toons are bizarre. Way cool.
Impromptu beers with Jonce (briefly) and David (for the rest of the evening). Decided once home to stay home. Early bed is a definite. Nighty night!
The first single that I ever bought? Rather appropriately it was 'Davy's on the road again', by Manfred Mann's Earth Band. Not thought about that in a while, but I guess what goes around, comes around. Weird.

Thursday, April 05, 2001

Spit or swallow? You may want to know about this. Girls. And guys. Or not. I don't know... all this messing around with nature? Leaves a nasty taste in my mouth...
Don't you hate it when people are late for things and throw out your night? Someone was due round at 8pm to pick something up, and I'd specifically said I was going to the gym AFTER that. They roll up at 8.35pm oblivous. At that point it's too late to go to the gym. Still, it meant I cleaned the house from top to bottom (I tend to clean when in a bad mood). Tonight I will exercise if it's the last thing I ever do.
There's going to be no-one left in this country at this rate. Excerpts from two e-mails received yesterday:

Garry: "Secondly, I hear you're moving to Oz. Guess what??? ME TOO!!!"
Simon: "I have been offered a job in Sydney and am wondering whether to pursue it."

Simon - don't think about it twice.

See you all down under boys and girls...

Actually, David makes everything below seem much clearer...
Help. I'm scared. Six degrees of separation? Make that about one and a half. Reading down here, you'll see mentions of the following people...

David S (SwishCottage) - my Retro Bar quiz team mate, Tavern minkering buddy and daily email and blog correspondant.
Tony - the lovely guy I met in Oz and whom I'm in daily email contact with.
David Cushing (Scally) - the friend of Tony's whom I met in Oz in a bar whilst there on holiday with
David P - my close friend, holiday trip partner, recently regular minkering partner and daily text message exchanger.
and me, Davie B (Minkered..., Uncle Hedgehog).

Hmmm, how best to word this? The night I met Tony I was in the Oxford in Sydney with David P, and he was there with David C. We then kept meeting up with David C all over Sydney, and I continued to see Tony before I left. David P and David S only met really properly for the first time this Saturday at Hope. I met up again with David Scally at the Tavern on Sunday as previously mentioned below. He'd come to wish me happy birthday bless him.
Today David Scally is reading the blog of another friend of his Davo, and sees the link to David S's blog. Apparently Dave-o had previously mentioned David S to David Scally. Meg, who met David S earlier in the year, fits in there somewhere too. Think her and Dave-o are housemates and her and David Scally are work colleagues.
So, David Scally follows the link, reads and reads and sees the link to my site. On following that, David Scally realises that it's me, puts eight and fourteen together and gets four hundred and ninety-three, fires off a note to David S, who forwards it to me and here we are. Confused? I'll be asking questions tomorrow. I had no idea David Scally had a blog. He had no idea I had. The scariest thing is that 71.4285% of the people mentioned in this particular post are called David.
Lumme. Did I get this right by the way everyone??

Wednesday, April 04, 2001

This is quite amusing. Particularly the Ministries, BASH, Homosexual Agenda. Thanks to the lovely Tony for this link and cheering me up :o)
Amanda at work has just asked me what I look for in another man.
My reply?

My penis.
OK guys - the 'I've never' baton has landed in my sweaty palm. David started this off...

I have been to B+Q, Halfords, Homebase and IKEA, but not Iceland (country or frozen food store). I've been driving half my life. Spent nice times in Scotland but never been to Ireland. Done both Queensway (also for skating Jonce!) and Barons Court. Seen at least one Derek Jarman film I can think of, but not broken a bone (of mine or anyone elses). The tattoo is planned, the piercing below the neck had to come out (you decide where it was!). I used to skateboard in competitions as a teenager, and make my own boards. I've not microscootered mind. My Dawson has never Creeked, I've Buffied sometimes and Angel-ed less. I Voyager regularly but never got into DS9. Read a couple of John Grishams, but didn't love them like I devoured all the Harry Potters (but not the Comic Relief ones).

I've never...

bungee jumped. Slept with a black man. Liked R 'n' B. Been to Canada. Sung Karaoke. Slept with an Asian. Really enjoyed Crash. Been sadder about leaving this country.

Yesterday passed fairly uneventfully after the events of the weekend. Thank god! Into work, didn't do much. Tried to fill in my mortgage application form. Will try and finish that today. The network was down at work, so I didn't have email access or blogging access until way too late in the day. Struggled home with my home PC via Eric's in Islington and had a not too healthy meal in front of Buffy night. Then I played on the PC a while before chatting to Tony for almost an hour before going to bed at 1am. Slept very badly and so am bit tired today. Grrr. More later kids.
BIRTHDAY MINKERING WEEKEND UPDATE

Friday as previously described - somewhere below. Italian food with Nick, beers in Barcode and Comptons (where we bumped briefly into David) and then home. Remarkably in bed at a reasonable time. How did that happen??

Saturday started much more sedately. Nick had to nip off for one of his computing seminar things, so I had a very leisurely start to the day. Up about 9.30am, coffee, Saturday morning telly... first time in ages. Got organised and decided to nip to Tesco's to get some essentials. Of course, I forgot that I hadn't replaced the security key for the front door to the block, so ended up locking myself out again. Great. Chatted to a couple of people on the phone. Steve (Nick's ex) arrived and we chatted a while before Nick got back. Coffee, more chats and then finally into town - ostensibly to meet David P for a bit of shopping. Meantime though, Big Steve had called wanting to meet for a quick beer, so that was what we did. David P joined us. Oh dear. Some 3 and a half hours later we gave up on the shopping idea as we were fairly minkered. Stumbled home, where I managed to eat something (I think!), shower, shave and get myself looking beautiful before David and Chatty Paul arrived and we went down to Hope. Had the most fantastic time!! All the gang were there - well not initially, but over time most of our entire group from the Vauxhall joined us. The Karl Crew, the Big Steve Crew, the Blog Crew and assorted other people we adopted. Got lots of birthday attention, and it meant that eventually I think we'd met everyone in there. It's like a mini-Tavern, and most enjoyable for it. Highlight of the evening for me? My trip to Ibiza. Towards the latter part of the evening, much minkering down the line, I was - to say the least - a little worse for wear. You can imagine. No, really. Those who saw me have no need to imagine. At one point, very wobbly, Antony (the guy Steve and Audrey brought into our fold) basically wrapped himself around me (well he is 6'2" and built like a brick cliché) and looked after me. He decided to take me on a little trip. Antony started telling me we were going on holiday, to Ibiza. Getting on the plane, taking off, landing, arriving at the hotel. Then we were by the pool, having cocktails, feeling the warm sun as we lounged around. Thing is, I was there. I mean really. It felt like I was living the experience first hand, not by proxy. Oh dear. Antony - thanks. One of the best holidays I've had in a while! Left Hope and back to ours briefly before everyone left and I fell into bed at 7am.

Sunday began some 3 and a bit hours later, as I woke with the need for coffee. Nick and I sat around and talked to a couple of people before I forced us to have bacon sandwiches, not really knowing when we'd next realistically eat. Baby Tom came round about 1.30pm and we hit Manto's on time at 2pm. A beautiful day for my birthday, but to be honest we didn't see much of it, as we were in a basement bar in Soho. It's was a joint birthday do with my bestest friend Stevie P, who finally arrived about 2.45pm. Slowly lots of other people began to arrive, and I began my vodka-binge-athon. It was a most fantastic afternoon. God knows how many people we crammed into the basement bar of Manto's, but I'm sure it was more than it was meant to hold. Similar to the amount of vodka I polished off... more than I was designed to hold. Thanks to everyone who made the effort to come and help me reach the ripe old age of 36, and Steve 34. Finally it was time to move on - Steve took his crowd to Salvation, whereas I took my lot down to the Vauxhall Tavern. Well I couldn't really go anywhere else. To be honest it's a bit blurred, but I do remember having the most fantastic time. Minkered? Oh I think so. Talked to David Cushing (Tony's mate I met in Oz) and various assorted other minkerers, some of whom had been at Manto's, some who hadn't. About 10.30pm we decided to nip home and change and sort ourselves out before heading down to DTPM to carry on minkering. I know I had a great time at DTPM too, but I can't really remember many details. I know Ahmed the Egyptian was there, which was good for a bit of flirting, and it gives me chance to blog the better lines I thought of after Thursday night. Well he turned into American porn star voice over artiste on the Friday morning, and as he wanted to be dominated a bit (Him? He was about twice my size!!) it was less a case of Who's your Daddy? as Who's your Mummy! :o) Also I could mention the tour of his Sphinx, but that may not be to many people's liking, so I won't. He he he. Finally me, Nick, David P and Chatty Paul stumbled out of DTPM at about 5.30am on

Monday as we walked in a merry minkered way to Stevie P's. The Misty Moor crowd from Manchester were there, as were minkerers varicose. And there we stayed, minkering away as the sun rose on the most fantastic day. David P left after a little while, but the party just continued. I eventually fell foul to too much minkering at about midday, and fell into a little sleep until about 2.30pm. Steve is such a fantasic host - thanks matey. I then made my final excuses and came home. Slept from 4pm until 7pm, when I decided I should get up. Nick was back so we had food and watched Voyager and then I finally went to bed again at 10.30pm. What a fantastic birthday weekend. Thanks to everyone for making it such a special weekend. You all know who you are. And I think the world of you all.
Am way overdue to update this old blog of mine. Reasons are three-fold:

1) My home PC was meant to be being fixed at work. It's not been. I've brought it home in its usable but not 100% state for the time being as the guy fixing it is now in NYC for a week. Great.
2) I've been minkered (sometimes minorly, sometimes (er, mostly) majorly) since Saturday afternoon.
3) The network at work was down for most of the day.

Full update now and Wednesday am.