Pride Weekend

I had a really nice time on Saturday watching the London Gay Pride. It wasn’t that different to be honest than the previous years, but it was a nice day out. The weather was amazing and the atmosphere quite cool. I went there with a female Greek straight friend who never watched the parade before and was very curious about it. She was quite amazed the number of people attending, the organisations and the military units marching.

‘JJ’ joined us just before the end. We passed by Soho which was amazingly packed. It was fun to watch but definitely not to stay to enjoy a drink. We left the crowds and we headed towards the Southbank to enjoy early dinner and wine at the benugo in BFI.

I know that I said in my previous post that I can’t see myself going out, but of course who am I to make a final decision. With ‘JJ’ working some friends called who I haven’t seen in ages and I joined them for drinks. We went around 23:30 to find a Soho full of drunken people and garbage all around. It wasn’t a very pretty sight, but it was expected after the number of the people being there during the day. We had some drinks in ‘the Yard’ and danced a bit at 'barcode' until early in the morning. It was quite nice. I hadn’t been out in ages.

Here are some pictures of the Parade:

The flag was everywhere

Who doesn't like looks and brains

They were there for some reason, I don't remember why

The Queens from the past

master and slaves

Angel and demon

The Frontrunners: gay running group

The gay Rubgy team

NHS

Who doesn't like them?

Men with uniforms

What is it in a name…

I had a very busy week, last week. I am not complaining though. I love it when it is like that. I had to go Essex (see picture) to some clients for an installation and also help prepare the new version of our software. My manager is away this week to a Greek island and everything had to be ready before his departure. Funnily enough it was me that had to stay late a couple of nights to work on stuff.

Southend-On-Sea

While having that whole hectic atmosphere in the office, I had my annual appraisal meeting. It went a little bit strange. My manager likes me. He knows he can depend on me and we work together quite well. He said some really nice stuff about me. What I didn’t like was my director’s comments. He said that I shouldn’t waste time on clients’ demands more than needed. Bear in mind that my job some days is to do technical support, meaning talking to clients to solve their problems. He probably needed to say something negative so that he will not give pay rises to us at the end of year.

I took this picture this Wednesday afternoon
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That’s enough with work related issues. (It’s my excuse for not blogging enough this week). On a different matter:

I finished reading the ‘A million miles from Normal’ some days ago, written by my virtual blog friend Paige. I have to say that I loved it. If I really (really) had to find something negative to say, that would be that the plot was slightly predicable. It’s a romantic comedy however, so to be honest some things are expected. I only comment on something bad, so that you wouldn’t say I am totally subjective on her behalf.


On the other hand, it is a very well written story. I could totally see Sandra Bullock playing Rachel Marcus and someone like Dylan McDermott playing Jerrod. I loved the facebook updates comments here and there, giving a slightly different touch to the story. The characters are very real and the story as well. It’s a very entertaining story that I’d highly recommend for a relaxing summer read that you wouldn’t like to finish...By the way, is the ‘Five Roses’ tea that good?

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I saw Robyn this week in Heaven. That’s a club in central London, part of the famous (?) ‘G-A-Y’ and ‘G-A-Y late’ venues.

While we were waiting in the queue to get into the club, there was a guy giving to the people waiting some wristbands. They were for something called ‘I blame Coco’. At first I thought they could be for a demonstration or something and I was trying to think who Coco is and what she did wrong. My mind even travelled to Coco Channel! What could she have done wrong? Was it a band against skirts or something?

We were then told that ‘I blame Coco’ is the name of the rock band supporting Robyn. The wristbands were passwords to download for free some of their songs. They were quite good actually. I liked them a lot.

I blame Coco live

Robyn was also a pleasant surprise. She has an amazing energy that she was able to transfer to the crowd. I danced and danced. It was amazing. I had a really nice out, that day.

Robyn live...

Monday morning…

Sometimes, Monday are… well, let’s say difficult… especially, if you haven’t slept the previous two nights.
I went out on Saturday night.

OK, I went out on Friday night as well but I only went for dinner and to the cinema. I saw ‘Kick Ass’ which was surprisingly interesting. I expected it to be really bad, but to be honest it’s a coca-cola, popcorn easy to follow, funny, action movie. It was perfect after spending a very tiring day at work.


Anyway, on Saturday I went out. It was ‘big M’s’ birthday. That’s the guy that was recently made redundant from my office. He’s a nice guy, so ‘gb’ and me, we’ve decided to meet him.
We also wanted to see him and check on how he’s doing.

We met him in a pub in Old street. That’s an area of eastern London with some really nice pubs, bars and clubs. To give you an idea of how the night went, the moment we walked in the pub, ‘big M’ went and brought us shots of tequila to help us keep up with their drinking.


Unfortunately, we couldn’t but talk a bit about the way he was laid off. It wasn’t a happy subject but it was obvious that ‘big M’ wanted to talk about it with someone that knew what happened and the people involved. The way that they judged that he would be the one to go from the team wasn’t unbiased which made him quite upset. He was very happy that we went to see him though.

To cut the long story short, after the pub we headed to a bar and then to a club. The club was called the ‘aquarium’. I hadn’t been there before. The place was wicked. OK, by the time we went there I was drunk so I can be wrong. It staged a party called carwash with 70’s-80’s music so we danced our hearts out. The club also has a big swimming pool and Jacuzzi. We went a bit late so they had them closed but from what I could see, people stripped into their underwear and into the pool. That’s something I haven’t done in a club but don’t know if I will…

Anyway, I managed to get home at 4:30 in the morning and go to sleep a little bit after 5 (damn the change of time).

‘JJ’ was working on Sunday afternoon, so he couldn’t join me on my night out. From my past experiences (with other men) I would expect him to be slightly upset / jealous that I was out until early in the morning. I was feeling slightly guilty about it but he didn’t say anything than being genuinely interested about whether I had fun. Maybe it’s my Greek background that made me feel like that. I fear that Greeks are in general more demanding / jealous / overreacting. I’ve heard that Italians can be like that too.

I wanted to see ‘JJ’ before his work, so I forced myself to get up around 11 to go and meet him for coffee and brunch. I wasn’t that talkative and I was wearing a pair of sunglasses to hide the panda eyes (not to scare the children) but we had fun. Funnily enough, apart from being tired, I hadn’t had a major headache.

Stupidly enough, I stayed late watching the ‘opposite of sex’ (I love this movie - don't ask me why) yesterday on the television. By the time it was finished, I had passed the point of being really tired and I wasn’t able to relax and get some proper sleep.
I found it quite challenging today writing this post… I couldn’t concentrate enough. I’m really sure about the outcome either. I’ll have to reread it tomorrow.

La maison de fous

As I’ve already explained we have people visiting. YAY…

Let me start from the beginning:
I have decided that I don’t want to have children. I came to that conclusion after spending my weekend with a seemingly lovely two-year old that drove her parents crazy! When I was growing up I kind of (wrongly) concluded that since I’m gay, I would not have a family and grow children of my own. I now know better but still I don’t think I can do it. I can’t even take care of my plants. I had a very small olive tree that I didn’t manage to keep alive. I really liked that small plant. I tried to take care of it but still… I blame England’s weather but the fact still remains that the tree didn’t survive. What if that tree had a real name, two legs, two arms, etc… Oh, no… I couldn’t…
(By the way, the rest of my plants are thriving)

Anyway, back to my point. Little ‘C’ is my housemate’s niece currently staying with her family in our place. Unfortunately she is the only new member of the family which means that she is being spoiled by parents and grandparents alike! She is not easily told ‘no’ and what little ‘C’ wants is what little ‘C’ gets. What is worse is what little ‘C’ does not have a normal daily schedule. They let her have long naps during the day which means that she doesn’t go to sleep at night. At Friday night she slept around 1 in the morning (and she is two)! I was dead tired two hours before that, after having a torturous gym session with my personal trainer after work!


Apart from the sleeping problem, we have little ‘C’ crying and yelling to have everything her own way. We had a huge emergency situation with her losing it and uncontrollably crying because she couldn’t find her mother who was for 5 minutes taking a bath! I didn’t know what to do with her. She wasn’t listening to me and I couldn’t make her stop crying! And she is so amazingly energetic! She is constantly running around!

If I could add sound to the picture, you'd realise what I went through

The bad thing about my house is that the doors do not lock apart from the toilet doors so I didn’t have any privacy during the weekend. Have you tried to keep away a two-year old that really wants to enter your room? I gave up that idea from the start and I was joining in the ‘fun’ in the living room. That is the main reason I still haven’t read the article about how gay life begins after 30.

Overall, I tried to reasonably keep my distance and go out a bit during the weekend. I didn’t follow them to a number of walks they tried to do. I saw ‘JJ’ for a coffee and lunch on Saturday and I also went out that day. I had the need to go clubbing, forget diapers and strollers and enjoy my birthday. I gathered some of my friends and I went to ‘G-A-Y late’!

G-A-Y late

That is a club in the centre of London. There is a bar called ‘G-A-Y’ and the owners opened a club with the ‘late’ wording next to it. The club is not something that great. It’s a big room that has some screens on the walls that display music videos. The music also is not that great since it is very mainstream pop oriented! You can listen to modern stuff but also things like Spice Girls or old Whitney Houston! When was the last time you heard ‘I wanna dance with somebody’ in a club?

However with the right company you can have a really good time! I needed this kind of blowing off some steam. The place is in a very convenient location since it is central and the music is perfect after some alcohol! I finished my night dancing on the main podium really enjoying myself!


I went back home around 4 inthe morning to wake up with little ‘C’ asking for her milk around 9. She only wanted her mummy to prepare it and not auntie! Apparently it tastes differently. The whole building must have heard her say that.

OK, I don’t want to sound mean. Little ‘C’ can be adorable. She is very social, sharing her toys, singing and dancing. She makes your heart melt with her smile and when she sleeps she looks like an angel! Unfortunately she doesn’t sleep much…

I had my company’s Christmas dinner party on Friday and I really had a blast. We started the night by going to the pub for a quick one (or two) before dinner, had some really nice food in a local tapas bar (accompanied by some wine), then headed back to another local pub (that included shots) until they closed and finished the night dancing at a gay club!!! We are a small company and we know each other quite well to enjoy these gatherings. The shadow of the recent bad news regarding our pay raises and bonuses was quickly forgotten (after the second round of pints) and everyone was all happy and chatty. We were just ignoring a bit and avoiding our directors whose bonuses I will not comment (some things in a small company are easily discovered and gossiped about).

The evening included a secret Santa ‘event’. I already knew that ‘gb’ (my gay friend + colleague) was supposed to buy me something (some secrets are not easily kept) and I was quite worried about what I would get. He had mentioned buying a variety of things from a fluorescent dildo to a pink tutu that he would force me to wear for the rest of the night. So, when my manager sitting next to me, passed to me my wrapped gift:
Me: I’m quite scared of opening this
Him: Why? What it is?
Me: I don’t know what it si, but I do know that it’s from ‘gb’. It could be anything…
Him: What? Like a butt plug?
At first I was left speechless trying to realise if I’ve heard correctly. He then quickly apologised for mentioning a butt plug to me thinking that I was shocked as in offended. I busted in laughter and I couldn’t stop for what seemed like ages. These words coming from him is something I never expected hearing but he was quite tipsy by then…

Going to a gay club with colleagues was also something I never thought of experiencing. After the second pub we went to closed, we’ve decided (the younger generation of the workers) to go dancing. I wasn’t thrilled with the idea since it was already after 1:00 am, I’ve been drinking since 5:30 all kind of things (wine, beer, run, jagermeister, shambuka), I was cold (it was freezing) and tired. However, I couldn’t say no to them, so I followed. We took a cab to the center and said that we’d go to the first dancing bar / club we would find. So we did.


The doorman said that the club will close in a little bit more than an hour and that it was a gay club. Out of the six of us, the only person who complained, was my stupid-Greek-male colleague who asked in a tone that expressed ultimate horror ‘Are we really going in’? (Don’t let me get started on him). His terrified expression, like he would be contaminated for life with being close to gay people, was the second highlight of my night. I loved it. I’ve mentioned that me and ‘gb’ are known to be gay in the company but I think that he is too thick to actually realize it. Traumatising him a bit felt so good…

Overall, I had an amazing time. I laughed a lot. The dinner was really nice, the booze and the dancing also and I boned with my colleagues. The only slightly worrying thing is that I woke up the next day without a trace of hangover. This, by itself is a reason to be worried...

My weekend away (part 2)

After the end of the show in ‘Dolls’ we were ready to go partying some more so we headed to one of the trendiest (and also gayest) areas of Athens, ‘Gazi’. We went straight to Sodade which is (apparently) the place to go clubbing. I had heard that it was nice but I wasn’t ready for what I faced. It was brilliant!


There were two stages (not very big). The first one was playing more dancing pop songs remixed and the second was playing slightly more hardcore dance / trance / house high bit music. I’ve always been confusing the dancing categories so I do apologise if these terms are not the correct ones. The fact is that 85% (or more) of the crowd was dancing their feet off. When we arrived there, it was already around 3:30am (after the change of time) and the place was packed (in Greece people go out late). I’ve been going out a lot in London and I forgot how crowded a club can be in Greece since there is no respect for the regulations about the amount of people allowed in a club (dangerous but true).

I had a really amazing time there: good looking people, nice music, drinks. I was in heaven! What else is there to ask for? The only thing that kind of annoyed me was the smoke. The majority of people there were smoking (yes, there is a new Law that bans smoking indoors bars / clubs in Greece since July) and I’m not used to that anymore. We left the club around 6:30 in the morning and it was still very crowded. I was told that it’s like that almost every day, even in weekdays and I really recommend it to everybody that wants to go and dance while being in the capital.

The rest of my day in Athens was uneventful. I flew back to London in the evening and tried to get ready for the busy coming week. I loved though my night out in the capital...

Weekend Away

I went to Glasgow the last weekend to help a friend move. It was quite a tiring and entertaining weekend! It was tiring because we had to carry more-than-allowed-in-an-airplane-per-person weight and also do all things of not-that-entertaining shopping needed (pots, casseroles, pans, duvets, cleaning material, sheets, plugs etc.). However, we managed to make ourselves heard throughout the stores laughing and being silly.

The city itself is really nice. It kind of lacks the architectural beauty of Edinburgh but it can be very entertaining. There are many shops, pedestrian walks and shopping centers. The city centre is very vibrant with lots of activities going on. There are all these great looking Scots all around it’s frustrating. I just love the Scottish accent as well. I was in heaven. Probably I was in heaven because of the drink prices and all the nice bars and clubs.


After having an amazing dinner at a lovely Italian restaurant in ‘Prince’s Square’ (beautiful art deco shopping centre) and the first few whiskeys in a lovely bar, we headed to a kind of sleazy club in Sauchiehall Street... It was massive. There were 3 or 4 stages with different music from garage rock, to mainstream pop. The most amazing thing was the price of the drinks. You were able to get single whisky / vodka for £1.5! I challenge you to find that in London. We danced like crazy until early morning…

General Comments:
Many Scotts are good looking. Unfortunately, these who are not, are unbelievable ugly…
Their taste in clothes is a bit… let’s say… hmm, not very tasteful… Most of the girls had this ugly white dyed long hair, amazingly shorts skirts and very high heels. Common trends include animal print clothes (you could find the whole animal kingdom in a single person) and lot’s and lot’s of tasteless bling fake jewelry. It was quite fun to look at, though…
They are very friendly and chatty (if you could understand the accent)…
I would recommend it everyone wanting to go for a weekend away to have some fun…

Apart from that, I didn’t win the EuroLottery last Friday. Well, I did win £2.85 so I shouldn’t be complaining. I spent £1.5 for the ticket, so I managed to double that. How should I spent the earnings?

We are golden

I did my 10k this Saturday for Cancer Research UK. I had an amazing time and I really recommend it to anyone who might be interested. It took place in Finsbury Park and more than 1100 people were running. The atmosphere was great. There were families and friends giving support as well and the Park was packed. We had some warm-up with a lady from YMCA. It was quite cool watching more than a thousand people doing aerobics at the same time. I even met a couple of people and ran alongside them for a while.


In general I tried and managed to enjoy the day very much. I must have waved and smiled to probably every toddler and baby in the Park. I did stop only to take a couple of pictures with my mobile. When I was finishing my first lap of 5k, some people were already finishing their second. I did my 10k in 1 hour and 8 minutes. It’s not very good but I am not worried about it. It was my first run. I’ll improve in time…
I’m definitely going next year.


In that evening I went to XXL’s birthday party. It was my second time going to XXL in more than three years I’ve been in London. Overall, I had quite a nice night out despite being a bit tired. There were a live show from ‘Dream Bears’, ‘Bears Aloud’, ‘Pepermint’ (a drag queen from NY) and from other people as well. I’m sorry to say that I didn’t know any of them. I was told about ‘Dream Bears’ being in ‘Britain Got Talent’ that night. I don’t have a TV set, so I don’t watch much of it (I only follow some things online) and I didn’t have a clue about it. They were quite fun though. I danced my night away and met a few people.