Tuesday the 13th

 According to Greek customs, the so called unlucky day of the calendar month is not Friday the 13th but Tuesday the 13th. There is of course a reason why this happens that is not lost in the past.  The story says that on a Tuesday, back in May 1453, the greatest city of them all, Constantinople, fell to the hands of the Ottoman Empire, the Turks. Losing that war meant the end of the Byzantine Empire and the start of almost 4 centuries occupation by the Turks, which is considered to be the darkest page of the Nation’s history. The occupation officially ended in 1821 with the Greek revolution!

However, I’m not superstitious and I don’t care about things like that. So, yesterday I went with Jeff to the ‘Duke of York’ theatre to see ‘All New People’ (after devouring an amazing meal at Yo-Sushi). That Zack Braff’s (Scrubs) latest play. Apart from starring in it, as expected, he’s written it too. To be honest I was a bit hesitant about it. I didn’t consider Zack to be an amazing actor and I feared that the play would be mostly fixated on him. Hopefully, I was wrong, not in everything, but in some stuff.

I was right when I thought that Zack is not that amazing actor. He’s not. He’s not bad either though. His co-stars however were the ones to steal the spotlight from him. Which bring us to the point where I was wrong. Although the story starts with Charlie (Zack Braff) and revolves around him, Charlie doesn’t have much to say apart from a small monologue near the end when he describes his story. The other three people that enter his life the day he decides to commit suicide (thus the play’s title), have a lot to share and do.

Generally the play is about life, its purpose, relationships and even the existence of god. Although these topics do seem a bit heavy, the play is a comedy with not that many dramatic moments. Braff’s writing style is inviting, modern and funny. There are some unavoidable stereotypes like the existence of the unintelligent bimbo / escort but they don’t spoil the fun. At some point I had to roll my eyes backwards but I also laughed and generally enjoyed the play. It’s not an experience not to miss but it offers a great night out. I’d give it a 7.5 out of 10.

My day in pictures

This is my day in pictures! It was really nice and I wanted to share it with you. 

On the way to the tube station this afternoon. It's pretty cold and that's JJ with his very cute hood.

We went to see the exhibition of David Hockney in Royal Academy of Arts. I have to admit that I didn't know much about him before today. Going to the exhibition was JJ's idea. I really liked Hockney's work though. He paints landscapes during different times of the year, demonstrating mostly the changes of nature's colours.

A visit to Wagamama for lunch. That's me looking really happy in front of a plate of duck gyoza and another one of ebi gyoza.

Then we went for a coffee in Soho,

where we had amazing deserts. That's oreo key lime pie. Yes, it was as amazing as it looks!!!

Next stop was a 'National Geographic' store with some friends for a second coffee. I went for a really nice Earl Grey though.

The time was getting a bit late and it started snowing!

The snowfall became a bit heavier! That's yours truly in the back garden!

That's Mojito in the front garden! It's so nice being indoors, warm and watching the snow flakes outside.

Guests, the sequel

It’s been really fun having the girls over. They are the best guests ever. They’ve been really easy and they haven’t caused any troubles (knock on wood). They’ve been even helping at the household chores like washing dishes, tidying their stuff and going to the supermarket. These are things that some people take for granted but not all guest are so well behaved.

They’ve seen most of London attractions already and they’ve taken more than a 1000 pictures! I was thinking about what people did before the invention of the digital cameras! How did we cope having such a limitation of a few photos that might not even come up clean or nice? 

The other day we went to see the ‘Phantom of the Opera’. I don’t know why but I hadn’t seen it before. I do like theatre plays and I do occasionally watch musicals but I haven’t seen many Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber shows till now. Although I do appreciate that he has some talent, I tend to find him overdramatic.

For example, last year there was a TV show for girls to audition for the role of Dorothy of ‘Wizard of OZ’. It was a bit like X-Factor but the winner would get the main role on the West End show. Sir Andrew was a judge amongst other 2 people. You should have seen at least an episode! It was so tacky that it was really fun to watch! Sir Andrew was siting among the other two judges but not in the similar chairs as them! He had a throne for himself, a very tacky, over the top decorated one! The only thing missing was a tiara and a sceptre! Also, what was hilarious was the way the disqualified contestants left the stage! They took their Dorothy shoes off, gave them to Sir Andrew and said their goodbyes. Then, they would climb on a half-moon that would carry them over and out of the stage above the remaining girls! While sitting on the moon they would sing for the last time and cry their way out! So overdramatic!

Anyway, last Tuesday we went to see the ‘Phantom’! It was generally very good. The girls loved the experience. Even the girl who doesn’t know how to speak English could follow the story and enjoyed the singing and dancing! It was generally impressive how many different sets there were and how many costumes changed! Of course there were some moments I thought: ‘OK, this is going a bit too far’ but I had a really nice night out!

In general it’s been a bit tiring having guests to take out every day after work but it’s been great fun! During the weekend we’re renting a car so we’ll drive outside the city. We haven’t confirmed the destinations yet but there are many options to choose from.

Rumbling Wednesday…

Some years ago I went on one of these dates from hell! He was a Greek guy so I thought that we could easily find some common ground to talk about. Furthermore, I found him from his online pictures cute which is always a plus. Unfortunately the date was anything but good. For a start, the guy didn’t look anything like his pictures. I found out that with the proper light and photo angle you can hide your (very) thinning hair and 20 kilos. I am a gentleman though, so we went for coffee and dinner.

The conversation wasn’t exactly flowing. He didn’t have many interests and he wasn’t too good in small talk either. In general, there are some topics that most people can comment or talk about. These can include cinema, hobbies, travelling, maybe a theatre play or a museum visit or even talk about living in a foreign country. Unfortunately, he didn’t go to the cinema, to museums or to the theatre, he didn’t like travelling since he finds it too much of a trouble without any gain and he found living in London not that exciting! The only thing that he was passionate about was a female Greek singer. He was obsessed with her. He totally loved her. He’s been to almost all her concerts, he believes she’s the most beautiful / talented / extraordinary person on Earth. He was even a creator of a fan club and believe this: He even met her ONCE backstage! Needless to say I wasn’t very impressed but total bored. Apparently, his only friends were the other (crazy) people of that fan club and they organised gatherings to passionately talk about her, create t-shirts, find photos etc.


I don’t know why but I kind of felt sorry for him, so I agreed on a second coffee. During that second meeting, he told me that the next day, it was his birthday so lots of people would go out to celebrate! I thought that it might be a nice opportunity to meet new people and broaden my social circle. Unfortunately, by lots of people he meant two female colleagues and another Greek guy, ‘C’, who he also met on two dates before that night, exactly like me. I wasn’t expecting this but ‘C’ became a very good friend of mine.

I remembered this story because I saw ‘C’ yesterday for dinner and some drinks. He works for a multinational top end technology company with offices everywhere, including of course California. He’s already started the process of being transferred there. He was in San Francisco earlier this year and he told me some really nice stories about some ‘underground’ bear parties he’s been to. Exciting stuff. On one hand I’ve been thinking it’s been long since I went there and on the other hand I was thinking of giving ‘C’ my CV. You never know.

My friendship with ‘C’ has good foundations. We don’t see each other that often, even if we live in the same city, but I like catching up with him from time to time. He’s more of a night-to-early-in-the-morning person than I am. He likes his night life and he’s into the good parties. I do go out at night but I generally wake up when he goes to bed. I used to follow him a lot in various night clubs some years ago. That was before moving out from the city centre and ‘settling down’ with JJ. It’s funny but I’ve never been out dancing like I used to with ‘JJ’. The few times I went out dancing the last couple of years, I did it without him. Don’t ask me exactly why. ‘C’ has already arranged in which club he’s going on Friday. Maybe I should take ‘JJ’ and go along…

Are there things you used to do and then stopped when you entered a relationship? And I’m not saying it’s a bad thing. I’m just thinking that it’s a normal way of how things evolve. In the future I might start going on couples’ holidays that I’ve never done before for example. I’m becoming one of the ‘we’ people that Carrie Bradshaw used to hate so much.

Pygmalion

Yesterday, it was theatre night. We went to see the Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion in Garrick Theatre. That’s the theatre play where the ‘My Fair Lady’ movie with Audrey Hepburn was based. That’s probably one of the very few Hepburn movies I’ve seen. I’m very ashamed, I know. Apparently, you can’t graduate and become a full grown ‘gay’ if you haven’t followed ‘Gay Cinema Icons 1.01’. But anyway…


In the latest adaptation, Rupert Everett plays the egocentric Professor of Phonetics Henry Higgins and Kara Tointon plays Eliza Doolittle. I was curious to see Rupert Everett act in a play. I liked some of the movies he’s done but I have the impression from recent interviews that he’s growing into a bitter old queen. Prof Higgins as a character is quite obnoxious and I have to say that Rupert was good in it. I have to admit that I liked more the rest of the cast, like Peter Eyre playing Professor Doolittle and Dame Diana Rigg playing Mrs. Higgins, Everett’s mother. I fear that Everett lacked sometimes the passion needed for the role, even the correct articulation. Even Kara Tointon who I didn’t know gave me a better impression. She’s known here from winning ‘Dancing with the Stars’ last year and playing in soap operas.



In any case, I did enjoy the play. The direction was nice and the script well adapted. The story is quite enjoyable and the clash between the sexes and the classes well presented. Overall, I recommend it as a pleasant night out.

The countdown…

In less than a week’s time it’s my birthday. What’s a bit special about that is the fact that I’m turning 30, the big three and Oh! It’s quite a nice number and it’s the change of a decade, so everybody’s been telling me to do something extravagant / different that I will remember for the decade to come.

I have been fortunate enough to have memorable celebrations of my birthdays, good or bad. I remember children parties with friends from school, I remember dressing up parties and dancing till the morning in university, I remember serving in the army guarding a post at 4:00 in the morning in freezing cold and I remember being in Las Vegas the year after.

What’s a bit special about turning thirty is my past and how I viewed back then this milestone. When I was a young 14 – 19 year old lad, during my teenage years, I was so closeted, I couldn’t even see any light outside the closet. I remember having these depression crises wondering why this ‘thing’ had happened to me and why I was having these different feelings. I remember asking this unanswered ‘why?’ and ‘why did it have to happen to me?’ over and over again without of course getting any answers.

I was afraid of everything. I was afraid that the ‘awful’ truth would come out. I was afraid that I would disappoint my parents and friends. I was afraid that people would think I’m a freak and I would end up eternally alone not having the courage or the chance to fall in love and have a ‘normal’ life (as they believe it to be). According to the media back then (and sometimes still now), gay people do not get a chance to create a happy family. They all end up badly either being brutally murdered, dying from overdose or becoming prostitutes.

During these times I was foolishly thinking like that since I didn’t know any better. There was no internet to find likeminded people, no gay friendly places to go in my small town, or even a family or friend acquaintance to ask for advice. I was having some dark thoughts. My desperation and loneliness made me think that this kind of life is not worth living and I had thought of suicide. I had decided though that I would give my life a chance until I was thirty (thankfully)! I was sure that if by that time, I was still alone to that degree, still closeted and depressed, I was just put a stop to it.

That is why turning 30 is now so important. I started thinking again about how I was feeling then and my journey to this point. I’d really like to think that if my teenage self could see where I am now, he would be happy or at least content. Life can be a real pain in the butt sometimes, that’s no big secret, but generally she can be so good sometimes. What I believe I lacked back then was hope. That is why I loved initiatives like ‘It gets better’. I am so grateful for so many things in life now, many more than I was back then.

Generally, I’m not worried about growing older (yet). OK, I have recently noticed a dark hair or two on my chest giving me a fright (but at least my round face remains unwrinkled). I feel like I have so many things to see and do. I have so many unfulfilled dreams and goals that will take at least another 35 years to accomplish so I will be busy till I reach 70.

So, the bottom line is that it’s time to celebrate! I’ve already been to the Opera this week; I was taken to a magnificent restaurant called ‘Babylon’ (with a bill matching my vacation budget) and to the theatre to watch ‘The children’s hour’ yesterday. The latter was really amazing. The cast and the direction were simply exquisite. I didn’t think that Keira Knightley could act so well. I feared she would be cold, distant and boring but she wasn’t. I also loved the rest of the cast which included big names like the Golden Globe nominated Elisabeth Moss, the award winning Ellen Burstyn and the award nominated Carol Kane. I don't watch Mad Men so I didn't really know Moss but I loved movies with Burstyn and Kane and I was looking forward to seeing them too.

The final act of my birthday celebration is that JJ is taking me away for the week. We’re flying Tuesday morning for a few days to Venice. I’ve never been there before and I hope I’ll love it. Everybody’s been saying that it’s simply amazing. I promise to take lots and lots of pictures to show you. I simply can’t wait.

(I hope this post doesn't seem like I'm bragging about myself. I just want to say how grateful and happy I am)

Madame…

Yesterday, I went with JJ to the ‘Royal Albert Hall’ to watch Puccini’s ‘Mme Butterfly’. I had watched the same production again a couple of years ago but JJ said that he’s never been to the Opera and he’d like to watch one. There is something with gay people and ‘Opera’. I believe they love the drama, the tragic endings and the costumes. Or should I blame Tom Hanks in ‘Philadelphia’ and that amazing Maria Callas scene?

Anyway, I couldn’t really say no and I always enjoy going to the Royal Albert Hall. I was lucky enough when I was younger in Greece to go to the Opera House often since my brother’s best friend was the production manager and could give us very good tickets for free. So, I have seen a few good productions there.

Mme Butterfly’s story is not that original. It’s about a young Japanese girl getting married to a handsome American Lieutenant and her tragic fate. What happens at the end is what you’d expect would happen but that doesn’t mean it’s not good. Opera is mostly about the sentiments generated from the music, the passion and the singing. Generally the production is very good and I would recommend to people thinking of watching it. There are lots of people on stage at any given time, extras performing everyday stuff like fishing or knitting giving a really nice Japanese touch to the experience.

Unfortunately for me, it was in English and I couldn’t really understand most of the dialogs. Opera singing in English is incomprehensible. Of course I could understand what was generally going on but not the details. That fact made ‘Mme Butterfly’ slightly tiring and at times boring. I might be wrong but the productions I had seen previously in Greece were all in Italian, their original language, and subtitles where presented over the stage for the viewers. That way, it was much easier to understand the plot. Fortunately, we had really good sits, first row, and we enjoyed what was going on the stage. Is this something they generally do in the UK? I’ve only seen this one production, so I can’t really tell…

That's my picture from our sits.

Anyway, today I have my 15th month anniversary with JJ. No, the number 15 doesn’t mean anything and we won’t do anything special to celebrate. We just text each other every month in the morning wishing a happy anniversary. It's no big deal, I just remembered it.

Party with celebrities…

This time of the year is JJ’s agent birthday. JJ knows him for more than 15 years and used to be his flatmate. That period of time for JJ is the ‘dark years’. I don’t know exact details but I know that JJ was a bit promiscuous back then. I’ve heard of crazy parties with substances and alcohol, naked dancers etc. JJ is totally domesticated now and much calmer. His agent though still lives in that ‘area’ and uses the world ‘fabulous’ a lot. I like that JJ has a past in a way since he has an ‘I’ve tried it, I know what it looks like, it’s not for me’ kind of approach to things.

Anyway, this week was the ‘Agent’s birthday. It’s the second time I’m attending this event. The first time I’ve tried it, last year, I was very curious to meet him and amazed at the type of people I met. Since he is an ‘art dealer’ for the rich and famous, he knows people that I don’t usually associate with. His friends/potential clients/circle mostly includes the rich, the snob, the eccentric, the artists and every possible variation between. The Agent comes from an old and well known English family (I was told).

This year was more or less the same. When we arrived to the event, hosted at an exclusive gentlemen’s club in Westminster, we were greeted by the Agent with a loud ‘Darlings’ that made everybody in the room turn to stare at us. After the very brief ‘happy birthdays’ and ‘how are yous’ the Agent moved to the next group of people after introducing us to a lady called ‘Veronica’! With the Agent you can only get a very short period of time that you can speak before he moves to something he finds more interesting or ‘fabulous’. If you miss your chance…

Anyway, we talked a bit to ‘Veronica’. She was a bit old, with white hair, very large black glasses and heavy makeup. It was easy to see (even to me) that her fashion sense was a bit from the 60’s or 70’s. She seemed like she was a really beautiful woman once. We made small talk and she informed us how she hates going out in bad weather (she definitely picked the wrong country) and that is why she missed last year’s Agent’s birthday. We had a picture taken, me her and JJ and we moved to the next crowd.

Later that night it was very obvious that there was something that JJ wanted to share with me but couldn’t. I could see it in his eyes that got this sparkle when like a child he really wants to blurt something out. I later found out that the ‘Veronica’ we met was actually ‘The Lady Lucan’! Ok, that name might not mean anything to you the way it didn’t to me. However, I did my research and I found some really interesting stuff about her.

Lord and Lady Lucan were part of London’s aristocracy back in the days. They were very well respected, famous and wealthy. One night of 1974 however completely changed all that. According to what she claims Lord Lucan attacked and killed the nanny of their children and also tried to murder her. She managed to escape the last minute and he vanished. His traces disappear the day after these events when he took a boat to cross the Channel.

Lord and Lady Lucan and their daughter Frances

There are lots of speculations about what really happened that night. There is the Lord Lucan’s story as narrated to his mother on the phone before he disappeared, the Lady Lucan’s version and the slight variations of the daughter, Frances, who was watching television and the time of the attacks. The story however made huge headlines, at the time, and various ‘sightings’ of the missing Lord Lucan were made during the years. As JJ tried to explain to me, think about what would have happened if Beckham killed the nanny, attempted to murder Victoria and fled the country!

Funnily enough there are a couple of websites regarding this story with his version, her version or neutral. It’s like reading an Agatha Christie novel. According to what JJ told me however she can’t be totally innocent since the children are no longer talking to her (she actually admitted that to him) and she lives in recluse.

If only I knew all these things where we were talking about the weather, I would have totally asked her: “So, did you plan to kill the nanny and Lord Lucan for their secret affair and buried his body in the back garden?” That’s always a nice conversation topic...

Nights Out

I didn’t mention it before but last week I went to see the play called ‘A flea in her ear’ at the Old Vic Theatre, directed by Richard Eyre. I generally love London for its theatres and I try not to miss productions or actors I generally like. Sometimes I get disappointed (Dame Judi Dench in last year’s Madame De Sade was a bit of a let down) or pleasantly surprised (Daniel Radcliffe in Equus I feared would be simply abysmal). I try not to watch only West End Productions and I visit regional theatres. I generally love ‘National Theatre’ productions as well as plays I’ve seen in the ‘Barbican’, the ‘Lyric’ or the ‘Soho Theatre’. OK, the Old Vic is a generally renowned theatre, especially since Kevin Spacey took the reins, but you get my point.

Anyway, back to the ‘Flea’. It received raving reviews and I expected to like it but I was generally disappointed. It’s a loud sex comedy of misunderstandings, miscommunication and stereotypes (boulevard theatre). Have you seen the ‘Moulin Rouge’? Do you remember the scene where Nicole Kidman and the producer are trying to hide McGregor from the Duke in the elephant? I might be wrong about the plot since I’ve only seen the movie once (which I didn’t really like for the same reasons). But I remember that being a really loud and fast scene of visual comedy which unfortunately is not my cup of tea. I found the ‘Flea’ for the same reasons tiring and predictable. Some of my friends loved it and I believe most of the audience liked it as well, but not me. I laughed only in a couple of occasions and I smile a couple other but that was it. I wasn’t holding my belly laughing like other people of the audience. It wasn’t a bad production but I didn’t find it that entertaining…

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On a very different subject I had a really nice time with JJ yesterday. The Chinese restaurant we went to, called the ‘Chinese Cricket Club’ (don’t ask me why), was nice. I really loved the starters (dumplings, spring rolls, and squid) but I wasn’t very impressed by the main. The food was very spicy and we had even trouble distinguishing the pork from the chicken because of the spices and sauces. We did laugh a lot though and at some point we gathered the eyes of the surrounding tables when JJ called me ‘honey’. Of course we were the only same sex couple in the place.

JJ told me the story of a friend of his we’ll call ‘Anne’. Anne is Finish and used to be JJ’s housemate. Last January she arranged online to meet a guy called George. George cancelled the last minute because something serious had happened so Anne arranged and met another guy we’ll call Sam. Sam and Anne fell in love. Anne had to move back to Finland and she took Sam with him. They’ve been happily living together for more than a year there and decided to get married! Before getting married this summer, they’ve decided to visit London in March. What’s really interesting in the story is that Anne kept contact with George and while she’ll be in London, they will go out to actually meet each other! Sam knows about the whole thing and according to Anne, he’s fine with it!

Am I prudent to think the story funny and slightly weird? Anne and Sam are supposed to be getting married this summer and are planning to spend the rest of their lives in Finland. Does Anne really require a new ‘friend’ who was supposed to be a potential boyfriend? If you were Sam would you be happy with this ‘arrangement’? I don’t think he is happy, but is he in a position to forbid her of going?

Anyway, the chocolate cake I made was greatly appreciated. We took some pictures of JJ trying to devour it, but we didn’t manage to finish it.

Feeling like a child (and loving it)…

I went to a pantomime the other day in the Lyric Theatre. It was a play called ‘Dick Whittington and his cat’. I’d never been to an English panto before. I was told that it is a child play that involves the actors interacting with the audience, mostly making them yell about stuff like ‘He’s behind you, he’s behind you’ when the bad guy is sneaking on the good guy etc.

Dick Whittington

I was honestly prepared for the worst. I feared that the play would be for 3 year olds with not many actors on stage, very silly songs, bad costumes, boring and predictable plot and annoying children in the audience. I was thankfully mistaken. The plot was a bit predictable but that was not really bad. The acts were really nicely directed. The choreography was interesting and the actors had rally nice voices. The songs were remakes of modern day songs giving the play a nice touch. For example ‘Bad Romance’ was transformed to ‘Bad Rodents’ sang by the Rat King.

Sarah the cook

I was amazed that the play was so long, lasting for a little bit more than 2 hours. I also liked the ‘booing’ and ‘yelling’ from the audience that was encouraged by the actors during the play and not done just by the kids. Parents were happily involved as well, pointing, booing, laughing, yelling and everything. I was a bit surprised since the English are stereotypically regarded to be quite proper and reserved all the time and you can’t say that yelling in a theatre is proper behaviour.

Overall, I had a great time. I went to see the play with colleagues and we did laugh a lot. We left the play happily chatting about it. I am not sure if I’ll become a frequent panto goer but I enjoyed the experience…

(Gossips: The main character who played Dick, Steven Webb is a good actor but not really an amazing singer. I googled him to find out more about him and it turns out that he's Stephen Fry's new boyfriend! That does explain some stuff and why Stephen Fry's voice is heard during the play as well. Needles to say that Dick's 26 years old and Fry's 52. I am not saying anything, I am just gossiping...)

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On another happy note, I was very pleased to find out that the new release of the ‘Elder Scrolls’ has been announced and it will happen at the 11th of November 2011! It will be called Skyrim! For those of you not familiar with it, the ‘Elder Scrolls’ is a series of computer Role Playing Games. I am a huge fan of the series and I have finished the previous two (as much as possible).

Teaser:

Circus of Shame

Last Friday ‘hm’ bought us tickets to go and see the ‘Circus of Horrors’. Her boss is a groupie, follows them around the country for years, and we decided to go and check it out. I didn’t do any research (first mistake) and I was hoping for a rock show with some circus acts from a slightly naughty, gross point of view.

The theatre was mostly full and it did present some Goths, Punks and Emos, people that you’d most likely see hanging around in Camden Lock market. Don’t get me wrong. I love that area. I used to live close by for 2 years. Before the show began, we started chatting to the girl sitting right behind us. She was dressed in the 60’s fashion. Something that Julianne Moore would wear in ‘Hours’ or ‘Far from Heaven’. She told us that her sister saw the show and she loved it besides the fact that she found some acts gruesome.

So, the show began.

the 'piercing' guy...

I’ll have to try to explain what happened and what we watched…

There was nothing even remotely related to ‘The nightmare before Christmas’ as stated in the IndigO2 website. The first act was of a guy who put a hook through his nose and lifted some weights with it. He then got a bit undressed and revealed two big rings coming out his back. The girl behind us was ecstatic yelling: ‘Oh, he will try a full suspension!!!’ which he did! They lifted him up and made him twirl around, hanging only by these two rings! I knew that something like that would be presented and I dreaded it, as I mentioned in my last post. I was slightly happy however that it was in the beginning and over.

'the amazing acrobatics'

Some of the following acts included a woman hanging from the ceiling by her hair, a pair doing silly dances on a table wearing roller blades, an elastic girl, a guy balancing inside a huge wheel and some other very childishly performed magical tricks like cutting a guy in half, although you could still see him wearing black underneath. All these were performed in what was supposed to be a mental hospital with the leader of the psychotics singing hard rock songs which weren’t very good either.

'the lead singer'

The last drop was the last act before the intermission. There was a midget who was pretending to be Dr. Frankenstein, trying to revive one of the patients. He put on stage two big metallic pillars and had for helpers two women dressed like nurses in very (very) short uniforms. After some very bad acting he created some electric charge between the metallic pillars, producing visible sparks like the one you can see in a ball like this! Yes, that was the main attraction of the act.

That wasn’t the end of it though. Just before reviving the patient which would be the end of the act, he introduced to us two straight long neon lights that he gave to his helpers. He pulled his pants down and made one helper put one light in his eye and the other helper to hold the second light in his bum. The lights were supposed to go off. The one in his eye did flicker a bit but the other one didn’t. They weren’t even capable to pull this off correctly!

Then, it was time for intermission, when the four of us agreed on leaving. I had never left in the middle of a play / movie / show. Ever. But I was more than happy to leave then. Overall, it was the worst thing I have ever seen. It was a mixture of a very bad unprofessional jackass episode, abysmal music and humour destined for antisocial, immature 15-year-olds.

I have to admit that we laughed so much on the way home, for all the wrong reasons though. We just couldn’t believe how bad it was. ‘hm’ was worried about her boss and what kind of feedback she should give! At least we watched ‘Harry Potter’ on Sunday that I generally liked.

Busy like a bee…

I had visitors staying over for the past days. For me and my housemate, that is not great news. We frequently have people coming and going and we enjoy having them. We laugh about creating a guest log to know when we are booked and for how long. Of course we enjoy some people more than others. That mostly depends (apart from how much we like them) on how dependant or independent they are, whining about everything and tiring they can be.

The people we had now visiting, used to live in London for a long time which means that they knew how to commute in the city, had their own friends to see and things to do. That was a huge relief since I am getting closer to my exams and I am spending lots of time studying (or sitting on top of my laptop trying to concentrate to study). However, we were meeting each evening to go out. We went to a nice restaurant in central London, got drunk in an amazing Greek restaurant in South London (that was an amazing Greek-South African night), had Persian food and went to a party on Saturday night. Yes, I am not complaining. We were busy.

Especially the Greek restaurant night was great. A South African friend of my housemate took us there. I don’t normally go to Greek restaurants and I don’t know which ones are good. He used to live close to it and was a regular customer. There were 9 of us (4 South Africans and 5 Greeks). What I loved about the place was the fact that it was slightly rough, a family business run by the cook and his daughter being the waitress. It didn’t have a menu and the only option you have is between a vegetarian and a non vegetarian option. The difference between the two is simply the main course (vegetarian moussaka vs meat) since all side dishes (a dozen of them served freely) are vegetarian traditional Greek dishes. We had lots of retsina (white resinated wine) and stayed there for more than three hours. We must have had a bottle each and we laughed so much. I highly recommend this place if you want great food but you don't mind the slightly bad service and decoration.

The last one of our visitors left yesterday. Now, I am back to my normal routine and I’m trying to prepare myself for my exams which will take place the following Saturday, on the 13th of November. Unfortunately, there is nothing else I can think about. With my visitors and everything happening I’ve stopped running and going to the gym. I didn’t have the time or the energy. I’m also eating a lot, taking breaks from studying to nibble on everything there is in the house! I’m getting rounder by the day. In addition, I feel like I’m losing my social skills. It’s like when you watch some hours of TV and you simply can’t sustain a proper conversation. I have to pass my exams the first time I take them because it is bad for my mental and physical health.

On a much happier note, I’m thinking that I’m off to Copenhagen the weekend after. I’ve still haven’t realised that I’m going. I haven’t checked tourist attractions, restaurants, the weather etc as I normally do. I’ll probably do that some days before travelling.

Interesting weekend…

My weekend was fun. I’ve managed to do lots of things. I went out dancing till early in the morning on Friday night. I was robbed by a bank that same night (I’ll explain). I spent many hours in a local library studying. I’ve started the process of arranging a diving trip to go and play with seals in mid Spring next year and I had a ‘puppy’ and ‘living together’ talk with JJ. I also managed a nice 5.5 mile run on Sunday afternoon. (No, I didn’t get bored this weekend, at all).

I really can’t even remember the last time I went out dancing. It was definitely before going to Greece for summer since I started my courses right after I came back. Having the course run through the whole Saturday meant that I had to go to sleep early the night before and that I was dead tired that same night. That means that I last went out late in early August or late July. It could be the day of the London Pride in July.

Anyway, I decided it was high time I went out so I called some friends and I arranged to meet them late at night on Friday to go to Vauxhall. I hadn’t been there in ages but I know it provides some good (?) venues to go out. ‘JJ’ couldn’t come because he was working the next day early in the morning. Funnily enough I’ve never been out clubbing with him. We have been out of course, but not till early in the morning dancing. I have to arrange that at some point…

On the way to the tube station, I stopped at a local branch of ‘Halifax’ to get some money from the ATM. I’m not a ‘Halifax’ customer (and I probably never will be) but the location of the ATM is convenient. Anyway, I put my card in, type in the pin number and selected to take £30 out. I don’t know exactly what the machine was thinking, maybe he had a very bad day or maybe he simply didn’t like me, but only gave me £20 back! I was pretty sure that I selected to get £30 so I went to a Natwest to get a mini statement which said that I took £30 from my previous transaction! I got a bit annoyed and not about the £10 but for the fact that Halifax took money from me (I am a man of principles)! I went the next day to file a complaint but they told me I have to wait till Monday for the transaction to be fully registered. Apparently I can go to Natwest and file a report on Halifax’s mean ATM! This means ‘war’!

Anyhow, I ignored the whole event for the time being and I went to meet my friends in Vauxhall. We went for a couple ‘start’ drinks in a nice pub called ‘The Griffin’ to warm up and then walked around to find a dance venue. Some guys were giving away leaflets for a £1 entry to a local club called ‘Arena’ that hosts a party called ‘Onyx’ every Friday. The entrance fee was good, so we decided to give it a go. What I like in the Vauxhall bars and clubs is the fact that they are integrated underneath the rail tracks. That means that they use the arches of the tracks and they form long ‘corridors’ with thick brown bricks.

The Griffin

In general, we had a really nice time. ‘Arena’ has three stages and you can freely walk around and choose what kind of music you want. We mostly stayed in the main club area where nice remixes of older songs from the 90’s kept us dancing for most of the night.

I had slightly forgotten how it is going out in a gay club. The people having to extensively show off their time spent in the gym without wearing many clothes, the drugs, the attitudes, the extravagant outfits, the eye flirting, the pervs, the sex games. It was all very interesting to watch. I got asked twice if I wanted to buy pills, which kind of came as a surprise. Maybe they thought I wasn’t having enough fun or I didn’t look wasted enough. By the way, when they say ‘pills’ what kind do they mean? Is it ‘ecstasy’? Or they offer a variety and you can choose according to colour and shape?

No, I am not being judgemental. I had my drinks. I had lots of fun. I danced a lot till very late. I just prefer to be able to stand without help to take my night bus home and have the mental capability to perform simple acts on my own, like not fall or faint on the streets. I had to get up the next day and study a bit anyway (I am a bit bore, I know)…

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