Merry Christmas

I'm in Greece and I don't have time to write much. I promise to update soon, but I couldn't not wish to you:

Merry Christmas
May the Love, Joy, Happines and Health be with you always

Avatar and Comic books…

I saw Avatar yesterday and I have to say that it was really good. The direction, photography and visual effects were brilliant. I saw the 3D version that was really stunning. The plot was a bit predictable but not to an irritating degree. For example you knew some things would happen but the scene describing them was not endlessly dragged. JJ loved it. I do recommend it as an action sci-fi movie to be seen. (The main actor is soooo good looking as well)

I haven’t even started packing yet (my flight is due this evening) but at least I’m finished with my Christmas shopping. I just hope I’ll be able to fit all of them in my language with the clothes needed. The only one I haven’t bought a present for, yet, is me. I wanted to get me something small and useful. Normally I don’t buy myself clothes or other boring things like that for Christmas. I go for a PC Game, PSP Game, Comic / Graphic Novel, DVD or a book (I’m a geek, I know).

This year I wanted to find a good comic album…



Recently, I’ve realized that I can no longer follow all the major crossovers published by Marvel. (I’m sorry but if you do not know Marvel, X-Men or what a crossover is, the following will be very boring to you.) I’ve began to realize that you might have to buy general magazines like ‘Wizard’ to keep track of them and to be honest, I cannot be bothered chasing these on top of everything else.


I thought that if I was buying the graphic novels / albums, I would be OK. I normally go for the X titles (X-Men, X-Force etc) and in the past, they had their own crossovers and it was slightly easier to get some really good storylines with characters I knew. I bought many of them in the past, like the ‘Dark Phoenix Saga’ (amazing and classic), the ‘X-cutioners song’ (interesting storyline) or the ‘Mutant Massacre’ (included other, non X, characters but very interesting story as well).


From the recent major crossovers I’ve enjoyed the ‘Civil War’ and the ‘House of M’ very much. I managed to get the main story album and not how it affected the individual teams and heroes. I really had to try though and find them. I remember buying an individual ‘house of M’ title when it was originally released that featured Brian Braddock and Psylocke and I was like ‘what is going on now?’

Now with the ‘Secret Invasion’ or ‘Dark Reign’ I feel confused again. I refuse to keep on buying all these different comics just to understand what is going on. I think that alternatively I’ll need all Marvel publications for that, from Fantastic Four to Avengers to X-Men. Of course it’s a sales scheme to get more comic books sold, but I think I’ll pass. Am I the only one thinking like that?


So, I’ll try to find and buy some of the old major crossovers. One that I always wanted was the ‘Fatal Attractions’, but I can’t seem to find it in a reasonable price anywhere (any suggestions?). I’m also missing some important storylines like the transformation of Angel to Archangel (the first time), how Bishop joined the X-Men or the ‘New Mutants’ became ‘X-Force’ but I don’t even know the name of these stories (yet). Alternatively, I’ll settle with ‘Onslaught’ or the ‘Age of Apocalypse’ though I have most of the individual titles for these…

Tuesday rambling…

I’m flying off to Greece for Christmas tomorrow. I’m staying there until the first weekend of January! YAY!
I am really counting the hours. I haven’t been to my hometown since August which is not that long, but I‘d love to see my old friends and spent hours with them. That would imply of course that my airport will be open that my flight will not be canceled.

I really can’t believe the amount of problems caused by the weather which to be honest wasn’t that bad anyway! Eurostar has not been working for days before today, there were problems on the tube, cancelations and delays on almost all airports and people stranded for hours in roads waiting in their cars. This happens every year and it is getting ridiculous. The weather forecast was clear that there would be snow, but there was nothing done about it. I can understand when there are exceptionally difficult weather conditions for these things to happen, but the snow wasn’t that much in most cases.

On Channel 4 news yesterday they mentioned that the Eurostar trains can normally deal with snow. However, this time because the snow was so fluffy the problems were created! It has to do with the change of temperature when the trains go in and out of the tunnel and humidity. WTF? Who are they kidding? The announcement that they ‘strongly recommend customers whose journeys are not essential not to travel’ is simply hilarious. It’s Christmas, ALL journeys are essential:


OK, I think I’ve complained enough about it.

I’m spending my last night with JJ tonight before going away for 10 days. We’ll go and see the ‘Avatar’ in 3D and he’s staying over after that. That’s very nice of him because the movie is quite long, finishing quite late, and he will have to leave my home tomorrow morning before 6:30 to go to work. If you add dinner and some night ‘fun’, I can’t see myself or him sleeping much tonight. :-p


On a very different subject that can be titled ‘What were you thinking?’ I mentioned to ‘A’ that I’ll be in Greece the following week. Because Fate likes playing games I found him on msn yesterday after not having seen him online in ages. He started chatting with me (which also normally doesn’t happen) so I blurred out that I’m coming for Christmas and we might meet for a coffee!!! ‘A’ is a complete twat who was the very first gay man I met, who I fell for and had my heart broken. I haven’t told the story about how things ended between us, but I’ve mentioned how we met (in two parts).

Since he was the first gay man I met, he meant the world to me. I thought that he was the only one in the whole world who could understand me and I felt so attracted to him. The combination of him being artistic (piano player), athletic (long distance swimmer) but a complete slut lead to many problems. The story ended with me hitting rock bottom, being amazing insecure and depressed. (I managed to rise above that in time).


I haven’t seen him in probably more than 4 years (very happy years) but we somehow kept in touch. He lives in Germany now with his Greek boyfriend, still studying and still living with his parents’ money (loser)! I know that it shouldn’t matter but I can’t help it. I want to see him and take some kind of ‘revenge’. It’s probably too petty of me, but I want to prove to that twat that I’ve grown from that inexperienced, insecure chubby boy.
I know that it shouldn’t be like that. I know who I am, where I come from and if and how much I’m worth… I really do…
I am just sometimes a very sad person… I’ll go live under a bridge now or something…

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...

I blame the iphone…

I knew that there was some talk (behind my back) at my office about me being gay. I never openly discussed about it to anyone (it wasn’t their concern anyway) but I didn’t try to hide it either.

There was a new employee in the company, so me and ‘gb’ (my other gay colleague) took him out to the pub a couple of times to make him feel welcome. Most of these nights ended with us getting drunk, having a very nice time and laughing our hearts out. I can’t remember exactly what was being discussed but I know that at that time I was having problems with ‘L’ so it could be the case that I did mention him.

That new employee at another time in the pub, when I was not there, asked my manager (yes MY manager) if I was gay (very subtle – I know). I know that he avoided to answer the question saying that he doesn’t know / doesn’t care / never tried to find out but was sure that ‘gb’ is gay. So, the can of worms opened and other discussions followed…

A couple of weeks later, ‘gb’ as a trendy gay boy of our time bought a new iphone and immediately fell in love with it. He carried around it everywhere showing it off to everyone. So, the following Friday at the pub, the new iphone was a topic of discussion. One of the junior programmers wanted to play with it, so he started checking its applications, being curious about them and opening a few…

If you cannot see where that is going I will give you a hint: ‘Grindr’!
Of course ‘gb’ had downloaded the application (he is gay after all).
Most of the guys already heard about it since it was mentioned in ‘Top Gear’. The moments that followed were so surreal, I cannot even begin to comprehend them. My manager, the junior programmer and some other male and very straight colleague were trying to check people out on ‘Grindr’ and set ‘gb’ up with them!

It was simply hilarious!!!! The comments that they were making were to die for. They were talking about things like people’s abs or cock sizes… After we stopped pissing ourselves laughing we had the discussion about gay mentality, their (possible) obsession with gym / cosmetics / taking care of themselves / sex cruising and everything was simply in the open…

That’s my coming out story to my company. I don’t believe it’s very conventional (or intentional) but it was very funny. Now, most of the people know that me and ‘gb’ are gay but it was never an issue. The next chapter of that story is how ‘D’ (guy I was dating) came to meet us at the pub and how my manager was buying us drinks…

Happy news…

I think I’ve mentioned that things look a bit grim at work and they are getting even worse. After a very disappointing annual bonus, a minimal pay raise for 2010 was announced today for everybody, that is much less than the current inflation rate. It’s quite funny (in a sarcastic way) that the company is still profitable but the head decided 'not to ignore the warnings' (as he said) about the following years and keep the expenses at a minimum!
Nice…
So, as far as I can see my salary’s been reduced for the next year… YAY!!!

Since as a person I always see the glass half full, I can say that I am happy to at least have a job and be offered some kind of pay rise. Not having a proper pay rise is of course not the end of the world. However, I’d like to see my efforts being recognized…

So, I’ve decided to organize my next moves and see what options I have. Starting early next year, I’ll get a new chair and desk, organize a study area in my new place and take e-lessons to improve my CV. I’ve already decided which exams I’ll take to get another certificate that will help me advance. I’ve started in my current job two years ago as a simple graduate, since I had just finished my postgraduate degree. I managed to evolve from that to a better position but I believe that now it could be time to progress.

I don’t like the idea of abandoning the ship while it’s sinking but to be honest, I don’t think that the company is sinking in the first place… I know that I should be loyal and help the company in its time of need, but I am pretty sure they would fire me without a second thought if things were different.

On a very different and happy tone:


I spent my Monday evening with JJ. We met after my gym workout, had dinner at my place and he stayed over. We had a really nice time. He brought me small presents from his trip and a Christmas gift to open on that day. I had bought him something but didn’t find the time to wrap it properly so I’ll give it to him later.
He sent me yesterday a really sweet text message. Apart from all the really flattering things he mentioned about me, he wanted to share with me my worries and frustrations because he really does want to make this work. He suggested I should be honest with him if there’s something concerning me. So, I did.

I told him how inexperienced I am when it comes to relationships and that I sometimes fear we’re going too fast. He was in a 7 year relationship that ended early this year. He’s more used to sharing his life than I am. He thanked me for the comment and added that he respects my point of view. We’ll discuss it more when we meet tomorrow, but I think it went quite well… Double YAY!!!

I should have seen it coming…

After my quiet night in on Friday, a very busy and tiring weekend followed.

I went running on Saturday morning. I did my 6mi usual run in slightly more than an hour which is embarrassing. I wanted to see some improvement by now. On my defense it was freaking cold and I still had sore muscles from Thursday’s gym session. Not to mention the amount of lasagna I had the night before. However, my race is less than 3 months away and I should get more focused. I want to start systematically running two or three times per week which with the gym workouts will help me achieve the running times I want.
I did go to the gym the same day (as a punishment) with ‘gb’.

The same night we went out. I met ‘gb’ around 8ish and we headed to Soho. We went to ‘Friendly Society’ which I can say is quite a nice place to start your night out and then to ‘Green Carnation’. We met some friends, some friends of the friends and then some other random guys as well. We drank a lot though. I didn’t get drunk (it’s fortunately very difficult for me to do that) but went quite tipsy. We danced a lot. I was hit on by a cute Swiss guy (nice confidence boost) who I turned down politely. I managed to get home around 3:30 – 4:00am.


Unfortunately, I was awoken around 9:00 in the morning. ‘JJ’ texted me as he usually does in the mornings and I couldn’t relax and fall asleep again. The headache, I had, wasn’t helping. I’m getting old and my body can’t deal with such an amount of rum in my veins. Stupidly enough I agreed to go to Westfields. Talking about big mistakes! It was amazingly crowded as expected and the hangover I had made it even worse. I managed to buy a secret Santa present though for my company’s dinner party. I have to go again though to get presents. I still haven’t started my Christmas shopping…

I’ve been chatting through messages a lot with ‘JJ’ these days that he was away. He made a slight scene about me going out on Saturday which I don’t really appreciate. I can only excuse him for being drunk at his friend’s birthday party. I can’t even begin to count how many text messages there were. I fear that the Sunday’s morning text message was sent to check on me as well.

He’s generally been really sweet and kind but I want to discuss that with him. I don't know if I'm overreacting but I do fear we’re going too fast too soon. I still feel very positively about the whole thing. I do like him a lot but I feel that I need to explain that I am not used to be being in a relationship (if we’re in one). I need some time to adjust to the whole situation and me feeling pressured is not helping.

Quiet night in

After work yesterday I felt quite drained and I wanted a quiet night in. I was on my own at home, JJ was out of town and most of my friends were out with people from their work. So, I decided to cook dinner, have a little wine and watch a movie. So, I did…

I love cooking and most of the times I like changing recipes I've been given to match my taste. For ecample for the lasagne I cooked, there are so many variations of what you can add...
I bought Butternut Squash (something I learned in UK, since you cannot find it in Greece easily), 4 courgettes, a carrot, an onion, garlic, some tomato sauce and lasagne sheets. I first prepared the vegetables. I peeled them and removed the seeds when needed, washed them and grated them:


Then, in a deep frying pan I softened onion for a couple of minutes and then roasted in low temperature the vegetables for a good ten minutes to become soft. I added a little bit of feta cheese, tiny pieces of ham (can be ignored for vegetarians), some cheddar and seasonings for flavour. My stuffing was ready. I took a deep baking dish, added a little bit of oil (just a spoon) so that the lasagne will not stick to it. I had a layer of lasagne sheets, half the vegetables, a layer of tomato sauce, a layer of lasagne, the rest of the vegetables, a layer of lasagne sheets and finished with the rest of tomato sauce and some cheddar on top:


I baked it for 45 minutes in 180C. I like it slightly crispy so I left it a bit more than needed.


I opened a bottle of red wine and I watched ‘Love Actually’. I always watch this movie this time of the year. I don’t know how many times I’ve watched it really…

Anyway, I had a nice time yesterday, had some quality time on my own…

End of a very busy week

but I wouldn’t like it otherwise… My week included champagne at Christie’s, Pink’s concert, working myself to bits with my trainer at the gym, going to the movies with JJ, having lots of sex with JJ (including in a public place) and also having JJ staying over at mine (for the first time). The latter happened yesterday, it wasn’t planned but proved to be very nice… Not to mention the projects I have yet to finish at work.

I met JJ after my gym workout and we headed to a nice pub close to mine. I was famished and devoured a huge dinner. At the beginning he suggested that he wasn’t hungry but he didn’t mind a couple of starters I got him… After the pub we went to mine for ‘desert’. It was quite fun (as always)…
Me: Thanks a lot for coming
Him: Is that cue for me to leave now?
Me: No, not at all. You can stay if you want / can
Him: OK (with a naughty grin on his face)

The reason of us not spending the whole night together before yesterday is that I only know him for a little bit more than a week. Also, I have this issue of not sleeping well with other people. It’s the whole feeing nervous or uncomfortable bit I’ve explained in the past. Most people like to cuddle to go to sleep. I don’t mind cuddling, but I really can’t fall asleep if someone touches me. I feel restrained, nervous that I might start snoring or that I might disturb them. That makes me not sleep well that ends at me being cranky in the morning. I didn’t want JJ to see me cranky so soon. He will see me eventually, but not yet… Maybe that will go away after I get used to have the same person sleeping next to me. We’ll see.

Yesterday was no exception. It took me ages to relax and fall asleep. I didn’t want to move not to disturb JJ’s sleep so I kept on listening to the traffic from outside. I know that I am being ridiculous but I can’t help it. I managed to get enough sleep though at the end.

Waking up with JJ next to me was really nice… He admitted waking up around 5:00am and snoozing after that. He was working morning shifts the last days and he couldn’t help waking up early. He did make the bed while I was in the shower, tidied up my room a bit (even put clothes in the laundry basket from the night before) and also started preparing tea! I was more than impressed. You don’t normally see this kind of things…

He is away for the weekend visiting a former housemate of his for her birthday. I’ll probably see him after Monday and not much the next week since I have a friend visiting and some Christmas gatherings to go to. That’s not a very bad thing, since I think that we saw each other too much the last week. OK, don’t get me wrong. I like him but I don’t want to ruin it by going too fast, too soon. Now, I feel like a twat for thinking like that but I really don’t want to get tired / bored of him and vice versa. It has happened in the past and I want this time to work.
I want him to miss me a bit and I want to miss him a bit. Is thinking like that wrong? Have I already lost the game?

Pink

Aerosmith say:

Pink - it's my new obsession
Pink - it's not even a question,
Pink - on the lips of your lover (oh)
'Cause Pink is the love you discover…


And I couldn’t agree more!!! I’m talking about the singer called ‘Pink’ and her amazing concert I saw yesterday. I don’t know if you’ve seen her or even know her and her songs, but I totally recommend it. Personally, I’m a fan of her work. It’s a combination of pop rock and if I’m not mistaken, it’s mostly stuff she writes herself. She has a really cool, loud, crystal clear voice and is able to pull some really tough songs. Our sits were not the best, since we were at the very top of the O2 Arena (formerly known as Millennium Dome in North Greenwich), but we had a really good view of what was going on. It seems worse on the picture than actually was:


The stage and costumes were great, the acoustic was good, the dancers and choreography were amazing and the overall experience unforgettable. I liked the fact that she sang songs from other singers as well and that she was talkative and interacting with people. She managed a really sensual ‘touch me’, a striking ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ and a beautiful ‘Crazy’ among others. What I found a bit funny is the large lesbian fan base that she has. The vast majority of women there, were lesbians with their partner that I found really sweet.

I tried taking some pictures and videos of Pink while performing but they're not that good but blurry. I tried to enjoy the show more than trying hard to take some pictures. I danced and sang throughout most of the show...


Apart from the concert, I’m still happily talking to and seeing ‘JJ’. We’re going together to the movies to see the ‘Law Abiding Citizen’. I heard that it’s good, we’ll see. Our primary idea was to go to see ‘Avatar’ but that is not screened yet, so…

I like the fact that today might be the first day I’m seeing ‘JJ’ without sex involved. I suggested going to the theatre in an area not close to his or mine (but in-between) so that we’d go out and spend some ‘quality’ time together. I’m not saying that sex is not a way to spend quality time with someone (believe you me). What I’m saying is that it’s a good thing to see that you can spend some time with someone chatting and doing other various activities if you are thinking seriously about it. I really want to get to know him more and vice versa…

There is the question though whether we can keep our hands off one another for a couple of hours to actually watch the movie…

A little bit of posh-ness

I was invited yesterday evening to Christie’s champagne reception for today’s auction. They’re putting on sale a ‘Raphael’, some ‘Turners’, a ‘Domenico Zampieri’ and a ‘Rembrandt’ among other things. So, after work, I went home and put on my ‘proper good’ clothes and went there. OK, I don’t know what you people do for a living but for me that was a glimpse of the world of the rich. I knew it would be slightly boring but I hoped it would be a little bit interesting.


So, when we arrived, there were some really nice cars stopping in the front and leaving some quite good-looking-in-a-very-rich-kind-of-way people. On the ground floor you were welcomed by a number of people checking that you were in the guest list and the cloakroom. After climbing a nicely decorated big staircase, you would go to the rooms where all the items meant to be auctioned the next day were. The average age of the people was over 60 with a couple of exemptions of young, richly dressed companions. There was a live band of four musicians playing classical music and champagne and drinks served nonstop. Maybe their purpose was to get you drunk to actually put a bid for some of the items.

The ‘Il Domenichino’ starting price was £7,000,000 ($11,508,000), the ‘Rembrandt’ £18,000,000 ($29,592,000) and the ‘Raphael’ was £12,000,000 ($19,728,000). Impressive number of zeros, I know… However, there were some items being sold, that I thought were amazingly overpriced. Nonetheless, if you really want to buy me something (it’s Christmas after all) I really like this one by Turner and it’s quite cheap with starting price of £50,000. It's from a place called Corinth, in Greece. What do you say?


After walking around the rooms of expensive furniture and paintings, you begin to realize (as expecting) though, how phony and unimpressive this world of the rich can be. There were some very stylish people wearing really expensive clothes and jewelry. However, among the people, you could see the rich sugar-daddy with a trophy half-his-age companion (most of the times blonde with fake boobs), the snobbish art know-it-all that hadn’t had a shower in ages or the sleazy man being there trying to enter this circle of people by any means necessary. That was extremely obvious in the room where food was served. That room was never empty and all these people that were supposed to be well mannered were trying to jump the queue to get another bite of foie gras, jamon or turkey.

OK, I don’t want to be plain mean. Apart from the obvious newly rich people, the whole experience was interesting and had some style. I was less bored than I feared, although my friend ‘gb’ was more bored and less impressed than he hoped. I am not the type of person easily impressed by glamour and expensive clothes and accessories. I know you don’t need them to be happy in life, although some hundred thousand pounds would be well received.
I don’t want to sound greedy, I don’t want millions of them.
OK, ok…
I admit it, I wouldn’t say no to them either…

At least I saw Jeremy Irons at Christie’s, which was nice…

Something new…

I haven’t mentioned something but I’ve recently allowed someone new to enter my life (‘JJ’) and for the time being he’s turning it upside down in a very good way. OK, maybe the term ‘allowed’ is not correct or polite. But according to my standards, I’m devoting lots of time, energy and thoughts to him, in way I haven’t done before (which is a very good thing).

OK, let me make myself clear… My story is that I came to London more than a couple of years ago to make my life. I wanted to be independent, work on a career and a gay life I could never have in my hometown. I had a non existing personal life before coming here and I really wanted to come. The prospect of staying in Greece, at my parents’ place and being eternally single (tempting as it was) wasn’t enough. Fortunately, I’ve come a very long was way since then…

London for me was (especially at the beginning) what a toy store is to a five year old. It’s full of possibilities and experiences. (Most) gay people are in terms with their sexuality, not closeted and living a healthy prospering life. I started going to gay bars / clubs and dating guys after the first year I was here, timidly at the beginning but growing into it afterwards. I’m old enough (I hope) to put some boundaries and not get lost in alcohol and drugs and I always play safe, but I play nevertheless. I’m coming out of my shy shell and trying to see and do new stuff. I enjoy the flirting and dating…

That meant however that I had a very small interest span. I liked some guys I was seeing more than others (‘L’, ‘D’ and ‘Mr.T’ were some of them) but in a way, I wasn’t ready to commit to a serious relationship. I might have let some opportunities pass but I was still flirting and trying to see if there was something better out there. I hope however, that that is changing somehow because I’d like to give it a try and settle down and see what a serious relationship is all about.

So, back to ‘JJ’. I was talking to him online for a long period of time, since I was living at my old place. When, I moved houses, because I didn’t have internet connection, I gave him my mobile phone number and we started chatting and exchanging text messages. Then, I had internet connection, but my folks were here, so I was kind of busy. He was always polite, chatty, understanding and didn’t mind my reasons of not going out with him (“sorry, I can’t, I’m moving houses”, “sorry, I can’t, I have my parents visiting”, “sorry, I can’t, I’m waiting for the guy to fix my boiler” etc).
(I like to play it a bit hard-to-get you see).

Eventually, after all this time we finally went out last week. We had talked so much on the phone (and exchanged pictures) that when I saw him, I felt like I knew him for ages. Fortunately, we clicked really well. Since then, we met two more times and I’m seeing him for lunch as well today. That would be the fourth time I’m seeing him in 6 days and I can’t have enough. It’s funny (for me) but I feel nervous before going to see him.

Anyway, I don’t want to jinx it or anything, but I’m in a happy place at the moment. He seems to like me, I think I like him and I want to get to know him more. I’m trying to keep my enthusiasm restrained (you never know) about the whole thing but at the same time try to enjoy it (even if it doesn’t last long)…

Happy

I came across this: ‘Peter Kay Animated All Star Band - Children In Need 2009’ today and I found it very cute. It really made me smile. ‘Children in need’ is a charity ran by BBC and the teddy bear with the patched eye is their ‘mascot’.
I’m not sure if people from the rest of the world know many of the characters of the video:



But I do love Pingu’s appearance.
Which characters you haven’t seen before? Who do think could be added? Would Lion-O make a good addition?

Did I just chicken or made the right choice?

As I’ve mentioned recently, I had my parents visiting London. It was the first time that we spent time together after I came out to them. When I told them, my father’s reaction I think wasn’t very good nor bad. As I always do, I feared for the worse but fortunately, that didn’t happen. I feared that we might end up in an emergency room with my mum having a heart attack (known issue), my father beating the crap out of me, kicking me out of the house, disowning me and other similar stuff. They just appeared disappointed, worried and heartbroken. As I said, I don’t blame them, since they do not know any better. That of course made think that I should make them know better and see what kind of a life a gay guy can have…

So, they arrived a week ago and stayed in a nearby hotel. They do like their independence. I believe that in general we had a really nice time. I took them for a day trip in Cambridge, had a Korean BBQ (the one that the waitress cooks the food in your table), amazing Sunday lunch in ‘Blue Elephant’ (If you haven’t tried it, you should), Christmas shopping in Westfields and Carnaby Street, wandering around in the center and other similar things not easily found in Greece.

One of the highlights of their stay was ‘Blue Elephant’ where the atmosphere and food are amazing. They also got the chance there to meet some of my friends and see how wonderful people they are. I don’t know what they expected, but it made them happy to see that I am having a really nice time here and I have good friends to take care of me in case something happens. Before that day, my mother asked me twice if I’m enjoying my stay in London or being forced to do so, implying in a way that I am self exiling myself for being gay from conservative Greece. It was slightly funny, because both times she asked me, she came close to me (so that my father couldn’t hear in case I have something to confess that I didn’t like him listening) opened her eyes really wide and said ‘Are you OK?’ in a very serious tone. Both times I casually replied that I am great, loving my new place, liking my job and having a really good time, giving her an honest answer that satisfied her.

These two times are the only times the ‘gay issue’ was implied, but never openly discussed. I didn’t know whether I should bring up the subject since I knew it was on everybody’s mind and possibly ruin the day and their trip, or not. I’ve decided that it would be better to let them accept it first, let more time pass and bring it up when they are ready to discuss it. On the other hand, I could say something to notify them that it’s not a phase that will pass and take them out of the ‘denial’ that they might be in. Without traumatizing them by showing them the whip and dildo I have in my top drawer (just kidding)(for the dildo only) I could mention something like being in the process of dating, or something…
Anyway, I didn’t…

AIDS

It’s national awareness against AIDS day.
I am probably too ‘little’ and the least proficient person to talk about it. However, I feel that it’s my responsibility to mention it. I was way too young and living in an isolated small town when the plague called AIDS began in early 80's. I cannot even start to feel how the people in other places of the world felt when they started losing friends and loved ones from a virus not yet identified and treated. And the fact that some people reacted happily saying that AIDS is God’s respond to homosexuals is so infuriating I can’t even begin to think about!

In Greece things are so backwards and conservative that HIV+ people are marginalised and ignored. I cannot believe that the number of positive people is so small and I never met one. Can I be 28 years old and I never came across a positive Greek person yet? I really do not know how these people can find the strength and support to fight it.

Funnily enough though, major British newspaper, do not mention AIDS today in their front page in big bold letters. Most of them present a slideshow of pictures, old posters and relevant photographs, mentioned in a corner of their webpage. You really have to look for them to find them. Why? Is AIDS not as threatening as in the past? WHO and Unicef are talking about 20.8 million people and 2 million children affected at the end of 2007.

There is a new trend in gay porn regarding barebacking. There was a series of articles regarding porn actors being affected because of this trend. I know that the ‘forbidden’ or ‘dangerous’ does have an appeal, but now, more than ever, people should be aware of the dangers involve and try to be safe…

I was chatting to a young, cute German some time ago in a dating site. The same day I had received my negative test HIV results. I was happy for that, so I mentioned it to him. He stopped talking to me after that. I made him admit that he didn’t like me mentioning the sex clinic and I was kind of amazed. He said that he does go to be checked but me mentioning it was a major turn off for him. I am still puzzled why. OK, it probably isn’t a small talk topic, but I wanted to tell him that I like being safe and I didn’t think it would be him off so much, not to talk to me again…

Anyway, I still do believe that I am too small to talk about ‘AIDS’ and I haven't even touch such a huge subject today. Please, if you are not already doing it, take action against it and also try helping in any way that you can…