Fairies on Four Wheels

On the last Friday of this month, I did something I've not done in over 20 years. I could make you guess, but you'd be here forever, or you'd lose interest after guessing for thirty seconds and return to examining the lint in your bellybutton.

So, I'll let you off the hook...I went rollerskating! The last time I did that I was a teenager and we were with some school friends and the live band was playing 'Christian Rock'. Oh how I've moved on from then....

My lovely friends David and Matthew convinced me to join them on Friday night at Bagleys - a huge venue behind Kings Cross Station. Every Friday it is transformed into a 70's themed roller disco, complete with tacky decor and about half the crowd dressing up. This was certainly a change from my last experience, and the best part was we had a bar! Rollerskating is, well, I found anyway, a bit easier once you've had a drink or two. However, there is a very fine line here, and it's best not to cross it, lest the room start spinning in circles instead of you skating in circles.

I had a blast - and after about thirty minutes or so, I 'found my groove'....ok, I wasn't skating backwards (intentionally that is) or doing fancy moves, but I could get a good pace going and not stop for ten or fifteen minutes.

As for falling, well, I did that twice and it wasn't whilst skating like a ninny on the floor. For some reason, the bit that connects the three (increasing in size) rooms, there's a sloped ramp. If you were walking up or down, you wouldn't even notice it was there. However, on rollerskates, you may as well be taking on a ski jump! I found out, the hard way, once skating down and once skating up. My legs went right from under me and my butt was duly introduced to the floor at lightening speed. My ass is STILL sore a week later. (no change there then...Ed.)

I think it would have been worse had I not had several drinks beforehand. Of course, that has a certain disadvantage which I'd not thought about until I started rolling backwards while having a pee!

I'm Not A Size Queen, But...

As mentioned in the previous post, Scooter and I are getting hitched in May this year in my hometown of Victoria BC, Canada. All the invites have been posted to friends and family in the UK, Canada, America, Australia, Singapore and Thailand!

If you plan to attend, you can get all the important details (except the personal details i.e. phone numbers, home addresses etc.) on our Big Gay Wedding Blog! My lovely parents are also hosting a party at their home two days afterwards, so if you're going and once you post the reply, you'll get an email with all the important details...and to tempt you further, there will be Nanaimo Bars! If you've not had one or have no idea what they are, look here!

Now, we all know people get married because they are in love. And they all want their friends and family to join in the celebration. Yes, they want your presence, but more importantly, they want your presents! No one wants to admit it, but it's true!

So with that in mind, we've registered with John Lewis as many couples do. Slightly annoying, when we signed up on their website, we had to choose 'Civil Partnership' because although the UK has made great strides in the last couple of years, gay couples still cannot be 'married'. But we're getting married proper like in Canada, so that's what we're telling everyone.

But I digress...we cannot wait to head into John Lewis with the hand scanner and zap everything we want.

What we really want is 103 inches of pure viewing pleasure! Yes, it is currently the world's biggest plasma television! John Lewis have it displayed on their fifth floor and it is beautiful and effing huge! Oh, and so is the price tag - £50,000! That's almost as much as I paid for my first one bedroom flat in London!

Still, we are going to put it on our wedding list, well, just in case. Of course, we should probably put a new house on the wedding list as well as there's no way we could even watch this giant thing properly unless we had the right space at home.

More than likely, we'll probably have to settle for some nice dinnerware instead.

But, it doesn't hurt to ask does it? I mean, can you imagine what it would be like to watch porn on this thing? I know I can!

A Bee Gnu Ear

You know, I think it must be true about time going by faster as you get older. I honestly don't remember a year whizzing by so quickly as 2006. I can truly say, for me anyway, I had an absolute blast. I spend alot of time with my lovely friends, drank far too much and generally enjoyed making merry at many parties and BBQ's, quite a number courtesy of my friends Blake and Ed at their fabulous flat. If you've kept up with my blog, you'll know about some of those days. One of my favourites was the big gay Tupperware party. It was one of the first really hot days of a very hot summer and really helped to kick off the season.

The year didn't start out too well however. In mid-January, the father of one of my best friends in London was killed in Afghanistan. He was posted there with the Canadian Diplomatic Service and his convoy was attacked by a suicide bomber. Needless to say, this was devastating news for many people including the family. Many people in my office were shocked and saddend as he'd posted in London a number of years back and was fondly remembered by all. I was honoured to be part of the funeral in the role of an usher, as were several other friends and colleagues. His sons gave a beautiful eulogy that moved everyone to tears. Despite all the sadness, it really was a celebration of his life and character and this was very evident at a very lively wake at his favourite London pub later in the evening.

Despite a sad start to the year, it was a very good year for me and one I'll remember for a long time.

Scooter and I had a lovely Christmas and New Year - we had his parents stay with us for a few days over Christmas and Boxing Day and we fed them very well indeed. I've never spend so much time in the kitchen in such a short space of time. I don't mind, I feel very much at home in the kitchen puttering about and cooking. One of these days I'm going to do a cookery course to improve my skills but at the moment, I like nothing better than trawling through my recipe books and magazines and the internet looking for ideas. Santa (well, Scooter) gave me three books - two Delia's (to complete a set) and the new Jamie Oliver! Yay! I also continued my mother's tradition of making Scottish shortbread for the second year now. It's really a labour of love as despite the simple recipe, it does take some manual labour to do but it tastes fantastic if I do say so myself! It makes great presents as well and quite a bit of it has been shared at Scooter and mine's offices as well as given to some friends to enjoy.

New Year was spent at home with two of our lovely friends and we cooked up a storm and washed it all down with several bottles of bubbly. Much nicer than fighting your way to the bar in a crowded club. The best part is you don't need to wait hours for a cab home or cram into the crowded tube as you're already home!

This year is going to be a big one! In less than six months I'll be married! I still can't believe its going to happen, but it is! My partner Scooter and I will be legally hitched in May in Canada in front of our families and friends. Its a lot of work to organise something like this especially when it's so far away, but I'm really grateful to my parents who still live in my hometown for being such fantastic wedding coordinators, we really couldn't do it without them.

No doubt future blog entries will feature bits and bobs about the upcoming nuptials.

Being 'New Year', the focus turns to making resolutions. The last resolution I managed to keep was back in 2000 when I resolved I was going to 'put myself about a bit' (in the best possible way, of course) and get a man. Well, I did that! It has been six and a bit years of wonderfullness.

This year, I've decided to make resolutions that I KNOW I can keep. So here they are:

1. Eat more
2. Drink more
3. Shag more
4. Watch more telly
5. Blog more
6. Get married

It may not be an ambitious list, well, perhaps five and six are, but they are realistic and just think how proud of myself I'll be the next time I overindulge in the pub or have that extra slice of pie while watching six episodes of Desperate Housewives in a row.

I can feel the onslought of gold stars now.