Oh jeez...I knew it had been quite some time sinced I'd done any blogging on here but didn't realise it had been just over three years!! Yikes - tempus fugit and all that. I had a notion to review my blogs today as I thought it's been awhile and then when I saw the date of the last one was rather surprised to see just how long it had been.
I've not done 'nothing' since then, in fact lots has gone on in my life but I guess I simply fell out of the habit. I enjoy writing and had a long trip down memory lane re-reading lots of my older posts and again thinking 'was it really that long ago I did that'?
So maybe a little recap of the past three years, in point form, is in order....
- I have another neice - Sophia Elisabeth, who was born October 8, 2008. Scooter and I went home to Canada for Christmas that year so I was able to meet her. The christening was cancelled because of a very heavy snowstorm. We spent New Year's in Las Vegas and had the trip from hell courtesy of Delta Airlines - our luggage didn't arrive back in London for a few days after we got back. I'll never use them again...ever. I love Vegas though and want to go back. I'll never forget New Year's eve at a huge gay club there stuffing money in gogo boys shorts...I have the photos to prove it too much to my mother's embarassment.
- We went to Dublin for a big gay rugby tournament with a group of our friends and then a few days in Cork for a mate's 30th birthday - it was a 'tart and vicar theme'. We dressed as priests. It rained in Cork - alot. I got drenched by a speeding truck in a huge downpour.
- I got myself back into a gym routine in 2009 and had a personal trainer for about a year and a half. Not cheap but worth the effort as I shed about 40 pounds. (I've since put on about 15 of that but trying hard to get rid of it). I did my first 10k run in the summer of 2009 as well. Did it in just over an hour - my high school gym teacher would be so proud!
- Our last proper vacation was in the summer of 2009. We spent a week in Rennes, France with two of our best mates at their parents converted farmhouse. It was a lovely time full of laughs, wine, pastries and swimming. I'm so glad I paid attention in french class - it reall paid off that week.
- After Rennes, Scooter and I went to Sitges, Spain for a week for a beach holiday. It had been over 15 years since I'd been swimming in the Mediterranean Sea so it was a very welcome return. We did a day trip to Barcelona as well and vowed we would return to that city for a longer stay next time.
- Last summer instead of taking a holiday we decided to do some work on the house. We had leak from the bathroom that went through the kitchen ceiling. As it had happened once before we though we need to bite the bullet and put it right once and for all....so from April until July our house was a building site. We hired contractors (who were mostly ok) and had the entire kitchen ceiling replaced. It meant having most of the kitchen units taken out and under a tent in the garden and everything else in the lounge. A huge job but worth it in the end.
- Once that was done, we had our lounge stripped back to the barebones, replastered, had a nasty curved arch replaced (from the previous owners) and had it squared off. Scooter and I did all the painting and had new carpets laid. It was a total transformation and everyone loves the new look. So all that was our vacation time and money...but we're glad we did it.
- Scooter and I had a "2010" party last summer to celebrate my 20 years of living in the UK and our 10 years together. It was a blast - the weather was mostly ok except for a few summer downpours (lucky we put up our marquee). We hired a 'butler in the buff' to serve drinks, food and clean up - a very fit young man wearing an apron around his waist and nothing else. He was very popular. It was our best party ever. ;-)
The BIGGEST news however is about Scooter. He took voluntary redundancy in November last year. He wasn't happy at that job and was considering looking elsewhere so the time was right. He enjoyed a few months off and registered with some recruitment agents.
He was presented with an oppoprtunity for an interview with KPMG in their Guernsey office (that's in the Channel Islands by the way). He nailed the interview and was offered the job. We both thought long and hard about what this would mean for us. In the end we decided it was too good to pass up for his career. We also realised I was too long in my job to give it up either. So for the next three years he's living there and I'm living here. It's still early days and we are finding the distance difficult but talk every day and hopefully he'll get online at his flat very soon (nothing happens quickly over there). We did a reccy there in March and we went over again April for him to start work. We found him a nice one bed flat with a view of the harbour and he's very happy with life there for the most part. I do envy the fact that he can walk to work in five minutes. I'm looking forward to a week there next month. He's made some friends over there which is good and I have our friends here who I know will look after me if I need it. Absence makes the heart grow fonder and all that I suppose.
So there you go....that's three years in a nutshell. Of course lots of other stuff has gone on too but those are the more memorable things.
I'll try not to leave it so long next time....
Friday, June 03, 2011
Friday, May 16, 2008
A New A-Choir'd Taste
On Tuesday this week, Scooter and I went to a concert in the evening at the Purcell Room in the South Bank Centre. It had been years since I'd been to that venue, but used to be a semi-regular visitor many years ago. I've seen Oscar Peterson, Diana Krall, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Manhattan Transfer, Keith Jarrett, Chick Corea and Philip Glass...to name more than a few!
This vist however was different. It was my first exposure to choral music! I love most forms of music, esecially jazz (see names above) and classical, but for some reason, never went to a concert given by a choir.
Well, that has now changed. A friend of mine (who also plays for the Steelers!) sings in a choir called 'Chantage'. Not just any choir either, but the current BBC Radio 3 Choir of the year.
I had no idea what to expect other than a wide range of music as my friend told me. He wasn't wrong. The show started with a tune by none other than Henry VIII and worked it's way through amazing arrangements of 'Under My Skin', 'Chile Con Carne', 'Let's Dance', 'Hit Me Baby One More Time', 'Tears in Heaven', 'Bridge Over Troubled Water', 'Clocks', and 'Cry Me A River' (the Justin Timberlake version.
Never mind the fact their director must have scanned my brain for some of my favourite tunes to perform but they were expertly arranged. I should add, this choir sang a cappella.
I was full of shivers and practically moved to tears on some of the songs and picking my jaw up off the floor on others.
It was also my first introduction to Beatboxing! The choir had the London beatboxing champion doing background vocals on Cry Me A River. He was amazing - I've never heard anything like that in my life. The next surprise was my friend doing the lead vocals on that song - I'd not heard him sing before and was very impressed indeed. Never mind the fact he looks great in a tux, he gave a fantastic performance. Mr. Timberlake would have been jealous.
So, all in all it was a wonderful evening, especially since I got to experience something new in the musical world, which for me, doesn't happen very often. I look forward to hearing more from Chantage and my mate's velvet tones in the future.
This vist however was different. It was my first exposure to choral music! I love most forms of music, esecially jazz (see names above) and classical, but for some reason, never went to a concert given by a choir.
Well, that has now changed. A friend of mine (who also plays for the Steelers!) sings in a choir called 'Chantage'. Not just any choir either, but the current BBC Radio 3 Choir of the year.
I had no idea what to expect other than a wide range of music as my friend told me. He wasn't wrong. The show started with a tune by none other than Henry VIII and worked it's way through amazing arrangements of 'Under My Skin', 'Chile Con Carne', 'Let's Dance', 'Hit Me Baby One More Time', 'Tears in Heaven', 'Bridge Over Troubled Water', 'Clocks', and 'Cry Me A River' (the Justin Timberlake version.
Never mind the fact their director must have scanned my brain for some of my favourite tunes to perform but they were expertly arranged. I should add, this choir sang a cappella.
I was full of shivers and practically moved to tears on some of the songs and picking my jaw up off the floor on others.
It was also my first introduction to Beatboxing! The choir had the London beatboxing champion doing background vocals on Cry Me A River. He was amazing - I've never heard anything like that in my life. The next surprise was my friend doing the lead vocals on that song - I'd not heard him sing before and was very impressed indeed. Never mind the fact he looks great in a tux, he gave a fantastic performance. Mr. Timberlake would have been jealous.
So, all in all it was a wonderful evening, especially since I got to experience something new in the musical world, which for me, doesn't happen very often. I look forward to hearing more from Chantage and my mate's velvet tones in the future.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
The quintessential English art?
A number of years ago I was watching 'Have I Got News For You' and one of the items was a story on how foreign students coming to the UK for the first time were being given lessons on 'queuing' (or waiting in a line for my friends across the Atlantic). I laughed at the time, but sure enough it was true - here's the BBC story.
Apparently queuing is a quintessential English art. Oh really? It must be a 'lost art', certainly 'round my manor. No one at any of the bus stops pays any mind to 'who was there first'. Of course, I notice this most when I'm the sole person waiting for a bus. Like a good citizen, I form an orderly queue of one. Then other arrive and fail to stand behind me. The bus pulls in halfway down the queue, and NOT at the actual bus stop post where I am standing. Clearly the bus driver has to take some blame here.
Sometimes I feel like yelling - 'excuse me, where any of you here first?', but then think better of it as I'd rather not be knifed or shot or looked at as if I was some sort of mental case. I can sort of forgive this behaviour on places like Oxford Street where the whole stretch of it is one giant bun fight, but where I live I just can't abide it.
What put me in mind to write this was two people, or 'queue jumping bitches' as I like to call them. One in Starbucks yesterday morning. I'd already had a nightmare journey in to work thanks to the Central line going tits up and this woman, headphones blaring away, waltzes past everyone, and then the person at the front of the queue says 'oh, after you'. I couldn't believe it!
Then today, at the post office, I'm at the head of the queue, corralled by those tensile ropes and posts, with about five people behind me. A middle aged woman ignores all that, and the automated 'Cashier number 4 voice', walks right up to an empty wicket and begins her business like none of us were there! The staff just served her as if she was next.
These two women were British and should 'ruddy well know better'. Maybe queuing lessons should be given to British people instead of foreigners.
For the time being though, whenever it happens, I'll just roll my eyes and mutter under my breath 'tsk, honestly'.
Now THAT is quintessentially English.
Apparently queuing is a quintessential English art. Oh really? It must be a 'lost art', certainly 'round my manor. No one at any of the bus stops pays any mind to 'who was there first'. Of course, I notice this most when I'm the sole person waiting for a bus. Like a good citizen, I form an orderly queue of one. Then other arrive and fail to stand behind me. The bus pulls in halfway down the queue, and NOT at the actual bus stop post where I am standing. Clearly the bus driver has to take some blame here.
Sometimes I feel like yelling - 'excuse me, where any of you here first?', but then think better of it as I'd rather not be knifed or shot or looked at as if I was some sort of mental case. I can sort of forgive this behaviour on places like Oxford Street where the whole stretch of it is one giant bun fight, but where I live I just can't abide it.
What put me in mind to write this was two people, or 'queue jumping bitches' as I like to call them. One in Starbucks yesterday morning. I'd already had a nightmare journey in to work thanks to the Central line going tits up and this woman, headphones blaring away, waltzes past everyone, and then the person at the front of the queue says 'oh, after you'. I couldn't believe it!
Then today, at the post office, I'm at the head of the queue, corralled by those tensile ropes and posts, with about five people behind me. A middle aged woman ignores all that, and the automated 'Cashier number 4 voice', walks right up to an empty wicket and begins her business like none of us were there! The staff just served her as if she was next.
These two women were British and should 'ruddy well know better'. Maybe queuing lessons should be given to British people instead of foreigners.
For the time being though, whenever it happens, I'll just roll my eyes and mutter under my breath 'tsk, honestly'.
Now THAT is quintessentially English.
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
Doorway To Hell
Yikes - it's April and I've only had one entry so far. That's not very good is it? I must admit I've been stuck for ideas. I'm not really one to simply write about my daily life, although many bloggers do, like my friend RetroGoose, and I enjoy reading hers very much, but then she is a professional writer and I have no doubt she could write an enthralling blog about the simple act of making toast.
So, I must do better. I've been surfing around the net and found there's loads of sites for people with brain block like me that supply ideas for blogging. We'll see. Or I could stop using Facebook quite so much.
One thing I keep meaning to write about is the laziness of people. In particular how people act when approaching a set of doors a building. It seems they will automatically head to the one that is left open, even if there's a queue to get in or out of said open door. I see this ALL the time at the West One Centre at Bond Street Station.
At the main entrance there's three sets of double doors. The left set has a sensor that automatically opens them, the other two sets are manually operated, in other words the Herculean task of pushing or pulling it open is required. More often than not, one of the doors on the right side is wedged open and it just beggars belief how many people will walk towards that one to the point of having to wait to get through. Now I know this only takes a few seconds, but for gawd's sake, what is wrong with pushing open the adjacent door to get in or out?? Clearly a large majority of people are unclear on this concept.
I despair for humanity, I really do.
So, I must do better. I've been surfing around the net and found there's loads of sites for people with brain block like me that supply ideas for blogging. We'll see. Or I could stop using Facebook quite so much.
One thing I keep meaning to write about is the laziness of people. In particular how people act when approaching a set of doors a building. It seems they will automatically head to the one that is left open, even if there's a queue to get in or out of said open door. I see this ALL the time at the West One Centre at Bond Street Station.
At the main entrance there's three sets of double doors. The left set has a sensor that automatically opens them, the other two sets are manually operated, in other words the Herculean task of pushing or pulling it open is required. More often than not, one of the doors on the right side is wedged open and it just beggars belief how many people will walk towards that one to the point of having to wait to get through. Now I know this only takes a few seconds, but for gawd's sake, what is wrong with pushing open the adjacent door to get in or out?? Clearly a large majority of people are unclear on this concept.
I despair for humanity, I really do.
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