Happy New Year (Calendars)

For the last six years I have enjoyed waking up each morning to mes dieux - that is Les Dieux du Stade. Though not in person, obviously.

Usually these gentlemen were well hung in the bedroom, but last year XFE decided that it was no longer appropriate for us to have them in our bedroom. So Clément Poitrenaud* et al were relegated somewhere else I could be naked with them. Our bathroom.

When it comes to calendar choice it seems that there is plenty straight naked(ish) men on offer. Throughout the year I'll try to remember to bring you some.

Given my respect for firemen (my father was one), I'll start with the UK Firefighters 2008 Calendar, showing off some of our British fireman at their best.


Fireman A ......................................Fireman B


Fireman C...................................... Fireman D

If it takes your fancy, you can vote for your favourite British fireman by clicking the poll on the left.

If You Still Prefer Rugbymen...

*Clem (pictured left) sounds a little like a rugby version of Graeme Le Saux, though I suspect he enjoys a rather more enlightened changing room environment. Clem's a man of culture, he loves to visit museums and listen to Mozart when he's not playing rugby.

If you like your calendar men more rugger then click on his pic to see proud Scot Chris Cusiter and others...

Bienvenu 2008

The view this morning over Embankment to the South Bank, where tonight's firework spectacular will take place.

January 2008

With no surprise party to look forward to and a cold snap in the weather predicted, January is unlikely to please. Things however brighten up towards the end of the month with a Burns supper in Surrey on the 25th, Aspects of Love (my all time favourite musical) in High Wycombe on the 26th and the return of XFE from China on the 29th.

February 2008

A birthday party in Paris and a mini-break to Athens are some of the delights in store. Must try to do more theatre this year-we only averaged 1.3 visits per month last year, and with XFE away for only five working days this month, things look promising-so long as there's something that takes our fancy.

March 2008

I'm off to Warsaw on the 7th March to visit bestfriend. Easter is early this year, with Good Friday and Easter Monday falling on the 21 and 24 respectively. For the first time in 3 years XFE isn't working over Easter, and full advantage will be taken. We'll also ebjoy a break away over the long-weekend. S4 of Doctor Who is likely to premiere.

April 2008

By now Doctor Who should certainly have appeared on our screens. XFE has 2 weeks away working in Tel Aviv.

May 2008

Our wedding anniversary. We plan a party to celebrate with friends and family in Scotland. Serbia hosts the 53rd edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. The semi-finals will be held on 20 and 22 May respectively and the final on 24 May 2008 at the Belgrade Arena. This year we won't be attending. XFE's work schedule for May has still to be finalised.

June 2008

A summer holiday in Tel Aviv, on the beach!

Is Ben Whishaw Gay?

It always amuses me how people happen upon my blog. Some of my recent favourite referrals include:

Is Ben Wishaw (sic) Gay?, giving this.

해당 단어로 시작하는 추천어가 없습니다 or HUGE PENIS takes you here*.

sommerfield aberdeen opens sunday 30 December? brings you to the front page.

"she's very small" petite porn gives you this.

Scottish duet with czech singer once again brings you to my front page. But it ignores my many duets with a real Czech Singer, Marcel Svidrman, of Rebelové fame. Rebelové (Rebels) is a 2001 Czech musical film.

I suspect that Calvin Holbrook himself searched for tetu calvin holbrook. The only relevant hit was this.

Then there are the usual generic searches for stuff like Pavel Novotny nude and Asaf Avnet nude that take you to Made In Scotland, even though I don't think you'll find them totally nude here. However you might if you visit Taste of Vanilla (though it doesn't seem to have been updated for some time).


Pavel and Asef and Ben, again.

This morning someone was looking for scottish film the accidental activist and found my blog because of various references to the Accidental Activist.

* On this occasion the hit immediately above the link to me looks far more disturbing/interesting:

dad has a huge penis, so does my brother, in fact my brother's cock is like 11 inches long and proportionally fat, i have always felt insignifigant, the boy killls you all, do you understand, he's a umoilingual genius, i'm a well rounded asshole, this was meant to never work out it hurts, i think that's great, don't you, when he was 7 he pissed all over my head, he said he thought it was the bathroom, my parents believed him... alos you're all judgemental jerks.... also i want to kill myself alot.

Our Shop Of Shame

Look at this shameful sight. Yes, today we went shopping in Argos. Then we hurried home on the bus.



This wasn't a whirlwind shopping trip to the Greek city in the Peloponnese near Nafplio with the same name, but rather to a so-called "store" which shares that name.

On that subject, I wonder if the store people know that Argos is the name of one of the three "hellhounds", the dogs of the underworld.

When, to avoid waiting for our Argos "delivery" (see below), I went to buy some fruit and veg for Xfe, in the supermarket next door, I found myself in a Somerfield.

Fortunately Somerfield still accept cash. On stepping inside I suspected that Somerfield was a store which only accepted Provident vouchers*. However the little man I asked told me that they accepted cash, so long as any banknotes tendered were of no greater denomination than £10.

Great Prices With Fast Delivery Don't Shop For It, Argos It!

We found ourself in Argos because Christophe wanted to buy a juicer. Well, he probably has the patience to stick with it.

He'd been looking at them in John Lewis, but he had won £20 in Argos tokens in a "prize" draw. It was a charity prize draw.

Somewhat strangely I thought, we had to use the tokens before February.

Originally I thought the shop was closed. It looked deserted even from outside, and you can't really see in. The windows are blanked out.

No wonder. On stepping in-store I had my first surprise.

I had understood from the TV ads that you go to an Argos store and whatever you buy is delivered. What I had mis-understood however, is that the product is actually "delivered" to you while you are there, in a waiting room area, resembling a cross between the DSS and a doctor's surgery.

With the benefit of hindsight, I did actually think that the 10 minute wait for delivery signed inside was too good to be true, even although it's only a 15 minute walk from Argos on Old St to our flat in N1.

I swear that the shoppers inside were the same people I see queuing outside the Old Street Post Office of a morning. I guess that they use the people's Post Office personal banking service to cash their state cheques and tax credits before popping into Argos for those bargains that you can't live without, then into Somerfield to pick up some ready made meals and vegetables in tins, before enjoying some personal time relaxing the pub on the corner for the rest of the day.

The greatest novelty which Argos offers is that you shop in store from... (you'll die)... a fcuking CATALOGUE!!

The first area which you encounter is the shopping area where you take a leisurely browse through the catalogues. It's like voting booth cubicles, but without the walls.

I couldn't help notice how happy people looked flicking through the plastic covered pages of the Argos catalogue. You can even pay by installments.

There's a huge selection of wares too. Not just toys. The woman in front of me, with tattoos on her neck and ankles and matching husband, was buying a Maple Leaf 2 Piece Toilet Seat, pictured here.

(I was able to spy the item because everything you buy has a code xxx/xxxx you have to type in to find out whether the item is in stock, which was still on display on their terminal). Lovely.

NB the white toilet fitting is NOT included in the £19.99 price.

You can buy pretty much anything in Argos, from dolls to cane furniture and batteries.

Anyway mon C got his juicer. Fortunately it is also available in John Lewis and Selfridges, which is not so bad.

And here is the first glass of juice he made using 2 apples, 2 carrots and 2 sticks of celery. That's 3 out of my 5 a day. Quite delicious, though I wouldn't mix it with champagne.




* Provident Gift Vouchers:

Treat yourself, your friends or family and spread the cost with Provident Gift Vouchers.
Provident Gift Vouchers are an easy, convenient way to go shopping – and they’re accepted at hundreds of your favourite shops.

* Borrow from £50 to £500
* Easy to use and accepted in hundreds of top name shops
* Available in booklets of £50, with a selection of Gift Vouchers worth £5 and £10
* Affordable, fixed, regular repayments – you repay your Gift Vouchers over 27 or 50 weeks
* Perfect gifts for family and friends - especially for those people you 'never know what to get'.

With Provident Gift Vouchers they can choose their own presents and you can't go wrong!

Example: Loan amount: £300
56 weekly repayments of £9
Total amount payable £504
Typical 183.2% APR

Ah, Christmas

The best thing about Christmas was sharing it with Xfe, and with my parents, at their home in Scotland.

The next best thing was Doctor Who - Voyage of the Damned, until the reveal (boring) and then again, just at the end. I especially loved the slight re-orchestration of the theme tune, though no-one else seems to have noticed.

Yup, the disappointing part was the baddie and the motivation. It would have been far better, in my view, to link the menace in with the season ahead.

We got to Aberdeen no problem. Although I reckon I cocked up in July when I booked the flight up north (from Heathrow at 8.40am Sunday morning - who wants to leave at that time?) it was quite serendipitous. Although there was fog, our flight got away before the backlog and cancellations started. Later in the day and we would have been stranded.

We woke up on Christmas Eve morning to a glorious day, although I've never seen cloud as low as this!


(Taken from my bedroom window @ my parents)

Although it was after 9am and the sun had risen, the moon was still shining.



The morning was quite a contrast to Christmas Day morning. No wonder I was worried that the champagne that I had left outside overnight might have frozen.



Although it wasn't a white Christmas with snow, it was nice to wake up to a white-frosted morning.



The frost hung around all day.



Then it was time to go open the Christmas presents. For this we went through to the front room, the least used room in my parent's house. Reserved for special occasions. However I'd re-arranged some of my mother's decorations so that my parent's would have a surprise party to greet them.



It was the first time that Xfe had spent Christmas away from home. Not that it overly troubled him. He was too caught up in my excitement. However his mother missed him, especially at their traditional Christmas Eve family meal (see here for last year's experience).

It's the only time that his family cook and eat snails (it's very common to have these at Christmas in France). Even although mon C never eats them, I didn't want him to miss out, so I'd brought some along for him and gave them to him on Christmas Eve, just in case he was feeling a little homesick!



Back to Christmas Day, and it was soon time to eat. My mother made her soup-Scotch broth. We always have it as our starter on Christmas Day, and most Scots probably do. Much more traditional than salmon or prawn.

I'd done the rest of the Christmas lunch. The turkey came out very well, and I pretty much followed Jamie Sainsbury fella's recipe. I have to admit, I thought his Christmas Day feast was the best prepared of most Tv chefs I've seen over the years, though Delia was the first to suggest par-boiling the roast potatoes then shaking them to get them flaky for super crunchie roasties!



There's the trifle that I made. Xmas pudding is too heavy after the main I find. Though we did have some later. Then it was time to feed the tits.



Here is my favourite card of the season, from our neighbours Mark and Justin.

A Candy Christmas

Having once watched Linda Barker or someone similar on one of those generic home makeover type shows on UK style tart up her Christmas presents I was inspired. To be more creative with my wrapping. Remember last year's efforts?

This year I was inspired by some candy sticks that I spotted in M&S. The result being that my gift-wrapping has sweets, to be munched.



Here are a couple of caramels that can be unwrapped before of after.



This year's craft idea was to make dried fruit garlands. I got the stuff from a mail order craft store. But as ever, the idea of creating is easier than the creation process.



So instead I used some to pilot next year's gift wrap. These are for my secretary and another group secretary, so they were't needed t tie in with this year's theme.



I mean, how gay is that?

Calvin From Stoke Newington

So it's the New Year already. Yesterday January's edition of «Têtu» arrived. Nothing quite like the January blues before Christmas has passed.

However, in an attempt to beat those blues, the first edition of 2008 comes with a readers' calender. Twelve of their readers in the buff, some more buff than others. A little more in your face than the 2008 Dieux du Stade.

It was with some surprise then that I recognised one of them as someone I often see on the bus. Here's Calvin Holbrook, from Stoke Newington (there's a blurb about each one in the magazine):



I have to admit, though, the description of Stoke Newington isn't quite one I'd attribute it - «un quartier hippie avec plein de cafes sympas, de p'tits mecs turcs super chauds et d'espaces verts...»

Calvin isn't French. He hails from Shanklin on the Isle of Wight. These days you might come across him at the London Fields Lido in Hackney, at the Joiners Arms pub in Shoreditch or in one of his hang-out cafes in Stoke Newington. Or like me, you could just spot him on the bus from time to time (it's his Chucks and socks that give him away).

Peace And Goodwill

Hmm. I've spent the morning catching up on a few blogs. Some I thought were gone but not forgotten. Like The Accidental Activist.

I was literally about to edit his link and move him to join the bloggers who blew. But I clicked on his link and he's still there. Perhaps he never went and I just got confused with someone else.

Life is never easy. It's over complex at times. His CuteCoffeeBoy entry reminded me of so many thoughts, experiences. Some memories. Most significantly, the phrase boyfriend material. But to understand I need to rewind. I'm not even sure whether I can explain it.

But I want to. And in order to do so, I need to address two questions. Why do we use the boyfriend material filter, and what drives us to bed gorgeous men?

Is the second question an easier one to answer? I think so.

The impetus from minus to plus never ends. The urge from below to above never ceases: whatever premises all our philosophers and psychologists dream of--self-preservation, pleasure principle, equalization--all these are but vague representations, attempts to express the great upward drive

.
----Göethe, letter to Lavater

It’s good, isn’t it grand, isn’t it great
Isn’t it swell, isn’t it fun, isn’t it nowadays
There’s men, everywhere jazz, everywhere booze

----Kander and Ebb, from Nowadays, Chicago

Of course, this can only be addressed from my experience and take on it. Still, having had a 5 year relationship with a nationally ranked tennis player, to whom I was introduced by a model-cum-(now)rock singer who I "shared" for 3 months, I have an inkling. That was based on my looks and personality.

When I was a young, leading and driven partner in a top 10 Scottish legal firm, personally recognised as being "up-and-coming", I enjoyed the privilege that comes with position. That was based on my deep wallet and earning potential.

For the moment, that's enough, because who wants to deal with such a big thing, and I'm off to watch Lucie Bílá's Johanka z Arku

More Things To Do

1. Reformat the HD on the Sony Vaio laptop that's less than a year old but no longer used since we went over to the Mac. I'm going to give it to my Dad for Christmas to replace the 10 year old desk top he's still using. It runs Windows 95 and it's too lowgrade for an upgrade, the result being his printer won't work on it!
2. Get my hair cut.
3. Buy a Christmas present for my secretary and my trainee. I should really have taken full advantage of my trip to Paris yesterday, but helas I didn't. Well, not for them. Xfe says I shouldn't get Molton Brown yet again for my secretary.
4. Choose my Christmas viewing. See here though. The Radio Times is no longer user friendly. There's simply too much tv. I have to rely on something that filters through the hundreds of digital channels. TimeIn seems ok. I'll try that.
   

7 Days To Go

If I were Delia I'd probably be up at dawn to go to the market. But I'm not. Instead we wondered over to Dalston's Sainsbury at around 11.30am.

Dalston is weird. It's a whole world away from Upper Street, even though it's so close. Very different people. Far more...diverse.

We came back, watched some telly and just chilled. So nice.

Anyway, we're off to Paris tomorrow, bright and early. Probably too early to take advantage of the champagne and oyster bar at St Pancras.

The Liverpool Thing

Maybe we could have singers singing flat. Perhaps Mary could be a Muslim suicide-bomber. Well, why not, after all Joseph is an asylum seeker? Keep it contemporary, sing it flat.

Act up. Fight AIDS. Oh please. Switching off right now... Before Josephh and Mary turn out to be a gay interracial couple, deserving the prejudice that comes being cross-dresser and Lil Savage the Angel.

Should I have waited for Jennifer E?

Oh, has this Liverpool Nativity something to do with religion? Shite!

Decorations 2007

On Friday I finished work for Christmas. It was a fairly busy week, but busier with enjoyable sociable stuff.

At the beginning of the week a team of us went for dinner at Avenue on St. James. On Tuesday I took colleagues to a late lunch at Jamie Oliver's Fifteen restaurant.

Wednesday night I was at the Emirates Stadium for the Arsenal Steaua Bucharest game.

Thursday I opted out from the office Christmas party, but on Friday I took my trainee for a few glasses of pop at the Coq d'Argent.

Yesterday was the "official" start of mon C and I's Christmas holiday. We had written the last of our cards on Friday night and posted them Saturday morning. From the post office on Essex Road we went off to HMV on Moorgate then to M&S to buy some champagne, foodie holiday treats and poinsettias.



Then we came home and did our Christmas decorating with a glass of mulled wine.

The Christmas tree we had bought earlier in the week. It's grown in the pot, so in theory it should still be alive. However, I suspect that many grown in the pot are then put into smaller pots for sale, which means part of the root ball is cut. And if too much has been cut it is still likely to die. Hopefully this one will survive, though on balance maybe we should have transferred in into another pot first, also curing it's bent!



I'm not sure if you can see from the pics, but we've gone for a "hot red" look with the lights for the tree. We have a huge selection of decorations and not everything gets used each year. This year some of the camp Christmas themed stuff didn't make the cut and have gone back upstairs.



It's lights, lights, lights this year. The red and green chain of lights is about 10 years old, from Habitat. The red tree lights are a couple of years old from Paperchase, though we've never used them before. The rows of white lights across the window are from John Lewis, bought this year.



Finally Xfe just wants his cup of tea and to snuggle under a blanket and watch the X Factor final. I've certainly not followed it. But when Xfe and I have been here we've dipped in from time to time.

In the event I would have been pleased if either Rhydian or Leon had won. I thought Leon sang the single better than Rhydian, but there was something a little more charismatic about Rhydian. Whereas Leon sounds like just another crooner. Mind you, his duet with Kylie was spot on!

It was touching to see the Glaswegian fighting to hold back the tears, and fail. Coming from where he does the culture doesn't encourage men to be in touch with their emotions, and it showed - but in a natural and endearing way. So, I'm glad he won, even though I did vote for Rhydian.

Tennant 'is leaving Doctor Who'

Tennant 'is leaving Doctor Who'

Catherine Tate has suggested that the next series of Doctor Who could be the last for actor David Tennant.

The comedian, speaking on Radio 2's Jonathan Ross programme, said: "I think it's maybe David's last series."

The BBC refused to comment on Mr Tennant's future as the show's star.

When pressed on whether Tennant would return to play the timelord in special Dr Who shows in future, Tate replied: "Possibly."

Makes sense you know. Why else have at least three assistants, including the returning Billie Piper, unless there's an epic battle and momentous occasion looming?

For the full article go here.

Creepy Christmas

Yup, it's really Santa hanging from a haunted house. Just the thing to treat the kids to at Hyde Park's Winter Wonderland.



Now, that's better!

Roll On Friday

Christmas Arrived

I'm sure that we all have something that makes us think Christmas has well and truly arrived. For me it's the Christmas issue of the Radio Times.

When I was at school I'd check each lunchtime whether it was in the local newsagents. Then, when I'd get it home I'd go through it and mark all the things that I wanted to watch over the holiday.

I especially like a chilling Christmas ghost story.

I spotted this years issue in the corner shop this morning. Guess what I'll be doing over a glass of wine this afternoon...

Also arrived is le paquet de noel from Xfe's parents. They saw him this week in Geneva where he's been working this week, and had dinner with him on Friday night. But I think Xfe told then it was too much for him to carry home.



I had to open it, however, as there was a big cheese to put in the fridge. Very french! The rest of the stuff will stay in there until Christmas. I wonder what is in the fnac bag.

My alcohol blush happened again last night. I was drinking some chardonnay, and I had a glass of red. I'm totally puzzled why I get it, and what exactly causes it. Here it is on my upper arm.



It also appeared on my elbows, knees, neck, shoulders and patches on my back. I see I've mentioned this condition before: Made in Scotland: Le Weekend.

Finally, and belatedly, a special thank you to Gay Banker, for his generous donation (seen here).



You'll remember that in October I took part in a sponsored walk to raise money for the US Leukemia & Lymphoma Society: Made in Scotland: Love/Hate America.

My friend's son is a survivor, and every year they ask me to walk with them. It was a bitter-sweet experience. The night was full of sadness and strength. There were parents there who had lost children. And there were survivors who were proud they had survived. The event was all about remembering and celebrating life.

I'd asked a few bloggers to maybe donate a fiver, half the cost of a glass of champagne. Rather generously GB added a couple of zero's to the end of his charity cheque.

To return the favour, you can vote for him in QueerVerve's 2007 GLBT Verve Awards here ('Best GLBT UK Blog' category at the bottom of the voting form).

As It Is

My mother didn't know that my eyes are green (though, depending on my mood and emotions, the shade of my eyes changes).



I didn't know that my mother's eyes are blue. I don't know the colour of my father's eyes.

My brother's eyes have always been blue.

The other day I went to retrieve some cuff-links. In the same box I keep the spare links from my watch strap.



Last night I dreamed my watch strap broke.

In the same dream my tooth popped out. All too easily. In my dream they always fit back in, first loose then to set. As I've mentioned before, dream of loosing teeth = fear of sexual inadequacy. Yet, that doesn't fit.

Today The News

Take a look at this. It's what's been keeping me ever so busy.

It's just been mentioned on the BBC London evening news!

The other piece of news that caught my eye today was this.

Joseph Ekaette was convicted of the murder of Nyembo-Ya-Muteba.

Mr Nyembo-Ya-Muteba, a 41 year old father of two, confronted a group of youths in the foyer of his block of flats in Hackney, east London for making a noise outside his home. The result? He was stabbed through his heart and lung by Ekaette and died on his doorstep.

This morning on my way to work as I crossed over past the Old Bailey, I noticed a Serco security/prison van at the lights. There was loud regular banging, and the van was swaying heavily from side to side. Many people were looking at it.

At first I thought it was transporting horses that were really playing up. But I quickly realised it was a prisoner van and not a Met horse truck. Whoever was inside was going wild, but obviously in a really head fcuked way.

I think I now know who it was.

Good Morning

At last, a decent night's sleep.

I found it hard to drop off to sleep - I think, but eventually I was sound asleep around 10pm and slept through to 7am when the alarm went off.

The thing is that sometimes I never really know whether I am awake or if I'm dreaming I'm awake. Frequently I dream of not being asleep when I am. It's hard to describe how I know this - I just do.

I dreamed about my Grandma last night, and remember waking briefly in tears.

Apart from that, it was a sound night.

I've woken impatient though. Impatient for mon C's return on Monday. Three weeks is a long absence. I miss him in so many ways, but especially going to sleep and waking up together, usually in one of the other's arms.

Impatient to finish work for Christmas. I finish at the end of next week. Then Xfe and I will really get into the festive mood.

I'm impatient for the weekend. For the first time in 4 or 5 weekends I have a weekend home, alone, with no plans or visitors. I'll be taking full advantage. And I'll do some Christmas food shopping. Even although we're off to my parents for Christmas, it'll still be nice to have some special treats and Christmas food for home.

It's Xfe's first Christmas ever away from his home and parents. He's never had a traditional Christmas Day diner. In France they have their big meal on Christmas Eve.

I can't wait!

Home, Shattered

It's 17.28 and I'm at home, bathed and in bed.

The last two nights I've slept incredibly badly, and woken up around 3am, unable to get back to sleep for 2, 2.5 hours. Then before I know it the alarm is off, and I'm up and out.

I've mentioned before that I'm a light sleeper.

This weekend my mother was visiting from Scotland. She wanted to do some Christmas shopping. She suffers from very severe rheumatoid arthritis, and in addition has a muscle wasting disease. So it was really a struggle getting around town with her. In my view she was overly ambitious. She could manage half an hour, then she had to rest. Typically we'd stop for a coffee - or a glass of champagne (outrageous - £10 a glass in Harvey Nichols).

While she was here I slept on the couch, and the cats kept me awake until the wee hours. That was 4 nights' bad sleep before that.

So Monday morning I started off fatigued, and two bad night's sleep since due to the wind howling and blowing stuff around outside and crap food upsetting my stomach (hmm, maybe that comes back to the same thing). I eat terribly when mon C's not home.

This morning I was up at 6.30am and out at 7.15am to get a taxi to Marylebone for a 9am meeting in High Wycombe.

That's why I'm in bed before 6pm for a snooze.

Wednesday = Ignacio

I've been rather amiss with my Dieux du Stade quinzaine updates.

So here is Argentina's Ingnacio Corletto.


Hot or not...YouDecide



That was 2007...and here's 2008's offering.

My Wii Wii

After my visit to America, playing on my friend's Wii, I decided that we should have one for fun. It's the new twister for mature after dinner fun...

But they are so hard to come by. There;s a shortage for Christmas, and as soon as there's a whiff of them they sell out.

So I subscribed to the Wii Stock Locator. After a couple of weeks of near misses I got lucky on Friday. In fact so lucky I've ended up with two!

I've not decided whether I should give the extra one to my brother as an extra surprise Christmas present, or sell it on. One way or the other I better sort it out before Xfe returns on Monday, otherwise he'll go slightly spare at the spare.