Hasta la vista, baby...

Amazing, isn’t it, how weeks can just flash by without you even realising? And now – having had some invaluable and very enthusiastic assistance from O, whilst S was concentrating like a boy possessed on his Playstation – we’re just about packed. Some last minute washing, a trip to the local sports store for a bikini (no, not for me) and we’ll be done!

This is the first time I’ll have gone away properly since I started this blog, and it feels kind of weird. I will have to be online occasionally from the hotel to check emails, and I may well just pop in to read and reply to any comments that have been left. But I won’t be touring my blogroll and so won’t be able to see what you’re up to until I get back. I can honestly say, though, that I’ll miss you. Without me even realising, “this” has become a part of my life, a part that I like very much. And even though there aren’t that many bloggers within touching distance (although I’ve met a couple and have some plans to meet others, all being well) I do feel that I have friends here. So thank you.

I spoke to the Scottish sisters yesterday, and unfortunately they won’t be joining us until Friday next week. So I have a few days of normality ahead, and a few mornings devoid of hangover... I suspect I should be grateful for small mercies. And all that’s left for me to say is au revoir, take care of yourselves, and feel free to drop me the odd email if you want to... it’ll be nice to know I haven’t been completely forgotten! So... hope you like this glimpse of our hotel and I guess I'll see you in two weeks. And yes – I shall be in a position to catagorically prove that, contrary to what one or two people might think, I never, ever wear Speedos outside of my garden. ROFL...

HNT 40 - 2 0f 3

My god - Blogger is doing my head in!!! Sorry for the lack of comments from moi to vous (or is that nous?)... frankly, it's a real pain in the derriere. Yes, we have a French theme going on, and no - I don't know why!

Anyway, today is Thursday, so it must be...

HNT Shower Series - 2 of 3

To be honest, there's not a great deal more exposure than last week, but the next one is a beauty ("Yay"). Trouble is, you won't get it until I'm back from Tenerife ("Boo"). In the meantime, my lovelies, show me what you've got so I get on that plane with a smile on my face!


Happy HNT!

Aspire

Holiday Countdown = 5 days

Today, in a small way, was quite a BIG day for me. One of those days when I decided that I was going to conquer a particular fear of mine by immersing myself in it completely.

And you know what? I’m still smiling. It was fine, and there was nothing for me to have been worried about in the first place. A bit like having a blood test, really!

In case you were wondering what I'm going on about, the truth is that it was nothing particularly substantial in the scheme of things... just a day delivering training to a roomful of people. The kind of thing that happens every day, in thousands of offices around the world. But I’d never done it before, and I’d always avoided any opportunities that arose because it was outside of my comfort zone. Believe it or not, there are situations that I find myself in that can make me feel quite uncomfortable. And yet here I am, back home after 8 hours on my feet, and holding a set of evaluation sheets that averaged somewhere between 8 and 9 out of 10 for the way the content was presented. Just for once, I’m kind of pleased with myself, and I’m going to allow myself that small luxury, at least until I fall asleep tonight. Tomorrow’s another day...

But you know what? I’ve decided that I’m going to keep on challenging myself, because I reckon the biggest constraint on what we can achieve as individuals is our belief in ourselves. Be it in the context of work or not... it’s the same issue. And the answer... just aspire. It's that simple.

Next stop, of course, is HNT.

Musical Monday

Well, that was a party! Lots of food, lots of wine (and vodka, fortunately), lots of grass, and Red. And a completely mad Irish girl called Janet, who also happened to be incredibly beautiful and who asked Red if she could stay over and fuck us both. She caught me on my own a few minutes later, and tried to convince me that it would be worth our while if I could use my influence, as if I needed any convincing... and later I caught her and Red kissing in the hall. Naturally I'm too much of a gentleman to tell you what transpired, but suffice it to say that it beat staying in on a Saturday night.

I'm away on business for a couple of days, staying in a rather nice hotel near Southampton on the south coast. I'll have my laptop with me anyway and they apparently have free wireless broadband in the bar and lounge, so I may have a look in later. Otherwise, it'll be Tuesday night before I get a proper chance to check in, so have fun while I'm gone.

Musical Monday

I can't remember how I discovered the Cowboy Junkies... I think it was a woman from Glagow (with whom I was having an incredibly intense realtionship with at the time) who told me about them actually. She lived in London at the time, mind you, which made matters a little easier, logistically speaking. She was one that got away, though, for sure.

Anyway, Cowboy Junkies are a Canadian country music and alternative rock band, formed by three siblings from the Timmins entertainment family in Toronto in 1985. The lead singer, Margo Timmins, has the most gorgeous voice, and this track, taken from the album "The Caution Horses", is a perfect example of her haunting vocals. I love the lyrics too... I've always been a sucker for a bit of angst. It's so... character-building!

So, here you go then... You Will Be Loved Again.



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Biting the arse that feeds you

Holiday Countdown = 8 Days

From my experience, both personal and anecdotal, guys who live on their own have a tendency to develop routines for pretty much everything. It’s a bit like being institutionalised, and it’s why any man who’s lived on his own for a number of years becomes almost undateable. There should really be courses they can go on. I’ll never reach that stage, of course, because I’m in touch with my feminine side.

Anyway, when I get up in the morning, I tend to go through my own little routine that goes something like this...

1. Jump out of bed, and look out of the window to make sure my car’s still on the drive (yep, I live in a good area)
2. Pull on some drawstring trousers and find a pair of flip-flops
3. Have a bit of a stretch, then go downstairs where I...
4. Nip into the office and boot up my computer
5. Go into the kitchen and put on the kettle
6. Wander from room to room, opening the appropriate number of windows/doors to reflect the nature of the weather at the time
7. Whilst the kettle’s boiling, have a pee
8. Wash my hands, make a strong cup of coffee and check my emails

Now, as most men will tell you, the first pee of the day is not the easiest to direct, but there I was, wrestling with nature, when something quite horrible happened. A fucking huge mosquito flew out from under the rim of the loo and headed straight towards my... errmmm, cock. Without thinking, I instantly reached forward and caught the little bastard in my hand, not realising that in doing so I’d be left with minimal ability to exercise any influence on the morning monster, and thus creating a situation that can best be described as inconvenient.

Now the thing that occurred to me, as I was reflecting on this over my well-earned cup of coffee, was that - had I sat down unsuspectingly - that mosquito would almost certainly have bitten me right on the arse. So now, it’s quite possible that my morning routine will have to incorporate another step. Along the lines of “Check under toilet rim for anything resembling a biting insect BEFORE peeing.”

Anyway, moving swiftly on...

I wrote a while ago about Red, she of the beautiful bum and the falling panties. Anyway, Red’s just got back from Greece where she apparently bought me some ceramic beaded necklaces. Hmmmm. Well, it’s her Birthday today, and she’s invited me to her party, so that’s where I’ll be tonight, no doubt partaking of the odd spliff and generally behaving appallingly. Whatever you’re up to, I hope you enjoy your weekends, and I’ll catch up with you over the next day or so. And remember, look before you sit. You can’t be too careful.

HNT 39 - 1 of 3

Shower Series - 1 of 3

Well, I know how much you all like a series, and frankly it's a bit easier to get three photos done all at once and then relax on a Wednesday evening! Mind you, when you've just come out of the shower and you're soaking wet (dare I say, dripping), it's best not to "hang about". Much better to just dry yourself off and get some clothes on.

Yes, it's always a good idea to be clean. You never know when you might be unveiling yourself, after all.

Happy HNT!

Random thoughts

My leg hurts a lot. Actually, my back also hurts too now, because I’ve been standing/walking in a slightly skewed position to avoid putting too much weight on my left leg. These damn endorphins are crying out to me... “Run, you chicken... run!” and all I can do is rub a bit more gel on my calf and look wistfully out of the window. GRRRRRRR!!!

PTFE called me unexpectedly last night.... well, she mailed me and said she’d had a shit weekend, and asked if I could talk, so in fact I called her. But you know what I mean.

PTFE: I’ve been crying.
Me: Oh, have you? What’s up, babe?
PTFE: Don’t ask stupid questions.
Me: Okay. How’s work?
PTFE: I hate you.
Me: You don’t have any reason to hate me.
PTFE: I know. That’s why I hate you.
Me: Well, I can see the sense in that.
PTFE: I’m going now. Can we meet up next week – just to have dinner? I miss you.
Me: Sure... I miss you too. But you know I won’t change my mind.
PTFE: I know. You’re paying.

I know there are a lot of Bush fans out there. This is just for you. It made me laugh, even this morning. And I'll see you on Thursday, no doubt... I think it's time my pubes made an appearance again!

(Edit: I'm a bit overwhelmed with work between now and Thursday, and it's going to require a couple of 18-20 hour days. I won't have much time for commenting/responding to comments although I will be reading them, so don't think I'm being rude.)

Musical Monday

Holiday countdown - 13 days

So, another weekend had come and gone. And all I seem to have to show for it, unfortunately, is a torn calf muscle sustained when I was running yesterday morning. It bloody hurts, and it's come at a bad time as I've been trying to get in shape before we go on holiday later in the month. In fact, I wanted to lose 4lbs over the next two weeks, which will be a little difficult now, so I guess it's going have to be the bike every morning until my leg gets better.

And, of course, there was at least one climax at Chez WDKY, even if wasn't the kind of climax I would have had, given the choice. The World Cup reached its finale, and as I didn't really mind who won I could just sit back and enjoy it as a spectacle. Four years to wait for the next one now, but luckily those of us in Europe have the sheer joy of the European Championships, Euro 2008, which kicks off with some qualifying games in early September. The Beautiful Game... you've got to love it, haven't you?

Before I get on with Musical Monday, I also wanted to say thank you for the comments on my last post. You know, the one where I admitted I was a ... a... errmmm... commitmentphobe. It was pretty obvious that a lot of thought went into them, and it wasn't lost on me. On the contrary, it almost brought a tear to my eye. No, seriously - thank you, it was much appreciated. And it was also interesting to see the different perspectives that this kind of issue can polarise... plenty to think about as I fend off the hordes of laydeez who for some reason don't seem to be knocking on my door right now!

Musical Monday

When I was in my late teens, I seemed to spend most of my time listening to music and/ or going to gigs. Whilst my heart belonged to Pink Floyd (my user ID on eBay is "isawthefloyd", which says it all, I suspect) there were a few other bands that I really loved, and Jethro Tull was one of them... Ian Anderson had an amazing voice, and their music was instantly recognisable, not least for his haunting flute that was so unique in what was actually a genre that was pretty hard to pin down. And the fact that he looked like Catweazle was completely irrelevant, of course.

Anyway, the track today is taken from "Minstrel in The Gallery". I should warn you that it spans some 17 minutes, but I also think that - in much the same way as Bohemian Rhapsody - its a work of art, so stick with it as it morphs it's way to the end... its well worth the effort. This is close to a musical epic, in fact.... oh, and the track's called Baker Street Muse. I nearly forgot!



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Commitmentphobe? Moi?

Well, there goes another HNT series then... what fun! And so many comments (thanks) many of which raised the question of my night out with PTFE this week. So, for those of you who may be interested...

Yes, we did meet, and to be honest it was kind of awkward at first. Not awkward in terms of being with each other, but awkward in as much as neither of us was completely sure whether there were subjects that we should avoid talking about. In the end, after a few vodka and tonics (which always helps in such circumstances) I decided that we may as well get it all out in the open, and made what I thought was a very bold admission. I told her that I think I may be... no, that I am... (takes a deep breathe...)

A commitmentphobe

There. I’ve said it. And the trouble is, I think it’s true. Partly because I love my life and don't want anyone or anything to threaten the happiness we have here... me and the kids, doing what we want, when we want. I’m too used to it now, I suspect, and I’m not sure that it’s a good thing. But it’s more than that, because I seem to have developed a habit of persuading myself that things are... “wrong” in some way, when to all intents and purposes they’re actually pretty right. I do it every time, and I’m not a fool – I’m aware that I look for any reason I can find to justify my decision to bring things to an end with whoever I might be seeing at the time.

And I’m coming to some conclusions as to why I do it. Conclusions that are telling me that I may not have come out of the destruction of my marriage as undamaged as I like to think I am. Not exactly rocket science, I know, but even so it’s becoming quite a revelation! I’m going to have to ponder this for a while, I think, and see where it takes me. But maybe I have to be a little more honest with myself at times, and accept that I have some work to do on myself.

Anyway, back to PTFE. She wanted to us to get together again, and tried very hard to convince me that she’s not looking for anything other than the enjoyment of livng "in the moment", with no expectation and no agenda of any kind. That if I stopped “running” for a minute I might just find the happiness I’m looking for. A bit harsh, I thought, but in any event I said I was going to leave things as they are right now. I suspect we’ll stay in touch, though, and that’s a good thing. At least I think it is. (This is the abridged version of our evening, incidentally. There was some kissing, and she made her usual attempt to get her hands on my cock, which I deftly avoided. I was very proud of myself.)

And now, somehow, it’s Friday and I seem to have agreed to another sleepover this evening – this time, a little friend of S’s is staying over. And he’s already heard about my pancake breakfasts. I even got a call from the mother of O’s friend who stayed last week, specifically to tell me that her daughter was no longer accepting a bowl of corn flakes in the morning! (Actually, I adore this woman more than anyone I can think of – just about – and she turned up at the house yesterday looking so horny I could have jumped her on the spot. I had her to myself for about an hour, and have a feeling I’m in love with her. Oh dear... lucky she's married then!)

Talking of S, when I went to wake him up the other morning I was carrying my compact digital camera as I’d just been charging the battery. I love children’s faces when they’re sleeping and couldn’t resist taking a photo before he opened his eyes. Beautiful, isn’t he? And please note the Tottenham bedding...


I’ve just realised that I’ve been rambling a little. I’ll stop now, even though there are lots of other things I wanted to write about, and just wish you all a lovely weekend. I think it’s going to be a hot one, and of course it’s the World Cup final on Sunday. Frankly, I couldn’t give a fuck who wins it, as long as it’s a good match.

Okay, I’m really stopping now...

Holiday countdown - 16 days

HNT 38 - 3 of 3

Well, all good things must come to an end. I got up two weeks ago (actually it was 15 days ago, but who's splitting hairs) to make myself a drink, and here I am today, still waiting and still thirsty. So it's time to put that kettle on... and the good thing about living on your own is that you don't have to do that kind of thing half nekkid. Oh no.

Not when you can do it fully nekkid!


Mmmmmm... that's better. It's surprising how nice a good, strong cup of coffee can be. If you wait long enough for it, that is.


Anyone want to join me?

Happy HNT!

Guess what I'm doing tonight

Well, you can’t, obviously, but I’ll tell you anyway. I’m meeting PTFE for a drink. In fact, I’m meeting her to give her that make-up bag back, and to just talk through whatever she wants to talk through. But there’ll be no going back... I’m a stubborn SOB and I change my mind about as often as England win a penalty shoot-out. The funny thing is, we’ve kept in touch, and it’s always nice to speak to her. She’s one of life’s good people, and I have absolute respect for her... in fact, I really hope we stay friends. We’ll see, but I'm going to do my best... and strangely I ususally manage to stay good friends with the women I've seen in the biblical sense. I don't know why that should be, but I'd like to think that it's not just some desire to get back between the sheets, but more because we made some kind of "real" connection while we were together. That would be so much better, wouldn't it?

Thanks for all the comments on my Musical Monday post, by the way. I had SUCH problems with Blogger, though – is it just me? Am I being punished in some way? Well, I have the next four tracks nicely lined up, and I’d also like to thank Booster MPS for his heads up, and for providing me with some downloadable tracks whilst I was waiting for my box to arrive from CD-Wow.

So... next stop, HNT. I may have to retire from it soon, as it’s not easy to come up with new ideas when you have to take the photos yourself and there are never enough hours in the day. Still, see you on Thursday, bright and early... and there will have gone yet another week. Life can pass you by if you’re not careful, so don’t say you haven’t been warned.

Oh, and notwithstanding the above, why not amuse yourself with this? At least it makes a change from football! Grrrr!

Musical Monday

What a blistering weekend. I was in the garden for about an hour and a half yesterday, and I felt like I'd been spit-roasted. (Hang on... can I rephrase that?) In fact, yesterday was a mixture of frenetic activity and solitude...O had a friend sleep over on Saturday night, so it was a bit manic here in the morning as they all tucked into pancakes and maple syrup/chocolate sauce/Nutella. And I'd had to give up my bedroom as all the kids wanted to fall asleep watching a Disney movie. In my bed!

Still, all in all it was an interesting couple of days, marred only by the tragedy of England being knocked out of a World Cup that they were fancied to win. I'm still in a state of shock, and have only these words to add to what has been a pretty heated debate over here...

Sven; twat; good riddance.

Anyway, it's Musical Monday again, and today's choice is a real favourite of mine which popped up on my iPod when I set it to shuffle for a run the other morning. I've played some Massive Attack before, and may have mentioned that they're one of a few bands/artists from the Bristol area who have paved the way with regard to trip-hop and established a huge fan base, both here and overseas. This track is from the album "Mezzanine", and it's called Black Milk.

So, once again kick back and enjoy. And if you like it enough get over toAmazon and buy it... I'd hate to think I was the only one who spends a small fortune every Monday!



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Musical Monday update

Life's a bitch. Blogger won't let you edit posts with audio (for a change) and Castpost - which makes the process easier when Blogger's playing up - is down for maintenance.

If you use Audioblog/Hipcast, you can actually write your post from there, in the text box provided on the "publish" page. Just remember that you probably won't be able to edit it afterwards so don't make any spelling mistakes/typos (like I did!). The easiest way to do it is to use Word or - better still - prepare a draft post in Blogger so you can see the layout first. Then copy & paste into the Audioblog text box I was going on about above. You WILL be able add a title for the post retrospectively, though...

I'd also make a copy of your current template as a backup... Blogger just removed half of mine again. Nice of them, eh? It seems to be related to a bug on the comments function... new posts are going to a "no comments and hide existing" default, and the template's getting screwed in the process. If it happens to you, go to your last post and make sure comments are set to "yes".

See? I take my responsibilites SO seriously...

It's so HOT

Wow, this weather is fantastic! Life feels so different when the sun shines, doesn't it? And today is going to be great, a mixture of sunbathing, watching England thrash Portugal and reaching the semi-finals of the WC (not THAT kind of WC) and cooking a barbeque for me and the kids. No doubt a bit of football and trampolining in the garden too. And no dates although there's definitely some naughtiness bubbling away in the background and I can't imagine that my new-found celibacy will last for more than a few days. Thank goodness.

I did have a bit of trouble with Alfie (well, that's what the chidren call it), and it had to go back to the garage for some minor tweaking. But at least everything was sorted out without any fuss, and I must say they really have done a lovely job and it's a pleasure to be driving again. That paintwork is a kind of irridescent colour, which changes slightly as the car moves past you. Or you move past the car. Anyway, if a car can be sexy, this one most certainly is, and whilst car does not maketh man, I reckon I'm still allowed to enjoy it.

Right. Better go and think about some breakfast. Thanks for the HNT comments, which were much appreciated. And no, contrary to popular belief I won't just be removing my belt or my sandals next week. I'll be very nekkid indeed, in fact. Oh, and I'll be popping over today to see what you're up to, so I hope you've been behaving. Actually, I don't.

Have a lovely weekend.