More from Manchester...

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This morning I flew back from Manchester, I was exhausted! We went out last night, and while it wasn't as late as the previous nights, it was still gone 2 by the time I got back to the hotel room. It was quite a good night, but I don't think I would stay for a Sunday night again, it didn't seem to be anywhere near as good as Friday and Saturday. I think also the thought that I had to get up early the next day was a bit of a dampner. It would have been nice not to have worked today, then we could have drunk a little more last night and I think then that maybe we would have made our Manchester karaoke debut!

Also today I started my intensive Spanish course. It's two hours a day for the next 3 weeks at the university language centre which is luckily only 2 mins from where I work. Today the stuff wasn't too hard and it covered stuff I already knew, but a girl I was speaking to who ad done the same course last year said that it quickly got very heavy! Yikes! But I like a challange, I will just have to make sure I get caught up on my sleep!

Manchester

Ohh, the wonders of modern technology. Here are some pictures from last night, hot off my phone. We arrived in Manchester around 6pm. The hotel isn't as good as the place where we normally stay, but it's ok. Last night we had a wonderful and lovely bottle of Chardonnay, with which we toasted Jackie (Stallone) ;-)

The Garden

Today at last I made an attempt to do something with the garden. I haven't cut the grass for months! Thank God John and Pam aren't still living next door, I dread to think about all the grief I'd have gotten from them.

It was such hard work doing it, it really taught me a lesson not to be so lazy and leave it so long! Anyway, it was all too much for my poor Flymo, I'd died before I could complete the job :( So here's a picture of where I'm up to, tomorrow I'm gonna order a new one.

Fitladz

Last Friday after work I went to London to meet Adam, I haven't seen him for ages and thought it was well past time going to visit him. We met at Leicester Square, but he was a bit hungry, so we went to Café Boheme for a quick snack, only they don;t like you doing that there after 7. You have to have a full meal or nothing, how shite is that. Anyway, Adam was getting ready to have a go at them, but nothing came of it. And anyway, we'd ordered a bottle of wine that cost more than any of the main courses! It's an example of one of those places where gays are ripping off gays. After half of bottle of wine I felt nicely drunkish, so didn't care anyway. We then left Soho and headed for Southwark to one of mine and Tim's favourite bars Man Bar lol! I wasn't sure what Adam would make of it, as it's a weeny bit on the sleazy side. Well, he wasn't all that keen, so we only stayed there until 11.30pm and then went off to try the clubs in Vauxhall for the first time.

Tim, who was in Liverpool, suggested that we go to Fitladz, so there we went. It was really good! Although it seems more of a cruising place that a dancing place. Me and Adam were like kids in a sweet shop lol! We stayed there until 4ish. I met a lovely Belgian boy called Oliver, but that story's not for here :P We then went to the Gentlemen's Health Club (read Sauna) that was very conveniently next door to pass the time away until the first train back home at 6ish. A very good night :)

Fuentes

Me and Antonio at a nice little park close to the University in Granada.

Wild

My garden has become so overgrown! It because of the lovely weather we've been having (but not at the moment) and also me being away loads of weekends, and then when not away working so that I can go away more weekends lol! Anyway, when it is nice and sunny, like in these pictures I don't think it looks too bad, and anyway, the cats love it. I'm sure it's much better for the wildlife too.

More Granada Pics

Tamara in the Green Bugatti

My favourite Tamara picture. I must see if I can find a print of it somewhere to buy for the house.

1940's

Here's another picture from Granada last week, it's a view from the Al Bayzin region looking over to the Alhambra.


Last night I worked at a 1940's themed dinner. It was in tiny little village called Witcham, which iisn't all that far from Ely. The place it took place was called 'The Hall' and when I arrived I assumed it was the village hall or something, but no, it was in fact the house of the people holding the party! It was very beautiful. There were 90 guests and 7 courses! Because it was meant to be 1940's based their waiters were all men, which is how it was in those days, and we had to be ultra polite to them, yes sir no sit three bags full sir, that sort of thing. There was a live band, with a very sophisticated singer. Was all very nice and to top it all there were Tamara de Lempika prints everywhere. She is my favourite artist and I even saw some of her stuff I'd never seen before. Apparently the hosts had them all specially made for the night. Ohh, to have all that money :)

We worked until gone 12, but didn't get fed with any of their 1940's food, but instead Lasagne. Tamara wouldn't have approved.

Granada

I went back to Granada last week to spend a few days with Antonio, I flew out on Thursday afternoon and came back on Tuesday afternoon, so it was a nice long weekend. On the Sunday he had to go back to Manresa as he was back to work on Monday, so we flew to Barcelona on Sunday afternoon. And it meant I had a nice day on Monday shopping in Barcelona :)

When I arrived at Granada airport, it was about 9.30 in the evening, it was so lovely and warm, with a perfectly blue sky with Venus blazing down in the west; it was a perfect moment :) I was collected from the airport by Antonio and his friend Vicente. Granada city centre is only about a 20 min journey from the airport, so we were soon in a typical spanish bar drinking cervezas and trying strange (for me) tapas. One thing that I found out talking to Vicente is that there is a gay town in Andalusia, Torremolinos. I can remember hearing about this place years ago as the destination of loads of brits on cheap package tours, but reading on Wikipedia it says that all the 'straight' clubs have now gone. It's a place I'm definately going to have to visit ;)

Anyways, I need to go and do some shopping, here's a picture I took of the Alhambra, looking nice and green in late spring.

Childhood

The weather has been so nice here the last few days that during my lunch hour I have gone on some bikerides and revisited places where I used to play when I was a child. This picture here is of one of my most favourite ones, as 10-year-olds we used to call it 'the muck-around place' lol!

We used to build dams across it, fish for sticklebacks and just generally mess around in it. It's actually the water that ultimately supplies Hobson's Conduit, that runs through the centre of Cambridge, and I think I can remember at school the taught us that this stream itself originates in Colchester, but I'm not 100% sure of this. Anyway, it used to be a fab place to play and me my brother and our friends spent hours and hours here during the summer holidays all the years ago.

Lots of work...

This last week I have worked loads and loads. I did extra hours every day from Wednesday until Sunday! So I have now well and truly paid for Manchester and Gran Canaria next week :) On Saturday I did a very long shift at Churchill College from 7am until 3pm and the from 4pm until 8.30pm I worked at Selwyn College doing a very posh wedding. Adam was visiting me from London, so as soon as I finished work I had to cycle quickly over to the station to meet him. I hadn't seen him for a couple of months, he's lost quite a bit of weight since I last saw him and he looks good for it. We went straight to the Fleur, but it was not that busy so we only stayed for 1 drink and then went to The Rose and Crown, it was a bit better in here, but I was feeling a bit pissed by then, so maybe that helped lol! By 1am I was feeling so knackered, I'd been up since 5.30am, that I wimped out and went to sleep in Adam's car! The next thing I knew it was 2.4oam and I was being drived home at Adam's usual breakneck speed! I didn't throw up though lol!

The next morning I felt like shit, I think the beer was off maybe. Steve felt the same. I had to work at Fitzwilliam Museum from 12, I wasn't looking forward to it. On the upside the weather was fabulous. Working was difficult to start with, I felt dehydrated, but after lots of water, and the fact that there was hardly anything to do, I, in the end started to feel like my old self again, but I was sooooooooo looking forward to getting home and having a nice long sleep.

Cruise

Last weekend me and Tim went to Manchester again. It was the first time I'd been back since being there for New Year; it didn't seem like I'd been away at all :) I was meant to go there in February with Gollem, but that was the time I has the mishap with the moped!

We flew there again with our lovely Air Berlin, flight time less than 30 mins and for 55 quid! I don't feel too guilty, since I have sold my car now, so my carbon footprint is a bit reduced lol! The hotel was a bit more expensive than usuual at 75 a night, but as I've been such a busy boy working lots of extra hours money's not too much of an issue.

On the Friday night we ate at Via Fossa, which is a tradition for us now (I'm such a creature of habit) and then we went to Churchill's which is full of girls on hen nights, but also lots of nice boys. I met 3 very nice ones, one from Leeds, one from Doncaster and one from ''24 miles from here''? I was a bit out of control lol, so thought it best to move on somewhere else. We used to always go to Essential and end the night there (unless the sauna called), but we'd heard not-so-good reports about it, so decided to try somewhere else, Tim was gonna go to Legends and I went to Cruise 101. It was only 6 quid to get in and I loved it there! I met another boy there, a Mika lookalike (singer Mika, not my own beloved one), who was French and had a very sexy accent, needless to say I spent the rest of the night with him ;-)

New Bike

I've decided over the last couple of weeks to get rid of my car, after all the hassles of the moped incident, I still don't have the car back from the garage, I feel that I don't really 'need' to have it. The main reason I originally got it was back when my Mum was first ill with cancer and I was always worried that I would get a call late at night from my Dad asking me to get round as soon as possible. Now that isn't going to happen anymore I don't see the reason to keep the car, also the fact that it costs almost 700 quid on insurance, tax and servicing each year, which equates to 2 holidays in my eyes, I'm pleased it's going. I think I'll get over 3 grand for it too, that will be a nice little windfall too.

As I will need to use the bike more I bought a new one earlier this week, it's the first time I've bought a new bike since I was 18, it was quite exciting and I now have a lovely blue Raleigh road bike :) I'm gonna keep this one in Cambridge where it will mean I get to work a little earlier each day and handy for the Blue Arrow work. I'm gonna keep the old one in Ely and I'm being a little nicer to it too by keeping it in my garage and not just slung outside my front door.

Also I shall move the bike of Estefania Beverhausen to the garage so she doesn't get a wet bum in the mornings and won't have to maneuver around all the presents Chloe has left :p

Tim's Birthday

I went to London this weekend as it was Tim's birthday. There were just three of us, me, Michal and Tim. We caught a train early in the afternoon and arrived in London around 2.30. We went straight to the hotel, dropped our stuff off and then went straight to Leicester Square and to this little cafe run by lesbians, we had a bite to eat and then went to CXR, Tim's fave pub! It's full of men cruising and has a very distinctive atmosphere, I quite like it, but not as much as Tim. Michal, bless him, was oblivious to all this I think. We then went back to the hotel to get ready.

Michal had arranged to meet his friend later that evening, they are both Polish, so plans were changing on a minute by minute basis. We went back to Soho and had a meal in Balans, which was ok. I had a bit of a cold though and wasn't feeling all that much like drinking :(

After Balans we went to G.A.Y. Bar, we were meant to meet michal's friend there, but an hour after the arranged meeting time and still no sign of him, we left lol! We headed straight for ManBar in Southwark, another one of Tim's favourites. It has dark rooms and cabins! It was funny to see Michal's reactions, for the first 30 mins he loved it and went into some of the darkrooms, I did too until someone put some really strong poppers under my nose which gave me heart palpitations lol! After 30 mins Michal was bored, Tim had scored, so we left.

We went to XXL, which is a clun for 'bears and their admirers', since we are neither of those, I don't really know why we went, but I have been before and the music is good and there are normally lots of nice, nonbears there lol. Tim headed straight for the darkroom, Michal vanished somewhere and I danced to Kylie, perfect :)

Now I've gotta go, it's tea time and my collegues are calling xxxx

Chloe

I have rescued another cat :) Her name is Chloe, here are some pics I took of her at the weekend. She is such a pretty little pussycat, with tiny little white paws and black toes.

Mopeds

The weekend just gone I was meant to be driving to Manchester with Michal and his sister. We were gonna go clubbing and just have a good time. But before we'd even gotten out of Cambridge, I did a really stupid turn on the road and knocked this poor man off his moped. He wasn't hurt, but I felt so bad and I could have easily killed him. He hit into the front wheel of my car and it couldn't be moved, so I had to call out a recovery vehicle which cost loads. We didn't get to go to Manchester, and to top it all the police drove by and saw what was happening, I had to go to the police car and make a statement and then the policeman said that the report would be going to the traffic division and they might decide to prosecute me..yikes. All because I was sooo stupid. One minute we were all excited about going to Manchester and the next minute we were all feeling terrible :(

But fear not, we have arranged another visit to Manchester at Easter :)

More Gran Canaria pics

I also found some more snaps from Gran Canaria, so here they are:

Nephew

Here are some more pictures of William, he's growing fast bless him. I need to make time and visit soon.