Well I've been back almost 3 weeks now. I started work back at the Lyceum on the bar on Saturday. Good to be back there, the people have changed a bit but enough of the old people are still there and its still fun! In the mean time I'm looking for tech jobs, otherwise I'll be back at the holiday park in March...

Last week went to Scotland with my friend Andy - to the Isle of Barra in the Outer Hebrides off the north-west coast. Stayed at his place in Lincolnshire for a few days first - he's recently bought a house in the middle of nowhere on a small council estate cos it was the only place he could afford, so we were basically looking round the area. Then up to Scotland on the Monday on the train. Stayed at a hostel in Glasgow. Was quite a cool place - would have been good if we didn't have to get up at 7am the next morning cos it was quite a party place!! Seemed a bit like a squat they'd turned into a hostel - all slogans painted on the walls etc!

On Tuesday it was an 08.13 train to Oban. When there we had to wait 3 hours for the ferry to our destination, so we walked around the town and climbed the hill to the viewpoint in a 'folly' built like a colliseum - apparently built as famine relief - basically a rich guy said "I'll give you money for food if you build this thing. I'm not giving you Money for nothing!" A lot of that went on in the late 1800's in Scotland...Anyway finally got on the ferry as it was getting dark. Ended up chatting to the couple who were opposite us on the train from Glasgow - they lived on the island we were going to. Got quite a lot of info about the place from them...how theres practically 0 crime - they know the two criminals on the island! So they say they know when people are tourists - when they see people locking their cars! And they told us about how the teenagers 'borrow' cars and go joyriding in the drunk - which apparently is a bit of a problem there, but we didn't see any of it. Heard how sometimes they are cut off in winter by storms cos the ferries can't run, and how they have to have special windows that are strong enough to withstand the wind. And of course the main language there is Gaelic so it was interesting hearing them chat to the other people on the ferry (it was practically all locals apart from me and Andy!)...It was also the roughest ferry crossing I've been on - and it took longer as a result - 8 hours in the end! Should have been 5 and a half! I wasn't sick, but felt a bit queasy a few times...Andy had to go and lie down! Got there finally, luckily the hostel was just near the ferry. We were the only ones there and it was a lovely place.

On Wednesday we hired a car and drove around the island. The road is only 14 miles long in diameter around the island so it didn't take long! We climbed the highest hill, and went for some walks - the weather was chilly but sunny so perfect. That night we just stayed in the hostel by the open fire reading and watching TV. It was quite relaxing. On Thursday the weather was shit. We had wanted to go on the small plane that is the islands air service - a twin engined 20odd seater and they do a special trip ticket up to the next island and back. Why? Because the airport in Barra is on the beach - only open at low tide!! Anyway, we were there at the airport and could hear the plane above us, but in the end it couldn't land cos of the mist and low cloud and had to go back to Glasgow so we couldn't do that. All the other people there waiting to collect relatives off the flight were probably more pissed off than we were! So we drove down to the south end of the island over the causeway onto the adjoining Isle of Vatersay and had a little walk there. The ferry that night was leaving at 21.05 so we went to the restaurant and the pub before the ferry. On the ferry we had sleeping bags and slept - surprisingly well. It was rough again, I woke up a few times by sudden lurches and noises of things banging, but lying down you don't feel unwell at all. Arrived at about 6.30am - late again but that was good for us cos the train wasn't until 8.20am and the station didn't open til 7.30, so we had to huddle in the doorway in the rain til it openned which wasn't great.

Back in Glasgow we had a few hours to kill til the trains back to our homes in Lincolnshire and London, so we went to the Glasgow Science Centre and up the big tower they have there to look at the views...and then to Glasgow Green to see the Peoples Palace which was interesting... And then home. Next summer, depending on what job I decide to do, I want to go on a cycling tour of some of the Inner Hebrides...

Anyway, settled down now. Back to Popstarz etc on Friday!!

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Journal: 01/11/04

I've just moved back to my shared house in London after 6 months doing my summer job down on the south coast as Sound & Light Technician at a holiday park. YAY!! I missed being in London with easy access to clubs and bars and friends! Plus, because I had to pay �30 rent down there as well as keeping up my rent in London and not getting much pay I had next to nothing to live on while I was there so couldn't even go out to the crappy pubs that were down there - so very glad to be back in London.

I'm applying to whatever technical jobs are coming up in the London area now, even some tours. The holiday park have asked me back next year - probably at a higher level with �50 more a week which would make it bearable, but still they don't let you take holidays, so I will be having to think very hard if I don't have a tech job in London by then (back to the old bar job for now though...) when they rign me up to find out in the end of January.

Anyway this week I'm just chilling and sorting out my stuff at home. Maybe an night out and cinema with mates then on Friday off to Scotland on holiday with an old uni mate....

So thats my update...I know I've been out of touch for a long time but it was pretty much just work and cycling down there (did a lot of cycling round to keep fit but also to get around as it was quite remote with a �5 bus ride to the nearest town!!) so not much to report...no sex, no boyfriend etc while I've been there!! ;( Thats it!

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Journal: 21/06/04

Settled into the new job and temporary home now. It's pretty boring there really especially with no computer!! Most nights just come home and watch TV before bed. During the day I've been doing a fair bit of cycling round the area before work and on my day off. Its nice being by the sea... Work is OK - theres a lot of waiting around on duty but with nothing much to do which is very annoying. I prefer to be doing something than nothing...

Anyway, the main thing I've done other than that was Download Festival a couple of weeks ago. Went with my friends Jo and Amanda...Had quite a good time. Camped with a group of people Amanda knew and met some nice people who also camped near us (we had to give up some of our 'private campsite' we created cos it got too crowded in the site!) so that was cool. Saw lots of bands...best ones were Pennywise, Slayer and Metallica. I haven't got my photos developed yet but when I do I'll look at the band list and work out exactly what ones I saw!! lol The worst thing about it was the queues - hours to get into the camp site trudging along with all out gear inch by inch...and then about 3 hours to get out of the car park at the end!! No so bad as no gear to carry but about 10 times more boring as only the 3 of us and all too knackered to talk much!! Actually Amanda was asleep in the back so it was only me and Jo!! Thats about all I've done really...Oh a bit of stage lighting for Surrey Opera company on my day off last week...And thats it! ;-( Missing being in London obviously!!!

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Journal: 09/05/04

Settling into my new job slowly. Not very exciting so far and not the same cameradery as at my last job at the Lyceum. Certainly I'm not one of the 'characters' at the new job yet! Hopefully I will fit in (or not) as I get to know them more and can start to mess around a bit....

Work so far has mainly been shadowing. Work between 7 to 10 hours a day on a fixed wage so I'm basically doing more work for less money than I had with the bar job but this at least is in a field I'm interested in!!

Theres not much to do there tho. No internet, no prope nightclubs apart from the ones on site. Most nights we drink in the staff accomodation and watch DVDs!!

Am in London tonight for a gig - saw Supergrass. Was a good gig - better once I got into the mosh-pit - or in this case pogo-pit. I will only be able to make it up to London once or twice a month so I'm gonna miss all my mates at the clubs etc ;-( Ah well. I'll be back in October!

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Journal: 20/04/04

I have some good news!! Well good and bad... I've got a new job!! Finally! Being a sound and light technician at a holiday park on the South coast near Chichester. Bad news is that I have to leave London for 6 months!! The job is only til October cos its a Summer job, but I'll miss being in London and my friends. I'll be trying to get back for a night once a fortnight or so and go to either Popstarz or Red Eye or soemthing... ;-)

Also, there is no internet access down there. Looks like I'll have to find an internet cafe in the town or something and so I won't be online much at all - certainly won't be able to chat on MSN except the odd night I come home to London... ;-(

Anyway, I'll find out more when I get down there I guess.

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Journal 31/03/04

Well I had a great week last week!

Main thing was a trip to Scotland with my old uni mate who now lives in Lincolnshire. I went up to his by train on Tuesday and on Wednesday we drove up to Scotland. Luckily he has a diesel so it was not too expensive. We drove up via the Pennines and used quite a few smaller A and B roads rather than the main trunk routes. We stayed at a Travelodge in Stirling. Managed to happen upon a nice pub there in the town which was a bit altenative and playing live bands so that was cool.

Thursday we drove up into the highlands. It was great cos the mountains still had snow on the peaks and one of the roads actually rose up above the snowline so we got out and went away from the road a bit and made a snowman and did snow angels!! ;-) We drove on back down on the north side of the Cairngorms and then cut west to Fort William below Ben Nevis where we'd booked a twin room in a hostel. Very nice it was too. We went to a couple of pubs that night. Swear the barman and some of the customers were gay! But I guess in a remote place like that then that is the only place they can hang out...

On Friday we drove down to Glasgow but not until after we'd gone on a little ferry over the the Ardnamurchan peninsular which is the most westerly point of the UK. Very remote and pretty. Unfortuately the cloud was low so we couldn't see the mountain tops and when we got to the end and the lighthouse we couldn't see the view over to the islands. What we did hear close up is how loud those lighthouse fog horns are!!! Glasgow was cool too. Went to a gay club called Polo Lounge which is kind of like an old gentleman's club in the decor (very swish with chandeliers etc) but its basically just a normal gay club. Except the music was nicely eclectic which is a surprise - amongst the Britney and Kylie they also played The White Stripes!! lol

Saturday we drove back to Lincolnshire via the A1 all the way round the East coast...with a quick stop at Lindisfarne on Holy Island and also at the Angel of the North which was quite magnificant. Then back in Lincoln we checked out the only gay pub cos my mate has just moved there. It was shit as expected but at least he now knows what scene he has available for him to try to find a boyfriend. I advised he try the internet instead! lol

Anyway, had a good week! Now planning are more detailed cycling/walking holiday in Scotand to the best bits I wanna see more of from this time and last year! Well will have to do them bit by bit over the years... Jeez I seem to be obsessed with Scotland! lol

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Journal: 10/03/04

I had a pretty average week really except Monday won tickets to a gig - got a guestlist for me and some mates to see some new bands. Theres a website http://www.xtaster.co.uk and if you join they send you invites to stuff like that. Velcra and Bitch Alert were the bands. Kind of punky metal stuff. Quite good I thought - good tunes which is always important and also you could actually hear the vocals which sometimes seem to get lost in the noise when you go to gigs like that in small venues...

Plus cos it was a special type gig we got given goodie bags with t-shirts, badges, stickers etc which was cool. One of my mates seemed to get instantly addicted to the energy sweets we got in the bags and ate about 20 packets in total!! Lol He was a bit crazy by the time we got to Red Eye cos they have same stuff in them as things like Red Bull! Hehe....

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Journal: 03/03/04

Bit of a mixed bag lately. 3 nights last week I only got about 4 hours sleep each due to a combination of going to bed too late and having to get up unusually early for me for a variety of reasons First was helping with a local Opera group I always help do the 'get-in' at a theatre for their latest show. That meant leaving the house at 8am...tried to go to bed at 1am but couldn't sleep til 4am.

Same happenned the next night and I had the usual early Wednesday shift for work... Thursday had a work training session which again meant getting up before 11am to get into work ontime. My body is so used to being up late til 4am evey night that it just can't get to sleep earlier even when I know I need to be up early the next day!!

Best thing of the week was Red Eye on Monday - I pulled!! On sunday I was moaning how I never pull etc and then the next day I do! lol Was a nice long haired dude too! Got chatting, ended up snogging and he came back to mine! He's a bit of a metaller so music heavier than my usual tastes but we got on well. He's 22 and smooth too which is great! Hehe... Hopefully we will see eachother again - he already emailed me since he went home earlier that day so thats good!!

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Journal 20/02/04

How are you? Hope you are well...

I've been busy... I'm all settled into my new place now. Been home to visit once yesterday but that is all so far.

Mostly been up to the usual but this weekend was a bit eventful.

Sunday was a party thrown by a few people from work as a housewarming for one of the guys at work moving in with them. Very much a straight lads type house it was one of those parties than involves drinking games and much drunkness. Stragrly they all seem to love drinking games where 'rules' depending on which card you draw means you have to do certain things. The main one is where 4 Kings mean you have to drink the jug at the centre - filled up a shot whenever cetrtain numbers are drawn. Other numbers mean you have to do certain things - one is drink half your drink, all the drink, forfeit etc Some of the rules for some numbers are just things like - take off an item of clothing...Weird when its all str8 lads playing. Still good for me when i have to walk through the room to get to the kitchen and they are all naked!! Hehe... I missed that particular game but played the others - unfortunately no-one got completely naked in them except one guy ;-(

Still also at the party I ended up outside with two of the lads and a super-soaker each! My t-shirt was sopping wet and muddy after that! lol Oh and then there was the edible 'cum spurter' thing which was basically like silly string but thicker and more... well...cum like and we were squirting it on eachothers faces and making noises like cumming on someones face! lol

The next day I was supposed to go home to see Mum and Dad for dinner but i woke at 3pm so hung over i had to be sick! Ew. Phoned Mum and told them i coulnd't make it as I could hardly stand up... A few hours later after a lot of water and a few Paracetamol I was fine and went out as planned to the cinema..

Saw a film called The Dreamers. Very good, but quite weird. Set in 1960's Paris its about an American studying there who meets a brother and sister and goes to live with them and it is all a bit 3some and incestuous! Michael Pitt is in it who is gorgeous and luckily we get to see some lovely full frontal nude shots of him!!Hehe... See the fucking weird website http://www.the-dreamers.com

Monday night an internet friend came to Red Eye visiting from Somerset and stayed with me. He was cool and very nice, but not used to busy clubs - or clubs at all for that matter, or gay clubs or even gay people so it was a bit of an experience for him! He seemed to have fun tho which was cool...

Rest of the week has been work and errands really. Finally got to go home to parents for Dinner too!! Hehe...

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Journal 08/02/04

Well I've moved house - no more nagging from parents about when I go to bed or what I eat etc! AND I have the freedom to bring people back home, plus I only live 20 mins from central London (New Cross) instead of an hour and a half! So better for work and social life etc I say no more nagging - Mum still does it on the phone and by email but thats not so bad!!

So anyway, I've settled in now. Only really got to put some posters up and buy a few functional nick-nacks and I'm sorted. Much more space in this room than at home tho thats probably cos not ALL my stuff is here (most of it though - we hired a van to bring it!!) and there is more storage...

What with all that I've not been up to that much except a gig on Saturday with my friend Amanda. She brought some of her new mates she met at a gig a few weeks ago and they were all cool. The band was Breed 77 (funk metal band) abd were pretty good - bit like System of a Down. After we went to the Worlds End pub in Camden where I think I shall have to go more often!!

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Journal 28/01/04

I had a great weekend away visiting a mate in Sheffield. On Friday we went to a rock club called Corporation. Has 3 floors - Britpop/indie, rock/old metal and Nu-Metal/sk8punk...Very good music, danced a fair bit, headbanged... And oggled loads of fit long haired lads and punky boys...Some of which were def gay or bi - even saw a 3way snog with two guys and a girl! lol

Saturday went round town and saw teh 'sights' then went to cinema and saw Scary Movie 3. Was pretty funny actually, better than 1 & 2, probably cos it was by the same people that did Airplane! and Naked Gun (had Leslie Nielsen in it too), though obviously it wasn't as funny as those....

Sunday came back home and had quiet night in really. Monday too...

Moving into houseshare on Monday - so no more parents! But also - no more money! lol --------

Journal 07-12/01/04

Wa-heey!!! Happy New Year then!

I had a good one at Popstarz on NYE. Still finding bits of the fake snow in various orifices! It was basically little balls of polystyrene (like they use in the blocks of it, but not stuck together!) blown into the air by a huge fan. Half of it didn't get up to fall down because the stage was so packed people were right in front of it! lol But some people stole a bag of it and opened it in the back corridoor by the toilets and I was involved in a bit ofa roll around in that for a bit. There was also a balloon drop on the main floor along with the snow but they were soon all popped! Hehe...I went with Lil Phil and met quite a few people I know there...Had to flyer as usual though but got paid double! Yay!

Last weekend went to visit an old uni mate in Exeter. Was quite fun. Saw Lord of the Rings: Return of the King and it was brilliant, though sometimes the computer animation annoyed me cos I'm sure they didn't NEED if for some bits! Other than thatit was brilliant and I'd not been to the cinema for a while so did the full on popcorn, coke and ice cream thing!

This week just went to Red Eye, was good night. Sat chatting with mates in Soho Square after climbing over gate for about an hour (killed time before bus for me! lol Dunno why they do it in the cold! lol Mainly for smoking joints it seems! Hehe)... Then Friday Popstarz. Went to see Lord of the Rings AGAIN on Saturday with Phil... Work Sunday as usual then a few drinks then home to write this journal update! lol

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Journal 25/12/03

MERRY CRIMBLE!!! Hope you have a great one!

I had quite a busy weekend really. Met up with a friend on Thursday which was fun. Then Friday was my usual night out at Popstarz with various mates. No special job for me this time on stage, so just the usual chats n dances...Didn't meet anyone particularly interesting...

Saturday night was a special Rude Boyz!! So I got out my 'laddy' top and trackie bottoms and my trainers and went down to check out the fit 'scally' lads with a friend. We had quite a bit of fun, although spoilt a bit by an argument between me and him about Homoeopathic medicine of all things! Basically he believes in it strongly and that they can even test you for HIV by just touching something onto your skin. Now I'm willing to believe that Homeopathic medicine can cure many things that 'normal' science doens't always work well on, but saying you can test something like that without taking blood or body fluid I just don't believe. I didn't see how you could test for something as important as that without physical material to test, and so we got into a heated debate. Sorted it out after an hour or so but wasted valuable dancing/man watching time! lol Ah well. I need to try to just say 'whatever!' and change the subject but I'm not good at that... Anyway stayed at Phils house after in the end cos stayed too long at the club so obviously we didn't damage our friendship!

Sunday was just work and then pub with Phil again...We gave eachother our pressies...Had planned to see Lord of the Rings but pretty much ALL the cinemas in London were sold out!! Tried for Monday but the same.... Hoepfully will be going next Monday now...

Monday was Red Eye. Was busier than usual which is good - I guess cos people have the week off work and uni etc. Was quite funny cos one of the DJs - sk8er boy Matt 'Kidkaos' - was in the 'Ghetto Grotto' as Santa and we got to go and sit on his knee and tell him if we'd been good or bad and he gave us pressies! I got a Deftones single and a bottle of some Alcopop or other which wasn't bad. That and a party hat and party whisles to blow and mess around with...Was quite a fun night except for some mad guy saying I was "the spawn of satan" and that I "stood against what [he] stands for" and that his boyfriend told him I was "evil"! Weird thing is I've never really spoken to the BF except for saying hello and he's not a regular anyway. The mad guy I've seen more often...we always used to have a polite chat or basic hellos, and he used to buy me the odd drink too. Very weird cos I've not done anything to him but he's certainly gone a bit strange... Drunker and possibly even drugs I dunno...Its a bit disconcerting when someone singles you out like that tho...Brr! Apart form that a good night...

Tuesday I worked but before I went me and Dad went into the garden to chop the top off a large Christmas Tree in the garden! It is about 16 ft high, so we chopped off the top 5 foot and took it into the house to save buying one as usual! I think it was a rooted Christmas tree wa had about 10 years ago and planted! It the only one thats grown! Hopefully it will continue to grow back again and in 10 years time we can save money again! lol

So have a good Christmas and if I don't email before a Happy New Year!!!

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Journal 17/12/03

On Friday it was the Suede gig. It was their penultimate ever gig (final gig was on the Saturday after...) - it was pretty good! The fun club gig they did a year or two ago was better but as a general gig it was pretty amazing. Luckily they stuck to the songs from the first better 3 albums and played three of my favourite songs 'Pantomime Horse', 'Asphalt World' and 'Animal Nitrate', as well as 'So Young' and 'New Generation'. After I had a sore throat from shouting, whooping and singing along so loud!!

After the gig was a special Suede night at Popstarz to 'say goodbye to Suede'!! For it they had a big give away of guestlist places for the person who could answer a pretty hard question about Suede - and I was the quizmaster on stage! It was quite funny because it took 5 or 6 people before anyone got it right! Then after we gave away CDs and things and I was making them jump for them! lol ;-)

Other than that not much has happenned. Oh yeah - it was the work party on Monday. They had a bingo game (didn't win anything) and a raffle (didn't win anything!) but there was lots of free booze. I had to leave at 10.30 to go and do some flyers before going to Red Eye - but it seems those who stayed had lots of fun! Today at work one had a grazed chin from falling over (Joel) , another (Ryan) has a broken collar bone and brused/stitched eye from where he 'ran into a stair bannister in the foyer!!!' lol Hehe... REd Eye was also good because it was busy for a special My Ruin night. The band was there DJing which was cool...

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Journal 08/12/03

The start of my week was fun, the middle dull and the end even more fun!! Sunday night I went to visit an internet friend of mine in Canterbury. A very nice guy - we shared some interests and had a good chat about tastes we didn't share but could get into, and debated the ones we didn't like! lol Stayed there most of Monday...

Monday night went straight from his to Red Eye. It was a pretty good night - danced quite a bit and they played some great tunes - plus some old classics like Bon Jovi and Guns n' Roses! Always good to get the old in amongst the newer netal stuff (not ALL Nu-Metal!)...

The next good thing was the Blur gig on Thursday. Back to my more indie roots here - my growing up era so it is mainly a nostalgia part of my music taste! They only played one or two of the newer songs (which I don't know that well and don't think much of) and played lots of the old classics inclusing Popscene and quite abit from the first two albums - my faves -and also avery fast and heavy Song 2! Hehe...

Friday was a Belle & Sebastian gig. Crap support 'band' basically four guys with fake moustaches playing rock tunes like Mike Flowers Pops did 'Wonderwall' only with people from the audience singing in soem kind of Kareoke thing. Stuart Murdoch the singer from B&S was introducing them and he was quite fun - good to see the main band having a laugh. Anyway when they played they were very good and played all the best ones from the new album except my favourite ;-( but at least they played some of my faves from previous albums. Lots of cute boys too - many seemed to either be gay or bi or just very fey at any rate. A few definite couples though which was nice. Then there was no encore because of fuckin G-A-Y - the promoter or G-A-Y was in setting up his own stage blocks etc whilst we were all still queueing for the cloakroom. He didn't look happy - I think even without an encore the band ended late! Hehe....I like pissing off G-A-Y!!

After that I went to Popstarz as usual which wasnb't bad. Saw some old mates not spoken too for a while etc...Danced a bit. Oggled some guys. The usual!

And thats it really. Next big thing is Suede gig (their penultimate ever!) on Friday!

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Journal 24/11/03

Well not done much at all this week. Tuesday - work. Wednesday - work. Thursday - work. Except Friday I took the day off work because The Dandy Warhols were playing at Popstarz. It was a special night that was free and the band were playing as a special event (all sponsored by Strongbow)...The band were on early at 10pm because they said they had to get somewhere else. The doors openned at 8. I was roped in at the start to manning the merchandise stall (in return for two free t-shirts and some booze!) until the band came on.

When they did they were most disappointing. They played everything slower than on the records, with less tune and melody and without really engaging the crowd at all. Plus it didn't help they were on so early the crowd hadn't got into the mood yet. If the band had been on at 11 it would have been much better - in the end they could have cos they were still backstage boozing at midnight!! My boss there Simon wasn't happy about that. He was most upset it didn't seem to go well as he'd put a lot of effort into it. And considering it was free it wasn't as packed as I expected it to be. It was like an average good night realy. I did an extra hour of flyers too - and extra tenner too! So that wasOK but I didn't get much time to dance which was a shame. Ah well.

Other than that and the odd drink in the pub nothing special!

Journal 20/11/03

Had a much less active week this week and weekend than the week before! Friday was Motherfucker which was good before going up to Popstarz. One night have to get Popstarz off so I can stay at Motherfucker but the �20 I get for the flyers is always needed! lol Popstarz was OK. Got talking to quite a nice guy with ginger longish hair who was quite fit. Not sure if he was interested. We swapped numbers and I texted him but no reply. He was a fashion student from the Isle of Man! lol

Weekend was quiet. Monday was a work party/Emplyee of the Year awards. I didn't getanything, not even theprize draw, but it was free food and booze so a load of us got drunk before going out. Went to Heaven instead of my usual Red Eye. Used to go to Heaven all thetime before Red Eye started cos it was cheap and had the indie/ rock room upstairs. They still have that but it is much more commercial and mixed with pop and R&B nowadays but still fun. Not good enough to go every week tho. And Red Eye is cheaper anyway!! So that will stay my regular. Alsoat Heaven I tried to chat up a fit long haired guy but he virtually ignored me - later I saw him snogging a fat older guy!! Grrr!!
Had to drag my mate Duane from work to his bus stop in his drunken and drugged state and he didn't even remember that the next day! lol

Thats about it this week....

Journal 12/11/03

I've had a fun two weeks - so a long message here! For Halloween I dressed up as the Wicked Witch of The West!! I went to Popstarz and a mates Party on the Sunday dressed as it. Unfortunately I couldn't find a black shaul and skirt or whatever so I just had my normal jeans and a black top. BUT I had a cool witches hat, broomstick, black long sleeved gloves and best of all green face-paint and black lips and eyes! I think it looked quite impressive and the response was either that I looked cool or I looked a freak (I told them that was the point ofdressing up at Halloween!)....oh and a few people said I looked better...bastards!

On Wednesday I went to a gig with my friend Amanda. It was the'RoadRage Tour' with 3 newish metalbands that she seemed to know most of the words of! They were pretty loud and roaring, and I cna't say I could understand what they were 'singing' - though there were some good tunes and drum rythmns... certainly good to throw my hair around to and many cute fans to look at too!! ;-) Amanda was worried though cos she had had a tatoo done which was infected - despite looking after it apparently she is allergic to it! lol So she had to be careful people didn't bash into it so we stayed near the back mainly...

On Thursday I had a job interview for Royal Carribean Cruises for the lighting technician and stage crew jobs. Had to wait aaages andin fill in loads of forms. The company is a bit too corporate American for me though. I don't think I have enough expereicne judging by the questions especialyl on thelighting side. All my lighting experience is fairly subtle static lighting- they wanted to know about my experience of intelligent lighting andall these operating systems which was a bitover my head. So I went for the StageCrew job which is basically what I've done before just moving up and down abit. Bit still, not heard from them yet so I don't think I have enough experience for them...AND they'd want me to cut my hair anyway!

Thursday night was a Suede night at Mis-shapes where they were launching the new biography on them. It just so happens it was also on the day that they announced they are going to slit!! So very busy with Suede fans and a bit of a commiserations thing but also a good celebration of the best stuff (e.g. the older stuff!)...Not such a surprise seeing the Greatest Hits album didn't get anywhere in the charts and that the last two albums were crap - and Suede are still one of my favourite bands!!

At the weekend I went to visit my friend Mark in Bangor. He's a nice long haired lad and we had lots of fun!! He showed me the sights of Bangor.... And then Monday I came back from Wales and went to Red Eye as normal that evening! So a pretty good weekend really.

Journal 29/10/03

I have had quite agood weekend. Thursday I went to the scally ladz club'Rude Boyz' again which was fun............. Friday was Popstarz club as usual - was FREEZING cold handing out the fluers at3am - and that was just standing in the foyer!

Then Saturday worked. Sunday one of my best mates from uni came to visit. We went out to some bars in Soho and some sex shops (!) and basically justgota bit drunk and came home. Then on Monday he wanted to goto Brighton cos he'd never been before and when he was driving to my house he went the wrong was and went down the M23 by accident and saw a sign saying it was only 30 miles away and decided to go! So we went down in the afternoon and I showed him the beach and the Pavillion and the pier etc...The Lanes with the little shops...He got his hair cut then we went to look at the old broken pier just as sun set and he got some beautiful pictures of the sun setting behind it and a beautiful coloured sky. Then we had fish and chips in a cafe and I showed him the gay bars and shops and he bought a rubber pvc top (he wants to get into the rubber thing! lol)....So it was a good day.

He went home and I went out as usual to Red Eye. There a mate of mine who I hadn't seen for ages came and also I met two friends I'd been chatting to online for a bit so that was cool too. Also got chatting to a sexy long haired guy but he said he was str8 ;-(

Journal 22/10/03

Well I have had a good week. Been to 2 gigs - Funeral for a Friend and Super Furry Animals. FFAF were pretty good although I've only heard two of their songs. They are 'Emocore' which is 'emotional hardcore' so quite angsty and quite loud but with intelligent lyrics as opposed to the stupid lyrics you get in a lot of nu-metal for example....So that was good. Also there were a lot of cute lads there!!

Super Furry Animals was at Brixton Academy. It was a long gig and was quite good but I felt it could have been better....They played some of their best songs and the last song "The Man Don't Give A Fuck" was pretty funny mainly because half way through it went into a weird dancy thing while the stage was dark in which time they'd gone off and changed into furry/hairy yetti costumes for them to sing the final chorus in!! Hehe...crazy. I had meant to be meeting a mte from work there but couldn't find her and had given up looking for her when about half way through the set turned to goto the bar and she was only 2 people behind me! lol

Other than that it has been the usual clubs and things. Did some flyering on the street on Monday for Miss-Shapes and almost froze my fingers off!!

Journal 29/09/03

I've been up to the usual stuff, though on Thursday I went to a different club for a change. It was called 'Rude Boyz'!(!!) I guess the name says it all - basically a club for guys who like or are scallies! The dresscode is sportswear/ tracksuits/caps/trainers etc though its not a strict dresscode I went in some old stuff like that I still have hanging around that I normally only wear in the house! lol I do like the lads who wear that stuff. The look like proper hard lads, very straight etc only at this night a lot of them were basically yer average camp guy guy just wearing sportwear! lol A bit like sheep in wolfs clothing! Still, there were some 'real' lads there too and if it weren't for my long hairI think I was closer to the 'real' ones than the camp ones even ifI don't have all the fashionable sports labels!!!

It is quite a naughty club too compared to Popstarz and Ghetto which are more about the music - this one definitely had a more sexual element - they had gay porn on a big screen in the dancefloor and out the back were dark rooms where people get up to all sorts! I didn't really go in there (except to walk through with my mate as a 'tourist'! lol) but I did get up to some stuff with a 21 year old Czech guy....especially after, also with my mate James the guy um...well anyway it wasn't much but it was me AND James sitting next to eachother with him in front and it was by the river opposite big ben!!!!!

Other than that I went to Popstarz club Friday and Saturday I went to a gig. The band was Violent Delight who are a sk8er punk type band. Quite good - the stage invaders and crowdsurfers were definitely funny! The singer had to keep telling them to get off the stage but they didn't go until a bouncer came and then they just jumped onto the crowd and crowdsurfed more! The support band especially caught my eye because there was a very good looking and fit topless (athletic body! mmm!) long haired guy playing the guitar! Yum! They are called Fallen To and I'll be watching out for them!

Downside is that on Friday I started to get a sore throat and on Saturday felt a bit weak and under the weather...I wasn't sure about the gig but luckily I guess it took my mind of it and I felt better that night and todaythough I'm still not quite right and have an annoying dry throat/cough... Ah well. Hope you are better than I've been feeling!

Journal 25/9/03

How are you? What have you been up to? I'm well. Feeling OK - not got S.A.D yet though I do usually get down in winter it's not kicked in yet!! I think cos it's been a long summer and a good hot one too - I've been out getting more daylight than usual! Been cold since it turned on Monday though - was still summer on Sunday at 26C and then suddenly on Monday night its only 3C and freezing! lol its really Autumn now! ;-|

Well I had a busy weekend, compared to last weeks routine. Went to Missshapes on Thursday and saw a band play (well two people and keyboards!) who have the woman from Bis in. Then Friday was Motherfucker before Popstarz and they had a band too - this time proper with all instruments live. They were really good actually and the singer was quite fit. Stayed after they finished for a bit but the club started to empty around 1am so headed for Popstarz and had a few chats and drinks before starting work.

Saturday I intended to stay in but got invited to a sort of spontaneous party cos a mates parents suddenly went away and he had a free house so a few of us went round there and got drunk and played music and watched Mark show us himself in a music video on Scuzz Music TV (Jesse James is the band)-he's very proud of that! He's walking around London in a spacesuit cos the song is "New Day on a Brand New Planet" or something...Quite a good catchy tune actually -kind of ska-punk...

Sunday was just drinks with friends as usual *******

Monday was Red Eye. Bit boring actually... And thats about it...

Journal 10/09/03

I had a good weekend...

Popstarz Friday.

Went to another party on Saturday...meant to leave at 2am but ended up staying over again...Party had gatecrashers - a load of goths from South Africa! lol Also we did this thing where you had to eat a whole dry Weetabix in one go...two of the guys then snogged with it in their mouths (gross) but then they opnned their mouths and we were putting in spices and things like ginger until finally I put in coffee granules and the guy had to run to the bog to puke (even grosser!)! lol Still he was laughing about it shortly after so he didn't seem to care! Hehe...

Sunday felt a little fragile but was only a 20 min walk to work from the party so that was OK. After went for drinks with mates...

Monday went to Heaven for a bit then Red Eye which was a good night. Danced quite a bit which I haven't for ages...

Journal 03/09/03

Well not much to say this week.

Went to a mates party on Saturday night. Meant to go at 1am and get home but ended up leaving at 12.45pm after crashing there and sleeping finally at around 6am! It was better than I expected! lol

Sunday went out for drinks with mates and Monday just went to Red Eye as per...

Another party due on Saturday!

Journal: 27/08/03

Well heres my round-up of my weekend at Reading Festival which is where I was for the end of last week and weekend!

Went up there on Thursday afternoon. The camping area was already pretty full by the time we got there at 4pm, so we had to squeeze in in Orange campsite which is a good 10 minute walk from the arena, almost exactly the same spot we were in last year! Next year I've vowed to arrive on Wednesday and get a closer place! After we'd set up the tents we headed into town to get some food and some booze! The cheapest was 'Oranjboom' for �15 for 24, so we bought that and then tried to get the campsite shouting 'OrangeBOOM' instead of the usual 'Bollocks' and this year 'Gay Bar' and 'Heee-heee'/'Chamone!' from Bo-Selecta on Channel 4. OrangeBOOM didn't catch on unfortunately! Went to the nightclub they had on at the leisure centre next to the festival which had a rock night on and that was pretty good. They were giving out loads of free stuff so I got quite a few cds and stickers and my mate John got a t-shirt!

Woke up on Friday by the sun and the noise of the campsite at 10am. Eventually headed into the arena at midday to catch the end of InMe who were OK. After that was Bowling for Soup who were quite funny, but not as funny and good musically as Less Than Jake who were on later. In between them I saw Franz Ferdinand on the Carling new bands stage from the back who were quite interesting - I'll be watching out for them. After Less Than Jake we got down to the front for The Datsuns who were one of the best bands of the weekend. Was a lot of fun and the moshpit was quite active!

Then it was over to the Radio 1 tent to see Mull Historical Society who were pretty good, though quite slow and indie not moshing music! But the next band definitely is and was the best of the weekend - the Darkness! They were very cool and I managed to get near the front and then crowdsurf in their final song! Yay! Placebo were next. I like them on record, but live they were a bit shit really. Brian just didn't seem able to sing in tune and their playing wasn't great either. Blink 182 followed and were OK but their infantile humour wasn't really funny - Bowling for Soup and Less Than Jake are better! Then we went over to catch the end of Elbow (nice, but better on CD in your bedroom than standing up in a tent!) and the headliners of that day were The Polyphonic Spree!! Great fun, very uplifting and they managed to get the crowd clapping and singing along to their new stuff even! After that we met up with a friend from Red Eye called Mark and went to another friend James campfire and sat drinking for a while before going back to ours and bed.

Saturday morning we popped into town to get some money. The first band we heard (couldn't actually SEE them cos the tent was full!) was Funeral For a Friend. They sounded really good in a sk8punk kinda way so that bodes well for the gig of theirs I'm going to with a mate in October. Will be good to actually SEE them! After that we caught the end of Junior Senior who seemed to go down surprisingly well and then The Libertines. Another of the best bands of the Weekend for me. Although the original singer Pete has left the band and had loads of stuff going on with drugs and burling his band mates house, they did well with Carlos singing and a stand-in guitarist. The crowd was well up for it and the mosh-pit was quite crazy! After that we saw The Streets from the back who were pretty good, even though the crowd wasn't all that into it! Then it was over to Radio 1 tent for The Kills (not very impressed), The Thrills (better on CD) and The Mars Volta. They were quite interesting because a) there was a very cute long haired guy standing next to me with his top off and b) their music was a kind of rocky funky thing, even though they seemed to go on a bit! Black Rebel Motorcycle Club were next and they were pretty good, followed by Hundred Reasons another of my fave bands who I also crowdsurfed too!! Blur ended the night with a cool greatest hits type set that was pretty impressive. After that went to the Dance tent were they were screening films and watched Matrix Reloaded which was cool.

Sunday was ROCK! day. Started off with a trip into town for money and suplies and the first band was Biffy Clyro. Only caught the end and it wasn't the songs I know so didn't seem all that great. Still, I like the singles so I guess if I was nearer the front they'd be better. After them my friend wanted to see The Ravonettes. I wasn't that into it, I don't quite know why NME loves them so much I have to say! After them I rushed off to see Winnebago Deal in the Carling tent who seemd quite good in a shouty long haired rock kinda way, then ran back to the Radio 1 tent to see 80's Matchbox B-Line Disaster who were vert impressive! Then it was back to Carling to see Longview, a nice slow band so I got a sit down and rest at the back while I listened then it was back to Radio 1 for a bit of Hot Hot Heat before heading into the crowd of the main stage for System of a Down. They were very popular so we didn't really get into the crowd as close as I had for previous bands. Still, apart from a bit of a lul in the middle they were very good. They have a lot to say and I love most of the music. After though we were in a bit of a crush as half the crowd tried to leave like us and a whole lot more wanted to come in to get a good place for Metallica later! It took us 15 minutes to get out to the back, and that invloved several crowd surges that almost had us on the floor 3 times!

Went back to the tent to get a hoodie and got my phone charged while I did that and returned to see a bit of Metallica (songs far too long!) before The Music. They were brilliant but wanted to see British Sea Power who were headlining the Carling stage at the same time, so after half an hour of The Music we headed up to see BSP. They were also good, but in a very eccentric kind of way! They wear WW2 army and navy uniforms and have stuffed birds and bits of trees and bushes around their stage set. One of them climbed right up onto the speakers and tried to climb up one of the tents support poles whilst the drummer marched round the crowd with his drum as people mobbed him! lol After al that we went back to the campsite and started to finish off the beer and food and did a lot of messin around. We went for a walk round and got involved with barrel walking, limboing, free hugs, shopping trolley rides, barrel drummers and also bumped into the singer Guy from 80's Matchbox B-Line Disaster with most of British Sea Power who were off theit tits and going round the campsite. Guy from 80's...started hitting my mate Mark with an inflatable hammer!!! After some more messin around and a while handing out at the campsite of some of Marks mates we headed back to our tents at around 4am.

Monday I was awoken by the sound of aerosols exploding in fires and had some food and then we started to pack away. I doin't know why but the day we all have to go home always seems to be dull and overcast...We left two hours before our trains because last year there was a humungous queue at the station. This year there was nothing so I got and earlier train - my mates had to wait for an hour or two cos they didn't have an earlier one! lol I got home, and went to bed at 5pm and woke up at midday the next day!!!!

So a great weekend really - I can't wait to get my photos printed!! I guess now its back to the usual routine. And summer is more or less over too. ;-( Journal 14/08/03

It was a busy weekend LAST weekend for me (not up to much this weekend and didn't do much during the week...)!! So stand by for a long message!!

I took Friday, Saturday and Sunday off work to go to Brighton for the weekend. It was Brightons gay pride so me and some mates from work and also my friend Kristian went down. I planned on staying for 3 nights in the tent, and on the Friday Duane and his boyfriend, Paul, and two others Peter and Jon were gonna come, two in my tent with me and the others in Duanes boyfs tent. Kristian was gonna come on Saturday and take their place in my tent (they weren't staying Sat night) and I also planned to meet an internet friend who I've also spoken a lot on the phone with....

When I got down there they said the campsite may have room for my small tent, but not for anyone else - the weather was so good plus it being Pride the site was very busy. On they way to the campsite i'd seen tents camped in the park outside, so I said 'OK, I'm sure my friends will be able to camp nearby' to which the campsite people clammed up and said in that case I couldn't stay either. Obviously they thought I'd sneak them in or something.

Then my friend arrived with his tent - he had a car so he said they'd just go and we pleaded to let me stay as I had nowhere else to go. The site owner eventually relented and I went up to the camping area. There was plenty of space for another tent!! Obviously they allocate it for numbers of people rather than tent space. Duanes boyf suggested we put up the larger tent for that night and squeeze everyone in that - 4 man rather than my 3 man tent. I wasn't sure cos the campsite people were pretty arsy. In the end it turned out to be right as the owner said he'd heard to many stories and we were all to leave! I was most distraught! I had to then make my friend go and drive away then and there and BEG the bastard campsite guy to let me stay! I begged and begged and eventually the wife persuaded him to let me stay and my two mates who were arriving later! I had no other choice - there are no other places to camp legally in Brighton and staying for 3 nights and seeing how hot it was - Sunday was hottest day EVER in Britain at 38�C (101F) - I needed proper showers! In the end I had at least two showers each day it was so hot!! I tell you, if I had money I'd find a field on the outskirts of Brighton, bung in a toilet block and open my own campsite and charge half the amount those bastards do! lol

Anyway, so I met up with David (Duanes boyf) and we went for a drink on the seafront. I also met some mates from Bentpunk website and Red Eye...They went off after a few hours and my workmates arrived and we stayed in the bars - Peter didn't make it in the end. Duane was especially drunk after getting pissed on the way on the train. When we left the bars Paul had pulled and had gone, David had gone back to the flat of his mates he'd luckily got him and Duane in. Jon was coming to the tent with me. But Duane was so pissed me and Jon were with him for 3 hours while we got food, Duane was sick and lay on the pavement for 2 of those 3 hours!! Eventually we got hold of David and dragged Duane to the flat and handed him over to the care of his Boyfriend so me and Jon finally got back to the tent at 4am! What a day! Fun though in the end, despite all the troubles!

At 8am I was woken by the Sauna like conditions in the tent! The sun was baking onto the side of the tent and my sleeping bag was wet with sweat! I took the sleep mat outside and slept another hour outside before waking and getting ready. I wanted to be on the seafront at 11 for the start of the Pride march. We walked past much of the march and met Kristian at around 11.30 by the pier. I then rang Duane and woke him up and told him and David to get their arses in gear and meet us. Eventually we did, and went to a nice CAFF to have a cooked breakfast before the walk to Preston Park where the Pride Festival was. It was so hot, the sun was almost unbearable after a while. I only had shorts on and lots of suncream, and we still found ourselves trying to stay in the shade! We checked out the dance tents and the Popstarz tent and also the market stalls. There was also a funfair but we didn't really bother. Thing is the atmosphere was great, so much better than the London one. People were friendlier and having much more fun! Perhaps because it was free and not �25!!! Popstarz tent was great, even if it was a bit of a Sauna too, but we'd got these free water pistols from the Red Devil stall to that cooled everyone down a bit!! I met my friend Mark from the internet too, and he was a nice guy. I will probably meet him again though I don't know how far it will go as he goes to north Wales soon to study.

We left the park at around 6pm in the end and Mark and Kristian came with me to the tent to change ready for the evening...After some showers and application of Aftersun we headed back into town via a walk along the seafront. Kristian is into fetish and sex clubs so he went to one of those while me and Mark headed for the more normal bars and met Paul for some drinks and met up with Duane and David later on the beach for a while. The beach was just as packed at 2am as it was at 2pm, and people had fires and sound systems going on the beach. Walking back towards the campsite on the beach me and Mark passed a virtual rave on one part of the beach with huge soud system and even lights, all totally ilelgal and spontaneous, so that was cool... Kristian rang to say he was staying at a mates that night so me and Mark had some 'fun' in the tent just the two of us!!

Sunday morning we met up with Duane and David again who were STILL on the beach and had stayed there all night! Fair enough as it was hot but they'd not even slept! We stayed on the beach for a good few hours before heading off to a bar for some drinks and shade before we all got heat or sunstroke! Oh the fun we had trying to cool the cans of lager in the sea and trying to keep them in the bag and the bag from being washed away by the sea! Tip: you need BIG pebbles! Mark had to head off that evening, and Duane and David were going too, so me and Mark headed back to the tent to get his stuff. We had some more 'fun' and lets just say it was the HOTTEST and sweatiest I've ever done! And that was because the tent was still so hot!! After, the floor of the tent was literally soaking! We were sliding all over the place! Good laugh! I saw Mark off to the station and then met Kristian again. He'd had a good day and had just been to church with a couple of the guys he'd met in the sex club the night before!! Who'd have thought it?! After checking out one of the 3 gay street parties going on for the 'day-after-pride' we headed for Revenge the main gay club in town and had a good dance, well, some of the time anyway when they actually played something decent, until early morning. Another great day!

Monday we had intended to go back to London around midday, but the weather was so good we spent most of it on the beach, and as it was sooo packed, the nudist beach was the only one with more space. I thought' fuck it' and went in the birthday suit, even though Kristian kept his jeans and t-shirt on even! I don't know how he could bare that heat - i'd have been seaked with sweat thought a t-shirt if i'd bothered wearing one most of that weekend!! Being nude and swimming nude was quite and exhilirating experience, and it felt very free to swim nude! I've never done that before!! So that was fun. Eventually headed home in the evening, too tired to go out to Red Eye as normal!

So there you go - that was my weekend. At work on Tuesday Paul said it was the best of his life, and although it wasn't that great it was certainly one of my best too! ;-)

I had a brilliant weekend. Well, the best bit was Sunday/Monday. Saturday was London Gay Pride. I stayed at a friend who lives right near the centre of London (well east of the centre in Brick Lane) after Popstarz on Friday night so that I could get into London for midday on Saturday and still get some sleep - normally after Popstarz I get home at 6am and would have had to leave at 10.30am to get to Pride if I'd done that!! Anyway, I met up with some mates at midday at Embankment and we joined the start of the Pride march. Its always fun, but I always want there to be more 'alternative' presence there - so next year I've decided I'm going to hire a small generator like other people seemed to have done and have music blaring out - but instead of crap pop or techno I'll have rock and indie!! Try and get some other alternative music fans together and we'll make our own section of the march!!

Anyway, the march ended in Hyde Park where the festival part takes place. I managed to get tickets for �10 when they are usually �25. But first we decided to check out the anti-Mardi Gras (well anti having to pay �25!) free event outside the festival arena. It was called the Queer Mutiny and they wanted people to shun the corporate Pride in the Park and what they called a profit making marketing event and come and have fun for free at their gathering outside. I met up with a load of people I know there from Red Eye and Bentpunk.com so that was cool. Stayed there for a few hours until around 4pm when Kristian who I went with and who got the �10 tickets (you get them cheap if you belong to a youth group apparently) wanted to go into the main frstival. We went in and spend a few mins checking out the dance tents before having a look round the market stalls and communtiy stalls (charities and politcal stuff)...

I bought a nice green long sleeved top from the Army Surplus market stall. Then it started to rain. I had an umbrella though. We then went to the Popstarz Strongbow Rooms which was the only thing with music I like - but it was shut because the council said it was unsafe. So everyone was dancing in the rain outside! Inside, there was state of the art lighting effects, visual displays, soft couches, a hard dancefloor (not soft grass) and table football games - but we weren't allowed in!!! ;-( So that spoilt it a bit...Spent most of the time outside there and also watching bits of Junior Senior, Skin and Mis-Teeq on the main stage...Eventually I managed to get inside the Strongbow thing by blagging past security, though it took a good 10 minutes before he relented!! Just as the event was closing and we started to walk to the tube station the rain became torrential...we were soaked all the way through byt the time we got on the train!!

Then Sunday evening after work I went down to Brighton for a work friends birthday party on the beach. We spent until around 11pm in one of the seafront bars where they have benches on the beach, and then after that we had a ghettoblaster and bar-b-que on the beach. That was cool, except for when a load of scallies tried to nick our bags when half of us (me included) had gone to a kebab shop for food....When we got back we got told this, and that in the end they only got a bottle of vodka. Our mate Duane (who I'd gone to the Pride with the day before) had slept through the whole incident!! When we woke him, in his drunken state, he became all hardlad and wanted to chase after the scallies (who were still around the area) and we basically had to rugby tackle him to the ground to stop him!! He's a big lad, but no doubt the scallies would have hit him with the bottle if anything, so we didn't want any more trouble from them! We stayed on the beach drinking and messin around until around 5am when we moved away slowly to a park and then most of them went home on the first train. Me and Duane though were going to stay cos I had my tent. We finally got to the campsite at around 6.
Monday morning we woke around 11.30 after only 4 and a half hours sleep or so, the tent was like a sauna in the sun. We bought some food and went on the beach for the afternoon and had a picnic and sunbathed, although it was quite hazy and clouds kept coming over. I put on only factor 4 suncream cos I thought the sun wasn't too strong. After that we went round the town a bit and went for a few drinks in a couple of bars. Later, when I was almost at home, I started to feel my back. I had to come home warly from Red Eye Monday night cos I felt really unwell. Now my back is bright red and very sore!!! Next time I'm putting a higher factor suncream on if I'm gonna be out in the sun for any length of time!! Trouble is when I put strong suncream on I stay totally white! Its not fair!! lol Ah well.

17/7/03

The last week has been quite routine, though the week before I was doing some freelance theatre tech work that basically envolved me trying to interpret a lighting design made for a large theatre using over 50 lights into a small almost village hall style theatre using only 40 odd lights (and old ones at that) and 24 channels!! Reminded me a bit of being back at school - some of the lights were the same!!

At least the lighting desk was semi automatic - though not a modern computer one as I'm used to now...So that was quite amusing. Also, cos it was just me and I had to move a lot of lights around it took ages to set up and twin them so they would fit into the available channels - I was still programming the operating desk when the show was about to let in the punters, so the last ten ques I had to just busk!! Went OK though and I programmed them in for the next and final show of the run. Got a bit of money and a nice bottle of wine for all my hard work!

Had an eventful Sunday and Monday. Sunday evening was a friends party so a load of us from work went. Had a great time actually, and got very drunk. Not as drunk as the host who fell asleep and woke in the morning to find that we'd written all over him in marker pen! Hehe....Plus in truth or dare another mate was dared to do 3 cart- wheels naked in the street, and being a bit of a show off duly did so!! That was quite funny. Then stayed up chatting to 5am, and woke with an appauling hangover (probably in part to sleep deprivation!) at 9am!! Ouch!

By around 12 we all managed to leave the house and went to Brockwell Park Lido (public outdoor swimming pool). The weather was boiling - got a bit of sunburn just walking there on my arms. Inside basically is a large area beside the pool where people sunbathe and sit around. You can take food and drinks in or buy stuff there so theres lots of picnics and drinking going on. Did a fair bit of sunbathing and had a good splash around in the pool. But there were SOOOOO many fit young guys there me and my mates were drooling most of the time!! Scallies and council estate style trackies and trainers lads (well, before they took 'em off for their swimshorts!) plus even a few longish haired alternative types - great day!

That evening went out with mates for a drink then to Heaven and on to Red Eye. Heaven was a bit crap - in fact it's not been good since Red Eye stole the alternative crowd...so the alternative room of Heaven has been diluted quite drastically and lost much of its appeal. I find I spent more time oggling the fit lads downstairs (more trackies and trainers types - though this time definitely gay!) than dancing to any decent rock stuff in the alternative room. Went to Red Eye quite early and prefer the music and people there!

Unfortunately it all ended on a sour note on the nightbus when some wanker punched me. They got on and openned a load of windows when I was dozing. The cold draught woke me and after a while I shut the window just in front of me, but leaving the other 4 open. This guy had a go at me for shutting it without asking so I said he didn't ask me or anyone else to open it either, and it went from there. I aksed why I should ask when they seemingly didn't have to. He got angry and violent and ended up threatenning to hit me so I backed down and apologised, but he obviously wanted to take out his anger and hit me a few times round the head just as he went to get off (despite me trying to shield myself hitting him back wasn't really an option as he was standing and I was sitting). He was so angry he got downstairs (I was upstairs at the back) and then ran back upstairs and down the isle to hit me again! Luckily a guy stopped in and tried to hold him back, but he got through and I kicked him away with my feet from down in the seat and the other guy pulled him off and pushed him downstairs. Only after he got off did the bus driver come to see what happenned.

Anyway, I called the police but they couldn't send anyone for ages, by which time he'd long gone so I went to the police station to report him. He'd be on CCTV as he got off and walked back through Croydon High Street, but they didn't want to look on the CCTV, so I just gave a statement to become a statistic. They said I should go to my GP to get my injuries recorded, but it's only a few bruises, and since they obviously aren't gonna bother to look for him I didn't bother. It doesn't even hurt unless I touch it anyway! lol

The woman who dealt with me couldn't seem to care less and seemed totally bored. It was 5am so maybe it was near the end of her shift, but still........ Next time I'll just keep quiet or move - my argumentative nature was bound to get me in trouble one day!!!

2/7/03

Well I've been very busy over the last two weeks and this week too...

Two weeks ago I had the week off my usual work to do some freelance stage lighting/tech work for an opera. Basically I helped set up the set for the 'get-in' at the theatre then for the actual shows I operated the lights and the sound. That was quite a feat actually cos usually you have two seperate people to do that...

So we moved the lighting desk an put it next to the sound desk at a right angle so I could do one with my left hand and one with the right (there were quite a few ques where lighting and sound happenned at the same time!!)...So for the 'get-in's I had to be up and out early for me - 7am, and didn't get home til midnight, so I was pretty tired and no time for emails!! Then when it was just a show I was still getting home later than my usual job cos it was further away.

This week I'm having some more days off to do the next leg of the opera - same sort of thing again.

Last week was the main thing. I went on a camping holiday to Scotland with a couple of mates. Was great - I love to get out of London and we went to the remote west coast and Outer Hebrides islands of Scotland, so the contrast to my usual urban lifestyle was very marked. I feel so relaxed when I'm in a countryside environment and the more remote and more isolated the better! I'd love one day when I'm 50 or something to just move up there and live self-sufficent on my own for a few years. I suppose myideal would be to buy an island, but asmall house on one would do!! There were quite a lot of derelict/empty houses up there.

Anyway, went up to Glasgow on Sunday and stayed overnight at a hotel. Went to a heavyu rock club called Cathouse there. Was good, but really a bit too heavy for me - e.g. no recognisable tunes! Just a lot of shouting and loud noise!! Maybe I'm getting old!

On Monday we went an hired a car and drove up to Mallaig, over Rannoch Moor which is the highest road in the UK and part of the Ben Nevis range... Beautiful scenery. Camped at a campsite there by the sea. Its nice to hear the sea lapping not 20 yards from your tent.

Tuesday morning we got a ferry over to Skye, had a look round there and all the mountains - they are great some of them just riseup out of nowwhere next to the sea and create lochs between them.... Then we came back over the Skye bridge and up the mainland west coast to Gairloch. Last year I came to the same place with a friend and driving through a particularly remote mountainous and rugged road we saw and eagle but no such luch this year. The campsite here was very nice - big sandy beaches and great views - and you didn't have to pay extra for the showers either!!

Wednesday we got the ferry to the most northerly of the outer hebrides Lewis. We set up camp in the campsite (not so good - cost �5 per tent and the showers were 50p! Rip off!) and then drove up the the Butt of Lweis- the most northerly point. We had a look round there at the light house and some interesting transmitter masts up there. The hebrides are interesting because they are the least like the UK. The houses are all spread out and not of the same style as most of the rest of the UK. And they speak Gaelic- the road signs are in Gaelic with the English in tiny writing and in brackets below - you have to practically stop the car to read them!!

Thursday we drove down Lewis to Harris looking at various sites along theway. We looked at an old style 'blackhouse' which was the kind of house they used to live in - metre thick walls, no windows and just a small hole to let out thesmoke of the fire. The animals were kept in a seperate room in the house to help keep them all warm. 'Modern' stlye victorian houses did not come along until 1850ish and people still lived in the old style housed unaltered (e.g windows put in etc) right up until the 1950s which is quite amazing. There are lots of abandoned villages around where people were 'cleared' off the land by the landowners in the late 1800s for sheep and sent to Canada. Some who didn't want to go were apparently rounded up with dogs, tied up and thrown on ships to Canada where many just starved with no money and no land.

Thursday evening we took the ferry from Harris to North Uist and camped by a little Youth Hostel on Berneray which was in a converted 'Blackhouse' which was quite nice. That night though was very windy and wet andI ended up getting up and putting rocks on the pegs to give me peace of mind that it wasn't going to blow away when i fell asleep!! Friday was still and grey/overcast and foggy. WE didn' really see much of the hills. WE had a look round more historical places, plus a more recent history of an old Ministry of Defence place which looked like an old research labon the end of a peninsular. Odd place - people had moved into parts of it and made their homes there whilst other bits were just empty shells. At the end of the peninsular was a fence going across all of it and a load of transmitter/listening masts. We nicked a sign from on the floor just a foot inside the fence which said "Danger! High Voltage RF Radiation. Keep away!" which was quite cool. Will look go on my mates wall!! Hehe...

Down on South Uist later in the day (the islands here are linked by causeways) we wernt to have a look round a missile firing test range. You can go in when there is no red flag flying. Anyway, we got approached by a load of soldiers on patrol who obviously weren't quite sure what we were doing there - they were on an excersise so they may have thought we were part of it. At one point on of them had their rifle right up to my chest which was a bit scary but they weren'tbeing hostile. They were onyl young - around 18, and quite cute actually!!!

Saturday was a 6 hour ferry journey from South Uist to Oban than only an hours drive back to Glasgow where we went to some more bars then to a club at the School of Art which was quite cool. Then Sunday was back on the train to London!!

So I've had quite a lot of fun over the last two weeks, and now I'm doing some more freelance theatre tech work.

I've had quite a busy week this week! I did Popstarz as obliged on Friday then on Saturday I went to Manchester to visit a friend. I'd never been there before so it was good to get to another place in the UK. Of the main cities, I only have Liverpool and Newcaslte left to visit and I've been to all of the regions. Anyway, Manchester was quite nice. You can tell a lot of it has been done up for the Commonwealth Games, but also general gentrification to get rid of the run down bits in the city centre and old industrial bits. The industrial heritage is quite interesting...Plus the trains and buses are pretty cheap and they even have two free bus routes in the city centre which is cool.

Went to Canal Street the gay 'village' made famous by Queer As Folk. Its much nicer than London's gay bit - the canal on one side and chairs and table on the street with people sitting out in the sun makes for a good fun atmosphere. Plus even the queens seem a bit friendlier than London! Bar staff and prices seem much the same tho! ;-( But I guess its the same with London - you have to know where the bargains are I guess. So we went to afew bars and sat in the sun, then went back to a friend of the friend I was visiting and watched MTV2 and they had a smoke (I don't smoke it - I only eat it and didn't want to cos I knew we were only staying an hour there!)...after which we went to Poptastic - whichis the north's smaller version of Popstarz. They have two rooms - a cheesy pop room and an 'alternative' room. But like Popstarz the 'alternative' is becoming a bit diluted. Still they played some stuff I like and had a bit of a dance. Unfortunately my mate wasn't in the right mood to dance a lot (which is why I didn't have any of the weed earlier myself!!)...

On Sunday my friend showed me round Manchester. Saw the rejuvinated industrial bits by the canal, new exhibition centre...saw the main shopping area and the rebuilt shopping centre where the IRA bomb had destroyed so much of the city centre. That night we visited another friend of my friend and crashed there - watched Donnie Darko which is a great film I wanted to see in the cinema but didn't quite get round to.

Then on Monday morning my mate showed me some of the more alternative shops in Manchester - there is a cool arcade type place with lots of little shop units/stalls in that was kind of like Camden under one roof. I couldn't afford to buy anything but there was quite a lot of stuff I liked. I bought some badges though.

Got the train back home Monday afternoon and then went to meet my friend Amanda to go to a gig. We went to see a sk8punk band called Simple Plan. They were pretty good in a Blink 182/Sum 41/New Found Glory type way. Lots of people moshing. Was strange though - so many of the audience were under 16 I felt old! Some looked about 10 and had their parents with them who stood sheepishly around the bar! lol When we were going to the tube station after you could tell the parents were keeping a discreet distance from the kids so they didn't make the kids seem too 'uncool'!! lol Another odd thing was there was ayoung guy who came up tome and Amanda from behind and started touching us! He kissed our heads and touched our chests! He said he was gay, and he was pretty camp, but also a sk8er type. His str8 seeming mate kept having to drag him away cos we bumped into him about 5 times! He was v drunk but seemed nice. Not sure what was going on with the breast/chest grabbing tho! Never met a gay guy at a gig like that before randomly... After that went to Red Eye as usual which was also quite cool, though somehow I lost one of my new badges there when I was jumping around on the stage ;-(

Wednesday I went to see my mate Stephen and his band play a gig at his uni. They were pretty good - better than the first gig. Then after I went back to their halls where one of the guys in the band made cocktails - despite not ever drinking alcohol himself! Apparently he works in a cocktail bar! We also made up some nice ones of our own. Mine was called Dirty Delight - because it looked like muddy water but tasted really nice!!

04/06/03

Another journal entry for you to find out what I've been up to! Well Thursday I went to Miss-shapes at Ghetto. Not been there for a while so it was quite good - especially since it was a Smiths special night playing loads of The Smiths classics. Always liked The Smiths so that was great... Friday was Popstarz - the clubs 8th birthday and they had free candyfloss and popcorn!! Also Saffron from Republica did a PA. It was fun but she only did 3 songs, and one was a new one (crap of course! lol Why are thev new ones rarely as good as the old ones?!).

Saturday was work as usual then a one-off club 'reunion' of Club V. It was quite an underground gay indie/alternative night that used to be fortnightly on Satudays upstairs at The Garage gig venue, much like the new 'Motherfucker' club I like. I only went to Club V a few times, and it didn't seem that great then - but Saturday nights one-off was great! I only intended to stay for half an hour to get home in a decent time to be up early on Sunday for work, but stayed 2 hours in the end!

On Sunday after work I went to some bars with mates from work. Now last Sunday I met a guy called Shane at one of the bars and got chatting. Met him again this Sunday, this time we were chatting much more and ended up meeting up with some of his mates and going for a walk and chat. Anyway, got on well with his mates and then when they left I went back to his place! And, well, it was fun!! ;-)

Then on Monday went to see The Cranberries gig at the Astoria for my mates birthday (he's a big fan. It was quite a good gig, though again, the newer stuff is nowhere near as good as the old stuff! Still, my mate seemed to be loving it! He also hung around stage door to see if he could meet them but no luck. We went to a seated gig (yawn!) of theirs last year and ended up in the after-show party chatting to the band, so it's not like he hasn't already got loads of pics of him with them!!

As for the rest of the week - well I'm planning a trip to Scotland in a few weeks. Looking for cheap car rental and stuff. Plan to get train up there, stay at hotel in Glasgow then hire a car and go camping up the west coast and over to the islands. It's beautiful landscape up there -rugged and desolate, dramatic and unpredictable. Magnificent! I find that very inspiring. I like to do some rural stuff instead of only urban things sometimes!

This weekend I'm off to Manchester to visit another friend.

Then the week after I'm taking time off work to do some tech work for Surrey Opera again, then it's off to Scotland! So quite a busy few weeks ahead!!

24/5/03

Well I've not written a journal entry for a few weeks so heres one now. Not much had happenned up until Friday before last other than the usual - except the train company sent me a cheque for the �9.17 I demanded, but said that they normally wouldn't and it was just this once! lol

The next major thing was a big row with a friend over my bag at Popstarz. I put my bag in the office cos I work for them and also put my friends in to save him cloakroom money. Anyway, towards the end he took it out of the office, and the boss asked him to take mine and find me. But another friend was impatiently asking him to hurry up cos he wanted him to go back with him in taxi for a deep n' meaningful chat. Unfrotunately this kind of thing flusters my friend and in his rush to appease his other friend he gave my bag to a girl he thought I knew. Only problem was I didn't know her. I went to the office and was told my mate had my bag, only to find he didn't. Of course this made me angry, but I was even more so when we found the bag in a back corridoor open on the floor! Luckily nothing was gone, but it had my wallet, cards, phone, door keys, walkman etc in it - basically my life! So I was very angry at my friends disregard for my property. All this had made me miss my train, so I was hoping after causing me all this trouble he'd wait with me for the train and persuade his mate to wait too. But he didn't. So I got VERY angry at this and was at the taxi trying to get him out to wait with me and his mate was shouting at me and so was the taxi driver and I was shouting at my mate! ;-( A great night spoilt by a bad 15 mins cos of a poor decision on my friends part, impatience on his mates part and a mixture of booze and hurt causing overreaction on my part! Basically, after all that me and my friend didn't properly speak until Mpnday night - a week an a half. All that time I was worrying that the friendship was wrecked, and I know some people were advising him to re-think our friendship "if thats how Rob behaves" even though it was our first argument in over a year! Luckily there are others who know how good friends we were and made him think the good sides! I sent a hell of a lot of texts too apologising and explaining!

Anyway, then Saturday was my birthday. I went to Brighton for the weekend with another friend. It was going to be the friend I had the row with, but obviously he wasn't coming, and others had dropped out cos the weather didn't look good - we were camping for cheapness! Luckily it only really rained hard once....unluckily it was just as we were putting the tent up so everything got soaked! We managed to dry off after an hour or so in the tent and thanks partly to the hand dryer in the campsite toilets! lol Then the sun came out for the evening and we went on the pier...

Went on a rollercoaster type ride and then...one of those log flume type things - and got wet again! lol Had some traditional British seaside Fish n'Chips at a decent price (not like the �7 they charge in some London places!)... Then went to some gay bars. Went in one where there was Kareoke - sung "Song 2" by Blur! I don't think the local queens knew quite what was going on. You could see them saying "Whos that guy with the longhair whooping on the stage?" lol Made a change to the usual Kylie, Steps and cheesynumbers people sing there I'd imagine! After that went to some more bars then onto a club. Didn't go to the main gay club cos my mate couldn't afford it so we went to a cheaper one. Was crap, so we got drunk and started being lecherous at the cute barman and shouting obscenities at him. He did a good job of pretending not to notice! lol Then walked back to the campsite at 3am...

Next day went along the sea-front, go some ice cream and my friend got some cockles and mussles and things... Was a pretty good weekend. Thankfully most of it was paid for with birthday money! Yay!

The rest of the week has been pretty much average... I snogged a long haired dude last night at Popstarz briefly, but it wasn't anything much and was right at the end. Kind of random. He gave me his number but hasn't replied to the text I sent...Ah well ;-| lol

Journal 1/5/03

Well, no need to be cuttin and pastin this week as I've not been up to much. Just the usual nights out on Friday and Monday. Oh, went to the re-launch of Rocktronica which is a nice chill-out type affair on Sunday evening - as the name suggests it plays a cross range of music from rock to electronica...Some quite odd stuff is heard amongst the well known stuff!! A good night for chatting and actually finding out about people who I often see at the clubs or who are on bentpunk.com ...

The only other thing of interest happenned on Tuesday night on way home from work. Train was delayed by an hour due to 'garden furniture on the line'(!!) so I missed my last bus and had to get a taxi which cost �8. I was quite angry so have sent the train company a letter asking for them to refund it saying if they don't I'll be forced to 'fare dodge' until I make it back in unpaid fares!! lol Looking forward to their reply!!

Journal 24/4/03:

Jesu-Maria!! What a busy- and expensive - week!! Out every night from Thursday to Monday, plus doing the lighting for an Opera in a tiny fringe theatre in norht-east London - meaning the late nights were followed by early (for me!) mornings!! Not good!

Thursday I hadn't intended to go out - was gonna go round Stephens to watch DVDs. Went for drinks with mates at the G-A-Y bar in Soho. It's not really my kind of place, but the cheap drinks are enticing, plus I do like to make it a bit more suited to my music taste by choosing theleast crap stuff on the video dukebox (Blur, Busted and Avril Lavigne usually, plus a bit of Madonna and 'Ride on Time' by Black Box is one of my cheesy pop faves!)... Anyway, we ended up, somehow, going to G-A-Y the club. Stephen seemed really up for going. I'd not been for 2 years, so decided to give it another try, and he used to go a lot but also a year or so ago - and it was free anyway. Ended up staying in there for only 10 mins before Stephen wanted to leave!! I had always known it was crap, obviously he had only just realised!! I wouldn't have minded staying a bit longer cos I met some mates I'd not seen for a while...the only thing was that it was sooo busy cos of the bank holiday weekend... We went next door to Ghetto, also packed from the bank holiday. Quite amusing seeing the dancefloor rammed and dancing to Belle and Sebastian!! Ended on a bad note with a huge argument with Stephen that started with a debate on whether it was really bad to touch someones hair when they had gelled or waxed it!! It became more than that, but it only seems to take a silly subject to move onto something more involved!

Friday I had to be up at 10 to go to the theatre where the opera was happenning to set up the lights. I'd only had 3 hours sleep, so felt a bit rough. Was amused by three of those tube beggar women with the babies (always asleep or silent in their arms) having a big row in one of the walkways of Kings Cross tube. You could hear them at the other end of the tunnel, andjustas i was passing they started to take their sandals off and raise them at eachother, then started hitting and pushing eachother with their sandals!! It was quite amusing. God knows what it was about cos they were all talking in some Eastern European language. And the babies didn't stir at all, even when one of the women was pushed to the floor! I dunno what they give them...

Anyway, that night I went to a club called Motherfucker! Was the second one (it's monthly and started last month) and was much better than the first...in fact it was at capacity, so that was cool. Music was a lot more varied and different from the other alternative gay clubs I go to...and cos its run by lesbians there were more Riot Grrl bands played, which is cool. A very mixed gay/str8 crowd too - which was good but also annoying. There was the most beautiful long blond haired guy there, and I assumed for some reason he was str8. I went and told him he had great hair and was beautiful and he said thanks. We kind of exchanged glances a few times after that, but i thought he was just seeing whether or not i was looking at him still! Then he went to leave, and said goodbye to me on the way out and shook my hand! So I dunno what was going on there!

Saturday was another early start to do a rehearsal for the opera. We ended up over-running, so i was late meeting Stephen to help him dye his hair(!!), and thus we were late meeting friendsfor drinks - who'd been out since 5pm!! We met them eventually at 10!! So we went to Ghetto to Wig Out and a pretty good night there. A friend gave me some porn he didn't want anymore. They looked good, but I was drunk and left them on the night bus!! ;-( Some closeted 'straight' guy is probably having fun with them now....or the bus driver!!

Sunday was just my usual bar job at the other theatre. But Sunday night was another big night. Drinks in G-A-Y bar again, then there was Ray of Light - a fund raising event for a Cancer charity which was done by the club I work for Popstarz. It was very busy, and pretty good music considering it was just the 80's room plus Nag Nag Nag elecroclash in the back room - no rock/indie! Plus since it was charity, I had to pay �5 rather than the usual guestlist!! However, we intened to go on to Marvellous in Brixton after, so Simon (boss) phoned them and put me and my mate on the guestlist there instead, so that was cool. Unfortunately Marvellous was a bit crap, despite being busy. So we left after only an hour or so....

Monday was the end of my weekend!! Did the first show of the opera in the evening. The lighting went pretty much OK. I only made a few mistakes thatthe audience wouldn't have known about so thats OK... Went to Heaven after with some work mates, then went as usual to Red Eye at Ghetto which was also good. Saw an 'ex' there though, or a sort of ex...it never really got going beyond snogs and hugs cos he said he wasn't ready for sex/relationship cos of troubles in his past. Annoyingly, I know the guy he was with, and know how much that guy loves sex, so if they are actually together in that way that will really piss me off - cos it means he lied about not being ready, when he really meant he wasn't interested anymore (even when I told him to tell me that if it was the case at the time!!) Grrr...MEN!

Journal: 14/04/03

Well I had a deliberately quieter week this week.

Only went out clubbing as such Friday for Popstarz and Sunday. That was for Marvellous in Brixton. Pretty good night (once my mates finally arrived!!)...Was very hot and I ended up topless for much of the night, and my hair went all crazy cos of the humidity! I looked like some kind of 70's rock star at the end! Earlier in the evening I met up with a guy I'd beed chatting to on the internet for a few weeks and went for a drink then back to his place for some 'fun'...it was great, but he worked me so hard that now my bits are sore from friction!!! Ow!

Saturday went to a gig. It is a band that a club friend of mine (who I know from Red Eye and Popstarz) is in called Jesse James. They are a ska-punk type band. I'd never heard of them until that night, but they seem very popular with the younger sk8er type crowd. My mate who is the singer had them coming up to him when he was at the bar with us getting him to sign their t-shirts etc!! Bizarre!! Was a good show, though I didn't really get into the mosh pit cos it looked a bit too crazy for me!!

Other than that I've just been working and such. Gonna not go out again until Friday, hopefully rest a bit and save some money!! Though I think the weekend will be busy!!!

08/04/03

Well been another interesting week. Thursday and Friday were as planned - Mis-Shapes and Popstarz clubbin. Saturday just came home for a rest, and sunday, after meeting some old friends for a quick drink after work I came home also. So quiet weekend.

Monday I went up to London to meet friend Kristian, who was setting up a birthday surprise for our friend James that evening at Ghetto where Red Eye (our suual Monday gay rock-out!) is. Anyway, got to his place at 6, but we then spent about 2 hours with him faffing and unable to find things we needed and dashing to the shop etc and also waiting for other people who had things he needed! After a lot of looking through loads of bits of paper and rubbish in his very untidy room (and I thought I was bad!) we gave up looking for a photo of James (which Kristian wanted to copy and put round the club like he was some kind of star) we finally got to the club at about 9pm, leaving us only an hour to get all the happy birthday signs and balloons up before the normal punters were let in!! So that was all a bit hectic and saw Kristian getting rather stressed!! Kristian basically lusts after James or idolises him. They have a funny kind of one sided relationship. Kristian pretty much does anything James wants, and then when he does suggest something or argue with James he wonders why James can get funny. I think he idolises him too much - shown when he gave James �150 as a birthday present, when he himself has not been able to pay the rent for two months!! He was grateful, but really, he could have been a bit MORE grateful for that amount!! But it was cool anyway. Kristian got him a great penis shaped cake too. I had a bit of the helmet!!

Tuesday I bought my tickets for Reading Festival. Line-up not looking as strong so far as Glastonbury, but since that sold out on the first day Reading is next best option. It has Blur, System of a Down, Polyphonic Spree, Blink 182, White Stripes, Sum 41, Beck, Placebo, Doves, The Streets, The Music, Courtney Love, Hundred Reasons and The Datsuns which I like. Other bands I like but not as much are Linkin Park, Metallica, AFI, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and The Mars Volta. I'll prob watch all them too if they don't clash with my other choices! There will also probably be some good bands on the new bands stage too - which is where I saw some of my current fave bands last year!!

Wednesday I went to the Electroclash gay club Nag Nag Nag. Had a good time, but mainly messing around with my mates making long-lasting high pitched siren like wails in the middle of the dancefloor causing people to look round and clear away from us! Hehe...The club is good, but VERY busy! I used to go when it first started, and there'd belike 20 people. Now it's over the limit at 200, probably around 400!! Its only a small basement club. The music is that 80's synth/house dance hybrid. Very odd music really. The crowd is quite pretentious though, hence me and my mates messing around. They aren't overly judgemental or bitchy, but the way they dress is like a competition of who can be the wackiest or weirdest!! IT's all people who read The Face and Dazed and Confused fashion mags - in fact it was after an article in one of those that the club got busy. They tend to forget to mention that its a gay club, and so sometimes, despite the gayness of the people there in a weird alternative way, sometimes gay couples kissing get stared at or hassle....My mate is usually into Electroclash, but more the more well known stuff like Peaches and Fischerspooner and Felix da Housecat etc, but cos Nag...is so up-to-date its ahead of itself they don't seem to like playing anything that is too familiar to those of us that don't listen to the pirate Electroclash radio stations!! So we didn't really know any of the music or the live performance, so only danced when we felt like it, rather than according to any specific songs we like which is my usual trigger to start dancing (once started I'll stay dancing usually unless I hate the next song!)...So a good night..

I'm gonna go out Sunday maybe, but will have Monday off and won't go out until Friday next week I think! Plus I have some freelance stage lighting work starting next Friday...

04/04/03

Right, not much time as it is late and I need bed - so just going to cut'n'paste to let you know what I've been up to!!!

From my journal: Phew! I've had a bit of a stupidly crazy week, and it's not over yet! The main reason is a silly agreement I made with my flyerer boss Simon of Popstarz that I'd go to Ghetto (which they also run) every night this week Friday-Thursday from last Friday as it is the birthday celebrations of the venue which has been open for a year. I am quite a fanof this venue as it provides a good selection of nights and variety on the gay scene in the West End, which had really been lacking until then. Plus it is host to two good alternative/rock nights which I go to practically every week!! So anyway,I promised that I'd go each night if even just for 10 minutes!

So on Friday I met up with an old work friend and headed off to the Ghetto for 'The Cock' which is the kind of sleazy electroclash night. Not sleazy as in sex stuff, but a bit dirtier and raunchier than Wendesdays Nag Nag Nag. Stayed there for an hour (friend decides he doesn't like Electroclash) and head of to Popstarz for an hour or clubbing and then flyering, while my mate popped between me and the dancefloor. Had a fun night on Friday actually.

Saturday, after work, I popped into Ghetto with friend Stephen. It was Wig Out which is the messed up 'anything goes' night basically with any classic pop or rock tracks from the 60's up to now....generally staying around the camper classics, but a lot of good stuff in there too...Was kind of getting into it, despite the sardine conditions of so many people crammed into a tiny venue (Saturday is the busiest day), but had to leave at midnight to get to a party at a mates house. By the time I got there, cos the clocks were going forward I could only really stay an hour before I had to leave. It was OK but not really as happenning as the one they'd had a year ago. Plus I only knew the two hosts, and only had time to intro- duce myself to some of their mates before I had to go which was a shame. The last one I remember staying all night then walking to work from there at lunchtime the next day with an appauling hang-over due to champagne! None of that this time that I could see though...

After about 3 hours sleep I had to beup for work on Sunday. After that I went up to Caledonian Road and the Pleasance Theatre to see a play with Stephen. It was called "What Happenned Last Night" and revolves around agroup of friends and aquainances on a night out. There is the football team and their friends on one hand, and some girls (two of them sisters) and these two gay drug dealers. Basically they all meet up at a nightclub and the play is about what happenns. Two of the footballers are basically gay and in the closet, trying to tell eachother that they fancy eachother but don't realise the other is the same...it takes the gay drug dealers who are a couple and want to reel in the obvious closet cases and get one to suck the other off, but he runs out discusted. Meanwhile one of the footballers ha taken loads of drugs and is chatting to one of the girls who doesn't do drugs. Anyway, to cut a long story short he ends up dead, she gets framed for it and the closet gay footie lad gets raped by the gay drug dealers who are very nasty bits of work. In the end the two closet footie lads get together and the girl gets it sorted that she didn't do it, but there was a funny twist at the end where it turns out the closet footie guys Dad (and coach) is the gay drug guys uncle who abused him as a kid and basically made him turn out nasty - and he kills him!! lol It was quite funny. Anyway, it was actually very good and amusing in places, and a bit disturbing in others (the rape), but there was also lots of full on male nudity in the opening shower/locker room scene, so that probably put a good light on it!! A couple of the guys were v.nice! Hehe....

After walked back with Stephen to his place before going on to Ghetto to say hi. That was after an argument with him about doing that cos I'd forgotten to tell him earlier!!

Monday went to Heaven before going on to Red Eye at Ghetto, again with Stephen. Was a good night too. At Heaven me and Stephen kept doing a silly thing that when the smoke machine went on we'd pretend it was poison gas and fall down gasping and doing my 'Total Recall' impression (you'd understand if you saw it!)...then as soon as the smoke cleared we'd jump up and continue dancing as if nothing had happenned!! Lol People thought we were right twats I assume!! Saw a really nice guy there but cos I had to go to Ghetto I didn't really get a chance to do anything except exchange glances....and I don't know what kind of glances they were even! And there was another guy who I'd spoken to once before who'd been eyeing me and dancing with me that time before but got dragged away by his mates before I could get chatting properly....this time he and his mates came dancing near again a few times, glancing again. Eventually I winked and smiled at him and he smiled back. Then again within a minute his mates and him had gone. Very strange. And its not like hes some gorgeous guy - he's not really good looking classically at all, but there is something I like about him...probably that he is short, a sportylad and tatood! Hehe....I will probably see him again there in a few weeks....that time I'll stay longer, though I don't like missing Red Eye - the music is much better!

Tuesday went to Ghetto to say hi and then did some flyers, after which I went with a mate James to a rock night round the corner called 'Beautiful People'. Last time I went there was a couple or years ago, so it was good to go back. Its a str8 club, but you get a few questionables in there, and not just me and James - I recognised a guy form Heaven the night before and said hi. It is kind of rock and metal much like on a Monday. A bit harder on occasion but remarkably similar. Couldn't stay long cos of an early start on Wednesday for work.

Wednesday (as I write this) has been pretty tiresome. I've been knackered and work was ] quiet thus boring. After a long day I again went to say hi at Ghetto....str8 past the huge queue (hehe...perks of being the flyer boy!)...10 mins later out and off to the station. Where the train then failed to show and when it did mate me miss my last bus. So that 10 minutes in Ghetto made me have to pay �6 extra than planned to get a taxi home!! Grrrr!! I'd better be able to get some free booze when I'm back at Ghetto tomorrow for MisShapes!!

Friday will be Popstarz as per, Saturday nothing I hope then possibly Marvellous in Brixton on Sunday. NEXT WEEK I'm gonna try not to go out as much - though as usual I'll do Monday and Friday, as well as Wednesday. Jeez....I find it really hard not to go out at least 3 times a week now there are so many good alternative nights of one sort or another! DEFINITELY the week after that - JUST the Monday and the Friday and a quiet mid-week and weekend over Easter! .........Well, we'll see!

27/03/03

On Friday before Popstarz went to a new club called Motherfucker! Quite small up at The Garage in Highbury. Run by some nice lesbians who originally intended it to be a lesbian night but decided to make it general gay/bi/whatever (thus making it a much better/more relaxed environment!) - lots of good music - quite heavy on the lesser known rock and especially 'riot grrl' stuff. Met a few mates there, one I'd not seen for months. Bit odd cos last time he was REALLY drunk and going on about how he hated being gay, hated gays and gay clubs...in fact we were in Red Eye at the time which is the least 'typical' gay of any of the gay clubs I know and he found that too gay! Playing metal rock music!! lol All his mates are straight and basically they are homophobic so he's not really happy. Anyway turns out one of them he really fancies and there have been a few 'almost' intimate moments between them, so it's all fucked him up. Hmmmm....I think he's being funny with me though ;-( I told a mutual friend about the incident last time as I thought he'd know more, and apparently they aren't talking now. Why I don't know...I assume because he doesn't like internalised homophibia. Ah well....We are in contact now so I can see whats going on later....

Anyway, concentrating on that friend I kind of neglected my other friend I went with - he was moody cos I'd left him 'alone' (he seems unable to dance on his own or chat to any of my other friends who know him!) and so we left and he went home and I went to Popstarz to do my flyering job.

Saturday and Sunday were quite quiet. A few drinks on Sunday night after work...

Monday had intended to go to Red Eye but ended up in Heaven again with an old work mate. Meant to go to Red Eye later, but he bought me drinks and I ended up staying there! Not much happenned. Better music than last time...spoke to a few guys but didn't go anywhere. Oh, ended up in a spinning jumping thing with a few guys who then all let go of eachother as we reached a high momentum, and being small and light I flew off and onto the floor! Nice graze/bruise on my arm now!

Tuesday - went out for once. Night called 'Babe' at Ghetto. Bit crap musically, but we went cos my Popstarz boss who also runs the venue (though not this particular night) said there were lots of 'white trash' 'trakies and trainers' type lads there. You know - a nice 'bit o rough' which I like as a change to my usual alternative/rocker preference, but it was basically just scene queens, so nothing special there. Wont bother with that again!! lol

And thats about it really. Busy week ahead from this weekend...party, hope to go and see a play, then its my fave venue Ghetto's birthday week with free entry every night and special events going on, so I'll probably be out a lot again! Gonna really stretch my finances!!! Ah well... the week after I'll definitely only go out once or twice and rest!!!

16/03/03

Sorry I've not written for a while...I've been pretty busy - either working or going out or just tired and couldn't be arsed to write a long email!! So this will be REALLY long!

Well, I have been up to quite a lot I suppose over the last two weeks. I'll paste in a bit from my e-journal: Last week on Thursday I took the night off work to go to see a friend of mine (Stephen) and his band play at his student union. It wasn't quite the gig I expected - it turned out to be an 'open mic' organised by the Literary Society there at the university. Unfortunately it consisted of two hours worth of rather dull, self-indulgent and/or pretentious poems before the band played - and they only played 4 songs when they did! So me and my friend Lizzie who I went with went to the bar downstairs and got drunk on the cheap booze, so when Stephen finally started to sing we were quite merry and shouting and whooping! After the gig I told him what I thought, but always being honest I had some constructive criticism. They were good for a college band, but had quite a bit of work to do (they need to rehearse more before they play again for a start!) and also I told Stephen his singing could have been better, considering how much he boasts about being in a band etc. Unfortunately all his other uni mates, who he has only known a few months, lavished unmitigated praise on him saying how good it was. Opps! So he thought I was being arsey and putting his achievements down. Jeez! It was a fun night though...

That same night I went on to a club called Miss-Shapes at Ghetto, which is like an indie night, though a bit more alternative or less poppy than the Friday night I normally do - Popstarz. You get more bands that are less well known or newer bands, plus you get less played stuff by the better or more popular bands. Anyway, I was quite drunk and ended up doing dirty dancing against my boss (owner and promoter of the club - he owns Popstarz which I do the flyering for on Fridays for �20 for 2 hours)...anyway, I kept being silly but he wasn't having it!! lol It's funny making him squirm cos he's quite a prude really! You'd think he never has sex - even though he has a very cute young boyfriend!! lol

Friday was Popstarz. Went drinking with work mates in a Soho bar first, so got fairly drunk again actually. Made the flyering at Popz less boring anyway!!

Don't think I did anything on Saturday but went to another club on Sunday called Marvellous. Never been there before. It's another alternative music club, but this one is in a club in south London which on other nights is usually a more sleazy gay club! All dark and metallic! It's quite bizzare cos the indiekids and rocker types mix with the more muscley and shaven headed regulars! Was a fun night and met a few friends I'd not seen for a while...

Monday I went to Heaven first to see what it was like (used to go there a lot) then went to my usual more rockier club Red Eye around 1.30-2am (kind of got distracted at Heaven by a cute guy who was exchanging glances - never quite did one long enough for me to get a smile in though! ;-( ) and was told that I'd missed one of the best Red Eyes ever! So that was a bit of an arse, but my friends do tend to exaggerate a bit and asking round I found later that it wasn't that great. I had a good time for the rest of the night though...

Tuesday I had a day off (except work) but was out again on Wednesday!! Jeez I sound like a right scene queen and clubbing whore! Well, they aren't like normal gay clubs so I don't quite see it as the same 'scene' when people call it the 'gay scene'. Anyway, this club was at Ghetto too called Nag Nag Nag. Its the electroclash music night. VERY busy - the queue goes round the block. Here is where working for the owner comes in handy as I get to jump the queue and get in free!! Just like Boy George who is always there (he's a twat though) and also Bjork has been quite a few times. Justin Timberlake and Chrisitna Aguilerra got turned away though.....No, really! They had 15 bodyguards each, and seeing busy the club is the didn't let them in!! Hahahahahaha! That wasn't the same night I went though. It was pretty good. Not my usual music but I can dance to it....there were a few friends there too, plus some friends of friends I got talking to.... Should be going again soon...

Thursday was Miss-Shapes again. That is becoming a regular but I'm gonna have to alternate it with Mondays at Red Eye cos I can't be going out every week 3 nights a week! Friday was Popstarz as usual...not much going on...pretty good night all the same...

Then Saturday just worked and Sunday went out for a few drinks after work... Monday was Red Eye as usual, though went out for some St.Patricks Day drinks with some Irish mates in Intrepid Fox pub - a rocker/metaller pub...Was quite good, not been in there for ages. Red Eye was good too, quite busy, partly helped by me doing a bit of flyering for free after the pub on the way to the club! ;-)

I think for the rest of the week I'll only go out once or twice - prob just Thurs and Fri!!

5/3/03

Well my weekend has been fairly quiet. Saturday went to a friends party...the crowd was generally about a generation older- lots of 30/40somethings... Had a few interesting chats though...one with a woman about punks bands and another with a woman whose parents were 16 when she was born and how they have now split up and living their late teens/early 20s now in their late 40s and having fun cos they couldn't do that before with looking after her...

Sunday went out for drinks with mates from work. We were in a porn shop buying some vids first and one of my mates managed to pick up this guy who then tagged along with us to the bar, and there my mate then pulled a really cute guy. I dunno how he does it - bastard! Wish I could....it's not that he has confidence to go up to them either - they seem to come up to him! Grrr!

Monday was a weird night at Ghetto the club I always go to. Music was good but atmosphere strange. There have beensome turmoils within the fairly tight-knit social group there. Most of us who go know eachother, and when as has done recently long-term boyfs split it seems to cause tensions and sides to be taken. I've tried to remain neutral but annoyingly I'm noticing people acting different towards me. Plus some other people not really involved just turning weird and hostile too, and much drunker than usual, when normally they are nice... I dunno. Strange.

Tonight there was a change to the routine...the bus broke down on the way home in the country bit beween the edge of London and where I live (only about a miles worth of farmland and woods, but the road has no streetlamps and gets narrow)...The bus had run out of diesel!! So I decided to walk cos it would be quicker than waiting for aguy from the depot to arrive, so I ended up walking along this road in the dark, trying not to trip over cos the bus had stopped right at the traffic lights b by the roadworks! And when the cars drove past they really blinded so I had to put my hands up to sheild them. When there were no cars I could actually see quite well...

Well last week I took a week off my usual bar job at the theatre to go down to Sevenoaks and do the lighting for an Opera. I did the sound the week before but only for one or two shows so didn't take the night off work, but this I had to do everyone as they paid me! Luckily it was more than I normally get paid at work (especially since it was cash in hand!) so that was cool. I always enjoy doing technical theatre work, and the lighting is always fun, but I always help with unloading the van and setting up the set etc. As the theatre staff help set up most of the lights I was only needed to operate it for the shows (I didn't actually design it), so I spent the 'get-in' doing the set and other things like setting up the cctv camera and monitors for the chorus to see the conducter backstage...That took pretty much the first day... So anyway, the week was fun, and although it was still work it was like a week off totally - a change is as good as a holiday as they say!! Plus there was a rather cute guy in thecast....unfortunately hebecame ill and missed the last 2 shows and thus the after-show party - so I didn't get a chance to speak to him! He seemed gay too ... ;-( So the party was fun (on Saturday), but felt like I'd missed out a bit!

Thursday night after the show i went to a gay indie club called Mis-Shapes....had a really good night. Since I didn't go out that Monday it was good to see some of the people who I normally chat to then were there Thursday too, so there was a familiar crowd, as well as lots of different people you don't normally see on Mondays... A friend took along his longhaired friend, who I obviously fancied - even thoughhe was abit tall for me....but I don't think he was interested so nothing happenned there... Spent much of the night though dancing on the stage/podium and jumping around like a fool...

Friday I went to Heaven instead of straight to Popstarz (went there later justto do my flyer job)....it was basically the same as they do on Mondays - a dance room, camp dance room and an 'alternative' music room... However, Mondays used to be really good,but then rival Red Eye started, and being a bit heavier and more alternative seduced all the people really into that music away (including me), so Heaven went a it poppier. It still plays the odd old indie classic or heavier thing, but mostly is it Busted or Avril Lavigne or Justin Timberlake or Sugababes/Hearsay/Liberty X etc.... So anyway, quite a good night due to friends, but not musically really! Had fun though....

Then Monday went to Red Eye - better than recent weeks and had a great time! Then back to normal work Tuesday!

10/2/03

Well this weekend was a bit more interesting...fun night at Popstarz with a mate trying to chat up two mates we both fancied (I fancied one, he fancied the other thankfully) but alas they both *said* they had boyfriends....

Saturday was a friends party with LOADS of random straights and boring at first but quite a laugh later when I gave some mates a 'cemement mixer' (Baileys and Lime cordial....a'joke' drink because it curdles and makes you wanna puke when you drink it...hehe) and then the whipped cream came out shortly after spin the bottle (the str8 guys all cheated and did fake snogs when they had to snog another guy!! Boo!) which involved the licking of cream off bodies (though not naked, alas....or fortunately depending on who it was!!)...

Sunday, today, went to the Bodyworlds exhibition. It was very interesting....it's amazing how they have done the bodies really - especially the ones of just the blood vessels right down to the tiniest ones - the bell-end of the penis is like a sponge with so many tiny blood vessels!!!! ;-) Then there were the smokers lungs (ew! glad I don't smoke!) and the unborn foetuses....Quite grim and freaky as well as interesting....the downside was that my mate zoomed off ahead, lost me and couldn't get back and got out the end before I was even a quartar of the way round (OK, I'm slow and like to take it all in in detail, but not THAT slow!) and then was surprised I was pissed off when he rang me from outside and said he had waited 40 mins and was going home....A row ensumed...;-(

So quite an eventful weekend,just a shame how it ended really....Ah well!

I'm out tomorrow night at Heaven and Ghetto (though early start Tuesday, so not out for long!) without above mate, so hopefully it will be fun if short-lived!

02/01/03

Happy New Year - may it be happy, prosperous and delicious!!!

What did you do for NYE? I went to Popstarz club. Had a really good time....You know, I flyer there every week so usually the fact that I have to stop dancing or whatever at 2 to flyer means I don't always have such a great time - that and the fact going the same place week on week gets boring anyway...but NYE the atmosphere was great, the main indie/rock room was packed (back like the old days!) and I could have stayed right till the end at 6am if I hadn't had to be up for a matinee show the next day at work so left at 4.30. Still it was also a night of drama. Big argument with a mate that lead right up to midnight because I had second thoughts about giving him a sk8er chain that I didn't think suited me because when he put it on he didn't wear it right (in my view) and so it looked wrong on him too! So when I voiced my dissapointment it came out as 'I don't know ifI wanna give it to you if you weat it wrong' and so the whole argument went off for the next 2 hours!! lol

Then, when we got in the club and had been dancing a lot and celebrated at midnight he noticed he'd lost his most valued posession - a necklace his gran back in Malaysia had given him. The problem was made worse because of all the fake snow that came at midnight, and was by now about half a foot deep on the floor, so there we were scrabbling around looking for it! No chance....so that put a dampener on things until we'd popped out and bought some more drinks from theoff-licence and smuggled them back in!

THEN we were in the toilets where everyone hangs out chatting, and I was leaning into the door frame of a cubicle with my hand grabbing the side and someone went in without seeing and shut the door squashing my fingers in the hinge!! Luckily my yelp stopped her from shutting the door properly....It wasn't too bad in the end but it made me feel decidedly ill for a few minutes after! It's not gone all black or nasty thankfully,just some bruising under the nail....

Finally, my mate went back early so say happy new year to a mate- I was supposed to ring him to get in (they have a pass door in his halls of residence) but I'd forgotten I didn't have any money with me (and my bank cards in his room), no power in my mobile, and his room number has changed and I keep forgetting to write down the new one! So there I was desperately trying to ring up to his room from reception with a VERY unhelpful security guard/receptionist...and beginning to think I'd be spending the night in the foyer! Luckily Stephen came past on the way back from his friends room to his and saw me there! Phew! So quite an interesting yet fun night really!

How was your Christmas in the end generally? Mine was OK. Working Christmas Eve and Boxing day then working NYE and New Years Day too kind of makes it like any other week really, except with presents and special effects in the nightclub!! But pretty good - and the tripple pay for working Boxing day and NewYears Day will pay for a new mobile phone which I desperately need!!

Well just haven't really been online as much because I've either been out or wanting an earlier night than usual!

Friday I was at Popstarz as usual, quite a good night. Saturday just working and came home but wanted to get some sleep. Sunday I went over to a mates house after work. We were going to go to the cinema but int he end after we'd cooked there was nothing on, so we just wandered round London for a bit then went back to his. I didn't sleep that well though cos the room was too hot and in a sleeping bag on the floor doesn't help, so not long after he left for lectures Monday morning I couldn't get back to sleep (he half woke me up when he was getting ready) I got up too. Went to a cafe for breakfast that had a lot of sexy builders in it then to Camden to buy new clothes. Unfortuately I found very few market stalls or shops open at 10.30 in the morning (obviously they are more like me in my usual sleep patterns getting up after mid-day!) so went round very slowly looking at things as the shops slowly opened it!

In the end I got a new coat (long green one of those German army surplus kind with a detatchable inside lining to make it a lighter summer coat too), a couple of cheap band t-shirts (System of a Down and a Nirvana one) �5 each and some new jeans - long baggy ones that I'm almost tripping over! lol When the bottoms are worn enough I'll cut some off.... Then I went to a music shop and bought The Datsuns album and also Foo Fighters new album...And then finally, I got a new phone!! So now I have a phone that stays turned on for more than 10 minutes and which I can actually access the phone book memory to send texts instead of typing the number in manually every time!! Yay!!

Monday night was Red Eye...not as good as last week.... Wednesday I went to Nag Nag Nag the Electroclash night at Ghetto. Last time I went it was only about a quarter full, but that was about 5 months ago....since then it has become VERY popular! The queue was around the block (luckily I had guestlist!) and inside was rammed. A bit too full really....but it was a good night. Lots of cute boys in some very interesting clobber!!

I've had a good weekend. Went out Thursday night to a small indie club called Mis-Shapes....was OK...spent much of the night discussing issues of the day with various strangers in the toilets!! lol From the gulf to relationships!!

Friday was my usual club Popstarz....very busy -likeit was in the good old days and LOADS of cute guys! Unfortunately I didn't get the guts upto chat anyup before I had to go and start handing out my flyers on the door....by thetime they leaveit is usually too late - they are either with someone else or too pissed to notice!! Or too pissed for me to want them!

Saturday wasthebest - went to a gig by my favourite band Supergrass, with support from The Datsuns and The Polyphonic Spree....They were all great, and I managed to get pretty much at the front and was squealing away when Supergrass came on and a bit of moshing/getting squashed!! The downside was the venue and it's stupid rules.....No drinks in the arena - not even water!!How stupid! Most other venues let you take beer and water into the arena, and at the front the security hand it out to all the poor squashed people!! Even worse, there was no cloakroom to put bags and coats in!! I had a bad with me as always full of bits and bobs, including the t-shirts I'd just bought at the merchandise stall, but could no way keep it with me without losing it or the contents, so I asked it I could hide it somewhere and they told me no cos it might cause a bomb scare. They also said that is why they didn't have cloakrooms for security reasons - despite the fact that you can take bags into the arena and they check you when you enter the building anyway!!So stupid. So anyway, I hid the bag in the end but unfortunately the securityjust happenned toberight where I hid it at the end - the same guy too! He told me off, so I said I was gonna write to the manager to say how stupid it was....And I think I will too!!!

After the gig we went to a friends houseparty which was quite good too, but mymate who I was crashing at wanted to leave early so my fun was prematurely curtailed!!

Today was quiet - just at home....