Pictures of the Trip to New York

OK, if you want to see pictures of the New York trip, here they are!

A Chorus Line on Broadway

Today has been another long but good one. The benefit of being on London time is that you can wake up as usual, have a couple of hours’ lie-in and still get up in time for a 06:30 breakfast! The hotel includes a continental breakfast that isn’t bad so we have been taking advantage of it.

This morning we didn’t have any firm plans and decided to spend the morning doing some photography. We headed down to Battery Park on the far south-western tip of Manhattan and I got out my long lens to see what I could make of the Statue of Liberty. (Not a lot as it turned out.) From there we took refuge in a Starbucks for half an hour to recover from the bitterly cold wind before walking up the east side of the island to the Brooklyn Bridge, which we’d originally intended to be at for sunrise as you can apparently get some spectacular shots of the city at that time in the morning. Because I confused the hours of sunset and sunrise we were too late for that, but I figured we could still check it out for a visit tomorrow and maybe get some nice pictures before the sun went too far around to the west.

This we did (I’ll not post them until I get home – to many to sort through!) and then caught the subway back to Chelsea to have brunch in a café-bar recommended in the Out Guide to New York. They did indeed have lovely food and a welcoming atmosphere and, because it was Easter, they were all wearing bunny ears: Great fun.

From there we went on to the theatre where the revival of A Chorus Line is playing. They have a lottery for cheap tickets a few hours before the show and Brett won us a couple of tickets for $22 each. (Not bad, considering the normal ticket price is in the $80-120 range!) So for about £11.50 we got to see a second Broadway show! Unlike Company though, I understand that little has changed in this revival production from the original one and, while it was enjoyable enough, it didn’t grip or stir me nearly as much. Sitting on the front row though, gave you a really up-close and personal view!

Tom met us again after the show and we had a snack in the Edison Hotel Café a few blocks from the theatre before again heading home to bed.

Company on Broadway

Wow! Company was riveting; an excellent production. The set is quite austere and open; lots of Perspex and crystal, there’s no orchestra; the cast play all the music, but the acting and singing is superb. Raul Esparza as Bobby knows how to use silence and deadpan and Heather Laws, who played Amy, did a stunningly clear job of ‘Not Getting Married.’ The show felt modern, it was engrossing, it was serious and fun and heart-wrenching at times. I started to well up as Bobby sang ‘Marry Me a Little,’ to close the first act. If you get a chance, go see it – even if you have to fly to New York for it!

So that was the highlight of Saturday and it definitely justified the trip. We had spent the morning in Central Park just strolling from north to south and taking occasional photographs. We finished up at the boathouse restaurant where we each lunched on a truly delicious roast beef and cheese sandwich. I’d been thinking of a fairly fancy lunch but we decided we weren’t really dressed and didn’t have time for a full lunch so settled for sandwiches from the café area instead and it was an excellent choice.

From there we went to the theatre for the show and afterwards met up with Tom, an old university friend of Brett’s who has a play due to open in June. We went for Tex-Mex at Chipotle and they did some catching up over dinner.

After dinner though we were both pretty weary, having decided to stay on London time for the weekend it was past our body clocks’ midnight, so we said temporary farewell to Tom and headed back to the hotel and bed.

Arrival

JFK was extremely unwelcoming when we arrived. In the immigration hall the non-US citizens’ queue consisted of several hundred people and was serviced by four officers. The queue for US citizens never exceeded fifty people and was serviced by twenty officers; every booth on that side of the hall was staffed. I spent an hour and a half watching Americans arrive and breeze through the process whilst we all edged our way past posters telling visitors how the immigration service pledged to offer us a fast, efficient service and a cordial welcome. The disparity in numbers servicing the two queues wasn’t even because the immigration people on that side of the hall were unqualified to deal with foreign visitors; when the US queue was empty the next person at the front of our queue would be directed along – but only until the next Americans came along. Clearly it is no longer the US Government’s view that all men are created equal – and it was made abundantly clear to the rest of us who the unequal ones were.

When I had finally been processed (no cordiality or welcoming at all, merely a demand for my two index fingers and to look at the camera) I found Brett sitting on our luggage waiting for me and we went on through customs. I hadn’t booked a transfer at this end as all the services I could find online were hideously expensive even by London standards, so we got a yellow cab into the city.

The cab driver was so exactly what you expect a New York cab driver to be that he was almost a caricature! He had the broadest accent, drove like a maniac and swore roundly at anyone who got in his way. After the interminable frustration and injustice of the immigration hall it was rather refreshing and helped improve my sour mood somewhat.

After checking-in at the hotel, we headed upstairs to explore the roof terrace only to find it is closed for renovation. We gave up and went to bed.

Proposal - Part Two

21:50 GMT/16:50 EST

Actually, I expected being officially ‘engaged’ to be more earth-shattering.

Instead there’s just a warm glow of rightness and the world is a very contented place.

If you, the reader, have done this properly, you will already have read the post I composed back in January and published just before this one. If you haven’t, go back and read it now before I fill you in on what has happened since.

So, I booked a hotel not long after writing that; it was a bit of a fuss as there are so many hotels to choose from in New York and hence many variables in the decision. I decided not to splash ridiculous amounts of money on a fancy suite overlooking the park – we’re only there for a few days and most of that will probably be spent out and about. However the mid-priced, midtown hotel I picked does have a roof terrace with ‘fantastic view of the Empire State Building, one block away’ and is close to a number of Metro stations for getting around.

Since then, work has gotten a little crazy and I had to be prompted to invite people to dinner and then realised that I was fast running out of weekends when I was free to go ring shopping.

In the end I spent a Saturday along Old Bond Street with Ping. I think we walked the length of it at least twice, going into the various jewellers to check out their offerings. It’s amazing how many variations there are on ‘a simple, classic wedding band in platinum.’ In the end, when I got to see them in person, it turned out that I didn’t really like the designs of the Cartier rings and they had a fairly limited stock. It came down to a decision between almost identical rings by Asprey and Tiffany and in the end I plumped for the Tiffany one and came away with an incredibly camp looking little blue/green bag containing a gift-wrapped ring box.

The camp bag rapidly got disguised in a Boots carrier bag and shortly thereafter was secreted in my desk drawer at work, ready for retrieval last night.

Again because of work, it turned out that I gave very little thought to the actual proposal until the morning of the big day itself when it suddenly crystallised in my head that today was The Big Day and I should get something lined up that would bear repeating and not sound too much like a moron stumbling over expressing his feelings. In the end the fates were kind to me; Thursday afternoon was lovely, sunny and warm so, as I rode the train home from work, I determined I’d propose going up to the Common to enjoy the last of the sunshine and celebrate the start of the long weekend. Brett was not averse, having spent most of his day at the computer, so we headed out towards the village.

He did throw one fly into the ointment; he’d lined himself up with an informal interview for Friday at noon in the Liverpool Street area – exactly the time that the car was booked to collect us from Wimbledon. Nothing was going to stop the juggernaut of my best laid plans though so I hoped that, for an occasion such as this, a telephone interview might work or a rearrangement could be had.

Anyway, we strolled up the hill and picked up some fruit juice at Tesco’s. I spotted they had fresh strawberries too, so I grabbed them and popped some thick double-cream into the basket. We picked a spot on the Common not far from the pond, laid down on the jackets we’d brought (primarily because I had the ring in the pocket of mine!) and enjoyed the moment.

The strawberries were nice, but it turned out the fresh pineapple chunks that Brett had bought went better with the cream, so we worked our way through those until I found a suitable moment to say ‘I love you.’ I followed up with telling him why, and how I felt we fit so well together and ended up presenting him with the box and asking if he’d marry me. He said ‘yes’ and we kissed and then just lay there in the afternoon sun, eating pineapple and cream and feeling good.

We talked a bit about ceremonies and dates but didn’t come to any firm conclusions. It turned out that the proposal was not totally unexpected; Brett had felt some kind of marriage vibe from me when we were back at my parents’ place for Christmas – which is indeed when the whole proposal plan was coming together in my head.

We couldn’t spend too long lingering on the Common though as we’d invited people for dinner and needed to get ready.

The dinner was excellent; Lydon’s does do good food and they had champagne on ice for us when we arrived. After it had been poured but before we’d gotten around to toasting anything, I admitted that I had something else to do and handed Brett a plain envelope for him to open. It contained the confirmation of our tickets for ‘Company’. He didn’t spot the date though, so asked when we were going to New York and was quite blown away when I said, ‘tomorrow.’ It definitely had the desired effect.

The rest of the meal went well; both the food and wine were excellent and the company was congenial – although to be honest I have limited recollection of the over dinner conversation beyond occasionally wondering what Rod and Jess were making of some of the more explicit gay banter. (I didn’t get much chance to talk to them as they were sat across the (round) table from me, so I’ll have to organise something smaller when we get back.)

This morning started just right; not too early and not too late. We got up and breakfasted, did the usual morning routine of checking emails, reading the news then showering and dressing, then started packing. The timing was perfect and we were sorted just a little ahead of the car arriving.

Things went smoothly at the airport. Despite my fears to the contrary, Brett didn’t spot the fact that the boarding pass said ‘Club World’ rather than ‘World Traveller’ and accepted my explanation that I’d splashed a little extra cash to get us into the lounges (which was actually perfectly true.) We missed the complimentary facial at Molton Brown’s because we needed to reserve a time and didn’t go down to investigate until too late, but we still had the luxury of fast-tracking through security and a comfortable place to relax and enjoy refreshments before boarding.

Just as planned, Brett was gobsmacked again when we boarded the plane and got directed to the left rather than the right.

British Airways have recently started refitting their Club Class seating and, sitting in the central two seats, we are virtually in our own private cabin. We accepted the pre-flight champagne and toasted ourselves while settling into our little cocoon. In the end we were especially glad of our luxury, as the plane went technical before we pushed-back and we were delayed for three hours while they replaced an engine management unit on the number two engine. As we waited we helped ourselves to sandwiches from the Club Kitchen and the stewards served drinks while we enjoyed the new onboard entertainment system; a wide selection of video and audio on demand.

We were airborne exactly three hours after our scheduled departure time but I really don’t feel any the worse for it. I’ve watched a documentary on the Incas, they served us dinner as soon as we were up (oh, yes, fine cuisine it was too!), we’ve spent a while reading and now I’m blogging away as Brett reclines beside me.

Life is good, enveloped in that warm glow of ‘rightness’ and I am contented with the world as I hold my husband-to-be’s hand, 38,000 feet over the Atlantic Ocean.

Proposal - Part One

Saturday, 27 January 2007

Okay, this is probably not going to be published until April when all the surprises have been revealed, but I wanted to blog it now, as it’s happening, as it is the run up to one of the pivotal moments of my life.

I have long had a bit of a fear of commitment; I am quite cynical of human nature and how people change over time and so am wary of promising anything absolutely. Hence Brett and I have been living together as partners for nearly three years and I have never felt comfortable proposing marriage to him.

Sometime before Christmas that feeling changed. I can’t really say when, how or why it happened, it wasn’t the result of a particular train of thought, rather there was some kind of subconscious emotional shift where it began to feel right to say ‘Yes, I expect to spend the rest of my life with this man and I want the world to officially recognise that fact.’

So that’s how it began.

I have something of a reputation of an all or nothing man that is not unjustified. If something is worth doing, it is worth doing well. Any actual marriage celebrations will be a joint project and I have seen enough of them to know that the day is far less for the bride and groom than it is for their guests. So I wanted to make the proposal a special, hopefully romantic event that we will both look back on fondly in the years to come.

To me romance is not the Valentine’s Day commercialism of red love-hearts, chocolates or flowers and a candle-lit dinner, it is doing something together that you know your partner is going to love for no other reason than it makes them happy. I don’t claim that my motives are entirely that pure though, as I am certainly going to get an amount of selfish enjoyment out of springing the series of surprises on Brett, but I justify myself with the knowledge that they are all going to be pleasant surprises for him and should provide both a happy and enduring memory of my proposal to him and the days thereafter.

The first thing I considered was the ring. After scoffing a few months back at John & Rich’s suggestion that one could easily expect to pay £1,000 for a wedding ring, when it actually came to buying a ring for Brett there was no question that I wanted to buy the best I could possibly afford for him. I looked at Garrard’s and Asprey’s websites but they are first and foremost jewellers rather than metal-smiths so, while they do some exquisite ladies’ engagement rings, they don’t do plain wedding bands. In the end I came to the Cartier site and found a number of rings I liked the look of.

The Stephen Sondheim musical, Company, has figured often in the development of our relationship; I first really noticed Brett when he sang the solo as Bobby in the title song of the musical at my first Chorus Concert. Another song from the show, Marry Me A Little, describes how I think marriage should be; a close and committed, considerate partnership but without any subsumption of the individuals’ identities. I think he and I have managed to build that kind of relationship these last few years. The show’s finale, Being Alive, while not an especially romantic number is just heart-rending and whenever Brett sings it, it brings a tear to my eye.

Company has recently been revived on Broadway and we’ve spoken several times of going to see it. So I figured I would surprise Brett, first with a proposal of marriage and then by flying him to New York to see the show together. As it’s a special occasion I thought we should take advantage of my (our) accumulated loyalty miles with British Airways and get upgraded seats on the flight (after all, Economy class seats are hardly intimate or a good venue for romance!) Then, as Brett is close to his family and we were going to be Stateside anyway, I thought it would be worth pre-warning his family to see if any of them could be in New York to hook up with us while we were there.

The whole idea was nearly still-born; after looking up rings, I started planning the trip to New York and balked at the price of upgraded flight seats. Alternatives, such as a weekend in Paris were considered, but none of them really felt as good as Company in New York with his family around. It was ultimately a lunch with Oz that spurred me on; he reminded me of my own oft given piece of advice about seizing the day because you never know what’s around the corner, so I went back to the BA website and played around with options and eventually took the plunge and booked theatre tickets and Club Class flights to New York over the Easter weekend 2007.

And that’s how you find me today; I haven’t booked a hotel yet, or organised transfers, but I’ve got the flights sorted, the show tickets are bought and Chris C has been charged with the mission of briefing the family and co-ordinating any family trip to NYC in complete secrecy. If all goes according to plan, we’ll have dinner with friends on the evening of Thursday 6^th April where I will do the actual proposal and reveal that we are flying to New York the following day. I won’t tell him about the Club Class seats until we board the plane, although he may well guess when we make use of the BA Lounge and Spa before boarding. Hopefully the presence of the family in New York will be a final surprise on arrival.

I am still undecided about whether to do the actual proposal over dinner or before. While I am fairly certain he will say yes, it is not the kind of decision one should feel pressured into and, being surrounded by his friends (who will all be expecting him to say yes), would certainly count as pressure. Maybe I should do the proposal before we leave for the restaurant so we have time to talk some before joining the group. That should ensure the integrity of the decision. (I know that doesn’t sound at all romantic, but if for any reason Brett isn’t entirely sure he wants to marry me just yet, I don’t want him to be forced into it by circumstances that I’ve arranged.) When he says ‘yes’ to me I want him to be as sure of the decision as I am.

Gilgamesh

We dined with Ping, John & Rich tonight at Gilgamesh, a themed restaurant in Camden Town. It’s a bit overwhelming visually but I didn’t dislike the endless carved-wood frescos and ornate inlaid furniture as much as I’d expected; it should be an assault on the senses, but isn’t. The food and drink was all good – although I think somewhat overpriced for the portion sizes. That said, the portion sizes were just about right and I came away feeling full but not stuffed. A good variety of cocktails and a superb wine list complemented the simple menu. I’d go there again – but probably only for special occasions.

Early Morning Confessional

Okay, I’ve been a bad blogger. I haven’t published in weeks. It’s not that I’ve not had the energy, more that I’ve been so busy, that there have been so many demands on my time that, when I’ve had time, I’ve not wanted to give part of me away.

Work is busy and stressful at the moment for lots of reasons I won’t bore you with. It probably won’t calm down until towards the end of April. On the up-side Rob S, a close colleague from my previous job, has accepted the role of my deputy so I’m looking forward to working with him again. On top of all that I think the new role I find myself in is forcing me to grow as a person, which is a good (if somewhat hard) thing. It’s only when I look back now I realise that I’ve been in something of a rut for a while at work. So here’s looking forward to a Brave New World!

Socially I think I have been even more out-of-touch than usual. Several times lately I’ve dropped out of events at the last minute because I am so drained when I (eventually) get out of the office. My birthday (a week past already!) was enjoyable precisely because we didn’t “do” anything for it; we stayed home, wandered around the village and indulged ourselves a bit. Brett wrote me the most lovely, touching message in my birthday card. I love him so much.

And now it’s almost time to get up and start in on another week. I ate rather too much at dinner late last night. Consequently I woke up around 4:30am and haven’t been able to get back to sleep; not a propitious start for the week ahead, but at least I do feel ready for the challenges it will no doubt bring.

Rejuvenation

Well Friday turned out to be quite productive; all the problems had either solved or been worked around so I was able to get on with being productive again and boy did it feel good!

The weekend has been fairly photographically orientated. I spent a fair amount of Saturday processing the pictures I took last weekend on the Out Photographers’ walk around The City – actually none of them were much good. Brett and I headed out around town in the afternoon and ended up watching Hot Fuzz – excellent fun; imagine an all-action Hollywood blockbuster shoot-em-up movie set in a quaint, slightly caricatured English village… I’m surprised they didn’t nuke the vicarage before they were done!

We had a bit of a cosy evening afterwards though.

Today was more mucking about with the camera – actually more time was spent trying to make the dining room function as a studio than was spent with the camera, but what can you do? – as I followed up my recent photography course with some practice.

Life is a Cabaret, Old Chum

How long has it been? I don’t know; I’ve lost track.

It’s been a crazy week at work following work at the weekend following a busy week at work; I’ve been interviewing, I’ve been budgeting, I’ve been doing open heart surgery on the network (well, okay, replacing the central firewall!) Am just back from the second session of a photography course I’d booked myself onto, which was well worth the £90 it cost. Was out for the day on Sunday with a group of guys from Out who are forming a photography club (not as cheesy as it sounds, honestly!)

When I got back tonight, Rosie was in a lather; she’d been talking to one of her friends who’s just thrown her husband out of the house for allegedly having an affair. However, while the husband is certainly hot enough to be prime affair-having material, he’s actually always struck me as far too devoted a husband to do that kind of thing and too honest to deny it if he were and was confronted about it. But then, what do I know!? People are surprised about the depths of depravity that go on in my mind because outwardly I’m such a straight-forward guy, so I guess you can’t always judge by appearances. Either way, the evidence in this case sounds highly circumstantial so I hope they can work it out.

Brett is out at a Chorus meeting tonight but has hopefully spent the day finishing off a ‘code test’ he had to perform as part of his application for a job. I hope he gets it, if for no other reason than I think the cabin fever is really getting to him and these last few weeks we’ve hardly seen each other.

We went out to see Cabaret last night; Brett had been in town for lunch with Ping and had stopped by the half-price booth in Leicester Square afterwards. It’s been on our list since it opened but after the first half I was rather indifferent. The second half though was much stronger and the ending struck deep. I was pensive all the way home and just wanted to keep Brett close to me.

More interviews tomorrow. And more budgetting.

Domestic Satisfaction & More Sondheim

I’ve been fairly industrious this weekend; lots of laundry done, dishes washed, shopping bought – I even spent an hour this afternoon cleaning the inside of the fridge! Alas tidying didn’t quite make the agenda, so the flat still looks like a bachelor pad, but I am feeling good nevertheless.

Saturday evening I was back up near Old Street, firstly having dinner with Brett and the rest of the cast and subsequently watching the show for a second time. Compared to Friday night there was a spectacular improvement in the quality of the performance; there were still some pretty severe tuning issues in a couple of places, but they’d got the amplification problems sorted out so you could hear better and several of the individual performers were much improved. Given the difference from the Friday night to the Saturday night, I can’t help but wonder what difference another couple of weeks’ rehearsal might have made!

John W & Rich C were there along with John’s ex, Edward. Also along for the evening was Mark G, another Chorus guy, with an old friend.

After the show there were drinks in the bar. Once the audience had drifted off, the cast and their significant others/hangers-on all headed up the Kingsland Road for some Turkish food and the typical round of self-congratulations and talk of the future. Brett and I eventually headed home around 2am in a taxi with two other south-of-the-river folk.

Avenue Q 4-1 Side By Side By Sondheim

You know you’ve seen a musical too many times when;

1) One of the leads walks on stage and you think to yourself, “Hmm, he’s lost weight since the last time I saw him,”

2) You get caught off-guard by the start of a song – but still know all the words,

3) You find yourself watching the audience more than the stage at the ‘good bits’ to enjoy their reaction to what you know is coming!

So Owen had some cheap tickets to see Avenue Q on Thursday and Rosie and I went along to see it. Still very enjoyable. During the interval we were sitting in the foyer eating our ice creams and nearby were a couple who, by their accents, were down from Liverpool: She was amazed that she was filling-up with tears for the puppet characters while he was exclaiming how he had been expecting The Muppet Show and “it so wasn’t!” More satisfied customers.

Thursday was also the opening night of Brett’s show, Side By Side By Sondheim, and he came home feeling fairly good about it; he’d gotten most of his words right and hadn’t made any major cock-ups. (He has great difficulty memorising lyrics.)

Friday I had a ticket for the show (with Rosie again) and we headed up to Old Street after work. John Mc and his new boyfriend, Richard, were there too.

I must admit that, when Brett had said that some of the cast members couldn’t sing, I had thought he was exaggerating, but in fact he wasn’t. I understand that most of the cast were suffering badly from lingering colds – just as Brett had been until recently – but even so some of the show was just excruciating. I feel guilty saying that, as I’ve met a number of them and they are all great people, but the show definitely needed more work.

Brett at least was in shining form. Other than in the Chorus and at parties, I don’t think I’ve ever seen him perform before and he’s always worrying about forgetting words and being nervous, so it was a bit of a revelation to see him so relaxed and confident on stage. Afterwards he said that he was still just as nervous as ever, but it certainly didn’t come across in his acting, dancing or singing. I was glowing all the way home.

I’m seeing the show again tonight, but having now seen it the once, I think I will be better prepared when tonight’s show is over to walk that treacherous fine line that will be the After Show Party!

Aboard the Flying Scotsman

The day has gone pretty much as expected; I spent a few hours in the office first thing and everything there was going smoothly. Left around 11am and spent an hour reading in the big bow window coffee shop in Waterstones before taking a stroll along to the station. The weather is glorious; sunny, clear blue sky and quite mild for February. From the office you can see right the way out past the Firth of Forth.

The journey has again been lovely; I’ve put away my fair share of the free tea and taken advantage of the onboard wifi to chat to Joe R and Chris C whilst developing another blog comment for one of my mental scratching posts.

A quiet night-in tonight I think, as Brett is rehearsing!

Release

So in the end the job that I expected to be done with around 8:30 lasted until gone midnight. The only small consolations were a call from Brett when he finished his rehearsal, chatting online to a couple of friends in between checking on the server and seeing Edinburgh Castle out of the office window in all of its illuminated glory, apparently floating over the darkness of The Mound; very picture-postcardesque.

A certain amount of schadenfreude knowing that they guy whose fault it was that this all happened was up at least as late as me making sure it doesn’t happen again. I think I am going to take advantage of the late night and claim back some hours tomorrow to relax around Edinburgh; maybe just pop into the office first thing to make sure they’re all okay and then spend the rest of the morning reading and drinking coffee in Waterstones on Princes Street. I can always catch up with the work email on the trip back… free wifi on GNER!

Destructive Urges

Right now I really want to smash something. I want to take something, ideally complex and intricate, and then throw it at a wall, then stamp on the pieces and grind them into the carpet. I am really, really frustrated at the moment and I want to take it out on something other than the HP Proliant server which is the cause.

Yes, once again, the stress in my life is being caused by a server.

I’m in Edinburgh to do an OS upgrade on the server here. Before beginning work at that kind of level, it’s usually a good idea to give the machine a reboot to refresh the system and make sure there are no outstanding changes that could interfere with what you want to do. As the server was starting up again from this reboot, I noticed it automatically installing a piece of software that it should not be… and that’s when my evening started wading through treacle.

I’m now three hours into the job and I haven’t started the ninety-minute upgrade I came here to do. I am still trying to uninstall this retched piece of crappy little software (produced, by the way, by a market-leading security company!) off of my server so it will start responding to me in real time again and let me do what I came here to do.

Fuck computers.

Déjà Vu

And the rest of the week was strangely similar to the first half.

Had a pleasant dinner with Joe R on Thursday evening over at the Earls Court Balans. It was the first time we’ve gotten together since New Year so we had some catching up to do. As well as the usual stuff, he had some interesting observations about some of his fellow guests at the party (none of which I am going to share here!)

Friday was tedious and long and I was glad when it was over.

Today I spent a little while at the British Museum, where a group of the Out guys were getting together to talk about forming a photography group. Interesting idea; some tuition, exhibition, criticism and organised shoots. Ironically, the first meeting proper clashes with one of the photography classes I already have booked. Nevertheless, at least I’ve got my name on the list.

Was meant to be doing a second portrait shoot with Graeme N tomorrow, but he’s got the ‘flu so I’ve got a day to myself. For all that, though, I’ll probably end up spending it reading CVs.

No gym today. I feel guilty.

A Quick Salute in the Admiral Duncan

Work was rather unsatisfying today; got very little done and had to deal with lots of interruptions along the way.

Chris C was in town though so we got together for dinner at Balans in Soho after work. We had a pleasant meal and did some catching up and then had a brief wander through Soho. He was quite unperturbed by the exotic delights of the Prowler Store (and I was disappointed that they don’t seem to stock the UK Firefighters Calendar, as I’m sure it would have raised a smile) but he was quite moved when we had a pint in the Admiral Duncan. (Through his job he has quite detailed knowledge of the bombing in 1999 and it felt significant to be having a drink in the rebuilt pub, which was busy even on this bitterly cold Tuesday evening.)

We went our separate ways along the Bakerloo line shortly thereafter and I was pleasantly surprised to discover it was only just 10 o’clock when I got home, as it had felt like quite a full evening.

There's a Song in my Head

Why do songs get stuck in our heads, playing over and over? For months I’ve had the tracks of Avenue Q appearing spontaneously, then at the weekend John & Rich had ‘A New World’ on one of their playlists and that became the new theme-to-my-day and now, after last night’s rehearsal, I’ve got ‘I Just Wanna Dance’ from Jerry Springer The Opera going round and round behind my eyes. Are there any psychologists or neuroscientists out there who can tell me why these things keep sticking in my head??

'Round An Unexpected Bend

Hmm… I think there was a weekend in there somewhere.

Saturday we got up late, watched an episode of Grey’s Anatomy and by then it was lunchtime. Brett and I did a bit of shopping then spent an hour in the gym before lunch. By the time we’d finished lunch there were only a couple of hours left before we had to leave for John & Rich’s party so we pretty much just lazed and read.

The party was good, although as ever I drank a little too much too early and then spent the second half of the night sobering up. Good food too (and a chocolate fountain!) The house is lovely; spacious and in a nice setting although it looks a little sparse at the moment as they are still furnishing it. It was an entirely Chorus and WAGs affair but was social enough for all that; not too much Chorus politics (although there were a few sharp words between Brett and John G but they kissed and made up afterwards…) Didn’t get to bed until four-ish.

Was in fairly good shape this morning; hung out with Raman until John came downstairs and we began some clearing-up. Eventually the other over-nighters, Marc & Roddy emerged and we all had some toasted muffins before departing. After dropping them off close to their home, Brett and I continued up to Walthamstow to drop him off for his rehearsal. I eventually made it home a little after 2pm and pretty much napped my way through the afternoon.

Now suddenly it’s Sunday night and the weekend is over.

Imagine No Religion

At a time when people of religion are out attempting to kidnap their brethren to behead online or lobbying the government to protect their own intolerance, perhaps we should all take a moment to imagine how it might be without the irreconcilable, dogmatic “certainties” that afflict such people.

I thoroughly recommend Richard Dawkins’ book The God Delusion as a compelling discussion of why we don’t need God or any of his trappings in our universe.