blimey.

met zeke [a cute spikey blonde californian friend-of-a-friend] monday morning, fresh off-the-boat from san diego. his first day in england, i did my best to host my bunac permit-holding friend. he’s in an almost identical situation as i was just 5 years ago…

i took him to the king william pub in hampstead for lunch, bought some groceries and then explained to him how international dialling and the london underground work.

to celebrate the resumption of my normal life after two weeks of deadlines, i planned on meeting marky in town for some evening cocktails. he was just 9 minutes late, but in those 9 minutes, waiting for him at leicester square, i became self-conscious, embarassed and [dare i say] enraged.

i swear that i’m not anti-american… perhaps part of my rage was due to my american-overload from hanging out with zeke earlier. perhaps the spring-break tourist season is upon us. perhaps i really am not true-to-my-roots. i dunno, i was just ready to strangle some jansport-wearin’, lie-chest-er square sayin’, yankees ballcap-sportin’, mcdonalds-eatin’ yanks.

mark and i enjoyed one cocktail at ku [skinny old guys], friendly [cruisy chubby straight girls], village [unhappy smelly bartenders] and g-a-y bar [loud watery cheeky girls] each before stumbling upon irish lee and his two mates at retro bar. he was perturbed [rightfully so] to see me, since i told him i’d ring him if i could get away from work.

inside .heaven were the usual boys… particularly, two cuties that i’ve had my sights on since i met each of them. first there’s cutie tom, who—get this—is not only not a student, but even has a real job and earns real money. i know! i obviously have some strange affinity for students, but tom has the most gorgeous smile, and can hold his own against my conversational charms. he’s always had a boyfriend, though, which has always meant my flirtations go unreciprocated.

the second boy was manchester rory, aptly named from our encounter in manchester and the subsequent friday naughtiness back in london. he never really returned my last few text messages, so i figured he wasn’t interested in pursuing things. fair enough.

so, yesterday, in the presence of tom and manny, with rory just a few feet away, i discover that the friday night that rory and i hooked up, he and tom had been dating for some time, and that, on that friday i caused a massive fight and eventual breakup. i had no idea they were together, so was therefore innocent.

this explains why tom was upset with me the last few times i saw him, and why rory was avoiding me. i hope i managed to smooth over things betweetn rory and i, and tom and i. all three of us had dates last night, but that didn’t stop a little bit of smooching on the side. you know, for consolation’s sake.

ah, .heaven. after the drama with the above lads and scottish david‘s friend ben, i danced with irish lee and his harem to the bumping hardbag tunes, navigating the dj sammy remixes and middle-aged [ageist!] asian [racist!] cuddlepuddles. till closing. i got some strange relationship/guilt-trip/anger vibes from lee on the nightbus home, but, to be honest, i wasn’t in the mood to sort through any relationship issues, since we don’t have a relationship.

cold hearted eric.

dragged myself back from outer uzbekistan [zone 6] into london this morning to enjoy a devine lunch at cubana… spicy funky tapas and plenty of mojitos. fried sweet potatoes. crab cakes. plantain. mmmm… mark made sense of my boy situation[s], i made sense of his employment situation[s] and we decided to go see a matinee, settling on far from heaven, which we both enjoyed thoroughly. amazing visual presentation of 1950s suburbia, coupled with amusing [but not piss-taking] era slang, and honest [but still prejudiced] thematic representations of homosexual and interracial stigmas. two thumbs up.

and, thankfully, i shall be far from .heaven myself for a while. :wink:

quiet calm invader

i took friday night off to go and play and socialize and, well, to have a proper date with irish lee. to set things, erm, straight, irish lee isn’t irish, ya know—he’s english. but, he’s a bit of a crazy lad, and adopts a variety of accents/personas. when i met him he was pretending to be irish, so that’s how the name stuck. i’ve also enjoyed him as italian, brazilian, german, hillbilly american and on friday as a thuggish east-end school bully.

spent a good 15 minutes roaming around covent garden trying to find that romantic restaurant zizzi, but, i got us horribly horribly lost. instead we snuck in to an over-the-top italian restaurant called luigi’s. i mean, does the water need to be imported from italy? lots of giggles and smiles and gazing throughout the meal. i was enjoying spending time with him, but also enjoying putting my work on hold for one evening—being on deadline with the mag has really sucked away the rest of my life. delightful sea bass tortellini and wine and dessert and yummm!

took little convincing to go to .popstarz. we arrive, and there’s no queue! and i was so looking forward to impressing him with my guestlist action. i mean, how sexy am i… hey, baby, i can put you on the .popstarz guestlist. pshyeah.

in general, taking a date to a club is really never a good idea is it? obviously there are plenty of undesirable situations. i run into an ex. he runs into an ex. or a current fling. or my drunken friends. or a way hot boy. all of these things happened, but we survived. :cool:

simon the biter was there, which was… interesting. he had just finished his first day at his new job at the friendly society, and was looking divine as always. he didn’t know anyone else at .popstarz, so he attached himself to lee and i, which was fine, i suppose. i mean, simon and i are supposedly fine with our just friends status, but i still felt incredibly uncomfortable showing affection for lee in front of simon. everyone seemed to be cool with the situation, so maybe i [or my ego] was just overreacting.

breakfast in bed consisted of müsli with peach and maracuya yogurt, toast with blueberry conserve and nutella spread, and coffee. good things come in threes :wink: