Paul in London

Paul : I think I’m being stalked by a man from the Gujarat province… An : Really? What’s his name? Paul : It’s Parool but I don't know his last name... An : His last name must be Shah as everyone’s name from the Gujarat province ends in Shah... Paul : Really? An : Absolutely. And they call homosexuals Gay Shahs…

A religious service was operating on the Piccadilly Line this evening... In the name of the father, the SPAD and TfL, one got home safely...

After dancing all night by lunchtime Monday one really fancied a tart...

It was bank holiday weekend so it was the time to be dancing yeah (and to be dazzled by dem pretty lights)...

Beer and chips that didn't make it... Forks complimentary...

DSC02766 Originally uploaded by Pauly_ . There was this little wooden man...

The common is a little busier this weekend with the 2-day Metro Weekender on. Punters without a ticket to the event (which sold out) could sort of pick up the music just outside the fenced off area... If the amount of news space devoted on the subject are any measure, the locals seem to get very excited about the noise that is generated from the handful of concerts staged every year on the common. Depending on how the wind blows, it seems to be either muffled noise or nothing at all... One unintented consequence of these concerts is some very good looking people descend upon SW4 and that can only be a good thing surely...?

Scenes from a Brixton Bar Friday 19:42 Originally uploaded by Pauly_ . Cocktail hour...

I miss you like tiramisu.

I caught the movie A Scanner Darkly on Wednesday evening. Based on Phillip K Dick's novel and set seven years in the future in California where the war on terror and the war on drugs seem to have merged as the same threat. The film was a trippy sort of story full of paranoia and hallucinations. It was probably deliberate that it all didn't make sense until the last half hour or so. It was also a film that was shot normally and then animated using a process called interpolated rotoscoping which added to the dreamlike feel to it… In the end I kind of liked it as it was like a graphic novel. The only problem I really had with it was that it was a bit hard to take a movie about drugs featuring Robert Downey Jr and Winnona Ryder… It felt like watching a sensitive documentary on the holocaust narrated by Mel Gibson or Tom Cruise doing a community awareness spot on depression: just all wrong and a distraction. The author acknowledges at the end of the film all the people who have do

All the news today is about the 420,000 Eastern European migrants who have come to the UK since enlargement of the EU in May 2004. This number does not include self-employed individuals. They didn't all try to settle in London (after all it is the antipodeans that have 18 people living in a bed-sit in Dollis Hill), the migration patterns appear to have covered all over the UK – with a particular focus on the Anglia region…

Man on phone : Yeah he was just… He was just… He was just… He was just "Well you can just go to Dubai"…

Lad #1 : Hey your middle toe is longer then your big toe… Lad #2 : Yeah I know. That Mexican bird who did me a manicure mentioned it… Lad #1 : You mean pedicure… Lad #2 : Oh yeah…

Scenes from Clapham South tube Sunday 22:15 Originally uploaded by Pauly_ . Going up...

Friday night I caught The Seagull at the National Theatre. It is a new version of the Chekhov play by Martin Crimp that has been getting good notices but not so great audiences as they have been discounting tickets to get the punters in. Juliet Stevenson as Arkadina the fading leading leady features in a great cast in a story about artists and the new Turks, unrequited and lost love. Her son Konstantin is a new writer and is in love with Nina but Arkadina's lover Trigorin steals her away. Meanwhile Masha is in love with Konstantin but it is unrequited. In between the high drama there are a lot of things unsaid but then again this is Russia and Chekhov. The ending (spoiler to follow) left a lot of people dazed and startled when it ends in the suicide of Konstantin offstage with a loud bang. It certainly made me jump. Arkadina barely has enough time to scream at the news before the curtain came down. We all filed out of the theatre not saying much… Maybe the drama felt a little too

Preview for the film version of The History Boys is out now. It will open in London in October and there is already a huge buzz behind it. When I saw the play in April 2005 apart from thinking it was the best thing I have ever seen on stage, I also thought it definitely deserved to be turned into a film… Original cast all feature in the film including Frances de la Tour. For reason (that now escapes me) last year I decided not to mention her name in my post but talked about her character. She got the Tony this year for this performance…

From: R Sent: 18 August 2006 17:32 To: Paul Subject: Re: you are like a fione wione me dear…. full bodied and fresh.....haaaaaahhhhhhh ---- From: Paul Sent: 18 August 2006 17:33 To: R Subject: Re: Really? And I thought I was more like vinaigrette... Good to have around with lettuce... ---- From: R Sent: 18 August 2006 17:34 To: Paul Subject: Re: you calling me lettuce ---- From: Paul Sent: 18 August 2006 17:38 To: R Subject: Re: Like a roquet... ---- From: R Sent: 18 August 2006 17:41 To: Paul Subject: Re: any blue cheese involved here or just a salad medley ---- From: Paul Sent: 18 August 2006 17:50 To: R Subject: Re: Tossed salad... Maybe some blue vein... ---- From: R Sent: 18 August 2006 17:52 To: Paul Subject: Re: oh my god I have just spat tea out all over my desk..... ---- It was one of those days…

Police seal off the street after a noxious substance was found eminating from Comptons bar. It wasn't flatulence from the punters (which wouldn't have been a surprise looking at the punters that go there), but to date nobody can quite explain what the gas was...

Keeping in SW2, the big news today was that a man who trimmed his hedge into the shape of a whale could keep doing so , providing that it wasn't a blue whale size… Given that it is topiary it does require a little imagination to make out it is a whale. Some people have mistaken it for a peacock… Others have mistaken it for a hedge owned by a loony…

I'm not quite sure what this is all about... Was it somebody's experience with a skilled tradesperson? Photo was taken in the ladies by M...

Scenes from Clapham Sunday 20:04 Originally uploaded by Pauly_ . It was a bit of a cold and damp weekend... But it no doubt was nice to get the Porsche washed... I am not quite sure why everyone living on this street owns a black car... Maybe it is an SW4 thing...

DSC02669 Originally uploaded by Pauly_ . Despite the sales concluding last week, people still persist in shopping on Oxford Street... I only go there for the John Lewis store and the egyptian cotton sheets... Ahhhhhhhhhhh...

As travelers come to grips with what it means to be living in a CRITICAL security threat level , there is heated debate on the Newsnight website about the raids. Some people are sceptical about intelligence after Forrest Gate, Stockwell and many other recent arrests where suspected terrorists were subsequently let go. Others are troubled by the fact that under normal security measures does that mean you could smuggle nasty things on board? Newsnight is a fantastic news programme and I figured it was about time I made reference to the show on my blog.   The news media in this country is such a relief from the hysterics of back home or in the US. I was only in New York for a week and I felt impending doom based on the way they managed to inject fear and armageddon in every news   And for those of you asking if I have been affected by the new security measures I have to declare that I won't be taking breast milk on flights... But I am not flying in August anyway... Shocking tim

Hand luggage is banned from flights today as the highest security in recent times is implemented following the discovery of a plot to blow up planes mid-flight . Liquids and electronic items are a particular focus of the ban… Heathrow is closed at present to all incoming flights.

This picture is really an excuse to show tits with tassels on my blog (as I don't think I have had the opportunity to do this before), but at the Harlequin bar on Saturday night in Brighton there was an excellent cabaret act from Dave Lynn and Lola Lasagne... They sang, they danced (sort of) and provided a lot of laughs... What the straight woman was doing wearing this in a bar full of gays, lesbians, bi and trans persons is anyone's guess. It did cause a bit of a stir when the lesbians in the audience wanted to get a bit closer... A doctor behind me wanted to inspect first hand if one breast was bigger than the other but she was held back... But it wasn't all drag acts for the evening. Later J and I moved on to Monkey where apart from it being warm enough that a sudden turn of your head would make beads of sweat fly across the room, a gentlemen latched onto me in what would have to be best described as a k-hole-induced-koala-hug and would not let go. I wasn't quite su

DSC02553 Originally uploaded by Pauly_ . After a long day in the park in those heels one would need a nap...

Matching black and white kilts were popular among the 150,000 plus punters in Brighton for Brighton Pride this weekend... As to be expected for a free pride event the place was heaving (including the bushes towards the back of the park) but full of people having picnics, buying overpriced fake sunglasses, having the odd drink or taking the odd vitamin...

Young luvvy #1 : They're going to have a competition to find the new Maria for the Sound of Music. Oh it's such a great show… Young luvvy #2 : I can sing Do-Re-Mi in Japanese… Young luvvy #1 : But Japanese is such an unmusical language… Although I'm sure your voice is lovely…