Paul in London

Scenes from the British Museum Tuesday 15:44 - Just visited the Persia: The Forgotten Empire exhibit which consisted of lots of plaster casts and a few amazing artefacts loaned from Tehran which give an indication of the former empire. The casts (one is pictured above) taken in the 19th century are now in better condition than the originals so have special significance. This show has been getting raves and while it is a cramped exhibition (particularly trying to navigate around the pushy old ladies who are experts at trying to push you away from what they want to see) it is well worth catching...

News: London crackheads A new interesting stat has cropped up suggesting that 46,000 Londoners are using crack . Sometimes it feels like you know them all when you wander through certain parts of Bloomsbury, or use certain railway stations in South London. It hasn't been out of the ordinary for some crack users to light up on public transport... Such is the life of a London crack user. In the last few months I have noticed the dealers in Soho are getting more and more bold with just openly asking you if you are after various vitamins. It is mainly "coke" or "charlie" one is offered (being white and looking middle class I guess). When I am with Ad he has this annoying habit of talking back to the dealers by saying "No my name's not Charlie". Oh bah hah... And in today's breaking news Kate Moss, who the Daily Mirror caught snorting cocaine (surely that couldn't have been hard), has been dropped by H&M as the face for a new fas

And now...… A little diversion: I'm thirty years old tomorrow And I haven't worked since late August. What a bum! Just thinking about tomorrow Turning thirty while pals are pushing forty I feel young! So I'm on holiday And its grey And chilly But I just head to the gym And grin And Say I'm thirty years old tomorrow So I gotta hang on 'Til tomorrow Come what may Tomorrow! Tomorrow! I'm thirty tomorrow And that means not much Nowadays

This morning I awoke to see in the kitchen the remains of a small grey furry mouse. It had its head caught in the trap and had fortunately kept it together rather than snap it in half and have its innards oozing out. It definitely did put one off coffee and bagels this morning as I got the dustpan out and shoved it into the garbage bag. It isn't a good sign when your building supervisor exclaims "oh you too" when told that there are either mice or rats in your flat. I suspect it is both and that when the lights go down it is a little rodent free-for-all in this place.

Scenes from Buckingham Palace Saturday 16:03. Just who are these two gentlemen in white? Rumour has it that they went to Buckingham Palace in their white wardrobe to see the special exhibition of Queen Elizabeth's (later the Queen Mother's) White Wardrobe . While their clothing isn't exactly Norman Hartnell it is amazing how the one of the right is wearing a black sash just like the Queen did on her tour to France in 1938 (although the fact that it is a black Kipling bag is beside the point)... The summer opening of Buckingham Palace (which runs through to 27 September) was a chance to see the State Rooms of the palace as well. There is a sense of the dramatic in the design of some of these rooms along with a great sense of history. The state rooms are a mixed bag of grand stately design and over the top dramatics but it all seems to work rather well. Besides it is a fabulous location with a rather grand backyard (where the above photograph was taken). One also got to se

Achievements Things that I have done this week while on holiday: 1. Read. Including newspapers. The Guardian has a fantastic new format and has finally ditched that san-serif font that I loathed... Not that I want to get the reputation for being a "Guardian Reader". Over the past two years I have carefully cultivated an impression that I read the Times... And I do... And this has got me out of a few sticky situations (believe it or not) but I may have to change now that The Guardian has gone berliner... It will mean having to put up with all that anti-war editorial but oh well... 2. On Monday I met with A near Embankment Tube. I was a little late so was looking around for him and then suddenly out of nowhere I see him jump in front of me and shout "BOO!" While I was initially startled I took it to be a personal triumph that I managed to get a man who was wearing a pinstripe suit (and looking all very senior executivish) to do something totally silly. That's it

Scenes from WC1 Thursday 12:22. I am on holiday and it is cold and it is raining. Well...  

Theatre: Romance Caught David Mamet's latest play Romance last night which was an unusual experience. It took a while to dawn on me that this is a farce and a bit of an odd one at that where the dialogue actually doesn't help with the comprehension of what the story is about. By the second scene however it began to make sense to me that it doesn't make sense. So if you could sit back and enjoy the ride then you would have the time of your life as middle east politics, burnt stew, gays and goys take over... Most of the time saying fuck this and fuck that in that very tasteful way that only David Mamet can put it. By the time the interval came around and we were doing post first act analysis, A commented that he wasn't so sure about it. A friend of his quipped that he didn't understand it at all but was absolutely transfixed by the lunch actor Nigel Lindsay was carrying in his trousers. I think it was the cut that made the trousers hang in this particular way but wh

News: Ashes and gunshots Trafalgar Square was a popular spot to be for the ashes fans... St George flags were all over central London yesterday as everyone (who was English) decided to go crazy after winning the Ashes for the first time in 18 years... Fortunately all the Australians interviewed on TV were very complimentary saying the "better side won" and all those niceties. Meanwhile over at Harvey Nicks at Knightsbridge a man shot and killed a shop assistant in the beauty department before turning the gun on himself. Probably not the best place to go for a facial at the moment...

Scenes from Victoria Embankment 16:22. Just another sunny day in the park... a nice place for a nap? 

The dinner game There has been a slight hiatus given that one has been busy with a few other tasks, but on Sunday a successful dinner party was held in Balham. A was cooking curries for his friends and I was an innocent bystander in the goings on. During the evening however, the subject of chicken curry I cooked in Australia was brought up as a topic for discussion. I had cooked a curry for six and when eight arrived I threw in a head of cauliflower so there was enough for everyone. I had raised this a week or so back with A as I found the whole idea of using cauliflower as "chicken extender" quite amusing. A being an aficionado on what to put and not to put in a curry found the whole idea of cauliflower in a chicken curry to be a ghastly thought and so much discussion ensued about the merits and demerits of cauliflower in a chicken curry. I maintained it rather a practical solution for when eight instead of six guests arrive. After everyone left and we were doing a bit of cl

Movie: Pride and Prejudice On Friday night I caught a preview at the National Film Theatre of Pride and Prejudice - the new version with Keira Knightly. Keira is on all the posters for this flick, but the real thing that everyone in the cinema was talking about was whether Matthew MacFadyen would be any good as Mr Darcy and especially if he could match up to Colin Firth. I had an open mind about this as I had only just recently seen MacFadyen in Henry IV (Part 2) at the National. He played the role of Prince Hal in this production and while he was very good, in Part 2 this role doesn't give him much to do except for walking around becoming more and more regal. I had it on good authority from A that he was much more interesting role in Part 1, but still I could see that he had the necessary sour-puss face required for Mr Darcy. The National Film Theatre had just renovated the main cinema to improve the sound and acoustics. As the cinema is located underneath Waterloo Bridge one

Overheard at the gym tonight: Man #1: How is your back? Man #2: Ah I had that back injury years ago... Man #1: You did? Man #2: Yeah but the injury seems to live on in stories doing the rounds...

News: Cricket and Warne Shocking news on the front page of the Evening Standard that Shane Warne was suspected of shoplifting . Even more shocking was that he was shopping at Cecil Gee , which sells mostly rubbish at name label prices without the snob value of buying an actual label. Then again, it is probably a safer bet than talking dirty on a mobile phone... The final ashes test has made anybody with the slightest ambivalence towards cricket a little more interested in the game now that it actually seems like England has a chance of winning. As much as people taunt me about this prospect I don't really care if Australia loses as they have held the bloody thing for 16 years. Ok I may be accused of being thoroughly un-Australian for saying it but surely nobody can deny that this Ashes has been more interesting than the last few?

Music: Prom 71 Caught Prom 71 last night with A. We didn't sit together as A was very organised and got his tickets ages ago while I bought my ticket online at 1am Monday morning upon remembering that this concert was coming up this week. This last minute purchase meant that I sat in the circle with a restricted view. This meant that I could not see all of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and at times the acoustics made it seem like the orchestra were playing down the street. It was also bloody hot with the heat from the lights and 3000 living and breathing bodies in the hall seemingly rising and hitting you in waves... But I could see the conductor Zubin Mehta and the soloist Katarina Dalayman . As it was an event concert that was being televised it was exciting to just be there anyway... It was a bitty programme really however with the lovely Haydn Symphony No 103 opening the programme, followed by Three Fragments from Berg's opera "Wozzeck" which didn't rea

Scenes from the V&A Garden Wednesday 18:04. Prior to heading to the Proms concert at nearby Albert Hall I met up with A for a quick bite to eat in the V&A Garden, which has only just recently opened. The garden is where you can have a quick coffee and a muffin or something a little more substantial in the open air and feel very sophistimicated amongst the York stone and overlooking a pond and lush grass . It is a very smart space. I felt smart just by being there... Anyway, the V&A is open late on Wednesdays and Fridays and is well worth a trip in the early evening when it is less crowded and there is a programme of events. A also gave me a quick tour of the museum - which included showing me the toilets the Royal Family uses when they visit the museum. Alas I couldn't see the cubicle with its own wash basin as somebody was using it at the time of visit. They must have been awfully surprised to hear A and I trying to open the door before we realised that it was engage

News: Special K goes mainstream The press today were in the full of reports about the popularity of ketamine . Ketamine for the past few years has been the drug of choice by the gay clubbing community and it has been standard issue at any gay party or dance club as it can be easy to conceal and if taken correctly gives you an experience. Thanks to a new research report it has confirmed what has been going on in the wider clubbing community - ecstasy is out and ketamine is in. It also helps that ketamine is a legal drug for now. All you need to do is be on good terms with your local vet...

Theatre: How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying Of course there was another reason to travel to Chichester yesterday and that was to catch How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying before it ended. It is a very silly show although one could get some career guidance out of the central message that a little bit of research and a lot of brown-nosing can get you anywhere if you play your cards right. The show was a lot of fun and well staged in the Chichester Festival Theatre. It is a very funny show and despite some of the stereotyping and sexual innuendo (or perhaps because of it) it still holds up well. Some songs such as "A Secretary Is Not A Toy" had difficulty being accepted by the mild-mannered Chichester audiences. They were much more comfortable with the standard from the show (I don’t think there is more than one) "I believe in you". The little old folk beside me at the back row were humming away to that one (a pity they were drowning out th

Overheard on East Street Chichester Slapper (on mobile) : Now John I won't say she's using you, but John, but John no, no John but John... John... John...

Scenes from Chichester Cathedral Monday 17:32 - The Cathedral has obvious influences from a variety of periods dating back to the Norman periods (and that is the bell tower on the left), but in the grounds amongst the old gravestones there were a few goths having a picnic and burning what looked to be a bible. Oh those crazy goths. They will try and smoke anything... 

Out and About: Chichester Heading on the train back to London (arriving at 1am) I can report that my holiday now entering week two has seen me leave London and take a day trip to Chichester. Yes I am getting out and about. Chichester is a lovely little town with Roman ruins and a cathedral - a lot like most little English towns when you think about it - although the Cathedral itself is a fantastic building with some very beautiful artwork, including a John Piper Tapestry. While shopping in the city centre I happened to notice that there were a lot of things that you could buy that had an Australian connection. Whether it was the wine or the rock salt in a kitchen store, I kept encountering Australiana. What was going on? I am not quite sure what Chichester is famous for nowadays... Apart from the Roman ruins and its summer festival it seemed to be its vast supplies of Australiana... I could even purchase a shopping bag with the words "Brisbane" on it... Hmm...

Scenes from Tooting Common Sunday 15:27. The last day of the holidays and a sunny day so all the pink skin comes out... 

Dinner going back... Friday night I was invited back to Haringey which I had very fond memories of ( recalling my posts of October 2003 ) by M1 and M2. M1 and M2 had arrived at the house after I had left. M2 has just been evicted as he is too French for the house but I told him about my dastardly time I left the coke can out which provoked a full scale incident response so he should really treat this eviction as a badge of honour. Since I left I had noticed that the household had become vegetarian. Not by choice but the main tenants that hold sway had become vegetarian so that meant that no meat could be cooked in their presence. Well they were away on Friday evening so M1 and M2 had a very meaty pasta dish on the menu. It was delicious. And not a vegetarian in sight. Oh and the house still looks hideous and awful. I remember the Spanish landlord saying to me that I would have a hard time finding a place as nice as this... I had to bite my tongue at the time. A Soho strip club has mor

Scenes from Kennington Tube Thursday 20:48 - Waiting for a southbound tube train... 

Theatre: Death of a Salesman Caught the 1999 Broadway production of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman last night. Its been playing at the West End for a few months now and it was well worth going to see it. I had read the play at school, seen a film version of it, and perservered through an amateur production of it, but seeing this was something else. Brian Dennehy from the Broadway production was starring as Willy Loman (he also featured in such classic movies of the 1980s as Cocoon and Legal Eagles) but just as fantastic were the rest of the cast - especially Clare Higgins as the wife. Watching this play on stage you realise what an emotional wallop this gives you. It gradually builds and builds setting the scene in the first act, hinting at hope and an optimistic future along the way but by half way through the second act you can see Willy Loman's life unraveling into a horrible mess, and you watch him go all the way downhill. There were other little touches in this prod

I'm on holiday Things my friends and colleagues suggested I could do during September: Advertise my wares in the back of Boyz and QX Offer to do house cleaning... with or without clothes Visit more crap towns There was a theme emerging in their suggestions I noticed...

The Accidental Tourist I get a telephone call this afternoon informing me that my visa has come through. My tourist visa. And so my working life in the UK comes to a somewhat abrupt end from today. I was expecting it to come to an end at some point in the next few weeks, but I was expecting later rather than sooner. Oh well. Who says the civil service isn't efficient? What happens next is a little up to Dame Fortune and my ability to interview well, but in the meantime I can: Take my first holiday since December/January and my first holiday in several years lasting longer than a week. Explore the delights of Croydyn Catch up on all those galleries and museums that I have yet to get around to seeing... Well anyway... That's the plan...

News: Notting Hill Carnival Bank Holiday Monday in August means 500,000 Londoners head to Notting Hill for at street party . There is lots of colour and movement and jerk chicken (if you like your chicken charcoal black) but even better is to be in the vicinity of the carnival where you can hear all the carry on, but not actually have to be amongst it, such as I found myself today. I was the only Australian at the party so I was giving a ribbing about the Ashes and had a can of Fosters thrust in my hand. There really should be some cultural guides written about how much an insult an Australian finds being given a Fosters . It is such a rubbish beer but the chavs in this country can't seem to get enough of it. Along with Nike tops and chunky silver chains it is what you expect to see being carried by any lout in this city...

Scenes from Kew Gardens Sunday 17:23 - Chihuly's glass sculptures among the greenery... It was here in the the temperate room green house where this photo was taken A saw a man leaning over a pond about to take a photograph. He motioned to push the man in the pond for my amusement but he neglected to see the photographers two friends looking outraged behind. Obviously not Londoners... No sense of humour whatever. But the glass sculptures were very smart... All hand blown as well... It certainly made the visit to Kew (also known as the Royal Botanic Gardens) all the more interesting. It is such a vast green space that even after two hours one barely covered a kilometre of the site, but how much gardens and green space on a fine sunny day can one take? Interestingly there were a lot of gay men in the gardens. Fortunately unlike many of the parks about town they were there to take in the greenery and the glass...

Scenes from G-A-Y at the Astoria Saturday night / Sunday morning 01:50. Trip to Winchester was cut short as there was an Abba night back in London with Bjorn Again . Ok so the music wasn't live (note the absence of leads on the guitar and keyboard) but by 1.30am the punters didn't care and kept singing along to the tunes. Nowadays Bjorn Again have multiple groups touring the country as blonde and brunette singers accompanied by fat men with beards are a dime-a-dozen... The Astoria is for young boys and their admirers really and is a silly venue, but it is only a five minute walk home so it is rather handy...

Scenes from Winchester Saturday 15:52 - Bank Holiday weekend. If you are not travelling somewhere exotic, why not go to Winchester? They have a cathedral , some castle ruins and a flower market where young lads sell flowers... Winchester also seemed to be a lovely town to go if you were pregnant. There seemed to be pregnant women everywhere... Maybe they are all locals and there is a baby boom on its way... It was interesting to observe all of this. There were also more elderly persons in wheelchairs per able bodied person than I have seen anywhere else of late. As for the cathedral, it was a bog-standard.

Theatre: Henry IV (Part Two) After the awful trip to the theatre on Wednesday night I caught Henry IV (Part Two) at the National Theatre Friday evening to make up for it. While the story may be a little plotless the show has a fantastic cast that includes Michael Gambon as Falstaff. It was amazing to watch him, including in the second act when espousing the virtues of sherry he couldn't get the bottle open and made a few ad-libs. The play is definitely one of the highlights of the London theatre scene at the moment so it was good to catch it. Unfortunately the man sitting next to me had a bit of a bad breath problem. When he laughed a cocktail of saliva, cigarettes and bile wafted over to my seat. Oh well, when the tickets are only £10, these are the things you have to deal with. But it would have been handy to have had some chewing gum on hand to offer around... Or some noseplugs...

Shopping: Those Muscle Fit Polos A recent doco on the BBC chartered a man's attempt to go straight by hooking up with some evangelical outfit in Memphis. Apparently he found the gay scene a bit to superficial (he obviously had not taken the Eurostar or gone to my gym). In the end it turned out he stopped having sex completely so some conversion that turned out to be... Anyway the Guardian reported today more about the "going straight" therapy in Memphis, noting that Abercrombie clothing is banned. And who can blame them, as it is very gay. Arriving this week in the mail was several Abercrombie t-shirts and polos I bought online. My flatmate and his houseguest curious about the steady stream of packages arriving during the course of this week asked me to model one of the polos. They were impressed with the cut that accentuates one's v-shape even if one doesn't have much of that shape. And it's that sort of fit that goes down well with the boys...

Scenes from Regent's Park Open Air Theatre Wednesday 20:08 - A delay starting due to wet weather... Those in the know brought garbage bags and towels. Live and learn. As for the show, well HMS Pinafore in the damp cold night air wasn't the most pleasant of experiences - it seemed less of a production and more of an embalming of G&S. The last time I saw this show I recalled: It was funny and the actors had comic timing, The orchestrations were better, Buttercup also wasn't played by someone who should be in a retirement home. Ok Lesley Nichol is a wonderful actress but it was just wrong for her to be in this part... Also of note: Desmond Barritt seemed to have confused the role of Sir Joseph with his role as Vice President Dick Cheney in Stuff Happens at the National - he spent most of the time walking around looking pissed off. The hero (Simon Thomas) has his shirt off at the beginning and mercifully puts it on. Nobody needs to see a pasty white flat

One houseguest or two My flatmate R has a friend staying over for the week. He is English but lives in Barcelona as a lifestyle choice. He is a great houseguest however as already it has only been a day and he has cleaned out the cupboards and fixed the blockage in the bathroom sink. If only all houseguests could be so useful... Anyway, he brought with him some chorizo sausage from Spain which he left hanging in the lounge room. Sunday evening he awoke to hear the sounds of something chomp chomping into his sausage - and not in a good way. Our resident rat had found it and somehow managed to eat half the thing. Last night as the event was described to me as an unwelcome visitor I was wondering whether it was one of R's gentlemen callers that were quite interested in a bit of Spanish sausage. They have been known to come around for a bite at 3am and again at 5am. But when it was clarified it was a caller of the ratty kind it all made sense. I had thought it had been a case of all qu

News: The awful truth about the piano man The piano man mystery has been resolved. This was the man who appeared at a beach in a state of distress and purportedly could play the piano rather well. Well the truth is that he is just a gay German acting a bit odd . Nothing really out of the ordinary there. Even more ordinary was the fact that he actually couldn't play the piano. In fact his performance of chopsticks wasn't that great by all accounts... How he got to be the piano man from chopsticks is anyone's guess, but when you have Bavarians trying to drown themselves you shouldn't let the facts get in the way of a good story.

Shopping and whatever... I went shopping with A over the weekend at Zara to buy some trousers. Zara is one of the cheap chic high street stores and Spanish in origin that have smart clothes that you can wear for a season and then throw out. The men's collection is popular with a certain type of male as well (usually a gay one)... Anyway while I was buying trousers A was trying on a sporty sort of jacket with a furry lining thing that he thought was great but I told him it made him look like Attila the Fashionable Hun. And that ended the shopping experience. Afterall nobody wants to look like a Hun. Even a slightly fashionable one... Of course the look all summer has been vintage clothing. There are places like Pop and Rockit in London where you can get a pinkish polo shirt (the only colour this summer) with that "worn in" look. You could say the clothes are second hand but vintage sounds so much smarter... But if you don't do second hand many of the leading labels n

Scenes from the Thames outside the Tate Modern Sunday 14:49. Bikes, pedestrians and the rest on a lovely summer day... 

Art: Frida Kahlo Finally caught Frida Kahlo's exhibition at the Tate Modern. The large collection of her artworks spanning 11 rooms were quite a sight. There were all her famous works and many self-portraits to take in during the course of a Sunday afternoon. Such an amazing woman who while she painted survived a nasty bus accident, several miscarriages, an affair with Trotsky, a turbulent marriage and the odd bit of lesbianism. Loads of imagery referred to the female form of course. I will never quite look at an open cut cantaloupe in the same way again I think.

Movie: Crash Saw Crash with A on Friday. It is set in Los Angeles and is about a series of characters whose lives intertwine over a 36 hour period. Race relations (or the lack of them) and the post 9/11 world are at the forefront of this movie. The movie should really have the subtitle "City of Assholes" given all the angst and lack of humanity expressed by most of the characters. Still it was a gripping series of stories that was well acted and raised a few interesting questions, including why the hell would anyone want to live in LA?? It is also not the standard Hollywood blockbuster so be prepared for Matt Dillon looking a bit chubby, Sandra Bullock not airbrushed as much as normal and Brendan Fraser a little bit paler... And the title Crash comes from the series of car accidents that feature in the film. Some are small crashes, others are a little more severe. It dawned on me since being in London I have not driven a car but I dare say that people here don't tailgate

Friday Office Banter Paul: I picked up an Abercrombie t-shirt from the post office today... F: What's that? Paul: Its a t-shirt that gay men wear at the gym... F: Do you really think you need to wear a t-shirt to tell people you're gay?

Scenes from Tottenham Court Road Tube Station Friday 09:54. Northern line southbound 

Miscellany Latest findings suggests that property websites are helping widen the gap between the haves and have nots. Personally I am fascinated to know that in my postcode there are 14 people claiming benefits and only 1.04% of the UK population live in a dwelling type such as the type that I'm in... Summer means everyone goes to their second property in France (if you have one). If you don't you can head to the seaside, head overseas or just stay in London and work. I am doing the last of these things. In my spare time I have taken to upgrading my gym wardrobe by stocking up on Abercrombie and Fitch t-shirts. At my gym it is de-rigeur. But its worth knowing that at my gym there are muscle marys who kiss over the fly machine, bears who pull each others chest hair over the free weights and personal trainers who counsel men who break down in tears over the shoulder press. Even by London standards it isn't a normal gym...

Scenes from dessert Wednesday 23:11 - Well its the height of summer. Not a lot is happening. But the berries are fantastic... 

News: Ugly man caught on camera Another ugly Australian appears on television committing a race crime . Where do all these ugly Australians come from? It must be Adelaide...

Scenes from Tottenham Court Road Saturday 13:25. Passing by outside the Heals building... 

Movie: The Rising (The Ballad of Mangal Pandey) A wanted to see this movie and I was a little hesitant about doing so after seeing the movie poster at tube stations all week. It wasn't that the poster artwork was bad. It was that the main star of this movie - Aamir Khan (and who is featured on the poster) - sports a moustache that curls up to the sides in an extravagant in your face facial hair kind of way. By Friday however I had seen some other stills from the film including a wrestling scene between Khan and Toby Stephens so I was happy to see what the fuss was all about then. The story focuses on the lead up to the first Indian war of independence (or the Sepoy Mutiny as the British East India Company would call it). Being a Bollywood-meets-Hollywood film no serious epic drama is complete with colour and movement and songs and dancing. Plus lots of camerawork to make you dizzy. This pads out the film for at least an extra hour and a half. It was during one of these giddy al

Idle Chatter at home this evening Paul : I am just heading out for a spot of gym Flatmate: You're heading out for a spot of what? Paul: Gym. Flatmate: Oh gym! I thought you said you were heading out for a spot of gin! Paul: Wouldn't that be a splash of gin? Keeping fit and smoking As for gym, six months after joining I think it is paying off as I feel healthier and I can run for long periods without passing out. This must be a good thing. Although I am still not ready to take my shirt off in a dance tent in Brighton. To help with the whole gym experience I have had Kylie, Madge and Whitney on the iPOD. But I have also supplemented them with old hits from Olivia Newton John , Basement Jaxx and Mariah Carey. Yes Mariah as New York Times said that her song "We belong together" is the song of the summer. So who can argue about that? Later tonight I returned home to a flat full of cigarette smoke. My flatmate was entertaining a gentleman caller who obviously had a thing

News: The summer tour It's holiday time here. The weather is great and people are taking time off work. Those who are not taking time off work don't seem to be working much either, but that's another story... Over in Whitehall while TB is on holiday Deputy PM John Prescott is in charge. Yesterday he gave a family a tour of No 10 , and got a blaze of publicity . There are bound to be extra families waiting around the gates of Downing Street today hoping for a repeat performance.

Out and about: Brighton Pride The biggest of the pride festivals Brighton Pride took place on Saturday. That meant lots of punters took the train from Victoria to Brighton to spend the day (or the weekend) there. I caught a Thameslink train from Kings Cross which wasn't quite a camp express trip that I suspect the express trains from Victoria station were. But upon arriving at Preston Park the place was heaving. The expected number of people at the day is around 100,000. There are various thoughts as to why Brighton Pride is so successful. These include: It is in Brighton and that means seaside and sun and all that sort of summer stuff. Nothing like a bit of sun to get everyone outside for a tan. Brighton is not too far out of London to take forever to get there. If one oversleeps you still stand a chance of getting there quickly as it only takes a little over an hour by train. Unlike the London version which costs £20+ this one is free and Londoners love a bargain...