A Scottish thing...

Most people who know my surname would assume that it's of French derivation and so are consequently surprised when I tell them that's it's actually of Scottish origin. My surname is that of a small'ish clan that was based in the western highlands of Scotland and so, when I first travelled to the UK in 1996, I did a bit of a pilgrimage to where my family came from. It was rather exciting for me to visit the "family lands", having grown up in Australia, a country with barely 200 years of European/Anglo-saxon history. In Scotland, there's an old ruined castle which had been the seat of the clan for centuries, there was a new "castle" which replaced it, as well as lots of other related historical sites. And so, when I came over in 2006 to out myself to my brother Mark (and to embark on Monty's Shagging Tour of Europe), I took the opportunity to take Mark up to Scotland for a long weekend, to show him all the clan stuff and let him experience our family history.

So I've had an enduring attachment to all things Scottish - I think the country is lovely (if a little cold and wet), the history fascinating and the people really friendly, if a little hard to understand sometimes!

And so, last night I was pleasantly suprised to add another reason for my Scottish appreciation. I had gone out with Jacqui, her friend Lynne, and four other work colleagues to the Glass Brasserie at the Hilton Hotel for an Earth Hour dinner. It was a splendid evening I must say! To celebrate Earth Hour, the entire restaurant was decked out in candles (in Jorge Jensen candelabra) and the menu was completely organic (including the wine). It's one of Luke Mangan's restuarants and so the food was spectacular, wine was excellent and the company entertaining.

I have been chatting to a Scottish guy (ahh, now you see where we're going with this) for a couple of weeks - initially on Gaydar and then via MSN chat. I'd actually organized to have lunch with him today (Sunday) so that we could meet. He seemed like a friendly guy, his pics were good and given my Anglo- and Scoto-philia (is there such a word?), thought it'd would be worth a try. Anyway, early in the evening, he messaged me, to see what I was up to later in the evening. I had originally planned to meet up with some friends at Slide for a few drinks after dinner, however, after his sms, arranged to meet up with him.

What can I say - he's gorgeous!!! He's 40, very well built, lovely tan, handsome, and with a charming Scottish accent. A lovely guy, we had a couple of glasses of wine and got to know each other better. He actually admired my chest of all things - for which I gave a silent thankyou to my trainer Greg - which I couldn't really understand, as he's got a HOT body! But apparently, he thinks I'm not too bad on the eyes! At the end of the night, he asked me when I'd be available for a "real date" ie dinner etc. I was rather pleased at this turn of events and, playing cool, suggested next Friday night to which he agreed. I received an sms this morning - "I could make myself available tonight if you want to have dinner". Yippee - I quickly responded to him in the affirmative. I'd also actually mentioned to him last night that I had never seen the Harry Potter series of movies (which he owns on DVD) and so I received another sms from him - "If you want to see the HP movies, that will commit you to another 4 dates as well". No problems here! Happy to commit to another 14 dates actually!!! Not that I will, I hasten to add, as I'm trying to play this one cool. He's the one who's displaying the enthusiasm which I'm a big fan of!

So, who knows what will happen to this one. The good thing is...he is a permanent resident of Australia, has purchased a terrace in Surry Hills and so is not about to choof off overseas!!! A Big plus!!! :-)