Monty on Tour 2...

OK, it's now Tuesday morning here in cold, rainy London - yes, what a change a couple of days makes! It's been a few good days actually...not a lot in the way of traditional sight-seeing but still lots of fun! Saturday, we headed over to a bar in Paddington that's run by one of my brother Mark's friends, and we watched the Rugby game with a whole bunch of Aussies! (and there were some really HOT Aussies there too) The game was so so...we lost so not a lot to celebrate, but it was fun just spending a Saturday arvo with a bunch of fellow Aussies in a London bar!

Simon, Mark's b/f, decided that I needed to experience some of London's gay scene and so we grabbed the tube into the city and Soho'ed our sox off. We went to about 4 bars that I can recall, but after that, things get a bit hazy! Monty was one rather inebriated chap by night's end! Good fun, but the next day, I was paying the price for my overindulgence!

Sunday, I had organized to meet up with Matt, my friend that I hooked up with last year when I was in London. It was lovely to see him again - it's been 3 months since I last saw him when he spent the weekend with me in Sydney when he was over there on holidays. We toddled off to Covent Garden, had some lunch and had a bit of a walk around the place. I was flagging rather badly (combination of the previous night's alcoholic excess and some residual jetlag) so we caught the bus home and he made dinner and we watched some TV. PERFECT! A nice early night - and well, some, ahem, catching up on old times! He he he!

A Lovely Big Sleep In on Monday was fab - we didn't get up until about 11am! Magnificent! We grabbed some lunch and coffee on the run and hit the Tate Gallery! Interesting...but I must admit, my tastes do tend to run to the traditional. There was some lovely sculptures but some of the other so called art left me rather underinspired. But it was good to do it anyway. We walked across the Millenium Bridge into the middle of the City of London and walked some more! We ended up grabbing some toasted sandwiches around 4pm and then back home! After a quick shower, back into town and we had dinner at a cafe near Leicester Square and then...Avenue Q! I doubt that many Aussies would have heard about it, but it's soooo worth going to see if you come to London! Think The Muppets in an Adults Only musical! HILARIOUS!!! Quite literally laugh-out-loud - one of the funniest things I've seen for a long time! So it was an excellent end to a rather enjoyable day!

We were both smashed this morning - and it was an early rise (grrrrrr) - up at 7am so that he could get to Uni (and before you think I've gone twinky, Matt's a mature age student) and me so that I could get back to Mark and Simon's before they left for work. And here I've been ever since...made myself some breakfast and watched Spice Girls, the Movie! Nothing quite like a highbrow movie! ha ha! As I said, it's a bit of a miserable day out there, and so it's perfect to stay at home and catch up on my blog, my emails, my diary and some reading. Tonight, I'm priviledged to be meeting the very elusive Gay Banker for drinks and supper which is going to be great - good to be able to put a name and face to the very fascinating blog! And tomorrow, I'm meeting up with Kev in NZ for coffee and a chat and then tomorrow night, the International Bloggers Meet, with Darth Gateau, CuteCTGuy and Guy In London! So it's a bit of a blogging fest over the next 36 hours of so...think I'll need all Thursday to recover! Can't wait!!!

Up up and away...part II...

I'm starting to get very excited now! I have less than 3 weeks of work left before I'm on 6 weeks' holiday and just over 4 weeks before I actually fly out of Sydney. I posted a blog a couple of weeks ago about booking my London flights with Virgin Atlantic and over the course of the last couple of days, have booked more flights for the other legs of my journey.

So far...

4 Oct Depart Sydney
5 Oct Arrive London
13 Oct Fly to Cairo
17 Oct Return to London
31 Oct Fly to Paris
4 Nov Return to London
8 Nov Depart London
10 Nov Arrive Sydney

There may be one more side trip to take between the 17th and 31st Oct but I've yet to work that out.

There's so much I am looking forward to - seeing my brother Mark and his B/F Simon again (I'm staying with them whilst in London so I expect to be seeing quite a lot of them), seeing one of my oldest friends (Marie) again, seeing Matt again, meeting Darth Gateau, Guy In London, CuteCTGuy and possibly one or two other London bloggers, seeing more of London, Paris and Cairo and surrounds, and the highlight of course will be spending time in Cairo and Paris with my lovely friend EIB. It will be almost exactly 12 months since we last saw each other and I'm really hanging out to see him again and have some major chats with him! And giving (and receiving) the last 12 months' worth of hugs that we owe each other. Both he and I (esp me) have been through some fairly significant stuff over the past year and our regular Sunday chats have been a great source of advice and reassurance (and lots of laughs) which has really cemented our friendship! Can't wait!!!

The Weekend That Was...

I can't believe how busy it is this week! I thought last week was bad, but it was nothing, relatively speaking! It feels like my stomach is in a big knot from the minute I walk into work and it gradually gets twisted more and more as the day progresses. Thank goodness, come Friday at 5pm, I will walk out of work and whatever is done is done, and whatever isn't done, well, isn't going to be done this financial year. Why do people leave it to the last minute to organize themselves and their finances???

Anyway, this post is not meant to be about work - it's meant to be about the weekend. And what a weekend it was! It was awesome to pick Matt up at the airport on Friday night - this tall, hot and well dressed guy walked out of the gate, came up to me and gave me a very big hug and it felt gooood! I'd forgotten how good looking he is! We had tentatively planned to go out to a bar or something straight from the airport, but he suggested grabbing a bottle of wine and going straight home! Being the gracious host I am, I quickly acquiesced (yeah, such a struggle) and drove him home. Being the well planned host I am, I already had a bottle of champers in the fridge! he he he! So, we consumed that over a good dose of conversation! It was amazing how quickly the hours flew and even more amazing that I hadn't jumped on him the moment he walked into my apartment! But I showed great restraint, and to be honest, seriously just wanted to chat. Nature took its course eventually and I'll be saying no more! *wink*

It was lovely to wake up next to him the next morning, particuarly because it was such a beautiful morning, the past three Saturdays being rainy. And it was even more lovely to then doze again, wake up, snuggle some more, and doze again. We eventually dragged ourselves out of bed at midday and walked down to one of the cafes on Blues Point Rd and had ourselves a wonderful brunch in the sunlight! The delightful, warm sun! Walked across the Harbour Bridge, with the harbour just sparkling! A relaxed beer at the Glenmore Hotel overlooking Circular Quay followed, with a hot chocolate from Starbucks sustaining us for the quick train trip home. And then Saturday night!

What can I say about Saturday night? FAN-BLOODY-TASTIC! It was seriously one of the best nights out I have had in a long long time! James and Jacqui collected us in the taxi and we motored into Cockle Bay Wharf where we met Evan and his Doctor (who, at Evan's request, shall be called McDreamy from now on) at Chinta Ria, a Malaysian restaurant. I was a tad nervous about this, as Evan, James & Jacqui and Matt had not met each other, and I had never met McDreamy. So I was unsure how the dynamics would be! No worries there! Everyone got on like a house on fire, with McDreamy being one of the funniest and most entertaining guys I have ever met! I relaxed big time and after the 6 of us had consumed 4 bottles of wine, all of us were most relaxed indeed! We then toddled across the pedestrian bridge to Star City and attended Priscilla, The Musical. I have seen Priscilla before, about 3 months ago, but this time was even more fun! We seriously (if I can use that word) had an awesome night! Lots of laughs (in and out of the theatre), a few cocktails and a bit of gayducation for James and Jacqui!

Sunday was much more of a chilled out day and being a little overcast, suited us to a T! Lunch, a movie (The Fabulous 4 sequel Rise of the Silver Surfer with that hottie Chris Evans), dinner and home for a DVD, snuggled on the couch. How good is that!

Yesterday, we jumped on the train into the city and we parted company at Wynyard station - me to work, Matt to the Airport line and thence to Melbourne. I was thoroughly knackered and more than a little melancholy! We had a FUN weekend and I got to know Matt a bit better, to build on the friendship that started 9 months ago as just a couple of shags in London. James and Jacqui got to meet Evan finally, after hearing so much about him, and I got to meet McDreamy! And just for the record, I think Evan and McDreamy have both scored BIG TIME!

The weekend, to sum up, felt like a holiday! Which was perfect! I seriously needed a weekend like that! I can't wait to see Matt again, when I go over to London in October.

And I can't wait for this week to be over! Bring on 1 July!

Rain...feel it on my fingertips...

It's been a wild and woolly weekend here in the Emerald City! Rain aplenty, in fact, they are saying we've not had a storm like this in 30 yrs! It's cold, wet and windy...thankfully, today the wind has died down and it's only showering intermittently. The sun is also desperately trying to make an appearance; there are glimpses of blue betwix the dark and stormy clouds...Perfect weather for snuggling! PERFECT!!! And, for all of those non-Sydneysiders, it's also Queens Birthday long weekend! Yay! Yes, that's right, the English don't get a day off for the Queens Birthday, but us here in the colonies do! he he he!

Anyway, I didn't really have anything planned for this weekend socially. It was going to be a play-it-by-ear kinda weekend, combined with a "chill out, sleep in, do little" plan. So far, it's turned out quite well in achieving all of the above! I've definitely chilled, totally slept in and I have done very little! 100% of plan. And it's still been quite social really. Yesterday, I had my monthly massage with my hunky masseur - it's very sad for me because he's decided to move to London in a couple of months! Arghhhh! I'll need to find a new one! (It's good for all you Londoners because he gives a sensational massage...so if you want his details, let me know!) After that, I caught up with PC for a cup of tea (he's English so what would you expect) and a chat which was lovely. Yesterday was such a day for being inside drinking hot beverages and chatting. The weather virtually demanded that kind of activity. And then last night, I had a date. Yes, that's right, Monty's back dating! I know I said a couple of weeks ago that I was going to, but I hadn't actually done much about it. I did, after GIQ and I initially "broke up", go out on a dinner date with a doctor that I had chatted to via GD. But that had been it. And so yesterday, I messaged the Doctor to see if he was free; he was, and so he came over last night and we had take-away (or rather, home delivery) Indian and watched a DVD (and snuggled). It was rather pleasant I must say! Last night was not a night to be out and about, and so staying in, heating on, hot food in one's tummy, and snuggling with a hot guy, was most warming to my soul! I wasn't up to meeting a new guy, so this was an easy transition back into the dating scene. I don't think the Doctor is Mr Right, but he's certainly got friend potential...and he's a sensational snuggler! he he he! Handy to have over the coming winter months! (just as an aside, Doctors seem to be The Thing at the moment...my friend Evan has also just started seeing a Doctor)

So, things are looking up again. I'm feeling pretty cool, calm and collected after my brain (or rather heart) explosion last week. And it was heartening to have such positive feedback from my last blog post - thank you so much to those of you who left a comment! Very touched by your lovely expressions (and advice)!

My friend Matt (from London) also comes in less than 2 weeks time now and it's going to be a busy but fun weekend with him and my friends. So no complaints from this quarter! Hope everyone is having a great weekend!!!