Such sweet sorrow

Early to bed. Feverish dreams. Distant music. Wafts of laughter. Awake at five. Arm round shoulder. Radio alarm. Shower hisses. Kettle shrieks. Folding, packing. Suitcase zipped. Final kiss. Silent streets. Concrete depot. Brief goodbyes. Smile through glass. Empty wait. Bus departs. Raised hand. Glide away. Leaving him behind. But taking him with me.

Q & A & David Jones

Q&A was a lot of fun, kind of like Popstarz used to be, Londoners. Fellow blogger Jay came over to say hello, which was nice. It's the first time I've met someone in the flesh through the blog, it was kind of strange but cool already knowing fragments of each other's lives, and it was good to put a face to the words. Hopefully he didn't notice me dropping a (thankfully plastic) pot of beer while trying to execute an over-ambitious dance-move.

Towards the end of the night, we headed to the upstairs bit, where a rather formidable lady was DJ'ing. She had that sullen DJ expression that made it look like she'd never smiled in her life, so watching from across the room, I was impressed when after just a few words from Steven, her face transformed into laughter. And he got what he wanted - she stuck on a Kylie record.

Since then, it's just been me, Steven and a bunch of goodies from the David Jones food hall. It's been lovely. I'm off early tomorrow, but for now that's another day.

This one will run and run

Watching a bit of Saturday morning pop TV, as you do, and just seen the video (UK readers) / film clip (Aussie readers) for 'Here it Goes Again' by OK Go. Fabulous. I'm not much of a gym-goer, but for the first time I can actually see a point to the existence of running machines. Watch it here.

One last blast

So I've booked the hotels (touch wood-effect laminate), won another Kerri-Anne DVD (luv ya, Kezza!), seen Jamie through a Myer window (though not just in undies as he was when Steven went by) and am getting ready to enjoy my last weekend with my guy. And as he's not working tomorrow, the weekend starts tonight! Roll on Q&A...

Rain

It rained today, splashing loudly in the grey alleyway. I’m leaving on Sunday. I don’t know what happens next in the book I’m trying to write. I won’t be with my guy for seven weeks. I haven’t booked hotels for my stopovers and the ones I want are full. I won’t feel the warmth of his cheek against mine. I’m still tired from the weekend. I won’t hear him laugh at stupid things. My travel insurance has run out. He won’t fall asleep on my shoulder halfway through a DVD. I need to go out to Coburg to pick up my passport. I won’t see his shining eyes. I haven’t got any work confirmed for when I’m home. We’ll be together tonight, though.

It rained today. But the rain passed.

My eternal gratitude to the good people of Kiev

Garlic butter. In chicken. In breadcrumbs.

Genius.

Happy weekend

It's the weekend! OK, so that may not mean quite as much to me as to you lot who work for a living, but Steven's excited and it's infectious. When he gets out the shower, we're off to meet the guys at DT's, possibly even getting there in time for the Friday night barbecue. Tomorrow, maybe another bike ride if the weather's nice, then off to a double birthday celebration at Double Happiness, aptly enough. Sadly, this means we'll have to forgo a lesbian civil union afterparty, but you can't have everything. (No, Australian readers, Howard hasn't had a change of heart - they're British and getting hitched at the Consulate.) And then a Sunday doing absolutely nothing.

Have a happy weekend, wherever you are.

You win some

I WON SOMETHING! A DVD of Syriana, to be precise. It's the first time I've won a competition since I collared the bottle of Pomagne from the spin-the-arrow stall at my primary school fete, giving me an early introducion to the delights of both gambling and alcohol.

This time was far less depraved - it was a competition on Kerri-Anne, the goddess of Australian mid-morning TV, and I had to fill in the online form answering the question "Why is George Clooney such a distinguished actor?" in 25 words or less. Sadly, neither they or I appear to have kept a record of my brilliantly pithy reply, but it started off talking about his acting and ended up noting that he was quite easy on the eye.

As my name would have given me away as being of the same sex as Mr Clooney, I can confidently conclude that 'Mornings' is a bona fide officially gay-friendly show. (Having slagged off Channel 9's record a few entries ago, it's good to see they're not all bad.) Yay! Cue waving of rainbow flags and playing of disco classics as Kerri-Anne is escorted up to gay heaven by a group of buff scantily-clad angels.

I wouldn't have doubted it for a moment, of course. Kezza's obsession with shoes gives her away instantly as Friend of the Same-Sex-Attracted.

UK terror plot

Terrorists? In High Wycombe? But they have such a lovely John Lewis there...

Support happiness

Miffed

I was a bit of a slow starter at the Melbourne International Film Festival, but I've now reached a steady pace of a movie a day (actually quite restrained in the scheme of things). At events like this, you gotta kiss a few frogs to, er, find the mixed metaphor pearls. I particularly enjoyed:

Bubble (for its stunning simplicity)





Mutual Appreciation (for its almost-too-painful-to-watch humour)





and A Little Trip to Heaven (for Forest Whitaker).





But if you're in Melbourne and fancy giving MIFF a whirl, there's not much point in me telling you about the stuff that's already been on. Luckily there is a film coming up which I have actually seen (as it was out in the UK a good year ago) - and I can confirm that if you're looking for a scary 'Chicks in Caves' movie (and who isn't?)

The Descent (7pm, Friday) is the one to go for.

Oh, Brother

So there we were wandering down Flinders Lane around 10 last night, when I spotted some guys walking down the other side of the street.

"He's wearing a headband like Jamie" (who just won Big Brother here) was my first thought. Then I realised the headband was that particular ruffled kind that I've only ever seen on Jamie. Further inspection confirmed initial findings - he was wearing the trademark fisherman pants.

It was Jamie.

And I think it's a sign of the maturity I've achieved through the many years I've spent on this planet, that the one thought that flashed through my mind, was:

I'VE SEEN YOU NAKED!!!

Oh so Studley

It's there. And we can't ignore it any more. In less than three weeks, I'll be heading back to the UK. Not for ever mind, but I'll be gone a good six weeks (so I can earn a bit of cash while I'm there) which seems like for ever right now. It kind of hit us at the weekend, bringing a slight feeling of gloom.

But then there was the bike ride. We set off for Studley Park boathose from the bike hire place next to Riverland. We rode along the river through a strange conglomeration of city and country, motorway and field, factory and farm, sometimes right by the river, sometimes up above it. The weather was glorious. And all the gloom simply evaporated in the winter sunshine.

It was bloody knackering, mind. 'A leisurely 40 minute roll' according to Lonely Planet, but an hour later, we were still huffing and puffing our unfit way along the track. Eventually we made it to the boathouse for a well-earned brunch, after which we just about had enough energy to enjoy the city views on the way back.

It was a fun day out. And it also made me realise that the main thing right now is to get the most out of the next three weeks.

Taxidermy

On the Today show this morning Dermot Brereton, ex-footballer, ex-Dancing on Ice contestant and ex-Bachelor of the Year, was dragged out to discuss this year's Bachelor competition. Somewhere on a hilltop in Melbourne, he came out with the immortal line (I'm quoting from memory here): "If you don't win it one year, you just go back and enter it the next. If you have to enter it a third year, they're either trying to tell you something or you're a POOF."

It wasn't just the word, it was the venomous way he spat it out, as 'tough' blokes do when they want to emphasise their masculinity. At this point, we cut back to Karl and Jess in the studio. They looked suitably uncomfortable, but the best response they could muster was a slightly disapproving "Oh, Dermy" from each of them, before moving on to another question.

I was a little shocked and a lot disappointed. But if truth be told, I actually expected Australia to be a lot more like that (I guess we all have our prejudices) and have been pleasantly surprised to find that - on the whole - it's not.

Still, maybe it's time to defect to the Channel 7 breakfast show. They don't have Jess, but I do love their satellite link-ups with the Hollywood gossip guy...

The blog entry of the video of the podcast

To mark Steven's forthcoming journey from blogger to podcaster, we did a little messing around with a video-camera. So here now, for your audio-visual delight, are not one but two fruits of that day. I heart iMovie...

'The Pitch'

'Noise'

Last night

We did nothing in particular last night. We chatted, ate Twisties, carbonara and ice-cream, watched the two-hour Rove special and tapped away on our Macs.

It was great.

Things you may not know about me

Not my own title, but that of a 'meme' for which my name has been put forward. My favourite bit of the whole thing was reading about what a meme is. (Though high-falutin' language aside, in this case it's basically the equivalent of one of those chain letter thingies people used to send round on the email.)

A) Four jobs I have had in my life
1. Choirboy (I started on £2 every 3 months)
2. Hospital basement delivery driver
3. Banana picker
4. Advertising copywriter

B) Four movies I would watch over and over:
1. Grease
2. Star Wars. IV, V or VI. (Not that I'm dissing I, II and III, but I wouldn't watch them over and over.)
3. Singin' in the rain. Or High Society.
4. Back to the Future

C) Four places I have lived:
1. Bristol
2. Jerusalem
3. London
4. Melbourne

D) Four TV shows you love to watch: (at the moment)
TV here is almost impossible to watch - far too many commercial breaks and over-hysterical trailers. But I do love the following:
1. Rove - very funny chat show - the tiny Australian love-child of Chris Evans and Graham Norton
2. Kath & Kim - part of my education about Aussie suburban life
3. The Wedge - ditto
4. My Name is Earl

E ) Four places you have been on holiday:
1. Cambodia
2. Barcelona
3. Egypt
4. Frenchman's Creek (below)


F) Websites you visit daily:
I don't actually visit all of these daily.
1. Google
2. The Guardian
3. Apple (it came as the homepage and I can't bear to change it)
4. Wil Wheaton (the godfather of blogging)

G ) Four of my favourite foods:
1. Crispy duck pancakes
2. Cheese & tomato sandwich
3. Chocolate mousse
4. Seedless grapes

H) Four places I would rather be right now:
There's nowhere I would rather be right now.

I) Four Blogger friends I think will respond:
Apart from Dan who put me up for this, I don't really know any bloggers. Other than Steven, of course. Luckily, unlike their email counterparts, these things don't come with sub-clauses promising you bad luck, plague and pestilence if you don't pass them on.