Manchester Pride 2009: The Parade

Blimey, I’ve been back a few weeks now and have had very little time to get my Manchester Pride 2009 pictures on my blog!

It took me a whole day to create a video file for our friends and family, and another day to sort all of the pictures out before I could do that, and so I’m starting to get pretty sick of these pictures now heh!!

I had been planning a whole package of blogs to go with my trip, but at the moment, and considering the volume of content that I have, it really would be a huge draw on my time if I were to upload it all. I doubt I’ll get around to uploading all of the vlog posts that I did unfortunately, suffice to say, Greg and I had an amazing time, and absolutely loved our little trip away!

Most of my pictures can be seen on my Facebook page, though I have created a nice little video using Animoto (v. highly recommended!) for my blog!

Enjoy, and feel free to leave me some comments on your thoughts regarding Pride or the Parade etc!

Mister Greg’s 30th Birthday in Brighton

So, dear old Greg turned 30 the other day, and to celebrate I organised a secret day out in Brighton with all of our fabulous friends!

I had a right old time trying to get him out of bed so early in the morning; he was having none of it! I’d promised him a ‘Birthday Breakfast’ as a cover for me still being home that morning, so he looked quite disheartened when I chucked a croissant at him and started pecking at him to get ready heh.

The most fun part of the surprise came when I managed to confuse him with all of the connections that we made via rail to try and get to London Bridge. Needless to say, when we got to London Bridge and he saw everyone, he was very surprised, and also thrilled! Yay!

There were 10 of us in total, so we were able to make use of the GroupSave discount that is offered on groups of 3/4 travelling together (essentially you pay for 2 and then get either 1 or 2 respective tickets free!).

The train ride down was a little busy (apparently half the World was descending on Brighton that weekend!) but I love travelling by train, and I love doing it with large groups of friends, so it was lots of fun!

When we got there we headed straight down to the pier to indulge in fish, chips, mushy peas, bread and butter and a glass of champagne! All for a very reasonable price of £12.95! Marvellous! Anyone who is heading to Brighton would be recommended to stop in here for lunch/tea!

After that we decided to crash on the beach for a bit and, with a few friends, Greg and I decided that we wanted to go for a swim in the sea! Cue much kerfuffle whilst we went to source some swimming shorts, flipflops (ugh!) and the obligatory beach ball heh.  Footwear is definitely needed to cope with the pebbles on Brighton beach!

The sea was lovely and warm, though I discovered that I may need to grow a little before the next time I go into the sea… I took an absolute battering from all of the high waves heh!! We also managed to do our very own rendition of the YMCA whilst in the sea (thinking back, I’m horrified to think of how many people may have been staring heh)… and at one point, our swimming shorts simply *cough* fell off!

Once we’d had enough of the beach, we headed to The Amsterdam (I’m not a fan I’m afraid) and had a few relaxing drinks whilst some of us watched the end of the Wimbledon men’s  final, before heading back onto the pier so that the gang could have a go on the dodgems.

We decided to grab some tea on the way back at a lovely little restaurant, which was in a square serenaded by an opera singer! I say an opera singer… more of an opera busker… but to call it that cheapens it I reckon heh! It was lovely to sit there with friends, eating, drinking, relaxing, reviewing the fabulous day and listening to her music! She tried to do a rendition of ‘Barcelona’, but strangely always cut out the word ‘Barcelona’ from her performance for some reason heh!!

All in all, we had a tiring but absolutely magnificent day, and our sincere thanks go out to all of our friends who came along, and to those who wanted to come along but could not make it. I have a lovely golden brown colour to me (as does Greg) – amazing what just one unintentional day in the sun can do for you! Personally, I think that it was one of the best days that I have ever had down here, I enjoyed myself THAT much, and I am very very pleased that Greg really enjoyed his birthday!

A selection of pictures from the day follows below:

We held a pow-wow to assess the notion of going into sea heh!

Confidence levels, perhaps foolishly, certainly have increased this summer (see previous blog posts!) - whoop!

(previous posts)

Just like I said... they just *FELL OFF!*

Mister Greg (r) and I

I think that we ALL liked the totty behind us on the beach heh!

More beach totty!

2 years in London

Following on from last year’s post (it is really weird looking back at it), I thought that I would also recognise that today marks my second year in London – hurrah!

To be honest, I still find London as a city a poor substitute for Manchester, however I think that’s just homesickness etc talking as obviously I recognise that London has a far better transport infrastructure, amenities etc (though I think Manchester has a better standard of housing, and prefer seeing occasional streets without chicken shops on them heh!!).

I find myself saying this a lot, however it really is my friends (and obviously Greg!!) who keep me wanting to stay in London. I am very fortunate to have such a fab group of people around me, and I definitely think that they’re worth hanging around for!

I can still remember the day I moved very clearly; Marc and I had to say our goodbyes (which was horrible), and then that awful (and silent!) 9 hour ride down the M6 in the front of a white van with two rather butch blokes with whom I shared nothing in common! To be fair, I wasn’t really in the mood for talking with them, what with me being so upset and apprehensive about everything. When we got to London, we came in via Willesden (I was staying in Kensal Rise originally) and it took us an hour to make a ten minute journey due to the poor driving skills down here… that was my first proper impression of London.

My first evening in London was a little scary… I was in a gorgeous apartment, with more floor space than you could imagine, however for the first time in several years, I felt so alone. Cue me logging into MSN and ending up chatting to Danny, and thus everything that has happened to date happening.

So yeah, 30th June marks a real turning point in my life. A lot happened on this day, some of it good, some of it bad, but inevitably all for the better, I’m sure.

Two years on, I am very happy with where I am, I am fortunate to have a wonderful fella in Mister Greg (whom I love lots and lots and lots) and a marvellous bunch of friends who I really enjoy spending time with. Hopefully I can build on this further in the coming year and gain a few new friends in the process (I’m lovely I am! hehe).

HURRAH!

So, until next year…!

Me two years ago

Recent photo of me

The Rules of Attraction (2002)

Over the years, I have seen The Rules Of Attraction a couple of times now… it’s not bad, not great, however the one scene that I really love (and I would go so far to say that it’s one of my favourite scenes of ‘all time’) is this one:

And yes… scenes such as this are also classed as ‘normal’ in our house (owing more to me, than to Mister Greg hehe!)

The music used throughout this film is fantastic, so I’m currently hunting out the soundtrack to the film!

As I say, it’s not a bad film, certainly memorable, however it doesn’t really move anywhere and is a little brainless in my opinion – so it is perfect for crashing out on a Saturday afternoon to perhaps.

Il Divo – O2 Arena

I went to see Il Divo t’other night at the O2 Arena with Mister Greg.

A rather good night all in all, here’s a few photos that I managed to take:

I also managed to get a shot of the Great Unwashed before they all legged it for refreshments (both singular and plural versions of the word!)

As for Il Divo themselves, my favourite song is probably ‘Power Of Love’ (they also had a really good back-drop of a moving cityscape at night behind them, was really nice to watch.

All in all, both Mister Greg and I enjoyed this concert and had a fab time. I can’t say that I was overwhelmed by it, however I am a sucker for good orchestration, and to be fair, Il Divo usually have that going for them if nothing else!

Setlist

Overture (The Power of Love, Caruso, Heroe)
Somewhere
Regresa a Mi
La Promessa
Angelina
Isabel
Bridge Over Troubled Water
She
Passera
Senza Catene
Mama
Notte di Luce

INTERMISSION

Va Todo al Ganador
Without You
Pourque Tu M’aimes Encore
Every Time I Look at You
Hallelujah
Adagio
La Vida Sin Amor
Caruso
The Power of Love
My Way

[encore]

Amazing Grace
The Impossible Dream

Recent shennanigans in the realm of DarkAeon

Rar,

So I figured that it was about time for another personal update to my blog; I never seem to find time to be able to do these sort of posts any more.

That said, not all that much has happened if I’m honest (well, nothing interesting enough to blog about!).

My employers have decided to shackle me to my email inbox with a new BlackBerry – I have the Curve 8310, and so far, I really like it (the device, not the email and the constant beeping!). I’ve named him Barry as it is easier to exude my wrath onto a personified object as opposed to an objectified person!

The spec of the device is rather good, and along with my N95 8GB (personal phone), there is pretty much nothing that I cannot accomplish thanks to the wonderful smartphone technology. Between them, they can do more than my computer can I think!

Size Dimensions 107 x 60 x 15.5 mm
Weight 111 g
Display Type 65K colors
Size 320 x 240 pixels
- Full QWERTY keyboard
- Trackball navigation
- Wallpapers
Ringtones Type Polyphonic (32 channels), MP3
Vibration  Yes
- 3.5 mm stereo headset jack
Memory Phonebook Yes, Photocall
Call records Yes
Card slot microSD (TransFlash)
- 64 MB flash memory
Data GPRS Yes
HSCSD No
EDGE Yes
3G No
WLAN No
Bluetooth Yes, v2.0 with A2DP
Infrared port No
USB Yes, miniUSB
Features OS BlackBerry OS
Messaging SMS, MMS, Email, Instant Messaging
Browser HTML
Games Yes
Colors Silver
Camera 2 MP, 1600×1200 pixels, LED flash
- Integrated GPS
- Java
- Media player
- BlackBerry maps
- Organizer
- Voice dial
- Built-in handsfree
Battery   Standard battery, Li-Ion 1100 mAh
Stand-by Up to 408 h
Talk time Up to 4 h

… now, I just need to find a way to get it to use the dishwasher and I’ll be sorted for life!

I am still loving the musical that I went to see the other week, Spring Awakening. I now have the soundtrack too, which is on a constant loop it seems. There’s nothing better than missing your train and breaking into ‘Totally F**ked’ hehe.

The Saturdays are featuring quite highly on the music that I am listening to at the moment too, as are P!nk, Queen, the Dreamgirls soundtrack, the Pan’s Labyrinth soundtrack, the Across The Universe soundtrack and the ever fabulous Scissor Sisters.

Greg and I have recently started shopping at Waitrose and are very impressed with them as a supermarket. A completely different work ethic seems to be present when compared with their larger competitors, most likely due to the differing business models. We’ve found that Waitrose do price competitively, have pleasant staff and sell excellent quality food (especially fresh fruit and vegetables) – I don’t think that we’ll be returning to Tesco anytime soon to be honest. For those who haven’t tried Waitrose yet (and happen to have one nearby!), I’d heartily recommend them.

I’ve just embarked on the CBA stage of the CIMA exams, and plan to study for my first paper (Business Economics) over the next 8 weeks or so, so that is a bit of an adventure I guess… be intrigued to see how this all pans out, as I’ve wanted to get back into study for quite a while now, and so this is a perfect opportunity to spend several years working towards becoming a Management Accountant and hopefully carve out my career further as time goes on.

A friend of mine, Adam, has suggested the BBC comedy series ‘Beautiful People’ to me… does anybody else have an opinion on the series before I go out and spend £20 on it?

(ooo, I’ve just noticed a strange correlation between the freeze-frame poses of both P!nk and the chap from Beautiful People! Is this the new fashion? Should I arrange myself in a similar picture and send it to Vogue??)

I think that’s it for news really, and most of the above isn’t really all that newsworthy! Should I feel depressed?

Right, that’s decided, I feel depressed and I need, no, I DESERVE(!) chocolate… which I will see to, right after I’ve slapped Barry Beeping BlackBerry back into silent submission!

Slug and Lettuce : Autumn / Winter Menu

So, I’m very sure that the Slug and Lettuce / Bay Restaurants Group need no additional advertising from the likes of me, so I’ll try and keep this brief post opinionated and not too ’sell-y’ hehe! P

Greg and I went to our local Slug in Kingston on Wednesday evening for the free Autumn/Winter menu tasting that they were offering for the members of the general public whom had booked their place on it in advance.

I must say, I think that this is a cracking idea, when I used to work in pubs/restaurants, we didn’t tend to have these for the public, just for the staff. Opening this kind of event to the public really does help to create a healthy buzz about the new menu as well as make customers feel like they’ve had a part in the process too. Similarly, Slug’s new online table reservation system is also a fabulous idea – someone at Slug HQ must have their brain/common sense working overtime! D

My last experience at a Slug was the one in Albert Square in Manchester and was for Christmas dinner in 2006 – an experience I wouldn’t want to relive again. Being seated for Christmas dinner practically in the middle of a dance floor is never a good idea! Therefore, it was with a degree of trepidation that I went along to the Kingston restaurant this time.

Apart from the state of the gents loos, I found it to be a much better experience! The bar was nice, not too busy and had a nice restaurant area. Helpful staff serving us with the new menu items and seemed relatively knowledgeable and interested.

Greg and I thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and ended up leaving stuffed and unable to walk! We’d tasted that much, and all for free! The only ‘let-down’ (and I use the term lightly!) was that there were no free deserts on offer!

We both heartily recommend the new carbonara and the Steak and Mushroom pie – both ’simple’ dishes that I’d normally avoid when going out for food (after all, you go out for something fancy!); however I’d definitely make the exception for these dishes – simply delicious!!!!

I found it very odd however that the comment cards that they passed around were just the tiny bog-standard ones, I was expecting to be able to give a full opinion on each of the dishes, and I feel that they wasted the valuable opportunity to do so with customers feeling willing to provide feedback in return for a free meal!

I’d never really considered Slug as a viable place to eat before, however this exercise has demonstrated to me how wrong I was, and therefore I think that we give Slug consideration next time we’re hungry and in the vicinity! D

James Blunt : O2 Arena

I was offered tickets for the James Blunt concert on Tuesday 14th October 2008 recently, and was rather pleased to get them. Although I’m not a huge fan of the man himself, I do rather like some of his songs, and especially his use of the piano in his music.

Therefore, I cannot say that I was disappointed with his concert earlier this week; more relieved to find that I really enjoyed it after all!

However, the support act (Teddy Thompson) was terrible, his songs were repetitive, he had no idea of how to address to a crowd, was rather rude and ignorant, and to be honest, he bored me rigid. Greg however, thought the opposite to me it would seem. Grrr @ him P

By the time Blunt came on, I was ready for a bit of action to be perfectly frank, and, although the gig was a little slow in warming up, by the time that he jumped from the stage at the front and ran through the masses towards the sound desk at the rear of the arena so that he could surface on a piano in the middle of the audience, I was well and truely captivated!

I was rather pleased to find that my favourite James Blunt song (1973) was saved for the encore and I really liked the rendition of it that they ended with. I must apologise to all those sat around me in the suite as I was a little vocal in my ’singing’ hehe!

All in all, a grand evening and one which I really (and surprisingly!) enjoyed!

I figured that I’d wrap the post up by posting a few of my favourite James Blunt songs below…

(“1973″ – My fave!)

(“Carry You Home”)

[http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=8Y7WDWP8WMs]

(“You’re Beautiful”)

(“Goodbye My Lover”)

Thanks for reading! x

News And Views Update

A bit of a personal update for my blog as once again, it’s been a while!

The most exciting bit of news that I have to share is that Greg and I are moving in together – hurrah! We started looking at the end of August and were lucky to find somewhere 5 weeks before we were planning on moving (29th September 2008). Therefore, the process involved in finding somewhere to live actually wasn’t all that stressful (well, I don’t think that it was!). The stress is really building up now though in preparation for the move – erk!

We’re moving to a really nice new-build development out in Zone 6 of London – everything is brand new and shiny – hurrah! I’m a big fan of new builds and so, after putting up with the general standard of housing in the Capital, I am really looking forward to something new again. Plus, you never find spiders in new build developments!

It’ll also be fab to get to live with Mister Greg too of course! Really looking forward to getting settled down with him – very exciting!:)

In other news, work seems to be going well for me with several new and interesting focuses being moved into my realm with one or two of the more ‘icky’ ones / ones which are no longer relevant to my role hopefully scheduled to be handed over to other colleagues in the near future.

I’ve adjusted my hours so that I now work on a Sunday, though I get Wednesdays off instead (most of the time, dependant on when Month End falls). Although some may baulk at the idea of this, it’s actually really beneficial and it was work that approached me to see if I could do it in the first place. Ultimately, the office is nice and quiet, I’m the only one in, and so I can have my music on full whack and dance around like a loon, I can get so much more work done and I can work to my own pace without interruption. It is also required for some of the new focuses I’ve been tasked with at the moment. This also fits in very nicely with Mister Greg’s working hours, plus I get Wednesdays off – always good to get a day out of the office during the normal working week!

The other day I realized that I’d been with my current employer for 4 years exactly – not a bad achievement I think considering my current age! It’s flown by, but yet dragged – it’s kinda weird to try and apportion it all out given the multitude of roles that I’ve had over the years and the constant move onwards and upwards. In another year, I get some vouchers – hurrah!

For the moment, I am really happy about everything and how it’s all going. Well, pretty much everything. A few times recently I’ve felt a little bit like I don’t get to see some of my friends as often as I used to. I’ve especially noticed this at parties whereby people have all re-grouped together and I feel like I’m being a little intrusive by being there and thus end up sitting on the sidelines on my own and feeling awkward. Sure it’s just me being stupid and that none of the group dynamics have actually changed, and so hopefully I’ll feel a bit better about everything on that score soon as I really do have a cracking set of friends that I enjoy spending time with. It’s probably due to the change in seasons or something equally as old-housewives-tales-y hehe.

TV wise, I’m currently enjoying Neighbours, Mock The Week, X Factor; Xtra Factor; Stargate Atlantis; Hairspray School Musical and am eagerly looking forward to Strictly Come Dancing and Merlin. Ugly Betty, Desperate Housewives, The Simpsons and Family Guy all start new seasons in the US at the end of the month, (not to be confused with the UK series’ – many of which are coming back mid-season from the writers strike earlier in the year) which again I am really looking forward to!

I keep on meaning to start playing on my PS2 again – I bought Final Fantasy XII and Kingdom Hearts II about 8 months ago, and despite being hugely excited about them, have yet to see anything other than the opening video on FFXII – grr @ me! The idea of having to spend 3 days building up my character is what’s currently putting me off I think, as I’ve not really got the time to do that anymore. Greg bought me Buzz for my birthday the other month, which we both really enjoyed playing. We also purchased a cheap geeky game where you get to race trains across various terrains/underground – it may be cheap and geeky, but it’s awesome!!! Hehe.

I’ve also gotten used to the new Facebook design, and on reflection, don’t think that it’s as bad as I had originally pegged it. That said, there have been numerous changes from when I first saw the site a few months ago and now that it’s a mandatory format for everyone.

Off out for a few drinks with a friend from Manchester this evening, I am at The Royal Albert Hall tomorrow to watch Mario Frangoulis with a couple of friends, and then doing the (dreaded?!) meet the parents thing on Saturday afternoon over a BBQ – which I’m sure won’t be half as bad as I worry that it will be hehe.

The nerves are really kicking in now though!!! I even went out and bought a whole new outfit and everything! From what I’ve heard of them, they sound very nice and so I’m looking forward to it. It can’t be any more car-crashy (in a good way though) than when I met Marc’s parents…. He’d not announced to them that I was coming and was planning to just spring me on them. Now me being me, I said that wasn’t really fair on them and so when we got there I went and hid around the corner as he was supposedly just nipping in for a quick minute to pick something up. Next thing I know, his Mum comes rooting through the hedge that I’d pressed myself into and said ‘So, you must be Gari then. Why on Earth are you hiding?!’ *BLUSH!* hehe! I blame my misguided sense of politeness kicking in and making me do strange things hehe – it does that quite frequently unfortunately. It goes without saying that the embarrassment of being found pressed into some bushes far out-weighted the embarrassment I may have felt being sprung to someone’s parents unannounced on their door-step! Still, that was about 4 years ago now… fortunately my bush hiding skills have developed a lot more since then P hehe.

So, there you have it; a snap-shot of how life is for me at the moment and some of my current thoughts. I think I’m perhaps the most relaxed and content that I’ve been since moving down to London – which is fantastic.

Long may that continue!

Thanks for reading xx

Brighton Pride 2008

So, the first of several catch-up posts :- BRIGHTON PRIDE

On Saturday 2nd August 2008, Greg and I decided that we would go down to Brighton Pride. I’d never been to Brighton before, and it had been years since Greg had been. I was also rather surprised to find that this was to be Mr Greg’s first pride!

Alas, the weather was a little icky on the way out there (London Bridge –> Brighton) and when we got to Brighton and took our position near to the church to wait and watch the parade go by, it was raining somewhat – gah! My hair was ruined!

Greg took the below picture which I think really captures the momentum and purpose of the parade:-

I love how the splash of colour contrasts with the rather normal/mundane aspects of the life around him.

Greg also managed to get a few other pictures of folk in the parade (though has only uploaded a few so far as he took that many!):-

 

All in all, a parade which wasn’t all that different from the Manchester pride parade to be honest. The same groups were represented and for me, gave it a really homely feel.

After the parade, we headed off to have a look around Brighton, and ended up on Brighton Pier. Had a good ol’ nosy around and went right to the end, before heading back and treating ourselves to Fish and Chips on the pier – yum! I was also amazed at how clean/green the sea was - that said, I am used to the scummy water at Blackpool – ugh!

After finally finding a hat that I really liked (I’m not normally a hat person, but the rain really had buggered my hair!) we headed down to Preston Park to meet up with friends and while away the afternoon. Huge crowds down there, largely well behaved, though I was surprised and a little disappointed by how much drug taking was going on by folk (not our group, I hasten to add – we’re all well behaved… well, in that sense! P).

I also had some crazy lady try and pretend that she was my ‘Mum’… that was… erm… interesting! When she turned around and we could see the remnants of a line of cocaine under her nose… well, that explained a lot!

After much gaiety in the park, we headed over to the Hilton Metropole on the seafront as a good friend of ours, David,  was hosting a soirée in his suite to which we’d been invited, along with several others from the group.

The room had a GORGEOUS and terribly romantic view of the old pier - never mind the gathering, I could have remained out on that balcony with the view all night!  (Thanks to David for allowing me to post the below picture that he took of the view)

The soirée was a lot of fun, and a really great way of catching up with folk who I’d not seen in a while!

Getting home was a bit of a nightmare; though it could have been a lot worse. It took 4 hours to get from Brighton back home (it took 90 mins total on the way) partly due to huge queues for trains, having to interchange at Clapham Junction for London Bridge and then having to get a night bus home.

All in all, Greg and I had a smashing time and really enjoyed ourselves. For anyone interested in seeing more pictures of our escapades in Brighton, both mine and Greg’s Facebook profiles carry further pictures from the day.

Roll on Manchester Pride next weekend!!