h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Well, I said I'd get another Journal Entry in sooner than five months after the last one ... and here it is!

First things first, love life ... basically, in the last few months I've had my life turned almost completely upside down - in the middle of July, I had gone over to Carl's place after returning from a conference in Glasgow, when he told me that he was HIV positive. Of course, this meant that there was a small risk that I would have been infected as well, so this meant I faced at least three months of agony waiting until I could get a definitive HIV test result. Fortunately for me, I have been tested twice after the 'seroconversion window' of three months had passed and received negative results both times (the second time was two days ago), so I am absolutely fine ... but the wait for both tests has been difficult to cope with - almost anything out of the ordinary could have been a symptom, so I was heading towards very deep paranoia! For obvious reasons, I have not told my family that I had put myself at risk and only Amy knows that I did and got negative results - although some of my friends did know and were wonderfully supportive. In particular, Mike and Stephen - who have now moved down to London to live together with two kittens - were absolutely brilliant, as they were there on the evening Carl told me his news and for many weeks after that.

It later became clear (from viral load tests) that Carl had become infected about 10 or 11 months before he was diagnosed, so he was already HIV positive when we first met but didn't know about it in spite of going for tests in later February - and it turned out that he wasn't tested for HIV at that point. Two possible reasons existed for this: (1) the clinic was incompetent and forgot to test his blood sample along with the other tests, or (2) Carl didn't ask to be tested for HIV (for whatever reason). Carl told me it was reason 1, but I could not believe that happened - my friend Hazel (who is a cellist in a couple of orchestras I play in and whose mum is a GP) said it was basically impossible that the clinic forgot to test for HIV, as they go through a counselling procedure before they take a sample. Basically, it meant I could no longer trust Carl and after a four week period of separation, I finally ended our relationship. Of all the b/f's I've had, he is actually the one I would least like to remain in contact with ... not that I blame him for becoming infected in the first place, but I find his cavalier attitude to his own health (and other things) disturbing - especially when it could have affected mine.

Anyway ... from mid-August onwards I was single yet again, but this time in no major hurry to find another b/f - I felt that I really needed to know about my own HIV status before I could even start another relationship - and I got some attention from a nice profiling website, OKCupid.com. This site is unique in that apart from allowing you to put your details and photos on your profile, you can also answer personal questions - the answers to these can then be compared to those of other people and you can find people according to how well your answers match theirs. Well, quite a few guys have shown some interest - a guy called Drew in Leeds, a largish guy called Alan in Nottingham and, particularly, a Biology PhD student in Liverpool called Luke. While we haven't got together and - considering my current situation (see below) - we probably wouldn't for quite a while yet, we have become pretty good friends ... the thing is, Luke is actually an amateur composer and he was thrilled to discover that I can orchestrate pretty well (as well as compose from time to time). He's also a keen bass choral singer, so I've invited him to come to Manchester to sing Fauré's Requiem for charity on 1 December (where I'll be playing viola in the orchestra).

However, my love life has taken a very interesting turn ... about two and a half weeks ago, I went to a house party held by my friend James for his housemate (and another friend of mine) Tom's 21st birthday right after a gala concert in Congleton to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar. Apart from drinking too much alcohol too quickly and throwing up in the toilet - I blame James for mixing exceptionally strong drinks - I was having quite a nice time, trying to flirt with a few of the other guests there. However, there was a particularly nice guy called Addam, who had come to the party dressed in a fur-lined coat, colourful shirt and short blue shorts - partly because the theme of the party was supposed to be Studio 54 (although very few other people went to that kind of effort!). Basically, it turned out that he was very quickly attracted to me - and me to him ... the first point when I discovered he liked me, he was heading into the bathroom and he almost pulled me into it with him, locked the door and we started kissing! We were in there for quite a while, so most of the other guests thought I had thrown up again - but we didn't do any more than kiss, I promise. However, Addam had been followed to the party by a guy he had met that day called Chris, who appeared to be attracted to him - but Addam wasn't so much to Chris - and had been flirting and even touching him up! However, soon after we finally got out of the bathroom, Addam took Chris back to his and returned to the party, where we spent most of the time close to each other and stealing kisses when we thought no one else was watching. (Going down into the cellar where the Scalectrix track was set out gave us an uninterrupted half an hour together for more kissing and cuddling.) We finally left the party together at 6 in the morning and went back to Addam's flat, where unfortunately we managed to wake Chris up - who decided to try and jump onto Addam as he was making his bed! However, Addam said that he couldn't be bothered to make up the sofa bed for me to sleep on, so - after locking his door - we got undressed and got into bed together and slept for a couple of hours. However, soon after we woke up, we were caught kissing in bed together by Chris ... so it was very embarrassing for about 20 minutes. But once we had all got up and dressed again, we had some breakfast together and while Addam had gone into the shower and we were in the lounge, Chris told me that he wasn't cross about what he saw ... although he started flirting with me! Fortunately, Addam came back into the lounge soon afterwards, although I unwisely offered to take Chris to Piccadilly train station in my car - unwise because he kept moving my hand onto his thighs etc. Luckily, we got there before he could go far too far - and Addam didn't swop numbers with him, so that's basically the last either of us has seen 'creepy' Chris.

After this slightly dodgy start, Addam and I have been dating each other pretty frequently over the past couple of weeks - the Tuesday after the party, we met for lunch together and that evening - after Addam cooked me a lovely tuna steak for dinner - we both went to the LGBT's event at the local bingo hall ... 'twas a lot of fun, actually! Afterwards, we went back to Addam's and tried to watch 'Silence of the Lambs' in bed together, although I felt a bit too tired to watch it after a while ... but I wasn't tired enough to make out with Addam. The following evening after my orchestra rehearsal, I went back over to Addam's and we went to see 'Corpse Bride' at the cinema - and then back home and then bed. We also got together again that Saturday at my place this time to go to a party in Trafford that had a G theme - basically, we all had to come dressed as something or someone beginning with the letter G - so I went as a goalkeeper and Addam went as a go-go boy in a similar outfit to the one he wore at the house party the previous Saturday. This time, I didn't drink too much alcohol (although I drank quite a bit) but I enjoyed the company, the party games and temporarily changing costumes with one of the hosts, who was dressed as a goth. The following Tuesday, Addam was due to fly out to Riga for a short break with a couple of his (girl) friends, so I stayed over on the Monday night and got up at half 3 in the morning to take them all to Liverpool John Lennon Airport ... however, due to work, we didn't get to see each other again until a week later (two days ago). We went to the Cornerhouse cinema with four of Addam's friends to see 'The Thumbsucker', and while we pretty much went straight to sleep when we got back to his flat (where he now has a nice lodger called Ryan - who I met at one of the parties), I spent much of the next morning giving Addam an all-body massage. Needless to say, we did de-stress each other, although not exactly in the way we originally intended. I'm not sure when I'll next get to see Addam, but it should be fairly soon, I hope.

Uni work has also gone well - the conference in Glasgow went well, where I presented my paper on my research and my colleague's poster on his (to save our supervisor some money on conference fees). Now - after a few more calculations - I'm currently writing a paper to get published in a proper journal, which should get submitted early next year. I've also been busy with music as well ... apart from the three orchestras I play in (Oldham Symphony, Fellow's Symphony and Congleton Youth Orchestra), I have also been playing rehearsal piano for a production of West Side Story in Congleton and I'll be playing violin in the band.

Anyway, it's getting very late now, so I think I'll stop there.

Mikeo

Well, that was a bit of a rollercoaster ride... I'm glad you're OK.

I'm a bit short on words and brainpower at the moment. Consider this a bookmark.

Hi Michael. I see that lots has been been happening for you. Glad to hear you're clear in the health department. That must have been a worry for you.

Blimey, that's a bit of an epic! Has it still got a happy ending?

Well, not quite as happy as I'd like - Addam and I have since stopped dating (he's got health problems, which have made him fall behind at uni and increased his stress levels, making his health worse ... etc.), I met my 'friend' Luke in person but a day later he decided he didn't want to be friends with me and my flat was burgled last Sunday afternoon. However, there's still cause for optimism - OKCupid is still yielding nice guys I can talk to, so it's not all doom and gloom.

Ah mate, not the answer I was hoping for! I can't post much now as 2legs is here and debauchery is ensuing but I'll be back!

D'ya mind if I slap you on my friends list?

Roymondo, does that make you a slapper? Ask 2legs, he should know...

Now, this burglary. Was much taken?

Roymondo ... absolutely, please slap me onto your friends list! And I don't blame you for getting back to debauchery with 2legs ... have fun!

Well, my laptop computer, a freeview digital receiver box and two mobile phones were taken ... surprisingly, there wasn't anything especially vital on the laptop itself, but the bag with a lot of my research calculation results was also taken. The mobile phones were also not being used at all - one was deactivated (as I'd transferred its number to my new phone which I have with me at all times) and the other was entirely unused.

However, I should certainly get the laptop and the digibox back on insurance - I'm not so bothered about the mobile phones, though.

When my last place was burgled, the mongrels took all my CDs and a few small electrical gadgets that didn't work. With the insurance money I got a much better CD collection that didn't contain all the embarrassing stuff from my late teenage years, and some electrical gadgets that did work. There are advantages in burglaries sometimes.