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

Hi everyone!

I've not had much chance over the last couple of months to write a Journal Entry but now 2005 has come along, I suppose it's a good idea to summarise what's been going on.

Well, I suppose I'd better start with the bad things first - Alex and I split up just over two weeks ago. Basically, things seemed to be going OK until the end of November, when Alex suddenly began to have doubts about whether he wanted to be in a relationship. The following five days were probably the worst I have ever felt - mainly because I had fallen deeply in love with him and yet he did not feel the same about me. He seemed to have come around after those five days, though, and certainly for his birthday (on 11th December) things were back to normal. However, a couple of days later, when we went to the LGBT Christmas Ball, he became more distant again and after dinner he told me his doubts had come back and he couldn't resolve them this time around. For the next couple of hours we talked through them all and we basically decided to call it quits. Oddly enough, though, he seemed to have perked up considerably 10 minutes afterwards and we had a great time in Poptastic (gay night club) before we went back to our hotel room to sleep. He flew back to Malaysia the day after that and while we agreed to remain as friends, his behaviour towards me since then (particularly over the Christmas period) has been less than agreeable in my opinion - I shall reserve judgement on that until after my birthday (in a week's time), although he has already said he won't be staying for long. (Fortunately, James should be coming along as should my sister Amy and her two Jo's - should be an interesting night!)

So now I'm single yet again - although I'm quite happy that I have had two boyfriends in the last 12 months, when at the start of the year I never had one. I've updated my profile on Faceparty (and Gaydar, although I've never had much attention from that one) and I'm starting to make new friends with a couple of guys: I was supposed to meet one of them for New Year's Eve, but the phone number he gave me so I could find him didn't appear to work (investigation to follow). However, that wasn't to say NYE wasn't eventful - I *did* pull about half an hour before midnight (although he got cold feet soon afterwards, so we didn't kiss at midnight) and I joined a 17-year-old lad and his "fag hag" for the arrival of 2005 itself, though I didn't stay for very long after that as I was too drunk and tired!

In other news, I have also been culturing a friendship with a guy I met online quite a while ago - we actually met face-to-face a couple of months ago while he was near Manchester after a shoot (he works for a TV production company) - and we've started to grow quite close. In fact, we've decided to have an "insurance policy" - if neither of us has a b/f when I reach the age of 35 (as he's a year or so younger than me), we'll get together for life and even raise kids together! Naturally, we *do* need to see if we are sufficiently compatible (although we certainly got on when we met), so we're hoping to have quite a few dates, possibly starting later this month in London (where he now lives and works). I'm looking forward to it - certainly if we get to see The Producers (which I've heard is absolutely fantastic)!

Work has been going reasonably well - I've got some interesting results from my many calculations: enough to write a paper for a conference in July, in fact. The course on Computational Fluid Dynamics also went very well, although I've still got a coursework assignment to complete for that in about two weeks. The management diploma as part of my doctorate has also been progressing, although I'm less convinced about how well it's been going - again, another piece of coursework is due by the end of January. Fortunately, the whole diploma will hopefully be done and dusted by mid-April, so I won't ever have to worry about it again after that!

So a lot's been happening - well, maybe not, but at least I can write quite a bit about it! But here's hoping 2005 works out even better than 2004 ... being in a relationship for longer than 6 months would be nice, if possible, but I won't worry too much if it doesn't happen just yet.

Mikeo

I dunno what to say really, apart from sorry about Alex and yay about these new people. However, 17 year olds? Bad Mike! Here's to 2005

I didn't snog the 17-year-old lad, BTW - we just pecked cheeks when midnight came along, as I did with the girl he was with. Oh and update on the not-getting-hold-of-Faceparty-guy thing - he'd accidentally left his phone at home, so he had lots of missed calls and texts. I should hopefully get to meet him soon although probably more as friends.

That's cool. There is kind of something happening with me for once and it's really odd, there's a really good-looking lad in work who fancies me and we've been flirting something ruthless and we're going on a date on Thursday

Hmmm ... sounds interesting - tell me more! I've also been flirting outrageously with the guy in London and we're now *definitely* going to have a date, although when will still depend on when he has to go out filming this month.

*sits quietly, being envious in a subdued way*

*sulk* Envy isn't needed, nothings happening now, as this lad, despite leading me on for the last fortnight and giving me a good old kiss on New Year's Eve, had a really hot date last night and then I made a of myself when I rang him this morning. Where's a dark corner I can hide in for the next few days?

Ah, that sounds familiar. Rather like my life, in fact. *sigh* There's plenty of dark corners here, if you want to borrow one.

(From dark corner) Thank you, I spoke to him again and I was a little less insane this time, which was nice, and we sorted things out. From here on in we are just mates (probably the most depressing thing ever) and I still have all the dirty texts he sent me, which are a source of amusement that have great blackmail potential *steps out of dark corner* Hey, what do you know, it ain't so bad
Iago

Oooh, you're gonna envy me again, though ... I've not had time to write about it till now, but I suppose I'd better tell you! Well, the Saturday after New Year's Day was my 24th birthday, so I'd tried to invite some friends and my sister and her friends to come along ... my sister couldn't make it due to work, but a couple of friends (James, Graham and a very nice guy called Patrick) came along, as did Alex (the ex) and Daniel (Alex's flatmate). So we had a nice meal in Eden (restaurant on Canal Street) - after which Alex and Daniel had to go back to Liverpool - then we went to Spirit, Manto and Via Fossa (all bars) for drinks. I'd certainly had some , some and a few of those mixer drinks, so I was a little bit p***ed (and hitting on Patrick in the meantime - nothing came of that, but it was a bit of fun, anyway).

We eventually all ended up in Poptastic (the famed nightclub) to dance the night away, but about two hours before the place shut, this nice guy more or less came straight up to me and started kissing me! So we snogged ... and snogged ... and snogged ... and snogged ... and snogged ... and, you get the picture! Although I did find out his name (Carl) and his age - he's 30 years old ... generally not my usual agerange, but he was too nice to pass up based on a little number! Basically, we barely talked for about two hours until eventually the lights came up and we had to leave the place - although we were both determined not to stop there ... we walked back to his place (somewhere in Salford) holding hands for most of the way, where we had a coffee, a make-out session on his sofa (only momentarily interrupted by his lodger and his friend coming in) and then a wonderful night together! The following morning, we agreed to meet up again for a date the following Saturday and in the meantime, we went to the coach station to meet Carl's friend from London and we all went into Gaia (coffee lounge/bar just off Canal Street) for a coffee - and I got to kiss and cuddle Carl some more before I had to set off home.

Following Saturday - we met up at the front of Gaia, had a quick drink (I had to stay off the alcohol due to antibiotics I was taking after my wisdom tooth extraction a couple of days before) and then went to an Italian restaurant called Bella Roma, where we had a pizza each. We also did some more touching and kissing, although it was a little bit risky, seeing as the place wasn't necessarily gay-friendly! However, it was there that we openly declared our love for each other ... After that, we went into Taurus (another lounge/bar on Canal Street) for another drink - and we were there for two hours! (No prizes for guessing what we were doing on the big soft sofa there. ) We were also trying to find Carl's lodger (not housemate, as the house *did* belong to Carl) and his mate and Carl's mate (who was with them at the time) and tried the usual Saturday haunts without success, although we did get invited to a gay wedding in August (I've never been to one, but it should be fun!) while we were in Hollywood Bar and I was being admired by some guys for my new jacket. We eventually got back to Carl's place for a coffee etc. etc. ... The following morning/afternoon was spent with Carl, his lodger Michael and his friend David (camp incarnate! ) and Carl's London friend Daniel discussing computers, classical music (Michael's passion!), watching a video the following Thursday with Carl for a "quiet" night in, Michael's porn collection and all sorts of other stuff before I really *had* to go back home (for Sunday dinner).

I won't bore you for much longer with the details, but we did have our "quiet" night in on Thursday, and yes, it was "quiet"! (Quote marks intended.) We're also meeting up again this evening, only this time I'll be spending virtually all of my weekend with Carl ... can't wait!

Anyway, I would imagine you would both be now, so I'll leave it there!

I'm not jealous at all, this weekend could be interesting for me, a friend from work intends to set me up with his best mate so that'll be a laugh come what may

All this, and you left out the bit that would *really* interest us...

Tell us more about your new jacket.

Well, that jacket came from Top Man and is a nice black warm but fashionable thing with silken-like lining and lapels - the blokes in Hollywood's admiring my coat were mainly stroking the lapels (and also patting my backside for good measure).

But anyway, Carl and I spent almost all of the weekend in his house - the only exception (between us meeting up on Friday and walking into town on Sunday evening) was a visit to Urbis, a city-life museum-type place - quite fascinating. We were thinking of going out on Saturday night to meet up with my mates, but we decided against it as we were too comfortable snuggling up together in front of the TV watching Poirot. (Michael the lodger, David and another mate called Jason headed out quite late - and had a very good time apparently.) Obviously we'll be doing more of the same next weekend and especially the weekend after (Valentine's weekend) ...

That does sound like a nice jacket... I wish I had a nice jacket; then maybe someone would want to stroke my lapels, once in a while.

Well, my sisters and my mum have also been stroking the lapels while I wore the jacket, so it must have some weird and wonderful powers!

Just a brief update on me and Carl ... we're still together, still loving each other madly (can't be bad ). We had a lovely Valentine's Day together alone in his house, where he made a nice meal for us to share, and we cuddled up together on the sofa (and did various vigorous activities as well, but the less said about those the better!).

We still see each other at least once a week, although last week we spent three nights together as Michael (the lodger) and his friends had all gone to Gran Canaria for a week's holiday. So not only did we spend more time on the sofa together, but I was also playing in the Gilbert and Sullivan opera this year for one night only (last Saturday to deputise for one of the viola players) and decided to bring Carl along to that. He seemed to enjoy it and afterwards we went over to the BBC (just over the road from the theatre) for the After Show Party. Once that had finished, we went down the main road to an After After Show Party - I suppose it should technically be an After-After Show Party-Party. However, the house it was in was full of people not related to the show as well as those who were, so an executive decision was made to set up a new party in another house - which would be an After-After-After Show Party-Party-Party. That one was more successful, even though space was still rather limited ... Carl and I eventually left in a taxi at 5am for his house and went to sleep quite quickly once we got into bed. As we got up at, ahem, 5pm the next day, I had to hurry out of the house to get to my mum's in time for Sunday dinner ... ah well.

Anyway, that'll probably do for an update.

Me, I'm still in a condition where my lapels are safe from random strokings.

*sulks*

Ivan
Nice to hear things are going well, mikeo_s
*strokes Ivan's lapels*

Ooooh, look ... a new person! Hello, whoever you are ... I just had a look at your Personal Space and am I right in thinking you found me through the (Losing-)Virginity discussion? (Not often that I can actually say that ... ) Oh, and thanks for stroking Ivan's lapels - it's about time someone did (before you ask, my b/f wouldn't let me do that myself)!

You probably shouldn't stroke your own lapels, Mikeo - there might be consequences...

Hello new person. Thanks for the attention to the lapels.

Hello, yes you're right mikeo_s that was an interesting discussion!and you're welcome Ivan.I am a girl by the way I hope you don't mind me joining in the convo