sadness is infectious

london
My friend john M is sad and it is making me sad too. Its rather strange but when someone is happy you dont necessarily feel happy, but when someone is sad, u feel sad too.
It wont do him any good if i start moping so i try to be optimistic but really I understand his losing all that is saddening and he has good reason to be sad.

I know that providing him a place to stay is a secure haven for him at this time. So I hope staying at my flat gives him that feeling of stabilitywhich will be of some help to cope. I know I will be glad for a place to stay and have no hassle from a easy going host if something like that happen to me on my travels. So I endeavour to provide him with that environment. He is a very easy going guest so it makes it easier for me too.

this afternoon when i got back from the gym i saw he was still in the flat. I was surprised because this morning he told me he will be going to the passport office in eccleston square (very near me, a good thing about living so centrally everything is within walking distance from me.) to get a new British passport and that he will go to bromley afterwards to visit his sister and to stay overnight.

When i saw him in my flat i thought the worst, so I was really happy when he told me he is waiting to get his new passport at 3pm. That is quick I said. I am so glad for that, I said. We had thought it will take a week and were prepared for me to send his passport to him in the usa by registered mail. I am glad we dont have to do that.

he said when he got to the passport office they ask him if he got an appointment.

When he said,no, they ask him to join a queue of about 10people. But a guy came to him and quietly told him he can go to a desk and jump the queue. it seems they have the police report of the theft, and he brought along a passport form that was sent to my flat, and from there they were able to link it to who he was. He did not even have to show ID.
Simon helped him report the theft when john first arrived at my flat, and I think it is fortunate that simon is home, because he could not hope for a better person to guide him through the process than simon.


I am surprised at how easy and quick it was to getting a new british passport. It costs about £190 but he gets a new passport. Money well spent i think.

Anyway, we hugged each other, because it was such good news and i said its time he got a break after all that he has gone through. And his spirits were much lifted with this development. I feel so much happier myself too. Things are looking up. I dont know about him, but i feel even more optimistic for him.

Coincidences

london
I was coming back from a new shag today, (it was very nice, if you are asking) and on the tube i thought i shall get off at victoria station, to go to my gym before it closes and grab their mail on sunday paper. I did not go to the gym earlier today, because i woke late and also i was preparing to go to colindale, where this shag lives.

Anyway, when i sat down on the tube, i saw a newspaper behind the seat, and it was the mail on sunday.(It was the european edition, costing 3.80euros.) Well, that is v nice, because it means i dont have to get off one stop before my stop, and so I don't have to walk back from victoria station.

I do not know whether they sanitise the european edition, or the mail on sunday is produced by a different editorial team, but this paper was not so interesting as the usual daily mail.


How many times these kinds of serendipitous finds happen to you? It happens to me quite a lot.

Talking of coincidences, my shag today have mutual friends that we know.

I was passing the recycling bins in the housing estate where i live, and picked up a strap. It looked useful but when i examined it, it was not quite what i was looking for. I was looking for a strap to carry a case, this one looks like it is to bind a toddler. Anyway i turned back and returned it to the recycling bins, and then retracing my steps i saw this woman wearing a short mini skirt and a fur hooded top standing in the dark by the building. She is a lady of the night, (as they say. Though I did not approach her to verify it, as i did not want to waste her time and be mistaken for a customer).

I am surprised to see her, first time in fact i noticed them hanging around our estate, because i did not think our estate is a place frequented by streetwalkers. It is not a throughway where lots of people walk by. In fact it is a desserted area.

It is a mild night, tonight, and so it is not cold for her to be soliciting outdoors. Still, it did seem a hard way to make a living. Far better to be a belle du jour, the phd researcher who has outed herself as the woman who kept a blog about her days when she was a high class prostitute.

She had a lovely time and made lots of money (£300 an hour,amazing that there are straight men willing to pay that much, of which she kept a third, the other 2/3 the escort agency kept) and she said she never had any trouble with her clients.

A lot of woman scolded her because they did not like her to say it is a nice profession. This is because they all believe it is awful to be a prostitute and so anyone who is one must have been forced to do it and not chose to do it; and by saying she was not forced and she did not get raped, she is giving them the lie. So they say she is lucky to not get raped, and she is the exception that proves the rule.

Personally i wish govts would legalise prostitutes and include it as a honourable profession that any woman can aspire to. But i think a lot of wives are worried that if it is legal their husbands will use them and where will that leave them? haha.

chatting to strangers

london


I was reading the daily mail at the gym when someone sitting at the other table, asked me what date is today. I looked at my paper and said nov 21st. he said are you sure?


What a strange thing to say, so i took a good look at him. I asked him 'are u from another planet or from the future'?



he said his mobile phone gives him a different date. I said, 'u have taken ur sim card out or changed your sim card'.



he is a coloured guy, with rastafarian dreadlocks. i thought he was about 25yrs old, but he later told me he is 39, and that his birthday is a few days away.


he is in very good shape and unlined face for 39. he said he brings his two dogs out walking in hyde park and they pull at the lead and that is why he got such muscular arms. He gave me a spring hand grip and asked me to try it. he said he exercise his forearm by gripping it 100 times and asked me if i could. i tried it and it was easy, so i told him the spring is too weak. i suggested he get a 4 coil one instead of the 3coil he got now.

When I told him of this, he tried the grip himself and had to admit it was weak.I asked why he only had one, because if he had two he will be able to exercise two hands at the same time, saves him a lot of time. But maybe it costs more to buy two.

This just goes to show my advise is quite useless.haha.

He was waiting for a friend who is a member to introduce him but his friend did not turn up so he had the interview anyway. He was quoted £42.50 a month for the lowest. later i told him that he can get a off peak membership and he asked the interviewer, and she said it will cost him £35 a month. so it looks like my tariff of £26 a month is not available anymore.


It's quite fun to chat with guys who are at the lounge. A few days ago i chatted with a chinese guy from shanghai. I noticed him because he was drinking his coffee with great gusto as if he had not had coffee for ages. haha. slurping it long and hard. he just arrived 1month ago to study an MBA, it will be 2yr course, and he is staying in Crystal Palace in south london, paying £60 a week but sharing a room with a roommate who he says keeps him awake always playing computer games. So i told him of my friend who lives in his flat near crystal palace who has a room for rent.. he said he is interested, so i contacted my friend, who said his present lodger is leaving in dec, so i gave them each other's contact number.

its strange that the gym dont have a members' notice board but on second thoughts maybe it is not strange. I guess they dont want us to start exchanging notes and find out the different costs of tariffs, etc. or find gym partners, as that will affect the business of the personal trainers they have hired to give one to one training; and there is no incentive for them to provide an advertising board for members to advertise.

Added. Simon asked me what i want from the chinese takeaway, as he fancied ordering some. I looked at the menu trying to find something that i cannot cook myself, and found nothing. So told him i will just take some of what he orders but primarily i m going to cook rice with the steamed minced pork on top, and that will do me. (That dish will cost 50p and it can feed 2-3people.)

he ordered noodle dishes , two of them, and prawn balls but instead of the usual sweet and sour sauce that comes with it, he wants curry sauce. To me it is a weird combination, but ah well, that is how the english eats chinese, mixing and matching in the strangest of combinations. The take away people will follow what he wants, for after all the customer is always right. haha.

Frankly, i think the price of the dishes at £4 each is expensive for what it is, after all noodle dishes are real cheap to cook, but i did not say anything to simon as I dont want to take their business away. Afterall, takeaway businesses must make money, and i dont begrudge them making money. Simon can well afford it haha. and what is more, right now he craves eating some chinese food. I remember they do a good noodle dish, with what the chinese call 'wok hey'. It is something that a good cook can do with a really hot wok.

I am thrifty with myself, but i dont discourage others from spending their money however they like, even though i personally may think it is not good value. I always remember that I must be neutral on this, because the person who is doing the business has put in good money and time and deserve to make a good living out of it. And if others want to buy from him, so be it.
That is why I sometimes dont tell others about bargains that i find. The business have to make money, and if there are people who are rich enough not to bother with buying reduced priced goods, let them do so, and subsidise us who want these reduced prices.

That is why I hope those who can afford private medical treatment do so, and free the nhs for those of us who dont want to go private. The general thinking is everyone must support the nhs and not have it provide a two tier system of care, but i personally feel if u can afford it, dont use the nhs, but go private, so that u free the nhs to treat others who are not so rich as u.

i know a lot of people dont think like that. They resent that rich people can jump the queue, or be able to get special treatment just because they can buy it. I dont mind. i consider a rich person going private and not using the nhs will mean another place available for a nhs patient.

Added. one of the noodle he ordered is a crispy noodle, but he was disappointed that it was not crispy. The sauce softened it. I suggested that next time he might ask them to put the sauce in a separate container. It might work, or it might not, because the noodles could soften during transit. these things have to be eaten straight away.

each person has his own way of viewing his life

london
I have no trouble about my life, as i have a clear idea of what it is about. So it was quite a jolt to me to find out that not everyone is as clear sighted about their life as me.
(added 21.11.09 I have forgotten I used to be like that but it was so long ago)
Talking with John M brought it up.

I thought he wanted to go live in florida, from key west; now he tells me he has not wanted to do it. His then boyfriend suggested the idea, and even suggested buying the farm which he bought. So he went along with it. The whole thing soured when his boyfriend decided not to join him afterall.

The curious thing to me anyway is why he continued to live there for 5yrs. Why not sell off even if at a loss and move to where he really wants to be?

And he tells me his whole life has been like this, with things or people forcing him to do things which he had not wanted. hmm.

Glad i am not like that. And it wont happen to me because i would have sold off and move to where i wanted to be. that is if i ever do things because of a boyfriend. It won't happen.

It is so much easier to decide for myself rather than have someone else decide. I will never let a boyfriend dictate to me. With me, i do things i want, and the boyfriend, if he is still around will decide whether he too wants to join me, if not, nevermind, he can do his own thing. haha.


I dont rely on another person to make me happy. haha. My attitude sounds selfish , i know but i cannot please everyone, so i might as well please myself.

That is the modus operandi of any bachelor who loves his singledom. Anyone else who follows a different philosophy is not a happy bachelor. Now and then, the bachelor will have a boyfriend (or girlfriend if he is straight), but the boyfriend/girlfriend is dispensable.

it is strange that his actions belie his feelings. Ever since he has been here, he has been very busy, chatting on the phone to lots of his friends, who seem to all want to meet him, and he says he has got a lot of support from them, and so i had thought he likes these things, being busy, busy. But he tells me in our talk that if he has his rathers, he would just like to be alone in his house, never go out and meet people, just stay at home. And all this while i had thought he wants the busy life and be always on the go.

I got tired just seeing him rushing about.

What surprise me is if he really wants a quiet life, why dont he? but then, i do notice many people say one thing and do another. A clue to this behaviour may be from something he said, that he do not think it is healthy to stay at home and be alone.

I thought it is normal, haha. I like staying at home, and not meet anyone at all. What bliss. But he said it is bad. hmm is it? if it is , why is it bad?

I remember a friend calling me a long time ago, to ask me if i am alright? Asking me to go to his party out of town and when i said 'no, i rather not', asking if everything is alright because he thinks i might be depressed. He said he has noticed i like to stay at home a lot and not do anything. hmm. i was a bit taken aback when he said it, because i did not feel depressed at all, but then when he suggested it, i wondered maybe i am depressed without knowing it. Is that possible? Then luckily i got back my sanity, and realise what nonsense. This is the kind of pseudo speak indulged in by psychotherapists that may have made paranoids out of perfectly normal people. hahaa.

So maybe my friend john M may also have been talking to these psychotherapists who may have put it in his head that time spent on his own will lead him dangerously on the slippery slope to depression. Who knows. really. And may be for some people it is a slide to depression. it is difficult to judge whether it is a symptom or a desire; without really getting to know that person really well, even then we can only hear what he says and he may not know anything at all as to how he really feels, and may just say things he thinks u want to hear.

My view is be honest with yourself, if you are really happy being on your own, then it is ok. just ignore all those who darkly hint that u might be on the verge of depression. haha.

naked sunbathing at highgate ponds

london
this is the only official naked spot where you must be naked. And there was a petition to extend it into the changing area next door; but i read in the gossip column in the daily mail that it has not succeeded.

It would only increase it by a small amount anyway.

this naked area is a throwback of the olden days when nudists wants to have special areas where they can be naked without being stared at.

As it is, the present naked area is enclosed by walls, and so it is not a very nice place to be in, esp in summer when it can get v hot, what with the concrete flooring. In winter it might be ok, being enclosed from the winds.

The trouble with uk is that it is too cold to go naked outdoors. Unlike germany, which has been cited as a great place for nudists, (they even have a so called 'english garden' where u can be naked and it is all unenclosed), uk is too cold even in summer. Why the germans think nakedness is associated with the english to make their english garden naked, may just be coincidence. that garden may just be private enough for it. It does not mean it is suggesting being naked is a english thing.

I have signed the petition to extend it, but I am not too upset that it is not approved. In uk, nakedness will have to be done indoors(in our homes or in clubs/pubs); or in enclosed spaces. It is too cold to do it outdoors.

Anyway, the courts have clearly ruled that public nudity is not illegal, so we could find any secluded spot and go naked so no need to have a enclosed space. This space may only be good for those nudist who want to be naked but dont want people to see them naked or dont want to offend other people with their nakedness. Frankly, I find these nudists who are so afraid of others seeing them naked should just do it at home or join a nudist club where they can hide away inside it.

Well, there is a big disagreement amongst nudists about this. bare it at let anyone see u naked, or hide away in specially designated areas where everyone must be naked. Perhaps it will be nice to have both options.

those of the general public who dont want to see naked people may well feel hard done by as they dont seem to be listened to. They do have a grievance, but then so many of us have to tolerate seeing things we dont like to see, haha, they will just have to join the queue. haha.

Comedian Julian Clary, pictured, and gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell are among over 1,000 Bohemians who have lost a bid to set up a bigger naked sunbathing area at Highgate Men's Pond. Their spokesman Michael Peacock, 50, says: 'Germany has nudist areas in most major parks. Prague has a population of 1.2million people and seven facilities for naturists.Yet London has six million people and all we've got is this tiny strip of concrete.' A City of London spokesman says: 'Nude sunbathing is an ancillary activity.' Quite so. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1229577/EPHRAIM-HARDCASTLE-New-ITV-boss-need-biggest-gallon-thinking-hat-faces-mega-rich-Cowell.html#ixzz0XQ6AECN3

a good laugh

london



I was at the gym this morning and read this in the daily mail. i could not help laughing. I started to laugh uncontrollably when i read the answer to the question 'name six animals which live specifically in the arctic', that 'three' crossed out is hilarious;and my laughter escalated as i read the rest leaving me helpless with laughter in the lounge in the gym.


Have a good laugh go to link below.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1229099/Revealed-The-student-howlers-dumbed-exams-pupils.html

I find I laugh at the strangest things. There was a rant by a writer in the daily mail, about how bad a mother this girl was to leave her children alone at home when she goes out to party and booze, and the writer says she should have been locked up to show her she cannot just leave her kids like that. And i cannot help laughing that if the woman was jailed that would leave her children on their own without her for even longer. I find that funny that the writer did not realise the implications of her words.

aftermath

london
John M is very busy making and receiving phone calls. My phone had never been busier; because school friends who he had not seen for 40 yrs were all now calling him. They had allready planned to meetup and they were calling to see if it is still on.

They have all heard of his robbery because he told one of them and that guy told the rest. They had a class reunion last month, and he missed that, and now they all want him to travel up to grantham where one of them had organised a 'meet john M' reunion.

John M at first booked a car rental, to be picked up on friday at victoria, costs about £70 for 3 days , but when i told him it wont include the congestion charge of £8, plus petrol, he changed his mind about driving up. He did not feel up to driving anyway, being used to driving the wrong(right) side in the usa.

Anyway we found out the train fare single going to grantham, and there to cambridge and back to london will total about £60. he have friends and family near cambridge who he wants to visit over that weekend.

I thought these towns are near each other but grantham is miles further north fr london than cambridge. (even though the train takes the same time from london to grantham , as grantham to cambridge, both costs about £19 one way.)

Frankly i think the train fares are ridiculously expensive.

I would not bother to go to all this trouble for a reunion with classmates that i have not bothered to keep in touch with for 40yrs. haha. but then that is me, so maybe rather thankfully not everyone is like me. haha. John said he at first also wanted to cancel, but so many of them urge him to keep the reunion, that he feels oblige to do it. And he hopes meeting them will cheer him up and take his mind off his troubles. Well, he is going to be in uk for some time, so he might as well go up and see them.

I wonder whether this losing of all his business data in his lost laptop is something that may turn out to be a good thing. A sign to change direction perhaps?. He makes feather masks for a living, and had been thinking of doing some other thing. He lives in florida, and wants to move to california, where he plans to start a new business, but his house bought for $600,000 about 4-5 yrs ago is now worth £250,000 if he can sell it, that is. Sigh, he has not been very lucky with his properties.

He had his mobile charger stolen as well, and it being a samsung he wont be able to recharge his mobile phone using our nokia charger. Pity that it is not a nokia, we have lots of nokia chargers. That is why i say to people, buy a nokia.(Added. 20.11.09 he bought a samsung charger in a shop in victoria station for £10). He has a usa sim card. that would make it v expensive for him to make calls here and for uk to call him.

ah well, i m glad i m not him. I dont think i want to live his life. But of course no one else will like his life except him.hahah. That is why we are we, and he is he and I am me. (hope that makes sense).

here is a joke to lighten the mood and make me laugh.

Bus driver: Now the road may get a bit bumpy. Just keep in mind it's not my fault, it's not the bus's fault, it's the asphalt.--Port Authority Bus Terminal

(say it outloud and hear it. hope u get it. it just makes me laugh so much.)

http://www.overheardinnewyork.com/archives/020959.html

my visitor fr usa robbed at heathrow airport

london
RAther sad news. My friend John M who lives in florida, was robbed of a bag containing his laptop , wallet with the cash , when he arrived at heathrow this morning.

He was a bit jet lagged and said he was pushing his trolley one moment with his laptop bag (with his wallet and passports) on top of another bag and next moment he noticed his laptop bag gone.

He never noticed who stole it or when it was stolen. Amazing isn't it. Such brazen thieves, but it was early in the morning and they must have noticed and targetted the really weary travellers.

Even the cctv did not catch the thieves at it. I wondered if the bag fell off and he never noticed... he said he would have heard it, but those trolleys are very noisy. We shall never know .

He is now at the American embassy hoping to get another passport, he has dual nationality.

Luckily simon was at home to let him in. Simon is not working because he is on sick leave. Naturally i have gone on with my usual routine of going to the gym. When he did not turn up this morning at 10am I don't worry if people dont turn up , i carry on doing my own thing and let them fall in with my routine. haha.

That way i dont worry about anything until it is over. Not much point worrying about things really. Afterall, what has happened has happened. It is one of those things that can and will happen to all of us and more than once. I only heard all about it when i got back at about 2pm.

Added 5.37pm. My friend came back just now and showed me the new USA passport given to him at the american embassy at grosvenor sq. How easy for Americans to get a replacement passport. No wonder no british or american ever gets panicky when their passports are lost or stolen, unlike us malaysians. We know there will be hell to pay and at the end there is no guarantee we will get a replacement malaysian passport if we lose it.

In a way, this easy replacement of their passports makes the british and americans very careless about looking after their passports, and because their passports are highly priced by forgers, they are a favourite target for thieves. There must be tons of altered uk and usa passports around the world from the passports lost throughout the ages.

Added. John M has gone to a club at king's cross. He said to drown his sorrow. He lost his ipod as well as his laptop with his business data as well as money. He said any one of which would be a disaster. What a sad start to his holiday here. It was all in one bag. I am glad it did not stop him from wanting to go to the gay club tonight. Better than moping in the flat thinking about what happened.

Since I had my camera and wallet stolen from our hotel room in penang a few years ago when john G and I were visiting malaysia, I have put my things separate from each other. It is so tempting to put things all in one bag and then it becomes so easy when a thief steals it to lose all. But even then, it is easy to fall back into that habit.

I guess it is best to be philosophical about it if we get robbed but I just want to send a silent message to my soul and ask my soul not to ask another soul to give me that experience of being robbed.

added. simon tells me he was not robbed, because that is stealing with violence. This was theft. I said isn't stealing with violence mugged? he said it is not an official word. he said it was first used in a report about a string of people who had things stolen from them, 'those mugs who walk through central park at night ' to describe those who are foolish enough to go into central park at night and the name stuck.

Somehow theft is not a good word for this. He got theft, does not sound that appropriate.

daily mail.

london
I have been reading the daily mail for some time now since i joined the gym and i can see why it is such a big selling newspaper.

I look forwrd to reading it which is something i never have for the other papers.It is not a paper i have read before.Partly because the pimlico library do not buy it but also I have heard that it is an obnoxious paper pandering to the 'little englander' attitude of the middle classes; which just goes to show you must not listen to other people.

Read it yourself and make up your own mind. I am not saying the other gay people who read it and consider it homophobic are wrong, to them it is right. And who knows when u read it u too might reach the same conclusion.
Most gay people dont like the daily mail, because we have heard from some gay people saying the paper is homophobic.

First off, it is important to point out it is a whine-y paper. And that might grate on your nerves and even though u can always skip those stories, you might find them too many to stomach. In which case u will decide to stop reading it.

My impression having read it for some time now, is that the paper is simply publishing stories and slanting its stance to what it thinks will attract attention, and may on any story adopt a anti gay stance, or might not, depanding on how it thinks the majority of its readers would reacte. Or whether it wants to provoke.
The skill of the editor must be to reach a balance where it pleases as many as possible, without alienating anyone so often that they leave.

It might even go both ways, with two writers for and against. Like the two writers, one argueing for and the other against jane fonda's saying she enjoys sex at 70.

Whether u agree or not with the paper, its articles are thought provoking, and written in a very easy to read way and sometimes its writers are lyrical and eloquent and forceful.
Sometimes you catch yourself agreeing with the writer,when normally u dont like her views at all; for eg this one by melanie phillips. She expresses my own feelings about all this apologising for the past.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1228122/Im-sorry-Gordon-apologise-things-ARE-fault.html

This one with a series of pictures showing the death of a crocodile who walked into a herd of rhinos is particularly gruesome but very suited to the internet format, is not featured in today's paper version but is online.

Now that is unusual, because most online papers would just ape the physical paper or even restrict the coverage rather than put new content online.
The daily mail website is very nice to look at and easy to read and easy to find articles as well.

(Added 17.11.09 Been to the gym and read today's daily mail and saw the pictures of this hippo attack there. so it looks like the website is just a day early in its reporting.)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1228242/Oops-werent-logs-The-moment-crocodile-killed-taking-foolish-shortcut-herd-hippos.html

This one is another news not found in today's daily mail paper version, about budgies dying mysteriously.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1228218/Fumes-riddle-prize-budgies-drop-dead-perches-horrified-judges.html

A £3 cure for snorers.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1227806/The-3-miracle-jab-snorers-available-NHS.html

Its website is the only one where there are more articles online than in the paper version and is just as interesting to read as the paper version.

Every other paper that i have read, and i have been following both their paper and online versions so i should know, has less content in its online version than the paper version so that i prefer to read the paper version than the online one. But with the daily mail i like both.

It is obvious why the daily mail is so popular.
Oh yes, mustn't forget its freebies. You won't like everything they give out free, since it has to cater to all its readers, so u just select the ones u like and ignore the others.

here is a link where it shows how homophobic and bigotted the daily mail can be.

two writers in particular seem to generate most of these anti stories. So it could be argued that the paper is simply providing a platform for people to represent one point of view, and if we recognise the freedom of speech even though what is said may not be to our liking, we have to accept their right to say it.

The paper slags other people too so we gays cannot say it is only targetting its phelgm at only us.

of course we dont have to buy the paper and support it. I dont buy the paper, i get it free from my gym. but it is one of those things where by reading it and referring to it, other gay guys might be justified in accusing me of propagating its popularity,(though i hardly think i m that influential haha) but then we gay people are very insecure indeed if we cannot take criticism.

My view is let's not accuse any person who criticise our lifestyle as homophobic. Other people are in their right to say they dont like the gay lifestyle and dont approve of it. As long as they dont advocate killing gays, they are entitled to say that.
http://www.mailwatch.co.uk/

luxury

london
The luxury of sleeping late and whenever i wish. Even the richest person on earth cannot enjoy that!!!

this morning i woke at 5am, and pottered around till 6am, and went back to bed and the next thing i knew it was 12.15pm. I had thought i shall sleep for another 3 hours and wake at 9am instead of such a long sleep in; but it is so much nicer this way.

Lovely life this.

I went off to the library to return lots of books i borrowed, and then to my gym, to read the daily mail and coffee. Too late to exercise but i dont mind. it is nice to have a rest from training.

Coming back i thought to pop into my sainsburys and saw reduced mince pork 500mg £2 to £1. But the shop assistant was nearby marking down other foods. One guy took the reduced meats and gave her to reduce somemore, which she did, so i got a bit bold and took the two mince pork to her and she reduced it to 40p each. That is a good reduction.

Then i go to the local tesco and saw hovis wholewheat bread 800mg reduced to 26p, and cauliflower reduced 2 for £1. saves me 60p. My freezer has no more space otherwise i would buy another loaf.

It is interesting that veg is more costly than meat after the reductions. So if u r vegetarian it is not a cheaper option, as the meat is reduced more than veg in uk.

In India, being vegetarian is cheaper than being a meat eater, as meat is very much more expensive than vegetables.
In fact, I venture to say that if u are in India, and poor, u are a vegetarian out of simple economics, as you cannot afford meat and I suppose u could make a virtue out of necessity and say you are vegetarian because of your conviction or because of your religion. It might take the stigma out of poverty.
But as i have found out buying vegetablesin the supermarkets , it is not the case in uk.

But i did fancy vegetables now so these cauliflowers were welcomed.
I used to throw away the green stalks that enclose the cauliflower heads but realise now they can be eaten and now i eat everything, nothing is wasted.
(I made a sweet and sour dish out of part of the cauliflower).

Today's daily mail has a story about a malaysian woman.
The daily mail headline is about a malaysian woman who had served time for killing a baby in her care.
She was given £4.500 if she returns to malaysia without appealing against deportation.

As usual, the daily mail waxed outrage, but in the editorial, even they recognised that offering her money so that she does not appeal will save more money in the end.
i guess the govt must have thought it the lesser of two evils,would cost less to the taxpayer than the court hearing.

it seems she has good karma, that she can get this money. She was found guilty of manslaughter not murder. So it looks like it was an accident. And she served only a year at most of her 5yrs sentence.

The only way to explain it is to say her soul and the baby's wants it. You could say she had done time and so has paid for her crime, and should not be hounded further.unless u want revenge in which case u will feel justified in getting angry. There is no need to get into an outrage about this. The soul wants it.

The daily mail of course got angry or pretended to . I guess it is only reflecting what it thinks a lot of its readers must feel.

I am sure a lot of people will get angry too, even if they dont want revenge. They will think it is like rewarding her for her bad actions. but people will have to accept that once a person had served time they should not have to pay it forever.

What else can be done? kill them if found guilty? that would solve the problem i guess haha. A life for a life. that kind of justice.

To me where it is not important because if someone dies their souls wants it and has called another soul to help them die; it does not matter what is done. If they escape or not, it is of no matter to me. Good luck to them if they escape, bad luck if they dont, but either way it will be what their souls want.

I know i m in the minority of one for this view.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1227871/Fury-immigrant-baby-killer-paid-4-500-bribe-quit-Britain.html

hosting

london
I have been a host to R...., who is staying overnight at my place after a night in nudityclub last night. He was able to get a £5 discount off the entry price. It is given to him by another friend who waived it.
He made a few observations of the running of the club which i think is very useful for the organisers to take on board. He started by saying the good points, which I forgot.
(It is typical of humans, or at least myself to forget the good points.haha) I remember the bad points.
The lack of draught beers,or lack of choice of beers, the slow retrieval of his bag containing his clothes at the end of the night, he was given the wrong bag too. And the carrying of money especially change in coins in his socks to pay for drinks instead of a number system like they do in the continent.
the last bit i have reservations because i remember it can be abused by the barman. The number is written on ur shoulder(which was the system used in clubs in germany, it seems. he lived there for years, even though he is from madrid) for anyone to see, rather than on a locker key, and it is easy for a barman to use your number to treat some favoured customer or just to bung up the bill.
And at the end of the night when it comes time to pay it will be difficult to prove u have not drunk as many as they say. Not to mention u dont know the price of those drinks.
Paying by cash makes it impossible to cheat.
Still, i m not a drinker and so i m rather sober, and count my change. I know drinkers lose track of their intake and even their senses at the end of the night and are ripe for fleecing. haha.
I asked about the price of entry to the naked clubs in germany and he said during the weekdays, the charge is 9euros, but in drinks.
So at the end of the night u pay 9euros if u did not drink enough to get to that total, if u drink more u pay the higher price.
AT the weekends, u pay a 5-6euro entry fee,drinks are extra. he said it will be more expensive over the weekend, but i dont drink, so if drinking is not compulsory it will be cheaper for me during the weekend. I did not think of that or i would have asked if they impose a compulsory drink policy. Though i dont see how they can enforce that... I think i prefer the way it is done in uk.
u pay an entry fee, which might include or not a cloakroom charge and drinks extra.

So far none are as cheap as my favourite sex club. haha. There it is £6 for saturday, and that gives u free entry to their sun, mon and thurs as well. and £4 if u go on monday include thurs free. lockers included too. Such good value!!!

R...n and i had a nice time chatting away and he is a very nice person to have stay over as he is not fussy. he ate whatever i gave him. haha.
At first he said he did not want anything but coffee. I bought a sainsbury full roast 74p, because I read somewhere that it topped a survey and it was certainly very good.
I used to buy their more expensive gold roast, double the price but this one is just as good.So we drank that.
Near 12.15pm as it is lunchtime, and neither of us have eaten, i said he should eat something. Its just sausages and eggs , nothing fancy. I used the george forman grill i found in the recycling bin, and it was rather good. it cooked 8 sausages without any fuss.
And i used egg rings which i bought a long time ago in a charity shop thinking they might be useful, and sure enough after so many years lying unused in my kitchen drawer, they prove their worth today. haha.
They keep the eggs in a circle, prevents it from spreading out and so keep them separate from each other. They are a bugger to clean though.
R...n got a £12 megabus train ticket from nottingham(2hrs), coming to london and a £5 national express bus back(3hr). If he book even earlier with megabus he can get a train ride for £1. (Added. Not that easy any more unfortunately which makes me right glad i dont live outside london.haha)

I met another male couple at 6pm today,J and A. two french guys who contacted me to meet up. They too came for the nudityclub night. It was their first time to the club.They like it they said when i met them at cafe nerro in old compton st after they saw the hairspray musical at 3pm today. They like a place where they can dance naked. Its true there is only this one club where u can dance naked. All the other naked places are sex places with no dancing because everyone is too preoccupied with the sex.
They stay at the st christopher hostel in southwark. There are three hostels belonging to that company in that one area. But they said even though they had a room to themselves yesterday night the walls are so thin they were woken at 7am today by someone singing in the other room.
This morning, they moved hostel to another one belonging to the same company. They will be sharing a 4 bed dorm.
I asked about the breakfast, and was told it was a simple one, but no details. I wonder what it was.
One of them wanted to eat at a cheap indian and asked me to recommend one. So i took them to denman st,near piccadilly circus where simon and i used to go on new year day. There used to be many Indian restaurants there but now only 2remain.
The first one was v expensive, but the next one, a balti restaurant has an offer of 6dishes for £9,90.
We did not notice it at first and was initially disappointed when we read their menu, with dishes that were just as expensive as those in soho, about £9 a dish; so we were glad when the waiter at the door pointed out the set menu which included chicken masala and lamb korma. For the westend it is reasonable.
Of course if u go to a place in south london or even near my place in pimlico u can have dishes for £5-6 each.but i think it is good value even so, because of all the extras included in the set price.
They went in there whilst i walked back home.I wanted to eat at home as Simon had cooked a roast chicken dinner with all the trimmings.
I hope they will come again to the next month's nudityclub night. it will be on dec 11friday; and will be more fun if they come stay at my place. Allready one person has confirmed he is coming. I hope there will be more people to stay as it will be more fun then. It will be near christmas time too and be more festive.

Any time u die is the right time

london

After hearing what his disabled son had to go through to be kept alive, the father in this court case finally agreed to have his life support machine switched off.

I thought why did he bring the court case in the first place? Can't he see for himself? if he has been going regularly to visit his son in hospitallike they say he did. Makes me think he had not been visiting his son much at all.

who will be paying for all that lawyers' time just for him to indulge himself into showing how caring he is by bringing it to court? I know people will want to give him the benefit of the doubt and keep an open mind. but i think he is an idiot.

Nobody said that of course, everyone mouthing how good a father he is to be so caring. but i think it is time someone did come up and say it. It is better dead than kept alive like what is happening to his son now.


When i heard another story about alzheimers patients being given anti psychotic drugs that killed some of them, i thought well better to die than to continue like that, so maybe the drugs were a blessing in disguise. No one seem to agree, or if they did no one dare to say it.

No one also condemns these drugs being given to psychotic patients who would also have died from it. Now why is that?Is it ok if mental patients died from the drugs then? In fact, no one suggests banning the drugs completely which would normally be the case when it is found that any drug has death as a side effect.

So allready it is accepted that for severely psychotic patients it is ok if they died from the drugs. Hmm, maybe people should simply bring it out into the open, that when it comes to some illness, (in this case severe mental illness) it is ok to kill that person off when the quality of that person's life is long gone.

I think it is kinder to let them go or accept that when a person dies, no matter how, whether from a drug, or whatever, to accept their death as their souls' decision.

You might say but how do we know that the person's quality of life is gone? it might not and we might kill the person when they might want to live. Keeping a person artificially alive is not the answer. I say let the person's soul decide. If the soul wants to go, it will go. Switch it off, and let the soul decide.If after the machine has been switched off the patient starts to breathe on his own, then we can take it the soul wants to carry on living.But if not, then we can take it that the soul wants to go. So anytime a person dies is the right time. no such thing as premature death. or needless death, as is mentioned so often when someone dies at a young age, or in an accident.



someone might say u wont like it if it happens to u. i say if i m allready a vegetable, i prefer to die, rather than linger on, so i dont mind if someone turns off my machine.I believe the soul decides when to die, no matter what other people do or not do. That is why i say anytime death comes it is the right time.



i believe this life is one of many. so why hang on to this one when the quality of it is gone? unless the soul wants to experience it,it is best to leave the wreck of a body and that is done by dying.

But i know my views are not popular. ah well, nevermind, their souls wants it that way and so it shall be. In the end it is not important what i think.haha. i hope my soul will let me enjoy my body right up to the end, unaware of anything being wrong, until the last stage when i just drop dead. That would be a good way to go.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article6911007.ece

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article6914003.ece

Added. Simon went to the doctor's because he had been feeling nauseas and unable to eat anything. the doctor said it was a virus, and gave him something to stop his nausea, so he can eat. Today he cooked steak,and ate it.( I had it too and it was delicious). He said if not for the medicine he would not had eaten for days. Then he found out from google what he was given. prochlorperazine, which turned out to be a portent anti psychotic. haha. After all that scare about it simon says he will try not to take it that much. It did work though but maybe not something u want to make a habit of. Some of the side effects mentioned were scary. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prochlorperazine

It looks like things are not so black and white. A dangerous drug like that did got rid of the nausea and so simon was able to eat something. I would imagine it would be very useful to control the extreme behaviour of some alzheimer patients. The carers would welcome it I am sure.

Simon was feeling the cold even though i thought it was warm. Even had the window opened tonight. so i turned on the gas heating. I had hoped not to switch it on till january but it is not to be. I have a friend coming to stay overnight anyway tonight. He is coming from nottingham, to attend the nudity club night tonight. So i will need to have the heating on anyway. I don't mind having the heater on, since it is needed. Though i would like to leave it off, but it is not something to be so strict about.

the temperature now,from one of the weather websites, is 15.8C. very warm for this time of day and year. it is 9.41pm.13.11.09 now.

Added 16.11.09 Its been quite warm, around 10C at night so i am able to switch off the heating entirely. I got to the stage now when i feel comfortable with a cooler flat and prefer it now.

AVG upgrade

london
I have been getting pop ups from AVG asking me to upgrade to their AVG9, but i have ignored it, as i dont believe in fixing something that is not broken.

Then Paul L wrote me an email saying AVG8.5 which is what we have will cease to be supported from 1 dec 2009 and he linked to a webpage with that warning. I noticed it has us-en in the url, suggesting it is a usa url.

I suggest he ignores it like me.

But yesterday, the pop up from avg came up on my laptop asking me to upgrade, and this time i read it properly,and saw a warning about it being not supported from that date if i dont upgrade. So i clicked on it and saw in the pop up that came up a link at the bottom which says clik it for those who want to remain free. So i did , and now got my AVG9.

Well i am glad it is still free, the paid version has a lot of other functions, but from what i see of them, those that i can understand that is, none of those extras i want. I wont even know what to do with them even if i got them.

The free version provide the two basic protections, antivirus and antiworm. That is all i want or need really.

Life is simpler if you just get the basic protection and costs nothing too. That is the hallmark of a simple life. it is very cost efficient.haha.

I told paul L about it, and he found that link at the bottom of the webpage and got his upgrade to a free AVG9. Neither of us want to pay.

But it is important that u wait for the pop up alert to come up in ur laptop and go to their website via that link and not go to the AVG website direct. This free option is not available unless u allready got a free AVG allready installed in ur laptop.
he wrote, 'Its notable that nowadays they bury the 'free' option at the bottom of the message. I certainly missed seeing it. The purchase option is given prominence in the message by being positioned first in the beginning of the pop up. In the past, they used to have a completely separate pop-up which appeared to the people using the free version, which had the purchase option positioned right at the end of the message (and given minor prominence). The climate has definitely changed, so now one has to take a careful read of the message to spot the free upgrade!'

paul thinks all these upgrades are necessary to stop the virus etc, but cynical me, I rather suspect that these people just wants us to buy their products by having inbuilt obsolescence'.

Well, i dont blame them for trying haha. Afterall they have to make money otherwise they will go bankrupt and where will we be? right? So please everyone if u got money to burn, or u want the extras, please pay for ur AVG.

open house at queen mum gym in victoria

london
I went there today. I knew about it when i found a entry form on the ground. It did not seem to be advertised elsewhere.

I went at 4pm, and said i wanted to use the health spa. It seems it closes at 4.30pm to reopen at 5pm, so i strolled into victoria train station to while the time away.

In the station there was a lucozade promotion ...a stall giving away lucuzade drinks. So i took 3, from each of the three people giving it away. haha. It was 60ml samples of lucozade alert, high in caffeine, orange flavour. I thought i might use it to flavour the water i get from the gym water fountain.

There was another stall selling chemically heated bags. I thought the most useful was the pairs of slippers with their soles made of these bags. They require activation by putting inside hot water.
The heat is stored and released when u press a metal disc inside the bag. The slippers were £20 a pair, they were willing to reduce it to £15 when i said it was expensive. I did not buy.

Might appeal to old people who have cold feet. With us younger people, we can just wear wool socks.haha. I was looking for hot water bottle size bags but they dont have that size.

The heat lasts 2hours, which is not so good as hot water bottles, as that lasts a lot longer.

I think the hot slippers must be their best selling point. They should target the elderly and make slippers that enclosed the feet or allow the bags to be slipped into the home slippers, though how to do that without making the slippers too large is a problem. Thank goodness i m not marketting them.haha.

Anyway when i went back to the queen mum centre, there were people at the entrance giving away freebies. I got an oval rugby ball, a small basketball, and an insulated food bag.

I have been to the health spa before when they did a similar open house offer.Maybe it was 2 or 3yrs ago. So this time i remembered to bring towels and 20p coin for the locker. the money is returnable. Interestingly it was the same man who manned the health spa and he recognised me. What good memory.

I spent about 2hrs there and alternate between the sauna and the steam room. It was very nice. It was quite crowded with people, but from what i overheard from the regulars, this is unusual.Usually there are only about 5. There must be easily double that number tonight and might even be triple.

I guess so many of those there might have been one offs using the open house free entry.

It was a mixed night, meaning men and women.Only myself and another guy was wearing towels round our middle, everyone else were wearing shorts or swimsuits.

There was one young bangladeshi, very fair, who had on a colourful sarong over his underwear, who told me he had just joined for £50 a month. He lives in the same housing estate as me with his parents. I wondered that he got the money to pay it. He said it was expensive. But considering he gets to use everything in the centre, gym, swimming pool and health spa, it might be worth it, who knows, right?


And there are classes there that he can join maybe for free since he is a full time comprehensive member. I got a leaflet for bushido, some kind of martial arts classes that the centre is starting. First class is free. Too tiring for me I think. I am rather lazy that way. But if anyone become a member, they would get the most value if they join in as many of these classes as they can.


There were many machines selling lucozade drinks for £1.50. The whsmith store in victoria was selling it at £1.79 and £1.99. My gym is still the cheapest, selling them for £1 and £1.50. I found another empty lucozade bottle in the queen mum's,and kept it as i m really enamoured of their design for the spout. I like drinking from it.

Added. 12.11.09 I tried the lucozade sample at the gym this morning, and it tastes horrid. When i got back and read the small print with a magnifying glass i saw it has 120mg per 60mg caffeine. That is a lot. The one sold in the gym only has 16mg per 100ml. hmm, what is this thing that lucozade has for caffeine i wonder?

I googled it, and found to my surprise that a lot of fizzy drinks have caffeine. What is going on here? are these manufacturers relying on the addictive effect of caffeine to boost sales?

Hmm, I think i shall restrict myself to only one or two small cups of coffee in the gym now. And to drink just plain water or very weak tea.

i won two tickets to SHOWstudio: Fashion Revolution

london
It's one of those things that life throws up. Things u don't really want gets given to you. I would be the last person interested in these things.

Even when i was clicking on the entry in the evening standard, I was a bit dubious what to do about it if i won it, but it was sent and I thought thank goodness the chances of getting it is nil.

But today i got an email saying i have got it and to bring that email notifying me i won as proof. It got directed to my junk mail like everything that is not in my address book and i nearly reported it as phishing.haha.

I daresay tons of others must have got it too. It is a late night event, 6pm-9pm at somerset house on 25nov. I have googled it but still have no idea what it is all about.

I asked Ian to join me, because he makes his own clothes and stuff, and he is the only person i know who might be remotely interested. Luckily he agreed to go, and to print out the email, because my own printer can only print out in faint blue ink. He said it is nothing to do with a fashion show.Why they call it that then? I am hoping there will be food!!!


What i would like to win is today's free competition in the metro to win a first class, and 2business class return ticket to KL, via MAS. I saw their advert in the evening std, another promotion, similar to the one they did earlier in the year for the same price... £399 all inclusive rtn economy to KL but not to the other cities in s.e.asia like last time.

I went to have my haircut at soho today. I would prefer to trim it myself, but could not find my electric clippers, the one that paul L gave to me. Simon says he never took it, but who could and where could it be? I always put it in one place. The only changes was me moving everything from the old cardboard box into a container which i found.

So I have to go to the barber's instead.

What surprised me was to see two women waiting and 2women hairdressers and only one man hairdresser. Normally, there are no women customers. That man was cutting another male customer's hair.

When he finished, he asked the women 'you wuld prefer the woman cut ur hair, won't you'? They nodded and he gave me the nod to go up. I bet he did not want to bother with them, because it would take too much time.


As usual i said zero cut side and back and keep it as long as possible on top, and closed my eyes and let him get on with it. When i paid my £5, I asked if i could wash in the back room. he said yes.

Normally i wash at the wash basin, but this time i saw there was a proper hand shower and sink and used that instead. Big mistake, because a woman came and told me i should not be using that. I now recall that special basin has been there before except i never bother to use it. It just so happen that this time, i thought of using it.

When i came out,all 4 barbers' chairs were used, 2male and 2female hairdressers.

i was told that 'Nothing is free'. haha. and 'not to use it next time'. I was puzzled saying i have used it before not realising that he was referring to that special basin. All the previous times, i had used the wash basin.

I asked has there been a change of management? He said no, it has always been the rule.
Walking back i had a good think, and realised it's the washbasin that was free to use, and meant to wash hands, but i have been using it to wash my hair and face, and they have never told me off, because they cannot enforce how we use the washbasin. haha.

It was only today when i used their hand shower and special wash basin that they can tell me off. Well, now I know,next time i shall stick to the hand washbasin. It's rather good of them to let us use the wash basin.

It does not take long to have a quick rinse of the hair to get rid of the hair bits even using the single lowlying tap in the wash basin.

I wish I got my electric clippers. Maybe one day they will turn up. Simon has his own clipper but he said it is not very good. I might use it next time. It does not take much skill to cut hair with clippers esp using the zero cut except it is difficult to cut your own hair.

the naturist world

london
Not to be confused with naturalist, which is the word given to people who study nature. Naturists are nudists.

The reason why i m contemplating returning to it at this time even though it is getting colder, is because a nudistclub is inviting new members.

It is a male only naked club and held every 2nd friday of the month. A friend has invited me. Normally it did not interest me as the entry fee is £10 which is more than what i would normally pay.

But even the one i go to has raised its fee to £6 , though that allows free entry for the rest of the week, but it involves a bus trip to and back, which would add another £2, rising to £2.40 in jan when the bus fares rise. So it will be getting to the stage when £10 will become the norm.

This nudity club is within walking distance of my place. They have a yahoogroup and i joined, and it does look like a place to meet people who are into the naked lifestyle too.

Anyway, we shall see if I get a chance to go on my friend's invite. it depands on whether he has a vacancy. He can only take in 2 new members on the discounted rate.

I have not been keeping up with the naked massage meets, which is another way for males to meet naked. This is because so many of them are out of london, and involves travelling by train.

I don't like travelling by train because they are expensive. The £1 fares are only available on megabus to bournemouth.

It is too cold now to visit john in poole, which is near bournemouth. In fact, this time, he is visiting me as there is more activity in london during the winter months and he wants to come and get his Thai visa which he has to apply in person.

There was a posting in another naked yahoogroup which I belong to which tells us that there is a showing of the sky1 naked britain tv program in a gay sauna in Brighton tonight. And there was some chat about it, saying it is the only venue showing it. It seems not many people can get sky1.

I myself am not bothered to see the program. If some friends can tape it well and good, but really i dont mind if no one could. John's video recorder has kaput. Somehow it is more fun participating during the filming, than actually watching the end result.

Added 10.11.09 John saw the program and mentioned it in passing in an email to me.
I did get naked of course, but i did not walk about the boat, preferring to just sit and watch the river bank go by.

Hey ! I saw you on telly last night Sky 1. There were several pics of you going onto the boat clothed - but none of you naked :( It was good programme promoting nudity in society.
John.

'And I find i prefer to mix with gay nudists and male ones at that, rather than with straight, or female nudists.

Nudism alone is not very popular with gay guys, because we want it to be coupled with sex. I find i prefer it too. But the mainstream nudist movement frowns on any sexual activity associated with their movement.

I mentioned this nudity club to john, and he pointed out something that i have overlooked. Namely that it is a late night club, finishing at 4am, and observing that he prefers the action to take place in the day so he can have his beauty sleep. And i agree with him.haha.

Aug-oct electricity bill from BG

london

I used 304kwh over 93days
first 127kwh x22.542p = £28.63
next 177kwh x 10.802p = £19.12
total £47.75
this bill was for 3months.aug-sep-oct09

There is no gas bill as i did not use any gas.

John who lives in his one bedroom flat near Poole has sent me his utility bills as he knows I am interested to compare.

You may be interested in my SERVICES 7 Aug - 6 Nov 2009 (13.5 weeks or 3 months)
Elec cost £49.12 (£3.54 per week) using 518 Kw Hrs (38 Kw Hrs per week).
Gas (just all my heating) cost £3.65 = 3p per week for 126 Cu ft
much same as last period - but costs go right up Jan - Mar
And prices change Apr 2010 . . .
John.

a shopping trolley with a seat.

london

I was walking back from my gym yesterday, and passed a rubbish tip. I saw this amongst a lot of rubbish. (see picture).

Its a shopping trolley. Once, i saw a shopping trolley which was just the right length for attaching to my bike, but did not take it, and wished I did.

Since then, I have been on the lookout for another one. so i did not hesitate to take this one even though I did notice it was a bit unusual, and its bag was missing. I can always use another bag, so it does not matter.

The important thing was it has nice big wheels, which makes it very quiet to drag along. And it is very light. The frame is made of aluminium.

It was only later, when i came home and took a closer look at it, that i realise the tartan cloth is a seat. It pulls down and rests on supports.

What an extraordinary design, and so practical really, because I am sure what any shopper would love to have is a place to sit built into the shopping trolley so they can rest anytime they want, especiallly after a busy and long day shopping.

I was thinking it would be useful also to carry picnic things on a country walk or a day out on the beach. You dont have to carry the heavy picnic things by hand, and still be able to sit on it avoiding sitting on wet grass or muddy ground.

I think it is a good thing for the elderly, and maybe that is why it was thrown away? It does give a old fashioned image of age. haha. And yet it is so cleverly designed. Still faultlessly working even though it is obviously very old.

I was thinking i would be right glad to have it when i grow older and would love to rest my feet. now of course i m still young enough not to mind sitting on the ground. haha. I am glad i rescued it. I think they are marvellous objects to have and to use.

one person's view (continued)

london
I read a refreshing article in the dailymail by liz jones. She is highly paid to write this blog like column of hers. She hints that she gets a six figure salary, so we cannot be far wrong if we guess it is about £500,000 and more likely to be on the higher end.
her latest article is about her debts, £150,000 in credit cards etc, not counting mortgage.

At first reading, u might think what a foolish person. but really when u analyse it, her debt is manageable. it is less than 25% of her income. And in the process she enjoys her money, which is one way of enjoying life.

I know thrifty people like me wont do it, but then we trade it in for other things, like peace of mind, and not having to work churning out article after article every day haha. Though, I am sure she is the kind of lady who likes writing the way she does, so it comes as second nature and not a big chore. She is using her talents to write in a way that provokes people or voice their feelings.

I used to wonder why people get into debt and why they are so silly. but reading her i get an insight into it, and look at it from her point of view. I realise there is quite a lot to be said for her choice. After all she cannot take her money with her when she dies, so she is enjoying it now.

I am glad that she wrote about her debts and gave me an insight into another way of seeing debt.. I daresay she will get criticised, as allready some people in the comments section are allready doing, but I can see how she is enjoying spending her money and I can see how she is not that reckless with it, by keeping it within the 25% mark.

She can most probably get debts of 50% of her income for short periods without affecting her too much. When you are playing with half a million £s income, u can play a bit and spend a bit with gay abandon. haha.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1225842/LIZ-JONES-I-spend-money-hole-soul--Im-150-000-debt.html

one person's view

london
is very limited. I can read the papers and there you will find plenty of opinion but how relevant it is?

As our world gets 24hr news, there is too much information, a lot of it contradictory, so that we dont know what is important and what is dross.

All I can say is thank goodness a lot of it does not impinge on me. I have taken myself off the mainspring traffic and I am glad of it. It must be tough to be working and being in debt.

And i mean a mortgage, not just money borrowed to buy things. I have never wanted to work till retirement, or beyond, as some people want to do. It seems to me crazy to want to work for so long. Its a bit like the slave who is afraid of being given his freedom. He is so used to being a slave, not having to make any decisions about his future, but to rely on his owner that being retired is akin to being freed from servitude.

That may explain why so many are so fearful of retirement. They say it is because they will have reduced or no income, but if u have been working for so long that u retire, u have a pension, and it will be enough. So that cannot be the reason why they fear it.

By working, they have a structure to their lives, someone else dictates what they do. Like slaves. not for nothing are these people called wage slaves. when people retire, they should if they want a happy retirement, clear all their debts, especially pay off their mortgage.

It is very cheap to live if u dont have to pay rent or mortgage, and own ur home outright. I have found that out, and so my life is worry free.

But i have never heard anyone advocate the same thing. why? Maybe because by not spending and not being in debt, we are of no interest to the middle men, who take a commission only if we spend. people like me are not profitable to anyone out on the make, trying to drum up business, as they make a commission only if i spend. No one will give u that advise. They will keep asking u to spend.

If u are savvy, u will make ur own observation and act accordingly. I have lived about 9yrs now without needing to work, and my income is small, and yet i m able to live a very nice life, and not depriving myself of anything I want.

I can consider myself an expert on the money free life. EAch of us decide when to stop work. Some are forced to do so, others like me volunteerily give it up. It is better to be the latter. I cannot imagine going back to work now. To me that is a horror. haha. But it is not so for others,i know.

Just today, i visited a friend who told me he have to work. He would be bored if he did not, as he discovered when he was made redundant in the past.

Even having a lot of money can be a headache. Trafigura , the company accused to dumping toxic wastes in the ivory coast, have given millions for the victims, but now it seems there is dispute about who can distribute it. There is fear that whoever distributes it may be dishonest. I have often found out that too much money is a curse and this one confirms it.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8347513.stm

bargain offers

london
I was as usual at the library yesterday, reading the papers, I read it first in the daily mirror, which is really a good newspaper for these things.

It alerts me to go to the supermarket and get them before they run out. I saw an advert by tesco offering 4 400mg cans of heinz baked beans for £1. usually it is £2.15. That is a very good price.

So i went to my local tesco, but there was none to be had. however, i saw they are selling 2 cauliflower for £1 and i bought them as i have been fancying eating some vegetables and it is not often they are reduced. It was a one off for that store,I have noticed that they reduce a veg everyday, but usually i dont go in the morning, and by the time i go late at night it has all sold out. That is worth remembering in case i crave veg again next time.

but I did get my baked beans in the end, i walked to the big tesco store in vauxhall. They have almost run out but i got 2 4-packs.

Baked beans are rather nice with sausages, mushrooms and eggs for a cooked english breakfast, and make great beans on toast. I seldom buy them as they are normally about 50p upwards which for what they are(just suger and salt really) seem to me rather expensive.

I also bought heinz 700mg tomato ketchup too, another special offer. It is something i seldom buy, but it was a nice bargain, as Heinz products are the standard by which others compare. They have lots more beans in them.I dont buy these things that often, as there is too much suger in them, but i guess now and then on special offer it is ok.

I am glad these reduced price offers from heinz come up quite rarely or i shall be tempted to eat them more often.Of course own brand tomato ketchup are half the price but they are not so good as heinz and i am not tempted to buy them.

The metro newspaper, the free newspaper given out in the morning at the tube stations, says the daily mail is offering a small laptop for £80(includes £10 postage and packing).

I went to my gym to get the daily mail. I did not notice it when i was reading the paper in the morning because it was not prominently displayed. I forgot to keep the copy and bring it back.

I had to go back to the gym in the evening to have another look at it. Unfortunately the laptop has only 128MB of memory, which is very little, otherwise i would send off for it.

Pity that because it is nice to have such a small laptop to carry about. I have not used a laptop with such small memory, but simon says it is too slow. one day i shall try it and see if it is as bad as they say. since i shall use it just to access my email and my gay website, such small memory should be enough won't it?

Computer random access memory(RAM) must be expensive, because those that have 1G, like this laptop i m using is about £300.

Eating in and cooking your own meals are very cheap. If people say living in london is expensive, it is because I think they rent, eat out a lot or buy readymade meals. Sandwiches cost £2-3. Think how many sandwiches u can make with that money.

I think the pizzahut is trying to entice people to eat out. Pizzahut in the metro newspaper yesterday offers half price meals with the voucher. Their drinks are £2 each. But that is how restaurants make profit. Here in uk pizzahut dont do anything other than pizza, pasta, salads. I just read in a blog that in malaysia, pizzahut offers a lot more dishes.

http://sloppychic.com/why-you-should-go-pizza-hut-for-the-new-crunchy-cheesy-bites-pizza-now/

And Macdonalds are offering vouchers for £1.99 meals of big mac, or fillet of fish, etc plus medium fries. Even i was tempted, until i hark back to our hamburger made with minced beef that costs only 13p each, tasting so much better and so much cheaper, and i came to my senses. haha.

It is really very cheap to live in london, in spite of all those people who say otherwise; and so many things happen in london, for free. For eg, the bonfire happening all over london over the next few nights to celebrate guy fawkes.

I am spoilt really because i find they are too far from me to walk there. And even when it is quite nearby i dont seem much bothered to go. somehow just looking at fireworks do not get me very excited these days. Getting old I guess.

But also to make a good display requires a lot of money spent on it, and many of these events dont have the money.

My life must seem very boring to anyone bothering to read all this. However, i enjoy doing these things immensely. I think because they can be unexpected and unplanned as i dont really know day by day whether there will be bargains like these. I think the unexpectedness of it all is what makes it exciting for me. I dont know what i might find.

I was passing the recycling bins and saw a really good push pram folded up. It can carry two children at the same time. I was thinking what a find if i were a parent with young children.

I did not take it and tomorrow it will be gone as anything left there is quickly removed by the recycling workmen. The area round those bins is always clean and have no unsightly objects lying around. It stops the neighbourhood looking like a dump.

Added 8.11.09. i had a chance to eat those beans, and am a bit disappointed. They seem more watery than I recall. I have not eaten heinz baked beans for a long time,(since childhood) maybe my memory is playing me tricks, but I thought they are much thicker than these. I remember they would stay as a lump when u spoon it on a plate now they spread out thinly over the surface.

hearing insults where none is intended

london
Reading this reminded me of another incident where race was an issue.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23764695-fired-n-word-man-i-said-bigger-but-they-misheard-me.do
3 people thought he said nigger instead of bigger, and wrote in to complain, and he got sacked.

In this day and age, it should have been obvious no one in their right mind would say that word, but 3 people misheard him, and were too eager to complain.

so many times we have seen people who are too sensitive to imagine insults where none is intended or said. and these people will be too eager to complain. but it is the duty of management to consider how reasonable the complaint is and to be brave enough to dismiss it. But it takes a brave management to do so, that is for sure. Easier to just follow the trend.

There was a black couple in a restaurant who complained about that the receipt which identified them as the black couple.

They said they were the only people in that section, and complained of the use of black to describe them.
They said they had been to a racist course, and maybe that is the trouble.

It makes me wonder , is black a dirty word now? I remember someone saying that to me once, and i was surprised because i have always used that word to describe blacks.It seems u must use 'african american' now.

Though if they are not american they might object to being called that too.

They expect us to know their nationality now?(Just like some singaporeans who get insulted for being mistaken for malaysians, or vice versa or other nationalities who feel insulted if mistaken for another nationality.

Irish or scots for english for eg. or chinese from china for japanese. These people are really too much into themselves.) So what shall we call Blacks now?

i know if a chinese couple were described as chinese couple, no one would object. Just as a white couple in a chinese restaurant might be so described and think nothing of it.

So it seems to me that if u have an inferiority complex, no matter what people call u , u will object, because u are so insecure. That is your problem, but society is so afraid to offend these people,or to be sued using the race laws that are so prevalent now, that they pander to them.

http://www.vnnforum.com/showthread.php?p=1068422

the switching on of the oxford st christmas lights

london

this year they make a big deal of it, providing shows and tying it with the disney film animation of Dickens' christmas carol.

Though it was constantly referred to as Disney's christmas carol, that it wont surprise me if future generations grew up to believe Disney wrote the story.

the shops were opened, but i doubt they got any business, as most people were out in the street. It attracted a large crowd considering it is for nothing more than to switch on the chrismas lights. haha.

Previous years it did not attract much attention, no shows, so that it did not keep the crowds in the street but in the shops, which is the whole idea, isn't it? this year with all the activity in the street, the shops may find that there is not as much business as they had hoped. The oxford st lights were more bright and colourful. I stood on one of the portland stone traffic islands at oxford circus, and had a chance to stand in the middle of it afterwards.

The cleaners were very quickly at work immediately it was over, so that the streets were cleaned again very fast. the Mcdonalds were doing good business afterwards. I strolled down to leicester square, where the whole square was condoned off. there was a screen showing what was going on inside, but i could not be bothered.

Its fun to look at the lights and the people but the PA annoucement after the lights came on was quick to tell people the show is over and to make their way to oxford st tube to go home. then, after a bit, it said oxford st tube is closed. haha. So many have followed their instructions.

bargains at the sainsburys

these are the mince beef which was normally £3.19 reduced £1.59 in their promotion, then today reduced progressively to 65p and finally when i saw it , to 40p each. i bought 7 of them. there were so many left.

4 multigrained bagels for 10p, the 6 oatmeal sweets topped with nuts and raisins for 10p for the lot, cheesecake for 80p(fr £3.29). i also bought 2 packs of 8sausages for 40p each (normally £2.25 each.

london

I went to oxford circus to see the lights switched on and after all that it was only 8pm. so i thought i shall stop off at my local sainsbury's to see if there is any bargains. i was thinking i would like some minced beef and visualising them being reduced.

I bought the bagels etc at the bakery section, and saw a polish man with a trolley of minced beef at 40p, and i mentioned to him he got a good bargain there. He then told me there are lots more. I said where is it? and he pointed it to me. They were all at the minced beef area. So many of them. I took 7. I would have missed them entirely if not for that polish guy. Normally, i never bother to look there as they are all full priced. but it seems that sainsbury has abolished a dedicated place for reduced meats and simply mix it up with the normal priced ones. And a guy who was there told me he was waiting because he overheard the manager tell one of the women sales person to come back at 8.30pm to reduce it further. We were chatting away, he telling me he once bought wine which was normally £10 for £2.80, he bought 6 he said. (I warned him that with the law, they can jack the price up and display it for 2wks, and then they can legally quote it when they reduce the price)

And we were moving away to find that sales woman when the polish guy came up. He looked at the guys trolley and saw the minced beef, and noticed their price 40p, and realised she had reduced them, because when he saw them it was 65p. So he hurried off to get them before they are sold out. There were plenty still left. I thought it would be expecting too much for them to reduce it to 20p, haha. 40p is a good bargain, they are 500mg, 16% fat and is in their better quality range.The sausages at 40p, reduced £2.20 are not such good value, but it is nice now and then to eat sausages haha.

Simon was so hungry when he saw the mince beef when i got back, he wanted to cook hamburgers straight away and he did. he opened a 500mg pack and divided it into 3 portions, and cooked two,with garlic, ginger, onions and it was delicious, so much more meaty and thicker and more solid than the hamburgers from macdonalds or burgerking.The secret he said is to cook them at high heat, and keep turning them so they dont get burnt.We thoroughly enjoyed our hamburgers and for me all the better for being such bargain buys.

A funny thing happened when i tried to check out at the self service tills. It toted up the beef, as 40p minus 80p, 7 times, and did the same for the other goods, and then came up with the total of -£1.00 and refused to take my money, saying it wont accept my card, even though i have not put in a card.

So i took the whole lot to the human cashier, and he routinely passed them over the machine, until he saw the total, -£1.00 and did a double take.he was thoroughly confused and said he owes me £1. he called the supervisor, who, after grilling the cashier, said 'ask him to give u £1 but dont give it back to him'. The cashier objected saying i must pay for what i bought. I was laughing away, and so did the next customer. I said 'that would serve u (meaning sainsbury)right for relying on the computer so much.'

In the end, they wiped out the transaction and did it the old fashioned way, calculating the amount and keying it manually into the till.

It came to £4.60 for goods that would have cost about £23 normal price.

Observe the mince beef came to only £2.80. A real bargain.I wonder whether the oxford st lights switch has attracted a lot of office workers who did not do their normal shopping after work, but went there instead. That might explain why there were so many of these minced beef for sale at such a late hour.

soy sauce in worcester sauce

london

Worcester sauce is supposed to be a western invention 170yrs ago, so how come this recipe (said to be the original recipe) has soy sauce in it???

Did the western world know about soy sauce that long ago? It seems to me worcester sauce is basically soy sauce, with herbs and vinegar and tamarind. Anyone can make it at home as it is vinegarish soy sauce really. The only special thing you need to buy is the soy sauce. i bet even the tamarind can be dispensed with. Soy sauce is made from anchovies. I now know why i dont bother to buy worcester sauce haha. All you need is basically light and dark soya sauce and u can concoct all the variations from them.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/food/article-1224736/Original-Lea-Perrins-Worcestershire-Sauce-recipe-skip.html

In the same article was one about halogen cookers, comparing the various makes. If I were starting out, and have no conventional oven, that is what i would buy.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/food/article-1224816/Halogen-ovens-They-roast-chicken-30-minutes-clean-cost-just-40.html

water weighs the same by vol.

amazing to see this passion fruit flower in bloom at this time of year. john emailed me to say it looks plastic and thought it was in the gym. it does look plastic so green when it is autumn, but it is real and is outdoors climbing on the wall.

london

The more i use the lucozade drinking bottle the more i like it. I asked the receptionist in my gym how much they cost, she said £1.50. I thought they would be £3, so i m pleasantly surprised. An ordinary water bottle with a ordinary spout would be £1.(Added 5.11.09 found out that their other varieties are £1 and they have the same spout design.) I saw a leaflet expounding the benefits of the different lucozade products, saying water is not enough for hydration. I am surprised they can make such claims, but I figured if people are stupid enough to believe it, well the placebo effect may make them feel better.

One thing they mentioned got me thinking. They said 1kg lost =1L of sweat lost.

does it also mean that drinking 1L of water means we can gain 1kg. I know that carrying water feels so heavy but when u drink it, u dont feel the weight at all. I wonder whether anyone had tried that experiment to see if they increase weight by 1kg when they drink 1L of water.

I was in oxford circus a few weeks ago, and noticed the clutter of road works, and today all is revealed. They have made it easier to cross diagonally. It opens in time for the switching on of the christmas lights which takes place tomorrow from 5pm. I am sure they will be having a lot more going on with shows and acts before hand. and after that there is the premier in leicester square cinemas of disney's animation in 3D christmas story.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23763299-lets-get-ready-to-scramble-now-pedestrians-can-cross-oxford-circus-tokyo-style.do

http://www.allinlondon.co.uk/blogs/showblog.php?post=861

sky 1 , naked britain tv

london
I was part of it, at their naked cruise a few sundays ago, to celebrate the first naked pride, and it seems the tv program will be shown tomorrow, nov 2, monday 9pm-10pm. Unfortunately, i cannot get sky 1 so hope someone can tape it. It will be interesting to see how they handle it. Final episode on nov9, 9pm
Its too cold now to indulge in nakedness, and that i think will be the biggest obstacle to the naked lifestyle being universally taken up. There is a very good reason why we invented clothing. And this is apart from all the taboo about being naked, and the feelings of shame, and the fear of people seeing you naked, and the not having physically nice looking bodies... so many points against a naked lifestyle that i doubt we shall ever have a naked society that is accepted by the majority of people. It will forever appeal only to a niche following.
I dont mind. I used to feel sad that we shall never have such a society, but now i figured it does not matter.haha. I have a strong suspicion that the reality is not as good as the dream.

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/news/a182996/sky1-to-screen-naked-britain.html

http://sky1.sky.com/naked-britain