Tuesday, July 26, 2005
A Whole Buncha Nothing Going On
Well, Blake left for Boston Saturday morning which leaves me alone again until this coming Saturday. I haven't been doing much of anything since he left except the usual laundry and going to the grocery. I have spent a lot of time playing THE GAME. For those of you not in the know, THE GAME is City of Heroes. It's the closest I'll ever come to actually being a super-hero, which is on my top 10 list of things to do.
I've also watched a lot of TV. For those of you who know me you know that this is not so unusual. I do love my TV. Lucky for me there are several channels on the satellite here that show a lot of American programs. The Simpsons are on like 10 times a day and so is Frasier. The Hallmark Channel just started showing the fourth season of my favorite show, Gilmore Girls, which played at home 2 years ago. Oh well, beggars can't be choosers. It's nice to have some familiarity though ... keeps me from getting so homesick.
I think the hardest part when Blake is away, and funny enough he seems to be away more than he is here, is being alone. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy my "me" time but going days without talking to anyone other than the cats and the lady at the dry cleaners isn't fun at all. Blake and my friends back home keep telling me to get out and do something but what? Anything I do will be by myself and if I'm gonna be by myself I might as well be at home ... where at least I have my TV and THE GAME. :)
Tuesday, July 19, 2005
Our Tiny Little Corner of the World
I know I've sent the photos to many of you, but I figured I would blog about our little flat. At 524 square feet, it's not the three bedroom house with two baths that I left in Louisville, but we're getting used to it. 
Anyway, on with the tour ... This is our living room. The flat came furnished with the two sofas (loveseats), the coffee table, and the dining room table and chairs. Of course the first thing Blake bought was the enormous 42-inch plasma TV! We bought the two bookcases (and several other things) at Ikea. I put them together by myself while Blake was a work. I blame those bookcases for pulling a muscle in my shoulder.
Sunday, July 17, 2005
Catching Up
Sorry I haven't blogged in a while. It's not that nothing has happened in the past week or so it's just that I haven't had the urge to write anything. Well, I don't want to let everyone down so I figured I'd just tell you what's been going on since I last blogged.Last Thursday, terrorists set off four bombs on our public transport system - three on trains and one on a bus, killing at least 55 people and injuring around 700. Fortunately Blake and I weren't on the trains at the time. Blake was in Paris and I was asleep. I guess there are benefits to being unemployed. There are still a couple train lines down but other than that minor inconvenience London seems to be back to normal. It's good to see that life does go on after tragedy.The closings on some of the train lines did affect me though. I decided to take a volunteer position to give me something to do. The position was with the gay and lesbian archives. I figured since I was a librarian with the Courier-Journal for 10 years this would be right up my alley. Well, I was supposed to show up Wednesday at 2 PM for my induction. I left at 12:30 figuring that I would have ample time to arrive at the site with a little time to spare. Three trains and a replacement bus later I arrived at almost 3 PM! Charity or not, that's just too long of a commute for anything so I don't think I'll be returning... at least not until the other lines are up and running.This week I discovered that Jake, one of my cats, has been sneaking out of our tiny flat through the only window we can open and sneaking back in the middle of the night. I've suspected that it has been going on for weeks but I finally caught him! You might wonder how I didn't notice him missing. Well, any of you with cats will know that they can be notorious hiders. I just thought that maybe he was hiding in the closet or something. The bad thing about this was that we have to vent our little air conditioning unit out a window. I was so afraid that we would only be able to run the AC at night with the cats locked out of the bedroom. Well, somebody once said that necessity is the mother of invention. I stuck a pillow in the window and that seems to keep our little Houdini safe inside.Well, that's about everything. I will make an effort to blog more often. I promise.
Wednesday, July 06, 2005
All Dressed Up ...
Last night Blake and I attended a reception at the residence of Craig Roberts Stapleton, the new United States Ambassador to France in Paris. The invitation didn't say how to dress but Blake assured me that it would be black tie. Later, he said that people would be wearing suits as well but he guaranteed that there would be others wearing tuxes. Needless to say, I felt a little ridiculous when we arrived and discovered that absolutely no one else was wearing a tuxedo. I told Blake that I wasn't speaking to him again, but that only lasted as long as it took me to finish a glass of really good champagne! We sampled hors d'oeuvres supplied by several American businesses in France. The funny thing is KFC furnished deserts and not chicken. We left following a speech by the new Ambassador and once again rode the Metro back to our hotel. The way people looked at us I felt like we fell off a gay wedding cake.
Sunday, July 03, 2005
London Pride 2005
Yesterday morning, Blake and I participated in the Gay Pride Parade which began at Hyde Park and ended at Victoria Embankment. I joined Blake and his rugby team in carrying the big block long rainbow flag at the front of the parade. It was a lot of fun. Of course, an hour into the march everyone became victims of our short attention spans and I think our flag holding suffered a bit.
At the end of the parade, we happened to look into the crowd and saw Sir Ian McKellen! Once we got rid of the flag, Blake wanted to go back to see Ian again. He graciously posed for a picture with us. He was very pleasant.
At the end of the parade, we happened to look into the crowd and saw Sir Ian McKellen! Once we got rid of the flag, Blake wanted to go back to see Ian again. He graciously posed for a picture with us. He was very pleasant. Following the parade, I stood and listened to the motley crew of gays and lesbian groups at a rally at Trafalgar Square, from Gay and Lesbian Muslims to Radical Gay Faeries (don't ask), each and every one trying to channel the spirit of Martin Luther King in order to whip the crowd into a sympathetic frenzy. The most they got out of most of us was a collective yawn. I know that sounds insensitive but after an hour of listening to one sad cause after another, I was ready for the rugby team to take the stage along with the other gay sports teams so we could blow that scene.
After a quick stop back at our flat, we were back at Compton's and Duke of Wellington for a few drinks. We ended up at a bear bar called XXL. We danced. We drank. We even put our hands up a cute Irish guy's kilt! All in all, London Pride turned out to be a lot more fun than I anticipated. Although next year I think I could do without all the speeches at the rally!
