on your marks…
…and after two weeks of relative langour and more recently (and quite out of the blue this week after several of my regular gentlemen managed to synchronise their appointments with my actually Being In Scarborough) some relative busy-busyness I am now gearing up for a long awaited return to the capital on Tuesday, by way of a mad dash to Manchester and back on Monday to sharpen the reflexes and more than likely provide (in case the last couple of days here were not adequate demonstration) a helpful reminder of what rain is like.
The week is looking as busy as one might expect and all sorts of free-time treats are planned too, most but not all involving cutlery (or chopsticks at least) although with the current weather forecast being particularly dreadful I will be looking forward to keeping myself and my companions amused indoors much of the time, and quite right too. As for Jersey and Guernsey, the minuscule amount of time actually spent outside my respective hotels renders conditions outside superfluous to say the least. And it is April, after all.
Back at the ranch, the last few days have been something of an necessary exercise in acclimatisation, at least back to normal levels of human activity after the enjoyably lazy Easter break, and I have managed to fit lots in (including one particularly efficient morning organising my flights, hotels and trains for my next few trips away, followed by tea and scones at Bonnets before charging home for a brief but enjoyable liaison and rounding the day off with an hour in the gym and a spot of sauna-ing after. And after finally getting round to purchasing replacement ink cartridges for the printer and even managing to get them fitted in well under an hour, I have whiled away a happy afternoon today cobbling together all the hotel reservations, flight booking details and other bits and bobs right up until Koh Samui in July (to be carefully folded and placed in appropriately labelled envelopes, which in turn are placed in date order on the special Travel pinboard). One of these days I may even get the apartment finished. Only kidding.
I also spent a pleasant Wednesday teatime (following a more than pleasant Wednesday lunchtime, for completely different reasons) ranting in the Guardian’s Comment Is Free section, following yet another tediously predictable supposedly ‘feminist’ (apparently denying women their free choice in not only how to earn a living, but the right to shag whoever they like for whatever reasons they choose is feminism, if you are one of the particularly hard-of-thinking Guardianistas, anyway) article which usefully demonstrated it’s author’s non-existent ability to give a balanced view of prostitution in the title, which began ‘The sex industry is repulsive…‘. Bless ’em. I thank them kindly for entertaining me for a couple of hours (it was still raining) but I’ll resist the temptation to link to the article, partly because I can’t be bothered, but mostly because it is bollocks.
Back to the next couple of weeks, the 3rd of May sees me back in London for lunch and a catch up with Kinky La Rue, and later to Kentish Town for the launch of the English Collective of Prostitute’s ‘Know Your Rights’ (details here); this, for anybody familiar with the photographer’s ‘bust card’ aims to provide sex workers with a straightforward guide to UK prostitution laws to refer to in the event of raids, attacks and other disputes (all we need now is for somebody to furnish some of our hopelessly ill-informed police force with something similar) and I am very pleased to have been invited, although the prospect of ‘saying a few words’ is one which never fails to imbue me with terror. I’ll be home on the 4th, but the week following my return is already filling up steadily, and since I will be away with a pal on Thursday 10th and Friday 11th (beer, curry and Dara O’Briain await us in Newcastle, the first of a desirably lively programme of entertainment over the next few months) heading back to Dublin via Belfast at the weekend and then away again the weekend after, Scarborough folk are now going to have to either hang fire until May the 21st or wheedle into one of the very few gaps left on the 7th-9th. Sorry!
As for the remainder of this weekend, it’s back to packing, fridge-emptying and the usual preparation for another longish stint away – anybody who hasn’t got their booking in yet is advised to get motoring! No (more) rest for the wicked…
More soon. Next stop – Victoria!
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