Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Ugly Men Shouldn't Be Naked

Why is it that the only guys who walk around totally naked in the locker room at the gym are the old, gross, fat guys? It seems to be a universal fact. I walked into the gym yesterday and went to the locker room to change only to be confronted with this overweight black guy who was just standing there totally naked for no good reason. He wasn’t changing clothes or anything. He had taken a shower, but now was just standing in front of his locker naked. It was almost like he was air drying. I don’t know about anyone else there, but I had no desire whatsoever to see what had to show. And this is not exclusive to London by any means. Back when I went to a gym in the suburb of Sugar Land, Texas these 50 something year old men would take a shower and then walk around the locker room totally naked. They would even greet each other and have full on conversations while standing there naked. Now I applaud anyone who is comfortable with their body, and so I am happy that they are confident in the way they look naked, but that doesn’t mean people other than their spouse needs to see it. And on the flip side of the coin, why don’t the hot guys do this? I would certainly enjoy it if the really hot guys walked around totally naked but they don’t. Now I must admit that a couple weeks ago this guy with a spectacular body did strip right in front of me, but I think he may have been gay in which case maybe he was trying to pick someone up. I would have stared but he was maybe 4 feet from me so there is no discrete way to look at someone that close to you. And I am sensitive to the straight men who are freaked out that they might get looked at by a gay man in the locker room so I try to be discrete when I look. But anyways, if I am going to have to put up with the old ones (and I don’t see them changing their ways simply because I don’t like them) then I think I should at least get some very hot ones to balance it out. I would be willing to put up with the bad if I got enough good as well.
In other news, last night the Arsenal v. Real Madrid game was on tv. For those who aren’t soccer fans (I’m with you, rugby is so much better – I’m going to a game this weekend) Real Madrid is the obviously Spanish team that David Beckham plays for which is now officially the one that makes the most money in the world. Arsenal is a northern London team that has a pretty good record, although they do get somewhat overshadowed by historic Chelsea and Manchester United. Anyways these two teams were playing in a special game, and at the beginning the commentators noted something that struck me as very odd. Between the two teams there were only two Brits starting, and one of them was David Beckham. How crazy that a team based in northern London only has one actually British starter. Apparently there are some Americans who play for this team as well, but I have to say its hard to see this as a UK v. Spain game when there are hardly any Brits playing. Now I know this isn’t the World Cup, so the teams aren’t actually the English team v. the Spanish team, because David Beckham actually is on the England team, but still. Can you imagine if most of the Yankees/Cubs/White Sox/Astros/pick your sports team came from other countries? While its true there are many Dominican players and now even a couple Japanese players, the vast majority of all American baseball and football players are in fact American. Perhaps we don’t have this because we don’t participate in very many world team sports. We play football, basketball, and baseball – all three of which are uniquely American. Only a handful of other nations have baseball or basketball teams, and we all know how successful the European Football League is, and we don’t actually play any of those teams in anything except the Olympics (and that’s just for basketball. Why would the IOC allow baseball or American football as events when we are the only ones who really play them?). Maybe it is time the US started playing the world’s games. I would be all in favor of a US Rugby league. Maybe then when the US team played in the Sevens tournament they would actually score points against England instead of getting slaughtered like they did in L.A. a week ago. I have to say rugby is one of the most fun sports to watch I have ever seen. So how about we get a good team and try to get ourselves into the 6 nation tournament. Hmm, 7 nation tournament, that has a nice ring to it.

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

And a Long Island for Dessert

Ah where to begin today? Well as you can guess the last posting caused some drama here in London. Thankfully though sort of the cause of it, I was left out of it since I chose to go out with different folks this weekend. It’s amazing, by the way, how much work you can get done when you don’t have as many plans. Mark Wickham will be very happy that I read and edited Brian G’s note. And amazingly I even got reading done for EU Law. This is amazing because the text book is just so incredibly dense that I read two pages and can’t focus anymore. Anyhow, I believe I caused some problems for a couple girls who are having a conference with one of the topics from last time, to which I do apologize for. My posting was intended to finally cause the subject to get off his ass and have the chat he had been promising for 3 weeks. I don’t see why they should be in trouble anyways since neither of them told me a thing. The only one of the two I spoke to refused to reveal anything so they actually acted admirably. And as a random side note, should anyone wish to leave commentary about a post that’s great, I like getting fun little messages. But its best if leave your commentary after the post to which it pertains. I read the commentary from last post, and neither message has anything to do with the topic. It can be very confusing since if appears the comments came out of thin air. Especially if the post it pertains to is over a year old. The only other thing I ask is if you are going to leave critical commentary that you leave your name. You know who I am, so if you are going to be critical show your face.
Now onto other matters and the goings on of the better parts of London. I was supposed to meet up with the Greek this weekend, but sadly he had to cancel again after he had to go to the hospital. It was probably the best reason ever for having to cancel. Hopefully we will get to do something simple like lunch this week. I also met this very cute guy who lives in Brighton this weekend as well. Brighton is on the sea, so it’s a resort of sorts. There was nothing dirty in this meeting, we just chatted and drank water actually so perhaps I have just made a pretty friend. He actually reminds me a lot of Derek, both in the way he looks and his mannerisms so I have to be careful since there are a lot of emotions tied to Derek.
Now Friday night was one of the craziest I have had so far here. And to think it was spent with straight people. It started when I went to a birthday party for this gay guy I know, but that was weird since I didn’t know anyone else there and wasn’t introduced to anyone so I had a beer and stayed the requisite 30 minutes and wished him Happy Birthday before leaving and heading out to meet Erin and Co. at Nama Bar. Then I got to Name and no one was there, but on my way back I ran into Kirin who I had never hung out with really. We went and had a beer at his place while trying to find out where everyone was. Though at times he has a ladies man mentality (but I guess what straight man doesn’t), he is cool and gets the Brian seal of approval. Really anyone who doesn’t know me well but welcomes me into their place and offers me a beer gets the seal of approval. So once we found someone we joined Spencer at Sugar Reef, which was a funk quasi-swanky bar that kept offering us tequila shots. And these were actually decent ones, not the tiny ones I got at Revolution. For those who have never been to London, they are skimpy on the alcohol. They have the bottles on these valve things so when you order a drink it pours a preset amount. Well that preset amount is tiny. I bought a tequila shot at Revolution and just wanted to ask “Where is the rest of it?” So thankfully Sugar Reef was more generous. Well I say thankfully, but really it hit me later in the evening so maybe not thankfully. Well Spencer and his ex roommate decided to go home because they were tired – at 11pm!!! Weak I have to say since it was Friday night. So Kirin and I spent about the next 45 minutes searching through Soho and Picadilly Circus for the other groups. We finally found Erin and her friend and met up with Tracy and her London Fashion Week friends at Camoflauge which had surprisingly good music. My only complaint is that the DJ wasn’t very good at mixing the songs together. Well my other one is that the drinks were WAY too expensive, since we had to resort to sharing bottles of wine. I treated myself to a long island ice tea though to end the evening. In the end we stayed out til 3am and got plenty of dancing in which was a nice change of pace. I love to dance so its always nice to find other who are willing. Too often I seem to end up with folks who are less than willing. Anyways, that was the extent of my weekend. A crazy Friday night followed by a calm and relaxed Saturday and Sunday. I am going to have to work a little harder at the gym though because I have lost weight and feel kinda skinny right now. Wish me luck. As a final note, I am thinking of moving my blog to an address that folks in London don’t have, let me know what you think.

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Retail is for stupid people

I'm sorry for the delay in posting. Worry not, I am still alive and well in London and exploring all it has to offer. I have finally tasted the authentic British cuisine and it was good. Rather energetic actually. It wasn't as good as the Greek, but better than the Spanish and the Italian and about the same as the Brazlian. I still have a think for the Greek I must say, although I haven't had it in awhile. It's been a week and a half, so of course I have much to report. First, for those in London who may read this, beware the uneducated salespeople when you go shopping. You see, here in Britain they have moved to this chip and pin system, where in an effort to reduce credit card fraud each card has a chip in it and instead of signing the receipt you have to enter a pin kind of like American debit cards. As of yesterday stores will no longer allow those with the chip cards to sign their receipts. Well obviouslly an American credit card has no chip so there is no pin number for me to enter. And yet the salespeople yesterday just could not get it. Now I think it is interesting that it was the ones at H&M and the cell phone place that had issues. At Molton Brown there was no issue at all, so it really makes me think that the more expensive the store the more educated its employees. At H&M the manager had to clear everything up, but there was no getting the cell phone guy to understand so I just had to break down and pay with cash. So beware especially this week if you go on any shopping forays in London.
In other news, I made it to the National Gallery so I have now seen paintings by Raphael, Michaelangelo, Da Vinci, Rembrandt, and my favorite Vermeer. Sadly the ones they have by these masters are very odd pieces but it was nice to see them anyways. There was entirely too much art about Jesus though. You would think they had nothing else to paint for 400 years. It was nice to have the odd Greek mythology subjects thrown in. There was actually this painter who I really like whose name I am now blanking on, but if you know art he painted one about Samuel having his hair cut that is very famous. He also did one about Paris and the Golden Apple. To get to the Gallery I had walk through the Muslim protest in Trafalgar Square. I now have a little pamphlet on the prophet Mohammed. Thankfully it was a peaceful protest so all was ok. In case it hasnt been in the news in America as much as it has here, they were protesting against the Danish cartoons which I have yet to see. I think the UK was the only major European nation that didnt publish them and I am just too lazy to google them. Who knew a cartoon could make people so mad. It's like me when I talked about the lesbians.
Speaking of lesbians, there has been more drama with the guy who said he was gay and then wasn't gay. On friday he informed me that my activities were immoral and he did not want people like that in his life. This all had to do with my sampling of the cuisine of the world while I am here. He tried to backpedal but he essentially called me a bad person. So suffice to say I pretty much avoided him the rest of the weekend. Which actually isn't all that hard since he always goes to the same places over and over. All I have to do is go someplace new and magically no confrontation occurs. What is odd to me is that despite making this comment, the brief time I saw him on saturday and then again on monday night he acted as if nothing had happened. Which seems to be a pattern because he keeps acting like there was no issue with what occurred before that as well. He reminds me of Shawn who thought if he ignored drama it would just go away on its own. Anyways, what would a weekend with a lesbian be without a little drama. And for those in Iowa, I need a fully detailed e-mail of the current events of the law school. The Andrew-Maggie scandal has made it even all the way over here to London, but I need further details. And those in Iowa need to come visit. Ciao.

Sunday, February 05, 2006

Things That Make Me Drool

Oh where to begin, how can so much happen in a few days. Well first the G rated stuff I guess. Saturday I went to visit Windsor Castle...all by myself since a certain someone failed to show up at the train station. If I can recover enough (with the help of Advil) from a night of fun and debauchery at Planet Hollywood (who would have though?) then everyone else should too. As weird as it sounds Planet Hollywood was out only choice to stay out and it turned out to be really fun with a DJ who got his groove on playing oldies and 80s music. I drank entirely too much, but was still up bright and early to catch the train to Windsor. I got to see the changing of the guard there, which makes Buckingham look like a sham. After touring the palace and the church I have decided I was born into the wrong family. As much as I love my parents, I should have been royalty so I could have such a castle. Maybe I can find a billionare to build me one, so then at least I would get to decorate it myself. Palaces can tend to be a little gaudy with all that gold leaf.
Now on to PG things. Thursday I had my second date with the Greek guy and it went well. I think I really like this guy. We had a very overpriced dinner and then went back to his place. I promised myself I would get up for class the next morning, but when my phone went off it interrupted a very good dream I was having that involved him actually so I decided to stay and so instead got up with him at 12:15ish. He fed me breakfast and even mentioned spending a weekend together somewhere, so I am excited where this is progressing.
In other news, I went to my first gay club last night. I had been to a couple bars, but this was my first foray into the clubs. And all I have got to say is DAMN!!! At first I balked at the 16 pound cover, but was pleasantly surprised when it turned out there was a student discount. Who ever heard of a student discount at a club? Apparently its the norm here though. I had to stand in a huge line to check my coat (think 30 minute wait), and then I wandered into the main room and my jaw dropped. There were so many beautiful men I couldn't believe it. Now you all know how picky I am, so for me to say the men were beautiful, you know they were A&F model quality. I spotted a Falcon porn star (no relation to one some of you have heard about) and Chris Geary who looked like he had been on the roids. At one point I stood at the bottom of this staircase and as people came down you could see their legs and then their upper bodies and then finally their faces. Well since no one had a shirt on, I was just amazed at the lack of fat in the room. It's like all the gyms in London emptied out for this club. I was also offered X which I politely declined. When I got there I was alone and this random group somehow adopted me for awhile. Never had that happen before. The drinks were weak though. I bought a shot and was like "um, where is the rest?" Apparently I was supposed to do all my drinking before, and just have water there at the club. I have also learned that northern Italians are odd. I hung out with this guy from Milan for awhile and he was just weird. I will stick to American Italians and Spaniards and Greeks for now.
On a random side note, I saw a fox. The animal, not the sexy person kind. It was randomly walking through an outdoor shopping mall. Not something you see everyday at home thats for sure. It looked a little sad actually. I wanted to feed it one of the annoying pigeons. Well there were other random happening, but I cant expect you to read on forever so I shall leave it with these highlights.

Thursday, February 02, 2006

It Will Make You Wish You Were Here Too

Hmm, let's see what has happened in the past few days. Well first, I am having dinner with the Greek guy tonight after having tea at the British Museum with the other cool folks here. I am particularly looking forward to trying the clotted cream. By its name it sounds like what happened to my last thing of milk. I went to pour it on my cereal one morning and it came out in clumps. Talk about strange. Especially since it didn't smell like it was spoiled or anything. There are a couple goofy things with preservatives going on here. Like the fact that the eggs are just sitting on an unrefrigerated shelf and half expiration dates stamped on them. My only real food complaint thus far though is the bread. It either is covered in mold in two days or else is super hard. What do we do to our bread in the US that we dont have this problem? I almost never have moldy bread there.
Anyways, back to the important things. When I talked to the Greek guy he said he was glad I called so this is a good sign. One of us is supposed to call the other to arrange what time and where we shall have dinne. So cross your fingers that it goes well. I also am very excited to report that i got my XM radio to work through the internet so as I write this I am listening to XM 81 BPM and dancing in my chair. Oh, and I have to tell you about this show on tv. Talk about penis everywhere. On channel 4 they have been having this week long series on the penis. So monday it was about wanting to have a bigger one, and they showed this super hot guy in Miami who was having the surgery and showed some other crazy people and what they had done to make it bigger. And last night it was about having a really big one. So they had this guy with a 13 and half inch penis and a porn star and some others and the problems it causes. But what was really a shock at first was that they showed all the penis. They wouldn't show it erect...apparently then its porn or some such thing...but they showed all of them soft on what is their network tv. Can you even imagine that on ABC? I think not. Although it did come on right after Desperate Housewives.
Alright, now for the drama. Well if you recall from a couple posts ago, one of the guys on the trip came out. Well there has since been some wrinkles. You see, on the weekend at the bar he would say he was gay, and then he would tell other individuals that he was straight. It just kept going back and forth and made everyone confused. Then last week at dinner he even acted like he wanted to go to Lavender Law in San Diego this past year and he talks as if he is very active with the gay group at the school he came from. But then...just wait...he said he was straight but had said he was gay so that Beth, yes the Beth that you all know, would be his friend even though he wasn't interested in her. (She had been interested at first) The whole story there was that he was telling people different things because he wanted everyone to like him. Personally, I was upset because there is almost nothing more insulting to a gay man then to pretend that you are gay when you aren't. So there still has been no resolution of the issue that I know of. And if he is reading this he needs to come clean, cause lying is more likely to make people not like you than whether you are gay or straight. And yes, TLCP, we are talking over the blog. You really should get one, and let Anna moderate.