life is good

london 12.49pm 18.1C cloudy tuesday 2016

19.5C 5.43pm

 i have succumbed to an impulse buy just now. was in sainsburys to buy more milk powder and stockingup on it, because as things are going, the basic prices of stuff is going up, and so i thought i shall just make sure i got milkpowder. it is a staple of mine which i cannot do without.

anyway whilst there i was about to leave, when i pass by the cooked meat counter,and saw half chicken roast for £1.50, reduced from £3. the original price is over priced really, but this half price is ok, for half a chicken. and on an impulse i bought it even though i got chicken pieces thawing in the fridge and undecided what to make of it. to roast it or to make a curry .

it seems i am craving a bit of roast chicken after all. haha. anyway my life is good if all i have to worry about is impulse buying food.

the good thing about buying basic foodstuffs is that the prices are so low. so that even if they increase it , by 40% , tesco basic coffee for eg, it only go up by 20p. haha. so really it is low, even though percentage wise it is enormous. that is the thing about quoting % rises. they dont really give the real picture.

anyway, i am just investigating more ways to amuse myself in my life now. joined a website for older guys to network. it is catering to older guys who likes older guys or young guys who like old guys. i guess i am accepting that i am considered an old guy now. even though my mind still thinks i am young, but one must acknowledge reality.

quite a interesting website and allready i have made contacts and chatting to them via email. i am restricted to 2 messages on the website as i am not a paid member, but it is not really a disadvantage as the website do not block us giving out our emails, so we can carry on the conversation by email to each other rather than via the website. i think the owner is quite good really.  it is only £50 a year, and i am wondering if i should pay the subscription, just to support the owner who has set it up, if nothing else. it is a great concept really. there are a lot of americans even though the person who set it up is european. ah well, we shall see how that goes. shall we?

life is really very good. i potter around given the freedom of london as it were with my freedom pass. it is a wonderful gift. 

Digital StillCamera

 

 

a stroll down old compton st

london 1.57pm 21.3C cloudy thursday 2016

i was wandering around old compton st the other day and saw workmen taking out mfi furniture. a tall clothes cupboard and a set of drawers and putting them on the pavement.  an old lady was looking at it, and the workman asks her whether she wants it. saying that it would save them the cost of paying to have it carted away. he asked her to give him her address and he will take it to her. i wasn’t really listening, but i think she did not. i think because she did not understand him. either that or she is reluctant to give strangers her address…  i wasn’t really paying much attention otherwise i would have helped her translate even though i dont speak chinese myself. though come to think of it, i dont speak chinese so i dont know why i think i could be of much help…

i was looking at a pair of boots in a shoe case that was lying on the ground nearby and she came up and i just made a comment, nice shoes i said. she picked them up and then also started rummaging at a package nearby and pulled out a decorated shopping bag and then she opened it and indicated that i help her put the shoes in their box inside while she held the shopping bag open. so i did.

 then she asked me in chinese , i guess that she ask me to help her move the cupboards… she indicated that it was only for a few blocks but i did not quite know what she really was saying. and can only tell her in english that i dont understand her. anyway, i wanted to  cross the street and she did too, and she walked on up the street whilst i veered left and walked down old compton st. two people at cross purposes due to lack of communication… to this day i dont really know what was going on. haha.

well, i was reminded that there are still old people living in soho, and old chinese people too… and also reminded that even after all these years living here they are still unable to speak english , they must be doubly isolated… first from old age (and i myself do know the frustration of not having the strength to carry things that i find on the street and could do with some help… ) but also language barrier as well. 

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we gay guys really like underwear. because there are lots of chances in gay clubs to wear them, what with underwear nights so popular. also pride is coming, and guys can wear their underwear to go on the march. at least during my younger days we did it, but i think the guys now dont… maybe the organisers are strict about showing skin… certainly i dont see a lot of skin shown in the marches in recent years. but i saw these underwear on sale in a sex shop in old compton st and they look really nice. with that tilted leg grip and bulging pouch. haha. but guess how much they cost… £40!!! each.

added. 7.18pm. it has been raining but it is cloudy now. and it seems last night it has rained a lot flooding parts of london. one chap has toilet overflowed and flooded his flat in vauxhall. 

bits of this and that

london 7.18am 12.3C overcast sunday.

i read this editorial in the independent and it makes quite a lot of sense. 

quote’This is an unconvincing attempt to co-opt one of the favourite rhetorical devices of Tony Blair’s: the third way. Mr Cameron seeks to pretend that there are two extremes in this debate – those who want to stay in the EU, come what may, and those who want to come out regardless of what he negotiates. He propounds the moderate, sceptical but pragmatic middle way. 

However, there isn’t really a third way. There is in or out.’ unquote.

added. 9.11.15 a report saying for 2013, the EU’s total pension liabilities are £35.8billion (€45.7bn) representing a bill for the British taxpayer of £4bn.

A growing part of the EU pensions bill is the cost of paying for retired MEPs.

Under a scheme created by the European Parliament in 2009, MEPs pay no contributions to their pensions which 100 per cent funded by the taxpayer.

The pension is currently worth £13,760 for each five year time served as MEP.

In just five years, the scheme’s total liabilities have grown to over £230million.

i think this alone, the pension costs is enough for me to vote for brexit.

this article is saying it is worst than that. germany and france have high pension liabilities too, and they have lots of old people. they have to keep being members of the EU to be able to pay those pensions. and they need the uk in, to pay for that . added.11.11.15 katie hopkins in this article spells it out nicely to what we actually want. 

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london 11.47am cloudy 15.4C

i am at the library now, and decided to post the above that i made earlier. i thought i could add more stuff but really there are lots of stuff to add but it is quite pointless. haha. take for eg the big bathroom issue in america, where it might be the cause of a lbgt bill being voted out. in america federal law do not provide a lgbt anti discrimination law, so each state has to vote on it. and this one has been voted out because of fears that a man can invade women’s public toilets by invoking that he is a woman. 

there has been calls by other gay people to separate the T from lgbt, because of this kind of thing happening.

i think others might say when people in other parts of the world are being killed, and not surviving at all, all this fuss seems a bit like a storm in a teacup. which is true too, but then we all have our little concerns, and they are as important to us as all those big world issues. so even if all the rest of the world is having a shitty time, it does not mean we just lie down and give up trying to improve ours. it wont help them nor us. it makes me realise that in life there will always be people having shitty times and always others having the time of their lives and living well. that is life. 

added. 2.32pm sunday 10.4.16

quite a honest exposure of the perks and expenses that MEP(members of european parliament) can claim and how costly it is to upkeep them. it is no wonder so many MEPs want the EU to go on. it is a gravy train. on top of that they are guaranteed a generous pension.

Even on a top business class fare, you could make a tidy sum. If you flew EasyJet, you could trouser the better part of £800 a week — tax-free, because it counted as expenses rather than income.

 added. 7.30pm 10.4.16 another reason to get out of the EU. overuled our tax laws by EU so that uk have to pay back (refund) tax.  

London bar denies homophobia after kissing gay couple ‘thrown out’ and woman ‘called fat dyke’ – Home News – UK – The Independent

London bar denies homophobia after kissing gay couple ‘thrown out’ and woman ‘called fat dyke’ – Home News – UK – The Independent.

this is the consequence of straight owners buying a gay restaurant and making it into a franchise.

the original balans in old compton st is now so straight, it is banning gays kissing there.

balans has an unusual pay structure. their waiters dont get a salary, they are all paid by the tips and it is lucrative, many have been known to pay money to be allowed to  serve.

it encourages them to get people to eat and get out quick, not to linger. they constantly come round asking if u want to order something when u have finished ( they make it like they are being very attentive to you, making out like american waiters do because in america the tips are what pays their wages too but in balans the waiter gets all the tip money)  and making it so u feel uncomfortable sitting at the table not having food in front of you.

that is why i think they dont allow kissing, it takes up time which can be devoted to eating and makes people linger using that seat which can be rotated with new customers.

when it first started, at that time when old compton st was not the gay street that it became later; i can remember we used to go there often as it felt like it was our space. and their plates are huge and portions enormous, haha. like the american system, huge portions… so that u can share a dessert and feel full. and forget about having a starter,just have a main, it will fill u up.

but i think the original gay owners sold out long ago,and it is straight owned now, with branches everywhere.

i wondered why the original owner chose to call it ‘balans’. i googled it and it means balance, but it also means 

balano-, balan-,

combining form meaning “the head of the penis in males; may also mean the glans clitoris in females”: balanoplasty, balanitis.

that sounds more like it. haha. nice cheeky title, haha.

today is saturday

london

it used to be saturday was a special day as it is the weekend, and that means no work and lots of fun. not anymore to me, as once you stop work, it becomes just another day. but now and then i get reminded that it is a weekend, and people are relaxing and thinking of other things than work.

maybe they are thinking of holidays. john my friend in poole has come back from his month’s stay in south india, on his holiday there. he spent about £1400 for accommodation etc  plus £700 for flight. quite a lot to spend for a month (and it is the shortest month of the year too, february) when u consider india is supposed to be cheap, and the rupee is weak. but i think all indians know every tourist is rich, how else is he able to fly there, pay the visa, unless he has money? so just triple the price of everything to him. haha.

it was his first time there in contrast to the many times he had holidayed in thailand.

talking of thailand, reminds me of that tv program about people who want to leave uk to live in tropical places. last night it was the turn of two gay guys who want to open a B&B in khanom, south thailand. at first i thought they were rice queens and know thailand well, but it seems one of them just got it in his head to go there. both have never been to thailand. it makes me wonder if it is just a made up show for tv. just find a gay couple and give them the brief, one of them was said to earn £65,000 a year living in sussex and commuting to london to work. he is 50. makes u wonder that it is a made up tv program. who in his right mind would leave such a job to go open a B&B in thailand.? hahah.

I know a friend who have gone to live in thailand but to  retire. and only because he is gay and have no ties back in uk. he is divorced, and have kids but we all know that once divorced, the father has little to do with the kids, but pay maintainance. in his case, i think his kids are grown up so no maintainance. i have a feeling they waited till the kids have grown up and he retired before they seek a divorce.

 he got £2000 a month from his pension, and so he lives like a king in thailand on that, and dont have to work. that is more believable. haha.

anyway, after all the difficulties and setbacks, in their one week in thailand, these two in the tv program, decided their final verdict is that they will move to thailand. quite unbelievable really. unless there is something we were not told. it was the last of the series, too.

recently, i got chatting to a indian couple from bangalore, from the gay website, and asked him about his life in india, now that the recent law makes  it illegal to be gay there. he said it is difficult, but he will continue to live a gay life.

even before this law, people in india have been very closetted about being gay. it is not accepted by the majority. perhaps i am wrong, and there are many openly gay guys there, but if there are i did not meet them when i was visiting there. now it just means they have to remain in the closet and live an underground gay life. well, it is not such a bad thing, after all, in uk, before the gay liberation , gays were living a underground life, and many still think those were the best years of their life. haha. now the world is too knowing about gay things.

well when i pointed this out to him, he replied it is a compromise, and like going back to the 90’s… true, but gays in india have to accept reality, and reality is a law that says it is illegal to be gay. so adapt, which we humans are very good at. and life can be just as good. if not better.

oh, i met a german guy from a naturist website. he is visiting london and so we met. he lives in berlin, and is a journalist working from home.

he says berlin is so much cheaper than london. he says he has friends here he can stay with and used to live in london and have friends here which his 1week in london is full with things he is doing with them. he is booked. he was in scotland earlier.

i dont find it expensive to live in london, but maybe it is because i dont like eating out, nor drinking coffee in coffee shops. he was comparing the coffee he bought, in cafe nero, which i suggested we meet at with coffee in berlin.  he said it is cheaper to rent accommodation in berlin.

and he said there are so many naturist places in and around berlin that he can go to ( because he said the east germans are very easy about naturism, not so much the west germans.)and even though winters in berlin can be -20C , though he said for the last two winters it has been very mild, the summers can be 30C.

interestingly he said they tried to do a naked bike ride in berlin, but the police came and broke it up so there is no naked bike ride in berlin. he said it is very strange that, as anywhere else u can be naked. all the beaches on the lakes he said have mixed naked places , there are no segregated naked beaches as such, and everyone mix with naked and clothed people and no one says anything.

added. just remembered the £ is strong now. £1=1.39euros. so that might explain why he finds it expensive in london. 

added.11.3.15 they are going to make it more difficult to apply for a visa to visit india. 

Applications must begin online at in.vfsglobal.co.uk. You must fill in and then print the application, sign it, attach a photo (to some exact specifications – consider investing in professional passport pictures) and hand in the application. You also have to pay a fee of £89.44, even if you are rejected.

At present, an immediate relative can submit a form – which means for a married couple, only one partner need apply. From next Monday everyone who wants to go to India will need to attend an office, as biometric checks of your fingerprints and face begin.

other people’s lives

london

I was at a gay picnic yesterday, sunday, it turned out to be a nice day with the sun shining occasionally  getting better later on in the day and it was so nice that i stayed on till 6pm. it started at about 2pm.

Rather unusual for me to stay so long but i got talking to the gay guys sitting near me, and one of them was so very socialable and made sure to include everyone near by that it got very freely communicative.

one thing though… we got such a nice group going that it made it quite deterring to go out to the others and join in their groups and try to meet the others.

it is never easy to go out of your own group and try to join another where they have bonded and try to muscle in.

for one thing you may arrive in the middle of their conversation and so dont know what it is all about, and most people would not explain it to you as it would interrupt the flow of conversation. and you as a relative stranger to the group may have to establish your credentials as it were to make the others feel at ease with you to share their personal views etc.

certainly in our group, of 5, including me ; one of us was able to get the others at ease. he is a german, come to stay in london, but goes every 3months to berlin. later he told us it is because he visits his two children aged 5 and 6yrs by two different lesbians. he contributed his sperm to them.

at first i said to him it seems u have got the best of both worlds.

I happen to mention what about  maintainance, thinking he would say there is none; but he said the german govt  had got him to pay 450euros each kid. going up to 650euros a month when they turn 6yrs old. my goodness that puts a damper on any ideas of it being the best of both worlds.

it obviously was not what he expected. he thought he was doing the lesbians a favour.

and in fact in my earlier years i guess i too would have looked at it that way….after all what is the harm in providing the sperm to your good friends who are lesbians and want a child? esp when they say u wont be expected to look after the kid nor pay for it.

thank goodness i dont have any lesbian friends. i dont mean to say it in a bad way… i mean that having no lesbian friends , the situation where one of them might have asked me to contribute my sperm never arose and so i never have to make that choice.

who knows, if i had been asked, i might not have thought it through and carelessly agree to give sperm and forever and a day after that been saddled with maintainance for mother and child.

all the horrors and expense of parenthood and children without the pleasures. i shudder at the thought… what a horrible fate , i am so glad i escaped that.

 but the law caught up with the feckless straight man who fathers a child, and runs away, and any gay guys will be caught up in the same net.

At one time, when the kids were 2 or 3yrs old , he found himself paying 500 euros to one of lesbian mother, who told the govt that she will not work but stay at home to look after the kid… and the govt got him to pay her. it seems his contribution depands on his income, and they know all about his income of course as he was paying the child maintainance then.

that particular  lesbian tricked him, he said. He said it mildly, like stating a fact without any rancour or bitterness. he seems quite calm about it, which i think is a good attitude to take. and he had kept contact with his kids. he said they recognise him as their father, as he had been seeing them every 3months by going to berlin regularly. perhaps he earns a lot of money so the 1000euros a month (approximately) is not a huge % of his income. or it is early days, after all he will be paying , and likely it will rise, till his kids turn 18yrs old.

he was led to believe his role ended by contributing the sperm. haha. it is not the first time,and wont be the last, when a man is laid up the garden path by women. (reading back i know it should be ‘led’, but ‘laid’ seems so inadvertantly appropriate in this, that i will let it stay).

it certainly made me realise my soul dont want all that. i have noticed in my life, there are no women. i have been puzzled a bit by that… i mean i get along very easily with women, but never brought them into my life.

apart from my mother of course haha.

 now i wonder if my soul dont want it and make me not make friends with women, and so don’t get involved in all that.

added. 6.9.14 the ES magazine given free every friday with the evening standard have this article about sperm donation. it says british guys are paid only £35 for each donation. too little i think that may explain why there are so few male donors in uk and not the reason they gave, that it is because of the stigma. no male i know of would be offended at being called, ‘you are a wanker and being paid for it’. i think all the men would just laugh at it. haha.

what is more interesting is another article there following the main one, called make mine a danish, and it listed all the countries where u can buy sperm. Denmark is the best. copenhagen’s storkKlinik, and the men get £50 per donation. usa manhattan cryobank, newyork. as high as £60 per sperm donation . spain, the centre for assisted reproduction, marbella; £40. uk national sperm bank, birmingham; £35. not surprising it is the only one having a shortage of donors. haha

 

trying to drum up some enthusiasm

london 

for doing things, i mean. 

yesterday i met up with a guy who i first met in a gay naked clubnight. i gave him my gaydar name and he found me there and asked if we can meet. then he disappeared, i got no reply to my agreeing  to meet , giving him my email address as i dont log onto gaydar much and i am limited in the messages i can write there) and he should name a day and time. well it is not unusual in these cases that the person just goes off. haha.  so i did not think anymore of it. 

out of the blue he sent an email to me a few days ago, saying he had health problems and was out of action. well, i am rather understanding of this, as sometimes i too dont feel like meeting people, (it turned out he really did have gut trouble) so our meet up was on again. i am glad i dont have pretensions and act like a diva. haha. i often hear people who experience these gay websites that they got rude people, but it maybe they were too sensitive and that the person really did have a good reason to not reply for ages. 

finally we met. and went to a coffee shop after his work. he works near me, it turned out. 

i enjoyed the chat, and later he went to the gay gym nearby and i met the owner and found out i was the 6th customer who signed up long ago when he first started. interesting that. i left after 3 or 4 yrs i think, no particular reason really just wanted a change of scene. my new found friend suggest i come along one weekend as his guest. the place has been extended and there are a lot more heavy duty weight machines now. 

the coffee must be very strong, because that night i could not sleep. i was tired but still could not sleep. later, in the morning after a sleepless night, i emailed him to thank him for a nice social time, and he said he too did not sleep. i never knew coffee to affect me like that. we even chosed a one shot, when the barrista asked us one shot or two. if that is a one shot it is hell of a potent shot. 

i guess i shall chose chocolate drink next time i go into a coffee shop. my friend said he will chose tea. but somehow i get the impression coffee shops dont do very good teas. 

anyway, i am trying to make myself interested in things. 

i met a long time neighbour this morning coming back from the library, and she asked me if i am interested in the proms. i told her no. i like classical music but only the nice bits haha. but inbetween the nice bits u can get really boring stuff. i know it is my ignorance speaking, those who appreciate music will never agree with me. but i seem to have stopped listening to music some time ago. i dont switch on the radio any more. 

even the news i tend to skim through, and skip the pages. 

i was walking back and wondering why i dont seem to bother with a lot of things or want to do new things and looking up at the sky and the things around me i realise it is not really necessary to be doing things. i enjoy being alive and being in relatively good health and have all my facillities to observe and see all around me, and to live in the moment savouring everything about being alive now. just the fact i am alive and breathing and able to see and feel and taste and touch all these things is a miracle to me. 

i know the advise to people is to learn a new thing everyday, if u want to live, but i think be aware of the now and the things that are around you now and live for the moment and savour it with all your senses.

that is  really all you need to know; it is a simple way to live for the moment and just enjoy being alive and in good health and be able to breath in and out and have not a worry in the world. 

Added. 3.7.14 i read this in this ‘The meaning of life is just to be alive’. seems like i have discovered this without realising it. 

 

things to do

London
My friend john, who is now in gran canaria on a two week holiday tells me he foolishly left his bumbag containing his camera, mobile, and 150Euros when he was in the sand dunes in maspalomas; it was only a brief absence, he said, and it was stolen.
Maybe john was a victim of a scam, some one luring him away with the promise of sex, and another darting in to steal.
Ah well, I guess that is always the possibility of theft when we go on holiday. I guess john will just have to jot it down to experience. Haha. First, never to bring anything valuable when u go cruising in the sand dunes. And that is it really. Haha.

He is staying in a private B&B, which I told him about from a gay website. There , gay guys let out short stays. This one is only £10 a night and very central near the yumbo centre and dunes. What is the catch you ask. Well you will have to tolerate the antics of the host. Haha. In this case, john tells me he was woken up by loud cries of pain lasting an hour or so he said. It was some kind of sex antics which the host was indulging in with another, in the living room where he sleeps. Ah well, haha, u have to take the rough with the smooth I guess. At least john was not forced to take part… the host seems to be into S&M. (john was a bit worried before he left as the host changed his profile to say he was into bareback sex and rough sex… but of course, you can always decline to take part and no one will force you too. So it is quite safe to stay at these places. It will just be noisy if the guy gets lucky and happen to bring someone back for sex when you are staying there.
I pity the neighbours more. Imagine having to hear all those cries in the middle of the night for years.

I think john must be glad that he only agreed to stay one week, moving on to a couple he knows are naturists, living in a village in the countryside.

Ah well, sometimes I wonder why we travel … maybe I am just getting old, but it seems a lot of bother for nothing. U can get sex in your home town easy, no need to spend money travelling miles away living in uncomfortable places, eating dodgy food … and getting things stolen. Haha.

Here in London, I went to a event set up by a group called yelp.com they are a website that allows members who join (and it is free to join) to post reviews of anything … but most of the posts seems to be about eating places, and any businesses that wants u to spend money.
It is like trip adviser, but they say they are different because they are very selective in whose reviews get featured. They have a way of weeding out fake reviews or reviews by owners. They ask owners of business not to ask customers to review them.
I used to join another website that they took over, that is why I am on their email list.
I am rather supportive of them as it is a good thing, because they organise free events and invite members to attend.
The event I went to was their time travellers ball, held at the marriot hotel near grosvenor square, Mayfair. And very nice it was and just the right duration, 2hrs from 8pm-10pm.
I should have taken everyone’s name and search for their reviews online, but I forgot. Just goes to show I have lost all my networking skills, that is assuming I had any in the first place. Haha.

I guess with the Chinese new year coming up and a festival in Chinatown and Trafalgar square, on 2feb, someone could organise something.

Though for me, the crowd is too much and I tend to leave. But never mind me, I am just a loner, and don’t like crowds.

added. 3.2.14. i enjoyed the chinese new year show in trafalgar square. there was a lion dance, two guys leaping dangerously on top of pillars. very daring. and a dragon dance. actually the old fashioned chinese lion dance is the traditional one. i wonder when the dragon came in. nowadays the lion dance is a two man affair, but i can remember it was a troupe of guys climbing on top of each other to reach the top of shop houses where there will be a packet, consisting of firecrackers which will be set on fire whilst they try to retrieve the red packet full of money.  all the while the troupe will be manipulating the lion head and make it behave in a lion like way dancing and cavorting. it was thrilling to watch but it think the art and skill required to do those things are slowly dying if not dead allready.

there was also a chinese opera singer, from china. she was dressed in a fabulous red dress with a red headgear topped by a red feather. the dress top was shimmering and glinting from the sparkles set in it. when i heard her, i was immediately cast back into olden days where such ladies wore such dresses . it has such an old fashioned air about it. the hostess also wore a sparkly cheong sam(literary translation long dress. though the chinese call it chi pow. which is not so romantic as a cheong sam. i thought it is a very sexy dress, very high collared suggesting a demure and modest person, whilst so tight fitting and curvy and ending tightly round the knees with a slit on the side. i thought it a very sexy dress. no one i know nowadays wear it anymore. only my mother wore it when she was alive. no female in my immediate family wears it anymore.

Added. 31.1.14 i got a link to this guy who lives a naked lifestyle in gran canaria. it is not illegal there. that would be another reason to go there as it is a warm place so u can be naked all year round and be able to go out and about without any clothes and really live a naked lifestyle. I do hope the prudes dont change the law at present. i wish people would be more tolerant. after all, what harm are they doing… these people who want to be naked? 

nothing to rant about

london

I have been looking around to see what will fill my time. Most of the time, i read, or go on the internet, and swim, or go to the library, but i have borrowed so many books from the library that i thought i better not go so often , or if i do, not to borrow books; or i shall borrow even more books and i just could not read them fast enough.

Another way to while away the time is to go grocery shopping, but i have allready bought enough, more than i can finish so no point going to the supermarket.

So I thought i shall take the bus and wander around soho, and pop into the chinese grocery stores to see if there are any reductions. or to buy staple items but I have allready bought all i need. i dont know where else to hang around. Long ago, i used to hang around old compton st, the gay part of soho, sit in the coffee shops and chat to people who are sitting nearby. It was quite cheap to do so, until they start putting up the price of coffee, and cakes, and so even less local people hang around there; only tourists do so now. And though it is nice to meet visitors, they are here only for a few days whilst what we want is to make friends who live here. long ago when coffee was cheaper u get locals who are regulars in the coffee shops in old compton  st, and you can always see them to chat with if u happen to pass by. not any more. I suppose u could say i was one of the regulars, but i have stopped going, and i daresay so have all the other regulars.

now, i get small mishaps in my life to keep me occupied. recently, we bought a 40inch tv screen, but it developed a problem. without any reason, it would say there is no signal. I thought our aeriel was acting up and dropped by the local housing estate office to tell them to get the engineer to look at it. They made an appointment for the engineer to come to my flat . he did not come, but luckily, simon fiddled with the lead that connect with the aeriel socket and the picture came on. so that was how we found out it was the lead that they supply with the tv to connect to the aeriel socket. We should have guessed it is not the aeriel, because we asked our downstairs neighbour and she said she have no trouble with the tv transmission.

We often hear of old people ranting and raving when things go wrong, and complaining at the slowness of the engineers to come and fix it. Well, all i can say is i am glad i did not make a fuss. haha it would be terribly embarrassing to have the engineer come and find this. it is like some old fart forgetting to switch on the tv and complaining it does not work. 

so now the tv works fine, and i am enjoying seeing the films again with the added novelty of this bigger screen. there are a lot of repeats nowadays. It’s not so much fun to see old films as they only fill up half the screen. 

Added. simon tells me he had found out from someone he was chatting to online that the screen we got is not the one he bought. it is not a smart tv. that is why it wont take a dongle and connect to the internet for him to get bbc iplayer which will enable him to get the high definition program. 

Talking of this urge to chat with people, we hear so much of that about old people being isolated and have no one to chat to, but i have realised that it isn’t so much no one to chat to, but no one that we like to chat to. that is harder to find. Ah well, just as well we gay people have the internet and gay websites to get in contact with other gay guys. I recently sent a message to a guy who lives in manchester and who i thought looked rather sexy and he is interested in jacking off too. jacking off is something that i thought i shall get interested in again. Normally if someone is not in london, i would not have bothered , but he did say in his profile that he comes often to london. and just now he sent me a message saying he will here visiting london on feb13th. so that would be  nice to meet up and get to know each other. thank goodness for being gay. dont you think? it is real easy to meet other gay guys.

I like to chat with people and often do with strangers i meet on the bus or waiting in the bus stop or just on the street. I like being on my own, but sometimes i like interacting with other people. i prefer these casual contacts rather than have a friend. partly because i dont like to arrange to meet , i like the casual , accidental meets with strangers. 

that was what i was doing when i chatted with a guy in the same gay website . he is a belgium guy who comes to visit london 4/5 times in a year. he said he stays with friends and they keep busy doing things. so i asked him what he do, as i thought i might get some ideas from him. he said they walk, go on daytrips, give dinners. (not very useful things to me as i dont fancy any of that) and he says i sound lonely and wonders if i am.

I suppose i might give others the impression that i am lonely, when i told him i was wandering around soho and suggested to him that it would be nice to  meet up for a coffee  in soho when he is here in london. I replied to him I am not lonely, but i do miss my young days when i would have friends hang around the coffee shop in old compton st, and we would invariably find one of us there whenever we go to soho, and so always have company. and also we are able to meet and make friends on a casual basis with other gay guys there who hang out in all hours like us. it was a lovely time i remember. it does not happen anymore. 

I think the internet may well account for that , not many of us now hang around coffee shops in soho, because we can make contact via the gay network. maybe it is something you do when you are young. Not to mention when you are young more people are attracted to you physically and you get approached more often, or if u approach someone you often than not get welcomed or get an encouraging response.

The thing about going old is that you realise so many things in your youth will not come again. I was seeing a tv program about the songs of the 70s, and saw the carpenters singing ‘close to you’, and 10cc singing ‘another love’, and realise those feelings that the songs evoked in me will not be retrieved by anything sung nowadays. I doubt any of the songs now will evoke the same feelings in me years from now. 

 

 

service charge for a 2bd flat in london

London
My AVG2013 free virus protection is now being upgraded to 2014 and it is taking some time.
I got notice of it when the message came up in a box telling me to install this upgrade. It first asked me a few days ago but I ignored it. I did not realise it was to upgrade it to 2014 and I was a bit wary of it. You know how it is, we have fears of downloading some virus and are rather suspicious of anything that tells us to download things.

But when it happened just now, I thought I better download this AVG and take the risk, and so now it is doing it, installing the program, but it sure is taking a long time. I wonder why it is taking such a long time. I already had the program so why should it take such a long time to install a newer version and clear it for 2014… ?Hope it is not installing lots of spy ware.
Added. It is downloaded now so I am protected for 2014. I am rather grateful to AVG for letting me have it for free.

added. i dont mind if they get other benefits from giving it to me free. after all, it does not affect me if they mine my surfing for their own advantage. why grudge them making money out of any information they can get out of my surfing behaviour.  

I use chrome as my default browser, and now it has updated, and make everything so slow.
Before the search engine do not come up, now it does. But it makes everything so slow.

Today the postman came and he delivered a demand for my service charge for this flat. it is a 2bdroom, and it came to £763.04 for next halfyearly estimated cost.
This is the estimated costs for 1oct2013-31 march2014
My share of the cost for my block £246.97
My share for the costs of management £393.31
Adjustment of cost for actual cost £122.76

I noticed the cost for management have gone up a lot. Ah well, all you house owners, this is to let u know that owning a flat is not without cost. But looking on the bright side, it could be worse. At least the cost is shared with others living in the block and the whole estate. And at least I don’t have to bother with the day to day running of the estate or the block.

It is still cheaper than renting. As it is I dont have a mortgage so am effectively living here free as it were, just have to pay these service charge, the council tax £700 a year and that is it. Then every 8yrs or so, there is a big major works to clean the brick work and paint the windows and repair the roof if needed, and that cost £6,500 my share when it was done about 2yrs ago.

As long as u slot in the future costs, it should be easy to keep out of debt living here.

these are estimated costs but they are fairly accurate. it would appear the cost to me of having this flat ,including the future major works every 8yrs or so, will come to about £3000 a year. (or £250 a month). I consider that very cheap to live in central london in a 2bd flat, don’t you?

And it is really very nice to live here. So central and pleasant, this area, with tree lined streets, no shops around,(so u don’t get the mess or noise of streets with bars and cafes and restaurants and the people it attracts) yet close to good shopping nearby and good transport links.

And the thames is nearby, so u can walk out and look at the ebb and flow of the river and partake of the mood of the river in all weathers and seasons.

I was in the earls court area recently, went there to meet someone who contacted me in a gay website.

I have not been to the earls court area SW5 for a long time. It used to be a big gay area, with a leather bar and many gay pubs and clubs. Then Old Compton street in Soho usurped its position as a premier gay area, this was in the 90s, and now Soho shares the crown with Vauxhall.

Now there are no gay clubs or pubs in earls court. We went to a straight pub to chat.

Lots of backpackers and travellers on the street. Saw a hostel offering from £20 accommodation. I guess it must be dormitories, though it did not say how many in a room. No big supermarkets, just small outlets, with 2lit milk 1%fat reduced to 28p in one of these shops.

It is rather sad that Earls court is not so gay anymore.