Early Morning

 A frost, the first of the year this morning.

I’m sat at the kitchen table with the bucket of coffee at 5,45 am

And I’m shivering in my uniform 

It’s on mornings like these ( all too few in these global warming days I must admit) that I adore my new bathroom.

A boiling hot shower sets you up for the day

And chases away bad dreams, old memories and everyday worries

Winter is well and truly here

Early dark nights 

Comfort food ( a tin of chip shop curry with mini roast potatoes last night ) 

I’ve had to change Albert’s feeding place as I caught Roger standing on tip toe on the arm of the reading chair  carefully licking his bowl on the window ledge.

Now I know why he has the shits! 

Hey ho

Apps

 

Grinder is an app that tells you how close another gay man is to you. If you travel somewhere new, it is likely that you get a few “ likes” from men who are attracted to your photo, or what you say on it.

In my experience not many will read your profile.

I was sat in the Storyhouse yesterday when when my phone pinged several times.

Peter was in his 50’s married and “ a practicing bisexual for the last 20 years” 

My question of “ Haven’t you got the hang of things yet? ” fell on stoney ground. 

A faceless 18 year old wanted “ a daddy and sex”  even though my profile clearly said friends only and Phil from Chester Central told me he liked my photo and did I have any M O R E  ( body) pics?

I sent him one of Canterbury Cathedral 

He didn’t reply

A pleasant looking chap of similar age called Cynical Sam wanted to know what I was doing , and we embarked on a normal conversation about the Storyhouse and art house films . 

I’d written a short pithy paragraph about the Korean film The Host when he removed his profile and page, effectively blocking any further conversation 

another success john, I thought.

And there they all were on an app page , the faceless, the confused, the predatory, the lonely and the lost.

Cynical Sam was perhaps overly cynical in his quest for looking for a “ normal SINGLE and SORTED bloke sort…..I thought my précis on The Host was informative and funny…..

You can’t please everyone I guess.

I looked through the app page again, lots of men without shirts looking for sex. Lots of blank profiles looking at men without shirts who are looking for sex. 

A few men looking for Mr Right ,but who will happily end up with a few Mr bj in a lay-by by the Grovensor Garden centre.

Most normal looking ones proclaiming their wonderful Open Relationship status.

I chatted to a polite Polish guy who seemed nice enough. 

He liked fat guys with nice smiles

I told him he needed to practice his English.

I ordered another coffee and texted a friend who gossiped about this and that and the other.

Nu messaged me too and I told her what film I was going to watch.

She said it had great reviews 😊

The coffee came and I opened my phone again

Another “ like” this time from “Hung in Saltney🌈”

What am I doing ? I said to myself 

And I deleted the app on my phone for good before sipping my coffee

Decision To Leave

 

The director Park Chan-Wook must have loved Hitchcock’s Vertigo for he has used the old master’s basic idea of a Policeman idolising a Femme fatale and has turned it into a classy, character led mystery film noir which is part elegant romance part psychological whodunnit.

It’s a class act.

Here the murder detective Hay-joon  (Park Hae-il), a somber, insomniac of a character investigates the seemingly obvious suicide of a man who keeps the photos of his beaten wife on his phone. 

The wife, Saoare ( a stunning Tang Wei) is interviewed by Joon who is instantly captivated by her enigmatic personality and efforts to understand the  Korean language ( she is Chinese) and the film through a succession of complicated twists and turns follows their relationship, subsequent other murders and Joon’s relationship with his bemused wife

I’ve over simplified things here for the director and actors have crafted a real work of art in this movie that I can’t quite articulate adequately. Both Hae-il and Wei have a strength and an amazing presence in front of the camera and their relationship dances in front of the audience with all of the subtlety and delicacy of the beautiful and expensive sushi the pair share quietly in one pivotal scene.

It’s a cracking movie 

People Watching

 Last nite was all a bit of a drama . 

Thankfully it's all settled down and there's been no more shinnagains . 

I've worked on a presentation for college this morning . Then gave Trendy Carol ( who was wearing something formal in denim ) a lift to.pick her car.up.from the garage.

I'm.in the storyhouse cafe " people watching" before going to see a Korean.movie 

I like this place. The atmosphere. The music..The feeling of the place. It feels.like a traditional forum 

Review later

Trick or Treat

 One little zombie knocked on the door tonight and I had nothing for her, not even a pound coin.

I didn’t recognise her from the village but told her to come back for a treat.

She said she would 

Last night’s egging of the cottage has grown a little more menacing as I found later today that Bluebell was targeted too and four solar garden lights and a planter fully of fading geraniums were stolen .

Tonight the planters on the garden wall were pushed over, smashing two and with the dogs barking I was out quick sticks but saw nothing. 

I’ve had four home phone calls too, all hang ups with no numbers available 

It’s all feeling a bit personal now

Egging

 I’ve collected the last of the garden flowers this morning and placed them in a small vase on the window ledge.

Someone egged the kitchen windows and the back of the cottage last night. With five or six eggs all told 

It was around ten pm. I heard the dogs barking in the kitchen thought it was the stray cat trying to be through the cat flap again

Most had hit the cottage render rather than the windows but it was a devil to get off the glass

I wonder why it was done, no trick or treaters around

And the car has been egged too, I’ve just noticed …and several of my solar lights in the back garden are missing

Bros

 Gay Rom Com Mainstream American movies are as rare as hens teeth

Rom coms are sanitized by the nature of the beast so a Rom com that features all aspects of the LGBTQ+ rainbow, which includes throuples, grindr sex, and the like seems a bit of a challenge.

The Rom com itself centres upon Bobby  a loud, brittle but generally self reliant gay history museum curator ( played by Billy Eichner ) he meets shirtless beefcake lawyer Aaron ( Luke Macfarland) and the usual boy finds boy, boy looses boy, boy finds boy formula starts against a backdrop of a sassy script, sharp observations of the modern gay lifestyle and a pride of what’s gone on in the past. 

The comedy is sweet enough ( ultimately a little too sentimental) which is a surprise given the drug taking, sex filled, and shallow lives the leads are shown to live. 

But Eichner and Macfarland do have a nice chemistry on screen and by the end I was shedding a tear, not only when the two finally get together to agree to “date monogamously  “ but when friends of the couple , each, not surprisingly,  representing each part of the LGBTQ+ community ( and obligatory straight best friend) joyously dance together at a museum party,

A lovely scene of inclusivity 

Sunday

 

Look closely and you can see the remains of the nest

The weather has changed and everyone’s heating is on today. 

The wind is from the South West and has been strong enough to loosen the rook’s nest in the last remaining living ash in the graveyard. 

Parts of it, we watched fall during a quick walk.

Incidentally I found parts of my blue plastic earphones in Roger’s poo

I wondered where they had gone.

I’ve done little in 24 hours, only going out to the garage to buy my tearful neighbour a pick me up bag of treats, a few flowers, ice cream, chocolate raisins and 2 gossip magazines.

We all need a treat when we are fed up.

I’ve watched this weeks Bake off and this week’s Walking Dead and needing a bit of company texted a friend to see if they wanted to see the gay rom com BROS later today 

They will……hurrah 

I popped into my Ruth/Ben/John messenger group earlier after I heard the tragic news from Seoul. Ben lives there with his family and a few virtual hugs were shared as they told us that they are all ok. 

I miss working with them both 

The Goonies is playing on sky , but I couldn’t watch it…far too much shouting for my liking.