If bare limbs you like

If driving fast cars you like, if low bars you like, if old hymns you like, if bare limbs you like

Fast cars

With all the bank holidays we have coming up I realise that I now only have a 3-day week, a 4-day week and a 5-day week left in the office.  After that, I have at least 52 no-day weeks. I refuse to entertain thoughts of what I will do after my trip until at least February 2012.

My 80 Gays mini MOO cards

I think I am definitely in winding down mode at work. Walking round the office with a huge grin on my face, telling people how long I have left in hours and handing out my 80 Gays mini cards is not necessarily winning me any friends though.

One of my soon to be ex bosses asked me the other day when my last day was.  It happens to be the day after a big client event at the London Transport Museum in Covent Garden.  I jokingly said that my plan was to go out in style by drinking my own body weight in champagne (which would be a feat in itself), telling a few people what I actually thought of them then hot-wiring one of the exhibits and driving it out into the piazza.  As the colour drained from their face, I realised that some people still don’t get my sense of humour after nearly 6 years of being here.  And for any colleagues reading this, yes, it is who you think it is.

Bare limbs

I’ve never been the best packer for travelling.  The companions to my recent holiday to Turkey will argue that I tend to overpack. I still maintain that 10 pairs of trunks for a week long holiday is not excessive – after all it is only one pair per day, a spare pair, a spare spare pair and the special “tan line reduction” pair (or as my friend Sarah called them the “shouldn’t be seen in polite company” pair).

My traditional approach to packing has been to do it the night before I leave, but this normally coincides with going out for pre-holiday drinks - never a good combination.  I tend to do fairly well with my inebriated packing; I’ve only had one minor mishap packing for a work trip.  Stumbling in at close to midnight with my packing still to be done before having to be up at dawn’s crack for a 7am train to Manchester, I knew I had to pack before I went to sleep as there would be no time in the morning. I packed, I slept, I left early and got the train.  After a very long day working at the client site in Manchester the team checked in to the hotel and we agreed to go change for dinner and meet in the hotel bar. As I unpacked I realised I had packed enough shirts for the week, a selection of matching ties, some casual clothes and the right number of pairs of socks.  However, I had forgotten to pack any underwear but had mysteriously packed 2 Soreen malt loaves…

I won’t fall into the same trap this time.  I have a list of the basics and my philosophy is if I have those, then anything else can be purchased while I am travelling. The basics are my travel documents (passport, tickets & visas), my Amex card, a clean pair of pants and my toothbrush. Who says that the gays can’t travel light?

“If driving fast cars you like, if low bars you like, if old hymns you like, if bare limbs you like"
Lyrics from Anything Goes from the musical Anything Goes

Friends, sisters and pals

We'll always be bosom buddies, friends, sisters and pals


Friends
Going travelling for a year means having to say goodbye, at least temporarily, to a lot of people. One of the hardest was saying goodbye to someone that I’ve been seeing for nearly ten years, someone who I feel so comfortable around that we can sit in silence just as easily as we can sit chatting constantly, someone who knows what I want without me having to say anything. Still, my hairdresser seemed to take it quite well when I broke the news to her that this would be my last haircut from her for some time.


Sisters
Sisters. If you haven’t got one I suggest you pester your parents to get one for you as they are great. My sister has kindly agreed to let me use her spare bedroom for storing some of my belongings while I am away so that I can rent out my flat. I packed up my entire music, DVD and book collection the other week and sent it up to her. Within a day she had sorted my DVDs into three piles, which she named:


1. “Things I want to watch”;
2. “Things I have seen before but would watch again”; and
3. “Your sort of crap that I would never watch”


I think the last pile consists mainly of my Murder, She Wrote box sets.


Pals
So I can’t leave the country without having a bit of a leaving party. I worked backwards from the date I set off on my travels looking for a suitable date. A friend's wedding on 28 May and mother's 60th birthday celebrations between 19 and 21 May, Saturday 14 May was settled on as the date. Hold the date email sent, Facebook event created, diaries duly penciled.


One small problem, I made a schoolboy error of not checking what else was on that night. Result? A clash with one of the biggest events in the gay calendar, the Eurovision Song Contest. How could I have missed that? For anyone outside Europe, the ESC has been a career-changing event for many musical greats (with past winners including ABBA, Bucks Fizz & Celine Dion). Career-changing for other acts too. Who could forget Scouse duo Jemini, whose off key rendition of “Cry Baby” became the first ever UK entry to get nul points? The answer to that is pretty much everyone has forgotten them. Anyway, I digress...


Simple solution, find a venue to hire and show the ESC before carrying on the party with some better music. Better music is of course a relative term, I’ll be creating a playlist from my iPod and my friends tell me I have the music collection of a 14-year-old girl (which I chose to take as a compliment).


Anyway, I’ve even found a bar close to where I work (and the leaving party comes the day after my last day at work) which seems quite a fitting way to celebrate leaving work to start this new exciting chapter of my life. It is time for 80 Gays Around the World to stop being an idea and to start being reality!




“We'll always be bosom buddies, friends, sisters and pals” 
Lyrics from Bosom Buddies from the musical Mame