Hello! & A Few Funnies!

Hi guys,

I hope you all had a great weekend! I'd planned to write this post on Saturday, but it was such a lovely day that I spent most of it gardening and then we had our first barbecue of the year. Perfect with a couple of ice-cold beers. Aaaah!

On Sunday I visited my mum, and then after lunch I took my nieces on a two-hour bike ride. I haven't ridden a bike since I was a teenager and I really enjoyed it. I have to say that I am a little saddle-sore today though, but it was worth it. I'll be cycling to and from work so I'm bound to get used to it fairly soon. When we got back home I just relaxed, with a book, in the garden for too long... got a bit burnt! The weather was glorious yesterday, whereas today is quite chilly and overcast, and we've got rain forecast too... typical bloody British weather! Having said that... the sun has just broken through the clouds, so I may go sit in the garden again.

I start my new job tomorrow, today is a Bank holiday btw which is why I haven't started today.

Anyway, on May 16th I welcomed Sashka as a follower but I didn't know whether he had a blog or not, well he does,and if you haven't already visited Malchik Gai's favs (Sasha's gayboi favs) by Sasha; go take a look in a moment. It's a (mainly) photo blog that's a mixture of arty, erotic, off-the-wall, thought-provoking and sometimes disturbing images. I really like the blog, but it seems that my PC hates it! Peter and Sasha's blogs are the only ones that I have any problems with... no sooner does a page load (if it even gets that far) when my poor old PC just dies. Ok, it's getting on a bit now but it only happens with those two!

Btw, I've not spelt any names wrong... Profile is Sashka and blog is Sasha! Maybe he can let us know which one he prefers to be called?

Ok then, a warm and hearty (if a bit belated) "welcome!" to Jeremy and Pilgrim, my newest followers:

Jeremy is the 20 year old author of Falling Through the Void blog and he's a Chemical Engineering student from Massachusetts in the good old U.S of A! He's just finished his finals and gone back home for the summer, but it sound like his summer's off to bad start... they had hailstones (huge ones by all accounts), and "freakishly" strong winds yesterday... but it didn't stop him from jumping in the pool for the first time this year. And guess what... it was bloody cold! Haha!

Pilgrim is the 19 year old Belgian author of La route de Pilgrim - Pilgrim's ways blog and he too is a student. He's studying Macrophysics and Microbiology in Paris, France. He enjoys rollerblading, and his roomie is one of France's best street & park skaters. I can't tell you much more at the moment I'm afraid because I've not read all his posts yet. You know what? Pop over there and have a good old read-up yourselves!

So thanks again and welcome aboard to Jeremy and Pilgrim!

I didn't get a chance to have a look for any new funny stuff, so I'm afraid you'll have to make do with the dregs in my folder. Sorry guys... I'll find some decent stuff for next time! :)

Ok, that's it from me!

I hope you all have a good week!

Until next time...

Take care & take it easy!!
Col

Welcome! , Job News! & A Few Cuties!

Hi guys,

I hope you all had a great weekend, mine was pretty quiet as usual. Was on my pc for virtually the whole day (and night) on Saturday, reading blogs and umm... stuff ;) On Sunday morning I visited my mum, as I usually do every Sunday. It's boring but somebody has to do it, and seeing as none of my brothers or sisters bother; it's down to me. Haha!

Anyway, I have some more blogs in my lists on the side-bar which deserve a visit. They are...

16 year old Joe from the Midlands in the UK (Yay! Another Brit!!) and his blog is called BENEATH AN ORANGE SKY. Not only does he have a wonderful header and profile picture, but his blog is wonderful too! He writes extremely well and has a great perspective on things for one so young (not unlike Mirrorboy). He describes his blog as... "The life and times of a 16 year old boy delving into the proverbial biscuit tin of life!" ...what a fab expression! Haha!

Ok, next up is Gearloose. He's from Ontario, Canada and the author of A WEALTH OF USELESS INFORMATION blog. This is how he describes himself... "I’m a 35 yr old Bisexual with a boring life, a job that takes up too much time. And so deeply embedded in the closet most of the time that I can’t see the way out." His blog is full of, well umm... useless information! Haha! Not really... it's actually really cool. There's some really witty and interesting posts there, and some that just confuse the hell out of me. Lol!

And finally there's 24 year old Mambam from the blog (or maybe I should say online diary) of the same name. He's yet another fellow Brit and he's from Manchester, but I think he's actually living in Oldham, Lancs. at the moment. I've not commented on his blog yet, although I've read all his posts, and it's great. It's about his feelings, his friends, work, sex and how cheaply you can eat on a budget at Tesco. Lol!

So, there you go! Please take the time to visit them and say "Hi" or something, they all seem like like really great guys to me!

EDIT:
Hello and Welcome to two new followers too... Joe from BENEATH AN ORANGE SKY (see above. I'd just saved this post as a draft when I noticed these guys had suddenly appeared), and Sashka, who doesn't appear to have a blog (but we know how crappy this google friends thing is). If you do have one Sashka, let me know! Thanks for following.

On Friday afternoon I received a call from a guy who'd interviewed me for a job but who had subsequently given it to somebody else. Apparently, the guy he gave it to had done voluntary work for them in the past so he thought he owed the guy a favour. Fair enough, I thought! It was a minimum wage job anyway and I was waiting to hear back from other interviews (still am), so I wasn't particularly bothered.

So, I don't know what happened to the other guy but I've been offered the job, and I've accepted. Yay! The salary sucks... it's almost £12,000 per year less than my last job, but it's a job and I can easily live on that salary. It just means I can't save as quickly as I'd hoped to for Spain.

The good thing about it is I'll usually finish around 3.00pm, which means I could always fit interviews into the end of my day, so I'll carry on applying for better paid jobs anyway! It's Monday - Friday too so I can go and visit Marmite at weekends and go to Brighton Pride. Yay!!!

I just hope nothing goes wrong now that I've told you, otherwise I'm going to look like a right old twat! Haha!

Here's something to leave you with...

Thanks for reading guys!

Take care,
Col

Thanks, Plugs & Polls!

Hi guys,

I haven't said it for a while, but many thanks for all your recent comments! Considering I haven't made a post about me or my life in a loooong time, and I really only post humorous (to me anyway) stuff now, with the odd cutie thrown in; I'm happy to receive any comments at all. Haha!

I really do appreciate them all!!!

To those of you that have emailed me; I thank you most sincerely!! It's really nice to know that there are people who think about and possibly care about me!!

You're the best!!

On to the 'plugs' then... A warm welcome to three new followers, who each have their own blogs:

First up is 18 year old US student Dan, from the Daily Dan blogspot. He's been in love with his best friend for four years, but before he fell in love with him; he really didn't like him at all! Weird? Go check him out and decide for yourself! Of course his blog is about school and other stuff too and it's a great read. Allegedly, he's also "super-cute" (I think that was Mirrorboy's description), a great american football player and loves playing basketball too! So there you go, if that hasn't made you want to check him out; I don't know what will. Lol!

Next is Highwayman, who's blog is called The Night Rider. He's 35, a truck driver, lives in Salt Lake City, Utah and he's married with 3 children. In his own words, he is "struggling to find his path in life." The text below is taken from one of his recent posts (I hope he doesn't mind) and I think it will give you a better understanding of what he's been through, and still going through now, than I ever could...

"...My experience with my parents had such a negative impact on me that it threw me back into the closet and locked it with a deadbolt until about a year ago. During this time however, I managed to get married to a woman and fathered 3 children. They are 13, 11, and 8. One boy and two girls. Don't get me wrong, I love my wife because she is the mother of my children, however as of about a year ago, that is simply not enough for me anymore. I found myself wanting more than just the connection of children. I desired a true love, where we couldn't stand to be apart for more than a few hours at a time. I just don't have that with the mother of my children. I can't write anymore right now as it is painful for me to think about abandoning my children for my own happiness..."

So please pay him a visit and offer whatever support you can. That is one situation I'm glad I will never be in, and it's more common than many people think. I have had the same situation in my sister's family, so I really feel for Highwayman and his family. Also, he sounds like a truly nice guy (and I'm sure he is).


Finally we have Bob. Yay!!! I'm sure he must have broken some kind of record for the amount of followers and comments received on a debut post. Haha!! And of course; he deserves each and every one of them. For those regular readers among you, you may remember his interview from my "An Interview With..." series. He's a really nice guy; helpful, considerate, caring and generous to a fault! He's always there with words of encouragement and I'm really happy that he finally decided (or was pushed into. Lol!) to start his own blog.

Haha! So excited I forgot to tell you what it's called... Riding the Wave. It's brand new, only one post, so there's no catching-up to do either. Please go and say "Hi!" to a wonderful guy!

There are some other blogs that are new to my lists (on the right hand side-bar) too. One of them has been about for a looong time and has had 1,275,196 (and rising) visitors, but strangely enough it only had 23 followers up until Saturday. Then I followed, to make it 24 and then Mirrorboy plugged the site on Sunday/Monday and now there's 28, but I still thinks that that's not enough. So much time and effort has been put into this blog, so please visit him and show your appreciation by leaving a comment. And, you could always become a follower :)

Now, I have visited it and left comments in the past, but not on a regular basis. I really should've started following it ages ago too because there are so many beautiful guys on there it's unreal. And, it's not just beautiful guys either; it's about fashion, film and TV too. Oh, you must have a look at Bloggy Bear's archives. Soooo cute!!! There are also stacks of links to other cool sites to keep you "stimulated" too. So, the author is... Deejohn and the blog, of course, is Westasian.

Last but not least there's Ben. A 20 year old from the US in his third year of University, studying a Bachelor of Communication with a major in Communication Management. His blog is called Confessions of a Poor Student and it's about his life at University, work, his boyfriend, his family and friends etc. His latest post is really quite sad, and happy! But it sounds like he's been going through a rough time like many other bloggers. So, please go and give him your support and encouragement.

Now for the polls... SOD 'EM!! I really can't be bothered now. Haha! Maybe another time. This post has taken me ages and my pc has crashed 3 times too. Thank God for 'autosave' Lol!

I'm going to finish my fruit salad before it goes warm :)

Take care guys and enjoy the rest of the week!

Col

Hello to RC!

Just a quickie to say hello and welcome to RC from Mental Doodles blog. He describes himself as "Quietly confident. Friendly. Wicked sense of humour. Known to get crazy on the dance floor. Enjoys fly fishing" and he's another fellow Brit! Yay!

Please pay him a visit and say "Hi!" (which I haven't yet done myself... naughty boy!)

Anyway, thanks for following and linking RC... I have reciprocated and I'm looking forward to catching-up on your posts!

Take care,
Col

Edit: Hello, Humour and A Few Tasty Pics

Hi guys,

As you may have noticed; I haven't been blogging much at all recently and I'm not sure that I will be for the foreseeable future either. Anyway, I'd like to say a belated "hello and welcome" to my six new followers:

Micky from It's getting better blog, who is also the author of Kieran's Kingdom.

Then there's 16 year old Irish lad Jamsey from Me, Myself nd My Hand and Joe Q. Public from loads of blogs. You can find them on his profile. Actually there's one particular blog of Joe's that I view regularly, but it's not listed on his profile so I'd better not mention it in case he has a good reason for not wanting to display it on there (you can always put me right on that point Joe).

Randy from Overrated Integrity has also joined recently, along with goleftatthefork from Go Left At The Fork (which is brand-new today, so you heard it here first folks!) and Scott Conley who doesn't seem to have a blog, but who knows with this weird bloody "Friend Connect" thingy. Anyway Scott... if you do have a blog then let me know and I'll give you a "plug" asap!

If you haven't already visited these blogs... please do so! There's some really great stuff to be read/seen :)

Thanks to all of the above and to everybody else who follows or reads my pathetic little blog, it means a lot to me folks!!

So, as I've nothing of any importance to write about I suppose I'll add some humorous photo's ... as usual ... boring ... *yawn*

Oops! Don't know where that one came from!!

Or that one!

And just some cute pics to finish with...

Copy & Paste

A Hot Dog

A Hot Boy

Well that's all folks!! Until next time...

Take care and be good!!
Col

Welcome & Best Wishes To...

Hi guys,

Nothing much to say today, so this is going to be short. Feeling really low last few days but I'm not going to bang-on about why. I promised myself that with the problems some of you are facing (one person in particular), I wouldn't whinge about my petty ones.

Hello and welcome to my three latest followers:

Fellow Brit, Mac, who lives in the next county along from me (virtually my neighbour, in the blogging world lol). He's 30 years old, works in a newsagent's, and has just outed himself to his best friend in a text message. There's some very amusing stuff on his blog (especially about his work colleagues), so go have a read and say "Hi!" Click on his name (above) to take you to his blog.

Mirrorboy. Need I say anymore? No, of course not, but I will! He's a young Aussie with a heart of gold. A 15 year old gay lad who has inspired many (including myself) to start their own blogs and do something positive about their lives/situations, even though he has issues of his own. I feel privileged to count him as one of my buddies, as I'm sure all who know him do. I recently interviewed him and you can read it below this post. Thanks for following my blog Mirrorboy!

Finally there's Tyler. He's a 16 year old bi-sexual (leaning towards gay) highschool student from Canada. His blog contains both personal and political stuff, the latter of which has seen some heated debate in his comments section. Plus, there are some cuties thrown in for good measure. It's well worth a read (even if you aren't a political animal, and I'm not) so please go and say "Hi!" to Tyler too.


Before I go I'd just like to ask if anybody has heard from Aahsazyl recently? He hasn't posted for a while and I've not seen him online. Just a little worried!

And finally, my best and most sincere wishes to Razz. I hope you had a fantastic time with Jay and your buddies, and you didn't over-do things! Looking forward to your next post, no matter how long that is in coming. Take care matey! *Hugs*


Have a great weekend everybody!!


Take care,

Col

An Intro to my family & friends.

Hi guys,

Just thought I'd give you a heads-up on some of the people you'll read about in future blogs.
Of course all names have been changed, and some are pretty corny, but they're apt...Lol.

Family:

Mum - She's getting old now and suffers from all manner of things. She's on all kinds of medication for her aches and pains and she has Diabetes too...injects herself (not sure what that type is), and it runs in her family. Luckily she's the only one in my family so far but I guess the rest of have a risk of it in the future.
Anyway, when my parents split up (I was 15) she went through a really tough time. Her bf already had 3 kids of his own living with him and there wouldn't be room for another five, so, she fought for custody of Dick and Harry only. I understood the reason for this but her guilt over that decision and the shit she was getting from my dad sent her into a bad depression.
My dad was determined to not let my mum have any of us, this was not out of love for us but simply because he wanted to punish her...it was all about HIM!
He threatened us all that if we ever attempted to speak to her or visit her he would kill us.
When we were individually interviewed by social services (or something) he threatened us that he would kill us if we didn't say we wanted to live with him.
Anyway, we did as ordered regardless of what we really wanted to do and it was decided by the powers that be that my mum was an unfit mother and sole custody be given to my dad.
This decision sent her over the edge and she ended up on all kinds of medication, some of it made her hallucinate and she would stay in bed for days on end, not even knowing where she was. She'd talk to herself or an imaginary somebody and try to leave the house in just her sleepwear.
She was a mess, and it was all down to my wonderful dad!!

Dad - What can I say?
There's a lot more about him in future blogs....stay tuned lol.

Midge - Sis (2 years older)
Reason for name: she's even shorter than me...lol! Didn't think that was possible.
She re-married but just has the two kids from her marriage to Wanker. She has never been maternal and has more time for her kids now they're grown up than she did when they really needed her (Bad mum!). I get along with her current husband even though he's anti gay. He makes the effort to chat etc, but you can so see he's uncomfortable. I don't care because I rarely see either of them anyway.

Wanker - Ex brother-in-law: Violent, alcoholic gay (yes GAY! He came out before I did) Irishman who badly mistreated his wife and kids, especially his kids, and sexually abused me and Tom, possibly others...I don't know.

Tom - Bro (11 months younger...yeah 11 months...a mistake I wonder? lol)
No reason for name...lol.
You'll read a lot about Tom so I'll save it for the posts...lol.

Dick - Bro (6 years younger)
No reason for name.
Not much to tell.

Harry - Bro (8 years younger)
Ditto Dick.

Bitch - Half Sis (20 years younger, I think)
Reason for name: Do I need to spell it out...lol.
Not much to tell except everything she does winds me up. She pretends to be somebody she's not...a caring, loving sister. She's just a two-faced backstabber. She's always calling me "hon" and "babe" even though I've asked her not to...Aaaaargh!!! I hate being called things like that. I have a name goddamnit!

Friends:

Marmite - Currently been best friends for about 10 years.
Reason for name: People either love him or hate him...there just doesn't appear to be an in-between thing with him!
He is gay and came out when he was 18. His dad chucked him out so he moved in with his bf. His bf was also his 40 year old boss.
He's now 32 and loves doing Drag (he's actually a really classy looking Drag Queen) and Karaoke. He's always been into the gay scene, will have sex with anything that has a pulse and doesn't give a shit what people think of him.
I think he's a very, very funny guy and we just clicked as soon as we met. When we see each other we spend most of our time literally crying with laughter. It's fantastic!
He lives hundreds of miles away so we don't get to see each other often. We always holiday together though and he's supposed to be going to live abroad with me (that's the plan, but I'm not sure he will save any money).
The thing is...apart from having a great time with him, he is the opposite of me. He's confident and outgoing, he's a slag, he thinks only of himself, he loves the scene, he prefers busy bars/clubs.
There has never been any sexual attraction or contact between us and he has betrayed my trust and friendship in a huge way (future post).

Melon - Marmite's ex bf and the first person I came out to (though I said I was bi).
Reason for name: We used to joke that it looked like he had a Pineapple in his pants...BIG boy!...not that I ever saw it but it was obvious, plus Marmite used to be a size queen.
Anyway, I'm too lazy to keep typing Pineapple...so Melon it is!
Sadly we don't see each other anymore.

Madonna - A good friend. She's straight and been seeing the same guy, on and off, since she wa 16. She's now 25. He's a total waster who doesn't deserve her and for some weird reason he's totally jealous of our relationship. The last time I met him, July this year, he raged about (and I quote): "she loves you more than she does me. Looks like you've won again!!" Then he stormed out. I didn't know I was competeing in any competition, we just get on really well and anyway...I AM GAY!! so what's his fucking problem?
Mind you, she did ask me if we could have a baby (seriously), but that'll be in a future post.

I keep saying about "future posts" but I may end up just quitting this, so don't hold your breath...yeah, like you were anyway lol.

There are other friends from my school days and work who will just be mentioned when the need arises.

I hope this has helped you to gain an insight into my life, or parts of it at least, so if I do post in the future you'll have an idea about the people included in them.

If you've read this...thanks!

If you have any questions about this post or me, or indeed anything else, then please ask.

All comments welcomed guys!

God bless,
Col

Introduction.

I’d been following the brilliant Always Hard blog by Josh for some time (can’t remember how I stumbled upon it) and kept discovering new blogs along the way.

I would read them and laugh or cry at them (I’m a really emotional person btw, but so not a drama queen), but I was always afraid to leave a comment in case people thought “who the fuck is this guy??”
Anyway, recently I just thought wtf and started to leave comments/advice for complete strangers. After all, aren’t strangers just friends that you haven’t made or met yet?

All you bloggers (the ones that I follow) have inspired me to do this and I thank each and every one of you!!!!

If anybody is interested I’m going to post some of the ups and downs of my life so far, in no particular order and seeing as there will probably be a lot more downs than ups, I’ll try to “lighten” them up.

First some background (probably far too long a post for my first one…sorry!)

My name is Colin (but I prefer Col) and I’m a 44yr old out gay guy living in the UK.
I had a crappy childhood (in fact I’ve had a crappy life), and went through all the troubles, doubts and questions that you are going/have been through . Things like: unrequited love, loneliness, obsession…you know the kind of things I mean.

I never did, and still don’t, have anybody to share my innermost thoughts and feelings with.
I’ve always dealt with these things on my own and It has made me a stronger person because of that.

Actually, I did have help from my youngest brother when I came out but I’ll tell you about that another time.

I’ve always been the one that friends and family come to with their troubles but nobody ever seems to have time to listen to mine, so I gave up trying a long, long time ago.
I don’t mind really because I’ve always thought of others before myself, I’m sooo not a selfish person, but like everybody else I really would like to have somebody to love and somebody to love me!!

I know it’s my own fault that I haven’t got somebody and that’s because I’m a very shy person and totally lacking in self confidence (that was knocked out of me as a kid, but that’s another story).
That’s not strictly true, I’ve got loads of confidence in work situations, but none in social situations unless I’ve had a few drinks.

Gaining self confidence is the most important thing for me right now because I’ve decided, and already put certain things in motion, that I’m going to live abroad within the next two years…can‘t wait.

I have been more positive about my future for the past 12 months than at any other time in my life.

I’ll always think of others, that’s just the way I am, but I’m also going to think of myself a lot more from now on.

Enough rambling for now…I did warn you it was long!

Thanks for taking the time to read this (If anybody has…lol)


Comments, emails, chat are all very welcome.

Bye for now,
Col