From Italy Nov06 to the Lakes Jan07

07 Jan 2007 Resolution Like half the world I have decided that New Year is time for me to start getting healthy again. So I’ve joined a gym. Not the best gym in the world but its cheap and cheerful and Simon is already a member so we now get cheaper joint membership.  So I’ve been a few times, and have tried to improve my eating habits.  The hardest part will be trying to not give in when Simon has had a bad day at work and demands a pizza/curry/Chinese. I’ve also signed up to a website to keep track of my progress. so if you want to know how im doing go to http://kevhickeyuk.traineo.com Also I am looking for some motivators.  I think it just means you get an email with updates from the website.  Please let me know if you will be my motivator. Other than that, nothing to report. Tra’ 15:28 – 0 Comments – 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

Christmas and new year Current mood: full Its been a while since my last blog so here’s how our xmas and new year went -         A couple of days at Simons parents which included giving prezzies to his nephews, and playing with them. When we left the kids were getting used to the tongue twister “Kevin Mickey jimmy Hickey” -         A party at Simons friends, Dawn and Carl involving clothes pegs and candle wax (don’t ask) -         Christmas eve at the NRI -         Christmas eve opening of prezzies, I got loads of stuff including a fred perry t-shirt and camping books. -         Christmas day at Lynzi and Kates house, including a late night vistit from a stray kitten we christened Boney (as in Boney M) -         3 days over new year in a cottage in the lake district. Short walks and long nights. Would have been great if it wasn’t for sleeping in 2 single beds pushed together. That’s basicly been it.  It has all led to several pounds being transferred from my bank account to my waisteline.  So now is the time to get back to work (I start in 50 mins) and get fit.  Watch this space 8:12 – 0 Comments – 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

Pizzamania

Last week we went out on Simons works do.  Before we went we got in the mood by listening to a load of old tunes, everything from the best of Mel and Kim to Pizzaman (which is what Norman cook called himself before he became fatboy slim).  The night out went as works Christmas nights out should, food, drink, tears, illicit snogs.  Just for a change I was the only one who was sober enough to remember.

 

Last night we went out to the famous New Road Inn as it was the 30^th birthday of the landlady’s daughter, Zoë.  They had the most entertaining stripper I have ever seen.  He came on with comedy goofy teeth, NHS glasses kept together with a bandage, and a dirty Mac.  After several mins of gyrating as a nerd in front of the highly embarrassed birthday girl.  All nerdy outerwear was removed, to reveal a decent looking guy.  He got down to his pants, Dee, the landlady, told us later that he would have gone all the way but she was worried some of the older clientele might have been offended.  I got the impression most of the clientele would have been far from offended.

Currently listening : Pizzamania By Pizzaman Release date: 22 June, 2000

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night out

I feel rough as a rough things rough bits. damn hangovers. Simon had a bad time recovering from having his tonsils out. but is on the mend now so we went out last night and made the most of it.

Its been a while since i had a big night out,  and last night I rememberd how good a night out in bp can be, compared to “rip off” newcastle.  In newcastle going to the club means spending £10 to get in and listening to music to please the masses in a clostofobic room.

Last night it was £6 to get in, and for that we got a dance CD, live entertainment in the form of Peter Andre and Jordan dueting, followed by fire breathers, stilt walkers and dancers with good quality dance music.

Right not really got much more to say so ill shut up now.

tra

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Tonsills, Dusty,Lakes and another leap
Current mood: chipper

Well its been a few weeks since i last blogged properly so heres an  update.

Simon has had his tonsells out which so i’m busy nursing him back to health,  well i was, now i’m board with that so i have reverted to the ‘tough love’ approch. I’ll make him suffer.

I am in the process of moving in with him officially, not that it makes a great deal of diference as i haven’t stayed at my place in months.

I have discovered that the most emotionaly draining experiance anyone can go though is listening to Dusty Springfield greatest hits.  She could have sung the birdy song and it would have brought tears to my eyes.

I’m looking forward to New Year in a cottage in the Lake district.  No clubs, no pub crawl, no naff DJ.  sounds great.

another thing im looking forward to is a new album/dvd fro the guys who made 1 giant leap.  If you havent heard the frst cd or watched the dvd, you really must, they are amazing.  apparenty the second will feature “Noam Chomsky, Tim Robbins, KD Lang, Zap Mama, Susan Sarandon, Courtney Love, Daniel Lanois, Alanis Morrisette, Oumou Sangare, Rokia Traore, Lila Downs, Deepak Chopra, Stephen Fry, Douglas Coupland, John Cusack, and brain surgeons, drug smugglers, belly-dancers and preachers filmed and recorded in 50 new global locations”
Heres the trailer

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Currently listening : Ultimate Collection By Dusty Springfield Release date: 04 December, 2001

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holiday pics

The photos from Italy are here:

http://kevhickey.fotoblog.co.uk/c1132378.html

and before anyone says it, yes i know ive put weight on

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Return to Rome, Liverpool and Blackpool

On The train ride back to Rome we had a cabin to ourselves so we reclined the seats, took our boots off and let some air get to our blisters. For our last evening in Rome we went back to the hippie hour bar for the gay choir chanting. They were really pleased to see us back and we were introduced to each member of the choir one by one. The woman behind the bar spoke pigeon English, but we got by ordering several beers, blonde, like Madonna, sometimes. After paying our bill she offered us a free couple of shots, she poured a couple of yellow drinks which we knocked back. It was advocat, but far stronger that the stuff my mom used to have at Christmas. “I made these with my own eggs” she proudly told us, to which we had no reply. 

 

Back at the hostel we might have called it a night if it wasn’t for the accordion and trumpet players outside our window who have us many chorus’s of  “those were the days, my friend”. So we found another bar for a nightcap before catching a few hours kip.  Another early start as we headed to the airport where we passed the time by playing spot the nun and watching the freaks at the airport, who included an MC hammer look alike who was covered from head to toe in studded leather. No idea how he got through the metal detector. Ryan air managed to get us back to winter in Liverpool, this time with out the fanfair and more surprisingly i managed to get us back to blackpool, despite my lack of sleep, for a nice hot bath an early night and relief in the knowledge that i didn’t have to do any more walking.

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Pompaii

It was another early start today with great coffee and a Neapolitan Panini (sausage egg and other things) at the train station then another train ride this time to Pompeii. Pompeii was more impressive than I’d imagined. I was expecting a few walls and holes in the ground but what we found was a genuine town full of homes, shops , theatres, a forum, public baths, and lots more besides.  The blisters wouldn’t allow us to walk round the lot so we focused on a few special areas. Brothel ally for example. There was one brothel really well preserved that we went in. Above the doors were paintings showing what each woman’s speciality was. It was a bit like looking up at the photos to choose what you wanted at MacDonald’s. Having the woman on top, below, or up the bum seemed to be the main items on the menu.  We then walked through the towns bumpy streets till we got to the two Theatres, one large one small.  As we walked through the town it was the small personal everyday touches that made me think about life in the those days and the tragedy that struck.  Then there were the bodies in the glass cases, encased in ash but you could still see the pain and fear on their faces and the bits of skull and skeleton  where the ash has fallen away

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Naples

We were half asleep and hungover in the train carriage, but we noticed the further south we headed use warmer it got. It was hard work trying to get from the station to the hostel in the heat with all our bags, trying to avoid street sellers and speeding vespers. The roads seem permanently gridlocked and most cars have a few dents in the side. The city feels like a cross between rio and cannes, not that i’ve been to either.  Although we were knacked we decided food was more important than sleep. I had a beautiful pizza, swimming in olive oil. The waiter tried chatting about his time working on cruise ships, this should have been a nice change after the rude customer service we had experienced in Rome, but we were too knackered for small talk. The food perked us up a bit so we went for a wander along the sea front. I decided that a tour bus might be better than walking as we both had developed blisters by now. The plan was to find something touristy and a bus would turn up. So we continued until we got to a fort on the sea front, and sure enough there was stop for a guide bus. So we had a sit and watched the world in by, including various joggers. We concluded Naples has better looking men than Rome apart from the ones in uniform. As we waited for a bus to turn up 5 random wild dogs strolled over one by one and collapsed next to me. I found this quite disturbing especially as they had arranged themselves in the formation of a pentangle. The hounds of hell on holiday? An hour passed with no bus so we hobbled down the bay of Naples before heading back. We were still recovering  from the night before so we had a power nap, then spent an hour trying to find a restaurant. Walking  the streets we noticed that everything was grouped into areas, we walked through the shopping area, metalwork area, bookselling area desperate to find the restaurant area. We eventually found a square with a rather naff restaurant but it was good enough for us. Naples seemed to be a vibrant city full of life and energy, unlike us who were back in the hostel asleep by 9.

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Vatican City

Sunday was Vatican day, we got to go into st peters but unfortunately the sisteen chapel was closed. We saw all the tombs of the dead popes, including jp2, unfortunately i wasn’t aloud to dance on it. On the way out of Vatican city we popped into one of the many tacky gift shops which was full of overpriced religious tat, popes on a plate and the like. Simon spotted a 2007 calendar of sexy priests, a concept so wrong he just had to get it. While crossing the Tiber I was lucky enough to buy a ‘genuine’ Rolex for €3O from some guy who disappeared when a policeman started to cross the bridge. We walked across the city, past a street that used to be used for chariot racing. Then up a hill to a relaxing orange garden with amazing views across the city, then past a doorway with a Maltese plaque. The staff at the hippy bar had told up about the keyhole of this door,  which we looked through to see St Peters perfectly framed by a row hedges. So down the other side of the hill and we discovered a green market which we zoomed round getting through as many free samples of wine as we could. By evening we were still waking, this time around the exclusive shops. I was tired and fed up until we got to a bar and downed half a litre of lager.  This helped no end and I even enjoyed another hour of shopping.

 

Sunday night we headed towards the Coliseum  where we eventually found a couple of gay bars that served very strong cocktails, which is why i can’t recall much and why i felt crap when we were up at the crack of dawn to get the train to Naples.

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Italy and scissor sisters

03 Nov 2006 Rome We manage to rest our eyes a bit on the plane only to be rudely awoken by a fanfare on the tannoy letting us know that, against all odds, another Ryan air flight had managed to land safely. So then it was a coach trip to Rome centre. We dumped our bags at the hostel and went for a wander. After our first meal in Rome (McDonalds) we wandered along to the Trevi fountain, which had loads of people there including someone dressed as a gladiator however the illusion was somewhat shattered when he started texting. Another wander took us to the Panthion, an amazing building where we saw the tomb of Donatello, this led to us trying to remember the names of the other mutant turtles. This was followed by a proper Italian coffee, a walk to the Spanish steps and a spot of shopping. By this point I had noticed that Rome had a few really good looking guys. Mainly the ones in army or police uniform. A power nap at the hostel was followed by a tube trip to the coliseum. It was amazing seeing it as we stepped out the station. We strolled through ancient Rome and ended up in a beautiful old church where I lit a candle for my mom, afterwards I smiled as I realised it was bonfire might and I had lit a roman candle. More walking and shopping made us tired, hungry and lost. We tried getting a bus back to the hostel but we got off early as it was packed Simon was convinced there was a mystery hand going somewhere it shouldn’t. We found a nice restaurant and stuffed ourselves so much we needed to hat a sit in the bar next door before we continued. We really liked this bar called hippy hour. I asked he they knew of anywhere for karaoke. They didn’t but they invited up to come back Tuesday when they have a gay quire that sing 15th century chants. 13:03 – 0 Comments – 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

On the way Its stupid o clock Saturday night and I am knocking back a couple of extortionately priced vodkas at Liverpool’s Reynolds girls airport. Simon is panicking because he just realised the medication he needs to sleep through the flight was packed in the big bag which has now been checked in. Last night we arrived at Simons parents. He couldn’t resist being the perfect uncle and brought £7O worth of fireworks. Everyone had a great time watching them go off, although his mom was worried about the damage they were doing to her plants. After an hour of fighting with uncle Simon the kids went home and we went off for 3 hours sleep before we were up again driving to the airport. 4:00 – 0 Comments – 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

my weekly review

Well frugal month has come to an end and i’m still skint, mind you i guess booking a trip to Rome and buying a load of new clothes doesn’t really count as frugal. Its Halloween weekend so i have decided to come out for a few drinks even though my beloved is working. I did think the guy next to me at the bar had a great costume, then realised the wonky eye and scar were all his.

 

Unfortunately i haven’t been up to much this week other than work, and if you want to know about that you will have to read my work blog. http://elgg.net/kevhickeyuk/weblog Although be warned. It contains no gossip or details of office politics (i don’t think the servers could cope with that much information). It looks like i might be moving in with ‘S’, not a great change as i don’t think i have spent more than an hour in my own place in the last month. God knows why but the fool seems to love me almost as much as i love him, almost.

 

So any thing else to report? Well i’ve not made my mind up about torchwood, the dr who spin off. Its well acted, written and produced, but i can’t help wondering what William (the 1st dr) Hartnall would have said about aliens who shag blokes to death. One thing i did do this week was get a load of photos printed off from my pc, going back over 7 years. 7 of the best years of my life condensed into 2OO photos. I know that those 7 years also included some of the worst moments of my life but i didn’t take photos of those.

 

By the way i’ve got superman 3 on in the background, the one where he turns evil, and I have to say Superman is rubbish at being evil. What does he do? straighten the tower of pisa and blow out the olimpic flame. RUBBISH

Currently listening : Twelve Stops and Home By The Feeling Release date: 04 July, 2006

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All roads lead to…

Its ‘Frugal’ month and Simons been working for he last 2 weekends so ive been mostly saying in, although we did make it out to karaoke on Monday. Unfortunately my sining was all over the place, maybe ive lost my singing voice for good, although ive said that before.

We also enjoyed a leisurely stroll through Stanley park last Sunday, I love walks in parks in autumn. Golden leaves and the smell of fireworks in the distance.

We have got some time off together next month so we have been planning what to do and where to go. We were getting carried away and planning long journeys across eastern Europe by train. But due to limited finances and time, it looks like we will stick to a long weekend in Rome.

Hopefully next year we’ll be able to doe the train across Europe thing.

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Family
Current mood: okay

Last Saturday night we went for a ‘couple of quiet drinks’ which is always dangerous. We managed to stumble home some time in the early hours after several vodkas in various bars. This would have been fine if it wasn’t for the fact that we had an appointment in the morning. My friends, Jez and Nula had their daughter, Grace christened. I have to admit I wasn’t feeling the best, in fact it was the hangover from hell. But we arrived in our smartest suits, sat through the service, then mingled. But the hangovers took the best of us so we drove 15 mins down the road to S’s parents where we went straight to bed and power napped for an hour. We needed it. Afterwards I got to meet more of his family including his brother, sister in law and nephews. I think I have now met and been introduced to the entire clan. Talking of family, my cousin is getting married and my aunt has been continuously phoning to get me to go down. Not that I’ve got anything against my cousin but I just don’t want to go, ok maybe ive got a chip on my shoulder because they didn’t turn up to my moms funeral 13 years ago (boy I can bear a grudge). Either way I’ve made my excuses. I can cope with other peoples family, but not my own.

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Bad mood ‘n Brum

OK I am not in a good mood. The conference was cancelled. So I have travelled down to brum and got lost in selly oak for nothing. I am now on the train back. The worst bit is that I assumed I was booked on when I wasn’t, so Its as much my fault as anyones. At least I got to see my best mate and her new boyfriend, as well as my dad and his girlfriend, but it does mean I have wasted a day and I am REALLY pissed off about it. Grrrr

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the Z-list factor

I am currently on a train on the way to Brum as I have a conference their tomorrow. Why the hell did I decide to get the train? Ok it gives me the chance to catch up on a few things, including this blog, but its not worth the hassle of almost loosing my tickets, running between platforms while carrying my bags and having a cramped seat next to a man in a woolly jumper who smiles a little too much for my likening.

My ‘Frugal month’ isn’t going too bad. One thing I had to get was a pair of jeans, and poor S had the hassle of going clothes shopping with me. He is one of those freaks who loves clothes shopping and I don’t think he can understand why I hate it so much. My idea of clothes shopping is picking up a pair of 2 for £10, tesco jeans as part of my weekly food shop. But apparently this isn’t good enough. It has taken about 3 trips before I actually bought a pair. This is because after one trip to the dreaded changing room I get very grumpy and decide that’s enough shopping for one week. I never used to be this bad, but unfortunately I have put weight back on, and I therefore hate getting changed in a tiny mirrored coffin with a curtain that never seems to cover the entire doorway brings me out in a cold sweat.

Even though it is ‘Frugal month’ I am still allowing for 1 quiet night out a week, to avoid cabin fever. This week it was a quiet couple of Saturday night drinks in a great little student-y bar called scrouges. This led to several more drinks in ‘The Hop’, ‘Taboo’, ‘The ‘Handbag’, ‘Mardi Grai’, back to ‘Taboo’ ending up in ‘Pepes’. Oh well, so much for a quiet night.

Along the way I bumped into a couple of friends, Sazzle and H , who in turn pointed us in the direction of Rowetta (X-factor contestant from 3 years ago and ex-backing singer for the Happy Mondays). Now I love Z-List celebs (I was completely oblivious when David Beckam and the full Man United squad walked past me in schipol airport a few years ago, however I spotted the sound man from ‘Challenge Anika’ across a crowded bar) so, in my drunken stupor I go over and say “excuse me, is it Rowetta?” and that set her off. She loved being the centre of attention and showed us a magic trick (picture the classic sawing a woman in half, but with cigarettes instead), her impressions (hair pulled down to look like a beard = Osama Bin Laden), her story on why fame has not brought her fortune (She had to pay off all her ex-shags before they sold their story to the newspapers) and of course her view on this years x-factor contestants (rubbish, but they all have a good sob story(I completely agree)). After half an hour of this she turned to me and said, “sorry, did you just want a photo?”, She continued to tell us that everyone said she looked good when she was asleep so she would only let us take photos while she pretended to be asleep. At one point she thought I had took a photo when she wasn’t ready and wrestled me to the ground. So I am lying on my back in the bar, Rowetta is stood, straddling me, one leg either side, shouting “delete it, DELETE IT”, she then freezes in this position and says “stop it your drawing attention to me”. Somehow we managed to get the photos.

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payday
Current mood: grumpy

Almost 2 weeks since my last post. See just like everyone else, I get a boyfriend and forget about everything else. Things have been great since getting together with S but I have been juggling my finances, what with going to the v festival, going to London and various nights out. Today was payday and had a bit of a blowout on a few things I needed, and then checked my account. Things aren’t looking good, not a total disaster, I hope, but not good.

I really don’t know how or why I am so crap with cash. I’m not one for expensive clothes, or fancy week long holidays every year, and to be honest I get paid a decent amount, especially with this new job. But somehow each month I am desperate for payday to come round sooner and sooner.

So I am NOT going to panic, and just have a very quiet month. S is working most weekends so that gives me an excuse not to go out too much.

Anyone know next weeks lotto numbers?

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Ta-Dah

Another fantastic weekend. Last week I got a text to say I had won a comp to see the scissor sisters at Trafalgar square. So after another Friday firework display (this time it was Frances entry in the firework world cup), S and I drove down to London on Saturday morning. The battery in the GPS system let us down but somehow we made it to Katie’s house in time to enjoy a proper cockney breakfast in the local café, before she disappeared off to a wedding.

Katie, it was great to meet up, next time we will do it properly.

So after an hour or so chilling out we headed into the big smoke. We got to Trafalgar square via a stroll trough Crompton street and Leicester square. It was really surreal being among another 9,000 scissor sisters fans, most of whom were dressed in red, at Trafalgar square. We were there a good couple of hours before the band came on, enough time to make a load of ’single serving friends’. We Bluetooth scanned the area to find out what name everyone had given there phone and that’s how we met ‘Nana moon’, a young thin girl dressed as supergirl.

Eventually the DJ went quiet and we knew the band were due, but before that we got the biggest surprise of the evening, they were introduced on stage my kylie minogue, I say introduced but I have no idea what she actually said as we were all busy screaming ‘Oh god its kylie’. The band came on and were fantastic, we were really close and had a great view as they did a set which was half old stuff and half new, not forgetting Ana matronix many ramelings between songs. The climax of the show was ‘filthy georgous’ with 2 Napolions on stilts and 2 dancers dressed as the statue of the disabled woman.. By this stage the fountains were full of fans dancing there tits off. After the gig, we were intervied for radio 6 (so noones going to here that) and managed to loose track of our single serving friends as we headed back to Compton street, where we got v pissed at the admiral Duncan, Garlic & shots and GAY (bar). By the time we got the last tube home we were pissed, so S decided to show off his pole dancing technique. When we got off at turnpike lane we decided we needed a kebab, a decision that can only be made when rat arsed. While kebab hunting we passed a bar with its raining men blasting out and a familiar rainbow flag in the doorway. I was intrigued but S seemed less interested until a skinny man in hotpants, who was standing in front of the flag, beckoned us in along with the words “don’t mess with me boy!”, how could we resist. So we finished the night off in this cheesy gay bar, fending off scary advances. S (who has recently given up smoking) threatened to tell the sleazy old man I was sat next to, that I was single unless he let me go for a fag. The bastard. Thankfully he didn’t follow through.

Sunday we spent in a hungover haze while I drove back to bp, via Sunday lunch at S’s parents where we rewatched the gig which they videoed the night before.

Another fantastic weekend with S, life is good.

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Viva Blackpool

It happened a few weeks ago, while watching the free concert that was held for the light switch on. I fell in love…. with Blackpool. Loosing a fortune in 2p coins on the slider machines in the amusement arcade, amazing fireworks displays every weekend, old couples who have been coming here for years looking out to sea, seeing the tower light up, kiosks on the promenade who sneak a drop of brandy in a coffee for you, a Friday night free concert for the light switch on with all the greats (heather small, peter kay, the zutons, dale winton) followed by the venga boys at the club, getting out of breath on the dancing machines in the arcade, evry other shop being a café selling a hangover curing “breakfast barm” Whats not to love?

 

PS I’m fit and healthy again, but S is still recovering,

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