A Quiet Sunday Drive

Went to my mom's in Minden this weekend.
We went up to Haliburton and saw some ice sculptures:


Then I had to drive home. The snow was blowing and I was quite tense and I couldn't see so I turned the wheel a little to straighten the car and started skidding. So I put on the brake and nearly went into the ditch on the right. Then I stepped off the brake and went into the ditch on the left. Fun!

Keep in mind I was going the other direction, the direction facing in the photo above.


So I was quite shaken and stirred. Luckily the car behind me stopped. They didn't have a cell phone but we tried to push it and nothing happened. The car behind them stopped and also didn't have a cell phone but promised to call so I sat in the car and waited. It only took about 20 or 30 minutes which is great but MANY people stopped in the interim. Which is nice.
I didn't have insurance, I didn't have any idea how much this tow truck was going to cost and it was basically Hell on earth but I'm home now and I'm not hurt.
Going to lie down now, I'm still QUITE shaken. Driving home was VERY difficult.
$95 for the tow, no damage to the car. Never driving in snow again.
Oh and I booked my January cruise for 2010!

England recap

Today I spent some time checking out cruises. There's a couple that look good, one to Alaska in August. This one is with the other gay cruise company, less parties and more cooking classes. I am trying not to go away in 2009, saving money for a down payment. So far I've just managed to pay some bills - what fun is that?
I was thinking of places I still want to visit and was thinking about maybe returning back to England for a tour of the UK, and a part of me was thinking how nice it would be to be able to see London again for the first time. So, thanks to the miracle of technology, I can share the photos here!
I started this blog in June 2007 and went to England in April 2007 so I don't think these have been posted here. It was so cool to go through all the photos again, it's like I was there again seeing it for the first time.
I got off the tube in Picadilly Circus and saw a HUGE like 50 foot high Equus sign, which is why I had gone, so I walked over to that with my bag.

This turned out to be in error as my hostel was right beside the tube. I spent the next 90 minutes looking around for it.
My room wasn't ready, and it was raining. I got this shot of me in front of the back side of Picadilly Circus.

I remember that night I was really tired with jet lag. I went to see Mary Poppins and fell asleep.
The next day I took a bus tour and we stopped at St. Paul's Cathedral:

This was a real highlight. I loved it.
Princess Diana was married here:

And in Mary Poppins, the "Feed the Birds" song starts out "Early each day, to the steps of St. Paul's, the little old bird woman comes". So I had to get a shot of me on the steps.

I remember I was singing that song the whole time. I seem to remember other trips where I sang a certain song the whole time - what the heck were they? I remember in Montreal with my mom we stayed on Dominique St. and the whole time I was singing "Dominique-nique-nique". I can't seem to remember anymore.
I remember I took this photo from the tour bus, the guy said they put it up to remind them of the times when people would be impaled on spikes in the centre of town.

I love looking back and I can remember why I took almost every photo.
This is the Tower of London:

Now I think I must have been new or something. Why did I not get a good photo of the FRONT of the Tower of London or the FRONT of Picadilly Circus? I seem to remember trying to blend in and staying out of the way. I do remember the sandwich shop in front of the Tower of London and they had a KFC outlet. All the important things.
Tower Bridge as we pulled under it on a boat cruise.

Big Ben and the London Eye thing in the background.

I remember this was HUGE. Like those railings are at waist height.

The London Museum was one of the coolest in the world, with the most Egypt stuff outside of Egypt.
The inside of the Museum:

The Roseatta Stone:

The London Zoo! I can still remember certain animals there. Funny as I can't remember a thing about the Berlin Zoo. They let the little monkeys out of the cage to walk around:

There was a family there just hanging around. I stayed for a very long time, I thought that was so cool.
On Sundays the West End doesn't have any shows for some silly reason so I had a night free and walked around and took some night photography, like this pedestrian bridge.

Then I realized I was lost in the middle of nowhere in the dark with all my money and passport and made this face:

On the last day I found Speaker's Corner. I remember I got there late and everyone seemed to be talking about religion.

I ordered this book:


Sweeping romance and steamy sex are the daily activities for the hunky passengers of the RMS Princess Diana, as they set sail on a rollicking all-gay cruise through the sun-drenched Mediterranean and its stunning ports of call...But this idyllic holiday abruptly ends when a calculating psychopath sets in motion a dastardly plan to send the luxurious liner to the bottom of the sea. Soon daring escapes, personal sacrifices, and heart-pounding rescues replace romance and the men of the Diana struggle to survive the sinking ship and each other...

I figured there had to be a novel about a gay cruise to help me relive the experience. I'm not sure about the murder angle but other that calling it "Adam's Cruise: The Novel" this seems good, I guess it has to be about something.

Alumni site

The cruise has an alumni site where people can chat and share photos and videos which is SUCH a cool idea!
I thought I'd post some other people's photos, although I still think mine are superior thanks to my miracle camera.

Charlie's Angels - the carpet matches the drapes!

Too much to drink or locked out?

Towel animals!

Star trek.

T-Dance

Gay vodka.

The cutest couple ever!

And again

Find more videos like this on Atlantis Alumni

Videos

My last cruise stuff.

Staff show


Bingo 1


Bingo 2

Wednesday

I saw my fellow on Wednesdays, and today was number one.
With the excellent timing of the cosmos, I was given passes to a movie premiere tonight. I saw Push - it doesn't matter how it was, who paid attention?
On the way home I was thinking how a mistake had been made.

See I am tanned, and happy, and slim. Proof of slim claim below:

I provide joy, love, kindness, I have a little bit of a sex drive (I think I may have posted a photo from bingo). In short, a catch.
Now I was thinking of many things on the walk home. It seems a bit self-centered but by ending this relationship he made a mistake. It seems so obvious to me. His life, his future, his happiness will not improve by not having me there, I know this as I know him.
And for a minute I thought about contacting him, telling him this, making him see.

But as I walked on and the certainty grew that he had made a mistake by leaving, it occurred to me - this was not a mistake for me.

My life is remarkably together for the first time. I do understand him a lot as things he's going through I have been through as well. But the difference is I've come out the other side. His life is just too full of problems right now to let anyone in fully, to focus on a relationship or even a job. And as much as we got along so well, I was doing myself a disservice by accepting less than 100%.

I remember I hadn't seen him for 2 weeks and I was leaving for a week to go on the cruise. The day before I left he drove downtown, 5 minutes from my house, and went out all night, and drove home the next morning. Now despite the fact that this relationship was still new, and despite the fact that we weren't going to see each other for weeks, he had other priorities. Which I totally understand for him - he's going through a lot, he has stuff to deal with, he has ways of working through problems. But for me? Why would I accept that?

I do like him and I think we could easily be friends. I see it as a grandchild-grandparent type relationship, which would take all the stressful elements of our relationship away for me.

We can have a laugh, I can take him to the zoo. But when his diaper is wet and he throws a tantrum, he's someone else's responsibility.

And for me, that's not a mistake.

Rogues Gallery

Maybe you're sick of me talking about the cruise?
I don't care.
I have 2 more planned, this one and one with a few videos I took. You tube is taking over an hour to load one video so that may be tomorrow.

OK so on the trip there were certain people my roommate and I saw again and again. Or made a point of seeing again and again. We made a list on the ship which I have here and will try to match names to faces.

He-Man - This guys is sex on legs. He seemed to wear the same swim suit the entire trip but it looked hot on him so I let it slide. I need to get a harness like this for the cruise next year. I looked in St Maarten but they didn't have one. I wonder if this is a stock item at Wal-Mart? Oh, yes, and on the last day my stalking him paid off.


Dating Game Bottom - This guy was the bachelor on the dating game. He was pretty funny. He said "If we had a date on the ship where would you take me?" and all the guys answered and he said, "Wrong. The answer was the sauna." The sauna was basically an orgy room and became a running joke.


Big-Dick Guy - This guy was one of the bachelors on the dating game. During the contest he let slip he was well-endowed. Well, actually he said it about 50 times. So he was kind of popular for the rest of the ride.


Couple with Kids - These guys were couple number 3 on the Newlywed Game and I loved them. They have 2 small kids. I want to be re-incarnated as one of their children. Is it too late?


Charlie - Atlantis staff, he was there to perform in shows and welcome guests into the theatre every night. So friendly and outgoing and nice, he's in the right job and I became a bit smitten.


Cashetta - Drag queen musician/magician. Hosted an amazing cabaret and a good magic act. Always willing to pose for a photo but a bit touchy when you ask her to fetch you Levi's underwear.


Whey-Ling - This bitch was all over the ship! This photo was from his appearance on the dating game, where he somehow won despite not knowing English. He made up business cards with his photo and handed them out like leaflets. The guy I met, Randy, I wrote my name on a piece of paper and turned it over and it was fucking Whey-Ling's card! Ship bicycle, everyone had a ride.


The Sparkle Sisters - These two were a couple that dressed in very elaborate outfits that always matched. They were WAY over the top, have been on 9 cruises and were the friendliest people on the boat.


Randy - Fought in the gulf war. A doctor. Jumps out of airplanes. Mini James Bond. He didn't look as old in the dark as he does in this picture but we had a great evening.


Matt - Met him at a singles dinner and spoke to him for a little while until I realized he was totally full of himself. So then I talked to his friend and he got to look around the room for 30 minutes and talk to no one, which was kind of fitting.


Levi Poulter - I may have developed a slight crush on him.


And last but not least, my roommate Alberto. I heard a couple horror stories about the roommate share program and he was so friendly and nice. A real genuine person and we had fun hanging out.

Ugh

Well I'm single again.
Why? Well I believe it to be timing. I could have been/may be with him some day but I could not be with him today. For the first time in years I was ready for a relationship, that is a huge step and something to build on.

I could dwell on this and eat a pie, chase it with a bottle of vodka and listen to "All By Myself" 5,000 times as I would normally do
OR
I could focus on the positives.
- I just got back from the best vacation of my life
- I am tanned
- I am thinner than I have been in years
- I have peace of mind in yoga
- I just got paid $700 in overtime and I have another five thousand or so coming from work before May which I hope to use to buy a condo ($4k contract payout, 5% retro payment, acting pay for 4 months and two weeks of overtime leave cashing out March 31)
- I have discovered Levi

Speaking of Levi, here's another shot of him at Bingo.


I heard afterward that he lost his underwear. Do you think someone took it?
Where could it have ended up?

Cruise Part Two

This probably won't be in order but you get the gist.
We had a theme party "Under the sea". All the parties were theme parties. I should have tried harder to get some of the stuff as almost everyone dressed up. I think I changed clothes 3 or 4 times a day to go to dinner or a party or a show or the pool. Lots of laundry.
Anyway, this is the couple with the kids from the Dating Game dressed up for the "Under the Sea" party.

Don't you just love them? This one guy got in between them and they each kissed him on the cheek and he said he would use it as his Christmas card. They are so cute!
Then He-Man dressed up with his partner for the White party:

This was the biggest party of the cruise, the second last day. The party started at 11 pm and ended at 11:15 am.

Lots of boys!
The next day, while most were still in bed, at 2 pm they had "Dancing with the Stars" on the deck. That's Levi on the left.

Alex Mapa and his partner were the winners. They did a "Flashdance" routine.

He man again. Yum.

Bingo was so much fun again!



Then we went to another dance. They had one every afternoon from 5-7 and another at 11.
This is me in front of a port hole. I was amazed by how fast the water went by.

More costumes from the "Under the Sea" party.

Actually I think this was from the last party "Last Dance". It went until 2 am on the last day and then we all had to get off the boat at 8 am. There was some TIRED looking people. Those who had brought drugs had to use them all before they went through customs and all the others decided they needed to have sex just one more time so the guys were like animals at this party. "You're breathing.... let's go." So I followed He-Man around all night, not without reward.
This was so funny, this guy was from Ontario and SO DRUNK. He kept falling over and people would say "Oh, don't worry, it's just the boat moving". Then he got up on stage and tried several times to grab the microphone. At the end the drag queen said "Check out my site, Cashetta.com and check out his site, drunkfag.net".

The guy said his bar bill was $2,000. Drinks were about $10 each, crazy considering a whole bottle of vodka was $10 in St Maarten.
Anyway, this one guy said he fell in his room and had to get stitches. They charged him $1,200 and he had to pay before he could get off the boat. I'm damn lucky that didn't happen to me. At one point I fell on my camera and had to walk around for 30 minutes to three different places to find a band aid. I finally found a vending machine on the first floor that only took 2 quarters and I didn't have any money on me. Crazy.
This was from a parade in the mall on the last night.

All the servers and entertainers dressed up and walked the mall. It was another kind of stupid thing held over from the straight cruises. There were no children! We don't need clowns!
This is me at the "Last Dance" party.

A WHOLE bunch of guys hit on me in this outfit. I think the jeans and t-shirt look was a good one. The more masculine you were dressed the more looks you got. I bought a sarong in St Maarten for the white party. Boys don't make passes at boys who wear dresses. But I still really enjoyed it, I'd never worn a dress before and I kept hiking up my skirt.
There was a show, I have a video I'll try to post later. All the Atlantis people dressed up like nuns and did "The Sound of Music" which quickly shifted to a high energy song "Single Ladies". Too funny and that's Charlie on the left.

The shot of the "Last Dance" party on top of the skating rink as it was only 13 degrees Celsius in Miami so too cold for the deck.

Video and a couple more pics to come.