Apologies for the cheesy title but it's been an interesting week. I don't know what was bigger news returning to work after a difficult 6 months or getting a haircut... So lets start with Saturday.
Many people have told me 'you'd look so much better with short hair' but apparently it takes the man you love and 5 pints of cider to convince me! So there I am kneeling in a friends hallway and as the song says, the first cut is the deepest. You can't go back once a chunk of 6 years worth of hair falls to the floor. Half hour later I look in the bathroom mirror and walk into the lounge to announce "god I'm hot!"
What surprised me though is when my friends said I look different, they didn't just mean my hair, but my attitude in general, this put me in good stead for Monday.
I woke up, and once I'd finished my tea, my brain woke up and realised why I was up so early... back to work. I was lucky to have a friend to meet me for a coffee and take me in, then walk me back out for my first ciggie of the morning. And to be honest I don't know why I was worried about going back, people were more surprised my hair had gone than I was back.
So far it's been a tiring week, after 6 months of doing little else than tweeting, but I'm glad I did it, after the new man and the new haircut, this is what I needed to properly start 2011. Now roll on summer... My heads cold!
Thursday 10 March 2011
Wednesday 16 February 2011
Spicy Chicken Carbonara
I said in my first post that I enjoyed cooking and I was quite proud of myself the other day when I managed to cobble together an interesting twist on a carbonara using whatever I could find in the cupboards. I thought after my slushy previous post I'd reward you for your kind tweets by sharing it with you.
The pictures below are the ingredients I used for myself, I'll work out a full recipe and post it onto the BBC Good Food Website
Firstly you'll need garlic, finely chopped onion and red pepper for colour and some chopped fresh basil.
Next cut some cooked chicken and diced bacon or ham
You'll also need pasta, eggs, black pepper, oregano, paprika, chilli flakes and parmesan
And a cup of tea (this can be substitued with a bottle of white wine)
Whisk the egg and add pepper, oregano, chilli flakes and parmesan to taste
Put the pasta on to boil. I used fusilli, tagliatelle is traditional but anything you have in the cupboard will do
Fry the onion and garlic til soft
Then add the meat, red pepper, stir in some paprika and heat through
Once the pasta is cooked drain and stir into the mixture, then add the egg mixture and stir, letting the pasta cook the egg. You could add cream once the egg is cooked
Garnish with fresh chopped basil et voila!
Finally remember to turn the stove off (I forgot!)
Enjoy!
Unless anything exciting happens in the next week, I'm going to concentrate on a couple of pieces for my sister blog, A Plus Musings. Another parody and my first attempt at a stand up sketch will be coming up next week.
The pictures below are the ingredients I used for myself, I'll work out a full recipe and post it onto the BBC Good Food Website
Firstly you'll need garlic, finely chopped onion and red pepper for colour and some chopped fresh basil.
You'll also need pasta, eggs, black pepper, oregano, paprika, chilli flakes and parmesan
And a cup of tea (this can be substitued with a bottle of white wine)
Whisk the egg and add pepper, oregano, chilli flakes and parmesan to taste
Put the pasta on to boil. I used fusilli, tagliatelle is traditional but anything you have in the cupboard will do
Fry the onion and garlic til soft
Then add the meat, red pepper, stir in some paprika and heat through
Once the pasta is cooked drain and stir into the mixture, then add the egg mixture and stir, letting the pasta cook the egg. You could add cream once the egg is cooked
Enjoy!
Unless anything exciting happens in the next week, I'm going to concentrate on a couple of pieces for my sister blog, A Plus Musings. Another parody and my first attempt at a stand up sketch will be coming up next week.
A New Hope
I haven't mentioned the reason behind my blog title yet. I set this blog up as an overflow for my random musings on Twitter but as I've set up 'A Plus Musings' for that now I can be a bit more deep on here.
I set this up, and for that matter joined Twitter as a release for stuff rattling around in my head.
Just before New Year 2010 my ex-partner of four years split up with me, this was also only 3 weeks before my 30th birthday. Understandably 2010 was a pretty bad year for me, and I hoped this blog was the beginning of a better year for me, a new hope. As my followers on Twitter have probably realised by now, things are looking up for 2011.
I was out in Bournemouth to meet my friend Martin who I hadn't seen since before Christmas and after a drunken evening he decided to call it a night. I thought I'd have another drink before catching the bus home and walked into a quiet bar.
The tart I can be after a few shandies, decided to sit with the prettiest guy in the bar. We got chatting and as it had been a while since I'd been on the gay scene ended up going back to his flat. Next morning we were lying in bed talking and realised we had a lot in common but neither of us were looking for anything serious. We agreed to remain friends but not to mention the R word.
This lasted a couple of days, as we got to know each other better and I brought the subject up again. We have lived similar lives, we had the same interests, we even started to finish each others sentences, it made sense... but the L word was a definite no no...
Skip forward a few more days, we had now spent 5 days together and as we lay down to go to sleep he whispers "I know this is going to sound stupid, but I think I love you." As I held back a touch of eye leakage, I admitted I had held back from saying that for a couple of days because it's the kind of thing guaranteed to scare someone off but I agreed whole heartedly. The following day we had things to do and parted ways, I've never missed someone's company so much and after going back to see him the following day we have barely spent time apart.
So apart from gushing about how happy I am, what I'm trying to say is no matter how hard things are, even if it takes a year or five years to find it you never know when life will take an unexpected turn.
After only two weeks my life is turning around, and close friends are already noticing a change in me. This is the beginning of a New Hope and hopefully this will see the return of the Jedi in me*
*excuse the lame Star Wars puns xx
I set this up, and for that matter joined Twitter as a release for stuff rattling around in my head.
Just before New Year 2010 my ex-partner of four years split up with me, this was also only 3 weeks before my 30th birthday. Understandably 2010 was a pretty bad year for me, and I hoped this blog was the beginning of a better year for me, a new hope. As my followers on Twitter have probably realised by now, things are looking up for 2011.
I was out in Bournemouth to meet my friend Martin who I hadn't seen since before Christmas and after a drunken evening he decided to call it a night. I thought I'd have another drink before catching the bus home and walked into a quiet bar.
The tart I can be after a few shandies, decided to sit with the prettiest guy in the bar. We got chatting and as it had been a while since I'd been on the gay scene ended up going back to his flat. Next morning we were lying in bed talking and realised we had a lot in common but neither of us were looking for anything serious. We agreed to remain friends but not to mention the R word.
This lasted a couple of days, as we got to know each other better and I brought the subject up again. We have lived similar lives, we had the same interests, we even started to finish each others sentences, it made sense... but the L word was a definite no no...
Skip forward a few more days, we had now spent 5 days together and as we lay down to go to sleep he whispers "I know this is going to sound stupid, but I think I love you." As I held back a touch of eye leakage, I admitted I had held back from saying that for a couple of days because it's the kind of thing guaranteed to scare someone off but I agreed whole heartedly. The following day we had things to do and parted ways, I've never missed someone's company so much and after going back to see him the following day we have barely spent time apart.
So apart from gushing about how happy I am, what I'm trying to say is no matter how hard things are, even if it takes a year or five years to find it you never know when life will take an unexpected turn.
After only two weeks my life is turning around, and close friends are already noticing a change in me. This is the beginning of a New Hope and hopefully this will see the return of the Jedi in me*
*excuse the lame Star Wars puns xx
Sunday 30 January 2011
My Attempt at Comedy
So I spend a lot of time on Twitter and I'm neglecting my blog, logical answer blog about Twitter. But things get pretty random on there to sum up my day on Twitter.
And then I had a thought, I was talking to @wendsmithcomedy about getting into comedy, so why not combine the two?
The final trigger was when I started a hashtag #gaylyrics, substituting words to make a song sound gay. I came up with a line from Elton John's Your Song, and then other lyrics started coming in. So I have decided to write a parody 'Your Schlong.'
I want to keep this page semi-serious so have created a sister blog deanosmusings.
This is an experiment and my attempt at comedy. Comments would be appreciated so I know where I'm going right or wrong.
DeanosM
And then I had a thought, I was talking to @wendsmithcomedy about getting into comedy, so why not combine the two?
The final trigger was when I started a hashtag #gaylyrics, substituting words to make a song sound gay. I came up with a line from Elton John's Your Song, and then other lyrics started coming in. So I have decided to write a parody 'Your Schlong.'
I want to keep this page semi-serious so have created a sister blog deanosmusings.
This is an experiment and my attempt at comedy. Comments would be appreciated so I know where I'm going right or wrong.
DeanosM
Monday 24 January 2011
What If...
Had a little break over Xmas/Birthday and to be fair not much of note has been worth blogging about. But today Twitter highlighted a certain Daily Mail article which got me thinking and reminded me I've been neglecting my blog.
The article in question is with regards to including references to homosexuality in the National Curriculum, I'm not going to go on a rant about this, I'm just going to explain my story...
As I said in my first post, I don't make a big thing about being gay. I met a guy at the weekend, who when I mentioned it didn't believe me, even when I showed him the screen saver on my phone he thought it was a joke. I explained I don't use it as an introduction as people have preconceived ideas about gay guys, and I like people to get to know who 'I' am as a person.
Its a weird thing realising your gay, before I was sexually aware I had pictures of guys from Smash Hits on my wall, as they were the kind of people I aspired to be (mostly quite muscular guys being the skinny weed I was as a child.) It wasn't until later in life it kind of clicked why I really had them on my wall.
Once puberty hit my first sexual experience was with a friend from school but shortly after that was in the past and I did the 'normal' thing and dated girls. And this was most of my late teens and early twenties doing what I thought was the normal route through life, find a girl, get married, have kids... which at one point I almost did.
As I got further into my twenties I started to come to terms with my sexuality and if I was single I would hook up with guys, but I was never looking for anything deeper and it was always in secret. This was until I met my ex.
I was 26, and although there'll be sceptics, it really was love at first sight, I knew straight away that this is what I wanted and proceeded to come out. As I said in my earlier post, the reaction was basically 'why should it matter, you're still Dean,' (except my sister who is the only one to reply 'I know') and I realised coming out wasn't the big deal I thought it was going to be.
So back to that article, the point of my story is that I grew up, even in the liberal 90s, thinking homosexuality wasn't normal. Not that it was wrong but not what normal middle class people do. Things have come a long way since the 90s we can now (almost) marry, have kids, and that's all I wanted from life since the age of 16, unfortunately it didn't happen with my first love but I'm still young.
But if I had been taught at school that its perfectly normal to be gay, I'm sure my life would have played out differently. Maybe I wouldn't have waited until my mid-20s to try and find someone to spend the rest of my life with. I wouldn't have been one miscarriage away from being married with a kid right now, or most probably by now divorced with a kid.
And I certainly wasn't 'brainwashed' into being gay it was there in me since before I even realised, without any contact with gay people or gay media. We're born that way simple as.
I've e-mailed a link of this blog to Melanie Phillips, maybe she might take some notice of someone with a bit more insight into these matters, maybe she won't. All I care is I'm happy with my life and don't feel the need to judge how others live theirs.
The article in question is with regards to including references to homosexuality in the National Curriculum, I'm not going to go on a rant about this, I'm just going to explain my story...
As I said in my first post, I don't make a big thing about being gay. I met a guy at the weekend, who when I mentioned it didn't believe me, even when I showed him the screen saver on my phone he thought it was a joke. I explained I don't use it as an introduction as people have preconceived ideas about gay guys, and I like people to get to know who 'I' am as a person.
Its a weird thing realising your gay, before I was sexually aware I had pictures of guys from Smash Hits on my wall, as they were the kind of people I aspired to be (mostly quite muscular guys being the skinny weed I was as a child.) It wasn't until later in life it kind of clicked why I really had them on my wall.
Once puberty hit my first sexual experience was with a friend from school but shortly after that was in the past and I did the 'normal' thing and dated girls. And this was most of my late teens and early twenties doing what I thought was the normal route through life, find a girl, get married, have kids... which at one point I almost did.
As I got further into my twenties I started to come to terms with my sexuality and if I was single I would hook up with guys, but I was never looking for anything deeper and it was always in secret. This was until I met my ex.
I was 26, and although there'll be sceptics, it really was love at first sight, I knew straight away that this is what I wanted and proceeded to come out. As I said in my earlier post, the reaction was basically 'why should it matter, you're still Dean,' (except my sister who is the only one to reply 'I know') and I realised coming out wasn't the big deal I thought it was going to be.
So back to that article, the point of my story is that I grew up, even in the liberal 90s, thinking homosexuality wasn't normal. Not that it was wrong but not what normal middle class people do. Things have come a long way since the 90s we can now (almost) marry, have kids, and that's all I wanted from life since the age of 16, unfortunately it didn't happen with my first love but I'm still young.
But if I had been taught at school that its perfectly normal to be gay, I'm sure my life would have played out differently. Maybe I wouldn't have waited until my mid-20s to try and find someone to spend the rest of my life with. I wouldn't have been one miscarriage away from being married with a kid right now, or most probably by now divorced with a kid.
And I certainly wasn't 'brainwashed' into being gay it was there in me since before I even realised, without any contact with gay people or gay media. We're born that way simple as.
I've e-mailed a link of this blog to Melanie Phillips, maybe she might take some notice of someone with a bit more insight into these matters, maybe she won't. All I care is I'm happy with my life and don't feel the need to judge how others live theirs.
Thursday 25 November 2010
Hot Tesco UK
So the Tesco I visit is becoming famous on Twitter due to the volume of attractive men that both work and shop there. I counted 30 today, 21 customers and 9 staff. This has become known as #HotTesco (remember hashtags from my previous post?)
It got me thinking, is this just a one-off phenomenon or is Tesco the choice of the prettier of us in the UK. Comments I've been getting so far on Twitter indicates that Tesco is actually the choice of chavs and trolls and that I'm just lucky, so it's time to make this scientific.
From this Thursday I will be launching #HotTescoUK, a study into where is best to shop for eye-candy.
This won't be purely for women and gay men, each week I will be looking at a different demographic based on age and sex. The results will of course be subjective, but I am developing a test to try and balance the results, based on my Tesco being the control.
The schedule will be as follows:
25 November-1 December Men aged 20 to early 40s i.e old enough to have children, unlikely to have grandchildren
2 December-8 December Old Ladies (over 60s)
9 December-15 December Women aged 20 to early 40s
16 December- 22 December Old Men
23 December-5 January Xmas Break
6 January-12 January Middle Aged Men (40-60)
13 January-19 January Middle Aged Women
When counting, the 'subjects' don't have to be stunning, just 'do-able' and we won't be rating the hotness of the elderly people, just the number who are shopping.
To register for this experiment email hottescouk@gmail.com and have fun shopping!
View Larger Map
It got me thinking, is this just a one-off phenomenon or is Tesco the choice of the prettier of us in the UK. Comments I've been getting so far on Twitter indicates that Tesco is actually the choice of chavs and trolls and that I'm just lucky, so it's time to make this scientific.
From this Thursday I will be launching #HotTescoUK, a study into where is best to shop for eye-candy.
This won't be purely for women and gay men, each week I will be looking at a different demographic based on age and sex. The results will of course be subjective, but I am developing a test to try and balance the results, based on my Tesco being the control.
The schedule will be as follows:
25 November-1 December Men aged 20 to early 40s i.e old enough to have children, unlikely to have grandchildren
2 December-8 December Old Ladies (over 60s)
9 December-15 December Women aged 20 to early 40s
16 December- 22 December Old Men
23 December-5 January Xmas Break
6 January-12 January Middle Aged Men (40-60)
13 January-19 January Middle Aged Women
When counting, the 'subjects' don't have to be stunning, just 'do-able' and we won't be rating the hotness of the elderly people, just the number who are shopping.
To register for this experiment email hottescouk@gmail.com and have fun shopping!
View Larger Map
Wednesday 17 November 2010
Club Jeffery
So, what do I get up to on Twitter? In short I spend pretty much my whole day on there but I've made some friends in the bizzarest of conversations. A perfect example of this would be the creation of #clubjeffery. For those of you that aren't Twitterate (I may have just made that up but I mean 'Twitter literate') #clubjeffery is an example of a hashtag, by putting a hash sign before a word or phrase it makes it easier for users to search for a certain topic.
So back to the evening #clubjeffery was formed. It started with a conversation between Dave, a friend I met on a course last year, and his friends Jo and Gavin, about going on a road trip. As the conversation progressed, as they oh so often do on Twitter, it was decided the roadtrip would be made wearing wedding dresses. Enter me...
I should probably take you back to last July when me and Dave met. It was a residential course with work, which meant all the delegates bonded over the week we were there and in the evenings we were given activities to keep us amused (and keep us in the bar!)
On the Wednesday once we'd gotten to know eachother and were starting to feel relaxed we were told we would have to put on a short play based on a film. My group were given Grease and all eyes turned to the guy with long, blond hair, there was no point in arguing I was going to be Sandy. Cue hysterical women running around the building searching for dresses and make up.
So we rehearsed the play apart from the finale where I would kiss the rather dishy guy that played Danny (who didn't actually find out I was gay until we were having a drink later that night.) We figured the kiss could wait until after a few beers, and a shot of whiskey we kept at the back of the stage.
So the performance went well, as cheesy and amateur as the ones before us after only a couple of hours preparation, until we did a slow motion run together at the end. We stopped, just before the kiss, said "wait a moment" knecked the whiskey and went in for, what became a legendary kiss. I think it was a combination of the whiskey, 'Danny' being a fair bit taller than me and my tendancy to over-act, which meant I mounted the poor guy, winning us first place in the competition.
So, I felt as Dave was planning this trip in a dress I would get myself involved (the course wasn't the first time I've been known to don women's clothing!)
Jo said there should be a name for this newly formed club to which Dave suggested Jeffery and so Club Jeffery was formed.
As I said, conversations quickly progress on Twitter and when Jo said she would make sandwiches it took another turn as to what the sandwiches would be. This conversation was never going to get normal and we weren't going to be content with cheese and ham sandwiches. Exotic animals were the order of the day and since have partaken (only in a virtual way) in everything from tiger penis to whale with grated puffin.
This takes me back to my first post, we four have become firm friends and spend most evenings chatting on twitter, all because of one random conversation we wouldn't have had via any other form of social networking. And this is the reason I have fallen in love with Twitter, these are people I would never have met, and yet now we make eachother laugh every night, and I'm sure at some point we will meet up and have the time of our lives.
I will go on to discuss other friends I have made through just as random evenings, but for now... Join #clubjeffery. That is all.
So back to the evening #clubjeffery was formed. It started with a conversation between Dave, a friend I met on a course last year, and his friends Jo and Gavin, about going on a road trip. As the conversation progressed, as they oh so often do on Twitter, it was decided the roadtrip would be made wearing wedding dresses. Enter me...
I should probably take you back to last July when me and Dave met. It was a residential course with work, which meant all the delegates bonded over the week we were there and in the evenings we were given activities to keep us amused (and keep us in the bar!)
On the Wednesday once we'd gotten to know eachother and were starting to feel relaxed we were told we would have to put on a short play based on a film. My group were given Grease and all eyes turned to the guy with long, blond hair, there was no point in arguing I was going to be Sandy. Cue hysterical women running around the building searching for dresses and make up.
So we rehearsed the play apart from the finale where I would kiss the rather dishy guy that played Danny (who didn't actually find out I was gay until we were having a drink later that night.) We figured the kiss could wait until after a few beers, and a shot of whiskey we kept at the back of the stage.
 |
| Me after the performance |
So the performance went well, as cheesy and amateur as the ones before us after only a couple of hours preparation, until we did a slow motion run together at the end. We stopped, just before the kiss, said "wait a moment" knecked the whiskey and went in for, what became a legendary kiss. I think it was a combination of the whiskey, 'Danny' being a fair bit taller than me and my tendancy to over-act, which meant I mounted the poor guy, winning us first place in the competition.
So, I felt as Dave was planning this trip in a dress I would get myself involved (the course wasn't the first time I've been known to don women's clothing!)
Jo said there should be a name for this newly formed club to which Dave suggested Jeffery and so Club Jeffery was formed.
As I said, conversations quickly progress on Twitter and when Jo said she would make sandwiches it took another turn as to what the sandwiches would be. This conversation was never going to get normal and we weren't going to be content with cheese and ham sandwiches. Exotic animals were the order of the day and since have partaken (only in a virtual way) in everything from tiger penis to whale with grated puffin.
This takes me back to my first post, we four have become firm friends and spend most evenings chatting on twitter, all because of one random conversation we wouldn't have had via any other form of social networking. And this is the reason I have fallen in love with Twitter, these are people I would never have met, and yet now we make eachother laugh every night, and I'm sure at some point we will meet up and have the time of our lives.
I will go on to discuss other friends I have made through just as random evenings, but for now... Join #clubjeffery. That is all.
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