bitful

A good way of defining whether a trend has burst into the mainstream is checking whether Madonna is endorsing it.

Take mashing for example (mixing two completely different tracks together). Once the prerogative of underground DJs on the verge of illegality, it reached the top ten with Richard X cleverly taking on Liberty X. MTV [...]

Unbeknownst to most people, there is a healthy eating Haagen Dazs choice: Dr B. tells me that their Strawberry Cheesecake flavour has only 1295 calories per tub, compared to 1310 per tub for the Pralines and Cream flavour.

At my current rate of one tub per week, and if my nutrition knowledge does not fail me, [...]

At the beginning of last week I had my 13-week re-evaluation interview at the job centre. I gave evidence of my job search, answered a few questions on how I go about it, then watched with horror this softly-spoken woman redo their agreement with me, remove the clause that enabled me to turn down jobs [...]

"Mr Berlusconi, who is also the president of the current European Champions AC Milan, interrupted his holidays in Sardinia for an emergency cabinet meeting on Tuesday saying that getting the country's football in order was a priority."
[Source: BBC News]

It's good to know that some people have their priorities right.

On Sunday night I packed the weekend papers and my job search material into a bag and went to see Dr B., planning to spend a quiet evening in, reading and updating my job search notebook for an interview at the Job Centre that I'm going to today, where I'll have to give evidence that [...]

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to sleep with me?

You can now spare yourself the trouble of buying me a drink and wooing me, and jump directly to the Bitful Bedtime Experience, by downloading the short movie Dr Bitful's Experiment ("See him sleep! Hear him snore! Watch Dr B. trying to make [...]

It is notorious that Italy shuts up during the whole month of August. Apparently Italian diplomacy, cultural understanding and respect packs up and spends the month at some resort in Sardinia too.

That would explain why the Italian Prime Minister did away with Muslim tradition and repeatedly attempted to kiss the bride's hand amid gasps from [...]

Currently playing (on average sixteen times per hour): Lene Nystrøm Rasted's (of Barbie Girl Aqua's fame) new single It's Your Duty, with some of the best lyrics Scandinavia has produced since ABBA:

Ooh, straight or gay
You swing it either way
You've got to whip it up
Into a frenzy
Ooh ooh, it's what you feel
Yet this might shock for [...]

I've been registered for four months with half a dozen of the main temporary employment agencies. I've called back regularly to refresh their memory about my existence. Never heard from them. Not one single assignment.

Then a few days ago one of them called me to enquire if I was still looking for work and giving [...]

I usually do not care about the weather. It's just an extra conversation topic, I never look for forecasts, and frankly I never lived anywhere where the conditions were so extreme that they could not be improved by an extra jumper or an ice lolly.

Nevertheless, if the current heatwave (or, as they call it in [...]

Saturday morning, Clapham Junction station - "The busiest train station in Britain".

Me: can I have a return ticket to Brighton, please? Coming back sometime tomorrow.

Ticket attendant: That'll be 19 pounds. You have just missed a train, the next one leaves at…

Me: That's alright, I'm meeting a friend who's on the 8:42.

Attendant: Yes, you and everybody [...]

I think my favourite adult entertainer (who, despite having branched out into fiction and poetry, is definitely not my favourite writer) was queueing up behind me (mmh, lovely image that one) at M&S when I stopped to buy some water last night on my way home.

Actually, I'm not too sure it was him. There would [...]

LONDON MOB ##1

"SOFA SO GOOD"

WELCOME TO THE FIRST UK FLASH MOB. YOU WILL FIND

THE LOCATION IN TOTTENHAM ST.
IT IS SITUATED BETWEEN WHITFIELD ST & TOTTENHAM COURT ROAD

BE AT THE SOFAS-UK SHOP BY 630PM PRECISELY.
1. NO DRINKING/SMOKING/EATING IN THE SHOP
2. THE LETTER 'O' FOR THE DURATION OF THIS

FLASHMOB HAS BEEN CANCELLED. YOU MUST BEHAVE

AS IF THE [...]

Escort Bingo: game for two or more players, each holding one of the back pages of Boyz magazine (those with the adverts for, erm, escorts.

The game takes place on Hampstead Heath next to the men-only bathing pond, on a sunny mid-week afternoon, when everybody (except the unemployed and the above mentioned escorts) is somewhere else [...]

She's Scottish. Of course, that's a Scottish accent, how could I possibly think it sounded Irish last time? Hang on a second, why is that woman in front of me going into position before the teacher even tells us what to do? She's obviously a regular, and ooh isn't she bendy oh no I should [...]

Dr B. found a cat outside his front door. It looked lost and scared and did not move all day. He put some water for it to drink, and in the evening, since it was still there, he took it upstairs for the night.

Here are a few pictures that he has emailed me (click on [...]

On Saturday, after a celebratory full fry-up breakfast, celebratory pre-dinner drinks at The Yard, a celebratory dinner at Itsu Soho and celebratory post-dinner drinks at Comptons, I presented Dr B. with my six-month anniversary "present": a website, blog-style, with every single text message we sent each other since we met, and that I'd made a [...]

I was at a dinner party last night, and a few guests were talking about Suzie Krueger's new one-nighter, which is going to be a members-only club (to avoid facing the problems that Fist had) on the last Saturday of every month in a venue in London Bridge.

Nobody could remember what this reincarnation of Fist [...]

WARNING: post with excessively high Glycemic Index

I've been working all morning on a little surprise for Dr B. to celebrate the passing of six (golly, can't believe it! Is it, already? My oh my doesn't time fly?) months since the freezing February night when I laid my eyes (and hands) on Dr B. on the [...]