bitful

I really, really hate having to say this, but when I learnt a couple of weeks ago that the fragile coalition in power in Italy had finally agreed on a draft law giving unmarried couples some rights (they have none now), not for one split second did I believe that it would stand a chance [...]

Italy is a country of hypocrites.
I lived there for over twenty years, was close to most of the local clergy (my brother is a priest), people around me got baptised, confirmed, married in a church, buried with a funeral, and not once have I met anyone who was giving something up for Lent.
It was only [...]

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Stitch 'n' bitch, originally uploaded by bitful.

Six gay men meeting on Shrove Tuesday to knit together.
Delicious drop scones (which I suppose are the homosexual equivalent of pancakes) with apple slivers and cream are passed [...]

In June 2005 we went to Sitges with a few friends. Our flight was very early in the morning, so we spent the night before at one of our travelling companions in West London and shared a cab to Heathrow.
He kindly gave up his bed for us to sleep in. That is when we discovered [...]

When I lived in Paris I went out with an Icelandic man for five years. He introduced me to a large group of expats, and it is through them that I became familiar with the concept of the saumaklúbbur.
It literally means 'sewing club', but of course it has been at least thirty years since there [...]

Last Sunday I turned forty years old.
I had a very hard time trying to understand why everyone around me saw this as a milestone. I agree that it's a round number, but that's about it for me, it still does not feel like the big fat scary four-oh.
Dr B. wanted me to do something big [...]

So four years ago I made a tiramisu for my first Valentine's dinner with Dr B.
We had a portion each after dinner and put the rest away. A couple of days later he sent me the following email:

From: Dr B.
To: bitful
Sent: Sun 16/02/2003 12:35
Subject: Can you help the police with their enquiries?
The metropolitan police are [...]

You know what? I've been struck by the perfectionist's procrastinating bug again, where all I had to do instead is simply say that my fortieth birthday present from Dr B. was the best I have ever received. Well, perhaps I should say 'after the gift of life for which I will eternally be grateful to [...]

Our flat, today at 7:15AM
Me (handing over a card I'd scribbled hastily in the loo while having my morning poo): 'Happy Valentine's day!'
Dr B. (looking up sheepishly from his computer desk): 'Oh, crap - is it today? Oops.'
Romance is not dead. Just having a very long snooze, perhaps.

Last Thursday Dr B. treated me to a show to celebrate our four-year anniversary.
We had decided we were not going to get each other presents (Christmas was a little over a month ago, my birthday is round the corner and then it's Valentine's day) but to go out instead.
So he got tickets to go and [...]

Four years ago today, late one Sunday night at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern, Dr B. and I met. We have been inseparable ever since.
Four years ago today, I had absolutely no idea of what it is like to be exactly who I am, and to be loved for that very thing, and to believe that [...]

I know, I know…
Not worthy to be called a homosexual. I have tried to watch the Wizard of Oz a few times and always fell asleep. Mind you, it might have been because it's usually on at Christmas when I have overeaten.
But on Thursday Dr B. is taking me to see Wicked, and has asked [...]

I am trying to see how hard it is to eat only food that was produced in the UK for a week. You may Read all my Eat Brit posts on one page.
A few things I learnt by avoiding imported food and drink for a week:

your choice of fresh fruit and vegetables is obviously limited, [...]

I was tidying up stuff on the server yesterday and I found this series of photos I had taken between December 2003 and January 2004.
They used to be part of a gallery I scrapped when I redesigned this website and migrated to WordPress. I have now uploaded them into a set at Flickr: they are [...]

I am trying to see how hard it is to eat only food that was produced in the UK for a week. You may Read all my Eat Brit posts on one page.
I had little time for Sunday lunch, so I just ate leftover steamed vegetables from the previous night, cold from the fridge, still [...]

I am trying to see how hard it is to eat only food that was produced in the UK for a week. You may Read all my Eat Brit posts on one page.
On Saturdays I usually have a healthy version of a fry-up breakfast (low-fat bacon, poached eggs, sliced beef tomatoes, sauteed mushrooms in scant [...]

I am trying to see how hard it is to eat only food that was produced in the UK for a week. You may Read all my Eat Brit posts on one page.
Hurray for pears, and for my local supermarket that stocks two (two!) varieties, both from England. Gawd bless our plentiful land.
I wonder if [...]

I am trying to see how hard it is to eat only food that was produced in the UK for a week. You may Read all my Eat Brit posts on one page.
If my previous update mentioned that I now eat the same breakfast every day, this one can do the same about lunch, which [...]

I am trying to see how hard it is to eat only food that was produced in the UK for a week. You may Read all my Eat Brit posts on one page.
I won't mention breakfast or mid-morning and afternoon snacks, because they tend to be the same all the time (see choice of yogurts [...]

I am trying to see how hard it is to eat only food that was produced in the UK for a week. You may Read all my Eat Brit posts on one page.
Yesterday sourcing breakfast was easier (I just quickly went for the same stuff as day 1 ).
Lunch was leftover beef from the previous [...]

Yesterday I started an experiment: I want to see how hard it is to nourish myself entirely with British produce for a week.
These days you can carbon-offset everything you do by paying somebody to plant a tree for you every time you fart. I just want to see how hard it is to avoid food [...]

Lately, I have been waking up between two and five times a night to go have a wee.
My paranoid nature, fuelled by decades of ominous forecasting by my diabetes-obsessed family (my dad had it, and it made most of our lives a bit hellish) interprets this as a sure sign that I have not managed [...]

One of the aspects that we were most excited about when we moved into our new flat last May was that at last there was room for a dining table.
I was very keen to buy one straight away and would have settled for anything, as cheap as possible, just to get started. However, I managed [...]

A few days ago I was searching my laptop for a recipe that I had remembered saving while watching Taste (the designer food programme repeated on Sky Three around 5am).
While doing that, I came across a recipe I had devised a couple of months back as a healthier and cheaper alternative to the tub of [...]

Some series of Big Brother (Celebrity and 'normal' - whatever that means) I watch, some I ignore.
I lost all interest in the current Celebrity Big Brother one when Leo Sayer kept bouncing about declaring he's such a happy, positive person and he can see himself spread some joy in the house. That was his video [...]

On Monday I went for a run with three colleagues at lunchtime.
They were going to run for four miles and back, but said that I could take a shortcut back around the three-mile mark if I needed it.
It turned out I did need it, so I asked, out of breath, how to get back to [...]

Since last Tuesday morning, every message I send myself (from my Yahoo! Mail account to the same account) goes straight into the spam folder. Does anybody know why that is? Has Yahoo! changed some settings?
I can send myself messages from work, or from my other email accounts, but anything from my Yahoo! Mail address is [...]

Apple is demanding that people remove links to the Windows mobile iPhone interface simulation wallpaper that were plastered everywhere in the last couple of days. Cease and desist letters from lawyers and all. Damn serious.
I happened to bookmark that very same link in del.icio.us, and you might still be able to see it in the [...]

Smalltown Boy is a song that always gets me, and I don't even particularly like it.
I don't even consider it as incredibly fitting to describe my past. Alright, I might have been 'always a lonely boy', and I had more than my fair share of being 'pushed around and kicked around', but who isn't?
And I [...]

Yesterday at work I had to illustrate new features of our main product to a team of about ten people.
It had been some time since the last time I treaded the board(room)s, but past professional experience and tips and tricks I picked up in my previous life as a (not very often) jobbing actor in [...]