Happy New Year

I realise it's been forever since I last posted anything on here and chances are there won't be an update again for some time. However I just wanted to wish you all a happy new year and thank those of you who have been trying to keep in touch with me. Be that via Facebook, Twitter, postcards/holiday cards, email or the like. Thank you. Thank you for all your love and support and I'll try to get back to you individually. Until then, let's have a glass of Cristal. Cheers!




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Bring it on

As the first month of 2011 is rapidly coming to a close, and the only thing worth mentioning (except of course chatting up Roses on facebook and receiving a present from her because we love her here on Sayhey!) was that last week I got a text from the good people at MasterCard telling me to call them.

I did of course do that immediately, and they told me that someone had used it the night before - twice - charging a total of 3505 quid on IT goods. Outragious! The good people at MasterCard told me not to worry about it, and that they had taken care of it, and I wouldn't be charged. They obviously cancelled the card and are sending me a new one.

In case you are reading this, you, yes you - the one who used my card details - F*cker they are coming for you! Oh, and burn in hell.

With that out of the way, we now look forward to a new month and so far February looks like it'll be the most eventful month of the year. Doesn't say much does it, with two events. There are of course other plans in the pipeline for later this year which I of course will let you in on sometime soon.

The first event is on February 19 where I will take part in the opening night of Kylie's new world tour Aphrodite Les Folies 2011 (which takes name and inspiration from Ziegfeld Follies). Of course I'll be right in the middle of things. Fronrow and centre in the Splash Zone.



Apparently there'll be what the press release calls 4D visuals. I assume it'll be something like the Ralph Lauren fashion show



The water features in Kylie's show Aphrodite Les Folies 2011 are designed by the same people who do the Bellagio fountain water works in Las Vegas.

So, my pretties I do hope you'll get a chance to go. Miss K may be coming by a venue near you. For the unlucky US and Canadiennes out there - you'll be able to see a scaled down version of the show. Tour info can be found here. A tour not to be missed.

Australian dates to be announced.

The second event of February is the following where the Oscars - The Academy Awards take place live at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood. Again this year, it promises to be a show with glitz and glam. Of hits and misses and another year where Jim Carrey and Russell Crowe don't stand a chance in hell to win an Oscar. Good times!

A Danish movie is yet again nominated for an Oscar Hævnen - In a Better World in the category Best Foreign Language Film. It has already won a Golden Globe which of course Ricky Gervais mentioned (he was right) was the category that nobody cares about. I of course have no desire to watch the movie but everyone's raving about it.

I LOVE the Oscars. They've always meant something to me, and they still do. It used to be exclusively about the outfits and speeches but over the years I've become more and more interested in the movies we celebrate. It would be nice to have watched at least one of the movies before the show. Just to know what all the fuss was about. For instance the movie which was nominated for the most Oscars, The King's Speech. A whopping 12 nominations, and yet it's not coming to our cinemas until April.

To be honest I feel cheated. I watched a couple of the movies. Inception and Harry Potter 7 part 1. That's all, and yes Black Swan and The Social Network have been shown here and I'm now ruining my arguement. Still I find that every year, movies that haven't seen the light of day here due to distributors stalling, are honoured at the Oscars. They should be honoured because they are some of the best movies out there, yet it would be nice to be able to sit there on Oscar night thinking that out of the 10 (seems excessive doesn't it?) movies nominated for Best Picture you really thought X should have won instead of Y. For me, so far, I'll be thinking back to Inception and not being able to compare it to any of the other nominated movies.

On the subject of nominations for Best Picture, yet still going a little off on a rant when I should be wrapping this up. Well, 10 nominations for Best Picture? It seems a bit excessive. Is that a flexible category? If the movies stink next year, will there only be 3 nominations or will they have to nominate something like The Green Hornet 3D?

Bleugh!

If you have 11 minutes to spare, here is a nice little Australian short film in which Kylie goes beserk. I know, speaking of Best Picture and all that..

When in doubt, add more chocolate syrup

The always wonderful Tara has published the schedule for October here and you should definately check it out. Check.It.Out.

Why? Because today is Janet Leigh day! If any of you start saying Janet Leigh who? Then I will just shake my head and go away to die. Possibly in the shower. I've only watched af few of the things she's done though

- Little Women - with Liz Taylor
- Psycho which I actually bought on special edition DVD
- Murder She Wrote - yes she was in one episode with Dame Aggie.
- Family Law - she was in one episode of this as well. Liked that show.

On top of that, I can mention that she was in: The Manchurian Candidate (1962), Bye Bye Birdie and more recently Halloween H20: 20 years later.
She also guested these TV shows: Love Story, Columbo, Fantasy Island, two episodes of The Love Boat playing two different characters, The Twilight Zone and Touched By An Angel

All just to name a few of her 85 appearances.

She passed away this very day 6 years ago in Beverly Hills at the age of 77.

This very day many moons ago, was also the day my parents got married. Strangely enough only a couple of days before my grandfathers death. Shotgun wedding or..



The sounds get to me every time. Miss Leigh, you are greatly missed!

EDIT: I've also learned today that Piggy of Piggy and Tazzy has passed away. He too will be greatly missed. My thoughts and prayers are with Tazzy and all their loved ones.

Happy Hallowii

It was Halloween, wasn't it? This is not an old tradition here, but rather a new International or let's just say it... American tradition we've adopted because why be different? Next we'll have Thanksgiving and 4th of July. Oh well, it's here and it's not that bad. Dressing up is always a hoot and a half isn't it? Any excuse to have a party and get sloshed on gin martinis and fruity umbrella drinks. I just wish people around here (especially my increasing circle of hot friends - WOW!) dressed up like this

or this

Super hero fetish, moi? Nooooooo...

Anyway a colleague of mine pronounces Halloween, Hallowii and we had quite a lot of fun out of that at lunch one day. She was fairly confused though. I'm sure she thinks it's like a festival or something. Who knows when it comes to old people.

I realise I haven't posted anything for a month. A MONTH!?! That's a long time. Things have just been completely out there workwise, and I've caught myself a little piece of a real life outside work. A little became a lot and here we are, a month away from blogging. Sorry, in case you missed me and in case you didn't notice, well I feel so much better then. I think.

Last time I blogged, I was on about PeteUSA2009 which was my American tour. I had just arrived in Vegas (BABY!) and some moron at O'Hare in Chicago had misplaced both my suitcases. A long story short, the next day Dullface and I went to an outlet mall a little outside Vegas (BABY!) and I shopped to my hearts content at Calvin Klein and such. By the time we got back, both my suitcases were in my room. Pheeew!

I could go on and on and on about Vegas (BABY!) and I probably will my next post, but for now I'll just say this. Vegas (BABY!) is frickin' awesome! It was one of the major highlights on my tour.

That is all for now.
Love to you all

Pete

Can I get a banana over here?

I'm sad to say that my birthday is over now. I had the day off and just watched old movies, slept in, ate fabulous food and had some lovely drinks. Although I much prefer puddings, for a birthday there's always cake. So it was lovely while it lasted.

So as a thank you, to all my devoted fans, friends and the rest of my dear readership I give you a lovely cake.

Now, let's get to the real order of business. The PeteUSA2009 tour. I left you after we had lunch at Prego while waiting to board our flight to Chicago (where we jumped onto our flight to Las Vegas). So we boarded the plane and were seated - in monkey class. Now I don't do economy class. However there was no way Dullface would pay for any upgrades and I felt pressured into trying to get an upgrade because afterall we were together. So there I was in monkey class for 7 hrs and 45 minutes.

I read a little and managed to miss the beginning of 3 different movies before finally catching an episode of Bones from start to finish, where David Boreanaz (YUM!) boxed in an underground boxing thing to find the murderer of some guy. Well they kept showing it over and over, and over again. So in total I watched it maybe 4 times. It was still good by the time they shut off the entertainment system for landing at O'Hare.

Also I had never been that close to Donnn before. Excitement overload!

We had an hour and a half to get through immigration, customs, find our gate and get onboard our flight to Las Vegas. Stress overload. We had to pick up our suitcases and hand them over to some woman with credentials up her hooha - I wonder what they really were.

Anyway I'd done the math, our flight from Chicago to Las Vegas would take 3 hours. Two and a half hours into the flight I was preparing for landing. It turns out I was the only one. An hour into the flight I felt like I sat on pins and I was beginning to get a little worried.

Did the flight attendant in the cheap blue lycra outfit and Dr Scholl sandals say we would be using the seat cushion as a floating device in case of a water landing?

The flight felt like it took forever. Of course waiting for my bags to arrive on the stupid luggage carousel thingy. I waited, and waited and by the time there was only a stupid leopard print makeup case left on it, I gave up. Dullface had already gotten his two suitcases off the dastard thing. So I went into the US Airways customer service office. It was still early for being in Vegas but the airport was quiet.

Inside the office there was a nice girl, nay woman. She was very disinterested but asked me where I'd last seen my two fabulous (ok, she didn't say fabulous, but they are dammit!) suitcases and told me that they probably (yes, that was her word) didn't make the plane in Chicago and would be delivered to my hotel the following day. She asked where I was staying, and I reluctantly said I stayed at Luxor. She smiled, and I sent her my best, "I know" smile.

She also needed to know what was in my suitcases. Of course I could hardly remember any of the things, and first said "um, clothes?". Could you be more specific? she said. So slowly I began listing the significant stuff, including my laptop. How could I forget that?

Old and Bitter

First of all, I want to say that I got my iPhone back on Wednesday. It was a long wait but on the positive side I got a brand spankin' new one. Good times, as Tim would say. It was like missing a limb not to have it, which proves that the iPhone was the right choice for me. Honestly, I'd say the iPhone is for everyone. It's got everything you need (except Flash and a decent camera). So now on with the show. Last time I updated I purposely omitted my meeting with Madge. Of course you don't actually meet Madge, you see her on stage doing her thing and then she leaves. That's basically it really.

Well, we sailed from Millenium Pier to the O2 where the concert was held and apparently we arrived unfashionably early. Before anything else we went to the tats stand. You know, the place you buy the heartshaped sunglasses, hideous t-shirts and the tour programme. Naturally I got the programme which I will address later. For once Madgetastic was on time and he (I'm describing my friend here, not Madge - just thought I'd explain as that could be fairly confusing) had us eating our terrible concert venue pizza upstairs before heading into the arena (I suppose) while Paul Oakenfold was warming up the crowd.



I looked around to see how many people were there.



Clearly people could care less about Paul Oakenfold and cared more about hitting up Nando's outside, buying tat or dolling up in the loo. I could understand why because it was less than inspired and I got no warm feelings from looking at this sad old kreacher - to specify I mean Paul Oakenfold. He wasn't exactly warming anyones cockles.

So we patiently sat there waiting, and waiting for him to leave the stage. Then we waited, and waited until I spotted something



But I had spotted something. Four figures up near the far left screen. I swear one of the is the old bag herself. Unfortunately none of our cameras worked well enough to zoom in for a closer look but she was there. Looking over the few in attendance. It was kind of sad. Mostly for her and the kreacher.

Then the lights went out and all sorts of graphics whirled by on the monitors



A gumball machine. How inventive. Showing us how they were made from what I can only assume was old ingredients. All revealing her sitting on her throne - legs spread as wide as the old hip replacements would allow. It's amazing how flexible they make bolts, cements and plastic these days. Before we go further I'm giving you the set list.

• Candy Shop


• Beat Goes On


• Human Nature (YAY!)


• Vogue (YAY!)


• Into The Groove


• Holiday


• Dress You Up


• She's Not Me


• Music


• Devil Wouldn't Recognize You (YAY!)


• Spanish Lesson (she always performs the ultimate stinker from her recent albu doesn't she?)


• Miles Away


• La Isla Bonita


• Doli Doli


• You Must Love Me


• 4 Minutes


• Like A Prayer


• Frozen


• Ray Of Light


• Give It 2 Me

Now going through this, I am not entirely sure if these photos are in order and for which song she wore a particular outfit. What I do know is that I've skipped some of the outfits because they were, to be quite frank, hideous. That doesn't mean that the ones on display here aren't hideous, it just means there was something somewhat interesting in the photo or I needed filler.

Madge went all out by taking a car with her on stage and was waving a piece of clothing in the air. We had hoped she had kept it all on though. She is scary looking.


Most of her male dancers were quite good looking. There was one dancer though, with long hair. I don't fancy that.

On the Confessions on a Toilet tour Madge took out the old electric guitar and we were "treated" a few songs with Madge on the guitar. It was repeated on this tour. Apparently someone is under the delusion that they are a rock bitch.


Then there was a bit of costume borrowing going on - but I suppose it's a tribute that goes both ways. Oh and notice sexy dancer on the right. Nice! And nice boots!


On a totally unrelated note I kind of fancied the guy in front to the right. Mostly for his hair though. The person to his left not so much.

She jumped around on stage so much you'd think she was a 20 year old aerobics instructor. It was ridiculous. She could outdance all her dancers but it just looks wrong when a senior citizen does that.


Then she capitalised on the death of Michael Jackson. It was not why we were there but it was all over the news. Even in Denmark. Madge is a cunning, cynical business person who knows exactly what makes the news. The person dancing was good at it, it was just in poor taste.


She got down and boogied with her male dancers.



I must admit Madge lost me long before this, but I was just about to get into the groove again when a bunch of Hungarian folk singers came on stage and started playing. It felt like they would never leave. I just couldn't get into that. They massacred La Isla Bonita - a favorite of mine.


Then Madge molested the image of Justin Timberlake. He had to put up with a lot from Madges prosthetic hips whatever else was down those trousers.


See, the ugly male dancer was the one in the front to the right. I'm so totally not feeling Madges hair.



More guitar playing. The boots look like the ones from the 4 Minutes video. I'm wondering if the budget was spent mostly on makeup because surely the outfits couldn't have cost much.



If this was the actual ending to the concert I can't remember. What I do remember is that suddenly the lights went out. A big monitor said "Game Over" and that was it. No goodbyes or thanks for coming. Just the cold shoulder and giving us the finger once or twice. I swear I almost walked out.

Now these next images were ones I took with my iPhone. The ones above are mostly done by Madgetastic.









The God thing never gets old, or does it?

Anyway for the most part I had a good time. The Vogueing happened which was a huge plus. I had told Madgetastic that if there was no Vogueage going on I'd kick Madge in the groin and dump the remains in the River Thames. Apparently someone has connections. The dancing was too much, the vocal was alright, the visuals a little stale at times and the concept stupid. Madge does look scary in person. If you met it in a dark alley you should be very afraid.

I was more than happy that Madgetastic wanted to fly me to London to see the Old and Bitter concert and while it turned out to be more old than bitter, a good time was had by us. For me it was being in London more than the concert which is more show than concert. Not that there is anything wrong with that though. If I were a neutral party I'd give it 3 steel dild...sorry! microphones.

Well, I promised to come back to the tour programme. That was the lamest piece of tat in the shop. I should have bought the £8 button instead. It's just photos of Madge in very little clothes, airbrushed to oblivion and doing some sort of boxing stuff in a basement or somewhere dingy like that. Madges own person dungeon where Guy was chained up until he escaped long enough to get divorced?

Swinging London town

The time has come for me to tell you all about my fabulous trip to London. It was every bit as fabulous as I had imagined it would be. There were a few surprises along the way and sights that we didn't get to see. Actually we didn't get to do much sightseeing, and to my horror we forgot to go touch the lions feet on Trafalgar Square. You can see it here though.

We arrived late on Friday evening. Like always, there was something wrong with the Stansted Express (why they call it express, I'll never know) which meant we arrived by Tube at the Russell Sq. station (I love Russell Square) too late to shop at the Brunswick.



Remember, at that time I still had my FABULOUS and much missed iPhone so the photos are blurry and rather poor but you get the idea.
Just across the street from the Tube station is a Tesco. It wasn't always a Tesco, but once the wonderful Hart's Grocer or something like that. It was a wonderful place and I have bought many a sandwich in there over the years. It has been closed for many years though. Anyway, I was waiting outside the station while my friend (after this only referred to as Madgetastic for his love of Madge) was in Tesco to get something to drink and possibly chocolate eclairs (he loves chocolate eclairs and is completely obsessed with them). While I was waiting I saw a young man standing outside, much like I was standing outside the Tube station and I thought he may have been a hustler. Or maybe it was just laundry day as our dear friend Bingowings had experienced once. Anyway, this older man came up to me and started chatting but Madgetastic came to my rescue.

After checking in, we hung out in Madgetastics room for a while talking. I say that, but I'm a little fuzzy on the details although I know for a fact that we didn't have any alcohol and the hotel bill didn't include any roomservice ordered that night. Now that I think about it, I am a little shocked at how poor my memory is, but I think we just talked for a while and I went to my room and took a lovely long bath and read for a while. The book is called The World of Normal Boys by K.M. Soehnlein.

On Saturday we went shopping. This was fantastic. We went to Carnaby Street and Oxford Street, Regent Street and Covent Garden to name a few places. Madgetastic was on a mission to find a Storm shop. He had his mind set on getting a watch and maybe some rings and a bag. After visiting the second Storm shop he'd gotten what he wanted. A quick stop at Marks & Spencers where I got a bottle of nice Italian red wine (but no cork screw) and a visit to the Holy Land we discovered it was actually London Pride day.



We also managed to find a Doc Martens shop on Neal Street (I think it was) and they had some pretty kinky high heeled leather boots for an otherwise pretty so 90s phenomenon. I wonder if those were the ones Madge wore at her Old and Bitter concert. By the way, I put a POX on Crocs!

Anyway, Pride. To be quite honest, I've never actually done the whole Pride thing. It's just a bunch of screaming, cunty, skinny, skanky queens in leopard print trousers isn't it? That, and those leather daddies that MJ is so fond of. However Madgetastic who isn't actually gay (although he weekly claims either being bi, straight or gay - I think he kissed a guy once) was too obsessed with it and wanted to go to "that gay part of town". I kept telling him he might be thinking about Soho where we once shopped at Prowler. He wasn't sure. Anyway, we started on Leicester Square home of the famous handprints of Dame Maggie Smith and made our way towards Soho.

Of course the square and the streets were packed with people. It seemed harmless and fun, except for one poor bloke with a bloody nose who was surrounded by the police. Had the parade been in Denmark he'd probably been dead.



Faggots, faggots everywhere and not a drop to drink.



Oh look! Skanky queen. I'm being a bitch, I know. Sorry.







Oh look! Nando's! Oh how I waved. Like a spechul.

After cruising the parties, listening to some dodgy singer belt out a few tunes, checking out the shopping booths and the advertising whores in their tiny pants (not that I'm complaining because sweet jebus they were hot!) we walked homo. Ooops! I meant to say home. Stopping at a lovely square on the way.


It was near the British Museum.
That night we went out to eat. My treat. There was no plan about where to eat so we just walked around aimlessly in the area around Russell Square where our hotel was. At one point we considered eating at the hotel but that's a little too touristy so we found this lovely restaurant called Denise's. We had drinks and dinner before stumbling back home.



That was where I learned what a Manhattan is. A Manhattan is....Something you should NEVER order. I can't remember when I've had a more disgusting drink. Ever. Of course my Manhattan didn't have a cherry.

We went back to the hotel. The Hotel Russell by the way. My favorite London hotel. Where we called roomservice and asked them to bring up a bucket of ice. We had bought a bottle of sequin Absolute Vodka and some soda and at 3 am I stumbled back down the hall to my room.





That day we'd been shopping at Lush (I've never had better service evah! Even at the Apple Store and Tous which had lovely staff too) so I decided I needed to take a bath with my rubber ducky.



Bringing along my book, wine and a pink cupcake.


The next morning the phone rang at 9am and I looked around.





How on earth did it get to look like that?!? I did make it down to breakfast and we also made it to Debenhams and House of Fraser (where I bought some Kylie - Couture) before heading off to the Old and Bitter concert.

The Old and Bitter concert was at the London O2 (the old Millenium Dome) and to get there, as the Jubilee line was closed, we sailed from the Millenium Pier by the London Eye (old Millenium Wheel?).



From the base of the London Eye overlooking the River Thames, Big Ben and Palace of Westminster


London is gorgeous isn't it. Same place, almost just the other direction. We sailed under Tower Bridge, past Tower of London and went to the concert. More on the concert in an upcoming post. Then we sailed back.

Since it was so late on a Sunday night the Tube had closed and I put my foot down and said. We're walking! I needed the fresh air, the stillness of London and let's face it. I needed the exercise.



The London Eye from the other side of the bank, at 1am. London is so beautiful isn't it just.

A few drinks in Madgetastics room, and it was time for another Lush bath.



A bath, a book and a bottle of wine. That's heaven! Scary morning after, and off we were. It was time to leave London again. So sad, I almost cried. I wished the Ryan Air flight would be cancelled. We took the Tube to Liverpool Street Station and caught the Stansted Express to the airport.



Random escalator at a random Tube station.

At the airport we went to Starbucks to get something to eat. I love Starbucks. The pink thing is some kind of raspberry frappuccino thing and the nutty thing is a rocky roads I think. My memory is a little fuzzy.



After that, we just sat and waited for our flight number to be called.



Such a sad day it was.

This was my trip to Swinging London Town.