Long time no post

Right, so I have been incredibly scarce, and most probably think I lost all interest in blogging after only a few posts...

Partially correct. Also, after handing in my dissertation the need to procrastinate left me altogether and I have been going nuts at gym and generally enjoying life.

Perhaps I will start writing something worthwhile soon!

Though for the day: Time spent away from the computer monitor is time well spent.

Ah France...

A quick update of my travels so far. One item I can now tick off my bucket-list:

1. Sleep on the floor of Dubai airport
   

Holy crap, what an awful airport. Too many people, not enough seats. You have to be careful not to trip over people sleeping in the corridors... which ended up being me after about 6 hours of waiting for my next flight. I never thought that I would be happy to get back into and economy class seat.

On my travels I came into contact with a full size mirror. So here it is... musclician gets brave...my first self portrait. I would say this is a pretty poor image, and I am looking all washed out.

So that's me. White as ever.

My first couple of days here in France have been great. In the spirit of self images, here is another of me enjoying a quiet rural village:

Don't these European towns look awesome?

You will notice that my experience so far has been very touristy... I am starting my trip by soaking up the European culture, before hitting the gay scene.



Tip for the day:
Try fly direct, and if you must have a stop-over, choose one that has enough seating.

The big adventure begins

Today the grand adventure begins! I am departing from this one-eyed town into the world with wide eyes and great excitement! I am leaving this behind:
Looks fun doesn't it? (so neat -- okay okay, I cleaned it up yesterday)

Right, faithful reader (?) ... readers (?) I will try and keep you informed with stories and pictures as my adventure progresses. Who knows, maybe a picture of myself will accidentally weedle its way in (if I can get over my self-conscious feelings regarding my appearance!).

First way-point: Johannesburg

Fantasy for the day:
A muscle hunk just happens to get the seat next to me on the plane... I manage not to say "wkfrst"...

My wild weekend

I had a most excellent weekend. There were no hot guys involved unfortunately, but it just goes to show that there is life beyond hunks.

Ok, so maybe there were a few hot guys involved. The fun all started at gym on Friday evening, where I shot my shoulder muscles to hell, while enjoying friendly banter with hot-muscle-dude. End of hunk-involvement-in-weekend. After that I went out with mates to a great restaurant and had African kudu hot-pot (which was really really good), and after that we went and smoked hookah (apple and grape-fruit flavour). It was really chilled, and most entertaining.

The next day there was no power... at all. And it was freezing. So I decided to go busk at the local farmer's market. Not sure if it was the cold weather or my impeccable music skills (sic), but I made more cash than ever before. A couple of afternoon naps later, went and hung out with same mates as night before, smoked hookah, ate sushi, had fun.

Yep, a pretty boring post. But I leave for my most-excellent-European-adventure on Wednesday, so hopefully I will have tons of exciting adventures to report on soon!

Here's my attempt at artistry:


Thought for the day:
Hookah is fun. But a real mess to clean up.

Homage to Humility

Remember a couple of days ago when I was foaming-at-the-mouth regarding my experience with the hottest guy alive? After a few days my hormones have had a chance to calm down, and I managed to gain some proper perspective on life again.

Last night muscle-guy is in the gym again. As I walk in he gives me a hearty greeting, and all the way through our respective workouts we are spotting for each other. I really felt a great (but straight) rapport between us.

Let me just say that he has an absolutely amazing physique, something that I am definitely striving for. So in that respect I really look up to the guy. But this respect was increased ten-fold when halfway through the workout he comes over and asks me about my workout regime, and advice on how to work triceps.

Considering that his physique is such that he wouldn't need any advice from anyone, I thought that this was pretty awesome. Not only is he not acknowledging his own physical success, but he was indirectly complementing me in a big way. He seemed genuinely interested, and I noticed that he actually borrowed some of my techniques later in his workout.

We got to chatting, turns out he never uses any supplements, lucky bugger - I have to use them otherwise my metabolism destroys my muscle mass.

So this is my homage to humility. A homage to all gym-jocks out there who manage to acknowledge other people's efforts, without flaunting their own.

Hopefully our rapport will continue in future - as James said - good opportunity to make a new friend. The real question is: how difficult is it to have a friend who you can't tear your eyes away from?

Request for the day:
Any big gym jocks out there: complement the struggling guys out there, and make their weekend.

My big adventure

This morning I nearly drove into a kudu on my way to work. Unfortunately I didn't get a photograph because it ran into the bushes too quickly. I love this place!

Back on topic. I will soon be having a Big Adventure. Yep, the musclician is heading to Europe! Yeah, baby! I am being sent to Amsterdam for a conference, and of course it will be a good opportunity for academic networking and intellectual discussi.... snore! I am going to have a PARTY!!!

I keep reading about big-nights-out in various capitals of the world, usually involving hook-ups with hot strangers, back-rooms full of guys having sex and so on. M'self hath never experienced such activities before, and every time I read about it I get a weird feeling in my lower abdomen which I can't really decipher as envy, desire or just plain shock.

My main conundrum is that of course I know that such acts are unsafe, and are probably a bad idea. At the same time I can't help thinking: "everybody else does it, so why not, it will be so hot!?" (quite immature but one can't help the way one's abdomen feels, in spite of what one's brain is thinking).

So here is my plan: I am going to head off to Amsterdam (did I mention I was going through Paris on the way? Excellent!) and be a most respectable and impressive conference delegate by day, and a wild-yet-reserved party animal by night. Agenda of experiences to be gained on this trip:

1. Go to actual gay club where real-life hotties hang out and get my fill of admiring guys who bat for the same team (somehow I find this strangely more exciting than admiring straight guys... perhaps it has something to do with me actually having a chance!)
2. See if I can find one of those much-talked-about back rooms to confirm that they really do exist. Probably will not actually do anything, because with me the brain always seems to overpower the abdomen.

If there are any European reader's out there, or anyone who has "done" Amsterdam and has useful hints on where to go and what to see, I would be happy to hear your suggestions!

Observation for the day:
Kudu's don't give me weird feelings in my abdomen, but they sure do give me weird feelings in my heart.

Straight male friends

A comment posted by James got me thinking yesterday. He said that "The worst that can happen is that you might make a straight friend."

I have a lot of straight friends. In fact, I actually only have one friend who is out, but he lives about 1200km away, so we only really chat on the phone. Often I go out with my friends, most of whom know I am out, and don't have a problem with it. However, as per the usual flow of conversation with university guys, the topic invariably turns to women, how hot they are etc. etc. Or alternatively, someone will elbow me and point to a girl at the bar whilst making some comment about her physique/legs/breasts - even though they know about my preference.

My question is this: is it okay for me to do the same for any male talent that walks into the bar? I suppose this depends on how comfortable I am with my friends, which is clearly not very much.

What is interesting is that I recently was part of a survey that a friend did on the linguistic aspects of "coming out stories". I realized from my own narrative and her findings that I have followed an approach of "minimizing discomfort" in those around me - most often at the cost of really being myself.

So do I take the plunge next time I am hanging out with my straight friends and counter their comments about beautiful women with my own comments about beautiful men (at the risk of severe awkward moments)? Or do I maintain status-quo, and continue to actually be invited out by said friends?

Thought for the day:
One should have gay friends, preferably enough to outnumber the straight guys at the table.