Christmas & New Year

Hello, hope you had a Merry Christmas and that you're enjoying 2009 so far. I've got to be honest, so far, it feels very similar to 2008!

So I had a lovely Christmas. Just me and my parents with lovely food, surprisingly good TV (I watched a lot of Christmas specials) and some lovely gifts. 'Santa' got me a cushion, a Banksy print, a calendar, a Russell Howard DVD (in which you can see our faces over and over again) among many other things. Charlotte got me a pop-up toaster (I love it, but where shall it live?) and a lovely Julian Opie style print of me, Charlotte and Emma which is totally getting framed! Emma got me a money-box, Karimah gave me Amazon vouchers and I got a lovely bag from my mum's friend Elaine (among many others!).

Loved Doctor Who, loved Gavin and Stacey, loved The Royle Family... in fact, every Christmas special I watched I liked (it was a classic Midsummer Murders). So once the festivities were over, I did absolutely nothing for several days. Saw Charlotte a lot after that: we watched Moonlight all the way through the night until 6:15 in the morning, went to the Royal Festival Hall and saw people waltzing to Harry Potter themes and watched Religulous at Alex's.

New Year's Eve was equally jokes, we saw Emma and had THE BIGGEST BREAKFAST EVER in Jack's. Then I spent the rest of the night at Charlotte's chatting, drinking champagne, iChatting and listening to Charlotte's brother talk about the amateur fireworks display happening outside (There's a guy with no education setting off fireworks outside! He owns a chip shop, he can handle stuff!) So all in all, a very good night.

New Year's Day was equally joyous: went over to Acton to see Keith and his family, Ilo is so big and so sweet I thought I might steal him. Had a nice meal and got my usual speech from Keith about how much he loves me and my parents. Lovely. And Rana gave my a lovely bangle I'm sure I'll be wearing all year long! So this is quite short because I'm saving the space for the mega edition of...

GAY UPDATE: Why so epic? I'll be passing judgment on all my programmes from this year (I know, more important than the Oscars this). But first... it's easy to give the Christmas prize, but I think it would have won even with competition. As the only thing airing, NUKE wins. I have really enjoyed these episodes: shamelessly romantic, dramatic and setting up for what should be a very interesting start to the year. Fixed and broke my heart in consecutive weeks. I enjoyed HollyOaks but unfortunately, not because of any gay content: and until Olli comes back Ollian will not be winning.

So let's start with Ollian. It was a late edition to my repertoire, but valued none the less. The great thing about Ollian is not even the epic scenes, as heart-rending as the kisses and arguments are, but the subtle things that set them up as such a strong and loving couple even when they are not the main focus. And for that, they are clearly the best representation of gay reltionships I have seen this year.

Nuke... *sigh*. There are so many reasons why I should hate it: the unrealistic stories, the cock-blocking, the lack of physical contact but... when Nuke is good, it is up there. I admire them for taking Luke and Noah in a different direction: they're in love, it's not all about sex. And as much as it frustrates me, I am still completely hooked. Maybe it's the acting or maybe it's the characters. Either way, I'm not giving up and for me, they have the highest expectations for 2009.

Torchwood is probably my favourite BBC program of the year, and there have been many. For me, it is good in it more than just the relationship between Jack and Ianto, as much as I love them both as individual characters and a couple. It's a show about so many things: love, humanity, leadership, greed. For that, it is certainly best all-round show of 2008; hope a change of format in 2009 will not change that.

Roman and Deniz... when they are together there is such chemistry, and splitting them up was clearly a mistake. But one no one seems to be rushing to fix so for that, they are simply the best almost couple of the year. A shame what could have been so good was not allowed to develop...

Brothers and Sisters has had a good year: I liked Jason, love Scotty and am so proud of their marriage. For one thing, it gives all those Prop 8 supporters something to think about, and for that I think the deserve best statement of the year. Nora's speech made me cry and they're the most functioning couple in the show!

I have made my thoughts on QaF clear, and while it may not be this year in real time it is in mine, and I am the first to admit I was wrong. QaFUSA is good: Brian and Justin up there amoung my favourites, and while Micheal will never be Vince, I can accept the change.

So, the overall winner? It wasn't to be anything else. HOLLYOAKS wins, for so many reasons. I had been waiting for a year for the Sunset Ending, and while it was rushed, I think it did the characters justice. And the hole John Paul has left in the soap for me is frightening! They are the perfect couple for me, in their imperfections and flaws they honestly love each other. Whatever insecurities, whatever problems there is love. And the speed of the Sunset Ending was a testament to that: nothing else matters. It was an end of an era for me and so many others: not only saying good bye to the couple and amazingly talented actors but to Bryan Kirkwood who has truly regenerated the soap into something I am proud to call myself a fan of. It's light when it needs to be, serious when it needs to be and has given the internet the best gay couple in the land. For that, I thank everyone involved. And promise, with BlogSpot as my witness, I will never stop loving John Paul & Craig, and never stop believing in their happy live in Dublin. Forever may it last.

So, that's it. But tomorrow I will be posting another not real post about my thoughts on... THE NEW DOCTOR WHO! The announcment is being made at 17:35 GMT, so expect a verdict at around 18:00. Hope to see you then...

xXx

Prom Dress, Emma's birthday & Eton Meetings

Hello!

So, an update on my very boring life! This week was always going to be... shopping orientated. And so I bought a prom dress: black, no surprise, and I'm quietly pleased with it. Got a nice bag too, so prom is not going to be the boring disaster I thought. Got my Eton stuff too; and am doing MORE shopping tomorrow with Charlotte, who us back for the 'sunny' climbs of Glasgow!

Went to the Eton meeting after nice day out with Karimah on Tuesday; where I bought the first prom dress I promptly took back! So dull and uninformative. Just a series of cliches and money-taking! Oh well, hopefully the week will be better or it'll be a waste of good sleep-in time!

Emma's birthday was Thursday and the tea party at her house was very jokes. Enjoyed myself a lot and glad she liked my scrapbook! Lots of cake, late night and nice breakfast. Good all round! Went to see The Edge of Love yesterday; and loved it. Knew I would, considering Matthew Rhys is amazing and Cillian Murphy is buff!

Doctor Who; what can I say?! It did not disappoint! Absolutely fantastic in every way; the connecting of his companions, the twist at the end, the Daleks and next week can only be better! Thought that this week was hard waiting; this coming week... oh my God! Still loving Jack, shame there was no Ianto kiss considering he thought he might never come back! Oh well...which reminds me...

GAY UPDATE: Ollian was sweet, again, but still no interaction between them, looking forward to the big fight in August. Nuke, well, it was so moving. I think it may be the best so far; the argument was everything I would have said and this week, with Cyndi Lauper should be good (I'm pretending the spoiler I know isn't happening). Jack and Ianto, mentioned above, but it's all about HOLLYOAKS this week. They got found out, and it was edge-of-the-seat stuff, but I'm almost sad Kieron is no longer dying, him simply leaving means it'll be a Kieron-Craig fight for JP, which is very deja-vu.

Anyway, good week and I'll be back with Doctor Who finale review, Eton overview and prom information. Big week, hope I can get enough sleep in!

xXx

Am doing MORE shopping tomorrow with Charlotte, who us back for the 'sunny' climbs of Glasgow!

Scout Fair, Bad Wolf and Shopping Plans

Oi oi,

So, yesterday was the highly anticipated and marathon of an afternoon I like to call 'The Scout Fair'. As a Scout, you have to run a stall, make money, set up and take down the event. All well and good. Tiring though. I was there from 11 til 9 and didn't sit down for more than 5 minutes at a time. Had to spend all today doing nothing but watching old Doctor Who's to get over it. But we raised £2,877, so all's well that end's well.

Back to Doctor Who... I thought I was going to explode when Donna said 'Bad Wolf'. Re-watched the episode with Billie Piper where she is Bad Wolf and looked up references... and I actually can't wait. Torchwood are in it, which means Jack and Ianto and Rose and Martha and it looks like Donna's gonna die and... phew! It's gonna be amazing.

So, this week is the first full week of 11 weeks of freedom. And what am I going to spend it doing? Sleeping? Seeing mates? Enjoying YouTube updates and watching old Doctor Who's like today? No, I will be constantly shopping for a prom dress, Eton stuff, Emma's birthday present and I wanna buy a book for Eton as well! So, at least if I get it all out the way now, I can relax when Eton is over.

So, as little as I care, I suppose I'll tell you about my prom dress when it is bought and will no doubt be so excited after the next part of Doctor Who I'll be unable to talk about anything else this week.

GAY UPDATE: (for those who care) Ollian was sweet but not enough between them, Nuke was amazing and for all it's fault this storyline is getting better and next week looks amazing. And finally, McPreist is looking up for a finale this week. I won't just be shopping, I'll be watching Hollyoaks too! Most importantly though? JACK & IANTO IN DOCTOR WHO FINALE. STILL CAN'T WAIT! They think they're gonna die, they must say something to each other.

So, enjoy your week and if you see anything I can buy Emma, let me know ;p

Ciao!