Kinky La Rue

So I can get me one of these:

Sony Reader

If not, I’ll settle for its rival:

Amazon Kindle 2.0

They’re both electronic readers. The Sony Reader I managed to catch a glimpse of whilst I was in LA in Barnes and Noble. The Kindle is only available via Amazon for the princely sum of around $359.

C’mon Sony and Amazon, lower your prices so that a poor bibliophile *cough* can enjoy either one of them. I remember seeing the Kindle on Oprah one day a couple of months ago. Oooh, how jealous was I that she’d given one to all her audience members. It wasn’t until I saw the Sony Reader in LA did I fall in love with the concept of electronic reading.

Imagine, never having to actually buy a book again; they can all be downloaded for a fraction of the cost. With the Kindle 2.0 you can actually download newspapers too. Imagine not having to lug books with you every time you go away, it’s all downloaded on to your e-reader. There’s even a facility on the Kindle where you could highlight a word and look it up on their in-built dictionary if you don’t know it, a practice I sometimes engage in should I come across the odd elusive word where the meaning escapes me.

At the moment, simply because of its functions, the Kindle has the edge over the Sony Reader. But hey, I’ll salivate over either.

Thank you to “A” from East London for taking me up on my offer and popping into Victoria today. May I say one last time, “phwooaarrrr”.

And also much appreciation for your more than generous donation to what I call my book fund. I can now go “postal” in the book department on Play.com. I’ve had my eye on a few titles this week.

Big kisses and……

Because I’ve just had an appointment cancel for tomorrow at 12pm and I was quite looking forward to it. I’m in the mood for nookie on Saturday.

So if you’re not doing anything and you think you may be in the Victoria/Belgrave area tomorrow, say, up until around 5pm, drop me a quick line or give me a call. It’s the London Marathon on Sunday. You can do a few laps around the bed with me and call that your contribution.

Horizontal Marathon anyone?

Ever heard that saying?

In my case it wasn’t so much the freaks coming out at night, more like the timewasters coming out with the sun. Amongst my morning booking with one of my most favouritist clients this morning, I had a slew of enquires today, which is fine. It’s the timewasters that always frustrate me. It is something you get used to after 7 years in the job, but the “address collectors” are always somewhat of a concern.

Yep, we have in this industry, a name for guys, who for some strange reason only beknownst to them, accumulate escorts’ incall addresses. They’re the aforementioned “address collectors”.

By this I mean they call to make an appointment, with no intention of keeping it, but want the address upfront. Now, first let me state that there are some gents who don’t indulge in this hobby too often, so don’t realise the protocol of not asking for the address upfront. Those guys you can usually tell.

But take today’s phone call for example. He’d called for a booking this morning around 9, I told him that I had an 11-12.30pm and that I’d be free after that. He said he would like an appointment from 1pm onwards for two hours. I said yes, that’ll be fine.

He then went on to say that he didn’t have my website to hand at the moment as he had to get off the computer quickly and didn’t have a chance to write it down, but can I please give him the address of my flat. Now anybody that reads my website knows that, apart from my location, my incall address is nowhere to be seen on it. Don’t you think that would be a bit of an irresponsible, not to mention foolhardy thing to do, post the address of my flat on the world wide web for everybody to see? And did the bloke not think that I know exactly what’s on my website? Who does he think wrote it?

Anyway, when I told the caller that I don’t give out the address until the customer’s actually at Victoria Stn., he then said he’d call me back by 11am (just before my first client turned up) to reconfirm. Unsuprisingly he didn’t.

This isn’t the first time this sort of thing has happened, it’s disconcertingly quite common. Newbie escorts have been caught out a few times in giving their full address to a person over the phone, only for the client never to show. Luckily I don’t live where I work, but my landlady is also a friend, and I’m protective as I can be to an extent when handing out her address.

But other ladies do work where they live, and we as a collective always have to be careful who we give our address out to. I tell any lady who asks that they should try and get their client to a landmark near their home (in my case Victoria Stn., you can’t miss it) then direct them in from there. I know it all sounds a bit cloak and dagger, but as you can appreciate it can sometimes be a dangerous job. For all the wonderful customers we meet, there’s always that few that we unfortunately we have to be wary of. Shame.

Happy St. George’s Day to all the day means something to.

And Man Utd. have gone back to the top of the Premiership. Today is a good day.

Happy St. George's Day

So I was talking to SJ today about what options there might be in life outside the world of escorting should I choose to retire. Remember I have been involved in this illustrious industry for over 7 years now. The end of this year would mark 8. I don’t think I’ve been in a non-escort related job for as long. Probably because it’s a job like no other; it’s very easy to enjoy, especially the rewards that come with it.

I tried to retire a couple of years ago, and dismally came back after a couple of months. I made a big song and dance about it, and it didn’t even last that long. My excuse is that I do enjoy the company of gentlemen and the independence that comes with this job is second to none. My retirement was also dependent on somebody else, which is never a good thing because plans can go awry. So next time I go I’m just going to disappear without a trace. No announcements, no advertising, nothing. Just go. That’s the best thing to do.

Our conversations did get me thinking though. It would be difficult to get back into the swing of things, especially at my age. Unfortunately there are employers out there who think you’re over the hill when you’re over 40. But SJ did come up with some options, one of them I think really suited my personality. It would also include my love of the English language. So in the next couple of months there will be courses taken and changes in my personal life to be made.

I think this also has to do with the death in my family that I experienced two weeks ago. You know stuff like that can start you thinking about your own life and the direction it’s taking.

It’s definitely time for a change. It’ll probably take a while, but I’ll get there. Slowly but surely this time. Wish me luck.

The plan was to take today off and let the jetlag take its course, but I took an appointment yesterday for 11am this morning. Despite the jetlag I did feel this morning, my wantoness still came to the fore and I very much looked forward to the booking. It was with a customer I had seen before, a lovely, tall Italian bloke. So I’m hardly going to say no, am I?

What a welcome home!

What a long day that was.

After a 10hr overnight flight I finally touched down this afternoon. On top of that there was no Circle line today so I couldn’t take the Heathrow Express into Paddington. So it took me another two hours to get home. Yeah, you can imagine my state of mind when I got home this afternoon after 3.

I caught up on the Dr. Who Easter special, then promptly fell asleep for a couple of hours. I’m wide awake again with the slight case of the munchies. No doubt I’ll crash again in another couple of hours.

I loved the hotel I stayed in but it’s good to be back home in my own bed.

Welcome home to me.

Would you believe I ended up going to Hollywood instead? The funny thing was, it was easier to get to Hollywood (around 12 miles) from my hotel than it was to get to Manhattan (around 3 miles). There was no direct transportation to Manhattan Beach, or any of the other places I mentioned previously, but I could get the Metro train into Los Angeles. I bought an all-day ticket and off I went.

I have to say I wasn’t all that impressed. I was even a little disappointed to be honest. It was as touristy as you can imagine, even to the point of claustrophic for me. I walked past the Grauman’s Chinese Theatre with the Hollywood Walk of Fame outside, where stars are honoured with a star on the “sidewalk”. The vendors were there selling their Maps to The Stars’ Houses. There were people dressed as movie characters which, for a price, you could have your picture taken with them, i.e. Princess Leia and a Stormtrooper from Star Wars, Homer Simpson, Marilyn Monroe, Edward Scissorhands, the list goes on. I got the impression these people were would-be actors getting by on other means. There were also people hawking their home-made CDs, I’m assuming in the hopes of being discovered. I’ve seen that happen back in London on a couple of occassions, now I know where they got the idea from.

I didn’t even take any pictures, that’s how unimpressed I was. I was actually more preoccupied with finding a shopping mall, the Beverly Center in West Hollywood which was my main reason for coming into downtown LA, which apparently, the Metro didn’t go as far as. So I hopped on what they call a Dash bus, where you can zip around downtown LA on 25cents. It’s a shame they don’t have something like that at home. It was limited on where they went but it did the job for me.

I got to see Sunset Blvd, which again, sorry to say, I really wasn’t that impressed with. Maybe I had other ideas on what it should’ve looked like based on what I’ve seen in the movies. But it was still a pleasant bus ride. Up on the hills in the distance you could see lovely big homes where I assume some of the stars lived. It was a great way of getting around town.

I found the Beverly Center, a massive great big mall over 3 floors with everything you could want under one roof. I did some “girly” shopping and some other shopping for family members, walked around just window shopping for another 45mins or so, then made my way home. I had left the hotel at 11am, and didn’t get back until nearly 7pm, so I was quite knackered. Plus I hadn’t stopped to eat anything all day so I was famished.

But it was a good day. I got to see more of LA and do some shopping into the bargain. Yesterday (Saturday) I had a couple of clients in the morning and afternoon so I spent the remainder of the day just chilling and browsing around the local shops here near El Segundo. I still felt knackered from the previous day. And don’t laugh, but I have a major thing for peanut butter. As far as I’m concerned they don’t make it the same as they do here, so I had to make sure and find me some peanut butter to bring back home. I only hope I don’t get stopped again and asked to open up my case. The last time I bought peanut butter home from a family trip to Florida, I was asked to open my bag at Orlando Airport, as they couldn’t identify the “solid mass” that was in the bag,lol.

Today, Easter Sunday, I’m up at 5am blogging, still on UK time I guess. I have packing to do. My flight doesn’t leave until later on this evening, so I might spend some time reading by the pool outside the hotel until it’s time for me to go.

May I take this opportunity to wish you a Happy Easter. Big chocolate kisses.xxx

Grauman's Chinese Theatre

Hollywood Walk of Fame

I am actually here in Los Angeles now as I’ve been building up to for some time.

Last week I suffered what I would consider my first real death in the family. I’ve had distant relatives and people that my parents knew when they were kids pass away but this one was real family, my first real loss. So I spent last weekend coming to terms with it.

I even contemplated whether or I not I should still go to LA. But I pulled myself together, got my sh*t together and went. So I’m here. In between the quiet mourning, the jet lag, and seeing a couple of customers, I haven’t been able to sit down properly and blog since last week. So to those who enjoy my ramblings, my apologies for the erratic writing.

I was going to write something when I was at my hotel in Heathrow on Tuesday, until I was told that the internet was £16 for 24hrs, which I would only use for an hour at most. Yeahhh, I think not. I was a little ticked-off, because I did phone and ask beforehand what the cost would be, and I was told it was free. I should’ve known better really, shouldn’t I? After all, it is an airport hotel.

I haven’t had a chance to see much of LA yet. I’ve been to a couple of malls in El Segundo, not too far from LAX; had a wander around a lovely big grocery store called Whole Foods Market, (they pride themselves in providing nothing but healthy natural foods, there’s a couple in Central London now). I stopped at Borders (again, we have them in the UK too but if you’re unfamiliar with them, think Waterstone’s) and treated myself to a David Baldacci novel that was on sale for $3.99, reduced from $12.99, so I consider that to be a real bargain.

As lovely as Whole Foods Market was, it was a tad beyond my budget to do a whole shop, so I treated myself to a few things and stopped at another, much more reasonably-priced grocery store on the way back to get some juice and water etc. for myself and any thirsty customers I might have. My hotel room has a tiny little kitchenette with a fridge and a microwave, which was handy for the shopping I did.

Tomorrow I’m going to see if I can get to Manhattan Beach, which technically is a town but as implied does have its own beach. There are couple more to choose from if Manhattan Beach doesn’t work out, Redondo Beach and Hermosa Beach. They’re all coastal towns, but Manhattan Beach is closest to me here. I think I’ll ask at the front desk.

I was told by one of my favourite customers to try and pay a visit to Santa Monica if I could, so that may be another option. So little time and so much to see in between customers,lol.

I’m not driving (I was determined not to, as I do enough of it at home, plus, I wanted to enjoy a glass of wine or two without worrying). Considering I’m not in the heart of the city, the public transportation here isn’t too bad.

Wish me luck.x