Whilst YoSushi remains one of my favourite quickie eateries, Dim t had a glorious menu and I must admit we did have a bit of difficulty choosing what to eat. I settled on a better version of Chicken Katsu Curry than I normally get at YoSushi, Amy had the Chicken with Lemon Sauce. We also shared some dim sum, which was just scrumptious.
She’s back in London for one day next week Friday before she goes back home to Scarborough. I’m hoping to catch up with her again and hopefully we can make a stop at Konditor & Cook.

My work-out’s going really well. It’ll be about a month since I first started it and look, I’m still going! I only managed it twice this week (Monday and this morning) as I had the early outcall on Wednesday morning. My lycra top no longer rides up and bunches up under my boobs as it first did, which means I’m toning up as it’s fitting better. The cat still has this innate need to jump down off the sill and climb on top of me whilst I’m doing the Legs, Bums and Tums section of the dvd. It’s just weird, I work out for nearly an hour and it’s not until I’m lying on the floor that she decides I need company. I think she thinks I’m going to sleep.

My Psychology course is going well. I exceeded my own expectations and got a whopping 80% for my first assignment. On my last course they were all mid-60s. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m better at psychology than sociology, or my tutor is a more lenient marker. Or maybe I’m just getting better at writing essays, who knows? I admit, as this is more to do with the study of peoples’ minds, I’m more engrossed in the reading of this book than I was on the previous course. I’ll see what happens. I may even change the course of this course (see what I did there?) if it looks like I’m more suited to the Psychology side of Criminology than Social Policy. At the moment I’m trying to keep on top of, and even a little ahead of my reading so I can make sure to have my next assignment submitted before New York. The proof will be in this next assignment as it’s a 1500 worder. The previous was in two parts, 250 and 800 words respectively.

This weekend I have a booking tomorrow at 12pm for an hour. I did have another at 2pm but I’ve just cancelled it. Some gentlemen seem to think that after they’ve made a booking they can then bombard me with texts and think it’s part of the deal. I think from now on I’m going to switch the phone off when I’m not working or expecting any confirmation calls. After work tomorrow it’ll be switched off until next Tuesday evening. I’ll put it back on until I’ve got enough work to keep me going for the week then it’s off again. Last week I had to turn it off for a few days after a particularly unpleasant and abusive character called from a new number to make a booking and cannot seem to fathom for the life of him, why after he’s racially abused me I’m unwilling to drop my big panties for him. He’s been trying on and off for the past 5 months and I’m thisclose to calling the police, something I’ve never had to do before. His accent gives him away so he won’t be getting far with me. Unfortunately now I’m at the stage where I’m becoming less and less inclined to keep the phone on. I know it’s hardly customer service, but to be honest it felt really good not having the phone on. Sorry to have missed all the genuine chaps, but if you want me that bad you’ll get me. And if anybody wants to get in touch you’re always welcome to email me.

But if anybody’s in the London Bridge area tomorrow around 2pm, even for a quickie half hour, do feel free to give me a call. I’m going to do my darndest to avoid Borough Market, but I can’t promise anything.

Now that the new year is here I’ve stepped up the job search and have already sent in a couple of applications. Who knew they’d be so time-consuming? One of them I won’t hear back from as interviews are for this Friday and if I didn’t hear anything by this past Monday I knew that would be a non-starter.
Over the weekend I filled out another application. As soon as I put the finishing touches to that on Monday afternoon I had to do an aptitude test, which was another hour and 15 minutes. It’s a good thing I had taken the day off my Other Job to complete my assignment as it was due yesterday. After that was done then came the job application immediately followed by the aptitude test, it appeared as soon as I submitted my application online. I can’t remember when I’ve ever done one so all I can do is cross my fingers. The deadline is not until this coming Sunday so if I do hear anything it won’t be until next week. Given the job market situation at the moment I expect the response to this particular job to be immense. We’ll see.

Meanwhile I’ve started working out. That’s right, you heard me, I’ve joined the countless masses that have thrown themselves into getting fit for the new year. It is something I’ve been promising myself for a while and there’s no more procrastinating. I only hope it’s not going to fall by the wayside and the dvd becomes a coaster for my morning coffee. Although I’m eating a lot more healthier than I did over two years ago, for some reason I couldn’t bring myself to work out and I’m not sure why. Laziness I suppose. But I have the time (in the mornings unless I have work) and I’ve no more excuses.
You should’ve seen me when I did it for the first time last week. There I was, looking like a right ‘nana. Seriously, I must’ve looked like a banana. I had my big yellow Spongebob t-shirt on with black cut-off trackie bottoms. Brown both ends and yellow in the middle. Yep, a right bruised banana. So this week I dug out some old work-out gear that I haven’t worn since my regular days at the gym ten years ago. The top barely fits but that’s okay as it’s tight enough to stops my boobs from whacking me in the face everytime I make an attempt at jumping.
Today’s work-out was hilarious. The cat was eyeing me quizically the whole time I was working out and when I was flat out on the floor during the Legs, Bums and Tums section of the dvd, she jumped down off the window sill and trotted over to me, miaowing and pawing at me, as if to question why I’m flat out on my back with my legs in the air sweating bullets. If cats could laugh she’d have been in hysterics. I’m sure she was having a chortle inside.

Apart from wanting to get fit for the new year, New York is around the corner. I love walking around Manhattan so I need to get fit just for that. Not to mention my girl Amy who’s coming with me walks like she’s in a race. From experience I have to almost jog to keep up with her. I have longer legs, I don’t walk fast, I amble. Amy has the littlest legs, she walks like SJ, they both go like tiny rockets. I don’t know what it is with short people.
So for those reasons I have to get fit. Besides, I want to eat with gay abandon when I’m there and not worry about having to squeeze into my jeans when I’m back home. And hopefully when I do get back I’ll keep up with keeping fit.

Work’s a bit thin on the ground as it usually is at this time of the year. I had an outcall last Thursday and I’ve another one this Saturday and Yorkshire P’s coming down to London next Thursday. I never expect too much out of January, February too for that matter. Everybody’s still broke after the holidays and things don’t normally pick up until March, so I’m happy to just totter along and see what comes.

Not that I haven’t had my share of attractive (wanna-be) bookings. I got a phone call from a chap last night, a real fast talker, called approx. 5.30pm wanting an overnight that night. It’s obvious he hadn’t bothered to read the site properly or he’d know that I don’t do short notice bookings (especially overnights with people I’ve never met), or work on Tuesdays. I knew as soon as this chap started talking that he was a timewaster. He was a pretty slick talker and I was answering his queries, waiting for the other shoe to drop. He asked me how kinky am I and was I prepared to offer this, that and the other service. Most I said yes to, anal sex was a no. He said he’d pay extra for another specialist service to which I replied that it wasn’t necessary. I’m always suspicious of gentlemen who say they’re willing to pay extra. Why would you if the lady has already stated that she would offer it anyway? And then the other shoe dropped. He wanted bareback sex because he wanted to “feel deep inside me”. I sighed, told him no, it’s not something I offer. He persisted, I hung up. It was going nowhere so there was no point in wasting both our times.
I understand there are escorts who do offer bareback, if the profiles on Adultwork are to be believed. Why not search for a lady that fits all his requirements instead of browbeating somebody who’s said no to you once already? So that was yesterday. If anybody would like a (straight-forward) booking this week, with an understanding of the services I do offer and won’t browbeat me into doing something I wouldn’t offer in a million years, do drop me a line or give me a call.

Okay, I’m now pulling out my finger and posting up my wonderful pics of my day out to the National Gallery from the 23rd December. I couldn’t take pictures of the portraits themselves, no photography was allowed. I’m not sure if I would’ve anyway. When you’re in the company of such artistry you can’t help but feel a touch of reverance towards them. You’d have to take my word for it when I tell you what an absolutely wonderful experience it was and it’s something I’m not likely to forget for a very long time.
The day in itself was crap weather-wise, it was raining off and on all day. Being the Friday before Christmas, London was very busy, it seems the weather did nothing to dampen anybody’s enthusiasm. Lots of tourists were taking pictures of Nelson’s Column and other landmarks. It was a dash to get to the Sainsbury Wing of the National Gallery, where the exhibition was held. The tickets were timed and mine was for 1pm. And I could see why. You should’ve seen the queue for people who didn’t have tickets that were hoping to get in. And for those with tickets it was timed so that the exhibition didn’t get too crowded at any one point.

After I picked up the audio equipment and headset I made my way to the start of the exhibition, which was very extensive, covering several rooms and another floor. All the portraits were numbered, as were the sketches. The sketches themselves (you can see one in one of the magnets in the photos) were rough drawings of what was to become a painting; different body parts, the mechanics of the flow of a cloak, things like that. To look at these and think that Leonardo Da Vinci was sitting at his table doodling them was mind-blowing. Some of the portraits on display were The Lady with an Ermine (an ermine being the sign of purity because of its white coat), The Virgin of the Rocks, the Madonna Litta and The Burlington House Cartoon to name but a few. They saved The Last Supper ’til the end and a lump came to my throat when I walked into the final room (the Sunley Room) of the exhibition. I’m sure where they hung it it was supposed to have a breathtaking effect when one walks into the room and indeed it did. You couldn’t take your eyes off of it. They had the original (copy) inside the room itself, with another copy one of his sympathisers, Giampietrino, painted on a wall just inside the entrance. And again there were rough sketches Da Vinci did of The Last Supper; Judas’s head, John The Baptist’s hand, etc. One thing I never noticed was this: when you look at the portrait, you’ll see groups of threes of things; the disciples in threes, the trees in the background in threes and the windows in threes. What we saw is a copy of the original. The original itself was painted on to a wall but was considered a ruin as it had taken Da Vinci 20 years to finish therefore deemed unstable as the paint on the wall had flaked after so many years, hence the copies. The original painting is still on the wall of a convent in Santa Maria delle Grazie Milan. I hope that made sense.

An exhibtion such as this leaves an indelible mark on you and it’s something I know I’ll carry with me for the rest of my life. And of course to commemorate my visit was the obligatory visit to the gift shop. I just had to take away a few mementos with me. 12 years ago I had bought some things to commemorate my visit to the Van Gogh Museum in the Netherlands and I don’t know where they are now. I have to make sure the same fate doesn’t befall these. I haven’t even dared open the book yet, it’s still in its cellophane.

Afterwards I thought I’d pop along to Jermyn street off Haymarket, see if I could pick up some posh smelly cheese at Paxton and Whitfield. I wanted to get some Stinking Bishop, the cheese made famous in the Wallace and Gromit movies. The queues put paid to that idea. When I got there the queue was bent double, with a waiting time of up to 40-50mins. Sod that, I thought. One thing I don’t do is wait in a queue for food. 5-10mins maybe, anything longer than that, forget it. That’ll teach me to leave it until the last minute. Never mind. On one of my days out I’ll be sure to stop by again when it’s not seasonal and there’s no mad rush.

All in all it was a brilliant day. I’ve had a look at the National Gallery’s website to see what exhibitions they’re going to have for 2012. It seems they’ll have a Turner exhibition, but I’m afraid it doesn’t grab me like the Da Vinci one did. Ideally I’d like to go back to Amsterdam to the Van Gogh museum. Now that would be brilliant.

I still have the British Library on my list to visit. I should do that before I go back to civvy street and my time becomes limited. I’ll see what the next couple of months bring.

In the meantime I caught up with Warrior Amy on Thursday and we lunched at Fish!, a fabulous restaurant in Borough Market. We had their Xmas Menu. She had the fish pie, I had grilled sardines and salad. My dessert was sticky toffee pudding with ice-cream. Scrumptious. I would’ve taken a pic but I didn’t pause from eating long enough to get the phone out. I’m not sure if it’s the food or what but I’ve talked Amy into taking on an admin role on SAAFE, which I consider to be a massive boon to the site itself. She’s always been a huge champion for the rights of sex workers and if anything close to her heart needed publicity she could always use it as a platform.
And get this, I’ve also talked her into coming to New York with me next March, which’ll be fantastic. Well, think about it, the job search looks like it’ll be going on for some time yet and I don’t see me finding anything in the next couple of months. And if I’m going to squeeze in one more tour, I might as well make it a big one, right? And I can have a buddy to scream at should the clients ever drive me nuts like they did last year. We’ve picked a date that we’re both happy with and we chatted about that and other things, but as usual the time flew by. She had to get back to knackering more clients out and I wanted to get back home before the rush-hour kicked in. But not without stopping at Konditor & Cook of course for some cake (again, sorry, didn’t even have time to think about getting the camera out) and I also bought a few things from the market before heading back to the station.

I know I said I was going to work on Monday but it increasingly looks like that’s not going to happen. I still have a little shopping to do before a family get-together on Wednesday and what with my Other Job on Tuesday, Monday is the only day I can finish off my shopping before then. So next week’s even more limited I’m afraid. You’ve got the afternoon of the Thursday and Xmas Eve itself. That’s it for work next week. Again, check the diary, it’s up to date.

Then tomorrow afternoon I have lunch reservations with Wonderful Warrior Amy, who no doubt is leaving a trail of satiated men in her wake this week in London. It’ll be lovely catching up with her and letting her know of my latest acquisition of some Kindle books that *cough* fell off the back of a lorry, of which I’m going to try and get some on a usb stick so she can maybe upload a few to her laptop. Borough Market will also be open and I do love being there this time of year. And at Borough Market is Konditor & Cook. I still mean to treat myself for the pass of my course.

Friday I’m also busy. My unenviable skills as a mummy are called upon during the middle of the day, which will make it difficult for me to entertain the mere thought of working. Saturday is the only day left this week in which to get your leg over if you wish. Email or give me a call, let me know if you prefer London Bridge or South Kensington.

Next week is somewhat of a change as I give up one day a week at my Other Job. I will be free Monday 19th as I give myself a break from this particular job (somewhat, I’ll still be busy on Tuesday) to start another volunteer job in the new year. I’ve been thinking long and hard during the past few weeks and have now decided what I want to be when I grow up and I consider this new volunteer position to be the perfect launching pad into the career I truly desire. I really don’t mean to be opaque, I hope you understand that I really can’t give away too much of myself. I always have to bear in mind who reads my blog. Let’s just say I’ll still be helping people, they’re just a bit more of the vulnerable side of society and it’ll be more hands on. I’ll still continue to be at my Other Job, but that’s now reduced to one day a week, which is still Tuesday. January will be two years (can you believe it’s been two years already!!) and it’s time move on a little bit. Basically I’m still only available between Wednesday and Saturday.

So next week will also be a bit of a dodgy week. I’ll be free Monday, Thursday afternoon and Saturday. Wednesday is Xmas lunch with my extended family and Friday is my day at the National Gallery Museum – can’t wait for that. I’ll take pictures, if I’m allowed.
During the week inbetween Christmas and New Year I’ll be available for a few days. I do have one lunch date to keep and I’m also doing a day on the phones at my Other Job. The best thing to do really is to keep an eye on my diary. It’s updated regularly so it’s always best to check.

Have a good rest of the week.x

That was last Friday. Saturday I had a booking at one of the hotels in the SE1 area. I tell you what, all this meeting clients in different hotels makes it all feel naughty and a bit clandestine, like I’m meeting various lovers but having to stay one step ahead so as not to bring any suspicion on myself. Anyway, last Saturday’s client was a lovely fella from Glasgow (no, he didn’t come from Glasgow just to see me silly, he lives in Peterborough) who had been trying to get to see me during the week but I needed to take those few days off. He ended up having such a good time he wrote a review about it here. It was great that he thought I was the epitome of professionalism. He was a very forgiving chap, considering we were approximately 15mins late in starting because my train decided to make a like a snail and crawl its way from Croydon to London Bridge. I remember in my rush to get ready for Peterbro’ bloke I put my thongs on the wrong way and ended up with the crutch on my left hip, and you know, I wouldn’t have known had I not looked in the mirror when getting dressed. Anyway, I made sure Peterbro’ fella had a good time and made sure he went home with a smile on his face. Mission accomplished – a lovely wee chap who’s welcome back anytime.
After the booking I hung around to see if I could pick up another booking but it was destined not to happen. The nearest I got was a timewaster who asked if I was “free today”. Yes I am, I says. “Do you have a nurse’s outfit”, he asks. ‘Fraid not, I reply. “What about a schoolgirl outfit”? And it was at this point where I can hear his voice getting lower and lower as he started masturbating. I just sighed, hung up and decided to call it a day. And of course on the way home came the ubiquitous “are you available today” enquires whilst I’m snailing my way back to Croydon. That’s life.

I had a couple more bookings this week. I picked another hotel for Wednesday’s liaison just to mix things up a bit and Thursday’s was an outcall to one of the Hiltons in Central London. I didn’t get home until gone 10.30pm and got to bed around midnight and I thought I’d be shattered but I didn’t feel too bad yesterday. I know, I thought, I’ll take another trip to Westfield seeing as I didn’t get there last week. Guess what? Yep, thwarted again! This time somebody thought they’d try death by train, didn’t quite succeed and ended up injuring themselves and stopping the whole of the Southern Rail network whilst they were stretchered off the tracks. Absolutely no trains going in either directions, said one of the train station staff, with no idea when things’ll get back to normal. I’m just not supposed to get to Shepherd’s Bush am I?? I admitted defeat, touched back out of the station and got a bus to Croydon town centre and just did a bit of shopping there. I figured even if I did make it to Westfield I can only imagine the hell of trying to get home again, so there was no point in even trying. I will get there dammit *as she shakes her fist at the general direction of the train station.* That was at midday. I got home around 3.15pm and trains were running again but subject to “severe delays and cancellations with no notification”. Can you imagine trying to get home in the rush hour on a Friday? Yeahhh, no thank you.

Study day today (I managed to read a couple of chapters of my text book on my Kindle on the way to my outcall Thursday night, brilliant) and SJ’s come down to London for the weekend, so I’ll be seeing her for lunch tomorrow, very much looking forward to it. Warrior Amy’s back in London in a couple of weeks so I’ll be seeing her for lunch too. I also have a tentative lunch date with my study buddy from the course inbetween Christmas and the New Year. Talk about ladies who lunch, I don’t think I’ve had so many lunch dates in one month. It is nice to be out and about, I must admit.

Still waiting for my course results. No word yet.