I got my results back for my latest assignment which saw me inch up another 1% to 67%. I’m getting there, really slowly but I’m determined to break the 70% barrier. I have one more assignment for the 18th October, which goes to the actual uni for another tutor to mark. After which I get my first 30 credits towards the first half of my level 1 course. I just need a pass rate of 30%, which I’m sure I can do. But you know how nervous you get when you know that “this is the big one”. If all goes according to plan I start Discovering Psychology for six months in early November for another 30 credits. Wish me luck that all goes well.

Work-wise this past August was the crappiest August I’ver ever had in nearly 10 years of working. Even during the midst of the recession I still managed a couple of bookings a week. Last month I had on average one booking per week after I got back from Edinburgh and Manchester. The one booking I had last week was a three hour outcall to Heathrow last Saturday, so that helped tremendously. The good thing about it being a quiet week was that I took advantage of the downtime and I submitted my last assignment five days early.

The phone is ringing again and I have a couple of bookings for this week, including one with Yorkshire P this Saturday afternoon at 12pm at Earl’s Court. So if anybody’s around just after 1pm drop me a line or give me a call. Or again tomorrow afternoon at the same time.

I’m going to start advertising for my last tour to Glasgow for the end of the month. If anybody would like to make a booking, again give me a call or drop me a line. I’ve decided to go by train as I had a most enjoyable ride up there the last time. I really don’t fancy flying. So I should be checked in anytime after 2pm on the 30th of this month.
See you soon.x

In a right panic I was, when on the TransPennine train down to Manchester from Edinburgh last week, in the middle of reading my Kindle a message popped up that the power was running low. Because trains have electrical outlets now for charging your mobile phone and plugging in your laptop, I took advantage of it and used it for plugging in the Kindle and carried on reading while it charged.
When I saw him in Edinburgh, Twiggy thought it was a good idea to make fun of a previous entry when I mentioned that I had nearly forgotten it. He said something along the lines of, “you could try buying a real book”. He soon paid dearly for that remark, didn’t you dear?

I took this picture of me charging my Kindle to wind him up a bit. The 21st century’s knocking at your door, Twiggy. Come on in, it’s not too bad, honest (seriously, you should see his mobile phone; they literally don’t make ‘em like that anymore.)

With permission.

The rain seems to be determined to follow me down to Manchester from Edinburgh, but it didn’t dampen the spirits of my booking with El-Tel yesterday. If he were an animal he’d be an exuberant pup. After a bit of a false start where he turned up over half an hour late (I blame his job, he was supposed to be on vacation and he was called in), he finally made it to my hotel a little bedraggled and profusely apologetic. I offered him a shower, which he took. Whilst he did that I took the opportunity to prepare myself and lie sexily on the bed with my best come hither look. I heard the shower switch off and I thought, lovely, here he comes. He opens the door and comes out of the bathroom, with steam billowing behind him….fully dressed. The silly narna had showered and put his suit back on, forgetting he was about to have hot sex with a sexy sexy chick waiting for him on the bed,lol! Who does that?? It was only when I started laughing and pointing at him did he realise what he’d done. If that wasn’t an ice-breaker I don’t know what was. Anyway, we had a wonderful evening together and he’s off on holiday today. Have a wonderful time El-Tel. It was lovely to finally meet you.

I’m killing some time, waiting for my 1pm-that-didn’t-almost-happen-appointment. Due to a cancellation there’s room for another today. Otherwise you’re welcome to try tomorrow if there are any more cancellations or no-shows. You never know.

….I screamed when I was in the taxi on my way to the station this morning. The bemused taxi driver had no choice but to turn the car around so I could go back and get it. He hadn’t heard of a Kindle (I know!!) so I showed him when I got back in the taxi but I’m sure he was still wondering what the fuss was about. Bless him though, because of his crazy driving I still made the train I was going for in the first place….just. But can you imagine, nearly a week without my Kindle? *Shudder* – it doesn’t bear thinking about.

Kindle scare notwithstanding, I made it to King’s Cross Station where I hopped on the 9.30am to Edinburgh. I know it’s a long way to go about gettting to Scotland, but I really enjoyed the journey. I know it’s a lot quicker flying but on the train there’s more legroom, 9 times out of 10 it’s not so full that I don’t get both seats to myself, plus I don’t have to worry about the scanners going off every time I go through security because of the underwire in my bra, then have to stand aside for a female security lady to feel me up to make sure I’m not carrying any weapons of mass destruction. Happens every time. I’m seriously looking into going back to Glasgow via Euston Stn. Mind you though, King’s Cross seriously need a Marks and Spencer at the station. They think that because they have one across the road at St. Pancras there’s no need for another at King’s Cross. They couldn’t be more wrong. Give me Euston anytime.

Anyway, I’m here in Edinburgh and the weather’s pants. To think I left 29deg sun for damp patches. My solitary booking for this afternoon cancelled. So I had a bit of a rest after checking in and went back out for a walk. I remembered from my last jaunt to Edinburgh there was a Marks and Spencer on Princes St. and a Sainsbury’s next to Jenner’s Department Store. I needed dinner for tonight and breakfast for the morning. And I still need to find me some Scottish honey.

There’s a real buzz in the atmosphere as people get ready for the Festivals. The tourists are out in full swing and displaying that endearing quality they all seem to possess, no matter where they come from, where they stop dead in the middle of the pavement to take a picture and you end up either bumping into them or walking around them. Bless!

Twiggy’s coming tomorrow afternoon for a couple of hours and I’m supposed to have another booking in the evening. Then it’s down to Manchester on Thursday. My Ipm for the Friday who didn’t get back to me called me on the train journey up and he swears blind he did write to me but I didn’t receive an email, it didn’t even appear in my junk folder. So I apologised for having bad thoughts about him and I’ll see him Friday. So Manchester’s pretty much booked up but stragglers are always welcome to give me a call and see if I can squeeze you in.

I didn’t think the results would be posted so soon, but I’ve just come back from a lunch date with a friend and I’ve had a peek at the OU website and I’ve managed another “clear pass”, 66%. I’m very pleased considering how manic I was trying to get it all done in three days. As I said before, I would’ve been happy with a “bare pass”, 40%. I’m still striving for that “good pass”, but for now I’m happy.
Reading starts immediately for the next assignment, so it’ll be a long study day tomorrow, plus whatever days I can do whilst on tour next week. I’m even going to buy extra copier paper on Monday to make sure there’s enough to print off chapters 4 & 5 to take with me.
Meanwhile I had a lovely afternoon out today. I was supposed to have a booking this afternoon but the client didn’t confirm by 10am as requested so off the phone went and off out I went. It was a gorgeous sunny day in London and I met a friend for an impromptu lunch near Liverpool St station. After lunch we thought we’d take a wander around Spitalfields Market. The stalls aren’t open on a weekend but the shops are and although it was busy, it wasn’t the kind of busy where you just got fed-up and wanted to go home. My friend thought maybe we could take a couple of Boris’s Bikes and have a bike around London. When I could take a deep breath after laughing so hard, I suggested we keep on walking. I haven’t been on a bike since my spinning classes at my local gym many moons ago and they were stationary. Besides, it gave me a chance to take some lovely pictures of the market and the surrounding area of EC1. And I just had to take a picture of the café called S&M. Geddit? *Sigh* I wonder if this business will ever leave my blood that I don’t see double-meanings everywhere I go. Well, I thought it was funny. And then as you can see there was the barber’s, Jack the Clipper. Ingenious!

It was fantastic to see how much the area’s developed over the years. It looks quite poash and upmarket now. When I was a teenager I used to go to Petticoat Lane Market nearby on a Sunday and the area used to be dead as a doornail on a weekend. Amazing how much has changed in twenty years.

We stopped in some dinky little shops and although I didn’t buy anything there were a couple of things that tickled my
fancy, like the Kinky Cupcakes (is that me or what?) cookbook and the doormats – I thought they were a hoot, especially the one in the middle on the top.

Then an onward leisurely walk to Aldgate East station where I could catch the District line to Victoria Station where friend and I parted ways. Of course as it was the weekend it was the usual chaos on the tubes with full and partial closures on some lines, minor and major delays on others. Roll on the Olympics when all of London’s preparations are complete. A day in the life of London, eh? But a good day all round. Roll on Edinburgh. See you there.

Okay, not long until I’m in Edinburgh next week. An added bonus for me because I’ve finalised details for Twiggy to come visit me there, as he wasn’t able to come to his usual haunt in Manchester. I have one other booking for late Tuesday afternoon after I’ve checked in but one more would be good *hint*.

Manchester’s still looking good. Although I’ve had two cancellations (well, one cancellation and one where the chap must’ve lost his ability to type as he still hasn’t responded to my email sent last week touching base regarding our booking), I’ve picked up another booking for the Monday morning before I check out. So as it stands, every day except Friday is booked. Which is cool. If no other bookings come to fruition for the Friday I’ll take the day off and go to the Trafford Centre and wallow in its opulence for a few hours. All other gentlemen have emailed back to confirm so all is good and I’m very much looking forward to next week. Are you ready for me, Tel?

As I’ve touched on in my last entry, these will definitely be my last tours. I’ve enjoyed all the travelling and visiting places I wouldn’t otherwise do, one of the perks of this job. But the close shave I had with just about getting my assignment done tells me it’s time to wind down the touring side of things. I have the Glasgow tour at the end of September, and that’s it. I feel a bit sad typing this but I have to get my priorities straight.

Gentlemen, see you in Edinburgh and Manchester.x

I managed to complete and send off my assignment with a day to spare. It was an intense three days, not just writing the essay but the side excersises required to complete the assignment. I took the day off from my Other Job on Monday to ensure it was done. You know, I even had a headache after that, I had to knock back a couple of Nurofen, that’s how intense it was.

Anyway, all done now but I tell you what, I’m going to have to give up touring. I had an opportunity to do a couple of hours whilst I was in Scotland last Tuesday, but because I received some crappy news from back home that I was unable to deal with because I wasn’t there, it put me in a crappy mood and I just didn’t feel like doing any writing. But I knew that if I was at home I would’ve pushed and not let myself get into such a position as I was this past weekend. As it is, to keep up with my reading next week I’m going to have to print off the next chapter from the OU website and bring it with me to Edinburgh and Manchester. The other activities I can do on-line. I’ve got one more tour to Glasgow at the end of September and that’s it, my suitcase is going back into storage, well, back under the bed. I don’t want to be in this position again where this job is affecting my studying. Keep your fingers crossed for me. On this occassion I’ll be happy with a “bare” pass. Going by the time it took for my tutor to mark my last assignment, results should be posted mid-tour.

It’s a relaxing day today (well, as much relaxing as you can do when you have to go to the hairdresser’s, then do the shopping afterwards because you came home to very little food in the house). I had a wonderful time in Glasgow as usual and I’m still planning on visiting again at the end of September.

I found the fish n’ chip restaurant I mentioned in my last entry. You can bet your bottom dollar I’ll be visiting there again. Steak pie, chips, mushy peas with gravy and a fizzy drink, all for a fiver on their lunch menu. Tell me where in London you can get such a meal for such great value. It’s down this little alleyway called McCormack Lane and I didn’t think I’d find it, but seeing a guy standing on Buchanan St. with a great big sign saying “This way to the Chippy Doon the Lane” helped a great deal.

I am kicking myself though because I didn’t really do any of my assignment as I really wasn’t in the mood for it. I managed to squeeze out a last minute booking on Tuesday early evening after walking off my big lunch and of course the phone was ringing off the hook not only on the way home to the point where I had to switch it off, but once switched on at home the calls kept coming. Where the heck were you all on Tuesday, eh? I had put up an ad on Vivastreet online Classifieds and I’m guessing this is where the bulk of the last minute calls came from. It’s also where the gentleman who saw me on Tuesday found me. To be frank I’m not really much of a fan of Viva Street because of their ridiculous Ts & Cs – I tried to put up the pictures that you see on the website, but they kept being deleted. After the 3rd round of deletions I phoned up to ask why. Get this: they were taken off because I’m posing on a bed!! They’ll happily take my money knowing full well what I do for a living, but God forbid if I’m posing on a bed. They even deleted one of me in the shower that I tried to put up. Not a nipple to be seen, honest guv. Oh, and you can’t be too suggestive in your ad or that gets modified, even though I saw another ad where a lady mentioned rogering you with “her strap-on.” I grudgingly admit that it’s very good for places like Glasgow where gents like to book at the last minute, and judging by all the calls I took yesterday (albeit a day too late) a lot of Weegies like VS, so I’ll be using them again in October for my next Glasgow trip. I’ll just need to grit my teeth so they don’t hear me cursing through them.

But….back to normality for now, until I’m off again a week next Tuesday to Edinburgh. Alas, my main squeeze from oop North, Twiggy, won’t be able to see me in Manchester, but he has made suggestions about seeing me in Edinburgh. I keep forgetting how near he lives to the border and that I saw him in March in Glasgow, so therefore it’s just as easy for him to get to Edinburgh as it would Glasgow or indeed Manchester where he normally visits. It’s always a pleasure seeing him, so whatever time he has to get away, I’m a happy bunny.

No other sniffs for Edinburgh yet, so what are you waiting for gents. As for Manchester, as it stands I have room for a couple more bookings for Friday afternoon and Saturday afternoon, but people’s plans do change so don’t hesitate to drop me a line or give me a call in case of cancellations.

I also did want to write about the near 3 weeks of scandal that has been dominating the news lately with the News of The World and more directly, the hacking into murder victims and fallen soldiers families phones etc., but the last few weeks has just been revelation after revelation with officials either resigning or whistleblowers mysteriously dying, it would take more than the few minutes I could spare. I’ve never seen anything like it but I will carry on watching the news with fascination.

I’ll be missing for the next few days as I’ll be concentrating on getting this essay written. It’s a 1250-worder and I have all this stuff going around in my head but unable to put it down on paper. I may even have to take a day off from my Other Job on Monday to finish it as it’s due on the Tuesday. When the results are posted I’ll let you know.

After the good news of my first assignment on Friday put me in a bouyant mood, I had a couple of lovely bookings at Earl’s Court that same afternoon. One was a chap from India who comes to the UK every year to watch Wimbledon – I had seen him this time last year. He has tickets for a few matches and squeezes me into his two week visit to the UK. The other was a young chef who could only visit for half an hour. Which, in hindsight I’m kind of glad about, as he was a bit of a goer. I fear that if he had gone for the whole hour I’d have had to take a nap afterwards. I had had another booking the day before, so it was a good couple of days work-wise. Things are working out well at my new abode and my landlady is a lovely intelligent woman with whom I could debate about current affairs and not just talk about work. Long may it continue.

Anyhoo, after my half hour chap, I hopped on the number 74 bus which took me to South Kensington to the Hummingbird Bakery. They had a bit of a Wimbledon theme going on, with cupcakes decorated to look like grass, tennis balls and the ubiquitous strawberries and cream. I’m not really a tennis fan but I did think they looked fun. I stuck to what I knew and bought half a dozen assorted cupcakes to distribute when I got home, including one for my next door neighbour. I did what I said I was going to do, I stuck a candle in one of them, wished myself a happy birthday and made a couple of silent wishes and blew out the candle. Childish maybe but I didn’t care; it was a good day and I was looking forward to Saturday. The cupcakes didn’t last long and they were gone by last night.

Yesterday morning was my tutorial at my local college, again enjoying heated debates, this time on the good or evil of huge supermarkets and if they’re a detriment or a boon to the high street. It’s a social science thing. If I explain any more I fear your eyes will glaze over. But I enjoyed it. My day was made even better when a couple of my fellow students tried to guess my age, and they had me pegged at 37. And apparently that was a conservative guess. I will love them for life.
After that I hopped a train to Shepherd’s Bush for a nice long wander around Westfield Shopping Centre. Much to my delight, when I alighted from the overground station there was a small Italian market selling various goods and wares from jewellry to smelly italian cheese to olive oil. I bought some Italian multi-seed wholemeal bread, which I enjoyed for breakfast this morning with some strong cheddar. Great stuff.

Westfield was of course heaving as it normally is on a Saturday, but it still beats going to Oxford St., with nobody to pick your bag or your pockets. I did a lot of window shopping and treated myself to a new pair of Birkenstocks (my choice of footwear in warmer climes) from Schuh. Again this is where being a student pays off, as I received 10% off the purchase price of £45. Very handy. I also stopped for lunch at YoSushi where, thanks to Warrior Amy informing me of this last week, I got a third off my food bill. I do get 25% as a student but when it’s your birthday it’s that little bit more. If you’re into Japanese food it really is worth signing up to their website to keep in touch with their special offers. Whilst I had a lovely meal, I didn’t enjoy the experience as much as I normally do. It was very busy, even at 4pm, so I couldn’t read my Kindle in peace and the stools weren’t that comfortable so I always felt like I was perched on the edge. I still prefer the one at Victoria Stn although I’ve yet to try the ones in Edinburgh, Manchester and Glasgow whilst on tour. The one at County Hall is quite nice too.

By around 5.30pm I began to get fed-up of the crowds (people were still pouring in) so I made my way back home. I got in maybe around 6.45pm. It was a long but lovely day, topped off last night by watching a bit of Glastonbury and MTV with the Black Eyed Peas top 20, which I enjoyed immensely. I also caught up with the latest episodes of Family Guy, watched a couple of old episodes of American Dad!, interspersed by watching Coldplay at Glastonbury, and finally fell asleep at about 1.30 this morning. What a great day. To be repeated same time next year.

A couple of lovely appointments was had this week, including a late night visit to one of my clients from the early days. I’ve been seeing this chap since my first year in 2002. He’s from Barcelona and comes over on business every few months. But on the last occassion he wanted to see me it was on a Tuesday evening, which as you know by now I no longer do. So it must’ve been at least a year since I last saw this client, and it was lovely seeing him again after such a long absence.

Because of his schedule, he sometimes requires a late night visit, on this occasion 10.30pm. Now you know me, I don’t like working past 9pm at the best of times, so it’s a little alien to me leaving the house at near enough that time to go into Central London. But this client is one of the loveliest chaps I’ve had the pleasure of meeting in this business and as I say, we go way back, so I see it as a special favour to him. And I know he rarely sees anybody else when he’s here. There were one or two ocassions when our diaries clashed and he’s had to call upon the favours of another escort similar in physique and colour to me, but apart from that, I’m his one and only.

Now, when I see this particular gentleman, there are a few things he requires. He loves to see me in pvc gear, so this past Wednesday I packed my new skirt (sorry caveman, didn’t manage to get a picture of the skirt) and pvc top with pvc gloves and a few other things into an overnight bag and off I set. You’d think after all these years I’d be used to carrying such paraphenalia around. But I must admit I still felt a little uneasy. Has your mother ever told you to make sure you have clean underwear on, in case you were ever in an accident and you needed to be rushed to hospital? Well, I think to myself, forget my knickers (not literally I hasten to add), what if I was in an accident and they looked through my holdall for contact details? Imagine what they’d find; condoms, lube, stilletos, pvc gear to name but a few items.
I’m used to taking my lingerie with me to my work flat, but that’s lingerie, it’s easier to explain away than pvc, don’t you think? So yes, after all these years, I’m still a little uneasy when travelling with certain items in my bag. I would imagine that it must be the stuff of nightmares of quite a few escorts.

I also got the chance to catch up with the warrior that is Adorable Amy, a good friend in the business. She had a busy few days in London but was able to manage to squeeze me in for lunch yesterday afternoon. We met outside our favourite eatery, YoSushi, and we had a good old chinwag for a few hours. It was actually dinner time by the time I got home and my progeny had wondered if I had been abducted (God forbid they try switching the oven on by themselves). We pigged out on items from the conveyor belt, ordered a couple of dishes like their misho soup, hairy prawns and chicken katsui with curry sauce from the menu, finished off with a cup of green tea and we finally extricated ourselves from their stools at around 4pm. We were still nattering outside the restaurant an hour later, would you believe? But remember I only get to see her every couple of months or so when she comes to London and on the next ocassion when she visits in August I’ll be in Edinburgh and Manchester. She is great company and we have other things in common besides work. So I’ll miss our next lunch date, in both senses of the word.

Amy had admittedly gone a little crazy at Konditor & Cook (which I do feel a little responsible for as I introduced her to the bakery), but she saved me a brownie, which I received and consumed with much thanks. She did say she knew she was in trouble when the shop assistant says, “hold on, you’ll need a bigger bag….”
I had the brownie with a mug of hot chocolate later on when settled under the duvet for the evening. Oooh baby, it was scrumptious. As it’s my birthday next weekend I considered it a birthday treat. I also plan to treat myself to a couple of cupcakes from the Hummingbird Bakery, stick a candle in it and wish myself a happy birthday. I’m at the age now where nobody bothers celebrating such frivolities with either their mother or their partner, so I celebrate by myself. Which is why I’m disappearing for the day next Saturday. It’ll be a day when everybody will have to fend for themselves. Well, the take-out menu’s on the fridge door.

Happy Father’s Day.