Even though, according to my old tutor, I’ve passed part 1 of level 1, I’m still waiting for the results. At the end of every course our assigments have to go to moderators to be double-checked after our tutors mark them, so it takes aaaages longer than usual, about 6 weeks. So I won’t officially find out until “early” December. You’ll know when I know. I’ll be the one doing the happy dance.

Meanwhile I’ve started part 2 of level 1, my psychology module, and I must say, it’s very interesting. I’ve learnt words like authoritarian personality (did Hitler have one?) and ethnocentric (when a person believes their race to be vastly superior to others, again, think Hitler) and that’s just Chapter 1. Another big plus is that somebody at the OU has dragged it into the 21st century and we can now upload our textbook onto our e-readers. I did have to update my ePUB software but I have now uploaded the first three chapters of my textbook onto my Kindle, which means I can read it anywhere. Do you remember earlier on in the year when I dragged my 500+ page book up to Glasgow, and then I tried to go one better and just print off the chapters I needed instead when I went to Manchester? No more dragging large text books around, no more wasting printer paper. Now I can just get it on my Kindle. Whoever thought that up, brilliant idea. Who knows, I may be even able to squeeze out another tour now that it’s easier to bring my work with me *cough*.

Anyways, on to my adventures of still working without an incall base. This week I had a couple of 90min bookings, both lovely in their own way because they were clients I hadn’t seen in a while, one of them I hadn’t seen in about a year. I know this because the last time I saw “G” was at the old Victoria address, before I moved to the new Victoria address in November 2010. Wednesday’s booking was at one of the hotels near London Bridge where I booked a dayroom for our liaison. Friday’s booking was an outcall to Shepherd’s Bush, where that little Italian market was back again, just outside Westfield shopping centre. Do you remember, I’ve mentioned it before? There weren’t as many stalls but there were a still a few, one selling really strong stinky cheese, another selling different types of biscottis. Scrumptious.

I still have had no luck finding a new incall place, so for the moment I’m a bit of a nomad. It’s been adventerous to say the least, flitting from hotel to hotel. I do have to be careful though, not to be seen too many times at one place. It’s easy to become complacent when you’ve found somewhere decent to work from. It’s also unfortunate, for my pocket that is, that the hotels I’m using aren’t too far from Borough Market. I’ll have to learn to curb myself. Meanwhile I’ll keep looking, see what comes up. My landlady in Earl’s Court has definitely disappeared, as her website has too. So I hope whatever it is, she’s okay. I’ve had my webmistress update my site to reflect the changes. There’s no point in saying I’m in Earl’s Court if I’m not, is there? As for my diary, it’s all “a bit up in the air”.

Next month I have an exhibition to go to. Most of Leonardo Da Vinci’s works will be shown together for the one and only time from now until the first week in February at the National Gallery in Trafalger Square. An opportunity I can’t let slip by. The tickets finally came in the post yesterday after I ordered them about 10 days ago. I was beginning to get a little worried. With that and a visit to this wonderful cheese shop in nearby Jermyn Street, it’ll be a lovely day out for me. I just hope it won’t be too cold.

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

I’ve not long got home from my longest time away touring; first Edinburgh and then Manchester, six days in all. I don’t think I’ve been on so many trains in the space of a week. Edinburgh was slightly better than expected work-wise, but Manchester was my most successful tour there yet. Most likely because it was my last. I’ve enjoyed the week immensely and I’m sorry that I won’t be visiting there again, at least, not in my current capacity. I’ll miss the hotel that I’ve been successfully staying in year after year, which the clients have loved because the more nervous among them didn’t have to go pass reception and look anybody in the eye if they didn’t want to. I’ve enjoyed staying here and I’ll miss it.

Inbetween seeing my clients I did a bit more exploring. I got to see the gay quarter, which I haven’t done before. I did want to take a couple of pictures but I didn’t want the patrons of the bars in the area thinking I was up to some nefarious deed snapping their mugs, so I just settled for a friendly wave hello.

Piccadilly Gardens was once again hosting a food market, where stalls, tents and benches were set up for traders to ply their wares (mostly food). Although I tried a pie and mash last year, alas, the same trader was not present this year. There was a stall that sold cupcakes, but for some reason I wasn’t in the mood. I think the Hummingbird Bakery has spoilt me. So although it was lovely mixing with the crowd, on this ocassion I didn’t indulge.

After Saturday’s bookings, on my way to the Arndale Centre I saw X-Factor runner up from a couple of years back Olly Murs doing a promo video for The Xtra Factor. Market Street was abuzz and I couldn’t understand why until I saw the cameras going up and down the pedastrian walkway just outside the shopping mall. And of course with shoppers whipping out their own cameras obviously I had to have a look see what was going on. It was the aforementioned Mr. Murs doing a few takes for said promo for the kick-off of The X-Factor. If you’re outside of the UK or don’t watch X-Factor, this means nothing to you.

At the Arndale Shopping Centre I found the YoSushi I’d been looking for and settled in for a nice quiet lunch and a read. My NUS student card doesn’t work on a Saturday but it still wasn’t a bad price for lunch/dinner. On the Saturday and Sunday I managed to get my studying done inbetween clients, which meant after my booking on the Sunday afternoon, I still had time to visit the Trafford Centre not too far from Old Trafford. I tried to get a picture of both. Not much luck with Old Trafford because the bus was whizzing by and the letters on the bus window declaring how much cheaper it is “getting a Day Rider ticket for £3.70″ was in the way from where I was sitting. I also wanted to take an outside picture of the Trafford Centre in all its oppulent glory but the spot I was in near the bus stop didn’t do it justice, so I took a couple pics of the interior instead. I’m quite fascinated by the Trafford Centre as I’ve never quite seen a shopping centre like it and coincendently as part of my course I’m studying the good and bad points of retail parks from a social science point of view, Trafford Centre included. And also coincidentally my latest chapter talks about how a city became a city – why did people leave the countryside many years ago to make up the urban areas that are the cities now and Manchester was given a mention. For instance didyou know that Manchester used to be called Cottonopolis, because of its major trade in materials? No, me neither. But it was a fascinating read.

Onward home back to the hotel, and I stopped by Chinatown to a Thai restaurant to treat myself to a Thai green curry with special fried rice and a mixed platter for one. I would’ve taken a pic of that so you could see how delicious it was but I didn’t pause for breath, much less to take a pic, I was so hungry having skipped lunch.

Today before I checked out, was a two hour booking with a young man of 19, who, I must admit would’ve had reservations about seeing had I known his age beforehand. I had no idea he was so young until he came into my hotel room. He turned out to be lovely shy gentleman whose first time it was not only meeting an escort, but an escort who could indulge in a long-term fetish of his for facesitting. So this is what I did for a near-solid two hours. Just facesitting – that’s all he wanted. It was unusual coming across a chap so young who although hadn’t had the chance to indulge before (he asked his girlfriends but they thought he was a little bit freaky), knew for certain that this was what he wanted and didn’t once change his mind. He seemed to like it and my thighs will be killing me tomorrow. This is why I never judge a client on first impressions. There are some lovely mature 19yr olds, as well as not so mature. I hope his first time was a good time.

I should also mention the surreal moment when I was seeing one of my clients on Friday afternoon and the hotel alarm went off. Imagine how that added to the horniness of the appointment:
Me: “WOULD YOU LIKE A BJ?”
Client: “SORRY, WHAT’S THAT? CAN’T HEAR YOU”
Me: A BJ! WOULD YOU LIKE ONE?”
Yeah, it’s a good thing it was a client I had seen before and he didn’t think too much of it. The only saving grace was that we didn’t have to evacuate the building. Client: totally starkers, me: stockings and sussies with my boobs hanging out over my basque. What a picture.

If I’m not walking like John Wayne tomorrow I’m off on a two day course Other Job-related, which means I’m back to work this Thursday. I have one booking at 6pm so I have room for one more. Having had a good week in Edinburgh and Manchester though, I’m not too fussed. I may just take the day off on Friday and go for a walk somewhere. I’ve yet to decide.

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.)

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.