Yes, I know, it’s been a while.
I’ve been home since Tuesday morning and I’m afraid it’s taken me this long to get back to normal. I’ve been catching up on my studying, plus I had a couple of bookings yesterday and Thursday, including my lovely regular in Shepherd’s Bush I didn’t get to see before I left as work called him away Up North. Thank God for him who had contacted me the night before. Although I had taken another booking the day before that for approx. the same time, I somehow didn’t think it would come to fruition. When the chap started going on about his 11′ member and if I could handle it, it was all I could do to stop my eyes rolling up to the heavens. Something told me this wasn’t going to happen so I told Shepherd’s Bush chap that I would check in with him on Friday morning at 9am, when the 11′ at 11am was supposed to confirm. There was no suprise on my part when he didn’t, so off to Shepherd’s Bush I went yesterday. I had a booking at London Bridge on Thursday and I managed to avoid Borough Market and (literally) stay on the straight and narrow (road) back to London Bridge Overground, instead of veering off across the road toward the market. You’d have been proud of my display of such restraint. And the little Italian market wasn’t on at Westfield in Shepherd’s Bush, so no temptation there either.

I stayed overnight at Heathrow with Amy as she had come down from Scarborough earlier in the day. We had seperate rooms and both had clients the night before which was handy for me as it paid for the room with a bit of spare cash for duty free the next day. The flight over was wonderful and New York was brilliant. I could’ve done with a few more clients but c’est la vie. If you’re going to have a time where for some reason or other all your clients don’t come to fruition, New York is the place. I was out one place or another during the 5 and a half days we were there. My girl Amy was a bit more fortuitous and during the times she was keeping the men of New York happy I was out making myself happy. During one day, the Thursday I think, whilst Amy was holed up at our hotel and I had a couple of cancellations, I took advantage of the unseasonable 70 degree spring sunshine and went for a walk. We were situated near Times Square so I made my way down towards 42nd St. and 5th Ave. I did a recon of some reading tablets for my supervisor at The Other Job at Best Buy (open for all of a year and bit here in the UK before they closed all their stores down) and also had a look at the Nook in Barnes & Noble. He was thinking of treating himself to something. They were so gorgeous I nearly bought one myself. The fact that they were manufactured for the American market wouldn’t have stopped me, such is the techy wiz that my supervisor is, he would’ve tweaked it every which way to make it more UK-friendly. But again, my willpower came into play and I told myself that I really didn’t need it, my Kindle was enough. And in the end he decided not to get anything. Anyway, after that I walked further down to Grand Central Stn. and the Chrysler Building and snapped a few shots there. I then walked across 42nd to the New York Public Library where I sat for half an hour to rest my feet. It actually felt a little blasphemous taking my Kindle into the Reading Room but nobody batted an eyelid so neither did I. After that I did want to do some more walking but by then my feet was beginning to hurt me and I needed to pee. So I made my way back up to Times Square, stopping to replenish my Clinique skin care regimen at Sephora (these stores are worldwide and why there isn’t one in the UK I’m truly baffled) and finding Crumbs. I bought a couple of rather large cupcakes for myself and Ms. Vergnes which went rather well with a glass of milk later on that evening.

Inbetween work we also went down to Greenwich Village and Washington Square Park. There wasn’t as much going on as there normally was still being a bit wintery in weather but we did happen upon a chap playing classical music on a baby grand piano (see Amy’s blog for more pics). A wee bit surreal in the middle of the park outdoors, but that’s New York for you. I also showed Amy the red townhouse where Will Smith “lived” in I Am Legend (if you’ve seen it, you know where I mean). We then walked up to Union Square where to my delight the market I’d encountered a couple of years ago was there in full swing. They had such delicacies as ostrich eggs and their bones – it looked like a tibia, imagine trying to get one of those in your suitcase. We then caught a bus up to 34th St. where we went to one of our favourite stores, Old Navy, where I could’ve easily spent a ton of money and again, I had to call on Will Power to hold me back (although I did go back a couple of days later and bought a maxi dress for the summer, approx £30 for something that would’ve cost me £45 here). That was the Saturday.

Sunday we went to Harlem. I was dying to take Amy to one of my old haunts from way back in the 80s and it was wonderful to see it had transformed in the past 20 years. I wanted to try Sylvia’s Restaurant where they sold proper Southern home-cooked food, but the queue to wait was just ridiculous. With it being a Sunday afternoon I thought that might’ve been the case. Harlem consists of a lot of African-American Christians and I figured they’d be going out to lunch after Sunday Service. We tried another restaurant that wasn’t quite as popular but still had a wait time of about 20mins or so and we had to put our name down on a list and wait to be called. It was called Amy Ruth’s and the food was just scrumptious. There Amy had her first taste of cornbread and catfish and she loved it, which I thought she might. We were too stuffed to have dessert so we doggy-bagged the rest of our food and caught the bus downtown back to our hotel.

Although Monday was our day to go home, we couldn’t help but squeeze in a bit more shopping. Amy bought herself an MP3 player at a store called B&H Photovideo. The name is slightly misleading as they sold everything electronic under the sun. Everything I tell you, including telescopes, surveillance equipment to studio lighting. The store covers a whole block and is one of the very few city stores that also offers free parking to its customers. It was absolutely massive. It’s owned and run by Hasidic Jews so they’re not open on a Saturday (Sabbath), which is why we had to wait until the Monday. We just saw a tiny corner of the store, if you’re a techy geek this place would’ve been Nirvana to you. Although at one time I did want a laptop, I kind of changed my mind when I saw that one of my sprogs bought themselves a refurbished Dell not too long ago for less than £300 which looked like new. So I know when this one kicks the bucket I can just go to the Dell Outlet website. It’s brilliant when you know a techy nerd, you find out so many things you otherwise wouldn’t have a clue about.

Anyway, inbetween rushing back to the hotel to check-out and meeting the surly countenance of the guy at reception when I asked him to give me another half an hour as we got carried away shopping, we dumped our cases in the hotel storeroom and resumed our mission to shop some more. I had had one last booking on the Monday morning, I really
should’ve packed the night before. We went a little crazy in Fossil on 5th Ave, where I bought a messenger bag and a vintage watch which, on checking the UK websites, I saved approx. £55 between them by buying them there. Remember our VAT’s what? 20%! In New York City their sales tax is 8 1/2%, so you can see where I’ve saved.

By this time my feet were beginning to go. Apart from the Friday I had done quite a bit of walking the whole time I was there and I reckon the working-out I did at home paid off. I think I did pretty well keeping up with Warrior Amy, although I know a lot of the time she slowed her pace to suit mine, but OMG can that girl walk! There was an instance where I had to tell her to go on without me, the heels of my feet were just excrutiatingly painful. When I got home Tuesday morning and went for a nap, having not slept at all on the plane, I got up about 1pm to get some food for the house and I nearly fell out of bed, my legs had just seized up under me! I swear I’ve never done so much walking. But it was brilliant. The weather was lovely, I had great company in Amy which I knew I would and I’m happy with my spoils. I’d go to New York again. Not to work, I’m done with that, but maybe for a long weekend, maybe do some shopping and this time catch a show, which we didn’t get to do this time around.

Back home to normality. I got a 79% on my latest assignment, I still have a week’s studying to catch up on and the job search continues. Work has already commenced as you’ve read and the usual rules apply. Please don’t call me on the same day asking for a booking for later as a chap has just done whilst writing this. A chap who has been in contact in the past (I recognised his voice) and should really know better. As I say, back to normality.

The only day I’m working this week will be Saturday. I have a booking at London Bridge for 12.30pm. If anybody’s floating around the SE1 area and you feel like getting your end away at 2pm or thereabouts, give me a call. You know the drill.

I’ve taken most of this week off, I had stuff to catch up with; studying, writing letters and recovering from a particulary hectic couple of days at my Other Job, it was mentally as well as physically draining this week. Tomorrow I’m just going wandering. I’m not sure where yet, don’t ask. I’m not in a museum state of mind so I don’t think I’ll do that, that’s next month. There are bits of shopping that I’d like to get that more of a necessity than a luxury, so I might hop on the train back to Westfield. I paid a fleeting visit last Friday when I had my outcall remember? Maybe the Italian market’s still there. I remember one of the stallholders said they should be there again this weekend. Must say I did like their delicacies. Also haven’t had lunch at Yo-Sushi’s in a while and Westfield has one. So it’ll be me, my Kindle and comfortable walking shoes. Ta-ta.

It’s been a good one. Studying commenced (well, last week it did), I had my last training course for the year on Tuesday and I had a couple of lovely bookings with clients whom I hadn’t seen in a while.

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.

While things seemed to have quietened down I’ve been out and about. After my two day training course (where the security bars stayed slid across the windows for the duration) it was back to normality, getting on with work and doing householdy-type stuff. What with me coming back from Manchester on the Monday and the course on Tuesday and Wednesday, other duties were somewhat neglected. Thursday’s client didn’t seem at all put off by recent goings-on so it was business as usual. Although my phone was quiet, even quieter than it normally is during August. I don’t blame clients for not wanting to come into London, I probably wouldn’t do either, so the timing of my tour was very handy.

On Friday I had some errands to run and I took a few pictures of the destruction of some of the property that was left by the rioters. It was sad to see, walking along my high road and seeing windows smashed and shops boarded up. Yesterday I went to Westfield for some retail therapy. There was a heavy police prescence at the shopping centre, with barriers put up at the walkway between Shepherd’s Bush station and the shopping centre itself. With the govt. making cuts to the police force how much longer their prescence will remain on the streets I don’t know. Although it was somewhat reassuring, if a little unsettling to have to have this as part of my daily life. It reminded me of the time of the aftermath of the 7/7 bombings, travelling about on London Underground and seeing police with guns at entrances to tube stations.

On the OU forums we were discussing this week’s events and various councils’ decision to evict the tenants that were involved. This includes not only those directly implicated, but their families, which I feel is wrong. Although it is stated in the tenancy agreement which has been repeated in the media ad naseum that those who have been involved in crime and any type of anti-social behaviour, this was an unprecedented situation and I don’t think those that put the gist of the agreement together had something of this magnitude in mind. My argument is that I don’t think that councils evicting whole families from their properties is the answer. More like a knee-jerk reaction to an event which they feel the need to be seen to be doing something. A lot of families are single parent families, who don’t have the funds to purchase a house or rent privately. At some point they will still need to be re-housed, which in the long run will cost more money. Wandsworth Council in London is the first council to do this. Their plan is to rid themselves of the undesireables and have those evicted move to another borough. But in the long run rehousing families still need to be paid for by the govt., it’ll just be a different council. I’m not saying that the vermin who took part should get away scot-free. I reckon that as part of their sentence they should be made to use all their free time to rebuild that which they’ve destroyed, brick by brick, lick by lick. And then maybe they might take a little more pride in their community and think twice about destroying something they had a part in building. Evicting whole families is not the answer. And what of those parents who shopped their own children to the police when they had realised what they had done. Will they be evicted for doing the right (but hardest) thing?

I don’t know. I’m sure this’ll be something that’ll be talked about for a long time to come. One for the psychologists and social scientists to pore over in the coming years, that’s for sure.

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.

Since the changes I’ve had to make on my website re: the swap from SW1 to SW5, Google has already picked it up. If you enter “BBW Black Escort London SW5″, my blog actually comes up in 1st and 2nd place, then my main website, followed by my listing on the Pretty Big Escorts directory, where most of my new clients find me. It’s brilliant. She said she “pinged” Google. I’ve got no idea what that means but I’m glad she did. I don’t have to worry so much about not coming up in new searches. I had to drop her a line and thank her for her hard work on the site last weekend. If you look at it you’ll see the new text I’ve had to implement.

Ironically, I haven’t had a chance to use my new premises yet. I’ve only had one booking this week, a same day 2hr outcall to a lovely gent staying at a hotel not too far from Marble Arch this past Thursday. There was one chap who also made a same day booking for an incall at Earl’s Court for Friday. Although he confirmed, he text back not five minutes later and said that his work plans had changed and he was being sent to Canary Wharf. He said he was fuming as he was really looking forward to the booking, could he please change the time, not sure to what yet but he will call and let me know. As I said, that was Friday and I’ve still yet to hear from him. I’ve left him some negative feedback on Adultwork and his number is now filed in my phone under “J-A/W(no)”. You only get one go.

In my other life it’s been an interesting week. I had a sit down with my supervisor on Monday, just to check on my progress, make sure she’s happy with me and that I’m happy with things. We were both happy so all was well. I did get the suprising news that she’s ready to sign me off, which means I get a certificate and I become a fully-fledged adviser. Which I’m a little suprised about I must admit, as I’m sure training was for two years. I must double-check with her when I go into Work tomorrow. If it is the case then it also means that I’m stepping up looking for a job. There are quite a few vacancies on their website, some within the company itself which I wouldn’t mind as I’d be happy to continue working with them, albeit in a paid capacity. So things are progressing nicely.

In other news I’ve finished my first assignment and it has been sent off to my tutor for marking. I may or may not let you know what mark I get when it comes back, it depends on if I pass,lol. I’m going to start reading today to prepare for my 2nd assignment, due the middle of next month.

Yesterday I went for my first tutorial at my local college, although it wasn’t the first as I had to miss one due to the wedding I went to a few weeks ago. It was very interesting. I met new fellow students and as it was only the six of us that turned up, it was nice and cosy and we seemed to get on really well. The two hours flew by.

Back home for a relaxing rest of the day, interspersed by a chuckle or two I had when the work phone rang at 6.50pm and a chap asked to see me in the next hour. And another call at 9.30pm asking to see me at 10pm. Thanks for the laugh fellas. Sometimes I feel I should just have a site full of pictures and a contact number, seeing as the text seems to go unnoticed. Thank goodness for you patient chaps who do seem to bother and take the time to read the blurb.

This week I’m hoping to catch up with the warrior that is Adorable Amy, as she makes her regular jaunt to London, from Wednesday I think. And a couple more bookings would be nice, as it’s that time of year again soon and I’d like some spending money. Yes, it’s my forty-*sneeze* birthday on the 25th, which is a Saturday this year. I have a tutorial that morning but after that I plan to go missing from home for the whole day. What my plans entail, I’m not quite sure. I’m going to have a look see if there are any special exhibitions at the museums during that time. If not, some light shopping; maybe at Westfield, and lunch by myself with my Kindle. Either way I’m going to enjoy myself.

Have a good week.

I made it back over to Westfield shopping centre yesterday. It is indeed a beautiful place, a shopper’s paradise.

Anyway, I stopped in the Rigby and Peller branch there and got myself measured. I hadn’t been measured in a few years, which really is a big no-no. As a woman it’s something you’re supposed to do every year, so you don’t end up wearing ill-fitting bras.

The good news that not much has changed.  I tried on one G-cup bra which fit me perfectly, but when I tried on a different brand it didn’t exactly fit properly, so the assistant got me another bra in an H-cup…and that fit perfectly. Isn’t that strange? I guess it’s like when you go into two different stores and the one size fits you differently.

So what do I do? Advertise myself as a 40-G/H cup? I guess it’s a little extraordinary but it would be fun trying to explain that to those who ask. “Are you a G or an H cup?” “Well, according to Rigby and Peller, corsetiers to the Queen, I’m inbetween.  And if that’s what they say I am, that’ll do for me.”

They are a tad out my budget, with bras ranging from around £60-£70, but they keep their shape and last for years. I was lucky enough that a kind and lovely customer treated me to a lingerie set (in I think, either 2003 or 2004). Whilst the knickers have long gone by the wayside, would you believe the bra still fits, still holds its shape. Mind you, simply because it is Rigby and Peller, it’s not every day wear. But I try and hold out for their sale where many of their products are half-price. It’s good for a girl to have a couple of Rigby and Peller bras in her lingerie drawer.