march madness

wow, it's been a little bit of time, huh?

well, lots to update you on... 

since we last blogged:

as they say, march comes in like a lion... and with it, comes a lot of visitors too!  this month brought 4 actually: 

- my 2 dear friends from lewes, delaware, jm & rp... who ironically i (sorta) met for the first time nearly 3 years ago in another euro-fun capital, amsterdam.  as jm&rp weren't staying with me, our time together was brief but big on fun!  introduced them to one of my fave dining places on the cheap, gaucho grill, which is a funky little chain of trendy bistros for the carnivore set.  best part there was watching rp try and order a vodka martini from our polite, yet bewildered waitress... Apparently, the phrase must not exist in the polish language... though i find that hard to believe... poles are not that different from brits in certain proclivities..

- my friend from the big apple via the deep south, jr... who was here on official business actually... the definition of which expanded later to: 1) discovering girls aloud (ok, NOW do you believe me?), 2) demystifying the concept of "music on demand" and 3) determining that pretty much everywhere you go on a friday or saturday night, you're bound to find people who have had a few cheekies too many.  glad he came, hope he comes back soon.

- and last but not last, dj jb from TO... who was here on a bit of a layover en route to italy... some people have the life!  jb and i had only a brief couple of days together, some of the time being spent in my old stomping grounds south of the river in vauxhall.  remember the early days of cheeky pint!  it's where it all began!

and so as march came in like a lion, i'm looking forward to it going out a bit more like a lamb... 'cause as i look at the calendar, i see that we'll have a few more visitors to welcome in the weeks ahead!!  april showers will be the least of my worries!  :)

onward and upwards...

wicked icky-ness

saw a great play the other night called "entertaining mr sloane" which is at the trafalgar studios, just off, err, trafalgar square...

anyway, it was a great show with an awesome cast...storyline involves a young, sociopath drifter who takes up a room in a house owned by a horny old lady... said horny old lady won't stop flirting with the boy until her libido gets the best of her and she throws herself at him... act done, the deed is done...

act two, we meet the lady's brother, equally creepy, and equally infatuated with the young lad (aka mr sloane).  he hires the boy to be his driver, and of course, every driver needs head to toe leather for their uniform, right?  ew... anyway, the real plot picks up when the old lady's father, who lives in the house and is a bit of a side character, realizes that the drifter is the person who murdered his boss and was never found until now... it's then when the boy decides to kill the old man, and when discovered by the brother and sister, rather than send him off to jail, they decide that they will 'keep' him, each six months at a time, so he can be 'entertained'... ew ew!

but it was a great laugh... good times, good times...

don't diss the nhs

hey there, been a while, lot going on, yadda yadda yadda...

but one thing reassures me - the health care system here in england ain't so bad... and i don't foresee me needing to use it any time soon, but in case i do, i think i'll do all right... 

actually had a chance to be introduced to it last weekend under not so nice circumstances... a saturday night trip to the "a&e" which doesn't stand for arts&entertainment (always my favorite trivial pursuit category, next to geography... and history... and science & nature... ok, i like the game, i guess).  anyway, back to the a&e which stands for accidents & emergencies... had to accompany someone whose mouth got him into a wee bit of trouble and whose mouth suffered the consequences...ambulance attendant was very efficient and professional, which helped calm things down a bit.  the a&e staff were also very calm and made sure we knew what was going on, who we'd see next, etc.  

also had the chance to register with my GP (general practitioner) today as well... in and out of the place in about 10 mins after i had my health screening and gave them a urine sample... clocked in at 175 cms, 75kilos.. which actually, according to some UK standards thing i'm bordering on overweight!  haha, guess i gotta lay off the pints or something.  but all in all, not half bad...

royal retail fix

after counting my lucky stars that i not only have a job, but also was lucky enough to get a bonus on friday, i decided i should put those hard earned dollars... er pounds.. to work.  and go SHOPPING!! credit crunch, my ass... 

well, anyway, it wasn't the bentley or the baccarat that i was after... no, needed to stay pragmatic and go after things to complete my flat for when round 2 of the visitors from 'cross the pond start to invade in a couple of weeks.

first stop on saturday was CARGO... i'd describe cargo as a mix between restoration hardware and bed, bath and beyond... a fairly decent selection of your basic homewares... was able to scoop up some new mugs (chrissy the kettle was a little over me pouring fine earl grey tea into some cruddy white mugs that i've had since i was a sophomore in college), a lovely little bath mat for the guest bathroom (nycgirl almost slipped on her ass coming out of the shower when she was last year, can't have that again) and what was most enjoyable... suction-cup toilet roll holders and soap dishes!  why didn't the americans think of that?  it's time for change, america!

next stop on sunday was SHEPHERD'S BUSH where a mega-mall of middle america proportions opened up a couple of months ago... but you won't find any orange julius stands or "as seen on tv" stores here... the brits do a MUCH better job of store selection, food court action and even transportation.  while i only managed to buy a cute little spring jacket for myself, the trip was well worth it and i'll be sure and go back.

next stop - clapham

well it's been a couple of weeks, and i've been quite the busy lad.. most of my time has been spent with my gal CS who made it over for her maiden voyage right before valentine's day... i reference v-day, as CS is also known as my wife.  mr. and mrs. cheekypint have actually spent many a beach holiday, romantic dinner and night out in seedy gay bars (what?) over the past DECADE or so, so as you can imagine, i was really excited to see her.

i won't go into the adventures that we had, because CS does a fantastic job chronicling (is that a word?) all of the gastro-fun that we had together in her own little blog... but suffice to say, it was great.  i do find that i'm acclimating quite well here - but it's always nice to have a familiar face from across the pond to make it that much better.

so onto the here and now... just wrapping up a great weekend here... after a truly exhausting week, friday night was just what i needed.  discovered a new neighborhood - clapham - which is probably a good mix between smith street in brooklyn and greenwich village (btw, please forgive the incessant nyc comparisons - i am just trying to tailor the message to my audience).   a good mix of young professionals/artists/bohemian types mixed in with your basic 'yobs' (another great word i just learned) having a good friday night out on the town.

anyway, the brazilian and i kicked off the evening with seeing the movie that basically everyone else has already seen (even my parents!) but us - slumdog millionaire - at this very cool 'picture house' which, not surprisingly, has a fully-licensed bar next to the popcorn stand (i am sure you can guess which had the biggest line... err... queue).  ok, i get it now.  amazing film.  kinda funny to see a hollywood/bollywood ending though.  (i.e. guy gets girl, guy joins 100s of people in line dancing sequence at end of film).  the brazilian was a bit emotionally taken with the whole story line, so after the movie was done, we quickly changed that scene to one that was more familiar to us.. boys and booze.  first stop was the 'kazbar' - i'd say this would be similar to (here we go again...) g on w 19th street... lots of room to stand and pose, decent music and, well, gay.  second stop was the two brewers... i was less of a fan of this one.. it was a little more run down, a little sadder... kinda like 'posh' in hells kitchen.  but the crowd was entertaining enough and i heard a great mashup of world hold on (bob sinclar) and people hold on (lisa stansfield) that made up for any shortcomings.  

saturday was a very productive day for cheeky-p and the brazilian - unfortunately nothing that i feel is worth blogging about (though if you are truly interested in how to get hard water spots off the shower door and which load of laundry i started first, i would be more than happy to tell you).  after all that excitement, we were itching a bit to return to civilization with - you guessed it - a few more drinks, this time in soho.  we were good boys though, and didn't make it too late of an evening.  all good fun.

the week ahead looks to be fairly brutal, but nothing like the brutality i saw in slumdog.  it'll be funny to see how it's presented at the oscar's tonight (which i will not be staying up for, thank you very much). a bunch of fake hollywood types saying what a great message the movie has - yadda yadda yadda - while spending millions on an awards show that no one really cares about. 

now, if you want to see a proper awards show, check out the brit awards - hosted by kylie? lady gaga and the pet shop boys together on stage together?  amazing...

i'll always have paris...

just got back from a whirlwind weekend in the city of lights... the place that i called home more than a decade ago, but even today, always seems to welcome me back into its arms whenever i'm lucky enough to pop by for a visit...

this weekend was a 2 for 1... work and play... after meeting my french colleagues for an afternoon of meetings, i finally arrived at metro "arts et metiers" on friday evening to meet my good friend theo.   we go WAAAAAY back and it's always nice to see someone that doesn't make it feel that way when you see him.  dinner was at one of my favorites - hotel du nord - followed by some fun yet innocent debauchery at le duplex and le CUD.  CUD apparently stands for 'classic up and down'... but it seems that the clientele there is definitely more 'up' than 'down'... how they are so 'up' particularly at 5am, hmmm.. ya just gotta wonder.

saturday was spent recuperating with some dim sum at a local chinese resto near chez theo, followed by a reunion with an old work colleague and good friend at hers.  we had many a giggle over all of the people we used to make fun of at work, some still there, some not.  after the trip down rue de la memorie, i rejoined theo for the evening's activities... which happened to be a birthday dinner hosted at one of the most fab apts i've ever seen in paris.  what made the evening even more interesting was that the host and the birthday boy didn't know each other.  'Course 8 bottles in, that doesn't matter, and well if we ended up going back AGAIN to the duplex and the CUD for one last CUDdle, that shouldn't matter too!

tres bon weekend!

but as i reflect on the last 48 hours, i liken the whole paris/london experience to what you might feel like the first time you run into your ex after many many years post breakup... initial awkwardness (who looks better?  who's happier?), then familiarity and nostalgia... followed by a brief moment of introspection (did i make the right decision?  what if?  what if?), finished off with a true sense of satisfaction and contentment... 

...for paris was definitely the love of my life back in the heyday of my youth, with its amazing joie de vivre (and equally amazing jolis garcons - who were out in full force this weekend, mon dieu), but now, older, wiser and - yeah, i'll say it - hotter, i'm definitely ready for london (via sao paulo) and all that it has in store for me...

snow, glorious snow!

after returning from a fun-filled weekend with old friends in leeds, i was witness to a rarity only seen once within the last couple of decades - a full-on snowstorm in jolly ole england!  and with it came the usual inconveniences you would expect from a city always looking for someone or something else to blame - slow underground service, no shoveled sidewalks or steps for days, my GYM closed EARLY! and whatever else isn't quite working right...

on the other hand, there were some beautiful sights to behold this morning as i made my way to 76 buckingham palace road... trees and parks covered in untouched white stuff, roads a little less noisy today with no buses or trucks around and smiles on fellow londoners faces as they see something a little out of the ordinary on a usually rather ordinary monday morning...