The Old Town – Gay Guide
The old town with it’s narrow streets and traditional architecture hosts a selection of gay pubs & clubs. It is difficult to find a decent online gay guide (as I tried before I went away) for Benidorm, but if you go in to Queens Bar & Hotel they have a locally produced printed gay guide with a map. The only criticism of this gay guide is that it doesn’t give you any information about the pubs & clubs. So here’s my thoughts and opinions:

Queens Bar & Hotel – friendly staff, excellent food, the famous Levi on in the evening show that starts at 10:30-ish. In addition to this, it’s a great place to stay. If I wasn’t staying with Boyfriend-W next time I’m in Benidorm, I’d definitely be staying here.

Peppermint Bar – a good bar for a few drinks. I describe this bar in Adventure 2 – Benidorm Part 2. Apparently it can get raunchy towards the end of evening as the alcohol flows and the men get horny. I can’t vouch for this as I always deliberately moved on from here before it gets too late in to the evening/early morning.

Chaplins – another good bar, opens in the evenings. It had mirrored walls, is well lite and always seems to have plenty of people in (which is always a good sign).

Company Bar – Ok for a drink early on in the evening, it is mainly a chatting bar really. It’s a tiny place with bar stools and little thin circular tables crammed in.

Mercury – a club with dance music. Love it. On my last night with Boyfriend-W we ended up in there. The as the alcohol kicked in we drunkenly danced to Bad Romance by Lady Ga Ga (which we’d heard for like the ninth time that night).

Lovers Bar – you have to buzz to get in, so there’s no telling whether it’s busy or not. When you get in it’s a bar but with dance music. The owner is a local Spanish guy who was touching and rubbing his cock with his hand in his jeans pocket when I ordered a drink. Apparently I’m his type. It wouldn’t have been so bad apart from I was the only person in the place, so I couldn’t really not sit at the bar. Needless to say I downed my drink and left, sharpish.

Men Only – I didn’t really go in this bar as every time I passed it the older crowd seemed to inhabit the place. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, just not my scene personally.

According to the Gay Guide there’s plenty of more places there. Some I walked past and where empty so didn’t go in and some I never found. The Old Town also boosts a gay sauna, a bears bar and a sex shop, but I never went in to any of these. Not my scene.

New Town – Straight Ville
I explored the new town on my own one of my first evenings there. My initial impressions weren’t good when on walking around the bars and clubs (a lot of which were closed due to the time of year) and was offered drugs by a Spanish local.

However Boyfriend-W took me down to the new town and we went in to Cafe Benidorm and The Red Dog. The music was camper than in the Old town! And even though it was out of season, it was still reasonably busy. Both of these pubs/clubs are good places to go.

One night I was invited by Boyfriend-W to see Levi the fantastic drag queen at a bar called Sandra’s (Levi also works at the Queens Bar & Hotel). Unfortunately I was knackard in the early evening and fell asleep. I got up too late and had missed the show. Will have to go next time when I go back to visit Boyfriend-W in Benidorm.

So that’s it the final installment of my holiday to Benidorm. So next time your due a holiday, get yourself to Benidorm. I had an ace time and will definitely be going back.

Antony

Later that evening I’m sat in Peppermint bar when he comes in and sits opposite me. The bar is very dark with mirrored walls, a square shaped bar with bar stools around it. The main source of lighting are red lights that illuminate the ash trays dotted around the bar. An older Irish bloke is talking to me, old enough to be my granddad and Boyfriend-W is chatting to some of his friends.
“Right well I’m out of fags and I’ve finished my drink, I’m off home.” I announce to the customers in the bar, rather tipsy.
“Oh do you want a fag.” he says leaning over the bar handing me one. But I quickly get drawn back in to conversation with the Irish guy as does Boyfriend-W does with his friends.

Roll on to the second night and I’m back Peppermint bar enjoying my drink. The guy sat next to me leaves, leaving the only empty bar stool in the bar. I had learned not to look at the door when it opens as you can’t see who’s coming in because of the outside street lighting is so bright compared with the darkness of the bar. Someone sits next to me on the empty bar stool, I look and then look again realising it’s Boyfriend-W. We say hello and start chatting. One of the wonderful things about Boyfriend-W is the fact he’s honest. He stated that I was wrong to prejudge him and I and apologised. Since I’ve thought about it and he’s totally right. But more importantly I know why I did it: my emotional barriers that I have to protect me. When somebody helps me realise something about myself, I can’t help but feel interested in a person. Already finding him physically attractive I became even more attractive as I discovered he’s funny, caring and very intelligent. So that’s how we met and got talking.

The following night he invited me to stay at his and I did. Followed by spending several days at his, enjoying his company, his friend J who lives with him and the dog and cat. He cooked while I stated over – the most amazing food. He’s such a good cook. I’ve been honest and told him I don’t cook – but I did my share of the cleaning up afterwards. We got in a little routine of me doing my own thing in the afternoons (usually sun-bathing), meeting up at his bar in the evenings and then going out for drinks after he finished work. And then one day, just sat having a brew his couch in the afternoon watching TV he asked me out. I accepted, knowing that he was coming over to where I live to visit family next week, so it wouldn’t be too long until we saw one another again.

On my last full day in Benidorm pulled a face and said:
“You know I’ll have to stay at my hotel on my last night. As I’ve gotta be checked out by twelve and I’ve gotta pack my case and everything.”
“Check out early and stay here. I’ll drive you back to your hotel, you pack your case, I’ll meet you later in the bar and then we’ll go and pick up your case. Then tomorrow I’ll drive you back in time for your coach.”
“Okay.”

In part 3 I’ll do a gay guide to the gay pubs and clubs in the Old Town of Benidorm and mention the purpose built new town.

Write soon,

Antony

The locals were wearing their coats, hats, scarfs and glovers and looked at me like I was a crazy person or some sort of tourist sun-bathing topless on the beach.

Plenty of good food, drink and good times were had. I went there as a singledom and came back with a boyfriend. The story of Boyfriend-W (as he shall be named for now) will be revealed in Part 2.

Blog soon,

Antony

The book starts off by describing the twins and their family. Average was the word that sprang to mind. Elizabeth describes the closeness of the twins and how they were lovely children. Elizabeth describes some of the warm, funny, close memories that she had of her young children and of family life at that time.

Then she tells the reader about her twins Nick and Simon’s adolescent years. Elizabeth discusses not knowing about their Cannabis use and Simon writes sections explaining what was really going on. He describes the early life style of his teenage years and how the little lies started to grow in to more elaborate complex lies.

Elizabeth describes how she felt as her sons became young adults, started to live independently and became involved in crime. Elizabeth still unaware of what exactually was going on, but knowing that something wasn’t right. The book continues with extracts from Simon explaining what was actually going on and how him and his twin brother progressed to become addicted to heroin.

Elizabeth then tells of how she coped with the addiction cycles. She explains the financial cost, the psychological pressure of trying to maintain her Teaching position with very few people knowing about her sons addition and most importantly the worry and anxiety she felt. She then tells the rest of the story with this addiction cycle coming some-what repetitive at points. Throughout the books she gains others perspectives by allowing them to write short sections. Contributers include Nick’s Drug Worker, his Probation Officer, Hostel Workers as well as Simon’s continued input.

Overall it is an emotional journey. It helps you to realise that addiction doesn’t just effect the person with the addiction but their families too. It helps you understand that because of the nature of addiction being a taboo subject it makes families feel isolated and alone, which is partly why she wrote the book.

The other reason she wrote the book is to make Nick’s life (the twin that tragically died) not be in vein. She describes that perhaps without the death of Nick, Simon would have never got drug free. They were too closely intertwined. The final few chapters of the book describe what the family have done since the death of Nick. The good work in setting up a charitable foundation, speaking at various conferences and even being a consultant for the UK government around UK drug policy. If you would like to read Mum Can You Lend Me Twenty Quid? by Elizabeth Burton-Phillips, you can buy it at Amazon.

The first series introduces Andy an extra who desperately wants to be an actor and will do anything to “get a line”. The humor in this series is created by the situations Andy gets himself in to as tries to convince others give him a line. One of the funniest scenes is were Andy is working as an extra in a war film directed by Ben Stiller. The film is telling a true-life story of a man who lost his wife during a war in a country torn apart by violence. As the man stirs at a photo of his dead wife and beings to talk about her Andy responds rather awkwardly starting by saying “about that line…” and gives him a £15 Boots gift voucher. We are also introduced to other characters.

Maggie is Andy’s best friend and even funnier than Andy in my opinion. Maggie is also an extra with a rather lovely but wacky view on the world. In the first series it focuses around Maggies love life. Unfortunately she is unsuccessful at finding a man in the first series, but you find yourself wanting her to find someone. You find yourself being to care for her happiness. Also introduced in the first series is Andy’s agent, a geeky, weird character. Enough said.

The second series shows that Andy progressed and has a sitcom commissioned by a BBC. Its a sketch style programme with a catch phrase “Is he having a laugh?” Simliar to Little Britain and The Catherine Tate Show now I come to think about it. However Andy is still not happy.

Andy wants both creditability (recognition from his peers) and celebrity status (being recognised on the street). The humor is found by the awkward situations Andy gets himself in to, such as agreeing to visit a ill child. Andy begins to become self-important and arrogant. He doesn’t have much time for Maggie and at one point when an extra comes to him asking for “a line” he has the extra sacked. Andy decides in order to get the credibility he strongly desires that he will give up the sitcom. We start to severely dislike Andy as he sells out all who have stood by him, including his manager for a more business-like trendy one. By the end of the second series we have mixed feelings about Andy, we have gone from sympathy and laughing (in the first series) to dislike and wanting to pick him up and shake him for being so self-centred (in the second series).

The final episode which is a Christmas Special, Andy has been out of work for eight months following his decision to end his sitcom. He decides to do a few things to keep his public profile up – including being an alien slug in Dr. Who which is hilarious. He ends up in celebrity big brother and suddenly realises the error of his ways. He walks out of big brother and heads off to the airport with Maggie to give a feel good ending.

Throughout the entire boxset Ricky has enlisted the help of famous celebrities including actors, fellow comedians, TV personalities, etc. Sometimes it was appropriate and added realism to the scenes, whereas other times it felt as if Ricky was trying to capitalise on their status and fan base – particularly in the first series. Some reviewers have dubbed Extras a comedy classic, I don’t know if quite reaches that status as a comedy known by all. Would you make it a comedy classic?

You can buy Extras Boxset from Amazon. Write another review soon,

Antony

Version 1
My first version was created in HTML and looked like this:

It had sections to it: Personal, Carrer and Occult. It had Quick Links News on the home page.

The Navigation was simplistic as was the site as a whole. This first version of the site was online when I was 16 years old and at that time I didn’t have the domain antonysimpson.com.

Version 2

Version 2 was designed with sidebar Navigation in order to allow me to populate the site with much more content. It again was designed in HTML using tables. It contained much more photos than Version 1 including a photo’s section.

New features included a News page that had paragraphs of my news including Site Updates to let the visitors know what had been developed and updated. The Occult section of Version 1 became religion as I accepted Paganism as part of my religion. This version of the site was online around the time when I was 18 years old.

Version 3

Most significantly in Version 3 was the new blue design. I kept the sidebar navigation as I liked that it allowed me to populate the rest of the site with more content. The site used a combination of HTML and PHP, using Iframes. Removed the Site Updates but added on a Last Updated sentence on the home page so that people know when it was last updated.

The news section (above) had a page per news entry and an archive like a blog.

Version 4

Kept the same blue colours design. Kept the last updated sentence on the home page. Moved the Navigation to the top of the page. The main feature of this site was a wordpress blog which unfortunately I deleted being unable to pull off the posts and saving them. This was probably the shortest version of the site ever online, really I only focused on the blog.

Version 5

Again I kept the blue design (look above). It was the most advanced coding I had done so far. I liked the photos and had more of them to use as technology developed. I kept the Last Updated sentence and added a hit counter.

I created a windows-style little windows for the content. For the first time I had a guestbook.

Version 6

The major change in this design was the colours, using oranges and reds. The site design was the same, but I uploaded much more content.

Version 7

Easier on the eye colours were used. Advanced PHP coding used. Meta tags added so that I would appear in search results. For the first time I used an RSS feed. This was probably one of the longest sites online.

Navigation returned the sidebar with little yellow star bullet points! I discovered photoshop and used it to make my own banners. Put news on the home page. Kept expanding the site adding new sections and pages.

Also added Coming Soon – so that visitors would know what new content was to be added and Site Updates makes a return so visitors know what’s been recently updated.

Version 8

My friend Sye designed this site for me. I asked him to design it after seeing his cartoon artwork (see Funny cartoons from a friend and More funny cartoons from a friend). The idea was to create a noticeboard with a piece of paper pinned on to it. The Navigation was cartoon images that changed on mouse over at the top of the page.

The site was designed in dreamweaver using tables in a blog style. I also had a cartoon logo designed by Sye. I decided to have a wordpress blog for the home page and made some minor changes to the design to accommodate this to the version you see today:

So that’s how my sites developed over the years. Do you think I should make some changes to the current version or create a new version? Post a comment.

Antony

40 – 49.99% Third 3rd
50 – 59.99% Lower Second 2:2
60 – 69.99% Upper Second 2:1
70%+ First 1st

Just thought I’d post my results from University for the first two modules (see Back to University and Six NOT Four for more information).

Write soon,

Antony

He entered the stage wearing a jacket and trousers made out of a silver, silky-looking material which were tailored and very stylish. This combined with a tight black shirt and his white cheeky smile made him look very sexy indeed. (Definitely good eye candy!)

He performed a range of covers from his album Music Music Music. I enjoyed the ballets that seemed to suit his voice but felt it that both the album and performance would have benefited from some original songs.

During the breaks between songs John talked about his life and private family photos were projected on to a screen behind the stage. He seemed to want the audience to know more about him, his past and how he got to be where he is today. He mentioned his autobiography I am What I am, his time as Captain Jack Harness (see Torchwood – The Collection (Series 1-3) [DVD] & Torchwood – Children of Earth [DVD]) and towards the end even brought his parents up on stage.

Overall I enjoyed the show and was glad I bought it. I will watch it time and time again. Although his songs could have been original rather than covers, his charisma and sex appeal makes up for this. There is a part on the DVD were John shows that he knows his sex appeal as he turns and shakes his bum for a few seconds (causing me to say Wow!).

You can buy An Evening With John Barrowman on Amazon.

Review more things soon,

Antony

I fly out a week today and the excitement is starting to fill me as it gets closer. Got my flight tickets and hotel confirmation from the travel agent today. I must say that although the last minute holiday was cheap, us in the land of singledom are discriminated against – I had to pay what worked out to about £100 more because I’m going on my own, rather than as a couple.

It is going to be a week of relaxation. Catching some sun, reading some books, eating, and hopefully making a friend or two along the way. I hope to explore the famous old town that apparently has lots of gay bars/clubs/restaurants etc. as well as making good use of the beach.

Will of course blog about it when I get back. I’m not sure if there are any pre-written blog posts scheduled to publish while I’m away – so you may still have some reading, you may not. Your guess is as good as mine.

Adiós para ahora, bloguea pronto (translated to Spanish via Free Translation)

Antony

This is my serious list of things I’d like to see happen when you arrive:
• A cure for cancer, diabetes and other debilitating illnesses & diseases
• People to care more, to realise in the inter-web of life we are all connected
• People to work less, focusing their time on living a happy life
• People to work together rather than against one another
• People to be emotionally open and honest with themselves and others
• People to take more responsibility for their actions
• People realising that no matter how much you discuss (or push-my-religion-down-your-throat) it doesn’t work
• Politicians and the like to drop the politics and work for the people who elected them
• For money to become less important
• For true equality
• For education to be freely available for all
• For society to have less regulation & rules as these seem to create barriers and would lead to a freer society
• The ARTS (music, film, writing, media, sculpting, in fact anything creative) being respected and valued

Anything you’d add? I’m sure there’s plenty I’ve left out.

Take Care,

Antony