We entered the hotel - The Sheraton Towers - of 7th Avenue amidst a huge African culture conference.

The place was busy, very busy but we fought our way to the Cunard desk and received our keys to the room.

Collecting our bags from the concierge we took the elevator to the 20th floor and opened the bedroom door.

Instead of the king size bed that we had booked, two beds were in front of us.

The hotel had assumed because we were two guys sharing that we would want a twin, which in a way is a form of discrimination.

Enraged I marched downstairs to the front desk and spoke to a guy who looked like he was gay.

Before I had chance to vent my frustration he diffused the situation, allocating a kingsize room and on a higher floor.

While he was working away I reflected on the few occasions where i have been faced with two guys who have booked into a twin room and how I always - discreetly - offered them a double room.

Nine time out of ten, they were very happy with that.

Civilised is what it is.

That is the word that best sums the cruise for me.

Civilised.

We got into a little routine over the few days that we were here,

Breakfast at eight.

Walk around the prom deck afterwards.

A little bit of shopping, or a game of scrabble

An hour in the gym burning of 500 cals

Lunch

Afternoon snooze or a film in the planetarium
Back to the gym for another 500 cals

dress for dinner

Dinner

A smooch and a DVD before sleep.

But that ain't the civilised part, thats just normal joe stuff.

The civilised is dressing for dinner, walking in to the grand lobby and hearing the string quartet playing, or having afternoon tea in the Queens Room.

That's civilised.

Sitting listening to one of the Guest Lecturers talk about Cinema, he briefly touched upon SENSURROUND – this was in use back in the seventies and he politely informed us that about five movies were made with this process – EarthQuake and Battlestar Galactica being two of them.

Man, I remember seeing Battlestar Galactica in SENSURROUND !!!!

I remember being the picture house with my mom and Stepfather (she was smoking 'casue you could do that at the pictures back then) and feeling the seats of the cinema shake when a viper went down a launch tube to engage the cylons in that same old dogfight routine.

I remember this because on the way home we had to pull over so I could puke at the side of the road.

Listening to this guy talk about it today brought this little memory back.

I also maybe should have corrected him, as Battlestar Galactica wasn't made for the cinema , it was made for tv as the first thee episodes of the original series ''Saga of a Star World'' were cut down to a 2 hour movie and given a cinema release over here, obviousely going through the SENSURROUND process.

Maybe I should have got my geek on and bitch slapped his geek into the next zombie apocalypse, but I restrained myself.

G looked beutiful.

He looked smart and sexy in his dinner suit.

Tonight was the first of the formal dinner nights where everybody is required to dress for dinner.

And I quite like that idea, it lends an air of civility to the proceedings, it adds a further touch of glamour to an already glamourous ship.

We dressed and headed down to deck 2 for a pre-dinner cocktail – I had my usual Long Island Iced Tea and G had a Singapore Sling.

He never drinks but partook this evening.

Before we had sat down for the cocktail we had our photograph taken - as did everybody else.

A little momento of the trip.

We then sat down for dinner in the Britannia grill.

The guys in that place have really looked after us.

We had the same table each night – a table for two not sharing with anybody and it was on the upper tier of the balcony, looking across the big grand atrium.

We had a romantic dinner for two each evening.

How wonderful.

LAUNCH PARTY

On the whole the launch party went well.

There were four hundred invited and 320 showed, which ain't bad going.

There should have been more , but between sales and marketing some invites did not get to where they should have.

The Chairman decided that those who were attending the party were not sufficently senior enough for him, so he decided not to attend.

What an ass.

He hopes to do future business with the owners of the hotel and yet he couldn't be bothered to show up for the launch of their first hotel venture.

What a double ass.

But the hotel still looked spectacular.

There was a loose theme of 40's glamour and maritime.

'Cause it's located on the river.

I tell you, those PR people are pretty damned smart when it comes to concepts.

There was a huge projection of Esther Williams movies on one of the walls of the lobby.

There were guys and girls dressed as sailors dancing and looking sexy (but dumb).

There was a shitload of food -mostly seafood (geddit?) and wine,champagne and cocktails.

The night went well.

All of our sales guys were in attendence and I did suggest that this would be an ideal opportunity to lock them in an empty bedroom and throw a grenade in through a crack of the door, but the idea of wasting a valuable grenade on them was frowned upon.

Oh well.

Perhaps next time.

Throughout the night I had maybe four conversations to a guy I used to report to.

He has a tough reputation in the company and deservedly so.

He is a bloody bastard, but a great Boss. He will bollock you into next week should you mess up. But if you ever needed anything from him, he would never let you down.

We talked a few times about this and that and then he sort of told me what I needed to hear.

Something G has been saying to me for a long time, something I believe but have yet to have had the opportunity to prove.

He said that there is no substitute for being a GM of a hotel.

''You could be a number 2 in a 500 room property'' he said '' but it's a completely different ball game for being a GM, even in a property that is as small nineteen rooms.''

''The life experience that you gain when you are being held accountable for those above you...well there is nothing like it''.

And he's right.

I know he is, as is G...I just want the opportunity to prove it.

I took my first drink at about 11pm and I was the last to leave at 3.10am, after being challenged to drinking competition by the Chief Engineer.

We said we would do it before Christmas.

Heh

The fool.

He'll lose.

All in all it was a good night.

Above us the stars and below us the waves.

I can see the frickin stars.

I look up at the sky and I see the constellations.

Big Fucking Deal I hear you say.

Well, yeah.

It is.

When you live in the big smoke, the bustling Metropolis of London you never see the stars.

The night is just a dull orange glow caused by the light pollution of a million street lights.

But here, on the Queen Mary 2, sailing towards New York, I can walk out onto our balcony and look up at the stars.

And I love it.

I cannot begin to describe how impressed I am with this ship.

Its fucking huge!

If you walk around the deck three time you have walked 1.1 miles.

We came on board about 4pm, after travelling down from London.

The checkin was quite painless -relatively speaking- there was a long queue of about a zillion old people but it was no worse than going to an airport to check in.

In fact it was a lot better.

When we arrived at the stateroom our luggage was already there, as was a welcome bottle of bubbly.

The cabin – sorry STATEROOM – is really quite nice.

Good size, a nice king size bed, a small settee, a compact bathroom and a great balcony.

We went for a walk and then took part in the safety drill.

Then we sat down on the deck - braving the cold – as we slowly pulled away from the dock and began the first part of our transatlantic voyage.

We then explored our temporary home, impressed by everything we saw.

We then came back to the stateroom and indulged in some impromptu fucking.

Dinner was served in the Britannia grill and it was very good.
The grill room itself would be at home at any park lane hotel. It is three storeys high, has a glass ceiling and it is decorate in a neo-deco fashion,

The whole meal was very tasty, very well presented and the portions just right.

The first night is informal, but some are formal with a dinner suite or dark suit and tie.

And Im looking forward to that.

We then went to the Commadore Club at the very front of the ship and indulged in a cocktail.

In this case it was a Cosmo.

Quite nice.

When the zombie apocalypse finally happens, this is where I want to be.

The weight loss continues.

I have gone from 154kg to 129kg and still going.

It hasn't been too difficult overall, I don't deprive myself or starve myself in anyway.

Two breakfast bars in the morning, sandwich and a potato salad for lunch (as opposed to a canteen lunch that was just a pile of chips and meat pies, but then I was 'oop north...) and good healthy meal in teh evening with lots of veg.

And Ice cream.

Yes, Binky, I said ICE CREAM.

'Skinnuy Cow' does this great range of Ice cream and i is pretty lo cal.

On average one of their Ice Cream bars has approx 100 calories.

So thats my daily treat.

And,

This morning for the very first time I rode to work.

Thats right, me on a bike.

I quite enjoyed it, was a little nervous at first but got here in one piece.

Just have to get home after the pub...

I love it when little things like this happen.

Reading issue 7 of ''Buffy The Vampire Slayer'' - a cracking good comic btw that is actually season 8 of the Buffy tv series...but in comics form.

Anyway,

On the last page there is a panel of Giles and Faith talking. We don't see them 'cause they are inside a building and only their speech balloons hang outside in the Londoan air, but below them walking down the street is the Doctor and Rose.

Thats right.

The Doctor and Rose walking along a Lonon street.

They are not named of course, if they were then the copyright police would kick the door down of the publisher and take no prisoners, but it is clearly them.

Cool.