Robert Hampton

It’s the last day of 2012, and time to say a fond farewell to the calendar which has given me many months of fine service, taking pride of place on the wall in my bedroom:

But what to replace it with? Well, there is the 2013 Beautiful Men Wall Calendar which does what it says on the tin, and does it well – although, after buying it, I noticed that one of the photos shows a model with a ciggie in his mouth, which is just off-putting, frankly.

However, if you’re of a charitable bent, there are of course a whole host of organisations whose members are lining up to remove their clothes and pose with a slightly embarrassed expression. Forget the Women’s Institute and strategically placed cakes, these are highly artistic endeavours, and all for a good cause. Excellent stuff.

First there is the London Titans football club, who are donating funds to The Food Chain, a worthy charity which ensures that people in London with HIV have access to the nutrition they need. That’s got to be worth £10.99 of anyone’s money, surely? I was completely unaware of this calendar until my friend Andrew got me one for Christmas. He knows me so well.

Finally, we have the Warwick University Rowers, whose “Brokeback Boathouse” calendar has generated a lot of interest around the Interwebs. Their chosen charity is the amazing Ben Cohen Standup Foundation, which will use the funds to help in its fight against bullying.

The calendars flew off the shelves and sold out before I was able to get my hands on one. However, the downloadable “Making Of” video which is also available comes highly recommended. The downloads can be purchased from the Warwick Rowing web site. There’s even a calendar featuring the women’s rowing team, for those who like that sort of thing (I’m not judging).

Whether you have an attractive man on your wall or not, I hope you all have a very happy new year!

2011 will surely be remembered as the year I lost my blogging mojo. Certainly from August until mid-December, there has been a dearth of postings. Well, it has been a quiet time in the world, after all.

The lack of activity here on the site is in stark contrast to the activity in my life. There’s been a hell of a lot going on for me – I just, er, didn’t tell you about it.

Travel was on the agenda: this was the year I left the UK for the first time in 25 years, when I visited visited Estonia. Less exotically, I started my Station Master blog (currently in hibernation, but back with a bang in 2012, I promise). I also found time in September to celebrate my birthday with a weekend in London, and had a smashing day out in, er, Birmingham.

Yes, 2011 was the year I got out and about a lot. I didn’t even allow the swiping of my iPhone, by an expert pickpocket, to dissaude me.

I got up close and personal(ish) with McFly at their Liverpool concert, after my friend Andrew got tickets. I also saw Beautiful Thing, in its original stage incarnation, in Manchester. I failed, however, to get tickets to the Olympics.

An event which required no tickets was Liverpool Pride, which was great fun despite a funding shortfall which enforced a change of location. 2011 was really the year when “gay” really did mean “happy” for me. The cap on it all came in the Autumn, when I gained and then lost a boyfriend (it lasted only a few months, but the important thing is it happened).

Finally, with only days to go, I fulfilled one of my new year resolutions for 2011, by doing a videoblog – believe it or not, this grainy, poorly-lit video promises great things for the future.

So that was 2011. Hopefully 2012 will be just as, if not more rewarding for me. Maybe I’ll even write a blog post or two about it. Or not. Happy New Year everybody!

Happy New Year, everyone!

Christmas went really well; I bought a bang up-to-date Trivial Pursuit Deluxe Edition, thus avoiding the pitfalls outlined in my previous post. Nobody bought me My Booky Wook by Russell Brand, but Amazon now have it at less than half price, so… yay! I look forward to reading of the amazing adventures of him and his winkle in due course.

It is now, of course, Capital of Culture year in Liverpool. I’m eagerly anticipating the full programme of events which are planned for the next 366 days. After a recent well-publicised fiasco, I’m praying that the city doesn’t fuck up in a year when, more than ever, the eyes of the world will be on us.

I’m not even bothering with resolutions this year; I’ve usually broken them all by mid-January anyway, so I’m not going to give myself an excuse to beat myself up.

Actually that’s not true: I have one resolution, and one only: to be happy. I think at long last I’m now in a place where I can make that happen.