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What is it that women love about men who dress up? I have noticed this about my dressing up in drag and a few friends who have tried it on various occasions share my view about it. Obviously it is great for getting attention directed at you and I imagine that is a large part of it as getting noticed does help that and you are establishing pretty easily that you are up for a laugh.

Firstly I am associated with doing drag a lot these days it seems, although now I do it a lot less than I used to due to not working at Crunchie which is where I was doing it every week. I would be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy it myself although I think it is more due to the fun and notoriety it brings more than anything. But I have to admit I am curious to see what could be done if I were to do it properly rather than how I do it to see if I could be made to look feminine and not like a bloke in a dress.

Last night I was working in Portsmouth at a school disco and I was not dressed up initially and I had a few girls who had seen me a couple of weeks before come up to me separately and ask me why I was not dressed up. I had brought a costume but as quiet I had not donned it, however as these people seemed let down by my lack of attire I quickly put it on and people rapidly changed in how they acted to me. Most of the men had a chuckle and a couple seemed scared (particularly when I started dancing with them), but for the most part the women seemed to like it and warmed to me more than they had previously. Indeed it was quite hard to get away from some of them, although as they were pretty I suppose I might not have been trying as hard as I perhaps might of.

The only nights I have wound up snogging girls in the past couple of years I have been in drag, although this might have a lot to do with going out in drag than as a man I hasten to add. Beula, my ex met me when I was in drag and it worked for her and a few other girls have said it works for them as well but what puzzles me is why? What is so appealing about a man in a dress that means he can expect to have people paw him all night, although I suppose it does help with the feeling like a woman.

I think I am going to have to follow this up by asking a few people when I is out and about in a dress next, I shall put the results up here when I have them.

Imagine the scene – two people sat or stood next to each other at a bus stop or maybe on a train, neither knows the other and once one if them goes they will most likely never see each other again.

Encounters like this occur everyday in there thousands and often the people don’t speak to each other whereas sometimes they do. I for my sins am one of those people who quite happily strikes up conversations with strangers giving the slightest chance, from discussing alternate political systems where democracy is fairer through to giving advice on how to find somewhere almost anything can become an excuse to chat.

The other week an older lady who appeared to be about 60 sat next to me and we got chatting as to where we were going and why? She informed me that she was returning from visiting her daughter ad I told her I was off to Portsmouth to take photos dressed as a schoolgirl. This made the lady laugh and I then wound up telling jokes about my different costumes. The response from those around us were varied the 12 year olds opposite looked aghast, whilst a couple of other people got drawn into the conversation and I would like to think that all of us had a more pleasant journey as a result of this. After all it is better than sitting in silence for two and a half-hours and more diverting than a book.

Today I was at a bus stop and two people were also waiting and speaking in German, then a passer by informed us that buses might be delayed as the road the buses had to come down had been closed off by the police temporarily. This started a small conversation off and so I followed it up with asking about the Germans and asking if they were students. It turned out they were a mother and daughter having a two week tour of the south west and that the daughter had been in the UK for the past year as an assistant German teacher. This of course got me started on how I was hoping to be going to Germany as an assistant English teacher and gave me advice on things I could do to make my experience a pleasurable one. She also gave me the advice to do like she had done and get a job in a pub to help me practice the lingo, which is not something I had previously considered but sounds like an intriguing idea.

Another example of a random meeting was my helping a woman find the platform for a train (it was the same as mine so I wasn’t exactly going out of my way). Because of this we got chatting and I convince her to have her picture taken by me. It is one of the pictures I am most pleased with as it is a good picture but also took a little skill to blag getting it as well.

It’s that time of year for the celebration of Europop, it’s the 50th Eurovision and once again for some strange reason I am watching it once again listening to the delightfully inane commentary of Terry Wogan although I have to agree with his comment about the shrieking hosts. Still on with the show…

Oh I wish I had digital TV now for the kareoke extra feature they get.

1. Hungary (Nox – “Spin, World”) Hmmmm Irish dancing and they forgot the lyrics judging by the Na na nas that they kept singing

2. UK (Javine – “Touch My Heart”) Not as bad as last year I have to admit but that doesn’t make it any how?good in it’s own right, when will we produce another Bucks Fizz to steal the show?

3. Malta (Chiara – “Angel”) Uninspiring, low power ballad sung by a fat woman, where else but Eurovision would you get to see this.

4. Romania (Luminita – “Let Me Try”) “I don’t wanna say good-bye, I will find a way to make you stay.” Sounds like my girlfriend when I broke up with her and almost as whiney.

5. Norway (Wig Wam – “In My Dreams”) This is more like it, ridiculous Glam Rock you can’t go wrong, it my not be good but is the most fun so far with awful costumes and flag waving.

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Well the exam went pretty well, I even managed to finish early, I may not have got 100% but I am pretty sure that although my mark won’t reflect what I am capable of, it also won’t reflect what I deserve for the work I have put in this year.

My first exam is tomorrow at 9am and as yet I have done no revision, hmmmm……

So far this week my revision has consisted of reading books that don’t touch upon maths in the slightest – mainly novels some good, some trashy but all equally useful when it comes to being examined on the finer points of the mathematical modelling of financial derivatives. Combine this with the level of work I have put in over the past year and the prognosis isn’t good.

Still that is the joy of maths, you can revise n a short space of time and do well as the questions tend to be of a certain formats and the numbers are what change and sometimes even they don’t if the lecturer is lazy. My cunning plan is to cram in the questions today and prepare a crib sheet of as much as possible as I can take an A4 page of notes in, which is basically everything I should have learned this year. Considering this it makes me realise how easy it actually is, as in terms of quantity we haven’t really learned that much and that has been the problem I reckon. The pressure hasn’t been there so it allows you to get lazy as catching up even at this late stage is possible, or so I hope to prove.

Basically like previous exams at UWE I am going over past papers and demo questions looking for what keeps coming up and working out the crib for each question and putting it on my page of notes.

The downside is that as I have left it so late I am going to have to get up about 6 tomorrow to do a quick 90 minute recap before I head into UWE to do the exam and I have to walk for 30 mins to get there. That or hope a bus runs direct as to get the buses otherwise would mean getting buses at 7:30 and going via the centre as UWE themselves haven’t thought to provide exam buses on Saturdays despite having exams on Saturdays. Anywise, best get back to my revision I suppose as only have a few hours of time left to do some in.

I don’t watch that much TV and I have a general dislike of “reality” TV, however despite this the last few weeks have seen me getting more and more glued to a programme, so much so that I actually made sure to be around for the final show to find out the winner.

The programme was The Apprentice described by some as a high brow reality show, and while I wouldn’t say it is that high brow as most people could easily understand it is better than most other “reality” shows which I have little time for it does have a little something which raises it above them.

I suppose it helps that we ony get one hour a week of it instead of daily updates but despite that is was still easy to get behind certain people such as Tim who I wanted to seebeat Saira as they were the finalists. I can see why my origianal favorite was knocked out as James was overqualified and wouldn’t as such have been an apprentice, as he had already achieved a lot.

Still it was nice to see that Saira cockiness and ability to set people off worked against her, while Tim aimed high and despite nearly having the rug pulled out frm him managed to pull it off. That said I did kind of hope he was going to get his team to stand in as models when he found out he might not have any.

Still I have to admit it was good TV and I would love to see more like it ideally with different businessmen reprising the role of Alan Sugar if at all possible.