Marty

Oh, woozer!! Look at this! Over 20,000 replies in this forum!

It was a bank holiday weekend again, and I had spent Friday and Saturday nights at a bed and breakfast near Tralee in County Kerry on the southwest coast of Ireland. I'd picked up a cheap voucher for the B&B online, so had taken the opportunity to do some hill walking. Saturday had seen me standing on the top of Carrauntoohil, Ireland's highest mountain. And an early start on Sunday had meant that I was able to summit Mount Brandon on the Dingle Peninsula, and still get home reasonably early

Hey, Hunter! All good here. Just uploading my latest bit of writing, then will probably head to bed.

And one must always listen to mother...

You don't too badly in the laughs department yourself, Albert....

You don't do too badly yourself, either, Albert!

I so misinterpreted what you were saying there at first, Gary! I almost asked just what place (part) of your anatomy needs to have a sling so that you could carry it about....

Hey, Page?

Hope that the server has kept a backup of your answers so far? And trust that, if it was a timed exam, the timing stopped as the server crashed, and recorded how much time you have left? Schlafen Sie gut und süße Träume, Bucket (Sleep well, and sweet dreams)

And you were never one to be a shrinking violet, were you, Alberto?

Awesome news, indeed!

Hope all goes well, Albert.

How ya doing, young Albert?

G'day, Xan

What a lovely little story! I can really feel for Aiden's father. He knows what he should do, but hasn't really a clue how to go about it. Not to suggest for a moment that he's doing anything the wrong way. I've no kids of my own, but I have been in situations where I've been fairly convinced that some of my younger relatives, or children of friends, are gay and not been sure whether I should ask them about it. The following quote from the story shadows some of my worries: "Then again...what kind of father would I be if I made an effort to approach him and it ended up making Aiden paranoid and ashamed of who he is? What if he's simply not ready to have anyone else know yet...and I end up putting him on the offensive?" Very nicely written, @Comicality

A nice sweet story about first love. Made all the more enjoyable due to the love and acceptance shown by one of each of the two boys' parents/grandparents. Such accepting adults can really help younger people get over the worries they may feel when they first realise that they may be LGBT+ - especially if they happen to live in a society where not everyone would be accepting of such differences. Thanks for this, @TimmY92

Hi yourself, Gary! Not sure if I should ask who belongs in each of the above three categories...

What a cathartic experience that dinner date turned out to be for Chris. He finally told someone else about what really happened to him during his time with The Release Trust and about his attempted suicide; and only found love and concern, not the ridicule he was perhaps expecting. This could well turn out to be the turning point that will help him to leave the past where it belongs, and move forward in his life. I'm not sure that he and Ryan will end up becoming partners, but I'm sure they will become good friends. I reckon Ryan may well use Chris' story in his planned book exposing The Release Trust. I think I have suggested in some of my comments to earlier chapters that Kay could well be the friend that might be able to help Chris. And so she did - if only by the fact that she introduced him to her brother. One final chapter to read... It's late at night now. I'll read it tomorrow

Hey, Page! The day dried up slightly, so I managed to get out for a while in the evening and pot some small strawberry plants that I'd propagated from runners last year into larger pots. They were getting a little pot bound in their original pots. Made spag bol for dinner, followed by live blackcurrant yoghurt as dessert.

Interesting concept, and an enjoyable read. I was also half-expecting Pike might have brought Bungo and Drubbo back with him to the Intrepid. But I can see that that may have posed problems.

This is like some episode from a soap opera. Think I'll just make myself a cup of tea and sit back in the armchair and watch all the shenanigans.

Well, wherever it went to, it certainly hasn't found the West of Ireland yet. Miserable day here. Windy, cloudy, and bucketing rain. Temp only around 13°C. It's more like a March day than an almost the end of May one. One of my older neighbours said to me when I was out for a stroll this morning: "Today's a day for the high stool" (as in a day for sitting at the bar in the local public house.). And the weather forecast is suggesting we're not likely to see any settled, warm weather for at least another week yet. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the forecasters are just being overly cautious. Happy Monday, all! (I'll leave it to Gary to provide the picture to cheer us all up)

To be honest, I didn't really think that Chris screwed up the relationship with Will. He realised that the two of them weren't compatible. Will wants to spend his time going to clubs and bars ('they were the only places he wants to go to') whereas Chris says he 'hates' them. Chris reckoned that they had 'sex in common but nothing else.' A relationship has to have more than just sex to make it meaningful. In my opinion, Chris made the correct decision to end his relationship with Will. If it could be said that he screwed up at all in this relationship at all, maybe it was just that he took too long deciding to end it?