Smile, Bobby!

He doesn't smile nearly enough in LOCI, but when he does...

For Kissing VIncent

Beano and Dandy knew very young that this is what armchairs were invented for.
A nice warm conservatory is ideal for kittens
A tangle of kittens - playing or sleeping?

The first (official) outing.

Dandy had actually forced his way outside through a tough magnetic catflap only days after his arrival.

Stonehenge

There are only so visitors many per year that English Heritage is permitted to allow actually inside Stonehenge. Most of those are taken up by the so-called "Druids" that regard it as their holy place, even though it predates them by millennia and is probably not a giant calendar to mark the summer solstice like they think.

I was lucky enough to go on a trip to the stones in the summer of 2004. The weather was appalling all day, and we all soaked our way round Salisbury and Old Sarum. First we went round Stonehenge as ordinary visitors, and it continued to pour down. Then it closed and we left to encourage the ordinary visitors to go. As our time approached, the skies cleared and the sun came beaming out. It was magical.

Bobby's Hands

I could look at them forever. I can imagine what they feel like doing all sorts of things.

Wrong Man

Whenever I watch this episode, I wish it was Bobby standing there baring his (nearly) all - even in Speedos.

Especially in Speedos.

Anyone got a towel?

After all that hot sex with my big boyfriend Louis, I really needed a shower.

I managed it

I finally managed to watch The Subway last night for the first time since it came out. God, how gruelling.

Why does he always have to die?

Head and Shoulders

I love it when he dwarfs everyone else in a scene.

A Vertical Ascent

Not very easy to see, but on the hillside behind these buildings on the North York Moors, there is a road which is going up what is apparently the steepest hill in England.

In the early 1980s on my grail quest in the south of France I acquired a fear of driving up hills, when the driver of the car I was in couldn't get the car down into first gear going up a mountain road, on account of his artificial left hand. We were rolling backwards down the mountainside till his wiffe managed to whack the gearstick in.

The BBC wanted people with driving problems for a TV programme and I volunteered. They took me to Rosedale Chimney Bank (the hill in the picture) in the village of Rosedale Abbey, gave me some hypnotherapy type of treatment, and set me loose on the hillside road. Repeatedly. On camera. Round tight bends. Forwards and in reverse.

They never used the footage, but I've been much better since, and I know what a Dolly Grip is.

For this TV-show-that-never-was, the state-funded BBC paid for hotel rooms for me, the therapist, the producer, the gofer, the sound man, the cameraman and the guy to put the fixed camera in the car. They hired two cars, paid all these people, and paid train and cab fare home to London for me and the therapist.

It was a hell of an experience though.

I now drive an automatic. It was the cure all the time.

Hey, hey - me, me, me, me, me!

I love this picture. Seeing those long legs astride the bench, those terrific hands dangling down, those long, long legs, that huge body, that perfect profile. He's looking at her AND SHE'S NOT LOOKING AT HIM!

LOOK AT ME, BOBBY, OVER HERE.

To Boldly Go

What's that thing pointing in my direction?
I'd better take a closer look.

Snow Leopard

I love these cats. They have the most amazing tails. Like Vincent's hands, really.

I'd rather they were in the wild, but we can't afford to lose them from the planet, so I guess we have to put up with breeding programmes in wild animal parks so as to assure the future of the species.

This one was at Port Lympne in Kent, England. It's a great place as animal parks go. It was funded by a casino owner, the late John Aspinall, along with another one in the same county, Howlett's. There's also a part of the foundation which sets up schemes to release big cats, gorillas and other endangered creatures back into the wild. Nice to know the money lost by mugs goes to a good cause.

A Winning Oscar

This adorable little British Blue boy is Oscar.
A couple or years ago I was visiting a student who was on work experience at a vet's. One of the clients had some kittens, and I had a colleague who wanted a British Blue. A match made in heaven.

Let's play charades

Four words. Second word.

Easy! Love.

The full answer is, "I love Vincent D'Onofrio."