Wild Wednesday

It's time to get out of your depth, do something that you always thought was too hard. You can either say yes to something you'd normally say no to, or seek something that you've always baulked at for fear of failure, and embrace it. It could be asking for raise at work, taking on a particular responsibility, maybe something physical. Whatever it is, make it a sink or swim moment, and you might just surprise yourself at your abilities! Then, come next wild wednesday, it won't be scary any more.

Wild Wednesdays, scare yourself a little, grow a lot more.

swim squad

Swim squad Tuesday Night

-it was high intensity-

This is what we did...
Warm up: 1km freestyle with fins: 50m easy 50m hard 100m easy 100m hard 200m easy 200m hard, and then back down again, that was 1km.
8x50m 1/2 butterfly, 1/2 freestyle with each 50m on 50seconds
Main Set: 8x50m freestyle with bands on (ie around your ankles so you can't kick) it's sink or swim , these were again every 50seconds followed immediately by 400m intense freestyle, and this 800m set was repeated for a total of 3 times.
Warm down: 8x75m freestyle variable pace and 200m cool off.
All up 4.6km - I was completely exhausted, but feeling fantastic... and then I went to gym.

1234Men Now Online

It's a team blog we're building and hopefully will be a lot for fun, and not just for us.

Have a look and let me know what you think.

You can click the flash image above to link there - otherwise use http://1234men.blogspot.com

A Liberal push for Gay equality?

It seems the world is square, pigs do fly, and the Australian Federal Liberal Party (well, one member of it at least) is pushing for equality!! See the Sydney Morning Herald article here.

all at once

I'm not one for free advertising, but this image has a number of reasons for being here today.
1. Jonathan Rhys Meyers, enough said.
2. This is in fact my 'signature fragrance' which to me really means it is the only scent I have reliably liked for a long time - first brought to my attention by a very cute scandinavian friend who used to wear it... I liked it (and him) - and have ever since worn it. I have tried to broaden my senses, with no other fragrance able to usurp good old Hugo, and now I have one of these bottles in the sports bag that goes everywhere with me and one that stays at home.
3. There is so much going on in this image, it's kinda like what's happening in my head most of the time, so many things, and at such a pace that the day has too little time in it to make it all happen, but I do try - which is one of the reasons for the time of this, and most of my blog posts...
4. Jonathan Rhys Meyers, did I say that already? well, with good reason.

Stand By Your Man - Commercial

Cute Commercial - found at Lavi's blog. 1min 31sec

Writing in the Air

I'm now in possession of a dictaphone, so that my new secretary can type up my letters when I see my palliative care patients. I have been writing my own for the past 9 years or so, and the whole idea of writing a letter in my head is quite foreign. I'm visualising my previous letters as a template in my head, and speaking them out with the new details as appropriate, but my written communication is much more concise than my spoken word it would seem by the letters I've been proofing today... new paragraph

It will free up time to see more patients P - A - T - I - E - N - T - S though comma which is really the most rewarding part of the job stop It's just kinda odd comma but I'll get used to it stop end of post

Superchilled at work...

Things I did at work today...

Glued a boy’s eyebrow back together after his mum kindly opened a car door in his face…

Stuck needles in so many people I can’t recall the exact number. I do recall was a 4year old who sat there and took it like a man, I was impressed. He didn’t flinch. Even with the second needle.

Made a baby vomit by using a tongue depressor rather brutally, thankfully my chair has wheels and I fast reflexes. Mum wasn’t so lucky…

Gave morphine orders for a patient who is dying.

Followed up a very cute, bright and tall patient who has a chronic head injury following playing football. Dreamy.
If only he could remember…

Tried to get a history out of a man who had just finished nightshift, about his son who was handed to him when he got home from work. I ended up calling the mum.

Saw one of my favourite patients who is an eternally travelling entymologist, and discussed his recent trip to Africa.

Counselled a couple who both suffer from marked depression about ongoing medication.

Removed the last traces of pus from a facial infection on a teenage girl, you should have seen it YESTERDAY eeek… Poor girl.

There was more of course - but that's enough for today.

Passionate Wild Wednesday

We've had all manner of challenges on wild wednesday, and the focus has been more on doing things that scare you and challenge you. But today I'm throwing caution to the wind and promoting a wild wednesday of passion! That's right - be passionate about things today - in all kinds of ways - throw yourself into things you love, be that men, art, sport, food... or all of it at once, just go for it. The wilder and sexier the better, and read the post 'talking sex' if you have any concerns about letting us know how it went for you. Life's too short to not go wild from time to time, be safe of course, but go wild in every other way. If we can't hear you screaming in pleasure, you're not being passionate enough!!

Gardening

I'm heading to my friendly local nursery man to buy me the plant that sprouts these flowers. Imagine the arrangements one could create! The garden parties!
Bring on Spring!!!

1234Men Launches August 14

Vigeland Park

A park filled with beautiful naked people all year round?

Is it possible?

In Norway, anything is possible, and in the capital Oslo, lies Vigeland Park. I first came across it one bright snowy December night, when my Norwegian friends took me for a walk... I may have been a medical student there, but this night I was a kid in a lolly shop... snow balls hit everyone - and my god the men were just stunning - you could climb all over them without objection! A homoerotic dream. Of course it is a sculpture park, but the sculptures are larger than life and very tactile. The theme is the cycle of life, and I never tire of the gorgeous granite men, in various poses throughout the gardens. Of course there are more than just men, but I think you know where my attention is focused. I'm thinking it deserves a posting or two of its own - but here is an introduction. Perhaps I'll post more in 1234Men, our team blog soon to be launched...

Race Around the World - Location 17

Leg 17: Where am I? And who are these women?

In leg 16 of Superchilled Race Around the World, we ended up at the Hilton Hotel in Auckland, New Zealand, as correctly identified by Peter von Amsterdam. There were a few tackles at what we could identify in the swimming pool at that same hotel (see here), and while I liked a lot of the entries, especially where there was sex involved, 'Cloning the perfect boy' was not quite what I expected and wins the most creative prize for Sue.

Back to the photo above - and can you elaborate on what's happening here, and where... ?

The race starts... NOW.

Antisocial?

I was catching up with friends today, a hot chocolate in the afternoon sun by Sydney harbour. Stunning it was. Unusually for The Frenchman and I, we were early, so we had the chance to just absorb the rays, watch the sun glistening around the harbour and order from the overpriced menu. We hadn't seen our friends since before our European holiday and were keen to catch up.

They arrived later than planned a little embarrassed - but we didn't care - and asked about our trip. I asked if they had seen our travel blog (linked above) with all the details, to which they responded a little embarrassed, 'some of it... '. I joked that they should have done their research prior to catching up! And defensively one of our friends objected that the net is impairing communication, and personal interaction... kids are growing up with inadequate interpersonal communication... (I probably glazed over about here)... and that we were there at that moment to in fact divulge those details...

Maybe I hit a nerve, but I regarded the travel blog as a personalised series of postcards, that could perhaps stimulate more conversation - and felt a little affronted at the remarks made. While I challenged his assertions, I didn't really pursue it with much gusto. We could in fact discuss out holiday in more detail, and I wasn't in the mood to discuss the pros and cons of electronic communication as he and I have distinctly different points of view and are similarly stubborn with them. As it turned out, we were diverted to other topics reasonably quickly - and the holiday fell by the wayside.

I still much prefer one on one communication live and in the same location - but I find the net a particularly good way of learning things about people and the human condition that I might not otherwise know. Living out here in the sticks - I often don't get to see friends on a daily basis so the net helps me keep in touch. Blogging of course is great for that as those of us who write and interact in them will know. Am I becoming a less social person? I don't think so. But stubborn as I am - maybe I'm wrong?

Saturday Things I Love in Winter

• Dozing in and out of consciousness in a warm bed snuggling with The Frenchman when it's FREEZING outside


• Not having to work


• Lazy catch ups with friends in uninhibited spaces


• Swimming


• Wandering up and down Oxford St Paddington shopping and watching the often cute crowds


• Reading bits and pieces of the huge Saturday paper in no particular order


• Random movies or galleries or unexpected meetings


• Tomorrow is Sunday - and I can do the same again if I want to.

Talking Sex

Do you contact your friends the moment you've exited a sex scene and tell them of success/disappointment, grandness/petiteness, the rating of his kissing prowess, the overall raunch, or failure to launch? Or do you keep it to yourself or reveal it in stages, and in the right places?

When I first entered the gay scene it seemed all everyone talked about was sex. And in detail, explicit detail. While sometimes that was quite a lot of fun, it seemed to me that it brought the whole thing of sex and people and relationships into a commodity. People became rated according to their varying sexual capacities, performance, and size. A thing of numbers and stats. But where I came from - one didn't speak of such things - in fact - one didn't speak about sex at all. So early on The Frenchman and I decided that we didn't want to talk about sex so openly. We wanted to keep something for 'just us'.

Talking about sex though, is something that can be quite liberating, and at times a lot of fun. Discussion with close friends about such things can certainly strengthen relationships and break down barriers that we've held up for so long. But how much is too much? What should we keep to ourselves? And what do our sexual partners expect of us on these matters?

Wild Wednesday

Things aren't always as they seem... Today's Wild Wednesday objective is to do something that isn't expected of you. Something that's a little outside the 'you' that everyone including yourself knows. You could talk a lot when you don't normally talk at all, or perhaps the reverse. You could come out at work, or to a friend (see my guide to coming out). Do something crazy (or unexpectedly sane!), just don't be yourself. See if you can get people talking. If it all goes pear shaped - just blame me and Wild Wednesdays. (but be sure to tell us what happened)

Got a previous wild wednesday experience? Let us know how it went!

Tuesday - Coalcliff

The colours at the beach were stunning today.

Austinmer Beach - Sunday

A bit chilly for my liking... Was nice in the sun though...

Exercise Motivation

I was chatting to a friend today about motivation to exercise. The pump class he likes is much more popular with girls than guys, which for a straight guy would be great - but he's not. He was really pumped (pun intended) when it was announced the new instructor would be a guy - and deflated when it turned out not to be the case. I know when I swim if there's a really cute guy training in my lane - I can really get quite distracted - training focus goes out the window and I can get lost an aquatic dream... Embarrassing I know, but I don't mind. If he's fast - I'm going to push myself harder to maintain the pace...

Yes there are always the long term goals, physical health, a general sense of well being from the exercise itself and possibly friends and coaches who can all be motivational factors, but it's amazing the power of sexual attraction that will push you harder... and faster... and keep you coming back for more...

Do you find someone cute a help or a hindrance when you exercise?