{"id":363,"date":"1999-04-01T12:53:26","date_gmt":"1999-04-01T11:53:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dickonedwards.co.uk\/diary\/?p=363"},"modified":"2005-10-13T12:53:37","modified_gmt":"2005-10-13T11:53:37","slug":"363","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dickonedwards.com\/diary\/index.php\/archive\/363\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Thursday April 1st<\/p>\n<p>I buy the new issue of Select Magazine because Charley&#8217;s in it, and choke slightly on my greased toast when I see they&#8217;ve made these pages &#8220;Netsite of the Month&#8221;. They can stay.<\/p>\n<p>In need of cheering up, I stumble on a website for choosing baby&#8217;s names:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The name of Dickon has made you serious-minded, responsible, and stable. You love the security of a home and family, you are fond of<br \/>\nchildren, and, as a parent you would be fair and understanding. Although you have good business judgment, you are not aggressive in your<br \/>\ndealings because you do not like to create issues. You would be successful in any position dealing with the public as you have a diplomatic and<br \/>\ntactful manner and possess a charming, easy-going nature which puts people at ease. People are drawn to you because they feel that you are<br \/>\npatient, kind, understanding, and responsive. You would be effective in a career or in volunteer work where you are handling people and serving<br \/>\nin a humanitarian way. While you are honest and responsible, one weakness that is paramount in your life is your lack of self-confidence and<br \/>\ninitiative, which causes you to put things off and avoid facing issues. Generally speaking, you have few problems with your health; however,<br \/>\nthere is a weakness affecting the fluid functions of the body. &#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps someone should tell them about me.<\/p>\n<p>A female columnist in some rag I leaf through in the cafe bemoans David Beckham&#8217;s new quiff look. She writes &#8220;on behalf of all women everywhere&#8221;, begging men not to follow suit and spend more time at the mirror, in the bathroom, and generally on personal appearance, than themselves. Calamity! She concludes, &#8220;who needs a blond Morrissey?&#8221;. Curses! Rumbled!<\/p>\n<p>GMTV runs a story on the world&#8217;s first male pregnancy. Later, the &#8220;father&#8221; pulls up his jumper to reveal a cushion, and the whole team cries &#8220;April Fool!&#8221;. Gordon Kennedy quickly puts on his &#8220;but seriously, folks&#8221; expression, and they cut to Kosovo. The viewer is seemingly left expecting Mr Milosovic to give the camera a knowing comedy wink.<\/p>\n<p>At a club, a man with big glasses and a backpack follows me around the dancefloor. I do my best to shake him off, but he later comes up to me and says, &#8220;this is going to sound a bit direct, but do you fancy a fuck?&#8221;. &#8220;That IS a bit direct. Do I have to answer that?&#8221; &#8220;No.&#8221; &#8220;Well, then.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He goes on to say he&#8217;s not a regular. I seem to always attract the tourists. If not geographical tourists, then social tourists. And of course, sexual tourists.<\/p>\n<p>I might as well be dressed as a Beefeater. I should put a card in those phone boxes: &#8220;London&#8217;s Own, Big Dickon: He&#8217;ll Troop His Colour For YOU. Euros accepted.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Someone tells me I look &#8220;androgynous&#8221;, but I protest. My shoulders are too broad. For a broad.<\/p>\n<p>Jyoti writes about the importance of us getting on as people before working together on pop music: &#8220;If I do work with anyone now, it&#8217;s after I get to know them and think we can get on. Dry-recording is like dry-fucking : both sides end up frustrated, sore and confused.&#8221; I am appalled at his unlikely (and perhaps, personally revealing) choice of metaphor, but secretly impressed.<\/p>\n<p>I haven&#8217;t had an e-mail that dirty since the time someone wrote and volunteered to split my colon in two. Presumably making it a semi-colon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thursday April 1st I buy the new issue of Select Magazine because Charley&#8217;s in it, and choke slightly on my greased toast when I see they&#8217;ve made these pages &#8220;Netsite of the Month&#8221;. They can stay. In need of cheering up, I stumble on a website for choosing baby&#8217;s names: &#8220;The name of Dickon has [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dickonedwards.com\/diary\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dickonedwards.com\/diary\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dickonedwards.com\/diary\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dickonedwards.com\/diary\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dickonedwards.com\/diary\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dickonedwards.com\/diary\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dickonedwards.com\/diary\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dickonedwards.com\/diary\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dickonedwards.com\/diary\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}