One of the most frustrating moments of my life
Okay, this one requires a bit of background. I am a big fan of the Eurovision Song Contest. You may or may not know that a large number of Eurovision fans are gay - say, 80% of them. There is a straight minority, however, of whom I am one. What this means is that I am very, very used to hanging around with large groups of gay men. On the whole this is not a problem: I like gay men. Indeed, some of my best friends are gay. However, during most of my teens and early 20s, it meant that most of the sexual interest coming in my direction originated from gay men - and not from girls. As a straight man, this caused me no small degree of frustration.

Anyway, onto the story.

I think it was in 2005 or so. I had just been on a night out in the West End, and I was taking the Piccadilly Line back from Leicester Square to Hatton Cross. The carriage in which I was sitting contained only three people: myself; a girl sitting immediately opposite from me; and a guy in his 20s who had entered and sat himself down on the same side as me, with one empty seat between us.

I was listening to my iPod, and minding my own business (as one normally does on the Tube), except for admiring the assets of the girl sitting opposite me. She was quite pretty, and when she was not looking my way I was enjoying the view. Some time into the journey, I noticed a movement out of the corner of my eye. I looked, and saw that the other guy one seat removed from me, had turned towards me and looked as if he was about to say something. However, when I turned to look at him, he turned away. I went back to my music.

A few minutes later, this happened again. This time I paused my iPod, and took out one earphone, to look quizically at him, inviting him to speak if he wanted. However, he looked away again.

Eventually, as the train pulled into a station (I can't remember which), I looked down to see that he had in his hand a piece of paper, and the hand containing that paper was resting on the seat in between us. He then moved his hand closer to me - and, as the train stopped and opened its doors, he dropped the piece of paper right next to me as he gave me a look - then got up and walked out.

By this time, the pretty girl sitting opposite me had noticed what was going on, and she watched as I picked up the paper and read:

"I think you're cute. Call me or SMS. James. [07xxx xxxxxx]"

FFS!

Normally it would have just been amusing - but considering my background, I can hardly describe my frustration. In the middle of a Eurovision party at which I am the only straight guy, then fine - at least it might be explained. But to have a random person express interest in me on the Tube - and that person was a MAN - then it's like Fate was taking the piss.
(EuroSong I love horse meat: best of all the animals, Sat 31 May 2008, 16:01, 3 replies)

If you're a Eurovision fan
You might love my ex flatmate's site...www.esctoday.com He's holding a Eurovision shindig tonight in town too.

/pimpage
( fuck shit up the best you never had, Sat 31 May 2008, 17:38, closed)

I assume you're talking about Barry, not Sietse?
I used to run my own site too: www.eurosong.net.
It's actually older than ESCtoday: I founded mine in 1997, while ESCtoday was founded in 2000. However, I gave up running my site this year, mainly due to having another life outside running a website, and the fact that I made no money from it.

So you used to share a flat with Barry? How long ago?
(EuroSong I love horse meat: best of all the animals, Sat 31 May 2008, 18:57, closed)

Yup
I lived with him for about a year until a couple of months ago and yes, he's still got Wogan the cat ,-)
( fuck shit up the best you never had, Sat 31 May 2008, 20:27, closed)