Sven’s guide to…

1.  The Lie-in
The usual Saturday morning involves waking up at about 8.30am and taking some aspirin because the night before has taken its toll.  I had planned to go to Wonky on Friday night, but decided against it when I got settled in at home, so getting to lie in until 10am and then wake up refreshed was a great start to the day.  (Just to be clear, this doesn’t mean that I will be staying in on Fridays from now on: that 5pm cocktail after a week at work is too good to give up.)

2.  The weather
So far the summer has been a bit hit-or-miss and Friday’s rain didn’t inspire confidence for a nice weekend.  Imagine my surprise when I saw that the sun was shining, the sky was clear and there was a gentle breeze in the air.  With the Australia holiday coming up all my best clothes are out of circulation and awaiting packing, so I cobbled together some kind of summery outfit and, after a bowl of porridge and a cup of tea, I hit the streets.

3.  The shopping trip
This time next week I shall be living it up on the other side of the world: Jim and I are visiting my sister for three weeks.  Clearly, any gay man worth his accessories is going to seize the opportunity to enhance his wardrobe under the rationale of ‘holiday shopping’, and who am I to fly in the face of tradition?  I hit the shops like a man possessed.  The aim of the trip?  New shoes and new trainers, perhaps with some shorts thrown in.  The results of the trip?

Not a single item of footwear in sight.  I shall have to go out and do it all over again.  Life is hard.

4.  The lunch
When you live in a city you can get a bit blazé about some of its nicer parts, like Royal Fort Gardens or College Green, so it’s quite nice to enjoy them when the weather is fine.  I had a lovely healthy salad in Millennium Square and met up with James to review the morning’s purchases.  There was also a Veterans’ Day event going on in the Amphitheatre, so there were plenty of men in uniform to enhance the view.  This was, after all, the perfect Saturday.

5.  The margaritas
Homemade margs: the perfect summery drink.  Pimms and Cava were in the running for a few minutes, but in the end I thought that nothing says ’summer’ quite like hard spirits in a cocktail.  My recipe for the margs:

Ingredients	Method
5 measures of tequila 3 measures of Cointreau 4 limes ice salt	Juice the limes, crush the ice, throw the whole lot in the blender and turn on the power. Salt the rims of your cocktail glass and serve.

That makes about four decent sized glasses, but it’s not for the faint-hearted.  It may be stronger than aviation fuel but it certainly gets the evening off to a good start.  Give it a try.

6.  The new wallet
Buying a new wallet brings about mixed emotions.  I like my old wallet but, after three years, the time has come to replace it.  The sale in House of Fraser also might have influenced my decision.  Anyway, the sooner you get used to the new wallet the better, so I got straight on it and transferred everything over.  In one of the lesser used pockets I found a tenner, which was nice.  Then, in one of the even-lesser used pockets I found three five pound notes.  Obviously I had secreted them there as back-up taxi cash and promptly forgotten about them, but suddenly being £25 the richer was an awesome surprise and meant any buyers remorse I might have suffered was effectively cured. And we got a taxi up the road when we had planned to walk.  Money to burn.

7.  The party
To conclude this wonderful, we met up with friends in The Bristol Flyer to celebrate a birthday, only to discover that everyone was desperate for a disco.  You don’t need to tell me twice!  The margaritas were kicking in, the food was excellent and the cider was flowing nicely: the perfect end to a perfect day.  Why can’t every Saturday be like that?