House and bromance.

Can you sodding believe it, it's Friday already? Yes, the end of the week is here, you can all relax a little and enjoy the weekend!

I've had a strange week at work, I'm still waiting for my extending leave to be confirmed, I know it seems to be dragging on a bit, but I guess these things are to be expected. I've also put notice on Shaw Towers, the letting agents are saying I have to give a months notice from the rent due date, which in my case is the 6th of the month. Yet their very own tenancy agreement just says 1 calender month, which is what I've given them, whose right, whose wrong, I don't know, I just know it's even more stress, stress that I could very well do without.

Meanwhile, life moves on pretty fast over the other side of the pond, Matt has sorted out the apartment, he's got some furniture and stuff already to move in as soon as he gets the keys, which will be Friday 13th of next month. I did have a little moan about him buying cookie mixes and the like, before we've even got a bed, but he's excited, so I'll let him off, just this once mind. After all, I am the older one, I do have to be mature and responsible (well for a little while for a change anyway!) It is an exciting prospect and I'm so looking forward to being a kept man of leisure for three months. Now, don;t get me wrong, I'm not going to be a complete layabout doing sod all all day long. Oh no, there's shopping to do, and eating to do and then there is the exploring to do. But mainly, my main occupation whilst I'm stateside will be finishing off the novel that I started some years ago and have just not got round to finishing. It's been bubbling around for a long long time, just normal life gets in the way and I never have time to sit and write, which I love to do. Therefore, these three months coming will be a special time for me to be creative and complete the novel and fulfill a life long ambition.

I must just say thank you to Ella from work for the doughnuts they were yummy and I wish you a very happy birthday. I'll probably see you on the town tonight or tomorrow!

A new word has slipped into the modern English language without me knowing, it wasn't there one day and was the next, poop and there it was sitting pretty in all it's glory and the word is "Bromance" OK, so whilst this phenomena has been around for a few years over in the States, it's very new over here in good old, slow England, but what the heck does it mean?

The Urban Dictionary defines it as:

1. Describes the complicated love and affection shared by two straight males.

2. A non sexual relationship between two males that is unusually close.

3. A very close bond and friendship between two straight males.

Bromance, is the joining or portmanteau (yeah I had to look that word up!) of brother and romance to form bromance. It was, apparently originally created by author and editor Dave Carnie in a now defunked skating magazine, in which he used it on several occasions to describe relationships between skatebuddies who spent vasts swathes of time in each others company. These skaters formed close, very close relationships on tours and the like, until in the end they were best buddies, pretty much in a relationship with each other, doing relationship things in every aspect other then sexual.

So there we have it, that's it, that's 'bromance' it's a strange, but nice word, it rolls off the tongue effortlessly, rhythmically and pleasurably. Anyway, I thought to myself, do I know any bromances? Well actually, yep, I do, there are quite a few if you look for them, I could tell you about Dean and James a couple of mates of mine, who do pretty much everything together, except hide the sausage as they both prefer the female kind, much to my agitation a few years ago!

In a more well known way there's the lovely Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, who it has to be said were very very close a few years back. I'm pretty sure they had a great bromance before Jenifer Lopez got in the way and turned Ben's brain to mush!

Ant and Dec, geez these two Newcastle boys got together when they were little in kids TV show Byker Grove, way back, oh some time around 88 or 89. And some twenty years later they are still together, which is longer than a lot of marriages, including Brangelina's! Yep, these two Geordie scamps are so close that they've lived together for a while, gone on holiday together, sang together and when Ant (the one with the big forehead) got married, Dec bought the house next door!

Also on the box, but in a far better show than I'm a jungle Get Me a Celebrity! is perhaps a more famous and cerebral bromantic couple. One is a former Dead Poet Society member and the other is the former bumbling upper class Wooster! I am of course witting on about Robert Sean Leonard and Hugh Laurie in the flipping wonderful show House! They are quite obviously, to any House fan at least, very fond of each other, closer than the closest of friends. One of the big selling points of House is the intriguing rapport between Robert Sean Leonard's genial, polite, caring Dr James Wilson and Hugh Laurie's sarcastic, anti-social, rude and sage Dr Gregory House. They have completely different personalities, they have different values, but they way they are with each other, the bickering, the caring, the honestly and equally the protecting lies that they show and share with and for each other shines through. The only person who can tell House off, or what to do and it really sink in is Wilson. The bromantic nature of their relationship has been well noted, even on the cover of TV Guide!

Audience figures are high, astronomically high "Something like 27 mil… I can’t even say it,” Hugh Laurie said in a recent interview in America, talking for the shows success, he added "The prevailing emotion is one of complete unruliness, There are days when I want to jump out of a high window and end it all because it’s so overwhelming. At other times, it feels almost — and I stress almost — fun.” It is fun, much fun for those of us watching the show!

Hugh isn't playing down his role as House or the show itself, he's a born pessimist, always looking on the negative, in fact for the first year of making House he lived in a hotel, the second and third season he rented a little flat, believing the whole House show would come crashing down and he'd be out on his ear! “I can’t walk down the street without thinking a piano is going to fall on my head. I’m so overdue for a reversal of fortune.” he said.

Bromace is hardly a new thing, we've seen it quite often over the years on the box, even if we didn't know it. I mean, Eric and Ernie were pretty close, for years there was a special bond between Captain James T. Kirk and Mr Spock, and what about the the poster boys for 1970's bromance, Starsky and Hutch.

Oh and while we're thinking about cops and robbers, let's not forget the UK's answer to Starsky & Hutch, the Professionals with Bodie and Doyle. These were pretty hard, tough, straight guys that were so close, Doyle would even moan about Bodie's diets, but you could tell they really cared about each other.

ER had it's own bromance, well in the early days it did, just think of Dr Doug Ross and Dr Mark Greene! Their friendship was a textbook demonstration of a bromantic relationship. It was a relationship that survived various trials and tribulations and even when they were at odds with each other, they still had mutual respect. When Doug leaves for Seattle, they sit in the cold, drink bottles of beer and look out over their old haunts in Chicago.

Lewis and Morse, is perhaps a more sedate example of a true English Bromance. The younger Sergeant learning from the older inspector, learning about life as well as the job from each other. Becoming friends, indeed, understanding each other's short comings - Morse never having money to buy the drinks in the pub, Lewis perhaps not knowledgeable of opera or correct grammar and the like, but the bond is far deeper than just boss and employee. A testimony of that fact is the very last time they are on scene together, very poignant and touching in The Remorseful Day. House fun!

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OK, that's it for today, hope you're happy and well and you stay that way, and as always comments are most welcome. Just before I pop off for a little lay down in a darkened room, a little reminder about the Stonewall Brighton Equality Walk taking place in Brighton on 3rd May. They really need your support, so if you can join the walk and get sponsorship, if you can't join in then a donation with help them fight for equality for our community - Thanks so much!