Brett and I in the Admirals Club at SFO before our first flight.

By now I'd have hoped we'd be airborne. Unlike most days of late, the weather was sunny this morning, which meant that the usual SFO airport delays would be minimal. However, we didn't reckon with a thunderstorm in Chicago. I was snoozing in my seat, after we'd pulled away from the jetway, when the captain announced a two hour delay.

At least I was in the relative comfort of business class. Brett, on the other hand, was back in the Economy Cabin with the other common people. As I watched him walk past my comfortable seat, his poor little head drooping, I really felt for him, being cooped up back there with all those other people. Then I took a sip of my free champagne, and promptly forgot about him. :)

In any event, I've decided to put the time to good use by writing about Brett. I'll be spending over two weeks with him, and I don't think I've ever really taken the time here to fully introduce him to you.

I met Brett shortly after I broke up my two-year relationship with my first San Francisco boyfriend. Things had ended very badly, and, for quite a few months, I imagined that I'd never want to be in a relationship again. But I came out of that eventually, and decided, for the first time, to try an Internet personals ad., which, oh, about six years ago, was a fairly new idea.

(I just had a brainwave - I've copied all of my email archives onto this machine, and I thought maybe I could go searching for the first email from Brett. Unfortunately, we must have met before my big computer crash of 96, where I lost most of my hard-disk.)

I don't recall anything about Brett's personals ad, but I do remember our first meeting, in Berkeley. I knew straight away that I wasn't attracted to him. But I liked his warm, engaging, familiar manner, his ready smile, his sarcastic sense of humor, and that he seemed to have a kind nature. Even back then, though, I'd begun to see how fickle Internet relations are. We parted with mutual statements of interest in getting together again, but I didn't necessarily expect a major friendship to blossom.

However, it must have taken off quickly. Making friends is not one of my strengths. There have been very few people in my life with whom I've felt completely at ease. And I have more "complexes" about human relations than I can count on the fingers of two hands. I won't bore you with the gory details. It's enough to say that I've only made two fast friends since moving to San Francisco at the end of 1992, and Brett, in the space of just a few months, became one of them.

Although Brett was a few years older than me, he'd only recently begun the coming-out process. In fact, until about a year prior to our first meeting, he'd been in a long-term relationship with a woman. He really knew nothing about the gay community, and new nothing about gay relationships other than what he'd picked up from the occasional furtive trick over the years. In complete contrast, I'd been out since the age of twenty-two, and, in fact, felt like I'd come full circle. Even though I was living slap bang in the middle of the gay ghetto, the Castro, I'd long since had my fill of gay activism, going out clubbing five nights a week, sleeping around. I think I came across to Brett as terribly jaded, whereas I saw him (and I think this is part of what attracted my interest) as a big kid in a toy shop, eyes wide open.

Our friendship was really cemented when we took our first trip away together. (This current trip is only our second trip together - five years after the first - Brett is something of a homebody!) We spent a long weekend in Portland, Oregon, exploring the city and surrounding countryside, going out for nice meals, and trying to find what little nightlife there is. One night, at a fancy restaurant, there was a young, cute guy having dinner at a nearby table, with his friend. He caught both our attention - he was clean-cut, well built and seemed extremely self-confident ... maybe a little cocky. Somehow, we all got to talking across the table that divided us, and, after dinner, we went out for a drink with them. There was a lot of flirting going on, but Brett's a lot less inhibited than me in that regard, so he was winning the battle. Later on that night, I went back to the B&B while Brett stayed out with the pair of them, finally ending up engaging in a three-way in a motel hot-tub. I guess Brett was picking up the gay lifestyle more rapidly than I had.

Now, Brett's made the same full circle I'd made back then. He's over the whole Castro thing, and he even seems to have decided against having a boyfriend, for the time being. Sometimes he jokes with me that I turned him into a jaded old queen, just like me. Yet Brett is a natural when it comes to relationships. He's a very caring, affectionate, loyal person - sooner or later he'll hook up with a guy for good. I think that both of us have probably thought, at least once or twice each, what it would be like if we developed a romantic side to our relationship. I don't think it's going to happen. We certainly have a lot of love and respect for each other, but things are great the way they are. I can't imagine what the last six years would have been like if I hadn't met Brett.

San Francisco, Wed, Jul 18, 2001, 6:21 PM

We did eventually make it off the ground, only half an hour late. A quick change over in Chicago, and we were London bound, finally. Business-class on a transatlantic flight is pretty darn comfortable. I was stuffed with nuts, wine, food, champagne, and I even managed to stretch out and get a couple of hours of sleep. I woke up about half an hour before landing, cracked open the window shade, and saw the green and pleasant land of England below; green and pleasant, that is, when it wasn't obscured by England's grey and cloudy sky.

Uh oh, threatening (but beautiful) clouds, as we taxi into Heathrow

Arriving at Paddington Station. I guess neither of us believe in traveling light.

From Paddington, we took a cab to my brother Neil's flat, where we'll be staying until Jul 28th (he's in Hong Kong on vacation right now), and settled into a tiny little top floor place in an Edwardian block of flats in Bloomsbury, just around the corner from the student dorm I lived in for two years when I was a student in London.

So far, we haven't done much except take a short walk, eat some sandwiches in Russel Square Park, and then retire back here to rest. I was curious to see what Brett's initial impression was. So far, he's pronounced London to be "cool". For the last two hours, he's been snoring in Neil's double bed. Oh boy, I'd forgotten about his snoring in Portland! And, oh yes, it's already rained twice since we got here!