Research & development

I thought it was possibly time to reinvest some of the royalties from my first erotic novel into 'R&D'. Or perhaps 'R&R' would be more accurate.

I've just bought one of Lelo's vibrators - the Liv. I did quite a lot of research before I decided to put my money down; to my surprise and delight there are quite a lot of good sex toy review blogs out there.

Now there are two kinds of vibes I really detest. First, the 'fluo Willy' - plastic penis-shaped vibes in glowing radioactive colours. Plastic is not something I particularly like next to the skin anyway. And secondly, the 'implement' - vibrators that are hard, straight, completely unergonomic, and look like pens, or bullets, or (ugh) forceps.

That's about 90% of what's on the market.

Then there are the glass dildos, the wooden dildos, the stainless steel vibes, all very expensive.

And finally, I found Lelo's product range. Silicone, smart, slightly abstract, and above all, CURVACEOUS vibes and dildos. Thre are various options; the Gigi, for instance, is specially made for G-spot action, while there's the Ella double-ended dildo, at the budget end. I finally opted for the Liv, a slim, curvy vibrator that comes in rather macho naval blue, and a much more girly cerise. Guess which I bought?

I am surprised just how exciting the act of shopping can be - researching a vibrator on the internet. Some of the web sites are terrible; others, like Coco de Mer and Exclusively Eve, are works of art in themselves. I also enjoyed Coffee, Cake and Kink - though I was sad to find that the kinky cafe had closed, so I won't be able to pop in. (Believe it or not I used to work only two doors away! but, alas, a long time before the caff opened.)

Perhaps I'll have to put a research chapter in one of my erotic novels. Currently, however, Hal is tickling Horace awake on their first morning in Venice, so I had better get back to my boys!