Manchester Pride

We went up to Manchester this weekend for the last of the summer pride events. Lots of fun. Lots of dancing. Lots of music. Lots of beer. Lots of boys.
That about sums it up. No really it was a really good trip. Took the train up on Friday afternoon for a leisurely start to proceeedings. After the first bottle of wine I fell asleep and then awoke near Manchester having missed the snack run.
We checked into The Place (lovely apartment hotel we stayed in last time we were up in Manchester).
Then straight out to Canal Street for beers and meeting up with friends. We spent an awful lot of time outside the Rembrandt Hotel for some reason. After checking out the queue for the wristband exchange we decided to go back and get more beers and leave the wristbands until later. There was an enormous queue due to the exchange only being open for an hour before they stopped anyone entering the gay zone without wristbands. Still I was slightly distracted by the cute boy from the St John Ambulance. He looked a bit like Tom Wisdom (Mile High, Corrie).
After a few beers we went back to find no queue so exchanged the tickets for some lovely spangly silver bands which once attached to our wrists did not come off. It meant spotting other potential homo’s was a breeze regardless of where you went in Manchester. In fact when wandering Selfridges on the Monday it seemed every other bloke was checking out my wrist before looking at me.
The rest of Friday night was spent at Essential. Still one of my favourite venues. Lots of nice boys and free glow sticks kept me happy!

Saturday was a late starter for all of us. Breakfast followed by another trawl down Canal Street. We checked out the stalls and entered a few prize draws and checked out the boy from the St John Ambulance again. The stage area was sadly very cold and windy so we didn’t stay long before heading back to the aprtment for food and then more drinks out in Canal Street followed by Uni Challenge . This was a lot like the old Famous 5 at bagleys but much betetr organised. Buses from town took you to the door. No queueing for coat check or tickets. Lots of space and venues and I really enjoyed myself. Lots of fun and highly recommended for anyone thinking of taking a trip oop north next year.

Sunday then was naturally recovery day. Well you would have thought so but no we did surface mid afternoon and yes we did head back into the throng of pride. That was until the tage performances got too much to bear. Okay so the single performed by Soraya was bad enough but then Jarrod Bachelor started singing ‘We are family’ in a very bad karaoke style. So I’m all for charity singles but come on. Mr Gay UK is not exactly picked for his singing talent is he. Anyway this was enough to make us flee the area and back to the relative safety of the apartments via Queer (again). Sunday night I couldn’t face another big night out so returned to the flat on my own around midnight leaving the others to stump up a hefty ?15 to return to essential. Weird how the price increased nearly double from ?8 on the Friday!

Monday after a lateish start we wandered around Manc land shopping centre. Funny how all the boys kept looking at your wrist first. Maybe we should all get matching bracelets like in the eighties when all the gay students used to wear little pink triangles. It would make life easier and stop me obsessing over lost causes. No wait. That would not be the case at all. Then back to Canal Street for beers before catching the train home.
The boy from the St Johns Ambulance was now wearing a sign on his back saying ‘available’ (sadly I thought it would be too stalker like of me to whip out the phone and take a pic). How I regret that now!

As if we had not had enough alcohol over the weekend we decided to take in more boys and beers at Kazbar that evening to prolong the holiday spirit. Tuesday morning I can tell you was very very rough!

Is everyone gay?

Well some would like to think so. Nathan Conroy claims to have had sex with Robbie Williams.
I’m kind of thinking if he was then surely someone would have seen him out and about in clubs by now. Plus all the rumours about his flatmate – surely in this day and age he would simply have admitted it if it was true. It’s not like it did anyone elses career any harm.
I always preferred Gary Barlow anyway!

overheard snippets

On my way into work this morning walking from Kensington Olympia to the office I was walking in front of a man and woman having a conversation about holidays and the like. Transpired he was going on a beach holiday. The reason it caught my attention was the phrase ‘wearing tight pants makes you look bigger, I’m going to Hammersmith at lunch to get some small speedo’s to wear under my other ones’
Weird eh. Mind you no more weird than last year one of the guys onthe beach telling me to trim my ahem bush to enhance my ahem package.
How rude!

one born every minute

In amongst my spam mails today I got another of the Lagos Bank Scams. I always wonder how people fall for such gambits.

Standard Trust Bank of Nigeria,
Lagos-Nigeria.

STRICTLY A PRIVATE BUSINESS PROPOSAL

I am Alhaji Ahmed Dasuki, The manager, Bills and Exchange at
the Foreign Remittance Department of the Standard
Trust Bank of Nigeria Plc. I am writing this letter to
ask for your support and cooperation to carry out this
business opportunity in my department. We discovered
an abandoned sum of $15,000,000.00 (Fifteen million
United States Dollars only) in an account that belongs
to one of our foreign customers who died along with
his entire family of a wife and two children in
November 1997 in a Plane crash.

Since we heard of his death, we have been expecting
his next-of-kin to come over and put claims for his
money as the heir, because we cannot release the fund
from his account unless someone applies for claim as
the next-of-kin to the deceased as indicated in our
banking guidelines. Unfortunately, neither their
family member nor distant relative has ever appeared
to claim the said fund. Upon this discovery, I and
other officials in my department have agreed to make
business with you and release the total amount into
your account as the heir of the fund since no one came
for it or discovered he maintained account with our
bank, otherwise the fund will be returned to the banks
treasury as unclaimed fund.

We have agreed that our ratio of sharing will be as
stated thus; 20 % for you as foreign partner, 75 % for
us the officials in my department and 5 % for the
settlement of all local and foreign expenses incurred
by us and you during the course of this business.

Upon the successful completion of this transfer, I and
one of my colleagues will come to your country and
mind our share. It is from our 75% we intend to import
Agricultural Machineries into my country as a way of
recycling the fund. To commence this transaction, we
require you to immediately indicate your interest by a
return e-mail and enclose your private contact
telephone number, fax number full name and address and
your designated bank coordinates to enable us file
letter of claim to the appropriate departments for
necessary approvals before the transfer can be made.

Note also, this transaction must be kept STRICTLY
CONFIDENTIAL because of its nature.

I look forward to receiving your prompt response at my
private email: [email protected]

If you do not intend to help me, i will respect your
privacy and not contact you again.

Thank you

Ahmed Dasuki

I can’t sleep

It wouldn’t be so annoying if I hadn’t decided to try working earlies next week. (Work have decided we can start an hour or half an hour earlier or later in a first attempt at flexible working).
So knowing I have to be up at 7 instead of 8 and yet lying in bed from 10:30 until 01:30 restlessly awaiting sleep is annoying.
As anyone who has slept withme will attest (get your minds out of the gutter) I fall asleep at the drop of a hat and sometimes mid conversation. As soon as my head hits pillow I am practically snoozing.
Tonights bout of insomnia then is doubly annoying.
I’ve decided since I can’t sleep to do some mundane routine tasks like check bank balances and pay bills. I’ve even caught up with reading some other sites which used to be regular reads but with work becoming hectic and social life taking on a new level have sadly become less frequent and more sporadic.
So I’ve caught up with Ian online if not in person for the first time in weeks. Weirdly I was at the White Swan on Friday and thinking of him (but left early due to illness and I hasten to add not brought on by alcohol).

It brought me to thinking (again) about how transitional friendships are. Some people I used to see every week without fail I now see rarely if at all. Others whom until fairly recently I barely knew I see daily. I now am financially commited to some friendships with shared mortgage and bills which would have been unheard of a few years ago.

I think I’m rambling now too cos I’m tired so I think I might sign of now and seek out sleep.

cheap and easy

So it looks like orange have issues with easymobile using orange for it’s website. Can you own a colour?
I think it’s ironic since easy group used to complain about anyone who tried to register a domain with the word easy in it. case in point one and case in point two.
The shoe is now on the other foot about the colour orange. I wonder if I should set up easyblog.co.uk and use orange as the accent colour?

easy… tiger II

looks like it’s not just easyjet that isn’t any cheaper than it’s mainstream rivals. easycinema is having similar problems according to their comments.
Ruth says”Cheaper seats? I don’t think so!!! The only prices under ?4.50 is ?1 off for attending on a Tuesday or for a non English speaking film!
Brian says “Can I just say? What started as a good idea has turned into a farce. If I go on a tues it is actually cheaper (?3.50) to go to the Xscape.

In addition you can book by phone apparently according to the graphic ?9 a call seems more like west end prices to me.
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