Pink Sauce

My faithful readers (if there is such thing) may remember that I lost my wallet (unless it was picked off my pocket, which is more likely) back in December. In the wallet, I was carrying my ID card and my driving licence; both documents I don't usually need in this country. I going back to France next month for a week and will be requiring my driving licence as I intend to drive once there. I am told that the ... errr... best way to get a new copy of my licence is to go through the French Consulat. I don't want to think of what the not so good ways can be like! My previous, and thankfully limited experience with this outpost of the dreaded French Administration taught me that they are not very efficient, not really bothered with helping anyone and that going to see them, means getting up early to queue for most of the morning. I also know that all sorts of unexpected documents will be asked from me for my request to be met. To try and find out more about the ....errr... best wa...

The plan for today was to go to the gym. You will be pleased to hear that I did this morning. Quite literally. I went and came back. Their computer system is down today and, since I lost my membership card with my wallet in December, they could not look me up on the system. This is a council run gym. They have several and I actually joined at a different one from the one I went to this morning. When I asked if they could ring the other one, they told me the system was down there too but that I should go there where they could do a manual search (am not sure they actually can), which could obviously not be done over the phone!!!! Perhaps in another six months... Update - 11am. I have now rung the "original gym" (the one I registered to) who told me their system is back on again and that I could go and train at the gym I went to this morning but that if I wanted a replacement card, I would have to go to the "original" one and pay £3.50 (!) for a new card!

With the end of the (financial) year coming up it was time for me take my remaining leave so here I am with a week and half off and not much planned to fill it. The idea is to get up at the same time as for work and not waste too much time on the net. Yesterday was the first day of this regime. I eventually managed to switch off the bloody computer and get out of doors at 4pm! I went to WH Smith on Oxford Street to redeem a voucher I had been given. For sometime I have been hearing reports on Radio4 that this, one of the oldest brands the UK, is having financial difficulties due to poor sales. Well, no wonder they are going under. A friend of mine tells me that this is because they do not really know what sort of shop they are (bookshop, music shop, news agent, none of the above?) but I do not think this is the problem; after all Boots are similarly trying to confuse their customers with a mish mash of food, medications, beauty products and photo lab and are reasonably successful. No ...

A poem I found in On Queer Street: A Social History of British Homosexuality, 1895-1995 , by Hugh David which I thought I would share with you. The laws of God, the laws of man, He may keep that will and can; Not I: let God and man decree Laws for themselves and not for me; And if my ways are not as theirs Let them mind their own affairs. Their deeds I judge and much condemn, Yet when did I make laws for them? Please yourselves, say I, and they Need only look the other way. But no, they will not; they must still Wrest their neighbour to their will, And make me dance as they desire With jail and gallows and hell-fire. And how am I to face the odds Of man's bedevilment and God's? I, a stranger and afraid In a world I never made. They will be master, right or wrong; Though both are foolish, both are strong. And since, my sould, we cannot fly To Saturn not to Mercury, Keep we must, if keep we can, There foreign laws of God and man. A. E. Houseman , Last Poems , XII. circa 1900.

I went to see Tropical Malady (Sud Pralad) at the ICA last night and I still don't really know what to think of this film to be honest. I seem to undestand that it tells the story of two young men, one of them, a soldier, falling in love with the other (a villager) who, while he enjoys the attention, does not seem that interested. Suddenly, halfway through the film, we find ourselves in a second film (new credits are shown after the screen goes blank for a while, making you wonder it the reel broke or something) retelling of the legend of a Shaman (the villager) who can turn himself into animals and the hunter (our soldier) who is after him. While it was indeed possible to follow the narrative (or what there is of it), it felt like we were watching the rushes of another story; the bits that are left out in a normal narrative. Little moments that don't really make sense out of context. The "love" story is very strangely told too. As far as I know Thailand is not part...

Necrophilia among ducks ruffles research feathers The strange case of the homosexual necrophiliac duck pushed out the boundaries of knowledge in a rather improbable way when it was recorded by Dutch researcher Kees Moeliker. Costs Keeping Lesbians From Health Care (Rochester, New York) A new national survey shows that health care costs and the lack of adequate health insurance are the most common reasons why lesbians don't have health care. Saudis Behead Gay Couple (Riyadh) A gay couple was beaded in a public execution Sunday in Saudi Arabia after being convicted of killing a blackmailer. If they had been exposed as gay they could have been executed anyway. IRA Turning To Attacks On Gays (Londonderry, Northern Ireland) Terrorists from the Irish Republican Army are reportedly targeting gays now that they have abandoned their war against the British government. Man flees home over anti-gay 'IRA' attacks A gay student has been forced to leave his Londonderry home, after rece...

An interesting email sent on my Chorus' mailing list by one of the members (see below). Being French I have had an ID Card since my early teens I think (it was made for the occasion of a school day trip to a themed park in Germany. I have been carrying it all the time with me ever since (until I lost my wallet last year, that is when I did not bother to get a new one). When I am asked for ID in this country I am always a bit confused as to what I should show. An ID card just makes things easier I think. After rushing around at the last minute as usual, I arrived at Gatwick for a flight home to Belfast. Standing in the queue to check in, I suddenly remembered I had forgotten to bring my passport. (Not legally required of course but merely as an identity check.) All I had with me was my London Gay Men's Chorus membership card which I proudly presented to the flybe.com girl on the desk. She looked at it carefully and then carried on with the check in. Last year my LGMC card gained...

Something I had planned to post during LGBT History Month but did not get round to.... Here it is now. Whether, you go to a bookshop or look on the net, the ethnic stereotype for gay people is the same as for the rest of the population. Everyone is GWM. Gay White Male. You tend to hear about other ethnic minorities only in negative context. And here too it is the same with the gay "community". The topic that hogged the gay headline this year here in London was the campaign against murder music . And there were the murders of two gay activists: FannyAnn Eddy and Brian Williamson . I took part in the vigiles for both and black people were hard to find. More understandably perhaps, none turned up during a demonstration outside a venue where Buju Banton was going to perform. Considering the level of petty and ignorant hatred we experience there from the punters who might possibly have recognised people who would not want to be. As for positive coverage.... Trying to tip the bala...

Done! Juvenile Welfare Board Member: PFLAG Promotes Pedophilia (Tampa, Florida) Parents and Friends of Gays and the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network are threatening to sue a member of the Pinellas County Juvenile Welfare Board for alleging the two groups promote pedophilia. Profile: Openly Gay Legislators (Richmond, Virginia) Surrounded by kindergarten classmates chanting "Nixon! Nixon!" on Election Day 1968, 4-year-old Adam Ebbin began shouting something else: "Humphrey! Humphrey!" Canadian Politician Equates Gay Marriage With Mad Cow Disease, Accuses PM Of Racism (Ottawa) The federal Liberals are taking a Conservative MP to task for an Internet article that argues same-sex marriage is not a rights issue, and refers to the prime minister as a hairy knuckled Paul Martin Luther King. Nicola Calipari , the Italian secret service agent recently killed in Iraq by the american forces, was the instigator of the Roman police's anti-homophobic helpline in 19...

Catching up... *pants* India Lesbians Wed (New Delhi) Winter is India's wedding season, a time of gold jewelry, dancing and loud music. AIDS In The Closet (Dakar) Tears trickle down Serigne's scarred face as he recounts what it's like to be gay in his Muslim west African homeland of Senegal. Gays 'Threaten Society' Islamic Leader Says (Hong Kong, China) One of the world's leading Islamic scholars has angered gay rights advocates in Asia and Europe after declaring that granting gay rights is a threat to society and should not be tolerated. Recognize Gay Families Greece Told (Athens) A quasi Government agency has told the Greek government to create a civil unions registry. Gays Win Romania Airline Case (Bucharest) Authorities on Tuesday found that Romania's state-owned airline illegally excluded gays from a Valentine's Day sale for couples, and ordered the company to pay a $180 fine. Topeka: Yes To Gay Rights No To Phelps Clan (Topeka, Kansas) The virulen...

I know I have been bad. Haven't blogged for over a week now. That is because I was off work and did not find the time to blog. I guess I didn't found anything to blog about otherwise I would probably have done it. I know also have a week worth of headlines to go through... More to come I guess... Come to think of it this is all rather strange: as I look back to the past week when prompted by someone's question, and try to sum up what I have been doing, I can only come up with "not much". Ok, I have been to see the new Caravaggio exhibition at the National Gallery and I have seen 5X2 , followed by a Q&A with Francois Ozon, the director. I also saw Head On with the scrumptious Alex Dimitriades . I have spent two days in "studio" recording the last bits of the Christmas CD with the chorus and we almost did get a white Christmas (albeit in March)! I finally redesigned my CV with the much appreciated help of my friend who appeared in previous posts (I g...

Celebrating LGBT History Month While surfing the net the other day, I came across a chatroom for a gay youth support group. The members were writing about LGBT History Month; what they felt about it taking place and what they thought the benefits would be, if any. A comment that stuck in my mind was to the effect that poeple in the writer's school thought that gays had been invented in the 80's. While this view of things is obvisouly wrong and does not stand investigation, I am afraid it is probably quite widely held in the straight population. My own aunt, who is now in her 70's, would not believe me a few years ago when I told her that greek society had not only tolerated homosexual relationships but actually actively promoted them (between older men and teenagers) as pedagogic device (the influence of the older, wiser man being given more strength by the close bond existing between the teacher and his pupil). On the same day (I think), she actually asked me if I was a f...