Pink Sauce

The week end of the 8-10 June marks the official reopening of the South Bank Center. A series of free events, named the Overture, will be taking place over the week-end. After its successful tour in Scotland last week-end, the London Gay Men's Chorus (and that includes me) is very proud to be part of this. We will actually be kickstarting the celebrations with an exciting performance which will take place on the Thames as the sun sets. We will be gliding down the river, singing from Tower Bridge. Later, on the riverside by the South Bank Center, we will be joining the crowds and several other choirs. Come and join in the fun. Friday 8th June, from 8pm www.southbankcentre.co.uk/overture www.lgmc.org.uk See also

I took this picture with my phone in the foyer of the Usher Hall in Edinburgh while waiting during the technicall rehearsal. Little did I know how prophetic this would become. I am now back in London. The shows and the sight-seeing went rather well. I did a lot of walking and I took loads of pictures (about 300). You can see a selection of those here . Unfortunately, I can only offer 12 (not very good because of the weather) pictures (I might a few I took with my cameraphone soon). During the technical rehearsal in Glasgow, as I was trying to be clever with the lighting, my camera suddenly informed me that my memory card was full. Nothing to worry about. I simply changed the card for another one. The only problem is that for some reason, the card has crashed. It is still showing at full but I can't access the pictures and download/save them. I have tried several things but the options are limited. Slightly tells me he has a card reader which might accept the format I use . Other...

I am not always very good at posting regularly on this blog, mostly because nothing much is happening or I just can't be asked. For the next few days, however, you will be able to switch off your computer and stop checking anxiously every five minute for another pearl of wisdom from this site (I wish!). Tomorrow morning, I am taking the train to Edinburgh where I will be singing with the Chorus at the Usher Hall on Saturday before a concert in Glasgow on Sunday and coming back to London on Monday evening. I am still discussing with myself as to whether I will be taking my laptop with me (there is apparently wifi where I am staying but it's not clear whether it's free or not) so I may do just that and post. As if. In any case, and at the very least, expect pictures when I come back. Have a good week-end.

Cutty Sark , originally uploaded by Zefrog . In the past few weeks I seem to have developped the habit of going to sleep the radio on, the World Service. Some nights, when my sleep in lighter than usual, I doze on and off catching snippets of news. This morning, at 6am, I was suddenly brought to full consciousness by the news that the Cutty Sark was ablaze . I am was quite shocked by the news when I heard it. I visited the Cutty Sark on my first trip to London (a school trip) about 20 years. I was in my mid teens and it was a first for me in many ways. I still have confused mental images (supported by a few bad pictures) of the inside of the ship. I also seem to remember (perhaps wrongly) that we took a group picture outside her. Since then, while I was slightly dismissive of her as a tourist attraction, I have also been aware her friendly protective presence every time I found myself in Greenwich. Thankfully, it seems that the damages are not as extensive as they were original...

I just sent the following to the BBC's Radio Newsroom : About 30 min ago, I listened to a a short report on the news at 10pm on Radio4 about the demonstrations which took place today against the current spate of homophobia in Poland. While I congratulate the BBC for reporting on this, I am a little concern that the present report rather failed to paint a complete picture of the situation which may lead to concern in respect of the BBC's impartiality in this. The report duely mentioned that the Polish President and his Prime Minister have spoken publicly against homosexuality. What the report failed to mention, thus giving the impression that this was possibly all part of the democratic debate in the country, is that the whole government is actively working against the LGBT community of the country, particularly targetting teachers. This has resulted into the production of a bill which has been repeatedly compared in this country to the now defunct section 28. There was no ment...

Some background to what follows can be found here . Other installments are here . I started this as a way to train at touch typing (hence the title) which I have finally taken up learning more or less seriously. At first I was typing what nonsense came across my mind and deleted it once I had finished. Gradually, it just turned into a diary relating the events (not very numerous) of my life. This has also the advantage of keeping me relatively busy at work when I have nothing else to do which seem to happen rather frequently these days. 11 March 2002 Last week started in a rather low key as I was feeling deflated after the weekend. It had been quite enjoyable but unfortunately had brought promises to life that would once again not come to realisation. I had a bit of a moral boost on Tuesday though which helped get into a more serene and normal groove. My line manager announced to me that I was being offered a six months contract, which would probably be renewed at least once. I am stil...

Today marks the third edition of the International Day Against Homophobia . Personally I attended a demonstration outside the Embassy of Poland (47 Portland Place, London W1B 1JH) between midday and 2pm, to "express growing concern about the plight of the LGBT community in Poland". 1 2 The government there is quite openly homophobic and is currently trying to push a section 28 like law against LGBT teachers, also trying to ban them from teaching. There was a fairly good turn out compared to other similar events I have attended. Around 40 people were there, mostly young people from the British Youth Council who were coordinating the event. In attendance also, were Tony Fenwick and Sue Sanders (both from Schools Out and LGBT History Month), Derek Lennard, IDAHO-UK Organiser, Peter Tatchell and Baroness Sarah Ludford, London's Liberal Democrat MEP. Several photographers and even journalists attended too (including a camera). There were speeches and a minute of silence. Pe...

It seems that this week-end, I reached another low in the numb disconnectiveness that characterises my ever more idiosyncratic life these days. For the past couple of weeks, I have given up connected to all the (more or less) social website, I usually have on in the background all day long. On Friday, on my way home from a business meeting with Slightly I stopped at a shop on my way to home and bought all sorts of sugary junk food which I devoured within 24 hours. Having been the witness of bulimia in the past, I think, I can recognise a very mild attack of it in this. I was supposed to attend a meeting on Saturday. While I was aware of the date of this meeting, I failed to connect this date to the day itself and I had to be reminded of the meeting by someone else attending it. I arrived there late. Finally, a few minutes ago, I realised that I forgot to attend the monthly meeting of my reading group. I had received a reminder on Monday and actually really enjoyed the book and was ther...

Or cutting your nose to spite your face. Zimbabwe Environment Minister, Francis Nheme, has been elected to lead the UN's commission on Sustainable Economic Development (CSD). The secret ballot among CSD members at the UN headquarters in New York brought a majority of 26 to 21 in favour of Zimbabwe. There were also three abstentions. It seems that the country was put forward for the role by other African countries members of the commission. EU and US representatives, and in my view all other reasonable parties and observers were opposed to the nomination. There were however little hope of the election not taking place, it seems. African members of the country seem to have been set on going forward with their choice as a way to show that they could not be told what to do by the west. This means that the commission, which is set to deal mostly with the huge problems faced by many country on the African continent, will be headed by the country with the worst possible record. Unemploye...

Some background to what follows can be found here . Other installments are here . I started this as a way to train at touch typing (hence the title) which I have finally taken up learning more or less seriously. At first I was typing what nonsense came across my mind and deleted it once I had finished. Gradually, it just turned into a diary relating the events (not very numerous) of my life. This has also the advantage of keeping me relatively busy at work when I have nothing else to do which seem to happen rather frequently these days. 04 March 2002 The lecture was mildly interesting and lasted about an hour. When it was finished, P. and I went for a drink in the pub on the embankment close to the Tate Modern. There we traded bits of our experience as French housemates in the UK. Me telling him about the poisoning attempt, he telling me about a control freak of a landlady he had had while an “assistant”. After a while, as I was getting hungry, we walked towards Soho and had a meal at...

Dropped , originally uploaded by Zefrog .

Some background to what follows can be found here . Other installments are here . I started this as a way to train at touch typing (hence the title) which I have finally taken up learning more or less seriously. At first I was typing what nonsense came across my mind and deleted it once I had finished. Gradually, it just turned into a diary relating the events (not very numerous) of my life. This has also the advantage of keeping me relatively busy at work when I have nothing else to do which seem to happen rather frequently these days. 25 February 2002 Lots of unexpected things happened this week end. First of all we did not go out on Friday as it had been planned and I ended up having a quite night in. I had a reply from Matthew. A guy I met on Gaydar last Sunday who had not got back to me yet. He is completing a PHD in Oxford and if not downright cute has a certain charm. He is probably Jewish. I sent him a very flamboyant e-mail with lots of silly things in it; he will probably be ...

The first turn of the French presidential elections took place last week without any real surprise. The two favorites, Nicolas Sarkozy and Ségolène Royal were selected to fight it out in the second turn on 6th May. They promptly went back to campaigning. With a record turnout of 85% (compared to the apparently low 72% at the previous elections in 2002), the extremes probably had little chance to make any significant inroad: Nicolas Sarkozy came first with 30.5% of votes, Ségolène Royal gained 25.7%, François Bayrou did well with 18.6% of votes (from his 2002 score of 6.8%) and Le Pen only got 11% of votes. Neither Greens nor Communists came over 5% of the votes. This means they will no get a refund of their campaign costs by the state. Royal and Sarkozy are now waiting for Bayrou (the centrist) to endorse either of them Bayrou has decided to leave the suspense as it is and said that he can't make a decision for his voters. As I think I mentioned on my previous post on the election...

I have been rather busy in the past few days, not spending much time at home and neglecting my blogging duties in the process. Had I been online on Monday I would no doubt have come up with a quick little post to mark the implementation of the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2007, outlawing discrimination in the provision of goods, facilities services. Ironically, in the light of all the protests from the Catholic Church and some Evangelical groups, together with this, come measures to outlaw discrimination on grounds of religion or belief. The last and biggest irony perhaps is that Monday also marked the 8th anniversary of the bombing of the Admiral Duncan pub in Soho. Three people were killed and dozens were injured.

Some background to what follows can be found here . Other installments are here . I started this as a way to train at touch typing (hence the title) which I have finally taken up learning more or less seriously. At first I was typing what nonsense came across my mind and deleted it once I had finished. Gradually, it just turned into a diary relating the events (not very numerous) of my life. This has also the advantage of keeping me relatively busy at work when I have nothing else to do which seem to happen rather frequently these days. 22 February 2002 Yawn! I have only just arrived at work today and I am already more tired than if it was the end of the day… I had a rather animated evening yesterday and am on my merry way to another one tonight. First, straight after work I was given a lift by my boss to a trendy-ish bar on Camberwell Grove -called, appropriately if not originally, The Grove - for a leaving do. M. is retiring and even though I had had very little contact with her, she...

Some background to what follows can be found here . Other installments are here . I started this as a way to train at touch typing (hence the title) which I have finally taken up learning more or less seriously. At first I was typing what nonsense came across my mind and deleted it once I had finished. Gradually, it just turned into a diary relating the events (not very numerous) of my life. This has also the advantage of keeping me relatively busy at work when I have nothing else to do which seem to happen rather frequently these days. 19 February 2002 Nothing very exciting happened last week. I had taken my Friday off as PFM was supposed to come over. She eventually decided that she could not. I therefore went to Bermondsey Antiques Market on Friday morning but I can not remember for the life of me what I did in the afternoon. Is that not sad, just a couple of days on? In the evening as I was feeling a bit depressed and felt I needed to see people, I went to The Box, a bar in Seven D...