Pink Sauce

Despite the recent discovery of two bombs in the West End on Friday and the unwelcoming weather, the streets of London got invaded by hords of festive homosexuals today. Neither above mentioned circumstances seem to have managed to deter people from making a stand. The heavens truely opened just before the Parade got underway at 1pm but then the skies became more clement and the rest of the afternoon went ok in that respect. This year for the first time since my first Pride (in 2003), I wasn't stewarding the parade but simply took part in the fun. I was walking with the Southwark LGBT Network (of which I am the Chair, as some may remember). Last year (like the two previous years) the Network had a float. I was a "wheel Stewart" for said float. This year we had decided to go for something a little less honerous (both financally and in terms of organisation) and had simply hired 4 bug bugs (with "drivers") and had invited people to come with their wheels (bicy...

Slightly : is not aging well:

Some trawling of the net I was doing earlier today for research purposes took me to the website of the venerable Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce . I had a bit of a schock there as I recognised bank in the middle of the front page a picture I took a few months back. This was in Trafalgar Square for an event called Eat London where community groups had recreated a map of London with food. I took the picture on the steps of the square as a good illustration of London's diverse population. I am rather chuffed, I must say. Below you can view the original pic and the credit on the RSA website:

by Eliot Weinberger , London Review of Books , Vol. 27 No. 3, 3 February 2005 A prose poem drawing on reports, newspapers, official utterances and eye-witness accounts to paint a terrifying picture of the war in Iraq. In 1992, a year after the first Gulf War, I heard Dick Cheney, then secretary of defense, say that the US had been wise not to invade Baghdad and get ‘bogged down in the problems of trying to take over and govern Iraq’. I heard him say: ‘The question in my mind is how many additional American casualties is Saddam worth? And the answer is: not that damned many.’ In February 2001, I heard Colin Powell say that Saddam Hussein ‘has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to project conventional power against his neighbours.’ That same month, I heard that a CIA report stated: ‘We do not have any direct evidence that Iraq has used the period since Desert Fox to reconstitute its weapons of mass destruction programmes.’ ...

And so ends this tiny glimpse into my psyche of 2002. I hope you enjoyed it or at least found it of interest. Most of the people you have met in those few pages are now no longer part of my life. MPB, the polish woman, I decided to let go after a while when I realised that the relationship was too strongly tipping to her advantage for my liking. I perhaps did not do that at the best time for her, and I am slightly ashamed of that timing but I had to be done. Right after my trip to Paris, PFM decided to cut all communication with me, without explanation. This did not come as too much of a surprise as I had seen her do the same thing to other people in the past. My guess is that she got back with K. and that my insistance, when I saw her in Paris, that it was probably best for her that the relationship should have stopped did not endear me too much. I don't know. MFS gave up on my after a while when she saw she could not interest me in her buddhist practice. She also found herself a ...

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. 02 April 2002 A long and busy week-end that was. It was Easter and for that reason the week-end comprised two Bank Holidays. I went for my run on Friday morning and although I ran for an hour I did not feel as tired as the previous times and felt it was altogether easier than usual. The training seems to be starting to have an effect at last. In the afternoon I went to MPB’s in Twickenham to help her rearrange the furniture in her room. In the evening, ...

Following yesterday's post , here is more (official) information about the event (although we are not officially doing the Saturday gig. It looks like individuals will be invited to come along if they want): Six London Choirs perform on a converted barge as it sails from Tower Bridge up the Thames to the Royal Festival Hall, culminating in a grand choral piece composed by Orlando Gough (The Shout) and performed together with a 150 strong choir from Southbank Centre’s Voicelab led by Mary King and Matthew Morley. Choirs: British Gospel Arts, Velvet Fist, London Bulgarian Choir, London Gay Men’s Chorus, Raise the Roof, Maspindzeli, Voicelab Surge. Soloists: The Shout - Melanie Pappenheim, Carol Grimes, Manickam Yogeswaran and Jeremy Birchall; Megaphonistas: Philip Canner, Matt Broadbent, Luke Bateman, Mark Wright, Ayozi, Ciara Burrows, Tom Giles, Eliza Wren-Payne. This Southbank Centre commission of Singing River is based upon an original commission by Marie Zimmermann for Theatre De...

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 March 2002 The previous weekend had seen me going to the Box with J. on Friday night. I was on my way out when B. proposed that I took her out for a drink as he was going to work and she was feeling a bit down. It took us a long time to get there as we had troubles finding a space to park the car. Once there we managed to find a table and started to chat while checking out the boys. At some point a guy literally dumped himself on the chair next to me...