Wednesday, 11 February 2026

To gay or not to gay?

Should you go gay with your male friends to attract women? The pros and cons

Gay hockey drama Heated Rivalry has been a massive hit with women, so would straight men wanting to pull benefit from a change in sexual orientation? Here’s what you should consider first.

Sex can ruin a friendship
People often report that friendships are never the same after you’ve slept with someone. But that’s with women and men lack any form of emotional complexity. So chances are you’ll have sex with your mate Steve and a few hours later it’ll be overshadowed by a heated debate in the pub about the best flavour of crisp.

Your male friends may not be attractive enough
You may – correctly – feel that your male friends are munters and you could do a lot better. It’s one thing saying everyone is beautiful inside when you’re trying to sound liberal, it’s another when you’ve got to bum Gareth. Still, as men have pointed out for years: "You don’t look at the mantelpiece when you’re poking the fire."

You’ll need to find time for all the gay and straight sex
Most orifices are similar, despite what unadventurous girlfriends may claim, so the actual sex shouldn’t be a problem. The challenge will be finding time to have sex with your male friends AND all the female hotties who’ll fancy you now you’re gay. Always be on the lookout for time efficiencies, such as nipping into the toilets of your local for a quickie with Darren while they’re changing the barrel.

Women may turn out to be hypocrites about shagging a gay man
As well as the guys in Heated Rivalry, women often like gay men in general. But there’s still a risk that when you try to pull women after turning gay they won’t be into it, because you’re gay. You don’t know what’s worse – the hypocrisy, the homophobia, or Simon’s clueless blowjobs.

You will have to make big lifestyle changes
It’s always felt slightly prejudiced to you, but gay men have a reputation for dressing well, so you’ll have to buy some smart jackets and trousers that actually fit. In addition, you’ll need to start listening to ostensibly gay music, and if you’re not into Gloria Gaynor, Taylor Swift, Scissor Sisters, Pet Shop Boys, etc. this will be a pain in the arse, so to speak. Just keep telling yourself it’ll be worth it for all the muff.

You don’t fancy men
This is probably the biggest obstacle to turning gay, and may affect your ability to perform in the bedroom. At least if you can’t get it up with a woman they’re usually really nice about it, but the same isn’t true of your mates, who’ll mercilessly take the piss in the pub. Your erectile dysfunction is unlikely to be helped by shouts of ‘BLOBBY BLOBBY BLOBBY!’.

The Daily Mash

Of course.


STOP PRESS:

The gnomes at Google HQ have deemed this post to contain such objectionable material that they have put it behind a content warning.

I might just change the presumably "offensive" still from a commercially-available television programme to one of two men fisting. That'll teach the twats!

UPDATE:

Maybe they read my message above, or maybe an actual human being read this post - because the content warning has now been lifted...

Tuesday, 10 February 2026

Of a culinary vamp, tenors, treasure, old farts radio, brutalism, gay disappointment and Bowie in cabaret


Congratulations to the "sex kitten" of TV chefs Nigella Lawson, who steps into the shoes of previous hosts Dame Mary Berry and Dame Prue Leith as the new presenter of The Great British Bake-Off.

It's another snippets post, dear reader:

  • Brutal(ist), indeed news: The hideous concrete monstrosity that is London's Southbank Centre [the 1950s adjunct to the otherwise OK Festival of Britain survivor the Royal Festival Hall, it encompasses the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and the Hayward Gallery, and was later joined by the National Theatre next door, and the British Film Institute (BFI) after that] has become a Grade II listed building. It's still depressingly ugly.

  • Muddled history news: It is once again LGBT History Month in the UK and, unlike in its heyday when Camden & Islington LGBT+ Forum actively facilitated loads of events that appealed to all sorts of groups who vaguely sat under this stupid "alphabet soup" banner, and we always found at least one or two events to go to, there's not a lot that appeals. Not for several years, more's the pity. It's all "trans" this, "queer" {{shudders}} that and "lesbian" the other; at least in our locale.
    One event on the other side of London did indeed catch my eye, however - a touring dramatisation of a long-forgotten radio script from the BBC all about homosexuality in an age when it was completely illegal: Stephen M Hornby’s play The BBC’s First Homosexual. Unfortunately, and possibly inevitably since its London run is a) cheap (£5) and b) hosted at the teeny-tiny Cinema Museum in Kennington [which I have been dying to visit], it's sold out! As is the centenary celebration of the irrepressible Kenneth Williams at the British Library. Dammit.

  • And finally: Sad news arrives of the death of Mr Des de Moor. Latterly known for his passion for real ale and his writings about the subject, he seems an unlikely candidate for a tribute here - but his name rang a bell when I saw it in the obituaries. With very good reason - for, way back in 2003, I happened to purchase a copy of a real oddity: his tribute CD to David Bowie, in cabaret style, with the late Russell Churney [of Fascinating Aida and Julian Clary fame] Darkness and Disgrace! And here, for your delectation, are two tracks from it:

And the weather? Shit.

Monday, 9 February 2026

Oh, how hot..? *

Slow, slow, slow - that just about sums up how today is going, since our return from Spain late on Saturday. Despite having mental plans of things to do in the garden (while the rain holds off) and/or the flat (I have had some more pictures framed, so there's some rearranging to do to accommodate them before we run out of wall!), all I've really managed is to get some washing done.

Hey ho. I haven't forgotten, however, despite still being on holiday all this week, that it is a Tacky Music Monday - and with that in mind...

...why have just one Spanish diva to cheer us up, when you can have three?!

¡Olé!

Have a good week, dear reader.

[* Ay que Calor = "Oh, how hot" in Spanish]

Sunday, 8 February 2026

El regreso...

Leonardo and Martha. A nice couple we met on our holiday? "Nice" would be pushing it... Two of the fiercest "named storms" of the season; unfortunately they both visited Andalusia in the same week while we were there.

We arrived on a pleasant, breezy, quite sunny weekend and enjoyed sitting in the sunshine - but after that it went all grey and blustery and showery with sunny intervals, and by Tuesday we had proper rain (and bought a brolly). One morning we had sleet hitting our balcony! Friday (The Madam's birthday) was particularly schizophrenic - on my way down to our regular beach bar Palm 5, the rainstorm was horizontal and I could hardly keep the brolly up, yet by 2pm we had nary a cloud in the sky, and basked in the sunshine until the sun went down! To finish things off "nicely", as we waited for our evening flight yesterday we were huddled at the back of the bar terrace, freezing, and watching the Palm 5 staff fighting to get one of the windbreak roller blinds back into place as Martha had blown its hooks out of their mounts.

We were concerned about our flight taking off in such a "hurricane", but all went well (we even landed in Luton Airport twenty minutes early). Bizarrely, by the time we were having our first British pint at the Wetherspoons at Kings Cross St Pancras, we were warmer sat at their outside tables at 11pm than we had been at lunchtime on the Costa del "Sol"...

We still had a fabulous holiday, regardless! We felt really welcomed wherever we went, had loads of laughs, ate some great food, caught a bit of sunshine on our skin - and burned the candle at both ends with post-siesta nights in the La Nogilera gay area in Torremolinos (as is our wont). [And we're booked to go again at the beginning of May, so there's that to look forward to...]

But what did we miss while we were away? Not a lot, truth be told. The Winter (yawn) Olympics are on in Italy, apparently; sacked former ambassador to the US Peter Mandelson is a bogeyman again, and Prime Minister Starmer's under pressure again; no amount of false posturing from the orange moron in the White House has prevented that evil cunt Putin from bombing Ukraine; among the amazing treasures uncovered during ongoing works on the HS2 rail route are a Neanderthal hand axe, a set of 19th Century gold dentures, a Roman gladiator "good luck" tag, and a gold "three lions" pendant from the 13th-14th Century; and finally - a man had to be rescued from a tree on the Isle of Wight, where he was sheltering from being attacked by an angry cow.


[click any pic to embiggen]

Oh - and tennis totty Carlos Alcaraz became the youngest player to win a Grand Slam. New balls, please...

No doubt what you're asking, dear reader is - did we bring anything back with us to share? Of course. A triple-bill, no less!

Spain's Eurovision entrant in 2024, doing what she does...

...a proper Spanish number (ish)...

...and finally, my fave!

Is it good to be home? ¡Ni hablar!

Saturday, 31 January 2026

We're off...

By the time you read this, we'll hopefully be in the skies on our way to our annual winter break to Benalmadena!

There is a traditional song I always play on such an auspicious occasion, and so - here it is:

It's traditional.

"Normal" service will resume sometime next weekend, dear reader...

Friday, 30 January 2026

I would rather be just a little shady

¡Olé! indeed. Just one more day of tedious slog to go, and it'll be time to slam that laptop shut for the next seventeen days!

As you are no doubt aware, dear reader - we're off to Spain for a week tomorrow (followed by - for me, at least - another week off to mong about, pottering in the garden, no doubt).

To mark the very welcome end of the week, how about a little bit of Spanish campery..?

Gracias Disco ¡Es viernes!

Have a great one, dear reader!

Thursday, 29 January 2026

Just too good to be true?


Benalmadena has changed a bit since the 1970s

With only a couple of days left before we bugger off in pursuit of some sunshine, one might have expected to be able to wind-down a bit - but no, the tasks have just been ramping up instead. Bastards!

I don't care. One-and-a-bit days... then at 4pm tomorrow, sod 'em all!

Meanwhile, here's one of our fave Spanish combos, without whom no countdown to a (hopefully) stress-free holiday on the Costa would really be complete...

Ah, that's better.