We like to party

Continuing our countdown to this year's trip to Amsterdam Pride, I am building myself up to a party..!

What better to help in that very quest than this utterly crazy choon, the "song of summer" in the Netherlands in 2015...

Lil Kleine and Ronnie Flex – Drank & Drugs

Addictive, no?

Het gaat niet uit m’n kop

It's Monday, the weather is improving - and I am on holiday, making preparations for our forthcoming trip.

Needless to say, any countdown to Holland would not be complete without the "double threat" of one of their eternally loopy entries for the Eurovision Song Contest!

On this Tacky Music Monday, I have just the ticket...

Sieneke – Ik Ben Verliefd (Sha-la-lie)

Shalalie shalala, shalalie shalala
Het gaat niet uit m’n kop
Shalalie shalala, shalalie shalala
Ik sta d’r ’s morgens mee op

Translated:

Shalalie shalala, shalalie shalala
I can’t get it out of my head
Shalalie shalala, shalalie shalala
I wake up with it in the morning

Wise words.

Have a good week, peeps!

I love it so much

Just four-and-a-bit days to go before we jet off again [on Thursday] for our jaunt with Baby Steve and Alex to the joys of the 'Dam!

The weather today has been utterly horrid - high winds and endless dampness, leaving our huge Dahlia and our six-foot Salvias somewhat battered in the process, and causing our Ficus benjamina [houseplants - outside for their summer airing] to crash to the ground - but prospects are getting better as the week goes on, so we keep our fingers crossed it will be at least temperate when we are there for Amsterdam Gay Pride!

To help us build up the party atmosphere in our continuing countdown to the big weekend, here's our eternal fave, the uber-camp Gerard Joling, barmaid extraordinaire...

Gerard Joling – Ik hou d'r zo van

Lekker!

["Ik hou d'r zo van" = "I love it so much" in English.]

In my world of fantasy

The power of Petunias

We had a very pleasant day today en famille, as Mother came to visit Dolores Delargo Towers #4 for the first time. Despite the hurricane force winds that are currently battering our bit of North London, we managed to spend quite a bit of it in the extensive gardens (of course!) - and I think she was impressed.

However, just in time for the start of my fortnight's break, we're looking at grey cloud, possible rain and drizzle and considerably cooler temperatures for the next few days at least, so I think we'll need some cheering up on that score...

I reckon a little Nouvelle Vague is in order!

Nouvelle Vague – Dance With Me

Sublime.

But, dear reader, should anyone be wondering "that song sounds familiar; I wonder who sang the original?" - have no fear! Here it is:

Lords Of The New Church – Dance With Me

Let's dance little stranger
Show me secret sins
Love can be like bondage
Seduce me once again

Burning like an angel
Who has heaven in reprieve
Burning like the voodoo man
With devils on his sleeve

Won't you dance with me
In my world of fantasy?
Won't you dance with me?
Ritual fertility.

Like an apparition
You don't seem real at all
Like a premonition
Of curses on my soul

The way I want to love you
Well it could be against the law
I've seen you in a thousand minds
You've made the angels fall

Won't you dance with me
In my world of fantasy?
Won't you dance with me?
Ritual fertility.

Oh come on little stranger
There's only one last dance
Soon the music's over
Let's give it one more chance.

Won't you dance with me
In my world of fantasy?
Won't you dance with me?
Ritual fertility.

Take a chance with me
In my world of fantasy.
Won't you dance with me?
Ritual fertility.

Indeed.

Roll it yourself!

Darlings! It's my last day in the office for a fortnight, and our countdown to our little gang's annual pilgrimage to the delights of Amsterdam next week has begun.

For your delectation, to kick things off, here is one of the most unintentionally hilarious "Space Disco" videos to emerge from the Netherlands during the roller-skating boom. Breathtaking in its artistic beauty, peerless in its mastery of camerawork and choreography, it highlights the - ahem - talents of the group Bisquit perfectly...

As one wag out there in the blogosphere notably commented: "It makes me very sad to think that there are people who will go through life without seeing this video. Fate is a cruel mistress."

Bisquit – Roller Boogie

Bedankt Disco, het is vrijdag!

Totty of the Day

He's 75, you know...

Sir Michael Philip Jagger (born 26th July 1943)

I got money in my pocket, got a tiger in my tank

I, Claudius. Raleigh Chopper bikes. The Rolling Stones at Knebworth. The Muppet Show. Scholl sandals. The CN Tower. Björn Borg. Dancing Queen. Double-denim. Multi-Coloured Swap Shop. The Grunwick strike. Brotherhood of Man winning Eurovision. The National Theatre. Elsie Tanner. Noah and Nelly. Porn cinemas. The Ford Fiesta. John Curry. The Bionic Woman. Cod Wars. The InterCity 125. Fry’s Turkish Delight. Corduroy. James Hunt. Jeremy Thorpe. Photos from Mars. The EEC. The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin. Notting Hill riots. Jimmy Carter. Concorde. The New Avengers. Jim Callaghan. The maxi dress. Nadia Comaneci. The International Monetary Fund. Plagues of Ladybirds. The IRA. Punk. The Good Life. Space Hoppers. The Omen. Elton John and Kiki Dee...

...and, of course - the beautiful, brilliant, seemingly never-ending heatwave!

Usually, every time the long, hot Summer of 1976 is featured here at Dolores Delargo Towers, it's because the tabloids are making a meal out of a couple of hot days back-to-back (inevitably followed by a deluge - a typical British summer). But this year's summer is actually heading to be a rival to that fabled year. Give or take a few localised and very fleeting thunderstorms (that hardly wet the floor, despite their - ahem - thunderousness), our bit of London has had no real rain since around Eurovision! To top that, throughout most of June and the whole of July, temperatures have hardly settled below the mid-20s C (and at the moment, the mid-30s) - which is good for flowers, but not so good for sleeping.

Nevertheless, we will continue to hark back in our pursuit of suitable "heatwave choons" - and here, from July forty-two years ago - is another one of 'em:

David Dundas – Jeans on

I can't hear that song without thinking of summer...

Idiot advice

Heatwave advice for people who lack even the most basic common sense

Hot weather can be dangerous if you do not understand anything.

Britain is basking in the glorious sunshine of a long heatwave – but it can be hard to enjoy the sun safely if you are shit thick. Here is some advice for you:

If you stand naked in direct sunlight for a long time, you may start to experience discomfort caused by your skin burning off. One clue to this is a smell like roasting pork coming from your flesh.

Avoid staring directly at the sun. This should be easy enough to do as there is no practical reason why you would ever need to stare at the sun.

That feeling of dryness in your body is called ‘thirst’. It means it is time to have a drink. Not beer though. Fight the urge to drink more beer.

Water is best ingested through your mouth. Do not try to pour it up your nose.

Remember, whatever the weather, to keep breathing in and out. Breathing is an important part of not dying.

Finally, always wear a hat. Like that funny one you got from the market with ‘Fart Machine’ written on it.

The Daily Mash

Of course.

Come out, come out from under that star

Oh, pook. Monday again...

As the sunshine and 30C temperatures continue in London, as even Iceland has run out of ice, and as the short-sleeve-shirt industry goes into overdrive, so we return to the faulty-air-conditioned, miserable, tinted-window gloom of the office.

Never mind, it would have been the birthday today of one of the last of the MGM Studios starlets, Miss Gloria DeHaven (who only died in 2016, aged 91) - so let's perk ourselves up on this Tacky Music Monday with a couple of her numbers, starring alongside a very young, and very sexy, Frank Sinatra:

Frank Sinatra and Gloria DeHaven - Some Other Time

Frank Sinatra and Gloria DeHaven - Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are

Sublime. Have a good week, dear reader!

Gloria Mildred DeHaven (23rd July 1925 – 30th July 2016)

Craziness

Phew! What a scorcher!

In common with many parts of the Northern hemisphere, the UK is experiencing a heatwave. I adore it when it's sunny, but today was one of those overcast, stifling ones that makes one uncomfortably sweaty without the benefit of topping-up the tan...

...and it's going to continue. Forecasters have predicted no real rain in sight for weeks yet. Echoes of that long, hot summer of 1976, methinks!

I love it, but I think we need one good overnight thunderstorm to clear the air, before we start throwing off all our clothes (like that charming young lad in the pic above - only with considerably less aesthetic merit).

Time for some music most appropriate for the situation, methinks - and eminently suitable for a Sunday chill-out:

Postmodern Jukebox feat. Hannah Gill & Casey Abrams – Crazy (Gnarls Barkley)

Postmodern Jukebox. We love them!

Comment ne pas être misérable

Monarda (Bergamot) with Salvia "Amistad" in the extensive gardens here at Dolores Delargo Towers.

According to the BBC:

This summer is set to be one of the hottest - and driest - on record. With no substantial rain since May and temperatures tipping past 30C (86F), a hosepipe ban looms as the heatwave continues to stretch ahead of us in an untypically British manner.

...and we love it!

Despite the daily need to water our pots, everything in the garden is looking (and smelling) lovely. Tony's sister and niece stayed last night, in the midst of a fleeting visit to London, and we have had a lovely time in their company. I've only just come in from the garden now the air has finally cooled a little, and I'm ready for something lush and lovely to accompany the continuing summer.

So let's welcome to the party a new gal on the block with an intriguing nick-name, to boot - Koxie!

Koxie – Daisy Luzion

I'm suitably soothed...

You Can Dance if You Want To

The nation's media has been swamped lately by the news that the Now That's What I Call Music series of compilation albums has reached its 100th edition!

It seems like only yesterday [actually, it was 1983!] since the first telly adverts arrived, announcing "an unmissable collection of today's hits". Everyone used to get them as birthday or Xmas prezzies! My first, a gatefold double vinyl LP, was NTWICM #5 (as pictured above).

But what was on the very first NOW! compilation? Here's the track-list...

1: You Can't Hurry Love - Phil Collins
2: Is There Something I Should Know? - Duran Duran
3: Red Red Wine - UB40
4: Only For Love - Limahl
5: Temptation - Heaven 17
6: Give It Up - KC And The Sunshine Band
7: Double Dutch - Malcolm McLaren
8: Total Eclipse Of The Heart - Bonnie Tyler
9: Karma Chameleon - Culture Club
10: The Safety Dance - Men Without Hats
11: Too Shy - Kajagoogoo
12: Moonlight Shadow - Mike Oldfield
13: Down Under - Men At Work
14: (Hey You) The Rock Steady Crew - Rock Steady Crew
15: Baby Jane - Rod Stewart
16: Wherever I Lay My Hat (That's My Home) - Paul Young

SIDE 2

17: Candy Girl - New Edition
18: Big Apple - Kajagoogoo
19: Let's Stay Together - Tina Turner
20: (Keep Feeling) Fascination - The Human League
21: New Song - Howard Jones
22: Please Don't Make Me Cry - UB40
23: Tonight, I Celebrate My Love - Peabo Bryson & Roberta Flack
24: They Don't Know - Tracey Ullman
25: Kissing With Confidence - Will Powers
26: That's All - Genesis
27: The Lovecats - The Cure
28: Waterfront - Simple Minds
29: The Sun And The Rain - Madness
30: Victims - Culture Club

And from it? My choice, among the cornucopia of delights, is an eminently suitable choon for our traditional end-of-week bop.

Here's Montreal's finest, worldwide one-hit-wonders - it's Men Without Hats!

Men Without Hats – Safety Dance

Thank Disco Now That's What I Call Music it's Friday!

Have a good one...

Thoughts for the day

Ahem!

Decyphering mum-speak

Mums often recommend films but without being able to remember any key details. Can you decipher these mum film descriptions?

1. “The one where they’re trying to escape the baddies.”

2. “It’s got the Australian one who went out with the famous American one. The one who looks like the one out of Gavin & Stacey is in it, but it’s not him. It’s got a tiger but he’s not in it much.”

3. “The one where they need a bigger boat. Not Jaws though. It’s the sort of thing thingy off Harry Potter might be in. He’s not in it though.”

4. “She’s got a drink problem and he’s always trying to help her, but she’s just rude to him and stops him being successful in his career. God she’s a cow.”

5. “He lives on a farm but he’s bored and wants to fly spaceships. Then he has to save a beautiful, feisty woman, but it turns out there’s a big secret no one has told him about. The robots did make me laugh.”

6. “It’s about this lovely young man who’s generous to a fault and makes friends wherever he goes, but he doesn’t realise some people might just want to take advantage of him.”

7. “She’s a career woman trying to make it in a man’s world, but she’s got no social life and her only friend is a cat.”

8. “The one with the pretty actress.”

Answers:
1. Schindler’s List
2. Gladiator
3. Dunkirk
4. Raiders of the Lost Ark
5. Interstellar
6. The Shawshank Redemption
7. Alien
8. Fuck knows.

The Daily Mash

Of course.

Toot Toot

Monday, Monday - how I hate you; interrupting my sunny reveries with that soul-destroying thing called work...

Hey, ho. I have discovered that today would have been [she died in January this year; I can only assume I missed the sad news in the tumult of moving home] the birthday of that "Big Soul Mama", Miss Denise LaSalle!

In her long and lauded career - she gained the crown of "Queen of the Blues" when Koko Taylor died - Miss LaSalle won numerous reputable awards and accolades for her performances, and for the songs she wrote and produced for others.

Yet here in the UK, in the middle of the 1980s, she scored her one and only hit - with this, highly appropriate for a Tacky Music Monday, choon...

Denise LaSalle – My Toot Toot

Referring to the cartoon at the top of this post - once it's in your head, it takes some shaking to get it out again!

I know I'll be humming this all day.

Have a good week, peeps!

Mi hai sicuramente preso in giro, proprio dall'inizio

A summer visitor - a Hummingbird Hawk Moth on the beautiful Phlox in the extensive gardens here at Dolores Delargo Towers

We love our new home. We love our garden. We love our parties and get-togethers. But, all that aside, there is little we love more here at Dolores Delargo Towers than to stumble across a new Diva!

And, thanks the the eternal meanderings of Madam Arcati across the interwebs, we have another.



Milva (for it is she) - nick-named La Rossa (Italian for "The Redhead") by her adoring public - has had a career spanning seven decades, as an internationally-renowned singer and actress, collaborating with the likes of Ennio Morricone, Mikis Theodorakis and Francis Lai.

She has gained a reputation not only in her native Italy but also in Germany and France for her specialism in chanson, tango, and "songs of the outsider" - including the music of Brecht and Weill, such as this one...

Milva - Surabaya Johnny

She is simply fantabulosa!

Cento di questi giorni, Signorina Maria Ilva Biolcati (aka Milva, born 17th July 1939)!

Once I get my sights on you

The BBC Proms season is fantastic and varied - and, as featured over at my Dolores Delargo Towers Museum of Camp blog, includes Proms dedicated to Bernstein (including West Side Story and On The Town), Bach’s six Brandeburg Concertos and the WW1 centenary; the eight-week programme includes works by (among others) Debussy, Gershwin, Beethoven, Shostakovich, Rachmaninov, Mahler, Vaughan Williams, Dvořák, Chopin, Tchaikovsky, Holst, Handel, Glinka, Grieg, Strauss, Ravel, Brahms, Wagner, Mendelssohn, Allegri, Verdi, Prokofiev, Elgar, Liszt, Sibelius, Mozart, Berlioz, Barber, Britten and Bruckner (and even Youssou N'dour) - and that's just scratching the surface!

Our little gang's focus, as ever, is slightly less highbrow. Not that we are averse to any or all of the composers above - and there is still a chance that we may (or may not) get to some of the classical extravaganzas on offer. However, Proms in the Park is the party to beat all parties, and, as always, we have our tickets!

Closing the Summer Season quite neatly, the 40,000-strong celebration-cum-festival [it has been described as "Glastonbury, but with more hip replacements"] has become an integral part of our own events calendar. Alongside Eurovision, New Year's Eve, our birthday picnic and Gay Pride, it is one of the big events we look forward to the most during the year - and we have seen quite an array of talent, such as Kylie Minogue, Bryan Ferry, Barry Manilow, ABC, Frankie Valli, Dame Kiri ti Kanawa, Steps, Neil Sedaka, Tony Hadley, Elaine Paige, Michael Ball, Bryn Terfel, Will Young, John Barrowman, Katherine Jenkins, Sharleen Spiteri and Texas, Jose Carreras, Dame Edna Everage, Rick Astley, Ray Davies, Lesley Garrett, All Saints, Earth Wind and Fire, Rufus Wainwright, Björn Again and (ahem) Rolf Harris... Whew.

This year, Auntie Beeb has once more pulled out all the stops - the headliners, hosted by Michael Ball, include Matt Goss from Bros, Lisa Stansfield, Joseph Calleja, Josh Groban and...

...Gladys Knight!

I hope she does this one:

Gladys Knight - License to Kill

...and I hope she brings her Pips! We love Our Glad, but - all my life, all I ever wanted was to be a Pip.

BBC Proms

You're so totally deluded

Black cats bring good luck, don't they?

I like weekends... The sun continues to shine across the UK (and temperatures look likely to soar again by Sunday); Trump is buggering off to Scotland, where one hopes he will shut his orange gob for a while while playing golf; there'll be sweaty hunks in tight shorts grunting away in South West London today as Rafel Nadal plays Novak Djokovich in the Wimbledon tennis semi-final; and the BBC Proms Season opens tonight (more of that later, no doubt). Life is good.

However, the superstitious among us are quaking - they need Basement Jaxx [who, to my eternal shame, I discover I have never featured on this blog before] to sort them out with a bit of Good Luck!

Basement Jaxx and Lisa Kekaula - Good Luck

Thank Disco it's Friday (the Thirteenth, again)!

Meanwhile, in other news...

From The Guardian:

Shridhar Chillal, whose 66-year-old nails were the length of a London bus, has passed them on to a New York museum...

...The 82-year-old has been growing the nails on his left hand since he was 14, having been inspired to do so after a teacher told him off when he accidentally broke a very long nail the teacher had grown. The teacher told Chillal that he wouldn’t understand the kind of care it took not to break a long nail unless he did it himself. Chilal certainly took that to heart: when last measured, his nails had a combined length of 29ft 10.1in...

Ewww.

The last word on this particular subject, however, goes to this shy, retiring "lady"...

Alaska Thunderfuck - Nails

"If you're not wearing nails, you're not doing drag!"

Apparently.

And I say, "Hey, hey, hey, hey!"

Gratuitous picture of footballers in their scanties

Ignoring the defeat of the England football team rather neatly [there will be little escape from the endless analysis and commentary for a few days to come, of that I am certain], our trusty TARDIS has landed us once again in the middle of 1993: the year of "Back to Basics", Bill Clinton, the Maastricht Treaty, IRA bombings in Warrington and in Bishopsgate in the City of London, Jordan Chandler (the boy paid off by Michael Jackson after accusations of molestation), the Stephen Lawrence murder, the Waco siege, Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time, the murder of toddler James Bulger, and the decriminalisation of homosexuality in Ireland; the births of Ariana Grande, the state of Eritrea, UKIP, and most of the founder-members of One Direction; and the deaths of Vincent Price, Rudolf Nureyev, Ruby Keeler, Les Dawson, Audrey Hepburn, and Czechoslovakia...

In the news in July a quarter of a century ago: John Demjanjuk ("Ivan the Terrible") was acquitted of all charges relating to his accusation of murders in the Nazi death camp at Sobibor (he was later convicted after new evidence emerged), an earthquake and resulting tsunami killed 230 in Hokkaido in Japan, John Major's government was almost defeated by "Maastricht Rebels" but survived the challenge, the security agency MI5 "went public" for the first time with a booklet that explained its role and activities, and the Iraq disarmament crisis continued (UN weapons inspectors continually found themselves blocked, and President Clinton ordered a cruise missile attack on Iraqi intelligence headquarters); in the ascendant were Microsoft (whose Windows NT 3.1 system was released), trade union UNISON (a merger of the National and Local Government Officers Association (NALGO), the National Union of Public Employees (NUPE) and the Confederation of Health Service Employees (COHSE)), and scientist Faiza Al-Kharafi of Kuwait (the very first woman to hold the presidency of a university in the Middle East); but we bade a fond farewell to Fred Gwynne, aka Herman Munster. In our cinemas: Jurassic Park, Benny & Joon, Super Mario Bros. On telly: Rugrats, the Michael Ball Show and the final episode of Eldorado [the ill-fated soap set around ex-pats in Spain that I adored!].

And what was gracing our charts in the UK this week in July 1993? At #1 was Take That's sexiest moment Pray. Contending their hold were artists including Gabrielle, Haddaway, Chaka Demus & Pliers, M People, UB40, Rod Stewart, Michael Jackson and (ahem) Gloria Gaynor. However, this (possibly appropriate for today) number from a group of one-hit-wonders [they spent two weeks at #2 at the end of July, then nothing else] made its debut - the faboo 4 Non Blondes!

4 Non Blondes - What's Up?

Twenty-five years and my life is still
Trying to get up that great big hill
Of hope for a destination
I realized quickly when I knew I should
That the world was made up of this brotherhood
Of man for whatever that means

And so I cry sometimes
When I'm lying in bed
Just to get it all out
What's in my head
And I, I am feeling a little peculiar

And so I wake in the morning
And I step outside
And I take a deep breath and I get real high
And I scream from the top of my lungs,
"What's going on?!"

And I say, "Hey, hey, hey, hey!"
I said, "Hey, what's going on?"
And I say, "Hey, hey, hey, hey!"
I said, "Hey, what's going on?"

And I try, oh, my God, do I try
I try all the time
In this institution
And I pray, oh, my God, do I pray
I pray every single day
For revolution

And so I cry sometimes
When I'm lying in bed
Just to get it all out
What's in my head
And I, I am feeling a little peculiar

And so I wake in the morning
And I step outside
And I take a deep breath and I get real high
And I scream from the top of my lungs,
"What's going on?!"

And I say, "Hey, hey, hey, hey!"
I said, "Hey, what's going on?"
And I say, "Hey, hey, hey, hey!"
I said, "Hey, what's going on?"

Twenty-five years and my life is still
Trying to get up that great big hill
Of hope for a destination

Twenty-five years? That's scary.

Pulling the Tab

“He had a face that was so handsome that it didn’t look real. He could have been a composite man created by God … or the devil!” - George Abbott, director of the musical Damn Yankees.

How sad. One of the sexiest stars to come out [excuse the phrase - he eventually did; but not until he published his memoirs in 2005] of the Henry Willson stable in the 50s [alongside the likes of Rock Hudson, Rory Calhoun, Troy Donahue and Robert Wagner], the lovely Tab Hunter has died, a few days short of his 87th birthday.

After the flurry of "dreamboat" roles that made his name, his star declined until the 1980s - when a certain John Waters secured him a role starring opposite none other than Divine in Polyester. After that, his "camp cult icon" status was assured... His aforementioned autobiography Tab Hunter Confidential [its title itself a reference to the Hollywood gossip-rag that attempted to expose his sexuality at the height of his career; a libel lawsuit later, he survived the scandal - all the while maintaining a real-life relationship with Antony Perkins] was even made into a film in its own right by his own long-term partner (and director of Tab's other Divine collaboration, Lust in the Dust) Allan Glaser.

Tab Hunter Confidential trailer

By all accounts a genuinely lovely man, he will be missed for all that - but by heavens, he truly was gorgeous!











RIP Tab Hunter (born Arthur Gelien, 11th July 1931 - 9th July 2018).

Read my previous blog about Tab Hunter.

More whoring

If yesterday was the post-Gay Pride wind-down ("Gay Boxing Day", perhaps?), today - and wisely, I booked it as annual leave - is the bonus; the start of a week in which we are still basking in the glories of our magnificent celebration!

On this Tacky Music Monday, I have the perfect choon (and truly inspired video, to boot!) with which to do just that...

The Divine Comedy - I've Been to a Marvellous Party [Costume dramas mash-up]

I'll drink to that!













Phew.

Have a good one, dear reader...

Media whores

© BBC

Darlings! We made the BBC news website!

Yesterday was THE BIG DAY in our Social Calendar, Gay Pride in London - and it was, after all the weeks and months of anticipation, utterly fantabulosa (searing heat or no searing heat; we suffer for our art!).



Our "official" theme was a sort-of-Ruritanian, sort-of-Steampunk dress uniform look - but a look that pivoted on extravagant hats, inspired by designs from some of the more outré music festivals such as Burning Man. Given that we start planning our theme while we are at the "Season-closing" event Proms in the Park in September - and our little committee originally voted for a look as simple as "hats" and "pink" - it was truly amazing how it evolved into the splendid display we eventually put on...



We had the hassle this year of having to traipse all the way to the top of Portland Place (a significant way from our meeting-place of Our Sal's pub The Shaston Arms near Carnaby Street) to collect our "individuals' wristbands", then traipse all the way back down to Regent Street to try and get a space along the parade route. [The organisers' game plan was for everyone who had registered for a wristband to go through a one-way gate, stand in a "corral", behave themselves like good children, and wait for hours for the whole shebang to move off while gazing longingly at the back of everyone else's floats - ha, ha, not bloody likely! We choose what we do on our day, not them!]

So of course, rebels that we are, we managed to get ourselves a good spot to watch a couple of hours of the multi-cultural, multi-coloured, multi-everything, thousands-strong spectacular that is Pride - and we got through the barriers to join the parade, at a time of our choosing! Speaking of which...





















We were once again amazed at the amount of interest our outfits garnered, from the official photographers and marchers alike. And yes, we were immensely proud that, even before the parade had ended, the British Broadcasting Corporation had published our photo.

Gay Xmas is over for another year, dear reader, but this was one of our best ever!