I Just Wanna Dance

Whilst surfing about on one of my favourite sites, OutEverywhere, someone posted a link to a YouTube video. YouTube is just the coolest site at the moment. OK, for every brilliant video, there's ten crap ones and no doubt all the TV networks are pulling their hair out for all the copyright violations that are going on there, but someone has gone to a lot of trouble on this one.

The song is "I Just Wanna Dance" from Jerry Springer, The Opera. The song, a ballad in the show, has been given a disco remix and is permaently in my top ten of songs that make me smile. Its all I can do NOT to sing out when it starts on my mp3 player when I'm at the gym. Scooter and I have already decided its going to be played at our wedding reception.

Anyway, some clever person has taken clips from a bunch of dance scenes in famous films and added this song. I think its brilliant - you might too.

Enjoy!

Social Butterflies

I've had it. If I have to go to one more party for the next month I think I will go crazy. Not that I'm complaining mind you - its nice to be wanted, just not every frikkin' weekend. I must be showing my age. This has certainly been the most social summer I've had in many many years.

The first party was at Blake and Ed's. It was a blast - I think there were even some straight people there, well, two of them made it fairly obvious by snogging for what seemed like hours in the kitchen. Don't worry, you won't 'catch' the gay from us you know! Poor Scooter was a bit worse for wear the next day, but luckily we were able to stay over - we needed to be at the Steelers AGM for 3pm the next day. The biggest news is that Scooter is now the Treasurer of the club. Hurrah! I have to say he gave a very good off the cuff speech that he wasn't expecting to give. I'm know he'll do a very good job. More about B&E's party at Ed's blog here. I took the picture of Ed just before he went to pass out - rather fetching image don'tcha think?

The next weekend was the party at Alison and Izzy's home. Alison, also known in the blogging world as RetroGooseUK is the Press Officer of the Steelers, which is how we met. The party was their housewarming and they live right underneath our friends Neil and Shaun, so they were kind enough to remove a few fence panels to allow people to roam a bit more freely between their gardens. The highlight for me was the live performance given by the Dulwich Ukulele Band of which Izzy's brother is a member. The balmy summer evening and the tropical strumming made the whole evening rather magical and I could have sworn I heard waves lapping gently against the shore. Or it could have been the sound of tins of beer being swished around the ice buckets! Alison has written about the evening here.

Party number three was down in Brixton at our friends Paul and Justin's home. Blake was once again pressed into service at the bbq (as he was at his own party and Alison's) and cooked up a storm. Well, when you're from the southern states, bbq'ing is in your blood. Our usual gang was there and it continued into the wee hours. We took a night bus to Liverpool Street for the first time and was impressed just how quickly we got there...if only it was like that during the day!

The following weekend, wasn't a house party per se, more like a city party, that being Brighton Pride, which I've already mentioned in the post below.

Last but not least was the party at our friends Gordon and Malcom's. We've not long known them, but they are great fun and have a fabulous home and a garden that Scott and I would kill for - three levels and cleverly done to look like it was there for years, but only recently been landscaped. Must have cost a fortune, but certainly worth it! As we were in Surbiton, we had to leave the party a bit early to catch the last train back to London. We were staying at Blake and Ed's, so we went there freshened up then went out to XXL clubbing the night away. Finally got back to B&E's around 4am, had a very lazy day at theirs watching DVD's - we're converts to the Venture Brothers now! Also watched Finding Nemo and The Incredibles. By the time 11pm rolled around Blake said you may as well stay here again, so we did. It was a nice chill out to another busy weekend.

So that's it for the party front at the moment, except we still have to organise OURS, we usually do it in September, and yes, of course you're invited.

Bright 'n Beautiful

My favourite festival of the year is now but a memory. No, not Glyndebourne, or Glastonbury or other words beginning with 'g', I'm talking about Brighton Pride!

Now, I know a few blogs ago I blathered on about London's Pride event, but for me, I look forward to Brighton even more. Its such a fun day and the entire city gets behind the event. All the hotels and B&B's are fully booked and there's rainbow flags everywhere you look.

Scooter and I booked four days into the Holiday Inn, and I think there was a grand total of ten straight people in the whole place and that includes the staff! We got a great deal with their 'Family Rate'. Of course, I thought it meant we had to sing 'We Are Family', so I flounced into the lobby with my backing track, sang the song, and asked do I get the Family Rate? No, not really, but if I had, it would have been fabulous, and I'm certain the front of house manager knows ALL the words to THAT song, if you know what I mean.

We ate two nights at the hotel as it was included in the family rate....shame we left little Timmy and Olivia at home. Oh well. The meals were fantastic, so its a good thing the hotel was about a mile down the road from the main part of the town as we certainly needed to walk off dinner.

The parade was a 'Carry On' theme so cue lots of floats paying tribute to the Carry On films and to make it more authentic, one of the stars, Barbara Windsor was the parade 'Queen'!!

We spent the rest of the day in Preston Park, hung out with the Steelers for a bit, joined the Pride Society which was worth it just so we could use the private area and not queue for the loos. Its the best money we've ever spent not to have to line up for an hour whilst your bladder expands to the size of a football, only to step into a plastic 1x1 room that smells like the biggest sewage plant in the world on the hottest day in the world. You want to hold your nose, but then you're trying to balance yourself so you don't actually touch anything. It's not pretty. So, we were more than happy to spend many many pennies in order to 'spend a penny' in relative comfort.

The best bit of the day for me, and no doubt many others is the cabaret tent, which finished off with the D.E. Experience. She may dress and sound like Dame Edna Everidge, but that's where the similarity ends. D.E (aka, Jonathan) has the uncanny ability to sing like other singers - you close your eyes and you'd swear Celine Dion is in the room (and if she really was, I'd slap her), or Annie Lennox or Karen Carpenter. Thanks to this act, I can never hear 'Closest Thing to Crazy' by Katie Meulua in quite the same way, especially since D.E. has rewritten the lyrics with some of the most disgusting and offensive turns of phrases I have ever heard. I loved it!

We were so pooped by the end of the day, we stopped off at Grubbs ( a little post festival tradition for us ) for the best burgers in Brighton and sat in front of the church green, wolfed them down and watched the fireworks.

Sunday we left the hotel around 11, met our friend on the beach, then ran into our other friends and began drinking steadily for the rest of the day. Its simply what one does on the day after pride....all the bars have open areas and one of the streets is closed off to simply bounce from one bar to the next like some intoxicated glitter encrusted pinball.

We went back to the hotel for another 'free' dinner, then back out into town later that evening and had a few more with some more mates. They were all off clubbing, but we just couldn't be bothered, we're more pub and bar types than clubbing to four in the morning, although it has been known to happen now and again!

Had a bit of a lie in this morning, had breakfast then walked down to the pier for a bit, got caught in a rain storm and waited it out under the pier with a load of other people. We just sat and cuddled and had the odd drip land on us from above. We looked out at some young boys jumping off the pier into the water below and thinking they must be mad. The folly of youth as they say. I used to love swimming in the summer rain as a kid, but was never that keen on jumping into the water from fifty feet above!

The rain subsided and we thought it was time to head back. We collected our bags from the hotel, took the train back to London and arrived home around 3:30 in the afternoon.

Brighton is only an hour from London by train, but sometimes it's like another world down there...you're still in England, but just not as you know it. If I had the money, I'd quite like to live down there. I suppose, however, the novelty would wear off eventually, so for now I'll stay in London and be happy that I can really appreciate weekends like these for years to come.