Rain dancing!

Yesterday was one of those days when you don't think the heaven's will ever cease in the downing of the poor mortals below, I mean talk about rain, well, it was and it was wet, and the driving easterly wind ensured that just a couple of minutes in the outside world would culminate in drenched outer garments! It was the kind of day to stay wrapped up warm, snuggled inside with a good book, or a DVD and a bottle of wine. So what did I do? I went out to meet David for a pre-Mika drink!

We met at one of the smallest pubs in Brighton, The Queensbury Arms, a snug little tiny boozer to the left of the Metropole hotel, round the back. Once upon a time, long long ago, it used to be a boxers type of pub, no not with the clientele running about in the latest pro-stretch mesh from Calvin Klien, but real boxers, you know with the kind of gloves you wear not to do the dishes or keep your hands warm! I guess hence the name - Queensbury - as in rules, as in fighting, but not now, indeed it couldn't be further removed from that butch world unless it was on Mars! Every available inch off wall space is covered with framed posters of long gone shows, pantos, events and variety performances. Black and white publicity photos some signed, some not bound down from the deep red walls, all of 'stars' of yesteryear, of times gone by, you could say, if you were the queen of the understatement that this was a 'theatrical pub'! A little clue is, the fact that it's run by Alice and Margaret, both of whom are male!

Anyway, I'm digressing, I met David in there after having battled the stormy weather along the front. After a beverage there we made our way back to more normal folk found in Doctor Brighton's! DB is one of those strange watering holes, that is never sure what it is, Gay pub that straights like, Lesbian bar without the sawdust, Straight bar without the attitude! Anyway a couple of pints in there and it was off our separate ways - David to see Mika at the Brighton Centre and me to get some nosh before meeting Jake and the boys.

I met Jake and the boys in the Sidewinder at the top of St James street for a couple, it to wet and windy to venture any further, also combined with the lack of funds on each part to do much more than sit at a table, trading stories of embarrassing moments and the like over a couple of pints. After a few were downed, we exited the warmth of the pub to the gales that had beset all of Kemp Town and having decided not to club, all needing an early night for one reason or another, we rain danced! Yes, we danced in the rain, in a camp version of the Fred Asteir movie 'Singing in the rain' we skipped and danced through puddles, kicked up the water and basically got soaked through to the skin! Rain dancing is fun, for all of about 3 seconds till the chills hit you, but I say it's so addictive, we said good bye to the boys and Jake and I skipped our way back to 'Shaw Towers' slashing all the way! I think I've caught a chill, everything was soaking, I woke up this morning to find trainers in the bath, jeans hung over the shower rail and Jake toasting bagels in the kitchen in a pair of my jogging bottoms which are about 8 sizes to big for him!

I'm sure if I wasn't shall we say, a little bit tipsy, last night I'd have been embarrased about skipping in public, kicking up the puddles with roan soaked jeans and dancing arm in arm with a boy young enough to be my son (almost) in the middle of the road. But alcohol is the magic ingredient that makes the embarrassing seem normal and the normal seem boring. But, it set me thinking about our most embarrassing moments, what has happened in our lives where we wished the ground would open up and swallow us whole?

Jake...... "I don't know, I can't think of anything really embarrassing, not recently anyway, I suppose getting my head stuck in my grandma's wooden fence when I was little, wearing a superman costume and having to get grandpa to saw through the wood to get me out!"

DB....... "My mother coming home unexpectedly when I was about 17 to find me mid shag with a boy from college, - I wasn't out before that, but I most certainly was after!"

David..... "Spewing up at the bus stop at 8am in the morning, just outside work!"

Mo..... "ermmmmm nothing!"

Lee.... "Went to deliver a very important speach wearing 1 clean black shoe and 1 dirty brown boot!"

Jason.... "Most recently, having a tug whilst sitting at the PC and then realising that the painters across the road could see everything" The other day I'd taken the thick net curtains from the front window down to wash them, a friend of mine had sent a link to a very ascetically pleasing adult erotic art creative moving picture, oh alright a porn film, which caused certain things to rise and harden, which then started a chain reaction whereby my left hand went down to stroke the aforementioned hardness. I was in my bathrobe at the time, which ensured easy access, I was quite enjoying myself, robe fully open and hand rising and falling rapidly when I suddenly realised with those thick net curtains down, there was nothing to shield me from the buildings opposite. With blood rushing away from my member and up to my face, I looked upward out of the window to see not one by two of the old painters servicing the facade of the house across the street glaring down on me with a funny smirk plastered on their weather beaten faces!

As for you?

Today, 1st December, is World Aids Day. However I know not going to make very much of this on this here blog, OK, so it's a great way to raise awareness and funds for various causes and charities, which can only be a good thing. But, just ask the 70,000 people living with HIV in the UK and they'll tell you, their illness isn't a one day a year event, it's every day of the year! So, forgive me for saying this but, World Aids Day does not excite me, yes I'll wear my red ribbon with pride today......just as I do every other day of the year!

Still if nothing else, this day may help raise awareness, especially to the younger generation, More than two thousand people ages 16 to 24 are being treated for HIV in the UK. Thousands more young people have family members or friends who are living with HIV. The number of young people between 16 - 24 being treated for HIV in the UK has more than trebled between 1996 and 2005. A recent survey found that more than one in ten 18 to 24 year-olds think HIV can be passed on through kissing. Over a quarter (26%) of 16 to 24 year olds do not feel informed about HIV and the issues surrounding its transmission and prevention and Eighty-nine per cent (89%) of 16 to 24 year olds rarely or never think about HIV when making decisions about their sex lives! Around 7,800 people were newly diagnosed with HIV last year. 1 in 3 of people living with HIV do not know they are infected. Since 2003, there has been a 50 per cent increase of diagnosis among heterosexuals who were infected here in the UK. 1 in 20 gay and bisexual men are now living with HIV. Young people (aged 16 - 24) accounted for 11 per cent of new HIV diagnoses. But isn't AIDS slowing down? Nope, with 33 million now estimated to be living with HIV worldwide, the number remains as unimaginable and catastrophic as ever and not slowing down!.

For more details, info, support or to donate, click one or all of the following

National AIDS Trust

THT - Terrence Higgins Trust

Sussex Beacon

OpenDoor Brighton