Scotland the brave...

I spent the weekend in Glasgow meeting up with folks I know from various places around the internet. I'm not going to go into great detail here, I've kinda decided that things that go on in a public(ish) places such as a club or sauna are fair game, but when its in the privacy of a house or hotel room it doesn't feel right sharing the details. Lets just say that I had a really nice time with three lovely guys (not *all* concurrently!) all of who I hope to see again... I also explored my more versatile side, which went much better than I expected. I'm still more of a top than a bottom, but it is reassuring to know that I can enjoy getting fucked as much as fucking.

For various reasons I didn't really see much of the Glasgow gay scene, restricting my bar going to the very relaxed bar Revolver. What was nice about it, and was commented on by one of the guys I was meeting, was the 'ordinary' type of guys that seemed to frequent it and the general laid back attitude free atmosphere. After my the last of my mates had departed I decided I fancied another pint, so headed back there on my own. The local gay paper suggested that it was a good place to go on Sundays, and this proved to be the case. It wasn't hugely crowded, but there was a fair few guys about. What I liked was that they were playing music videos, interspersed with comedy clips - which is something I've seen in the US but not in the UK. While I was sitting supping a pint of Guinness (my drink of choice in gay bars because its pretty consistent and decent bitter is very rare) I noticed this cute wee guy come into the bar. He was obviously pretty well drunk as he didn't look to steady on his feet, but we exchanged a few glances as he sat down at a table/retro video game console thingy. As things were looking a little bit more interesting I decided to get another pint and when I got back to my seat he staggered over to me and asked if I knew how the video game worked! I went over and figured out the video game (it had various ones and I picked some Galaxions type clone) and managed to get on the leader board (I'm guessing the game doesn't get played much!). We then chatted a bit more and I discovered that: yes he was 'pished'; he has a boyfriend; he likes bears; he doesn't think much of Revolver; he likes bears in rubber and/or leather; he is a Glasgow native; he supports Celtic and agreed that the fluorescent yellow and black away kit wasn't a good look; he was concerned that I might get mugged or pickpocketed and that I needed to always know where my 'wad and phone' were. Now even though he wasn't really my 'type' (in so much as I have a type) as he was more a chaser, but there was a glint in his eye that I found attractive. I was fairly sure that nothing would happen, though if I'd been into rubber/leather I suspect I'd have been a shoe-in, despite him having a boyfriend and not quite getting that I was available if he was up for it! A couple of drinks later and he staggered off home - leaving me with a kiss and a hug, which just left me feeling rather horny and frustrated (even though I was really too tired to actually have done anything!)...

Brighton Pride

Last weekend was Brighton Pride and as we had so much fun last year we decided to go again and make a weekend of it. Pride in Brighton tends to sprawl over the whole weekend, the pubs and bars around St James Street are busy with people getting in the mood on Friday and then Saturday evening there is the post-Pride street party which starts up again on Sunday afternoon.

One of the highlights of the bigger Prides (I'm thinking London, Brighton and Manchester - but I may be doing some of the others a disservice) is the parade and the Brighton one wends its way from the pier, along the seafront and then through town eventually hitting Preston Park.

As we were staying on a seafront hotel we decided we'd watch the start of the parade. I always find that Pride parades are a good opportunity for fun photos and cute guys. The theme this year was 'Pride by the Sea' so a lot of the floats had a nautical or aquatic feel - with some very funky and colourful head-dresses.

I always get a bit emotional when all the big company's and organisation's floats go past. It always reminds me how far we've come when organisations like the police, the NHS and banks like Barclay's and Lloyds TSB have high profile presence in Pride parades.

While the parade stayed dry we weren't so luck for the festival at the park. After the parade had moved on we headed into the shopping streets for a bit of a look around before heading down to the park. It was quite strange the way that Pride completely takes over the centre of Brighton, we kept coming across the parade as it slowly made its way down the streets lined with onlookers. After a spot of lunch we followed the crowds down to the park, the weather gradually getting worse until shortly after we arrived at the festival the heavens opened. By this time we'd managed to find the very poorly signed and almost mythical 'bears tent' where we knew most of the guys from Oxford would be. We managed to keep the worst of the rain off with a combination of brollies and huddling and there was more than a touch of the Dunkirk spirit about it all. Needless to say my bf was very popular due to his oversized golf umbrella (which sadly broke before the end of the day). Whoever said that size doesn't matter has obviously never been in a wet and muddy park when its bucketing down! Eventually we gave up and de-camped to a pub for a pint before heading back to St James Street for the evening.

The street parties on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon have a really good atmosphere. Yeah, its a bit of a crush and getting about can be a pain, but everyone seems to be having a good time and its all very good natured. We always tend to bar crawl, have a couple of pints at various places and because gay pubs tend to serve terrible bitter we nearly always end up at pubs that are not normally gay! This year we got stung a bit on the Sunday afternoon. The St James Inn, where we'd had very nice beer on Friday night, decided they were going to add an 80p 'Pride Tax' and the beer we'd paid £2.70 a pint for on Friday suddenly went up by 30% to £3.50! We should have walked away in disgust - but for some reason we stayed to get fleeced for another one...

As Sunday was much better weather we were able to lounge around in the park near St James St with our lunch before joining the throng for beers. Much beer and chat later we decided it was time for food and went in search of curry. We were probably a bit too drunk to fully appreciate Indian Summer but it seemed pretty good and maybe next year we'll go back before we go drinking :)

After dinner we were pretty much done for the evening, so headed back to our hotel at a rather sedate 2200 or so. This meant we were up nice and refreshed for the trip home on Monday after a lovely weekend, despite the variable weather.