Thoughts from Fish Island

Still a lot to see

2009-10-30T13:56:00.003Z

Below is a map of the world showing the countries that my partner Michael & I have visited. 9% of the total apparently, but still vast areas of the world still to explore.

create your own visited country map
or check our Venice travel guide

Focussing in on Europe, which is where we've done most of our travelling, we are doing a little better having visited 40% of the states.

create your personalized map of europe
or check out our Barcelona travel guide

Eartha Kitt - Just an Old Fashioned Girl!

2008-12-26T06:41:00.003Z

I was saddened to learn this morning of the death of Eartha Kitt at the age of 81 from colon cancer.

Eartha Kitt was a brilliant performer and I have always loved listening to CDs of her music. I had always assumed that I had missed my chance to see her perform live, but just under 2 years ago, she did a couple of shows at the Shaw Theatre in London and my wonderful husband, Michael, bought me tickets as a valentine's day gift.

The show was brilliant and it was truely one of the highlights of my life to see her perform live. After the show she came out to the foyer and sat and signed autographs for people.

I'm sure that her music will continue to entertain people for many years to come, but the world is a slightly duller place this morning.

Gay Holocaust Memorial - Berlin

2008-07-03T18:04:00.005+01:00

A memorial to the gay victims of the Nazis has recently been dedicated in Berlin. It is situated opposite the Jewish Holocaust memorial, set back slightly from the street at the edge of the Tiergarten.

The dedecation on the memorial in German and English is as follows:

In Nazi Germany, homosexuality was persecuted to a degree unprecenteded in history. In 1935, the National Socialists issued an order making all male homosexuality a crime; the provisions governing homosexual behaviour in Section 175 of the Criminal Code were significantly expanded and made stricter. A kiss was enough reason to prosecute. There were more than 50,000 convictions. Under Section 175, the punishment was imprisonment, in some cases, convicted offenders were castrated. Thousands of men were sent to concerntration camps for being gay; many of them died there. They died of hunger, disease and abuse or were the victims of targeted killings.

The National Socialists destroyed the communities of gay men and women. Female homosexuality was not prosecuted, except in annexed Austria; the National Socialists did not find it as threatening as male homosexuality. However, lesbians who came into conflict with the regime were also subject to repressive measures. Under the Nazi regime, gay men and women lived in fear and under constant pressure to hide their sexuality.

For many years, the homosexual victims of National Socialism were not included in public commemorations - neither in the Federal Republic of Germany nor in the German Democratic Republic. In both East and West Germany, homosexuality continued to be prosecuted for many years. In the Federal Republic, Section 175 remained in force without amendment until 1969.

Because of its history, Germany has a special responsibility to oppose the violation of gay men's and lesbians' human rights. In many parts of the world, people continue to be persecuted for their sexulaity, homsexual love remains illegal and a kiss can be dangerous.

With this memorial, the Federal Republic of Germany intends to honour the victims of persecution and murder, to keep alive the memory of this injustice, and to create a lasting symbol of opposition to enmity, intolerance and the exclusion of gay men and lesbians.

When you look through the window in the memorial you can see a black and white film of two young men kissing.

This is an important memorial, both to remind us of past oppression of gay men and lesbians but also as a warning to us all not to become complacent. In might seem that the battle for lesbian and gay equality has been largely won but we must remain constantly on our guard as without a doubt there are religious fundamentalists both Christian and Muslim who will continue to campaign against us and who will not hesitate to reverse our hard won freedoms should they ever gain more power and influence.

London 2012 - site update (2)

2008-06-16T17:54:00.006+01:00

This pair of pictures is taken from the Greenway bridge across Marshgate Lanebut looking in a more northerly direction along the line of the old Marshgate Lane. The first picture was taken in November 2007, when quite a few of the buildings remained as did the old street lights.

Now, in June 2008, the old structures have been completely demolished. You can see that where Marshgate lane goes under the Greenway what can only be described as a "hardcore" height restriction warning has been erected. A heavy pipe painted black and yellow has been put in place presumably to avoid any possibility of any over-height site vehicles attempting to go under the bridge. In the top right of the picture you can see the cranes and a pile driver related to the Olympic stadium site and the associated site offices are centre left. A new pedestrian access for site workers has been contstructed from the Greenway down onto the site.

Finally, this picture shows the stadium construction site itself.

London 2012 - Olympic site update

2008-06-16T17:47:00.006+01:00

The picture below was taken from the Greenaway where it crosses what was Marshgate Lane. It was taken in November 2007 and is looking eastwards towards the site of the future olympic village.

Below is the same view, picture taken yesterday (15 June 2008). The remaining structures have all been demolished and a more permanent site access road has been constructed.

Eurovision Song Contest 2008 - Semi Final 1

2008-05-20T22:05:00.003+01:00

Well six of the ten songs that I picked for the final from the first semi final made it through to the final - Greece, Romania, Russia, Armenia, Poland & Norway who are joined by Bosnia, Finland, Israel & Azerbaijan.

Actually, most of the songs in semi final grew on me and the performances on the night all seemed to go well. I still loathe the Irish entry and am extremely pleased it didn't qualify.

So Thursday night sees the second semi final and what is still the stronger line up - in my opinion.

Eurovision Song Contest 2008

2008-05-16T19:30:00.002+01:00

Well, it's that time of year again. The album of this year's entries was released on Monday and I've listened through twice.

The contest changes this year, with only 5 songs pre-qualified for the final instead of 14. The five finalists are Serbia (as the hosts) and the big four EBU funders - France, UK, Germany & Spain. All of the remaining acts have to take part in one of two semi finals each with 19 songs. Voting in each semi-final will be mainly restricted to viewers in the countries participating in the sem-final - although viewers from France, UK, Germany, Spain & Serbia will be allocated to vote in one of the semi-finals. The top nine countries from tele-voting will qualify for the final from each semi-final. The 10th country to qualify from each semi-final will be the country that scored the highest marks from the jury voting that has not already qualified.

Quite how this will help counter all the criticism that is generated each year - usually by people trying to blame anything and everything for their favourite song not winning - other than that it wasn't good enough to win.

There is one advantage to this new system. It has been clear in the past few years that pre-qualifying for the final is a definate disadvantage. With fewer pre-qualifiers this effect should be reduced - although it obviously does nothing to help the UK's chances.

So my choices for the qualifying songs from each semi-final are:

From Semi Final 1:

Norway
Russia
Greece
Andorra
Montenegro
Slovenia
Poland
Armenia
Netherlands
Romania

From Semi Final 2:

Sweden
Ukraine
Belarus
Iceland
Turkey
Albania
Czech Republic
Bulgaria
Denmark
Malta

These songs are not listed in any particular order of preference. Overall, the songs in semi-final 2 are much better than the songs from semi-final 1. Semi-final 1 has five absolutely dire songs - from Ireland, Estonia, Finland, San Marino & Azerbaijan.

These are my 10 favourites from each semi-final and they are not necessarily the songs that I think will qualify for the final. It is also an assessment based only on hearing the songs. I haven't seen any of these acts perform so I have not been affected by costume, performance or how much I fancy the male lead singer - although it has to be said this might have had some influence on the fact that the Russian entry is currently my favourite as Dima Bilan has performed before and I know what he looks like.

Major Fire on the Olympic Site

2007-11-12T17:07:00.000Z

There was a major fire today in one of the emtpy warehouses on the Olympic site that they haven't got around to demolishing yet. The building probably hasn't been demolished as it is right behind a bus depot that is still in use. There are two London bus garages on Waterden Road, which are inside the Olympic site but they have been given extra time to move out of the site. The bus garage next to the fire had to be completely evacuated whilst the blaze was being tackled, causing severe disruption to some bus routes.

The North London line which also runs close by also had services suspended - on its first day as a line on "London Overground" which is the marketing name for the lines that have been handed over to Transport for London to control.

This photo on the left was taken in Wick Lane and it shows the smoke plume rising behind the recent residential development at 417 Wick Lane.

This shot was taken from the footbridge across the Hertford Union canal from Roach Road on Fish Island to the tow path leading to White Post Lane in Hackney Wick.

This shot was taken from White Post Lane through an open gate at the very edge of the Olympic site.

This final shot is taken from the Greenway at the point where is crosses Marshgate Lane right in the middle of the site.

London Olympics 2012 - site update

2007-10-24T21:49:00.000+01:00

July 2007

October 2007 - the building has almost disappeared. From looking at the plans this is going to be the main access point to the Olympic Park for members of the public.

The next two pictures are looking in the same direction. The first was taken in July 2007 from street level and the second one in October 2007 from a higher elevation on the "Greenway". The Greenway is a public footpath / cycle route that follows the route of the Northern outflow sewer and is now the only way the general public can get into the heart of what will become the Olympic park.

Eurovision Song Contest 2002 - 2007 : My Top 20!

2007-09-27T21:08:00.000+01:00

So my original list of favourites contained 59 songs. My first purge of that list reduced the number to 44 songs and my second purge got it down to 36. That's when it got really difficult. Reducing the 36 down to 20 was hard. I suppose there were around 10 of the 36 that were absolute definates for the top 20, but discarding 16 of the remaining 26 to leave myself with a top 20 took a lot of thought. I listened to the list many times and I suppose if I'm honest if I did it again in a month's time the top 20 might not be identical.

However, my current top 20 Eurovision songs from 2002 to 2007 is as follows

From 2002 in Tallin:

Germany - I can't live without music
Malta - 7th Wonder

From 2003 in Riga:

Iceland - Open your heart
Turkey - Everyway that I can (winning song)
Malta - To dream again
Bosnia - Could it be

From 2004 in Istanbul:

Andorra - Jugarem a estimar-nos
Albania - The image of you
Cyprus - Stronger every minute
Denmark - Shame on you

From 2006 in Athens:

Belgium - Je t'adore
Germany - No no never
Malta - I do
Romania - Tornero

From 2007 in Helsinki

Andorra - Salvem el mon, Let's save the world.
Germany - Frauen regier'n die Welt
Spain - I love you mi vida
Greece - Yassou Maria
Norway - Ven a bailar conmigo
Serbia - Molitva (winning song)

My absolute favourite has to be the Maltese entry from 2006 by Fabrizio Faniello singin I do, with Andorra's Anonymous Punk Rock singing Let's save the world and Germany's Texas Lightning singing No no never close behind.

Eurovision Favourites

2007-09-20T18:27:00.000+01:00

A friend recently gave me a CD which was a compilation of his favourite Eurovision tracks from 2000 - 2007. There were 20 tracks on that CD. It set me to thinking about my own favourites.

I've always enjoyed Eurovision, but I really got keen on again in 2002 when Michael & I went with a group of friends to Tallin. We booked flights and a hotel, but then when the tickets went on sale for the actual concert they were really expensive and we didn't buy tickets. However, we decided to go anyway because they were going to be screening the concert live on a big screen in the main square in the historic centre of Tallin. As it turned out we ended up buying some really good tickets on the about 2 hours before the concert was due to start and had an absolutely brilliant time. So much so that we went the next two years to Latvia and Istanbul. Sadly, since Istanbul we've not been successful in buying tickets for the concert, but I think for Belgrade next year, it'll be worth going for the atmosphere and trying to buy tickets once we're there.

So back to my favourite Eurovision tracks from 2002 - 2007 including semi-finalists! Having listened through all 6 CDs, my favourites list featured 59 tracks, as follows:

8 of the 24 songs from 2002 (Tallin)
9 of the 26 songs from 2003 (Riga)
15 of the 36 songs from 2004 (Istanbul)
8 of the 39 songs from 2005 (Kiev)
8 of the 37 songs from 2006 (Athens)
11 of the 42 songs from 2007 (Helsinki)

A cross section of countries feature in the list including:

All six of the entries from Malta!
4 of the entries from Germany & Latvia
3 of the entries from Bosnia, Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Lithuania & Sweden.
2 of the entries from Andorra, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Monaco, Norway & Turkey.
1 each from Albania, Cyrpus, Finland, Iceland, Moldova, Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Spain, Switzerland and the UK.

43 different countries have participated between in the contests between 2002 and 2007. That's the 42 countries that participated this year, plus Monaco who didn't have an entry this year. My favourites has representatives from 29 of those countries. It also features 4 of the winners.

Well, now I'm going to try and reduce the list down to produce my top 20 favourite Eurovision tracks from 2002 - 2007. At this point I think that there are probably only three definates for the top 20!

Mobile phones

2007-07-04T17:13:00.000+01:00

I've never been a huge fan of mobiles phones. I have, so far, resisted having my own mobile phone, although I have needed to use one at work sometimes.

The problem is that I actually think that they serve a useful purpose in business and even for personal use, but of course that's not going to generate nearly enough income for the mobile phone companies to justify the level of investment in the networks and provide the profits for their shareholders. Consequently, they have been marketed as toys instead. People are encouraged to use them all the time - making pointless calls, sending countless text messages.

My partner and I once sat in front of a girl on a bus for a 30 minute journey home from the West End and for almost the entire journey she was talking about nothing to a friend and we had "And so I said to her...... and then she said to me.......... so i said to her......". In fact the only respite from the monotony was when her other phone rang and we got "hold on a bit, my other phones ringing". It was soul destroying and impossible to tune out.

I admit that this example is pretty extreme, but almost any journey on public transport now is ruined by loud one sided conversations being carried out on mobile phones. And now, our last haven from this - London Underground - are about to install the necessary equipment to allow mobile phones to be used on trains.

Recently, however, my dislike has risen to new levels. For now, we can buy mobile phones that will play our personal music collections. Of course, you don't need to use headphones to listen to this music the phone will play it out loud whilst you hold the phone in your hand. Twice in the past week on a bus I have had to endure other people's questionable taste in music blaring from their mobile phones.

Actually, perhaps I will buy one of these phones for myself - I won't bother with the mobile phone account. I'll just load it with "Wagner's ring cycle" and play it a full volume whenever someone else decides to share their music with me.

London Olympics 2012 - more photos.

2007-07-01T22:07:00.001+01:00

This building is located in Marshgate lane right next to the Greenway. [The Greenway is a cycle / pedestrian path constructed on top of the Northern outfall sewer which runs from Wick Lane to the Thames]. I don't know anything about the original use of the building, but in the later part of its life, it had been divided into small studios and rented out to small businesses.

This building is part of a site on Carpenters Road and Waterden Road. Again the site had been occupied by a variety of small businesses including a greasy spoon cafe.

London Olympics 2012

2007-07-01T21:31:00.000+01:00

Tomorrow morning a number of the existing roads through the Olympic park close to allow the construction phase to start. When the plans were originally announced, the house my partner & I own was part of the Olympic site and we were served with a compulsory purchase order for the demolition of our home. We were devastated, as we absolutely love our home and didn't want to move. What made it even worse was the fact that we weren't making way for the olympic stadium or even one of the lesser venues, no we were going to be kicked out to provide space for a car park.

Thankfully, eight months after the London bid was successful, revised plans for a slightly smaller Olympic site were announced and we were reprieved. So now we live right on the edge of the Olympic park. Today we took a last drive round the roads that will be closed tomorrow and took a few photos of the site.

The lorry in this picture is just about where the javelin's will be landing in the centre of the

Olympic stadium which will be 500 metres from our home.

This is the site of the aquatics centre - which should have been nearly completed by now.

This will be the site of the Hockey stadium - a definate improvement on what the site is currently used for!

Europe - still so much to explore

2007-05-22T21:16:00.000+01:00

My partner & I have just returned from a weekend trip to Prague. It was a beautiful city and we had a great time. We talked about the places we've visited together in our nearly 15 years together and it made me realise how much more there still is too explore. The map below shows in red the countries in Europe that we've visited. 15 so far, including England.

create your personalized map of europe
or check out our Barcelona travel guide

Anonymous Punk Rock

2007-05-14T22:34:00.000+01:00

It still doesn't seem to be possible to edit posts of videos posted from YouTube to add other information such as pictures etc, so I have to resort to a separate post to add the extra stuff.

Anonymous Punk Rock have a myspace site that has samples of some of their other music http://www.myspace.com/anonymouspunkrock

From what I can tell they don't have a recording contract yet - I hope it won't be long before they do but having missed out on a place in the Eurovision Song Contest - they came 12th in the semi-final and only the top 10 qualified - it might be while yet.

Andorra Eurovision 2007, Anonymous, Salvem el mon

2007-05-14T22:27:00.001+01:00

I think this band will be my personal find of Eurovision 2007. Roll on the album!

Eurovision Song Contest 2007 - final word

2007-05-13T22:44:00.000+01:00

A lots been said about voting in the Eurovision Song Contest ( much of it by people who are just pissed off that their favourite song didn't do better).

How the newly participating former Eastern European countries now dominate making it impossible for the traditional countries to win because of block voting. Of course the people saying this forget that in the past 6 years the contest has been won by Finland, Greece & Turkey all countries that were participating in 1990 as the iron curtain came down!

In 1990, the following countries that were involved in the voting last night participated: Austria, Belgium, Cyrpus, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland , Ireland, Israel, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Turkey and the UK. If we look at how these countries cast their votes in last night's contest then the results are as follows (actual result in brackets).

Serbia (1)
Turkey (4)
Ukraine (2)
Armenia (8)
Russia (3)
Bulgaria (5)
Hungary (9)
Greece (7)
Bosnia (11)
Sweden (18)
Romania (13)
Moldova (10)
Germany (19)
Finland (17)
Georgia (12)
Belarus (6)
Spain (20)
Latvia (16)
Lithuania (21)
Macedonia (14)
Slovenia (15)
UK (23)
France (22)
Ireland (24)

Ok, so the results shift around a little - Belarus losing out the most dropping 10 positions from 6th to 16th and Sweden gaining the most from 18th to 10th.

However, the same country wins and its hardly an indication that all those former Eastern Block countries have been ganging up on the old West and voting for each other to stop a Western country winning. Perhaps the new countries just take it more seriously as a song contest and actually enter good songs?

Congratulations Serbia - Eurovision Song Contest 2007

2007-05-13T09:13:00.000+01:00

Congratulations to Serbia on winning last night's Eurovision Song Contest. It wasn't my personal favourite - by a long way (pre contest - I thought it deserved to be 13th). However, it was a good song and it was performed very well and I don't think anyone can have any complaints about it winning the contest.

At least it meant that Ukraine didn't win.

My favourite song - the Belarus entry - managed to come in sixth and Turkey, my second favourite came fourth.

Most dire performance of the night (after Terry Wogan) was Ireland. I actually quite liked the song on the CD (placing it 12th), but on the night it sounded absolutely dreadful. You couldn't understand a word she was singing and it certainly deserved to come last.

Is it time to replace Terry Wogan as the UK compere? I understand that very few people in the UK take Eurovision seriously as a song contest and so I appreciate that the BBC - trying to maximise the viewing figures - uses Terry Wogan as a compere becuase he pokes fun at it all. However, it really annoys me that he speaks over the actual performances of the songs. He spoke over most of the song intros and even cut in during the middle of some of them. That is so disrespectful of the contest. Then when it came to the voting, after the first round of votes were announced he was incredulous that the country had not awarded anyone 11 points! How long has he been presenting this show? He clearly couldn't keep up during the voting - several times he confidently announced that due to block voting country X would give it's 12 points to country Y when the screen clearly showed it had already given counrty Y a lower number of points. In this digital age, maybe next year we can have a "NO Terry Wogan" option if we press the "red button"!

Eurovision Song Contest 2007 - Final

2007-05-12T16:41:00.000+01:00

Well the Finnish flag is flying in the garden - it actually is an official flag flying day today in Finland.

After my dismal performance picking the semi-finalists that would make it to the final (only 2 of my top 7 made it and only 2 from the 8-14 bracket), here I go with my thoughts on the final.

Belarus
Turkey
Germany
Spain
Hungary
Greece
Ukraine
United Kingdom
Latvia
Finland
Romania
Ireland
Serbia
Macedonia
Armenia
Lithuania
Slovenia
Bulgaria
France
Sweden
Russia
Moldova
Georgia
Bosnia

I think that the UK will suffer from coming right after Ukraine. 2 "fun songs" and the humour of Ukraine's song is more universal I think.

Eurovision Song Contest 2007 - Semi Final Night

2007-05-10T17:02:00.000+01:00

28 songs in the semi final tonight - I feel a rethink is needed before next year. 28 songs is too many. Anyway, I've listened to all the semi final songs in order of appearance during tonights show and I've split them in quartiles.

My top seven are (in no particular order):

Cyprus
Belarus
Denmark
Norway
Malta
Belgium
Turkey

In positions 8 -14 (in no particular order):

Bulgaria
Iceland
Switzerland
Portugal
Andorra
Estonia
Latvia

In positions 15-21 (in no particular order):

Moldova
Netherlands
Croatia
Macedonia
Hungary
Austria
Latvia

Finally, my bottom 7 are (in no particular order):

Israel
Georgia
Montenegro
Albania
Poland
Czech Republic
Slovenia.

So, if I'm any good a predictions (which previous forms suggests I'm not!) then my top seven and three of my selections for positions 8-14 should be appearing in the final on Saturday evening.

Europe Day - 9th May 2007

2007-05-09T20:49:00.000+01:00

Today is Europe day - although as we sadly live in a country that has yet to embrace the European Union, you might not be aware of the fact.

On the 9th of May 1950, Robert Schuman presented his proposal on the creation of an organised Europe. To mark this fact in 1985 at the Milan summit it was decided to celebrate 9th May as Europe day.

We did our bit today - the European flag has been flying from the flagpole in our garden all day.

The motto of the European Union is "United in Diversity". It's has always been one of the reasons that I strongly support the European project. Pretty much all social progress in this country has come about through European directives - and long may it continue.

This year's poster recognises that this year is the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome which established the European union.

Eurovision 2007 - Helsinki

2007-05-09T20:28:00.000+01:00

Well I've listened through all 42 songs several times. Apart from the UK entry and the german entry I haven't seen any of the songs performed and I don't even know what the other artists look like. This means my first impressions are based solely on my opinion of the songs.

Of course, nowadays image and performance are as important as the song, so my views will probably change once I see the performances on Thursday night and Saturday night.

However, there are 5 songs that I think are very good:

Belarus
Norway
Denmark
Germany
UK

There are 6 songs that I think are really dreadful:

Israel
Georgia
Czech republic
Russia
Albania
Poland

Of the remaining 31 at the moment I think 15 are quite good and 16 are pretty poor.

We shall see!

Scooch - Flying The Flag - Eurovision 2007

2007-03-17T22:22:00.001Z

Love on the radio - Fabrizio Faniello

2007-02-06T18:46:00.001Z

Fabrizio Faniello

2007-02-05T17:08:00.001Z

I first became aware of Fabrizio Faniello when he sang the Maltese entry to the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 which was held in Athens. His song was called "I do". Listening to all the entries on the official CD before the event "I do" was one of my favourites. I actually tipped it as the winner in my blog just before the final.

Sadly, on the night the live performance was absolutely atrocious and Malta came in last place receiving only 1 point from Albania.

However, this was Fabrizio's second time representing Malta in the ESC. In 2001 in Copenhagen, he sang "Another Summer Night" and this came a more respectable 9th and received maximum points from one country, Denmark. That was the year Estonia won.

Never having had even a hint of chart success in the UK, Fabrizio has had considerable success in his home country but also across the rest of Europe. He has released three albums:

While I'm Dreaming (2001)

When We Danced (2003/4)

Believe (2006).

I recently purchase the two most recent albums from i-tunes. I'm really impressed and the latest album in particular has some great tracks on it.

Find out more about Fabrizio on his official website www.fabriziofaniello.de

This post was meant to include a video for one of the tracks from Fabrizio's latest album entitled "Love on the Radio" which i found on youtube and posted into my blog from there. Unfortunately, having tried to edit the video post to add the extra information, the video disappears, so I have posted it as a separate entry.

Ruth Kelly - equalities minister

2007-01-29T21:06:00.000Z

I've always been disgusted by the fact that Tony Blair made Ruth Kelly equalities minister. I absolutely support her right as a strict Roman Catholic to hold the view that lesbian and gay people are sinners, but equally fundamentally I believe that holding these views is incompatible with holding the post of equalities minister in a Labour government.

It would be absolutely inconceivable for a person who had voted against or even abstained on anti-racism legilsation to hold the post of equalities minister and Ruth Kelly has voted against or abstained on votes granting rights to lesbian and gay people on several times.

We only have the fact that Tony Blair is already a lame duck prime minister to thank for the fact that the Roman Catholic church is not getting an exemption to the new rules prohibiting discrimination against lesbians and gay men in the provision of goods and services. This combined with the fact that there were ministers in the government that oppose the church being given any exemption that were prepared to resign over the issue whilst it was clear that for Ruth Kelly her career was more important than her principles and she did not view this matter as a resigning issue.

There is currently an online petition that is calling for Ruth Kelly to be removed from the post of equalities minister. Whilst I don't think it will necessarily achieve anything in the short term - when has Tony Blair ever cared what the ordinary people of this country think? Only three times - just before each general election. However, I have signed the petition in the hope that it will be noticed by the next prime minister when he creates his first cabinet.

The petition can be found at http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/kellyweu/

DIMA BILAN

2007-01-29T18:48:00.000Z

Dima Bilan sang the Russian entry in the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest. Russia did not qualify directly for the final in 2006 and so had to get through the semi-final first. At the end of the semi-final they simply announce the songs that have got through to the final, but after the event they publish the points scores. Dima actually came third in the semi-final behind Finland (the eventual winners) and Bosnia.

In the final Dima - singing Never Let You Go - came second with 248 points behind Finland on 292 points. Personally I didn't appreciate the Finnish entry - not my style of music at all - although I understand why it won - it was certainly a departure from the Eurovision norm and recently it has become obvious that you need more than a good song to win Eurovision - you need a visual performance that appeals to the voting public as well. The Finnish entry certainly had that.

Whilst the Russian entry was not my favourite before the contest, I really grew to like the song and afterwards I managed to get hold of one of Dima's albums on Ebay. It has some really great music on it and some really excellent vocal performances. Sadly my understanding of Russian is non existence so I have no idea what the songs are about.

You can find out more about Dima on his website www.bilandima.com

I have also just found a video of his on You Tube with English lyrics (this is not the Eurovision entry)

Dima Bilan - See what I see

What a load of rubbish!

2007-01-10T21:16:00.000Z

So, it's official - we in the UK dispose of more household waste to landfill sites than anywhere else in the European Union. Doesn't surprise me really. As a nation we're a lazy lot and recycling seems like far too much effort.

Real progress in reducing the amount of waste we produce will only be achieved through some form of compulsion. In many areas I'd be staffing the barricades to protest against the "nanny state", but i've sadly come to the conclusion that saving the planet requires drastic government action.

In Germany recycling seems to be second nature. All household waste is sorted automatically by residents into three types, packaging, organic waste and other rubbish. It is disposed of and collected accordingly. We should move towards a similar system in this country, but again its bound to be "too much effort" for many people.

Even better though would be to introduce the mandatory deposit system that they have adopted in Germany. Almost every single plastic bottle, glass bottle and aluminium drinks can sold in Germany has a deposit charge added to it. You return the container to the shop once you've used the contents and you get your deposit back. It appears to work extremely well. The larger stores have machines that you deposit your containers into - they are sophisticated enough to recognise if the container is a product that the shop actually sells and they issue you with a credit voucher for the deposit. In smaller stores the exchange takes place at the checkouts. It all seems to work rather smoothly and results in a much greater proportion of household waste being recycled.

There is an additional side benefit of this system. There are, of course, always some people who just treat the deposit as part of the cost of the product and don't bother returning the container for the deposit. This appears to have provided a great opportunity for people on low/no income to generate some extra cash. People collect the containers and return them to the appropriate stores to claim back the deposit.

The Government should also target the distributors and penalise them for excessive packaging. Much packaging of goods is necessary to protect the product from damage. However, there are plenty of examples of redundant packaging that could be eliminated with little effort on the part of the manufacturers and retailers. That tube of toothpaste is fine as it is, it really doesn't need to be in a cardboard container. That new CD/DVD doesn't need to be shrink wrapped in plastic.

It's time we made a concerted effort to reduce household waste.

Kenneth Williams

2007-01-06T10:34:00.000Z

This is my first attempt at posting a video from You Tube into my blog. I've picked one of Kenneth William's many appearances on Parkinson. On this occassion he was talking about his book - Acid Drops - which was a collection of put downs from various walks of life. He tells some wonderful stories in this clip and my absolute favourite is the one about the umpire's changing room!

Kenneth Williams

Too much "Reality"!

2007-01-06T09:50:00.000Z

I've been known to watch these programmes myself from time to time, but even I am beginning to come to the conclusion that there is rather to much so called "reality" television on our screens. At the moment we are in celebrity season; to be honest I've never got this and have never really followed or enjoyed watching "Z" list celebrities in these programmes.

At the moment - we've got "Just the two of us" on the BBC, "Celebrity Big Brother" on Channel 4 and "Soapstar Superstar" on ITV. Please spare me - I've rewatched my Harry Potter DVDs too many times - I need something to watch on television that is worthy of my time!

To look forward to, we've got ITV stealing the BBC's idea and having a talent contest to search for stars for the West End show - Grease.

I hope that this genre will be allowed to wither on the vine and programme makers will start to come up with something new. The grand-daddy of reality TV is Big Brother, but last year's was absolutely horrendous, tedious in the extreme and full of so many bizarre twists to "try to keep us interested". Yet I daresay we'll be subjected to another series this year. I think the only thing that will persuade me to watch this year is if the producers adopt the same atittude to nudity as the producers of the Australian version, if the clips I've seen on YouTube are anything to go by. Shallow - that's me!

X Factor - live show 7

2006-11-25T21:38:00.000Z

Well my favourites got eliminated this week. A really hard week to call, no-one gave a poor performance, but for me Ray should have been in the bottom two with Ben.

I thought the weakest two performances out of the 10 songs tonight were Ray's performance of Jailhouse Rock which he pretty much shouted rather than sang and Ben's performance of Your Song which ruined an absolutely classic track.

Another round of bitching between Simon and Louis with Simon telling Eton Road that Louis was putting all his hopes on the Macdonald Brothers and Louis retaliating by telling Ray that Simon was doing the same thing with Leona.

The Macdonald Brothers finally perform an up tempo track and show their true colours - lets hope they keep it up next week.

So I'll be cheering for Ben - he's the only act that is left from the three that I picked after the first live show.

X factor - live show 6

2006-11-19T09:39:00.000Z

A close escape for my favourites - Eton Road this week. I really thought Simon was going to pick, largely in response to the ridiculous comments that Louis had been making about Simon throughout the show. But credit to Simon, he picked to save the act that he felt had the greatest potential to go further in the business and saved Eton Road.

It was really difficult predicting the bottom two this week - I think all the acts gave really good performances. I enjoyed Ray's version of Livin la vida loca - but I do think that he is a bit weak vocally and that might eventually count against him. Ben and Leona gave the best performances of the evening - though I have to say that Leona still doesn't do it for me.

When I first hear Eton Road's performance I wasn't really sure about it - however when I listened to it back a second time it sounded much better - but this might explain why they ended up in the bottom two.

It's all going to get much more difficult from here.

X factor 2006 - live show 5

2006-11-13T21:57:00.000Z

Pretty disappointing all round this week. No-one blew me away with a briliant performance.
All in all the right decision with Nikitta who gave another extremely one dimensional performance on the early evening show. I don't know what the judges were listening to but it was a different performance to the one that I watched.

The Macdonald Brothers appear to be getting better each week - still don't seem like potential winners to me, but they are definately improving.

Ben & Ray were both disappointing. Leona's performance was probably about the best, but she is still being over-rated by the judges but she does nothing for me. Robert ran Leona a close second.

I'm sticking with Eton Road as my favourites. They gave a good performance, although nowhere near as good as last week.

X Factor - live show 4

2006-11-04T21:43:00.000Z

I'm not going to write very much about tonight's show which I found quite disappointing.

Without any doubt the worst two performances were Ashley and Nikitta - poor tuning and lacklustre delivery from both of them.

The best all round performance tonight was from Eton Road - absolutely fabulous.

The most surprising Ray - congratulations for being daring enough to completely change a classic Abba track and make it work. Louis talked a load of crap complaining about Ray being fixed on the swing style. Who say's that the X-factor is about finding a performer that can sing different styles. No-one ever expected the Sex Pistols to come on stage and perform Ave Maria! The challenge of the X-factor the series is for acts who can take the show theme and make it work best for them. Ben has done that every week and Ray certainly did it this week.

I wasn't impressed with Leona this week - her performance was competent but forgettable. The Macdonald Brothers were similarly competent but forgettable. They aren't distinctive enough to win this show.

X Factor - live show 3

2006-10-29T06:51:00.000Z

So two evictions this week. Someone suddenly realised that there weren't enough weeks left til Xmas to evict one act per week?

I thought that the two worst performances of the night, by far, were Dionne (who got evicted) and Nikitta (who got through).

I thought that the MacDonald Brothers and Kerry gave their best performances so far. However, I still don't think either act has much potential to be something different on the music scene so I wasn't surprised that Kerry ended up in the bottom three.

I have to eat my words about Leona from last week. After the first two shows I thought her voice was lacking in any depth of character. She proved me wrong on that light night with an absolutely stunning performance - she was the only female act that gave a memorable performance.

Ray gave his best performance to date, but considering it was the category that he was most looking forward to, I was expecting to be blown away and I wasn't.

Robert did the necessary in calming down his performance from the previous weeks, but sadly this left his voice sounding pretty weak in the quiet sections of his song.

Usually, despite all the booing from the audience and the complaints from the other judges, I actually find it hard to disagree with Simon's comments about acts, but I didn't agree with his assessment of Eton Road. Whilst I don't think that it was their best perfomance, I thought it was a pretty good arrangement of Mack the Knife which made their performance distinctive.

Ashley under-performed but I'm glad he was saved as his voice is so distinctive.

That leaves me with Ben - who gave IMHO the best performance of the night!!!

X Factor - live show 2

2006-10-24T22:21:00.000+01:00

The first round of three acts in the second show are hardly worth talking about. Three instantly forgettable performances. After the first show I thought Leona had good potential to develop from a nervous first live appearance, but now I'm not so sure. She may have an excellent vocal range, but her voice seems to have no depth of character at all. Kerry's performance did nothing to change my opinion of her as an uninteresting act who offers nothing original. Then the Macdonald Brothers gave another bland performance.

The performances of the night were definately, Ashley, Ben and Eton Road (although they had a distinct wobble at one point in their performance). On balance I think that I'd give my vote for best round two performance to Ashley.

Most improved from the first show, in my opinion, was Ray - who gave a much much stronger performance on Saturday. He should also benefit from next weekend's show theme.

Simon was right about Dionne - she has a brilliant voice, but she looks very stilted in her performance on stage. Robert on the other hand needs to calm down a bit. He doesn't want to become a Chico (with a good voice). I think his over zealous stage performance was the reason he ended up in the bottom two.

Although I didn't think that they gave the worst performance of the night, I was unsurprised that 4sure ended up in the bottom two. As I said after the first show, there was something about their performance in that it didn't gel together as a group act. They sounded more like four individuals competing with each other.

I think that there is a real chance that Louis could end up with only one act before either of the other 2 categories lose anyone. However, the MacDonald Brothers might get saved by the Scottish vote.

X-Factor - the first live show

2006-10-15T07:44:00.000+01:00

So the live shows have finally started. ITV managed to create a set with step free access for Kerry. Shame that they didn't get their act together earlier in the series.

Interesting first round of live performances, a few surprises.

Robert performed first and he has a really good voice, but something about his perfomance didn't sound right to me.

Eton Road came next and I thought they gave a really great performance. These guys are definately my favourite group in this year's show. Simon's comment was correct though. Part of the appeal of Eton Road is that they have potential to be a very different type of boyband and they need to make sure that they don't get packaged into being just like all the rest.

Nikitta was the first of the 16-24 year olds to perform and she sounded really great. Not sure where Louis was coming from with his comment on her choice of song, it's a great song. She should do well, but there is some really tough competition this year.

The second round of performers in each category started with Ben. Before he came on stage, I was struggling to think of a Mowtown track that would suit his voice style. Tracks of My Tears turned out to be an excellent choice and he gave a great performance. Ben is definately my favourite finalist in the over 25s category.

The Macdonald brothers peformed next and I think that they have great voices. However, I think that they might struggle to stand out from the competition though and I felt that it was a mistake for them to spend so much time during their performance standing at opposite ends of the stage. It looked odd on television.

Ray came next and his performance was one of the most disappointing of the evening. Not that he'll have any trouble sailing through the early rounds, because he pushes all the right buttons with the people who tend to vote in these shows. His voice just sounded really weak. [I have to admit my judgement here might be clouded somewhat by the fact that I absolutely loathe the track he sang on the show, so I'll reserve my final judgement until next week's show].

Dionne started the third round of performances and she started off very weakly, but seemed to grow in confidence and the performance got stronger. Louis thought she was like a young Diana Ross but her dancing in that tight dress reminded me more of Tina Turner.

Next up were The Unconventionals who turned out to be the eventual losers of the first night. It's a shame really, because I felt that they had the potential to do something a bit different whereas some of the other finalists, despite having great voices, won't bring anything new to the music scene. I quite enjoyed their performance, but I can see how it might not have gone down well with the general viewing public.

X-Factor the first live show (part 2)

2006-10-15T07:10:00.000+01:00

Ashley performed next and he has a beautiful voice and a great image. He's my favourite in the 18 to 24 year old category. His performance of Easy was one of the best of the evening for me.

The final round of performances started with Kerry. Whilst she has a good voice, I don't think there is anything special about her voice. She'd make a good session singer, but there is nothing about her voice or performance that stands out or is memorable.

4sure were the other surprisingly disappointing performance of the evening. Everything that I'd heard of them in the run up to the live shows indicated that they had great voices and excellent harmonies, but this peformance was really weak. They sounded disjointed and did not seem to gel as a group at all.

Finally we had Leona who gave a nervous performance. She might develop over the coming weeks. I hope so because I think she has a great voice.

So the first live show is over - my personal vote goes to Eton Road. In terms of the general public - I'd have to pick Ashley or Ray.

X-Factor 2006

2006-10-10T17:27:00.000+01:00

So this weekend is the real start of this year's X-factor. God, ITV do know how to milk a popular format to death, don't they? The weeks of the original auditions could have easily been condensed into 1 programme, maybe two at the most, so that they could give the necessary 15 minutes of fame to a few of the absolute no hopers.

Then we had the bootcamp double episode the Saturday before last. My only comment about that is that ITV should be glad that as a disabled person hoping to actually win the competition, Kerry is unlikely to lodge a complaint against them under the disability discrimination act.

The production team at X-factor knew that they had a contestant in Sharon's bootcamp who was in a wheelchair. Wouldn't have taken much thought to organise the set so that Kerry could have wheeled herself into and out of the audition room and the stage through use of a ramp rather than having to suffer the indignity of being lifted onto and off of the stage and into and out of the room by members of the production team. This all went on whilst Kerry spoke on camera about how important it was to her to be judged on her singing and not on her disability. Well done to ITV to drawing everyone's attention to her disability.

Last Saturday's double episode was reminisent of a National Geographic Channel documentary there was so much repeated material. Another case of taking over two hours to achieve something that could easily have been done in one.

It didn't really disagree with any of the selections of the final four. With Louie, I always felt Eton Road were better than the other boyband, who seemed to me to be offering nothing that hasn't been done by numerous boybands before. In Simon's category I really liked Shaun, but the simple fact is that he needs a couple more year's maturity to overcome his nervousness. However, I thought Carlo was worth a place in the final four.

I certainly haven't picked a favourite for this year's contest yet.

Not that I have a very good record - in five year's of Pop Idol and X-Factor, I only backed the winner in the first series when I liked Will Young from the outset. In the second year of Pop Idol I backed Sam who was beaten by Michelle. I backed G4 who were beaten by Steve and last year I wanted Journey South to win.

Julian and Sandy - Round the Horne

2006-08-21T21:42:00.000+01:00

I first encountered the unforgettable Julian and Sandy whilst at University. A straight house mate of mine returned from the Christmas vacation and gave me a cassette which he informed me he had recorded off of the radio during the break. He thought that I might appreciate the humour.

The cassette turned out to be four episodes of the 1960s BBC radio comedy Round the Horne. From the first time I listened to that cassette I was totally hooked. Not long after that the BBC started releasing episodes on audio cassette as part of the BBC radio collection and more recently the entire four series of the programme have been issued in CD box sets. I can listen to the episodes over and over again and they still make me laugh. I’ve always enjoyed the whole Round the Horne experience, but I developed a particular affection for Julian and Sandy.

Julian and Sandy are characters played by Kenneth Williams and Hugh Paddick. They are out of work actors filling in between engagements which is why "straight man" Kenneth Horne encounters them episode after episode in different guises. Their introduction to the series was as male domestics who "come to do" for Kenneth Horne, but Julian refuses to do the washing up as "all the dishes are dirty!", which comment results in an camp explosion from Sandy (Kenneth Williams) of "speak for yourself! "

My introduction to Julian and Sandy was also my introduction to polari, the gay / theatre language of the 60s. Polari provided an opportunity for gay people to talk to each other in public without people really understanding what was being said. Julian and Sandy sketches are full of Polari and Round the Horne must have been responsible for "educating" the general public into some of its meaning. Some of the jokes that use Polari just wouldn’t be funny unless you understood the language.

For example, in a conversation about playing the piano, Sandy refers to Julian as being a "miracle of dexterity at the cottage upright", the double meaning of this term becomes obvious if you know that "cottage" is the term for a public convenience where sexual encounters between men take place.

My two absolute favourites lines from Julian & Sandy are as follows:

In a sketch about sailing round the world in lifeboat, Julian informs Mr Horne that during a storm he gets blown overboard. Mr Horne provides the feed line by asking "Did you manage to drag yourself up on deck?" to which Julian replies "Oh no, we just dressed casual, jeans and a t-shirt" before realising that Mr Horne is not referring to drag in the gay sense of "clothing".

My other favourite comes in a sketch about holiday destinations. When Kenneth Horne asks about "Malaga", Julian erupts with "Don’t talk to us about Malaga, Julian got very badly stung in Malaga.", to which Mr Horne replies with the question "Portuguese man of war?". Julian’s response to this question still has me laughing out loud whenever I hear it "Well, I never saw him in uniform!".

There is only one line in Julian and Sandy where I’ve never been able to figure out the joke. Mr Horne has visited Bona Ticket Agency to try and get tickets for a West End Show. Julian and Sandy offer him tickets to "Cosi Van Tutti" which prompts Mr Horne to ask "Mozart? ". The reply to which is "Please yourself, we only fix the seats." The audience erupts with laughter, but I still don’t know what the joke is. Can anyone offer a suggestion?

Of course, maybe there is no joke, maybe the audience laughed because they thought that there must be a joke. As Julian and Sandy reveal in one episode of Round The Horne where Kenneth Horne announces the end of the show and there hasn’t been a Julian and Sandy sketch. Julian and Sandy interrupt and complain bitterly about their omission and when Kenneth Horne states that the writers couldn’t think of anything for them offer numerous suggestions for sketches. These are all rejected by Mr Horne. "No, I’m afraid not" he says "the audience might see a double meaning in that!" Sandy is indignant "Second meaning, them" he screeches "They can’t even see the first meaning, they just laugh at anything that might be dirty!"

So maybe that’s the answer for my lack of understanding of the humour in the "Mozart?" line. Maybe it wasn’t a joke, maybe the audience simply laughed because they thought it might be dirty.

Brighton Pride 2006

2006-08-10T17:28:00.000+01:00

Last Saturday we went down to Brighton for Brighton Pride. Apart from the absolutely horrendous journey we had a fabulous time. Having set off at 7:55am we got caught up behind an accident on the M23 near Gatwick airport and it took us 1 hour to travel 2 miles. Once, we got past that accident we got back up to speed again only to find that the A23 nearer Brighton was completely closed due to another accident and we were diverted off through little villages. So we ended up parking the car near Preston Park at 10:55am. This meant we didn't get down to the sea front to see the start of the parade at 11am. However, we did meet the parade coming towards the park and managed to see the whole thing.

The front of the parade comprised "out and proud" police men and women who were all loudly cheered by nearly everyone watching. Why do people do that? I mean if gay people want to work for an institutionally racist, sexist and homophobic organisation it is absolutely their right to do so, but please don't expect me to cheer you for doing so. The police force in this country will have to do far better before I find myself cheering it!!!

The theme of the rest of the parage was "Carry On" and there were loads of really good floats and costumes. We then had a great afternoon in the park meeting lots of friends.

Barbara Windsor - a Carry On legend!!

A cowboy and his indian friend!

Christopher Street Day Parade - Berlin

2006-08-03T19:49:00.000+01:00

The weekend after the Motzstrasse street festival it is the turn of the Berlin gay pride march, which is called the Christopher Street Day Parade. The parade starts at 1pm in the afternoon and comprises over 50 floats, many of which are selling drink. People tend to stand and watch for a while and then join in behind a float playing music that they enjoy and walk with it, then stop again. The parade passes the end of Motzstrasse, goes through Postdamer Platz, pass the Brandenburg gate and finishes at the Victory column in the Tiergarten.

Having watched the start of the parade at the start of the route at 1pm, we ended up watching the last of the floats past the Brandenburg Gate at 6pm.

In this post I have included some pictures taken of people watching the parade. My next post will feature pictures of the parade itself.

The weather was very hot throughout our visit to Berlin. Thankfully on the day of the parade whilst it was bright and sunny there was at least a bit of a breeze to stop everyone overheating. A lot of people decide to help keep themselves cool by taking a minimalist approach to clothing!

Just out for an afternoon's stroll!

Motzstrasse Street Festival - Berlin

2006-07-31T20:39:00.000+01:00

During our recent visit to Berlin the annual Motzstrasse Street Festival took place - a bit like Soho Pride - but much bigger. Motzstrasse is the main gay area in what used to be West Berlin. There are a large number of gay bars and shops in this street and the surrounding streets.

It is a bit of a tradition for various areas of Berlin to have annual "street festivals" and this just happens to be the one for the gay district. It takes place over a weekend and parts of five streets are closed to traffic. There are various stalls representing gay businesses and plenty of places to buy food and drink. There are various sound stages, one playing hard dance club music and another playing more middle of the road gay music and there are two stages with live appearances.

Usually the event takes place in June but due to the World Cup it was postponed this year until July. It was a great weekend, the weather was perfect - sunny but not too hot.

Some local "skins" enjoying a drink.

Outside one of our favourite bars - Scheune.

The staff at "Frontplay".

The Cazzo film stars relaxing at the Cazzo tent.

Bodypainting.

Tim Vinzent

2006-07-26T14:55:00.000+01:00

We've just returned from our summer visit to Berlin. We try to go every year to enjoy the gay street festival which happens over one weekend and the Christopher Street Day Parade which occurs the following Saturday. Normally these events happen in June, but this year, because of the World Cup taking place in Germany they were postponed until mid July.

We had an absolutely briliant time - as we always do in Berlin - it's a place I'd move to an instant if only I could speak the language well enough to get a good job.

However, this trip was made even better as I got to meet my "idol" - Tim Vinzent, who is an extremely horny skinhead who appears in many of the films made by the German company Cazzo Films. They had a stall at the street festival and on the Sunday afternoon had some of their stars in attendance signing autographs. Tim was one of them and it was great to meet him in the flesh and exchange a few words with him, whilst getting a few photos and his autograph. He doesn't usually have the goatee in the films that he appears in, usually he appears in traditional skinhead gear - when he has clothes on that is!

I'm aware of at least one film he made before making films for Cazzo. The film was called Sunnydays and was produced by the Swiss based company - Ikarus. He also appeared in a Bruce La Bruce film called Skin Flick. A hardcore version of that film was also released called Skin Gang. His other Cazzo films so far have been : Pur, Sex Skins, Sex for Sale, Bonking Berlin Bastards, Thom Barron Calling, Sex Pigs, Sex Klinik and Fuck Fiction. He has also appeared in at least one film made by Liquid London.

In his earlier films he was usually credited as Tim Vincent - but is now routinely credited as Tim Vinzent, whether or not the change is related to potential confusion with the former BBC Blue Peter presenter or not I don't know.

My favourite scene of all is his scene in Sex Pigs.

Link to Cazzo films : http://www.cazzofilm.com

No Justice for Jean

2006-07-17T18:49:00.000+01:00

I can barely contain my disgust at the news today that no-one is to face any serious charges concerning the murder of Jean Charles de Menezes just under one year ago.

This man was murdered by the British state. It was the imposition of the death penalty by firing squad without the worry of anything so trivial as a trial. This would have been abhorrent even if the man had been a terrorist but he was completely innoccent.

It is clear also that the police quickly knew that he was completely innocent but decided instead to smear his name by issuing wild allegations that he ran from the police, leapt over ticket barriers and was wearing a bulky jacket that could have been hiding a bomb.

The fact of the matter was that this man had been caught by the police and could have been arrested for questioning - actions which would have quickly established his innocence but instead he was repeatedly shot at point blank range.

So now for this murderous act - which was sanctioned by the state - through approval of a shoot to kill policy - the Metropolitan Police force face charges under the health and safety at work act.

A memorable day

2006-07-02T14:00:00.000+01:00

Well it was an absolutely brilliant day - and we even managed to enjoy it ourselves. My partner of 13 years, Michael, and I entered into a civil partnership which gives a legal status to the love that we have shared since shortly after we met.

Our special day was shared by our close family and special friends and we couldn't have asked for a better day. The ceremony itself was very moving and our chosen readings went down well. This was followed by a fabulous champagne reception and meal during a river cruise on the Thames. Transport between the venues was in a vintage routemaster bus.

Civil Partnership Ceremony

2006-06-27T22:05:00.000+01:00

Less than four days to go until Michael & I have our civil partnership ceremony. I am now suffering a certain degree of nervousness - only in so far as hoping that all the arrangements go to plan - not about the partnership itself.

Everything has been pretty much organised. We've got our outfits completely sorted now and last night we picked up our cake. We've decided on the music and had that agreed by the Registrar. I've written my short speech. All of our guests have confirmed their attendance and there haven't been any last minute drop outs - yet!

So now we've just got to finish tidying up the house. The race is on to finish the redecoration of the the downstairs toilet!!!

I'm really looking forward to the day - I think it will be a great way to celebrate the 13 year's that we've already spent as partner's as well as having that partnership finally officially recognised by the state.

BBC Board of Governors deny homophobia - what rubbish!

2006-06-17T06:40:00.000+01:00

The BBC Board of Governors have defended the radio one breakfast DJ' s comment that he didn't like a ring tone because it was "too gay". The Board of Governors have taken the view that the comment that something is "gay" is used by young people to mean that something is "rubbish" and consequently using the term is not homophobic.

What complete rubbish. Why do they think that the the word ended up being used in youth culture as a term for things that are rubbish?

Why the word "gay", why not "jock" or "fit" or "hard"?

Clearly "gay" wasn't picked because of the association of its original dictionary definition:

gay, adj, carefree and merry; given to pleasure esp. in social entertainment.

"gay" is used in this context because of its association with "homosexual" because being homosexual is viewed as a negative thing, imperfect, i.e. "rubbish".

You cannot ignore the origins of the use of words when deciding if their use is offensive. Well maybe you can if the period of time elapsed is much longer. But, there is no escaping that using the term panders to the continued negative image of gay people in UK Society. In itself, its maybe a relatively minor point, but I think it is crucial that the BBC as a public service broadcaster actually associates itself with efforts to change that image of gay people rather than pandering to it.

Yesterday saw two men jailed for 28 years for killing a young man simply because he was gay. They had no other motive whatsover for attacking him other than they believed he was gay and they hated gay people.

The actions of the BBC will not stop young people using the word "gay" as a negative term, but Chris Moyles the DJ who used the comment should not have legitimised its negative associations by using the term himself.

The search for a positive mainstream gay film

2006-05-23T19:21:00.000+01:00

Having been to the cinema earlier this year to watch Brokeback Mountain to see what all the fuss was about, I came away feeling pretty let down. It was a good film, but it just seemed to me it was yet another film that portrayed being gay as the route to depression, sadness, murder and death...

It set me on a quest to find a mainstream gay film that ends positively. I don't care how much angst the characters have to go through during the film as long as they end up happy and contented with life. I've not yet found one.

I'm discounting comedies that play up all the gay stereotypes. They can be great films but its not what I'm looking for here.

I've watched the following films so far:

The Trip : This is a brilliant film, but it doesn't tick the box. It follows two guys over the years, losing each other and ultimately only getting back together just in time for one of them to die of Aids.
The Unknown Cyclist: Another film that I'd recommend, but the scenario this time is a guy who dies from Aids and gets the four people closest to him to take part in a charity cycle race. The film shows four very different people coming to understand each other's points of view, but they clearly don't end up happy.
Totally Fucked Up: I didn't like this film at all - I didn't appreciate the filmakers style, but regardless of that, there was no happy ending for the main character in that film.
The Broken Hearts Club: This probably comes closest, so far. The film follows a group of gay friends and at the conclusion of the film there is at least the promise of real happiness to come at some point in the future.
Eating Out: is disqualified as it is just a gay themed comedy film.

So, the search continues - if anyone reading this has any suggestions, let me know.

The only truely positive gay film that I can think of - but it doesn't count as it's not mainstream - is Beautiful Thing. That film about two teenagers growing up on a South-East London council estate really is a positive and inspirational film. That's what I'd like to see more of.

Helsinki - here we come!

2006-05-21T08:21:00.000+01:00

So Finland won and it's off to Helsinki for next year's Eurovision Song Contest. After a break of two years from actually attending the contest, I feel determined that Michael & I will be there next year. When we went to our first Eurovision song contest in Tallin, Estonia we actually flew to Helsinki and then got a catamaran across the Baltic to Tallin. When we were coming home on the Sunday we had a few hours in Helsinki and it seemed like a really nice place, so I'd be happy to go back there for a proper visit.

Watching the final on television, the majority of the songs and their performances came across really well - obviously some appealed to my personal taste more than others. However, four acts really let themselves down - Israel, Malta, Germany and France. These songs did not sound anything like as good as they sound on the Eurovision CD. Both Michael & I thought that Malta had a real chance of winning having listened to the CD a few times, but it ended up with only 1 point.

My top ten (in order) on the night were:

Ukraine
Russia
Denmark
Romania
UK
Armenia
Sweden
Germany
Greece
Turkey

I think that I was too generous in my rating for Germany, given the very poor live performance.

Looking at the published scores for the semi final, Poland and Belgium were the two countries that just missed out.

It's also interesting that of the top 10 songs in the final eight of them qualified from the semi-final, with only Romania (4th) and Greece (8th) as countries that directly qualified for the final making into the top 10. I'm not sure about previous years, but it appears pretty obvious that qualifying from the semi final is actually a real benefit in terms of position in the final. In fact all 10 qualifiers from the semi-final finished in the top 12.

I didn't like the new voting procedures. Whilst it undoubtedly speeded up the process, it made it much more difficult to follow what was going on and digest what scores were being awared. i hope that they revisit that decision before next year.

Who's gonna win?

2006-05-20T11:37:00.000+01:00

It's difficult to predict who's gonna win the Eurovision Song Contest tonight. There's only two songs in the final that I don't like, but I think they both stand a chance of winning - Finland and Lithuania.

Sweden and Armenia might benefit from appearing towards the end, whilst Switzerland & Moldova will probably suffer from being the first two to perform.

My personal favourites are:

Malta
Germany
Russia
Romania
Armenia

I think the UK entry will do well, definately top 10, maybe top 5.

I think the winner will be either Malta, Bosnia or Finland.

The morning after - Eurovision 2006 (semi final)

2006-05-19T08:35:00.000+01:00

Well that was an interesting result. Sadly, my favourite song didn't make it to the final, although if I'm really honest the visual performance of the song was disappointing so I suppose its not entirely a surprise. Of the ten that made it through, the only song that really surprises me is Lithuania's, the song is pretty rubbish and it didn't look good on TV. Iceland's song on the other hand sounds really good on the CD, but it just didn't come across on the TV at all.

Another song that I liked enough on the CD to include in my original top 10 was Portugal, but it just didn't have any impact watching it on TV and I marked it right down.

So in terms of the song and the performance I rated the songs in the following order (the songs that made the final are shown in bold):

Slovenia
Russia
Estonia
Belgium
Bosnia
Macedonia
Sweden
Cyprus
Poland
Finland
Andorra
Bulgaria
Armenia
Turkey
Monaco
Ireland
Iceland
Ukraine
Portugal
Belarus
Netherlands
Albania
Lithuania

So five of my top 10 on the night got through. Now to start listening to the final songs in the order of appearance. At the moment Malta is my favourite for the final, but that might change before Saturday evening.

Eurovision 2006 - semi final update

2006-05-18T21:51:00.000+01:00

The televoting is underway. Having watched the performances I now have a different top 10 based on the actual performances. My revised 10 countries to make the final are:

1: Slovenia
2: Belgium
3: Cyprus
4: Macedonia
5: Poland
6: Russia
7: Sweden
8: Estonia
9: Bosnia
10: Finland

I still don't personally like the Finish song, but the performance will undoubtedly appeal to a lot of people voting.

Tying the knot

2006-05-17T22:31:00.000+01:00

My partner Michael & I have been together 13 years in July this year and to mark that event we shall be entering into a Civil Partnership on Saturday 1st July 2006.

We will be joined by our close family and friends for the ceremony to be followed by a champagne reception and meal during a Thames river cruise. We've also hired a vintage route-master coach to transport everyone between the venues on the day.

Meeting Michael was the best thing that ever happened to me. He means more to me as each day goes by.

Minister for (in)equalities!!

2006-05-17T17:56:00.000+01:00

So Tony Blair has finally nailed his true colours to the mast on the issue of gay rights, by appointing a member of Opus Dei as Minister for Equalities. Ruth Kelly has routinely abstained on pro-gay rights legislation since the Labour Party came to power and the views of Opus Dei on homosexuality are well known.

I have to say that this doesn't really surprise me. Whilst it is undeniable that there has been significant progress on lesbian and gay rights since the Labour party came to power, this has been almost despite the Labour party being in power and not because it was in power.

Coupled with this is the fact that pretty much every piece of pro-lesbian and gay legislation has been coupled with some "sop" to placate the religious right creates mixed feelings in me. Some key points that I think support this view are:-

The Labour government actually opposed the case in the European court that resulted in Lesbian and gay people being able to join the armed forces.
In the first session of the Labour government's first period in power there was only one piece of legislation where the government accepted defeat in the Lords without a fight and that was the lowering of the age of consent.
When they finally got around to lowering the age of consent to 16 they coupled the legislation with "breach of trust" legislation which prohibits anyone in a position of trust having sexual relationships with someone under the age of 18. Whislt I don't necessarily disagree with this legislation, its presence in the same Act that reduced the age of consent for gay sex to 16 was blatant pandering the the "Daily Mail" view of gay people as child abusers.
The legislation prohibiting discrimination against lesbian and gay people at work provides a wonderful loop hole that allows religious organisations to continue their discrimination against lesbians and gay men in employment. Of course, lesbian and gay organisations are not provided with the same opportunity to refuse to employ people with strongly held religious views - even if those views are that gay people should be put to death!
Whilst a deeply Catholic country like Spain can be mature and bold enough to allow its lesbian and gay citizens to marry, here in the UK we have to be satisfied with entering into Civil Partnerships - so as not to upset the bishops in the House of Lords - who probably still voted against the bill. So this means that on 1 July 2006 my partner & I will not be getting married, we will be getting "civil partnered" - which really trips off the tongue.

So the new minister of equalities will have to precide over the introduction of promised legilsation prohibiting discrimination in the provision of services. I can't wait to see what opt out she manages to come up with for her religious friends.

The problem is compounded by the fact that in Stonewall - we have an self appointed campaigning organisation that claims to speak on behalf of the lesbian and gay people of the United Kingdom, but which has its collective tongue so deeply buried in Tony Blair's backside as to be inaudible in the fight for true equality.

This is me

2006-05-16T20:23:00.000+01:00

Thoughts on Eurovision 2006

2006-05-16T19:52:00.000+01:00

I've just been readings Chigs blog and am feeling extremely jealous that my partner & I are not in Athens soaking up the Eurovision atmosphere. The three times that we've been to Eurovision - Tallin (2002), Riga (2003) and Istanbul (2004) we had such a fantastic time. Looking forward to watching the BBC's tribute to Eurovision later this evening - though it clashes with Lost so I'll have to record one or the other.

I've got my prediction as to the 10 songs out of the 23 in the semi final which will make it to the final on Saturday. However, I am notoriously rubbish in getting this right. Last year only 6 of my 10 made it to the final. So my ten for this year - in no particular order (as they say on Strictly Dance Fever) - are:

Andorra
Belgium
Cyprus
Bosnia
Estonia
Sweden
Portugal
Russia
Slovenia
Monaco

My prediction is based on only listening to the songs on CD numerous times. I've not seen any performances on the songs. Also when I listened to the songs for the first time, I wasn't that impressed with many at all. With repeated listening all but two of the tracks have grown on me considerably ( I still can't stand the Lithuanian or the Finish entries).

My personal favourite of all the songs at the moment is still Slovenia.