What Did De La Warr, Boys?

Well, what an excellent night I had last night at the De La Warr Pavilion down in sleepy old Bexhill-On-Sea. Many times in the past I have found that when Duckie does a special event away from its natural habitat (ie the Royal Vauxhall Tavern), it just doesn’t quite work and I’ve come away feeling a little let down or disappointed. I am therefore pleased to report that this was NOT the case this time round. I think this was due to the fact that the nature of the event meant it was quite a bit different from a normal Duckie – in fact in many respects not like Duckie at all – rather than just trying to be the same thing but in a different venue.

The journey down took absolutely ages, thanks to gridlocked South London streets; it must have taken us nearly 2 hours just reach the London/Kent border. Made two new friends on the bus (one of whom I was later to have a ‘formal dance’ with), so hello Richard & Richard if you’re reading this! Finally – and about 45 mins later than planned – we reached our destination. Unfortunately at this time of year, it’s dark at 8.45pm, so I wasn’t really able to take in the vision that is the spectacular De La Warr exterior (a Grade One listed building in the Modernist style, I’ll have you know)…..or perhaps more truthfully, after hellish bus journey I just wanted to get inside asap and visit toilets and bar in that order.

Once inside, it quickly became clear that us bussed-down Londoners were actually a very small portion of the total attendees – perhaps 20% at most. The main room had been set out to look a bit like a ballroom, dancefloor in the middle, tables and chairs at the sides and on the raised areas by the walls, big stage at the front. The rest of the crowd were very mixed, but in the main different from people who would ordinarily go somewhere like Duckie. Mostly straight, all ages but generally more towards the ‘mature’ bracket, and I perhaps unkindly remarked that several of them looked like they were having their one night out of the decade! Some had probably come up from cosmopolitan Brighton, many of them seemed more likely to live in the more sleepy, sedate towns nearby. And yet, despite this bizarre mix of punters, it all worked like a dream. There was no trouble, no-one looked out of place or outraged, and it all seemed to sum up the wide-ranging appeal that Duckie has. I’m sure several people there had never seen anything like it, but similarly I’m sure they all went away having had a thoroughly enjoyable night they’ll remember for a long time.

As for the stage acts, these also reflected the crowd mix well, and were introduced by Amy and the brilliant Ida Barr who were sharing the role of hostess. Some typical Duckie-esque avant-garde performance art stuff, but also some more mainstream or traditional stuff, such as a soprano opera singer. Local ladies were also well represented on stage, there was a small choir, plus a Bexhill belly-dancing troupe who wiggled and shimmied to great applause and acclaim! Most of the acts lasted about 5 minutes, so you saw several in one go, before having a break for music. There were also “5 Formal Dances” through the course of the evening, during which you were encouraged to go all Strictly Ballroom with whichever partner you had promised or been promised to on the dance cards that were available. As mentioned, I got a dance with one of the bus-Richards; I was pleased that the track played for this was Glen Campbell’s ‘Wichita Lineman’ – not the most cheery of songs granted, but nevertheless a great oldie I happened to have recently re-discovered. I also bumped into someone from the gay Mensa group who I hadn't seen for ages – because he’d moved from London down to Hastings, just down the road from Bexhill. All too soon though, the party was all over, and I was back on the bus to London. Not quite as bad as the journey down, nevertheless it was nearly 5am before I finally fell into bed.

Today: did a bit more bedroom painting, this time it was “Behind The Wardrobe” leaving just “The Big Wall” to do. Hopefully I’ll get that finished next weekend.

Proper Cold !

At last, we have having a prolonged spell of decent cold weather. Obviously there are many weeks left, but maybe the Met Office's prediction of a colder than average winter will come true. Although I always think "the colder the better" the weather we've been having is actually about right for me - about 6-8C by day, and around freezing by night. In the past couple of days it's actually got even chillier - I'm not sure I want this to go on if it means I have to start worrying about burst pipes or other cold-weather-related things going wrong in my flat. Sometimes I think life was so much easier before being a homeowner!!

Meanwhile, in other news, my mum came for her annual visit last weekend. We went for a vegan meal at the Vita Organic restaurant on Finchley Road last Friday evening and spent Saturday morning looking round the shops, and the afternoon at the Science & Natural History Museums. As well as all the usual exhibits inside, they also had an ice rink and mini-market outside. Interesting fact: The big dinosaur skeleton in the main hall of the NHM has been there 100 years! 2nd interesting fact: The dog that lives in the flat downstairs did not seem to like my mum at all, and got very upset and made a terrible fuss whenever we came and went. Very strange, he is usually almost over-friendly and sees new people as a source of fun and interest. I haven't seen him for a few days, I think he is being kept in as a punishment for his disgraceful behaviour.

Oh and we won the Retro Bar quiz this week - Ian's special Dr Who themed musical quiz that is. Unfortunately I picked the worst possible prize - team Madonna CDs :( Every silver lining has a cloud. And there was no repeat of my Crimestopper heroics of the previous week - in fact, it looks like the culprit has been back for the aforementioned advert has now actually disappeared.

Special Duckie 10th Birthday party at the newly-renovated De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill-On-Sea tomorrow night - hurrah !

Crimestopper !

I am proud to report that last night I was instrumental in preventing a felony at the Retro Bar. OK, it wasn't exactly going to be Crime Of The Century, nor did I have to use any Phil Mitchell techniques of restraint; nevertheless there is still the warm, fuzzy feeling of having done my bit. Now on the wall of the men's loos above the washbasin is a poster (framed for some reason) advertising a gay men's self-esteem workshop run by PACE. I have always noticed this advert because it features photos of 4 happy, smiling gay men who look like their self-esteem has been sent soaring through the roof as a result of attending the course; of these 4, one I actually know from OUT, one I recognise also from OUT (though have never actually met or spoken to him) and a third is a personal trainer at my gym. None of this is actually relevant however....

The story goes thus: when I walked into the loo, there was a man standing at the washbasin. Nothing unusual about that of course, and at first I paid him no attention. A second or two later however, there was a noise of something being clumsily dropped into the sink. Turns out it was the advert, which had been removed from the frame. So judging by his now jumpy state, it seemed the man had been interrupted in the process of trying to nick the advert, which seemed even more likely as he rushed out of the loo in an incredibly flustered way. You must admit, it's not the usual kind of gay-man-misbehaving-in-public-toilet story!

Oh yes, and there was the quiz too. All about mash-ups, done very cleverly by the quiz setter. We got a very high score, but didn't win because a Readers' Wife was also present and they know everything. And they walked off with the not-insubstantial cash kitty. Bugger.

DIY SOS

Well yesterday I finally got round to at least starting the painting of my bedroom. Make no mistake, a good tough workout in the gym is a walk in the park compared to the agony that is decorating. All that climbing up and down step-ladders, bending and stretching etc to paint those hard-to-reach corners...I felt like I'd been hit by a bus when I woke up this morning. Admittedly I didn't help myself by refusing to move my bed, thus rendering the most difficult-to-paint area also the most inaccessible. Hence extra climbing, bending, stretching whilst probably contravening every Health & Safety regulation in the book. At least I didn't tip the paint all over the carpet. Also, the colour has turned out to be a bit more.....pastel than I was expecting. Botanic, they call it. With one-and-a-bit walls left to paint, I have a horrible feeling I've made my bedroom look like a lady's bedroom.

Meanwhile, in other news, I went to the monthly Club Le Strange comedy night last Thursday, for the first time since June. And I have to say, it was the most disappointing one yet. Whilst I do love Gary's unique take on the early 80s New Romantic/Electronica/Futurist/Blitz Kids/Cult-With-No-Name genres, this time, there was a feeling of having seen it all before. And the other acts in the show were frankly, crap. As a result, the very final one, involving a man doing karate whilst wearing just a self-opening kimono and a jockstrap with his testicles hanging out, briefly became The Funniest Thing Ever. As if we'd crammed a whole evening's worth of laughs into five minutes.

Boredom

The past 5 days have got to have the most boring week at work ever. I'm stuck in that in-between stage where one bit of work has finished and I'm waiting the next meaty bit to start. It wouldn't be so bad if I didn't have to actually *go* to work at this time, I could instead spend my days doing some enjoyable things elsewhere, but obviously, no such luck. Therefore it's been a case of spending most of the time waiting for the day to end, as Brian Molko once sang.

Still I shouldn't complain. During the first half of the year, when I was working on 2 projects simultaneously and having to assist on a 3rd from time to time, I would have been more than grateful for a bit of quiet time. Why is the workload never evenly distributed ? Anyway, it gave me time to think about about doing some dreaded home DIY, hence tomorrow I am dragging myself of to my local Homebase to try and get some stuff to make my bedroom look better. This was the one room I never got round to doing the last time the DIY bug bit (2.5 years ago!), and I have started to get sick of looking at it and thinking how shabby it looks and how it could really do with a good going over.

I need to get some of that gunk that you use to fill in a crack (in the wall, not *that* sort!!!), some wallpaper seam glue (the previous owners having covered the walls with some of that paper you then paint over) plus some emulsion matchpots to try and decide what colour to paint the walls. I've got a feeling I bought the wrong new curtains a few weeks ago....I'm not sure what will go with (or perhaps, not clash too much) with both these and the carpet. And being quite lazy, I'm only interested in that paint that you only need to apply one coat of, which restricts my choice even more. Am I bovvered though ? Face-bovvered ?