Xtro

I've got to say I really cannot stand Jafakan Mockney (Fake Jamaican and Mock Cockney - and my father was a genuine Cockney, born 1911) I mean, bro, I is axing you, like wha'evs? (Best I've heard for a wicked send-up:- "I don't want no bush, reggin - I wanna be so lean I can't fink, I can't get a job, an' I go skitzo, because I'm soooo nang for the skunk." (Synchromystickz - Superfood Shottas with KP and Mike Stanton))

There wasn't much happening around us until we started up a support group. I appreciate that the climate (social) is probably different, but until someone makes the first move to do something, then nothing is going to get changed.

As in the old Rockin' Pneumonia an' the Boogie-Woogie Flu? (Ah, those old psychobilly days of yore...) Latest amusement still remains the expression 'To rock up' - meaning 'to arrive somewhere.'

Perhaps the general mindset is that, with the state capital being so close, there's no need for any Gay Friendly organisational support. And a Pride march can be sometimes considered 'intimidating' to those on the 'outside.' (Which is sometime where the more flamboyant members of our tribe can be a little too 'stereotypical' - even for those of us in the same club.) I think you need to turn your expectations around a little. Have you thought about becoming a gay activist and working to build up a successful gay support structure? In a town of 15,000 you're not going to be the only gay man, believe me - so maybe it's time to start taking the initiative. And if it's any consolation, the UK Government didn't de-criminalise Homosexuality until 1967. The first UK/London based Pride 'Marches' didn't happen until 1970/1972. In other words, it didn't happen overnight. As it is, Pride these days has become a business venture, rather than a show of solidarity and support - so in some respects it's not all Wine & Roses:- "In late 2012, a group of individuals from within the LGBTQ community formed London LGBT+ Community Pride, a registered community interest company, and the company organised the Pride in London festival and parade in 2013. The organisation has been awarded a contract to organise Pride in London for five years by the Greater London Authority, together with funding of £500,000 over five years." But, if you really want to make a difference, and see a change in the situation around you, then you have to do something yourself. It's either that, or move to another part of the country, alas.

Any language mutates - it has to in order for the various 'generations' to talk amongst themselves without others 'listening in.' To role this back to the original line - Liberal has had itself hijacked in the same way that MoR did (MoR - Middle of the Road - however, it isn't known as MotR, is it.) A simple (and, to me, surprising) example is that children, deaf from birth, will create their own 'slang' sign language within a group. They will also 'teach' other groups who, in turn, mutate and create. Others are created through media popularity - here in the UK, the expression 'lush' and 'sick' were jacked and can also mean Good, Nice, 'I really like this.' - to the point that, depending on the age of the audience, 'That's really sick!' takes on different, and opposite, meanings. Or are we now at the point in civilization where we need to recycle words like we recycle the garbage/trash/rubbish/waste/junk?

Hmmmm, I can appreciate that an apple is a fruit - but that doesn't necessarily make it gay. Does it?

There is also the angle that sexual activity can be pursued for recreational rather than genetic or procreative needs - something which may come with a perceived higher order of intelligence.

To extend that even further - I suspect that the physical side is okay with a lot of people, regardless of orientation or gender, because it does not involve any long term commitment to a relationship - or emotional involvement. Once you get into the commitment and responsibilities - emotions and feelings for each other, beyond the purely physical - then it becomes a whole new ball game (no pun intended.) For me, the cuddling and spooning and touching and relaxing is sometimes more important. And, as an old friend said to me a long time ago - you need something to keep the two of you together once the sex goes.

Okay, here's something else to dwell on. An awful lot of straight men find F/F (two women) material to be fantastically erotic. Apart from the obvious - they would like to assume the role of either woman - the fascination with same sex 'erotica' is mirrored by the amount of straight women who find M/M material equally erotic. And this is before we get to the Oral phobias. "So if you won't go down on me, why should I go down on you?" Yeah, I know. The only difference between a straight and a gay man is a six pack. Or half a bottle of Jack Daniels...

The Kindle 'mechanism' seems to have been 'quirky' for more than a few days now - some comments filtering through from the Kindle Dashboard forums about bits dropping off, suddenly lost, variations on colour quality. I'm in the process of trying to push an anthology with a dozen of us in it, but Amazon seem to be doing their best to mess us around. I have no idea way they cannot set up a UK-based mirror operation - not only would it mean less hassle, it would also mean less diddling around with various other things like US non-resident tax at 30%...

The problem comes when you factor in the Amazon policy for reviewing in the wake of the sock puppet business. As an author on Amazon I cannot review another author's work because that is now not allowed (regardless of what the review has in content - if it is a good review then it's trying to influence sales, and if its a bad review then it's trying to kill off sales.) Does that then mean that my years of Goodreads reviews will be wiped out? Although I may well use Amazon as a production tool (ie, publishing through Kindle) I can also use the likes of Smashwords as an alternative. The one thing I cannot do is review and comment through Amazon once I am registered as an author or a publisher - so how else do I publicise? Especially when the site (Amazon) encourages authors to do so in order to create sales and add to their profit.

Hmmm, you have one, or you'd like one? I suspect, having been sexually active in the 1970s (and that was back when street legal was 21, not 18) I remember the fears of the 2 H's - Herpes and Hepatitis. The 1980s came and yes, the Gay Plague decimated friends, characters, and people. There was a massive campaign in the UK, that then stopped almost overnight. That did not stop me having sex (I lost my first LTP back in 1982, to the Falklands - not to AIDS) but it did make me realise that things had to change. However, over the last 30 years (and being gay in the UK has only been legal for 46 years this year) the lack of awareness of any STD/Virus in regard to the gay community has been its own downfall. Ignorance kills - despite the invincibility of youth, and AIDS does not discriminate against orientation. Whatever happened to taking a moment of time to get yourself checked out on a regular basis? And yes, there is sex after 40, and 50, and 60 - I have an energetic partner to prove it (hence the worn out backspace key... )

England/Italy - it's understandable why the Italians got man of the match. Lot of work has been put into getting the side to produce quality game play - and England almost did their usual of relaxing too early before the final whistle. Not sure how things will go in Cardiff - Wales on home turf isn't going to be easy, regardless of the Slam.

Provided it doesn't degenerate into a kicking game, then fine - but the last French match must have been 79 minutes of kicking, and 1 minute of game...

Not forgetting that some days you can't even get out the door before the sky starts falling. Well, one of those pesky space rocks...