Returning...

There's nothing that makes me feel less British than queuing in my own country to prove my identity... Spain was fine, a quick glance at the passport and we were through... On return we were treated to 45 minutes in a queue (whilst the non-EU desk was empty!) and Border Control officers nearing the end of a TWELVE hour shift. How easy to make a mistake through the haze of sleep deprivation? They're meant to be on the ball but the person at our desk looked exhausted!


Tears and more tears in the past 48 hours! We arrived back in "sunny" Blighty this morning at 4am... It's currently chucking it down and all I want to do is get back out to Gran Canaria! The weather, the atmosphere, the service in restaurants and bars and of course the entertainment made it the best week of my life. It must also be said that without the following people, Maspalomas would not have been half as good...


My gorgeous Nickie, organiser, burns specialist and Cockroach Killer extraordinaire...
Valentino King and Mike Stand (AKA Gizell Timpani and Suzanne Coleman), the best pals a girl could ask for...
Robin Karrs and Magenta Jewell (AKA Diane Rawson, aka Lady Di and Jenny Croston) Entertainers, hosts and ABSOLUTE LEGENDS...
Flirty Bertie (AKA Lisa Lindsey) Brother and Friend
Sam Dangleham (AKA Kerry Newbury) a gent with southern ways...


We partied in Sparkles Showbar all week, and it's made me question what we're prepared to put up with in the UK. Nowhere can you get free table service, nowhere can you get staff who will remember your face after a year, and remember your drink night after night (every member of staff who served us after the second night knew what we were drinking!) Nowhere in the UK can you pay the equivalent of £6.00 for a drink and feel you are not being ripped off (the shorts are at least a treble, they just pour for 7 seconds - oh and that's 6 Euros for branded drinks like Havana).

ANDI MARTINE, CHANELLE FONTAINE

AND MICHAEL MAROULI PERFORM

IN SPARKLES SHOWBAR

We also went to a fabulous pool party hosted by Ricky's Cabaret Bar at the Walkirias Hotel right next to the Yumbo where the entertainment was fabulous and the drinks were plentiful (and pretty cheap!)

THE BLUE DRAG COMEDY GALA

I'll sign off for now... Too tired to make any more sentences and in need of a KFC fix - roll on October when we're definitely going back!

Gran Canaria 2

Very quick one today - internet costs a Euro for 15 mins! Shocking... Yesterday was lovely, went to Maspalomas Beach and sat watching the ocean and reading. Very peaceful! The sun is very strong, and Nickie is quite burned all over her back and legs - whoops, so she´ll be staying out of the sun for today!

Last night we finally met up with Flirty Bertie, Valentino King, Suzy, Diane and Jenny for a brilliant night out in Sparkles Showbar, and we all had a wonderful time, got the VIP treatment as I was there with Valentino and we were treated to great hospitality. The show was fantastic with Tammy Pax, Thunderpussy and of course, our very own Valentino King who was AMAZING! Can´t wait til Friday when she´s on again!

I spent this morning trying not to wake Nickie as we didn´t get in til gone 3, but I was awake at 9, so had a bit of a read and then when Nickie woke up, we planned my set for Manchester Pride.

I´m making contacts all over the place, and who knows, it might be me up on the stage this time next year... Watch This Space.

See you soon and keep checking the blog for updates xxxxx

Greetings from Gran Canaria

Hello All,

We arrived in GC on Saturday to our hotel VistaOasis in the pitch black at around 12:30am and it wasn´t until the morning that we realised our view over the dunes was absolutely spectacular!

Yesterday we woke up to find that we were not overlooked, we couldn´t see any other rooms and had uninterrupted views out to sea. We took a stroll to the local Supermercado and bought a few essentials, then sunbathed  - tanning our white bits as there was nobody to see!

Later, we walked into Maspalomas, which was a leisurely 50 minutes (with rather a big hill!) and met up with Sarah Bland to watch the football - needless to say, Nickie was devastated as United beat Chelsea. I drank two LARGE vodka and Cokes (they were definitely trebles) and then we then went into the Yumbo, which is as fantastic as everybody has said and went down to an all you can eat Chinese buffet (I know, why not tapas?) This is where it gets amazing... A while ago, I wrote about Manchester Pride for their blog and talked about my pals, Stacey and Becky who I always run into... I haven´t seen them since last August... and there they were, standing next to me in the buffet (cue screaming like queens). We joined them for dinner, I smoke many fags (got to make the most of smoking indoors!) and then who else should turn up but FLIRTY BERTIE! Amazing!

Today we´re going to go down to Maspalomas beach for a spot of sunbathing and reading - I´ve got the Kindle and I´m reading Patricia Cornwell´s first Scarpetta book. Excellent.

We had a spot of bother yesterday evening with a rather large cockroach... I screamed and hid in bed whilst Nickie disposed of it. I was terrified, it´s my only phobia. :-(

The room is basic, but lovely, very cool and clean and we have stove, full size fridge and a Massive safe. Going to go down to the pool later after we come back from the beach, then meeting all the girls for dinner tonight (and watching Valentino in action at Sparkles!)

Much Love,
Lydia



By this

Recent Happenings

Just thought I'd give you a little catch up, following a text from my bestest best pal Lucy who is amazing and fabulous - That's her given name!

You may be asking yourself, where have you been for all this time?

Well, I've been all over the place really, although the main reason I've not written is because of a really shitty thing that happened in March, a friend of mine miscarried her first child - it's not my story to tell but it shook me up and I was very upset and got completely blocked, and as soon as I started writing, I basically clammed up! 

I'm alright now, and my friend is getting there, and if she's reading it, I hope she knows she's got a LOT of support right now.

In addition to that horrid thing, I also moved again, which is a story in itself. My landlord needed his room back, and so I managed to find somewhere else to live immediately. As soon as he'd given me my notice, the little tiny things that had irritated me about living in the flat like the smoky environment and the ever-full washing up bowl became THE MOST ANNOYING THINGS IN THE WORLD! I told him I was going to leave at the end of March rather than April, and he said that if I did that, I would not get my deposit back!

A dilemma! If I lost my deposit and had to pay my first month's rent, I'd be out £300.00! This was no good!

In an extremely fortunate stroke of luck, the best thing happened to me. I met my wonderful girlfriend Nickie, who will not mind me mentioning her! From the day we met, we clicked completely and I fell in love at a terrifying speed. She offered me a bed, rent free for a month and after immediate protestation, a few days of thought and some wrangling on her behalf, I agreed that it would be a reasonable solution! Terrified, I moved half my stuff into Nickie's flat in Cheetham Hill, told my folks I was living with "a friend" and put the rest of my belongings in my soon to be new house in Blakely. Well, things don't always work out the way you think they will do they?

Within weeks of staying with Nickie, I realised something. I didn't want to leave - we worked so well together and I couldn't imagine living anywhere else. As it happened, Nickie was thinking the same thing, and so, after some more deep thought and consideration, we decided that we didn't want to live apart. She invited me to live with her permanently and after a fairly awkward conversation with my mother along the lines of "Do you know that friend I was staying with? Well, she's my girlfriend and I'm not moving out!", I spoke to my new landlady who was amazing and said that she'd assumed that this might happen!

Meeting Nickie changed my life! She has made me reassess everything and has made me less selfish, more open and incredibly happy. I still struggle to say no and take on too much, but I'm doing better than ever! Nickie has made me realise that actually I do deserve the good things that happen to me and I do deserve to be actually happy for once!

In other news, I've been kinging it up like nobody's business! Take a look at my website for more information www.thedragking.co.uk but in a nutshell, I'm putting an act together and going back to my first love. Performance! I am at last using the £12,000 degree that I spent three years doing!

I'm also making big waves in Manchester's LGBT community (that's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans for the uninitiated!) I was elected as a trustee onto the board of the Lesbian Community Project (www.lesbiancommunityproject.co.uk), I'm still presenting my popular weekly radio show on Gaydio (www.gaydio.co.uk), and I'm going to be performing at this year's Manchester Pride, so things are going from strength to strength.

Musings of a Not Very Cool Gay...

It’s time I came out… Not as gay, I’ll have been out and proud for ten years in October (I’m throwing myself a party!) No, I’m coming out as a NVCG…

I prefer pubbing, to clubbing and I can’t stand pretention,

Thank God for Manchester Pride, It’s good for relieving my tension,

I haven’t had that many “encounters” at Manchester Pride,

If I’ve ever said that it’s more than a few, well I’m sorry but I lied,

You’ll find me at Climax looking mildly out of place,

because I haven’t got the right hair, and certainly not the right face.

My haunt is actually the Women’s Stage with Heather Peace and Horse,

I like to watch the drag kings and Clare Mooney of course.

I find I’m surrounded by couples, often young and very cool,

but I’m a bit of a geek and I can’t even play pool.  

But Manchester Pride is welcoming of cool and geek alike,

whether you drive a BMW or ride a Chopper Bike.

Whether your tee-shirt says “Bench” or “Property of Manchester Met”,

you’re guaranteed a weekend, you will not soon forget.

You can party in the New Union, (I’m back at the hotel by twelve.)

Girls never want to leave so early, they’ll stay and dance by themselves.

My very first Pride in 2003 I was insecure about myself.

I was only nineteen years old but I felt I’d been left on the shelf.

I tried to act all cool, but I didn’t have designer sunspecs

I always wore the wrong shoes, no wonder I never got any sex,

We drank in Sackville Gardens, but something was amiss.

I got so drunk and merry that I couldn’t even score a kiss.

My second Pride was interesting, with one embarrassing hiccup.

My best friend is sworn to secrecy about this particular pick up.

Skip forward a few years to 2010, I vowed to just be me.

I embraced my random geekdom for everyone to see.

I still had no designer clothes, I didn’t get my hair done,

I spent the weekend dressed as a man and I had fantastic fun.

Another Big Weekend, is just a few months away

And remember, even if you’re a Not Very Cool Gay

You can dance til you drop, having fun’s no crime,

We’ll all get together for another gay old time

1 Minute 37 Seconds...

It's been a while since I blogged, but yesterday and over the past couple of weeks I've been preparing for Comic Relief and Red Nose Day. This morning as I watched some Comic Relief comedy (I missed it all last night as I was in a call centre taking donations), I saw this video. You may have already seen it, but I ask you to look again - it's only 1 Minute 37 Seconds long, and hopefully it will inspire you to do something AMAZING... Text YES to 70010. Just one simple text, costing £10.00, all of which goes to Comic Relief and your network charges will mean that women like Selinah who you see in the video can lead a normal life with AIDS.

I hope that you can take 1 Minute 37 Seconds out of your day, and £10.00 out of your pocket (the equivalent of 33 pence every day for a month) to help people in Africa whose lives have been decimated by AIDS.

God Bless

part two of the long story...

He had been a wilful child, and when Mother; as she insisted on being called, the head of Wilson’s home for dispossessed boys could no longer deal with his tantrums and outbursts, she sent him to work in the kitchens of the local Titan’s. When Bob visited the hotel, so impressed had he been with Jerry’s quick wit and ability to spin, he had immediately promoted him to his personal intern at the head office in Chicago, where he then worked for the next eight years, learning the business and taking everything Bob told him as gospel. This was his first stroke of luck! Bob had originally offered to pay for Jerry’s college career when he was just fifteen. They had a blazing row, reminiscent of those that Jerry imagined he would have with his own father had he been living. Jerry refused the offer of a free ride through college.

“It’s all well and good knowing the business Jerry,” Bob had said “but without that little piece of paper, it’s worth shit!” But Jerry was not, nor had he ever been the sort to take anything for nothing.

“I’ll go to college when I can afford it, I’ll work two jobs if I have to!”

“Why would you want to do that? Why would you want to make life so hard for yourself, I’m offering you nothing but the chance to be all you can be!”

“Would you have taken it at my age?” Jerry asked, staring hard into Bob’s eyes.

Bob knew he was beaten, of course he would not have taken such an offer. He was as proud and stubborn as Jerry now, and as wilful as Jerry when he was a boy. He had never even attended college because of the cost, but it was a different time and that piece of paper had meant so little then. He could see so much potential in the young Jerry Dawson so, despondent; Bob gave Jerry a large raise and told him to save.

Of course all that had changed upon his mother’s death, and Bob, being one of the few people who knew about Jerry’s past had been delighted, writing the Principal of Stanford University immediately upon hearing the news, insisting that Jerry would be the finest and most dedicated student who ever studied there. Jerry was elated when Bob promised him a new position as VP of the whole North West division, seven hotels and two casinos including the celebrated Titan Royal in Chicago, where the President of the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt stayed during his visits to the city. As promised, Jerry was a highly motivated and active student of the University, sitting a numerous committees and the king of the Debate society. He was also one of the most popular boys at the college, having inherited the rugged good looks and suave charm which had sent Mavis running into Jerry Sr.’s arms twenty years ago, though he never knew it. He had girls falling at his feet from day one and flirted constantly with the female members of staff, actions which had him in the Dean’s office almost weekly.

“You must stop this Jerry, you’ve got Betty swooning every time you walk in,” Dean Peterson had said, referring to the young cashier in the dormitory dining hall, “She keeps messing up her register and we’re losing her three hours a week while she puts herself back together!”

Jerry left a rose for her on her cash register and a note apologising for his behaviour and telling her that she was beautiful, but he needed to concentrate on his studies and he had not the time to fall in love. So eloquent was the note that Betty could not even be mad or upset, and she reasoned that, as long as he kept winking at her in the mornings at breakfast, he would eventually find the time to take her out.

When he left college, as promised, he was given an office at the Chicago Titan, and the key to the safe along with a $25,000 a year contract. Jerry had finally realised the potential that Bob had seen all along. In his first year as Vice President, Jerry increased profit margins by twenty three percent, and met the President of the United States who commented that he was a fine young man with outstanding business acumen. Jerry, modest at the best of times, had been so enthralled by this commendation, that he had passed his ardour onto his staff, giving them a 70¢ per hour raise.

By the time he married Doris, he was almost thirty and over the next few years, Bob’s started to decline. This man who now served, not only as a mentor, but as a father, a business advisor and a friend was dying. Frequent bouts of influenza had left his round body exhausted, and when the Cancer got him in 1950, death was inevitable. It was still a shock when, 6 months after his diagnosis, he fell asleep after supper, and didn’t wake up. He was only 52, and the business world mourned.