Slowly but surely the return of a regular blog entry in here is starting to happen. It's just going to get time to return to the point of daily or every other day something is written. Apart from me being busy of late, I've not been too down, and thus I've not been as creative as I can be when I'm down.
Going back in time to last weekend!!! Manchester Pride 2006. It was always going to prove to be a long weekend, working on a stall straight after working on playscheme's. Still I volunteered and I'm glad I did to be honest. Though it wasn't the hustling and bustling Pride that I've known before, this one as always had a unique atmosphere. It was much more reserved than previous years and with that brought a certain sense of calmness. People have suggested that the more lively crowd didn't want to entertain the £16.50 weekend passes that you needed to enter the Village for the duration of Pride, some said it was being charged double for drinks or/and being charged to enter bars/clubs when they wouldn't normally. Something needs to be addressed some where. I know most of the extra monies charged went to charity, but some barrier needs to be created to make it affordable.
So Saturday arrived and I had to set the stall up, which proved to be quite difficult on my own. It wasn't just the design aspect of it, it was trying to put the banner up in the stall, when there was only one person available. I'm thankful of the girl from the stall next door, Bi Phoria who helped me out with that. With the stall all but ready, I sat and waited for not only the public to arrive, but also my fellow volunteers. They were asked to be there before 12 noon, to help me with the stall and also as that's when the majority of the people would start to come in. Well guess what? It was more like 12.30 when to first of them came along, and that's how the rest of the day went. People arriving late or not arriving for what ever reason.
It left me with little time to go and explore the goings on in the village to mark the Pride weekend. I could hear the music from the main stage, but didn't get chance to see any of the acts. I didn't get to see the Parade either through the streets of Manchester, but I'm sure to see some pictures soon. What was most satisifying for myself was the response from Bi Phoria to my presense next door. I've for a long time envisioned a problematic feeling towards myself, but that wasn't to be and no one really harboured any bad feelings towards me.
Once the mad rush around the "Expo" had died down we closed the stall down and went for a drink or two. I was driving so I couldn't really drink too much or anything, but hey that's not a problem. I was shattered, I'd been on my feet since before 9am, and it was around 7pm now. So after a nice cool drink, I went home or rather to my mum's. She'd asked me to pick up some pens for her whilst on the stalls, so I took back what pens I'd gathered, and then went and used her bath. Whilst in the bath I heard the sound of something shorting out downstairs. I fairly quickly got out of the bath and once ready explored the situation, to find that mum's tv had blown up!! Add to that the digital box was arcing in the back of box thus creating problems full stop for mum in terms of watching her favourite channels and programme's.
Sunday was upon us and a visit to Ashton's Farmer's Market. This was a bit quieter than the last one we attened, but all the same it provided both mum and I, not only with something different, but with a variety of products to try and to enjoy. Once we'd had some lunch at home I took mum to Bingo and I went to Pride. I went straight to the stall to see what was going on, to find that those there had rearranged the stall, and if I'm honest had done a better job of it. So I helped out on the stall for a couple of more hours, whilst having a good look around the "Expo" collecting more pens, and also collecting more information on a variety of subjects. Then I had to get home, as mum had declared she was going to cook some of the produce purchased earlier in the day for tea. I wasn't going to turn down a meal was I?
Monday was rather mundane in terms of me just doing as little as I could for as long as I could. I had no intentions of helping out on the stall, as they had up to five people on if everyone turned up. I was however going to go to the Candle light Vigil to mark the end of the Pride weekend and to have a drink or two after that. I didn't drive in on Monday and would have really enjoyed myself had I been able to get into the club I wanted to meet up with a friend of mine. Still I'd had half a bottle of wine prior to going out, which meant I couldn't be bothered that it was raining all night. I did meet someone I'd not met for ages and was rather shocked to see how good looking he was. It's a shame that I can't touch him with a barge pole.
On the whole Pride was quieter than usual for myself, but one hell of a good time was had. I think the stall was a success and on a personal score apart from not getting out too much afterwards, everything was great. As soon as I find some pictures of the weekend I'll post them in the other blog.
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