Looks like I've made it!!

Last night i went to a reception at 10 Downing Street to celebrate 25 years of HIV charity work in the UK. It was truly an honour to be asked to go and it's an experience i shall never forget. You may have seen me going in as they were filming a report for the 6 o clock news at the time. 10 Downing Street is like the tardis, its so immense, walking up THAT staircase with all the pictures of the Prime Ministers was unbelievable and i had to pinch myself.

The reception was fantastic, i had to restrain myself from drinking too much wine but had a couple of glasses to sort my nerves out. The gay mafia were out in force last night but i guess i am one of them so can't bitch and snipe too much. Dannii Mingoue was also there as she is a big supporter of HIV/Sexual health so i had a great chat with her about my work, managed to avoid the X factor line of chat - she is stunning!!

Gordon Brown did not have a very good day yesterday so he was slightly late but he came in and was very friendly and down to earth, i just got a "Hello, Thanks for coming" and a handshake but hey that was enough for me. He did a great speech and the lovely Camilla followed on from him with a fantastic speech - so proud of my girl!!!! On our way out we were allowed to have a sneak peek in the cabinet office which was overwhelming - to think of all the decisions that have been made in that room!!

The evening was over in just 2 hours but it was a once in a lifetime experience that i shall never forget! We hopped across the road to the Red Lion on Whitehall and drank a rather large amount of alcohol, I am feeling slightly special this morning but at least i have a great story to tell!

xx

When did we stop caring?

The last few weeks have given me a lot of food for thought, you may remember me leaping onto my soapbox over the cuts to gay men's HIV prevention work in London. There is no news to report on this at the moment but as soon as the consultations complete i shall be keeping all posted.

On friday the Health Protection Agency released their annual figures of HIV and STI's diagnoses for the UK and the news was not good. The latest figures show that the number of gay and bisexual men diagnosed in the UK is at it's highest rate since the start of the epidemic. 2700 gay and bisexual were diagnosed with HIV in the UK last year, the highest number ever. Across the UK it is estimated that 1 in 20 gay and bisexual men are living with HIV, figures suggest that numbers in London could be as high as 1 in 10.

People don't seem to give a shit anymore. If an epidemic of this scale hit the UK's white heterosexual population, the Government would have to do something, hardhitting national campaigns would be all over the media, clinics would be recruiting more staff and ensuring that treatments and support were readily available.

I would also like to think that the public would respond by ensuring that their needs were met through campaigning and making people listen. When AIDS first reared it's ugly head in the early 80's, a small group of campaigners were very vocal in ensuring that services were provided to those that needed it most. Now 25 years on more gay men are getting HIV than ever before.

Why aren't gay men angry anymore? Why aren't we asking for what we need? Why are we (literally) laying flat on our backs taking it? Being fucked up the arse by a virus? Being fucked up the arse by a sociaety that has allowed us to slip away? Being fucked up the arse by a government that can't see what our basic needs are. It may sound like i am flinging the blame around whilst not looking at myself and my fellow members of the "gay community".

I came out in 1993, i joined a gay youth group and watched HIV+ friends becoming seriously ill, losing their sight and their ability to walk amongst many other horrendous symptoms, Around that time i was also training as a sexual health youth line volunteer so by the time i came out to my parents they were scared that i was "going to catch AIDS and die", i found myself educating them because i had educated myself.

As i gained confidence i became heavily involved in gay politics in a time where the Government was making vital decisions about young gay men's lives such as the equalisation of the age of consent and the removal of section 28. I was angry that people i had never met or spoken to were making decisions that could affect the rest of my life, i stood on Sheffield town hall steps at a "Ban Section 28" rally screaming into a megaphone about my hideous experiences of bullying at school to try and let people know that we could change the way young people learnt about sexuality.

Where is that passion in young gay men today? Yes many of the laws that discriminated against us have gone but we now seem to be reverting back to the 70's and early 80's where gay men led hedonistic lifestyles where condoms were unthought of. The popularity of sex bars, clubs and saunas in London is all too evident in the weekly gay press. The wide availability and popularity of bareback porn is astounding. HIV treatment is not a cure and it has never been easy to take. The way gay men talk about treatments today, its as if they are happy pills of many colours, gay men have stopped questioning the consequences of becoing HIV+ and what it entails

The writer Larry Kramer said in a speech 3 years ago

"One of these days the miraculous drugs we have to keep us alive are going to stop working. Our systems cannot process these extreme chemotherapies indefinitely. That is what we are on. We are on daily chemotherap. No one wants to call it that. We call it the cocktail. We are on chemotherapy! Chemotherapy either kills the disease or kills us! what are we going to do when they don't work any longer?"

When are gay men going to take responsibiity for their health and the health of the person they are sleeping with? Is there any point in trying to get gay men excited about activism again when it is enough of a struggle to get gay men to value themselves. We can talk about the effects of homophobia on a gay man's ability to look after himself but when are we going to realise that the only thing stopping gay men from taking care of each other is each other.

I don't have the answer or a miracle solution, i just wish that we could have enough respect for the pastand the battles we have fought to be aware of the immense challenges to our future. The quesion i want the answer to is when are we going to wake up to ourselves, look at our lives and realise that they matter not just to us but to the people around us.

Just a thought

xx

Now that is what i call a weekend!!

Hope all are well, I had yet another crazy weekend, i just wonder when the mirrorball will stop spinning? Friday night i met up with Tony for drinks after work which turned into a very drunken do! We went to the Jeremy Bentham pub in Bloomsbury followed by the Marlborough arms and then headed into soho for a gay drink at Escape bar. I was slaughtered and i fear Tony was worse for wear as well.

The morning after i managed to get up at 9am and headed into town to do some shopping before it got too busy, The day started with a haircut, have decided to grow my hair now that it is getting cold i need to keep my head warm so after that i ventured onto oxford street and spent a bit too much money in Topman, it's so easily done, although i did get myself a gorge winter coat. Then i went round pretty much every shop looking for a decent shirt and tie for my trip to Downing Street, finally found what i was looking for in Next, its red, its xmas, its labour and i look very spangly in it, i hope Mr Brown appreciates my pain!

Saturday night i set out to have a fun time and i managed it and then some! Met up with Clare and Oliver at the Boogaloo bar in Highgate and then headed up to East Finchley for Laura's birthday which was great fun, thanks to oodle's of champagne and also being introduced to the novel idea of filling your mouth with sherbet and then necking a shot of vodka whilst shakin your head like a nutter - i should've kown then that it was all going to get a tad messy.

After that i headed down to Shoreditch to Bar Music Hall for my friend Ali's leaving do, loads of people had turned out and it was so much fun. However, i managed to fall into a time warp. I was supposed to be leaving that party at 11 ish to go to my friend Tom's birthday party at Jam bar but before i knew it, it was 1.30am! i headed there but it was over! so i managed to catch up with Pete, John, Kaz, T, Clive, Adrian and Degsy at the Joiners Arms pub, it was great to see them, they had just been to see Amy Winehouse and despite awful reviews it seems they had a fab time.

Here is a pic of the lovely Ali with Drag DJ Jodie Harsh on the decks




Yesterday i was feeling rather special so i dragged my duvet onto the sofa out my jim jams on and immersed myself in the family guy box set. Kept drifting off into sleepy land but still managed to sleep ok last night and so i dont feel too hideous today which is good as this week is really busy in the run up to World AIDS Day on saturday.

So a big thanks to everyone for making my weekend so much fun.

xx

The weekend is here!!

Last night i had a night at the theatre, the lovely Paul had managed to get free tickets to a homosexual play at the Courtyard Theatre near Old Street. The play was called "Subtransmission" and was basically the story of a dysfunctional family's struggle to deal with their demons, one of which being a gay son. The highlight of the play was the fairy godmother aka Tran who had a few shining moments. It was also a musical which didn't really work very well especially since the choreography looked like it had been thought out after one too many bottles of white lightning. One area of the story focused on the son's affair with his best mate who was a typical chavvy cockney geezer, i could not help but think that the writer had basically put his and every other adolescent gay boys sexual fantasy on stage. I will always remember my high school crush and fumblings on a certain hunk of spunk. Last night's play was like a suicide bomber had crawled into an overly dramatic gay man's mind - kaboom!

I am a pervert and so i was slightly disappointed with one aspect of the play - here is the description on the website

'Subtransmission' tears down the curtain and reveals the truth about family life. Blending striking images, witty dialogue and full male nudity, 'Subtransmission' deals with themes of obsession, envy, regret, shattered dreams and broken promises.

Yes it does indeed deal with broken promises, there was no full male nudity!! i don't mean to be a total sleaze, it's just the way god made me but when it is stated that men will be losing clothes, i want them to lose them - in fact i want to hide them!! Thanks to Paul though for taking me out on that most difficult of night's - the night before pay day.

This weekend is crazier than Heather Mill's in any interview! Tomorrow night i have not one, not two but three parties to go to!! I am as popular as KD Lang at a herbal tea party in Stoke Newington! Firstly my fab friend Laura is celebrating her birthday up in East Finchley so i shall be swaggering up there then my beautiful friend Ali is moving back to Australia forever so i am heading down to Bar Music Hall to send her off with a big drink and then just round the corner my lovely friend Tom is celebrating his birthday at Jam so i shall end the night there or in a skip covered in wee - YAY!

I also desprately need to go shopping tomorrow morning, Next week i am going to 10 Downing Street to meet the Prime Minister! I am not joking - so i need a snazzy new shirt and tie for the occasion, plus i need a few little gorgeous things to make my life better because let's face it, material things are the only things that can!

I have also just booked train tickets back for my gorgeous friend Dan's birthday so Sheffield here i come. Babygirl always makes such an effort for my birthday getting down to London, bringing me fierce jeans and getting me blind drunk so it's about time i upped the friendship to a new level of filth and debauchery.

Speaking of filth, it's time for

THE IMAGINARY MEN OF PIPPY'S BOUDOIR!

I am feeling like i need to be bounced around the bedroom this weekend, it's the best kind of workout. I am looking for a burly, hairy man to do rather rude things to me - in my imagination i can think of no one who fits the pippy better than Russell Crowe, yes he may be a totally arrogant wanker but i could watch him in his Gladiator outfit all day!!






Strewth!!

xx

Gig etiquette and Gay etiquette

Last night i went to see Newton Faulkner at the Shepherd's Bush Empire, I went thinking it was going to be good but quite a sedate evening. I had such a great time, the venue was packed and he really had the crowd in the palm of his hand. He played his guitar in ways i had never seen before, his voice was perfect, hitting every note perfectly and managing to spur the crowd along into some great moments of audience participation. I think some people may write him off as just another male acoustic singer but he is so much more than that, if all else fails he should go into stand up comedy as his filler jokes between songs were fantastic and i could have listened to him all night.

The only problem with last nights gig were certain members of the audience who all seemed to be at round us. Firstly the girl towards the back on level 3, your laugh could bend steel! To the woman behind me who seemed to have only come to hear one song, she talked throughout all his songs right in my ear, if that was not bad enough - she had a very high pitched voice, squeaky McHelium you know who you are!! The prize for biggest twats in the empire last night goes to the 2 muppet girls on the 2nd row of level 3 who spent the entire show either videoing or taking photos of the show (just watch it you stupid cows!) and then when they got bored they decided to hold the camera in front of their faces and take joint pictures of themselves, which is fine once or twice but they did it at least 30 times!!! Unless they are some drastic developments in cosmetic surgery girls, none of those pictures are going to be useable, get off my planet!

I was reading "The London Paper" the other night and every day they have a member of the public write a column about anything they want and readers get to vote on whether that person should be asked to write again. The day before yesterday a gay guy called Mikey write about his experience of attending a party full of gay men that all fitted a certain stereotype, very plucked and preened, talking about Kylie and Madonna, openly discussing how many men they had sex with recently. Mikey wrote that he was sick of this kind of gay man and after leaving the party he stated that he sympathised with Queer Bashers. I don't know Mikey but if i did he would so be removed from my facebook friend list! Yes there are gay men that fit onto a multitude of different stereotypes but i would argue that the majority of people fit a certain stereotype based on a range of things from what they do for a living, what music they are into and who they have sex with. I don't think it does anyone any good to try and change the way others are.

If i have learnt anything from coming out and moving around in the gay community it is to accept the fact that people are different, not everyone fits into a box and thank god some other people think like that, if they didn't my life would have gone down a very different route that would possibly have damaged me a great deal. There are areas of the gay community that i love and other areas that are not for me but for Mikey to say that he symapthises with ignorant people that specifically target their violence at gay men and lesbians is horrific - gay gay gay gay shame!!

xxx

It's only wednesday!!

I can't believe we are only half way through this week, Jesus, cmon time!! i want my weekend!! It's been a good week so far though - on Monday i went out with Oliver, Dan, Rachel and Layla for a few drinks in soho and then onto Itsu on Wardour Street for Sushi! It was my first visit and i was soo impressed, Just being able to reach out and grab whatever takes your fancy is great but its also quite lethal as we all seemed to forget that we would have to pay for the food at the end. All good though and am loving The Village Bar on a monday night playing 80's and 90's chillout music! Any gay bar that can get away with playing "I wanna know what love is" by Foreigner is a winner in my eyes!

Last night i wanted a bit of seclusion so i dragged myself off to the cinema to see "Into The Wild", this is the true story of Christopher McCandless, a top student at Emory University and a promising athlete, after graduating he gave all his $24,000 savings to Oxfam, burnt all the money in his wallet and hitchhiked all the way to Alaska to live in the wild bringing only a .22 caliber rifle, a camera, several boxes of rifle rounds, some camping gear, and a small selection of literature—including a field guide to the region's edible plants. Christopher changed his name to Alexander Supertramp for his journey and destroyed all his identification. Along the way he meets an array of wierd and wonderful characters that all help him in whatever way they can.

This film has been adapted from the non fiction book of the same name written by Jon Krakauer. Sean Penn wrote the screenplay and directed this beautiful film, the shots of such contrasting nature are breathtaking and the lead role of Christopher played with such honesty and fierce emotion by Emile Hirsch must be destined for an Oscar nomination. You should see this film if only to remind you that there are good people out there who are willing to listen and spread the wisdom to enable others. Be prepared for tears - i had to sit through the credits to compose myself before walking back out into the madness of the West End.

Tonight i am off to see Newton Faulkner at the Shepherds Bush Empire, If you have not heard him i can only describe his music as beautiful acoustic folk? A full review will be here tomorrow. Thanks to Miss Camilla for getting me the tickets for my birthday!!

Today i am wishing i could be whisked away to Chicago, why? so i could be in the audience of the Oprah Winfrey Show! Every year she does a one off show called "Oprah's Favourite Things" and basically Ms Winfrey picks out 20 new products and gives them away to each member of her audience, i am not talking perfume and earrings, i am talking diamonds, home entertainment systems, holidays - this year she is giving away her most expensive item yet and although it sounds totally ridiculous i totally want one!! Its a massive fridge but on the front of the fridge is an entire tv,dvd system and apparently you can type in the contents of your fridge and it will give you recipes and suggestions! Materialistic moi?

xx

you have got to be fucking kidding me!!




How on earth do they justify this Victoria Beckham stalking piece of trash who has done nothing more than live in a house with camera's in it for a few months having her own perfume!!

How depressing!

There are so many ways that i like to start my week, I live in hope of the monday morning where i spring out of bed, sing in the shower, pick out the perfect outfit and embrace the beauty of the surrounding world. I would hop, skip and jump down the road, shaking hands with passer's by and wishing them well on their way.

Cut to this morning - my alarm went off and i hit snooze FIVE times! i rolled out of bed and crawled into the shower whilst picking huge bits of sleep out of my eyes, i could not decide what to wear so decided to just go super gay, it was absolutely pissing it down outside and i forgot to charge my ipod!! when i eventually got to the bus, it took 20 minutes to go one stop, so i tried to get off - only to be pushed out of the way by a guy who then went on to projectile vomit all over my shoe. This was all before 9.30am. Maybe i shall spring out of bed tomorrow.

Moving on, i just had a great weekend with my rather delicious friend Emma, it has been too long since we spent proper quality time together and ok we did spend the majority of the weekend drinking but that is our level of quality and we are more than happy to wallow in its depths.

Yesterday we did something new, we met up with Paul and his mate William and went to Brick Lane and Spitalfields Market. Brick lane was dodgy as all hell, filled with people selling stolen goods and counterfiet hardcore porn, one thing that i dont wanna see is a dvd called "Anal Couples" as i am enjoying my breakfast. Spitalfields Market was much more up my street and i think i may go back there next sunday to purchase some xmas pressie's and a couple of t shirts for myself.

Also yesterday it was Anna'a birthday so we went for food at the Rising Sun pub on Tottenham Court Road, it all worked out quite well for me as Clare, Glenn, Tony and Anna had all bought pressie's for my birthday too!! So thanks to Clare and Glenn for my Radio 1 cd's and to Anna and Tony for my polish honey vodka!!

This week is pretty busy work wise, I am also off to see Newton Faulkner on Wednesday night. The lovely Camilla bought me tickets for my birthday so that should be excellent. I must must must try and get to the cinema this week as there are sooo many films to see - Brick Lane, American Gangster, Into the wild, Lions for lambs etc.

There are more birthday's next weekend so hopefully i shall try and get some early nights this week to prepare my poor little gay boy body!!

xx

yay!!! its friday!!

After the last 2 days of serious blogging i thought i would resume normal service.The one thing this week has taught me is that i do give a shit. Over the last few months i have become very disillusioned with the work i do, i have been working with gay men for years and there are times when it can really be a thankless task. The gay community (whatever that is) rarely shows appreciation for HIV prevention work and often criticises and questions our methods of delivering mesages and information.

The meeting i attended this week may have been a farce but it did make me realise that i still am very passionate about this work and when it does work it works really well. There is life in this health promoter yet and i am going to stick with it to ensure that services that gay men want are the ones that get delivered not the ones that commissioners think will tick all the right boxes.

Now onto the really exciting news, well it's exciting in the mirrorball filled world within which i reside - The Spice Girls are back! yees the performed last night in L.A at the Victoria's Secret fashion show and judging by these pics they have not lost it! I am soooooo exited about seeing them in the new year!!!




Oliver came round last night to drop off my birthday present, It's a warhol print of yours truly! yes i have reached a whole new level of self loving and now have 4 pippy's looking down at me from above the sofa, it's slightly scary but fabulous at the same time, cheers honey!!

This weekend is going to be soooo much fun. My beautiful friend Emma who is basically the Grace to my Will is coming down for an adult weekend, not adult in a dildo and donkey type of way! Emma gave birth to her son Stanley just over a year ago and so could not make it to my birthday last week as it was Stanley's 1st borthday so she is down to the big smoke this weekend to drink a lot of booze and have rude conversations about willie's. yay!!

Congratulations are in order as my lovely friend Jane gave birth to a baby girl yesterday - Isobel Megan. I must get up to Newcastle once they have settled down. Also Happy birthday to Anna who is celebrating her birthday this weekend.

THE IMAGINARY MEN OF PIPPY'S BOUDOIR

How i have waited this long to put this man in here is beyond me. I am still not watching TV but really need to sort that out soon as the excellent drama "The Street" is back on BBC1 and features this guy apparently acting really well also he is playing gay and seducing a married man! It's Will Mellor!!





Have an amazing weekend

xx

God help us all!!

For quite a while now i have felt, like many others, that my life is being controlled by people who can't control themselves. The jury is out on the Prime Minister at the moment - it's early days. Then of course there is George Bush a man who is so stupid he couldn't teach a monkey how to scratch it's own ass! There are far too many bushism's to list here, i shall just mention 2 - Last year Stevie Wonder performed at a concert at the White House, George Bush kept waving at him to get his attention. Shortly after 9/11 - George Bush said that he was going to find the people who took part in the attacks - they were suicide bombers honey!

Taking it down a few levels, Last night i went to one of the consultation meetings i mentioned yesterday, this particular meeting was looking at how relevant gay men's HIV/sexual health media campaigns were. Basically the commissioners of the London Gay Men's HIV Prevention Partnership have released their commissioning intentions for the next 3 years and media campaigns face a massive cut. The money will instead go to recruit workers and volunteers as sexual health trainers, the proposal being that every gay and bisexual man in London (minimum estimate is around 150,000 men) will be offered an interview style HIV risk assessment by a sexual health trainer on an annual basis, this assessment will collect data such as HIV status, age, number of sexual partners, drug and alcohol use. For all men assessed, an individual code will be created and all data gathered will be stored under that code. This code can then be used by other service providers when gay men access their service.

I think this stinks of Big Brother, where is the confidentiality? I have been working in this field for years and i have worked with many gay men and although gay men do tend to be more open about their sexual health, it's often due to the campaigns and publications that are out on the gay scene raising guys awareness of sexuality and sexual health along with a host of other issues.

Asking each individual gay and bisexual guy in London to give up an hour to talk about their sex lives is going to be massively time consuming. The money would be better spent on written information and adverts that gay man can choose when and how they read them, not all gay men are as out and proud as others and having the guts to walk into a service and talk for an hour about the sex they are having is a big deal and i honestly think it's totally unrealistic.

The powers that be have allocated 65% of the total pot of funding to these assessments, where have they done their research to say that this is what men want? The national gay men's sex survey stats show that men would like to receive their sexual health information in the following ways -

68% from websites, 57% from articles in the gay press, 56% reading booklets and leaflets, 40% adverts in the gay press, 37% reading newsletters.

Only 36% of men want to get their information from talking to a health worker at a clinic so where on earth have they come up with the idea that men want to talk to an individual about their sexual health. Last night at the "consultation" meeting the commissioner stated that there is little to no evidence that media campaigns lead to behaviour change, he was then asked what evidence he had that they didn't work? he could not answer. Where has the 65% figure come from for sexual health trainers? he cound not answer.

At one point last night we were asked by the commissioner to provide evidence that the current services available are working. That is their job!, they are commissioning services without any evidence or thought being put into their decision making, they are making it so hard to be positive about being involved in this work, it's almost tempting to urge no one to bid for the funding, just so they know how horrendously offensive and miscalculated this whole situation is.

The whole consultation on this document is a farce, the commissioners have not been clear about what they will fund and what they wont fund so how can we as gay men be consulted if we do not know what we are being consulted on? I loathe the fact that decisions are being made about my life as a gay man in London without any thought about how it will affect me. Decisions have been made to ensure that i will be interviewed about the sex i am having and then any service in London will have access to that information. That is unnacceptable and totally against everything that i believe in.

The cabinet office states in it's guidelines around effective consultation that

a) The main purpose is to improve decision-making, by ensuring that decisions are soundly based on evidence, that they take account of the views and experience of those affected by them, that innovative and creative options are considered and that new arrangements are workable.

This is not what i or anyone else in that room experienced last night. I urge any gay men who are reading this and live in London to pease write to the address given on my blog yesterday stating what you want regarding your sexual health. There was one commissioner there last night, the rest didn't bother to turn up, that's how much they care about the clients of the services they are funding.

The joke of a consultation's deadline is 30th November at which point the commissioners will probably sit around an office doing crosswords and reading each other's horoscopes before throwing a few darts at a service map to see where they are going to spend their money.

The new services will be up and possibly running mid next year, i just hope they realise that gay men have been very powerful and pioneering in shaping the way our health needs are met, no one knows our health needs better than ourselves so send an email, write a letter but please don't just sit back and wait for the shit to hit the fan because we will all be covered in it.

thats why this blog is called pippyrants

xx

Healthy Gay Life??

I work in gay men's health promotion and HIV prevention and have done for longer than i dare admit! I have been involved in a variety of aspects of this work and am passionate about all the work i do. Over the last few years i have been specifically developing work with young gay men. Sex education in schools leaves young gay men with more questions than answers about how to protect themselves and lead healthy lifestyles.

The media over the last few years has shifted the focus of HIV away from gay men by using headlines that lead to general public to believe that there is a major heterosexual HIV epidemic happening and all the funding for HIV should be shifted to ensure that heterosexual people are educated about HIV and sexual health. The truth of the matter is that in 1999 diagnoses of HIV among heterosexuals overtook those among gay men; in 2001 diagnoses among heterosexual women overtook those among gay men ; and in 2004 for the first time more heterosexuals than gay men were being seen for HIV treatment and care in the UK.

This increase is largely accounted for by heterosexual Africans who caught HIV in high prevalence countries and have come to the UK as asylum seekers, workers or students. The way this is reported in the media would lead many to believe that your everyday white heterosexual guy or girl are spreading the virus left, right and centre, although education around HIV and sexual health should target everyone there are high prevalence groups that need further information and education.

The figures i have just mentioned kinda makes ya think that gay men are doing alright, this is not the case. In fact the yearly total of diagnoses among gay men has increased by 60%, from 1400 to 2200. Most of this is accounted for by more gay men coming forward for testing and there being fewer undiagnosed, about 25% of gay men who have HIV were undiagnosed in 2004 as opposed to 33% in 1999. There is no evidence that the infection rate among UK gay men is slowing down.

It is with sadness that i found out a few weeks ago that NHS funders have announced a 36% cut to the overall budget for pan London gay men's HIV prevention work.
Overall, NHS commissioners are proposing to reduce their contribution to sexual health services for gay men in London by more than £650,000. This size of cut is likely to have a devastating effect on sexual health services for gay men.

London is the only region in the UK where the evidence suggests that a /reduction/ in new HIV infections is occurring amongst gay men. This is probably due to the quality of the sexual health services here. To cut these services now, runs the real risk of HIV infection rates increasing again, putting many more gay men’s lives at risk.

I am writing to NHS commissioners to question there methods and i suggest that if you are reading this and feel that these cuts have been made with a total lack of consultation there are a couple of things that you can do

1. Write to the NHS commissioners

Commissioners welcome comments during the formal consultation period before 30th November 2007. Comments should be addressed to:

Ray Appleby, London HIV Prevention and Sexual Health Promotion Programme Manager Commissioning - Room 129, Courtfield House, St Charles Hospital, Exmoor Street , London , W10 6DZ, ray.appleby@kc-pct.nhs.uk

2. Attend one of the public meetings to discuss these proposals.

All meetings will take place at the University of London Union , Malet Street , London WC1E 7HY .

Mon 12 Nov 4 pm – 7 pm Condom Service (Room 2C) Tues 13 Nov 6pm – 8 pm Monitoring and Evaluation (Room 2C) Wed 14 Nov 6pm – 8 pm Media for Gay Men (Room 2A) Thurs 15 Nov 6pm – 8 pm Overview of whole programme (Room 2A) Mon 19 Nov 6pm – 8 pm Interpersonal Interventions for Gay Men (Room 2A) Wed 21 Nov 6pm – 8 pm Overview of whole programme (Room 2A)

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world.

Indeed it is the only thing that ever has.” Margaret Mead

What goes up must indeed come down!

Oh people, people! what a howdy doody looking mother fella of a weekend it has been! Friday night was amazing!! So many of my mates came out to play and play and drink some more. Shinky Shonky was truly hilarious. I ended up on stage with my friend Paul playing a game called "Parsnip dildo football" - this basically consisted of both of us wearing big pink belts with a piee of string hanging between our legs with a parsnip hanging off the end, we then had to hump backwards and forwards to slam a vegetable through each others goal posts - Paul ended up having to take his trouers off but eventually i won! Prizes included a magnum of "champagne", a poundland style barbie doll, a men in uniform calendar and more chocolate than you can shake a dick at.

A big thanks goes out to everyone who came out to make the night such a success and also thanks for clapping along as i danced badly on stage to "Hung Up" - Thanks to my friend Dan for bringing me the tightest skinny jeans ever - they did look pretty fierce! It was just a shame i didnt get much of a chance to talk to people but hey thats birthdays for ya!

Saturday was a tad hungover but thanks to more champagne i kinda felt ok if a little floopy, We were back in town for 4 for more drinking at Vodka Revolution in Soho closely followed by Trash Palace and the most innappropriate game of "would you rather" ever!! would you rather have poo flavoured chocolate or chocolate flavoured poo? that was one of the more tame ones! After that we headed to G-A-Y late bar and the 4 of us sat there like X Factor judges looking at all the much younger guys and feeling ever so slightly bitter.

Yesterday my girls from Sheffield headed back home and i went over to Paul's flat in Aldgate for a much needed chilled afternoon/evening. Countless episodes of Will and Grace really helped, although everyone seems to have caught a cold this weekend and towards the end of yesterday my sniffles had started and now i sit here writing this a shadow of my former self. My behaviour this weekend has led to my immune system being about as strong as a feather in a gale and i am suffering.

Another birthday over but i had a great time - so what are your plans for xmas and new year?

boo

xxx

Well it's my birthday tomorrow but the real celebration is tonight! Thanks to the joy of facebook i have invited loads of people out to one of my favourite nights in London - the crazy crazy night called "Shinky Shonky" at The Oak Bar. It seems that rather a lot of people are going to be turning up (around 50 i think!) so i hope the bar staff are ready for us because it's not just me that drinks like an enormously alcohol dependant fish, my friends are all totally lush too.

I am especially grateful as always to my mates who are coming down from Sheffield, they always go that extra bit further for me and their company, love and laughter is much appreciated.

As for my actual birthday tomorrow i actually have very little planned, lunch will be happening probably with a starter of ibuprofen. Then i shall just trot into soho and see where my snout takes me.

In celeb news - Amy Winehouse' husband has been arrested! The police broke down the door to her camden home in the early hours of this morning and dragged her hubby off to the cells, its got something to do with him trying to pay off a witness to not testify against him in court, it seems he could face a maximum life sentence! Oh Amy! watcha gonna do girl? that boy is bad business and mingin on top of it all - do a runner honey and start writing those tunes for the next album, you have plenty of material!

I am still surviving without television which means that i shall miss the opening night of "I'm a celebrity, get me out of here" apparently the "celebs" going into the jungle this year include Gemma Atkinson from Hollyoaks, the fairbrass brothers aka "right said fred", Christopher Biggins and Cerys Mathews. I am kinda glad to be missing it due to the adding of Malcolm McClaren ex manager of the Sex Pistols. He has to be one of my least favourite people, he is such a pompous tit, he pops up on all those music chart compilation shows on Channel 4 and 5, repeatedly coming across as if he created music and anything else is pathetic noise. Vile!

THE IMAGINARY MEN OF PIPPY'S BOUDOIR

On the flight back from Tenerife the in flight film was "Stardust" starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Robert De Niro (who is amazing in it!) - it's a really great film but the main reason for loving it was the leading man who was just adorable and had the most delicious smile!! His name is Charlie Cox and here are a couple of pics of him and his lovely ruffled hair




Have a fab weekend

xxx

Yay i am back from the sunny isle of Tenerife! Have had such an amazing break. My head and heart were pretty battered before i went and i was pretty blue but now after a few days of rest and relaxation by the pool, i have had loads of time to think and sort stuff out in my head and have come back feeling refreshed and ready to celebrate my birthday this weekend! Thanks to Oliver for sorting the holiday and being such fab company and for ordering a penis colada!

The weather in Tenerife was great and i have come back with a rather fabulous tan, the men were few and far between due to us going out of season but that did not stop me going to a bar and getting on stage with a male stripper, ripping his trousers off and then being told off by him for grabbing the family jewels - well he was waving it in my face, whats a boy supposed to do?? The same evening i got a lap dance from a black female stripper who was wearing nothing but a pearl thong - they may as well have thrown a football at me, i had no idea what to do!

Back to reality now though and my birthday!! so exciting cos loads of people are coming and Shinky Shonky at the Oak bar is the place where it will all be happening. Quite a few of the girls are coming down from Sheffield for the weekend so that will be fab. The great thing about this weekend is that i haven't actually been thinking about it that much so i am just going to roll with my homo's and see what happens.

It appears that not much has been happening in celeb world since i last graced these shores, Kerry Katona is still alive though - boo! My hatred for her grows by the day, a mate asked me the other day how i can slag off Kerry Katona for doing drugs whilst saying that Amy Winehouse is god's gift! Oh where do i start. Amy Winehouse has talent, oodles of it, Kerry Katona has zero talent ( well i bet she is handy with a mirror and a rolled up iceland voucher), Amy Winehouse comes from that classic breed of rock stars - doing everything to excess because they can, at least when Amy is off her face she is wearing a fab dress or skinny jeans and an 8ft beehive in front of the paparazzi, Kerry gets off her face in front of "This Morning" wearing a scrunchie and a velour tracksuit. There is no comparison and i just wish Katona would go away and never rape my eyes or ears again.

A certain national gay rights lobbying group have just unveiled their ground breaking new poster/media campaign which simply says "Some people are gay, get over it!" - i hate to bad mouth my own kind but this does seem like a slightly pointless campaign. Is there anyone who is not aware that homosexuals are walking the streets of the UK, they may be your neighbours, teachers or interior designers. I dread to think how much money has been spent pointing out the obvious, health promotion campaigns often point out the obvious as a clear and direct way of getting a message across but i fear that this message is going to fall on the ears of many saying "and?"


I always seem to attract the same kind of guy, well online i do anyway, recently i got a message on the guardian soulmates website from a guy who openly describes himself as a bit of a porker, wants to be my "daddy" and calls himself Mr Foodie - its times like these i wonder if i am best off looking for love in a cake shop. Maybe a knight in shining armour will turn up tomorrow night and prove to me that there are still decent men out there - i remain veiled and optimistic

xx