Is it the credit crunch? the divorce? the lack of publicity? who knows but Madonna's new single went into the singles chart yesterday at no.39!!!! It's Madonna's first single to not get into the top 20 since Borderline in 1984! On the bright side her Sticky and Sweet Tour has been named the most successful solo tour ever, grossing $282 million - so it's not all bad!

Well Britney hit the X factor on saturday night in a so so performance, I managed to catch it on youtube. The real controversy happened after the show - the majority of the tabloid press had been spreading the rumour that Britney would be performing at G-A-Y, the rumour hit the gay scene and according to their message board the place was packed but the security staff did not seem to realise that the place was full so kept letting people in. This led to people being crushed, people passing out. Britney was in the building but apprently was not scheduled to perform. When club promoter Jeremy Joseph took to the stage to clarify that Britney would not be performing all hell broke loose, booing, fighting, pushing and shoving, Seems like the organisers need to come to terms that they are now in a smaller venue.

I am getting older and indeed sadder by the day, the things that excite me have taken a turn and no more is it the prospect of a new club opening in Soho or the possibility of clubbing til 5 in the morning. I now find myself craving nights in I think this is mainly due to the fact that it is freezing outside and work is crazy busy. All I can think of at the end of the day is dashing home, making some gorge soup and curling up in front of a good dvd. My excitement reached a new high over the weekend when I discovered that the BBC are going to be showing repeats each afternoon of the Miss Marple episodes fro the 80's with Joan Hickson. I can remember watching these on sunday nights and being totally enthralled, they were really well made and Joan Hickson was the perfect Marple. This I feel though is essentially a sad disclosure so whilst other gays are getting shitfaced all day everyday during the xmas period I shall be curled up knowing who did it but not caring and watching til the end anyway.

Today is World AIDS Day, hopefully you are aware of this and somehow managed to find a red ribbon and donate some much needed cash. In recent years World AIDS Day seems to have disappeared off the radar of public awareness. HIV is still very much a problem in the UK, many people turn a blind eye or decide that the virus is not their problem as they are neither gay nor african. HIV can affect anyone and after working on raising awareness of the virus for the last 16 years I am sad to say that the battle is ongoing. More gay men are being diagnosed with HIV in the UK than ever before. Last year 3160 gay men were diagnosed with HIV showing that levels of HIV are are their highest since the mid 1980's.
Nearly 500 men were diagnosed after the point at which treatment should have begun, meaning they missed out on the benefits associated with early diagnosis including prolonged life expectancy. Early diagnosis continues to be the most important factor in mortality and morbidity linked to HIV. Analysis of figures over the past five years has shown that a late diagnosis of HIV meant that gay men were 13 times more likely to die within one year of diagnosis compared to those diagnosed early.
Take some time today to log on to www.tht.org.uk where you can donate cash, become of member of the charity, become an e campaigner or simply learn more about HIV and how to protect yourself and others.
xx