London Pride 2009
"Un bel gioco dura poco" we say in Italian, and it is almost the equivalent of "all good things come to an end".
Il gioco in this case was Pride 2009.
Despite deciding to go just a few days ago, we had a wonderful time, probably one of the best we've been to.
Adrian and I recycled the floral costumes from 5 years ago (Adrian had quite a lot of work mending them and reassembling the hats) and Lynne, our lovely neighbour and friend, joined us with a much toned down ensemble.
I don't know how it started; Lynne thinks it was our idea, we think it was Lynne's and a couple of glasses of rose wine, but the outcome was that Lynne was going to be our lesbian bitch for the parade, and she accessorised herself with diamante pink leather collar and lead!
The poor thing did a lot of kneeling down every time our pictures were taken during the parade and afterwards. Today she's all achy!
We travelled in our civvies and got changed in Hyde Park just before 12 pm.
Thanks to Boris Johnson not being able to make the parade this year (Ken Livingstone, our former mayor, would have never missed it), the parade started more or less on time at 1 pm (last year Boris was more than one hour late).
There were a small number of demonstrators in Waterloo Place, Christians (who Lynne and I went to wave at - there were protected by a line of policemen) and some members of the National Front who were protesting about the "promotion" of homosexuality.
Otherwise it was really a huge party with people cheering and applauding all the way.
Halfway through the parade we were joined by Sue, a neighbour of ours and her sister Annabel.
Once the parade was over, we went for a few drinks, met more neighbours (Miranda, Gary and Luca), then to Trafalgar Square and walked up to Old Compton Street where we bumped into more neighbours/friends (Martin and Utku) and the gorgeous Roy (a gym buddy of mine)
Adrian, Roy and yours truly
Last stop was the Kings Arms where I had the pleasure to meet themonkeybear and his partner Chad.
We got home at 8:45 pm, exhausted!
It was great to be minor celebrities for a day but very hard work too. It took ages to get anywhere as you were constantly stopped by people wanting pictures with us.
I was even photographed in the gents in Trafalgar Square! A bear stopped me later on Charing Cross Rd to show me a nice photo of people at the urinals with me standing in the middle.
You can see Adrian, Lynne (and, only if you don't blink, me) almost at the beginning of this BBC video: Pride marchers enjoy party parade ( jeffurrynpl had already spotted me/us!)