Happy New Year

I know, I know, it's been a while and I have been berated from all angles for not keeping up!
December is always a quiet time of year following Gay Pride, Leather Pride and Thanksgiving. That makes it a perfect time to get away, usually Stuart and I get away for at least a night or two, either Vegas, Riverside (!) or we were contemplating LA but decided I needed to go to England and spend the first Christmas for 20 years with my family. I flew out December 17th and arrived back December 29th, just in time for the New Year celebrations!

Whilst I was in England I went with my mum and sister to a fox-hunt meet which is always very colourful. Although it is llegal to hunt and kill foxes, the posh folks on their horses still love to go clattering around the countryside. They now have eagles which are supposed to flush out the rabbits and wildlife for the hounds to tear to pieces and if a fox gets in the way, oh well, too bad!!!

The village where the meet took place is called Stilton and is where Stilton cheese was first sold in the village pub called the Bell

The story goes that the landlady of the Bell was the sister of the manufacturer of Stilton Cheese and sold it in the pub. The pub was an old coaching inn and a regular stop to change horses. The cheese was (and still is) made in a small town called Melton Mowbray, also famous for it's Pork Pies!!! Yes, how interesting I hear you say!

Brrrrrrrrrrr. It's cold in Palm Springs!

Actually, right now at 2.20pm its 54F (12C). Not cold for a lot of people out there in the frozen north/east but definately cold for us more warm bloodied creatures!!! High winds last night, dropped today but more winds promised for overnight tonight. In Los Angeles, last night they had the worst winds for 70 years!!!!! Certainly not weather for lazing around the pool.

Our poor guests!!! This is the kind of day I usually recommend visiting the museum using free tickets given to us by the Chamber of Commerce.

PSSST!!!!

We are hosting our very first PSSST pool party this afternoon, 12-4pm. What is PSSST I hear you ask? Well, if you must know, Palm Springs Social Sun Tanners. A  naked men's club that has been going for years and years. Not a very rowdy group,  Unfortunately the sun disappeared behind the mountain at 3.15 so everyone scattered before 4pm! No pictures!

Thanksgiving comes early!

We decided to have our Thanksgiving last Saturday instead of the traditional last Thursday in November. Most of the people we wanted to invite were either going to be away or working so we had Dennis, AJ, Peter and friend Craig,  Don and Lou (2 recent arrivals from San Francisco), Stuart and myself made eight. We had invited "Paul at the Gate" but he didn't show up. Instead of cooking the traditional turkey, we had two boneless turkey breasts . Delicious. Stuart prepared the turkey and gravy not to mention the oyster dressing and I made the cranberry relish We had shrimp cocktail and calves liver pate as appetisers (I made the shrimp cocktail/sauce), roasted winter vegetables,( carrots, parsnips, fennel and butternut squash) together with pommes anna. For dessert, Ina Gartens Rum Raisin Tiramisu and her recipe for Eaton Mess, all washed down with lashings of wine followed by Port and Stilton!, Yummo! Oh, we had asked our lovely guests from Denver to join us for dessert, which they did. Lovely indeed!!!

I don't know what we will be doing on the day. Too late now to book a restaurant but, hey ho, its an American holiday, not a British one. Wait a minute ...in that case,  why were we doing all the work??? Mmmm. Have to rethink for next year!!!

Leather Pride

It wasn't very good weather over the Leather Pride weekend November 11th-13th. It poured with rain most of Saturday. Even though we were full,  we had nobody sitting around the pool. Having said that, it was a great week/weekend with our visitors from Australia and Canada helping out with the festivities!!! (and from what I saw, helping out with international relations, if you know what I mean, nudge, nudge!!!).

Palm Springs Mr. Leather competion was held at the Palm Springs Convention Center for the second year running. This year it was held in the main entrance which is very big but does nothing for the acoustics. I don't know what the staff (particularly the young girls working the bars) thought of all these queens in leather chaps and jocks. Must've given them quite a shock or at least something to gossip about.

We were given an award and went onto the stage to accept it to a great round of applause and cheers (hopefully not jeers!). A very nice acrylic trophy thanking us for our support over the years (and our financial contributions I might add). Very nice, thank you. Dave Rhodes from the Leather Journal  took our photo. We'll have to wait and see whether it hits the streets this week. Actually Dave stayed with us for 3 nights over the weekend. Hope he gives us a nice plug! Check out the Leather Journal for pictures.

Oh, by the way, Mr. Tool Shed won the competion. Congrats!!!

John Gallagher at the Red Tomato.

Ooop, nearly forgot. For those of you in town for Pride this weekend or even for locals, our friend John (bon vivant) Gallagher plays the piano at the Red Tomato every Friday and Saturday night between 6-9pm.

This weekend he will be wearing my rainbow sequined vest to celebrate Pride. Quite a sight to behold. Go see!!!

(Rainbow sequined vest left to me by our dear late friend Richard Williams).

Happy Gay Pride, everybody!!!!

Well, here we are, Gay Pride weekend again so soon! Boy, how times flies. 80% return visitors this weekend and next. Lovely to see you guys again, almost like a family gathering only much more fun!!!!

Welcome back Skip (no,NOT that one!), Don and Jeff from San Diego, Al & Gary from San Francisco, the Two Bobs from Seattle, Chris from Vancouver BC, Roger & Jack from San Francisco,  Alex, Dominic from Los Angeles, welcome we love you all!! Ooops, how could I forget ..... we seem to have had an influx of our Australian cousins, all from New South Wales. Last week we said goodbye to Robert, this week a big hello to Kevin and Tony. Another Commonwealth gathering. God Save the Queen!!!!