I’ve dotted some little glass lanterns around the garden and put citronella tealight candles in them and they look as pretty as a picture. There’s a soft lemon scent around them. It’s lovely.
Inside however is a different story….
I can fully understand why citronella works so effectively as an insect repellant. The opened pack of tealight candles has utterly stunk out one of the downstairs rooms and in fact now everything smells of fly spray!!!!
Not good at all.
“If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door.” Harvey Milk
In preparation for the dvd release of Milk starring Sean Penn, I sat down and watched the Oscar-winning documentary The Times of Harvey Milk, narrated by Harvey Fierstein. It was amazing and Milk himself comes across as a really great guy in terms of personality and what he brought to the city of San Francisco.
Amid all the muscle marys, fitness freaks and body fascists running around in the 1970’s, here is this very ordinary looking man with big ears and large nose totally out and comfortable in who he was. It was a revelation. Even though he was completely out of the closet and known in San Francisco, he didn’t just spend time helping out the GLBT community but catered for all in his role as supervisor. He was truly inclusive.
Harvey Milk was assassinated along with the Mayor George Moscone in 1978 by supervisor Dan White. White was promptly arrested and tried 5 months later. It was quite telling of the time when auto machinist Jim Elliott (one of the people who knew Harvey and was talking about him) said that had White just killed Moscone he would have been sent down for 30 years but because he killed Milk too (Milk being as he termed him, a ‘fruit’) he got off on a lesser charge. White was out of prison by 1984! The 80’s were not a good time to be gay in terms of discrimination. Come to think of it, nor are the 00’s.
What was hard to watch was the fact that AIDS, although looming large on the horizon wasn’t significantly claiming lives at that time although any and all lives are precious. AIDS emerged as a gay related cancer in 1981. The film itself came out in 1984 but the interviews were done in 1982. Watching a healthy looking Bill Kraus speaking for the documentary (he was played by Sir Ian McKellen in the film And The Band Played On) it was hard to believe that by 1986 he would be dead, taken by AIDS.
All in all, I can highly recommend The Times of Harvey Milk. It’s an excellent documentary but it’s not just of appeal to the gay community, it’s something we could all learn and grow from. It’s inspirational in its content and it’s a part of history which is only just being recognised. The area where Milk lived and worked, the Castro, is now home to a large population of GLBT people and when I go there, I will look up at the rainbow flags flying and think of what Harvey Milk stood for as a human being.
For my work, I am usually found sitting in a car or on a deckchair by the side of the road wearing a yellow jacket and counting cars/pedestrians using either a little electronic clicker type thing or manually counting with pencil and paper.
It’s a great job in that I’m outside in the fresh air, I can wear regular clothes and I usually have my media player on and am off in my own little world. In many ways, it’s a big doss. The one downside is we each have to find our own means of going to the toilet.
For the blokes, it’s either the jacket across the laps while peeing into a bottle or nipping into someplace relatively secluded for a quick slash. For the women, it’s obviously more difficult so they’ll generally go off for a walk or even drive to the nearest pub/superstore.
Yesterday I was in Slough and had to walk over a mile to the nearest toilet and then a mile back again. I was so desperate at one point I seriously contemplated peeing down an alley between two houses! Mercifully I didn’t but it was touch and go whether I’d get to where I was headed in time. The depressing thing was by the time I got back to my colleague, I vaguely wanted to go again!
Today however was a different matter. We were parked up on a verge and just beside the car was a ditch and some thick trees which we could stand unhurriedly behind. Because we could go when we wanted, the flasks of coffee flowed freely and we went far more than we actually needed. It felt like luxury.
Next week we’re not working but I can guarantee for the week after, we’ll be in some tiny cul-de-sac or on some busy main road somewhere and we’ll be back to sprinting behind bushes or standing suspiciously around the back of the car again while a colleague keeps watch lest anyone suddenly walks toward us!
Wikipedia lists friendship as “a co-operative and supportive behavior between two or more people. In this sense, the term connotes a relationship which involves mutual knowledge, esteem, and affection and respect along with a degree of rendering service to friends in times of need or crisis.”
It goes on to say “Friends will welcome each other’s company and exhibit loyalty towards each other, often to the point of altruism.”
It’s not a subjective belief to say that we all need friends. Speaking from my own subjective viewpoint now, I do need friends. Friends are the family we choose to have in our lives, there’s nothing forced about it. They are there because we want them to be there.
There is an oft-used quote which states “Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some stay for awhile and leave footprints on our hearts. And we are never, ever the same.”
I can’t speak for others, of course I can’t but friends are invaluable to me. They touch my heart, they inspire me, they make the world a softer, kinder and more friendly place. They inhabit my heart and fill my mind with wonder and bring a special quality which can never be erased even if I should lose contact with them or only see them on occasion.
Some people choose to put a bar on friendship along gender, colour, race, sexuality, religious/spiritual lines and that’s for them to do so. I however choose to keep my lines of communication open to all because in doing so I maximise the amount of good and with time, great friends I will have.
Friends simply are wonderful. They are our heart-line family.
9 Lasts
1. cigarette: Hopefully, yesterday. Am now on NiQuitin gum
2. beverage: Costa Coffee cappuccino with chocolate sprinkles and 2 sugars, one white and one brown.
3. kiss: I just kissed my pussycat who was scared by another cat in her garden 
4. hug: The night before last
5. movie seen: The Naked Civil Servant
6. CD played: Joe Bonamassa – Sloe Gin
7. song listened to: Joe Bonamassa – India
8. bubble bath: 3 nights ago
9. time you cried: The night before last when I realised how good life actually is
8 Have you evers
1. dated one of your best friends: yes and it ended with us never speaking to/with one another again
2. skinny dipped: Nope but will do at some point
3. kissed somebody and regretted it: I regret nothing on that score!
4. fallen in love: Absolutely.. I’m in love now
5. lost someone you loved: Yes!
6. been depressed: Yes, lost 5 years of my life to it
7. been drunk and threw up: Yes, went to a place called Bar Oz and in attempting to keep up with my new boss ended up throwing up violently over everything!
8. ran away: Once, in my late teens.
7 Counties you’ve been to
Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Hampshire, Wiltshire, Staffordshire, Merseyside, East Sussex
6 Things you’ve done this week
1. Collapsed and been rushed to hospital
2. Bought a 2GB flash drive
3. Had a life-changing event
4. Gone a whole day without masturbating!
5. Urinated behind a train station platform
6. Begun formal bass lessons
5 Favorite things in no order
1. My life
2. My friends and family (that includes my beautiful pussycat!)
3. My media player
4. Coffee/tea
5. My bass guitar
4 People you last talked to
1. My cat
2. My Mum
3. My cousin, Helen
4. A man who needs to lose 8 stone and who has a new heart!
3 Wishes
1. Internal Peace
2. That I can stop worrying about trifling things and become a self assured and confident person
3. A cure for all of the world’s ills
2 Things you want to be down the line
1. Counsellor
2. Happy
1 Thing you regret
1. Not coming out sooner
Snatched from Bella who in turn snatched it from someone else!
Kelly McGillis has ended speculation about her sexuality by coming out as a lesbian. The Top Gun actress told website shewire that she was single and definitely looking for a woman.
Speaking to shewire’s Girl Rock video blog, Kelly said: “I’m done with the man thing – I’m done with that and need to move on in life.” It puts to rest long-standing rumours about the actress’s personal life.
More on the story can be found HERE.
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