Penwing's Journal

Toilets

penwing.podcast@gmail.com (Penwing (Alex Lambert)) — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 18:53:52 GMT

Please leave any comments there.

Recent text from my brother:

genderist toilets?!? what bollocks have you been campaigning for now?

Question from my Mum at Sunday dinner this week (paraphrased):

It's not your lot done the barmy thing with the toilets is it?

Read the rest of this post

Cause for Anger, Cause for Celebration

penwing.podcast@gmail.com (Penwing (Alex Lambert)) — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 18:16:03 GMT

Please leave any comments there.

Two stories about religious folks commenting on queers but very differently.

First up, the Chaplain of the London Stock Exchange thinks I should be tattooed with cigarette style health warnings. But that's alright, because he was only joking. And I don't think I need to say much else there really, because I think the other story is more important...

Father Geoffrey Farrow has spoken out against his church's position on gay marriage. This needs celebrating - especially if I'm to criticise liberals for not speaking out often enough:

Read the rest of this post

My Duty

penwing.podcast@gmail.com (Penwing (Alex Lambert)) — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 22:24:29 GMT

Please leave any comments there.

According to Margot James, Tory Candidate, I, as a gay, have a duty to vote Tory. The reason for this duty? because I, as a gay who therefore has no children, gets substantially less out of the public services than a.n.other person would as a straight with multiple children.

"Gay people are net contributors to public services through their taxes, because very few of them have children.

Read the rest of this post

On another topic all together

penwing.podcast@gmail.com (Penwing (Alex Lambert)) — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 21:37:50 GMT

Please leave any comments there.

Liverpool is having a series of Queer related events as part of Homotopia and Outsiders. There's a few events I'm planning on going to including:

8th October - An Evening with Holly Woodlawn
18th October - Were the World Mine

Read the rest of this post

Gay Blood Ban

penwing.podcast@gmail.com (Penwing (Alex Lambert)) — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 21:07:36 GMT

Please leave any comments there.

Attitude this month has a "debate" between Will Nutland of the UK's largest HIV/AIDS charity - Terrance Higgins Trust - and a gay journalist - Johann Hari - about whether the Blood Transfusion Service is right to refuse blood from gay and bisexual men. "Debate" in this instance means they've each had a page to put forward their opinion and they've been printed next to each other.

Read the rest of this post

What can I say?

penwing.podcast@gmail.com (Penwing (Alex Lambert)) — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 09:36:04 GMT

Please leave any comments there.

So, last night was the season premier of Merlin. We had Vicky and Dave round to help us watch it, poke fun at it and generally have a good laugh. And, well, we succeeded. The show provided us with many things to comment on but overall was fairly enjoyable.

Spoilers below the cut... Spoilers and lighthearted ribbing...

Read the rest of this post

General Update

penwing.podcast@gmail.com (Penwing (Alex Lambert)) — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 19:48:47 GMT

Please leave any comments there.

Yarrr.... Avast ye scurvey dawgs. On this International Talk Like a Pirate Day I be finding myself having to act all professional as we fought the landlubbers who mounted a daring but ultimately foolish drop in on our trusty vessel. But there be a fair number of them who offered a good fight.

Today saw the busiest and most stressful drop in we've had for a while. And term doesn't even start until Monday.

Read the rest of this post

Reader Request Post #1

penwing.podcast@gmail.com (Penwing (Alex Lambert)) — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 18:16:15 GMT

Please leave any comments there.

I was recently asked to do a blog post on two stories which had completely failed to either find their way to my news collector (Google Reader) or failed to be sufficiently eye-catching to be sieved out by my amazing speed reading.

Read the rest of this post

Oh Shit

penwing.podcast@gmail.com (Penwing (Alex Lambert)) — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 17:35:48 GMT

Please leave any comments there.

The (hopefully soon-to-be-ex [UPDATE: Only took 4 days]) Director of Education of the Royal Society has suggested that creationism should be taught in school science lessons.

Professor Michael Reiss says that if pupils have strongly-held family beliefs about creationism such ideas should be explored.

...

Read the rest of this post

Hurray for the Sexual Offences Act 2003

penwing.podcast@gmail.com (Penwing (Alex Lambert)) — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 22:21:13 GMT

Please leave any comments there.

Have a read of this Pink Paper article - Boy to sign Sex Offenders' Register:

A 14-year-old boy stood before a judge today, accused of sexual offences following a gay friendship with a 12-year-old boy.

The older child, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, admitted a month-long relationship with the other boy and pleaded guilty to a string of sex charges against him.

Read the rest of this post

Manchester Pride?

penwing.podcast@gmail.com (Penwing (Alex Lambert)) — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 20:14:48 GMT

Please leave any comments there.

Last weekend was the August Bank Holiday which can mean only one thing - Manchester Pride Big Weekend. The cumulation of the previous week's selection of queer events including London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival On Tour (bringing us "Otto; or, Up With Dead People"), exhibitions and performances. But it's the Big Weekend that everyone knows about and refers to as Pride. And it has nothing to do with Pride.

Read the rest of this post

Book Reviews

penwing.podcast@gmail.com (Penwing (Alex Lambert)) — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 19:03:31 GMT

Please leave any comments there.

I've recently finished reading a couple of books which I've found through rather different methods than I'm used to and thoroughly enjoyed. My normal method is "oooh... I know that author, I've read their stuff before", "recommendation from real life friend", "That's been made into a movie - the book will surely be better", "amazon (or similar) says it's similar and it has good reviews" and similar.

It's not often I find recommendations on blogs, but that's what happened with the first - Troll was a story I saw recommended on The New Gay (as blogged here).

Necromancer's Gambit was the only book in the Sci Fi/Fantasy section at Borders which made me want to look at it. I put it back as it was a little more than I wanted to spend on a complete unknown. Then noticed the posters advertising the author coming to do a signing later that day (Local author 8-). I returned and brought the book complete with signature.

Read the rest of this post

Club Penwing

penwing.podcast@gmail.com (Penwing (Alex Lambert)) — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 22:39:25 GMT

Please leave any comments there.

So, looking through the stats I see that the 3rd most popular search term* arriving here is "club penwing". Now, whilst there is no current "club penwing" I think this shows that there is sufficient demand. So Club Penwing is officially launched.

Nope, I have no idea either...

Alex
x x

Read the rest of this post

I Pulled??!??

penwing.podcast@gmail.com (Penwing (Alex Lambert)) — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 22:00:46 GMT

Please leave any comments there.

So, the opening night of Warrington's first gay bar and I'm sat here at ten thirty typing away on my computer with a rather cryptic title to the blog post. This was going to be a video post so my voice could do loooooots of inflection and I could gesticulate wildly, but YouTube didn't want to QuickCap from my camera for some reason and I've not had much luck with pre-recorded videos encoding correctly. So you're stuck with black and white static pixels.

Read the rest of this post

Kandi Bar

penwing.podcast@gmail.com (Penwing (Alex Lambert)) — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 18:13:55 GMT

Please leave any comments there.

Kandi Bar.

Warrington is getting a gay bar. A gay bar with a genuine bad drag DJ. Warrington is getting a gay bar. Warrington.

That's my Saturday night planned this weekend. It's going to be awful. But in the best possible way.

EDIT: Not been well advertised. I wouldn't have known if I hadn't seen it in the local paper - which I don't normally buy. The "Who Wants a Warrington Gay Bar" Facebook Group didn't have the news. It's not filling me with confidence.

Read the rest of this post

Bits and Pieces

penwing.podcast@gmail.com (Penwing (Alex Lambert)) — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 17:54:44 GMT

Please leave any comments there.

GAH!! Somewhere in the past 25 hours I've managed to lose my wallet. With my cash cards in. And the cinema vouchers. And the cinema ticket for Otto next week (purchased on my way home last night). And my ooold uni ID card, with a picture of me with short hair. Quite rare too I would imagine - a YorCash/Mondex card... Grrrr... Particularly annoying as tomorrow is payday and I intended to go into Manchester after work to pick up Lush, RPG and comicy goodness. And have a Subway.

Read the rest of this post

2 weeks

penwing.podcast@gmail.com (Penwing (Alex Lambert)) — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 19:07:19 GMT

Please leave any comments there.

So, two weeks without updating. Not much has been happening. Mostly dealt with by the tweets I've been firing off. First and most of the second week back at work have been immensely quiet - client work was finished before I left and picked up very little continuing case work initially.

First day back though did have the hell of about 2 hours on train platforms due to delayed trains. Was incredibly doubleplusunfun. We also found out we may be losing some colleagues as part of the union work is outsourced. That wasn't too pretty.

Read the rest of this post

BBQ

penwing.podcast@gmail.com (Penwing (Alex Lambert)) — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 18:49:46 GMT

Please leave any comments there.

Wow, I've been good at updating the past couple of weeks - I'll rectify that after I've posted about the BBQ.

For the past few years, my mate Jim has hosted a BBQ. Last year it was decided it was too big for Jim's garden so we moved it to a full weekend at Stokes Barn in Shropshire. Beautiful time was had in the middle of nowhere. We decided to return this year and despite a few niggles (we didn't have the site to ourselves as we thought we would so had to be more conscious of noise than we wanted) another good time was had.

Read the rest of this post

Not-Play 2008 (Manchester Edition) - Shell Island

penwing.podcast@gmail.com (Penwing (Alex Lambert)) — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 21:47:37 GMT

Please leave any comments there.

Read the rest of this post

Back Home

penwing.podcast@gmail.com (Penwing (Alex Lambert)) — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 15:24:51 GMT

Please leave any comments there.

So, I just got back from visiting my brother in Didcot (near Oxford). I had a nice, relaxing, weekend. Stuart had a rather drink-heavy weekend...

Read the rest of this post

How not to attract my attention

penwing.podcast@gmail.com (Penwing (Alex Lambert)) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 18:59:29 GMT

Please leave any comments there.

So today I got the very late train. I just didn't want to actually get moving - I'm ready for my break I tells ya. This means I often meet with Eleanor at the station. No sign when I get there. So I'm there with my book open (Doris Lessing The Golden Notebook which incidentally is part of Border's current Buy One Get One Half Price and Give Us Lot's of Moolah promotion) and near the end. Suddenly Terry announces a new Janet and John story - John Goes Sailing. So I stop and stare blankly listening to the build up.

Read the rest of this post

Sunday to present

penwing.podcast@gmail.com (Penwing (Alex Lambert)) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 21:47:11 GMT

Please leave any comments there.

Well, Sunday I went spinning in the end. Lovely evening. Couldn't find my sock poi though, and the tube poi I was using gave my fingers blisters 8-(. On the very plus side, I think I can manage an oscillating three-beat weave non-turning turn. We also discussed what we would do to replace Play. Looks like I'm going to Shell Island. Wahhay - it's something!

Monday was nothing unusual but I include it here for completeness.

Read the rest of this post

Describe the room you're in

penwing.podcast@gmail.com (Penwing (Alex Lambert)) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 20:44:14 GMT

Please leave any comments there.

There once was a student who sat an exam. He was asked to describe the room he was in. He answered "Fuck off" and got two marks. He'd have gotten three for using an exclamation mark.

I'm looking for a better answer than "Fuck off" but please be inventive (Easy to envision examples - Haiku, limerick, sonnet - I have other ideas but don't want to poison you with them). If enough* people enter, I will stump up for a prize for the best entry.

Alex
x x

(*Let's call "enough" to be at least 10)

(Yes, this is a shameless attempt to get comments)

Read the rest of this post

Stonewall Rant

penwing.podcast@gmail.com (Penwing (Alex Lambert)) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 19:22:05 GMT

Please leave any comments there.

On Hollyoaks on Monday I noticed Kris wearing a "Some people are gay - get over it" t-shirt. This is a Stonewall campaign. Now, Kris (the character) goes to great pains to remind us that he is a bisexual cross-dresser. He doesn't strike me as the sort of person who would let Ben Summerskill's (Chief Executive of Stonewall) comments and leadership pass.

Read the rest of this post

The imaginitvely titled post about Judder and Warrington Music Festival

penwing.podcast@gmail.com (Penwing (Alex Lambert)) — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 21:52:20 GMT

Please leave any comments there.

So, Friday night saw me bail out of work early to ensure being in a postion to be picked up to go down to Cheltenham for Judder. Considering that it was a new place, with new people and music I wasn't used to I held out rather well 8-). Despite appearances to the contrary (because of aforementioned issues) I did enjoy myself and liked the people I did meet and managed to drag me out of my shell 8-). And I hear that the music is usually better which should be good if I do go again.

Read the rest of this post