The Only Straight In The Village

So on Saturday, Mickey and I went to help marshall the Pride gay parade. After we signed our lives away in Paddington Square Gardens we were given muffins and juice. Mickey had three, yes THREE, muffins, so I had three as well to make him feel better. We were given nice yellow t-shirts with 'Pride' on them and a yellow plastic tag to go around our wrist. I put mine on too tight and then couldn't get it off. The organisers didn't have any scissors so big, strong Mickey had to pull it off (hoho) for me. We also met the other marshalls we would be marshmallowing with, Ashley, and Robert who were both very lovely. Our Senior Steward was (and I'm sure he still is) a complete nutcase. I couldn't speak to him because he was annoying (leaving his radio behind for us to look after and just generally wandering off) but the others still spoke to him. Mickey found it funny because I can't speak to people I don't like. I just can't. Anyway, him being there wasn't the fault of the Pride people and he didn't spoil our day at all.

The excitement was everywhere!

We were taken through lots of London backstreets and we stopped off at a big line of portaloos on the way. They weren't for our event but we used them anyway. I'm always a bit nervous using portaloos as they smell funny and I always think they're going to fall over backwards with me in them. I suppose it's no different to me being drunk really.

When we finally got to Trafalgar Square we were given our places to stand. I wanted to stand near Mickey so he stood on the corner of the square and I was placed halfway down one of the roads. Because there were big gaps in the parade a lot of spectators thought on three occasions, that the parade had finished. This meant that large groups of people started wandering about in the middle of the road. Which meant that I had to clear the large groups of people. Not an easy task when most of them want to ignore you and hate being told what to do (politely). Fortunately we'd been given a whistle but I didn't have to use it (ooooh! the power of the whistle!)

The diversity of the parade was amazing and at one point I felt quite overwhelmed by how all these people had got together for a common 'cause'. However, one or two 'things' did manage to catch my eye. Luckily Mickey got a photo of them.

The guys from Gay.Com

Luckily for me there was a group of lovely guys behind me who were very sociable and very friendly and occasionally gave me glasses of white wine spritzer to keep me going. Mickey and I also met another lady called Claire who told us about when she had set up one of the first gay parades in 1992 and she was proudly wearing her 1992 t-shirt. Yay Claire! I thought she was cool because she'd shaved off her real eyebrows and pencilled them back in with pink liner.

After the parade was over we went back to Leicester Square and met a giant frog (see Mickey's post). Then we went to Balan's Cafe and spent our hard-earned discount on yummy food. We definitely recommend this cafe as the food was amazing and the guys who serve in there very friendly. We also had a Mango Daiquiri each which was sorely needed seeing as the day was still el scorchio. Soho was absolutely packed with celebrants and some of the costumes we saw from the parade were hanging about outside the Admiral Duncan. Some other guys were wearing rubber clothes (isn't it too hot for rubber?) and others just had their tops off and were showing off their pecs so luckily me and Mickey didn't fall over too much from gawping at them.

We eventually said our goodbyes and off we went home. Tired little teddies but feeling like we'd played a part in helping an important event run smoothly.

Mickey and the frog in Leicester Square

(kinda reminds me of the film Harvey)

See more stories and photos on Mickey's blog