I've been told off for not writing enough, for being absent, for disregarding you, my loyal, loved readers ~ well something like that anyway. Am I allowed to admit that I have been distracted, much stuff has been going on, I have been out and about, I have been acquiring and disposing of vehicles, I have played concerts and seen some fabulous things and some which unfortunately I will never able to unsee.
Last weekend the London Gay Symphony Orchestra went on a short tour of Amsterdam, a short tour because we actually only played one concert. It was an excellent concert with lots of highly emotional lush romantic music, in a wonderful venue with excellent acoustics. We even had a large appreciative audience.
Large in two ways, we had quite a few people there, but since most of them were Dutch that also meant they were very tall. The Dutch are the tallest people in Europe, and it was quite noticeable walking around just how tall. For me it was rather nice not to be the tall one and have all the attention that goes with it.
The trip coincided with Amsterdam Pride (I suspect that may have been a consideration in the planning) so the Saturday was largely spent watching the floating parade, the associated evening activities did not appeal to me much so some of us went back to our Hotel and had dinner, and maybe a couple of drinks there.
All in all it was a fun trip and I have now added Amsterdam to the list of places I have toured but must go back to for a proper visit!
I though about getting Croydon Pride to pay my expenses as research, instead I settled for wearing my tee shirt with the Croydon Pride logo!
Amsterdam was my fourth Pride this summer, in many ways it was the biggest, it was a joy filled popular event, there were lots of straight supporters, lots of the shops, bars and restaurants were joining in, and there were rainbow flags everywhere, however it was very noticeable that there were virtually no other flags. I could count the number of Trans flags I saw on the fingers of one hand, and there were no others at all! At Croydon, and London (despite the problems) Pride was a truly inclusive experience for all of the LGBT+ community, Trans, Bi, Pan etc. are all included, affirmed and celebrated, I definitely got the impression that Amsterdam was very much a Gay Pride ~ something I had hoped we had left behind us.
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| TransPALS goes to Amsterdam |
Large in two ways, we had quite a few people there, but since most of them were Dutch that also meant they were very tall. The Dutch are the tallest people in Europe, and it was quite noticeable walking around just how tall. For me it was rather nice not to be the tall one and have all the attention that goes with it.
The trip coincided with Amsterdam Pride (I suspect that may have been a consideration in the planning) so the Saturday was largely spent watching the floating parade, the associated evening activities did not appeal to me much so some of us went back to our Hotel and had dinner, and maybe a couple of drinks there.
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| With Mary Francis |
I though about getting Croydon Pride to pay my expenses as research, instead I settled for wearing my tee shirt with the Croydon Pride logo!
Amsterdam was my fourth Pride this summer, in many ways it was the biggest, it was a joy filled popular event, there were lots of straight supporters, lots of the shops, bars and restaurants were joining in, and there were rainbow flags everywhere, however it was very noticeable that there were virtually no other flags. I could count the number of Trans flags I saw on the fingers of one hand, and there were no others at all! At Croydon, and London (despite the problems) Pride was a truly inclusive experience for all of the LGBT+ community, Trans, Bi, Pan etc. are all included, affirmed and celebrated, I definitely got the impression that Amsterdam was very much a Gay Pride ~ something I had hoped we had left behind us.
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