I've moved

To find my up to the minnute blogging please follow the link below.

http://stephensliberaljournal.blogspot.com

Also check your blogroll or other tracking source if you have me listed some of you are still linking to here.

My Rollercoaster Year

Those of you who know me ought to be aware that I love a big, fast rollercoasters. I really need to go back to the States and experience some of the new rides since last I was there (1996). However, this year has certainly been one hell of a rollercoaster ride with its highs and lows, switchbacks and unexpected turns.

This time last year I was sitting in Bathgate, looking forward to kick starting the local Lib Dems into the General Election year, then onwards to the Scottish Elections and the council elections beyond. The same old routine as laid out by the election cycles. Or so I thought.

Sure enough the year started out in just that manner. On St. Patrick's Night I was selected as the Prospective Parliamentary Candidate (PPC) again for Linlithgow and East Falkirk, with Charles Dundas once again my colleague in the other seat for the local party, Livingston. In the end I came third once more, was agent to Kieran Leach in neighbouring Falkirk (in which campaign I met some new friends). But I was very disappointed on the night that Kevin Lang in Edinburgh North and Leith and Fred MacIntosh in Edinburgh South had done exactly what the party thought was required to win only to no get elected as MPs.

Well eight days after the General Election I had my CV in to start the selection process for the Edinburgh Central seat  for the Scottish elections next May. So there wasn't any real rest between the elections cycles as I started to plot and plan just what I would have to do, first for the seat and then for the list. In the end after another solid 2/3 months of planning and canvassing local members it wasn't to be, but Alex Cole Hamilton had been selected.

So as I started to work for Alex and was settling down to work on the list selection process, which overlapped with the end of Edinburgh Central, I was brought to a sudden halt. Somehow in all the activity of the previous months I had managed to not notice that certain bills were not being paid, kind of major expensive ones. I tried to get finance from the bank but that wasn't happening. I then felt that the only way to deal with this was to return to Northern Ireland and proposed to work that I could continue to work for them from here. With time running out and me having a letter of notice to hand over if there was no decision on that day I was finally given the go ahead to be a home-worker.

So with that then came the task of packing up 9 years accumulated stuff and with the help of Michael completed Operation Evacuate at the end of August. I'd a week to settle in before I started work, but I was also looking for something a little more permanent over here because work, as close friends can attest, was getting me depressed in a major way, even before I moved over.

There then came an email from a friend saying "Have you seen this job?", I applied and found myself up against Michael for what were probably the most angst ridden two weeks in either of our lives. Until I finally was told the position was mine within an hour of a Nationwide conference call for Yes to Fairer Votes as the Northern Ireland Organiser. I just had time to talk to Michael before that call, and he has been a great help and support from that time on.

Since I've got back I hadn't been completely politically inactive, along with Michael we as local Liberal Democrats wrote a couple of responses to consultations from government departments. I've also been involved in the LGBT consultative forum, help establish Delga within the local party, been back across for Scottish conference. As well as attending two party conferences and meeting with others as part of the Yes to Fairer Votes drive.

This year I attended three Pride Parades Edinburgh, Glasgow and Foyle. Somehow I found the time and a person to fall in love with, though sadly that didn't go as I'd hoped. I've also been elected unto my new local party's executive committee as well as keeping up my record of being a conference rep, Sheffield and Birmingham here I come.

So what does 2011 hold?

For a start there is an referendum on May 5th, not the campaigning I expected to be taking up every waking and quite a few of the sleeping moments of my life. But there you are I'm working towards that and looking forward to getting back into the phonebank as people carry on talking to people across Northern Ireland about fairer votes.

After May, who knows. I have no idea what comes next.

Last year I felt that I'd love to find someone I could really connect with that didn't abhor the time I spent with politics and maybe settle down. Seeing as how intermittent my love life has been in the last twelve months it is almost like I am saving myself for that person. Maybe I might get lucky this year and find what I'm looking for in that department. My love life has been a bit of a roller coaster in recent years maybe I just want it to be a gentle punt down life's river from here on. But then knowing the passion I put into things maybe not.

After May I'll be looking for a new job. No idea that that will actually be yet, have an idea what I'd like it to be just need to see if there are openings that I can fill, it may mean a move once more, it may mean staying right here, I just don't know and nobody is able to tell me the answer to that right now. So it looks like 2011 might be another roller coaster year as well.

Stay tuned I'll return to blogging full time in May.

Back to the Long Term Blog Park

Ok I had a little bit of an excursion because of World AIDS Day which carried over into the FIFA World Cup announcements yesterday.

But just at this moment my employer* for the last 9 years, 1 month and 1 week is no longer my employer. I am now working full time on the Yes to Fairer Votes campaign.

Therefore as one friend said to avoid me getting out my "Lib Dem thing" and waving it about while I am part of a campaign that is reaching across political divisions I am parking this blog once more.

It will also affect the way I use Twitter and Facebook, somebody else pulled me up on that earlier as well.

I've given my reasons previously more fully in case you haven't already read them.

So long, see you all again on 6th May 2011.

* Yes this is the first time in all the public utterances or writings as a politician either here on this blog or elsewhere that I have actually revealed who they are.

Blogged at the New Address - Prayers for Bobby

As this blog is in the process of moving the following is merely a excerpt to direct you to the new address:

Stills from the film Prayers for Bobby (TVM 2009)

Earlier this evening I was at a screening of Prayers for Bobby at All Souls Non-Subscribing Presbyterian Church in Belfast as part of the Outburst Festival. In the light of the number of teen suicides over recent months the showing of this film and the discussion afterwards couldn't be more timely.

The change of Bobby Griffith;s mother Mary played by Sigourney Weaver to harrowingly in this film came too late for her own son, but this bio-pic based on her families story and journey should be essential viewing in every church; not just in Northern Ireland but also the states and many other places.

Read more here >>

Please note this blog is moving to http://stephensliberaljournal.blogspot.com please update your blog roll accordingly.

New Address

This blog has moved....

....the walls are a little bit blank at the moment but I've set up a new home at http://stephensliberaljournal.blogspot.com/ all the furniture posts and comments are all set up, just some of the nice little additions are still needed. I'll be working out just what I need but think I will keep a minimalistic approach.

I will continue to update posts at both locations for a couple of weeks but then will only be posting to the new address.

The reason is largely due to the fact that the old url had Linlithgow in the title and seeing as I'm no longer there needed to tidy that little fact up seeing as I no longer live there.

Lights Mr Producer......Drumroll Please.....

Ok folks I dropped the teaser last night. Promising to keep you informed I am doing so now.

Regular readers will know that was in for a job interview at the start of this week. Last night just after 6pm I was offered the position and took no hesitation in accepting it.

The role is as the Northern Ireland Campaign Manager for the Yes to Fairer Votes campaign. Yes if you told me at 3:30 on the morning of May 7th as my votes were being read out that I would be doing this and doing it here I would have laughed at you.



However, I totally agree with the words of Margaret Ritchie MP, MLA the leader of the SDLP from 6th July:

"The British Government is right to give people the opportunity to choose a fairer system for electing their MPs. The current system is completely unfair as it favours the larger parties and discriminates against smaller parties who can get hundreds of thousands of votes but no seats in Parliament.

"My preference would be to extend the STV system of Proportional Representation to Westminster. This system is much fairer and we are already well used to it in Northern Ireland in our Assembly and Council elections.

"The 'alternative vote' is, nonetheless, a clear step forward and I hope that people will support it in the referendum next year. In Northern Ireland this would have the effect of rebalancing politics towards candidates of the centre and away from the extremes.

"Given the kinds of stalemates and brinkmanship we have endured in our politics in recent years, anything that supports parties in the centre is to be warmly welcomed as it is in the best interests of our people.

"The SDLP will campaign vigorously in favour of progressive electoral reform."

I look forward to working with Margaret, the other candidates for the position I now hold and everyone in Northern Ireland who believes in getting fairer votes for Westminster over the next six months. That will be people from all parties or none, across each of the 18 current Westminster constituencies.If you haven't already sign up through this link, if have invite your friends, if you've invited them all make more, or start to ask your neighbours or the people on the bus beside you. Start talking about AV and why it is fairer and lets go out and win this on 5th May 2011.

Indeed one of my first roles, even before I work my current notice period will be attending the SDLP's party conference this weekend. Shows that this really is cohesion, sharing and integration in action and how cross communities this campaign here is. That the first party conference in Northern Ireland from this son of a man raised in Derry's Fountain area and attending First Derry Presbyterian should be to the party that owes a lot of its founding to the struggle of the other community on that side of the Foyle.

As I said last night this will obviously have an impact on the blogging that I do here, probably over the whole of the next six months. I will try and do updates here from time to time, just to give me some down time, but don't expect the same alacrity of posting.

Blogging (Here) May Be Light

I know I only said that on Thursday and I mean it again. I have some rather exciting news which I will blog about tomorrow probably after a few of the finer details are sorted out.

So don't say I haven't warned you. I do love blogging as a medium and I do intend to get back to it as soon as I possibly can with the same gusto as ever. I'm just warning you that may be some changes around here over the next few months and this page may not have new content as regularly as you are used to over most of the last five years.

I am also turning comments moderation back on. Basically because if the amount of time I may be able to commit to the blog is limited I feel it best not to take risks with the comments left by others. I hope you understand.

But I promise you this blog is not dead. Keep it on your blogroll or aggregator, stuff will pop up from time to time. All posts will remain visible as will comments, the moderation of which may take a little time.

Fair ye well, but stay tuned.

End of a tough week

I know it is only Monday but that is not the week I'm referring to.

Some of the more observant of you will have noticed that both myself and Michael posted rather similar posts on Thursday, basically because we were going in for exactly the same job, interviews for the two of us have now finished*. There was some preparation work involved which took up a lot of our time in recent days.

Both of us wanted the other to be the one that we turned to for areas of advice in what we were preparing for, but this obviously wasn't possible. Both of us we found out over the weekend that we have different ways that we utilise to cope with the pressure, let me just say these were not exactly a snug fit, given the circumstances.

So if you'll excuse me I'm off to rescue a friendship, hopefully.

PS Also hopefully my irritable bowel from the last 4 days will stop being so irritable again now that the pressure is off.

(This was written at 11:15 last night but I've embargoed it until after the second of us interviews this afternoon)

* Hopefully. I've just moved the posting time of this back as my interview slot has been moved back 15 minutes.

Updated> My Song of the Month: October 2010 < now includes song

It's that time of the month again to sum up my month in one song. Whose clever idea was that? Oh yes it was mine. As I say every month the song can be anything something that struck a chord with me during the month, one that has been constantly in my mind, one that either means something personal or that sums up the events of the month.

So here is this months. Again no explanation just enjoy.

Update: Oops. As Caron pointed out below, somehow after copying the embed code I somehow forgot to check it was included.

Writing Through the Darkest Hours

Sometimes when I need to get out of the doldrums I write. Sometimes I am writing when I am actually in a pretty deep and dark place. Not all the time I write something either here, or on Facebook or on Twitter am I actually capable of functioning in any other way.

Some of that stuff gets posted online as I indicate above, some of it is too dark for that and very few people have ever seen the really dark stuff. Writing is how I cope. I write when I'm happy too. I write more when I'm happy, but sometimes I write just to enable my brain to catch up with who I want to be.

If my writing lands me in trouble so be it. But nobody should ever hold my writing against me. In fact the fact that I can type even in my darkest hour has on more than one occasion been the reason that I am still here, still able to type this. Today somebody has taken me to a depth because of my writing. Other's have told me not to worry about that, because they know the reasons above are why I often do it. They can discern some subtle differences in the nuance of what or how I write. Sometimes they wake up scared for what has happened through the night, occasionally so do I, last Thursday night was one example of that*.

So thank you to those friends who know the whole me and know when to ask the questions that I may not want to answer because of what they have seen me write.

* Just take my word for it, what was written then is terse stuff, something that only two people will probably ever read.

Blogging (and Social Media) Will Be Light

Blogging has already been somewhat light over the last few days. It will however continue to be so, the same goes for Facebook and Twitter.

I have an interview for a job I'd really love to have on Monday and I have to do some preparation for it. There are some people who will read this to whom thanks are due for pointing this role out to me. There is someone else that I truly do wish all the best to, it will be an interesting few days, I just wish I could have your input. This weekend is going to be a rather odd one between us.

So if you don't see me on here, Facebook or Twitter then do not panic, I'm just rather busy.

cf Gyronny Herald

Losing the Things We Love

A friend of mine recently learned that one of the things he loves is now something he will not be able to carry on doing; the reason is for his own health. There were tears in his eyes as he was telling me about it, just as there were tears in mine as I was listening to him, because I knew how much that particular activity meant to him.

The activity in question is not seen as risky to the overwhelming majority of the public, but to him it could be severely damaging or even a killer. It got me to reflecting on the things that I have loved and lost that I cannot ever do again.

One is since my father took ill with cancer and died in 2007 I have lost the most intense times of sharing with him. There is an issue right now that I would love to sort through with my father. It is one that we merely touched upon when he was alive, it is one that at this stage is taking on a whole new intensity at the moment. I would love to on a decent Saturday pick up our walking books, prepare a flask of hot water and supplies for a day hike and take him up for a deep discussion away from it all. As it is this weekend (indeed for most of the last wee while) I have been thinking to myself what would my father advise in this situation.

The other thing is that I have yet to enter any race since I succumbed to my career ending injury in 1992. The reason for that is that through the training regime to get ready to do anything I don't feel that is me doing those training runs. I suppose that setting such a high standard in my early life makes it harder to take that every second step now involves some pain and the speed doesn't feel right.

However, both these things and the fact that my friend is not able, even if he wanted to, to do the thing he loves to do had made me determined to set that right.

I'm still able to run, more slowly, in some pain, but doing it isn't going to kill me or cause me any more damage. So I'm going to get back into training, yes I'm going to run. I'm going to pick a race. I'm going to seek sponsorship in aid of Marie Curie, Cancer Research and a charity close to my friends heart too. The recent performance of Andrew Reeves and other friends at Hopetoun had already got me thinking, indeed I was considering joining them before events unfolded that led to me coming home to Northern Ireland.

So watch this space for news about my progress soon.

The Browne Report - Just What He Said

While I was sleeping it appears that my friend and fellow Northern Irish blogger Michael was having some fun with Wordle and The Independent Review of Higher Education Funding and Student Finance Browne Report.

He's also done a nice Wordle of my short story on the Browne Report as well.



Update: There is now a Facebook Group called Lib Dems Against Scraping the Cap, joining other PPCs, AMs and others.

National Coming Out Day UK

Today is National Coming Out Day in the UK, many people will have notice twitter being alive with this yesterday but that was the USA and other countries. It is a day to celebrate the rights of LGBT rights achieved and the fight for those yet to come wherever that may be.

Coming out is a strange phrase it suggests one particular occasion instead of one of various events that someone who identifies as LGBT has to go through, on a day-to-day, person-by-person basis. Here are some of my coming out stories.

To my parents: I told my Mum while I was ironing door stairs in the house where I am writing this. I simple said "Mum there is something I have to tell you. I'm gay". She asked, "You're not having sex are you?", seeing I was clearly standing there ironing my shirts and not engaging in a sexual act and she had asked the question in the present tense I replied, "No." If she had phrased it, "You haven't had sex have you?" she would have got a different response. Since then seeing as she has discovered both condoms and lube at various times I would suspect that she knows that is not the case.

My dad was at the time a church elder and Boys Brigade Captain, in which I served in the section my mother was leader. When I told him, he simply said, "Thanks for being honest." I wish more Christians could take that approach when other gay Christians come out to them. We're avoiding the sin of lying.

To work colleagues: The first time I came out to work colleagues was on a works night out. One of the girls in the group, knowing I was single, asked me, "What to you think of that girl over there?" I ceased the chance in front of all my colleagues and said, "Not my type, but that guy just behind her. Phwoar!" That was it. I came out to the guys at work, in a fun non-intimidating way, to all of them at once and they were fine with it.

To the bowling team: I can't remember exactly what the first occurrence was. But it was most certainly one Saturday as a group of us night-clubbed the night away in Bangor, post match. Having never seen me hit on any of the girls the lads asked me why, so I told them. Some Saturday's later in the usual pre-match warm up banter across the green about who was going to pull that night, one of them started with, and we might even get a nice guy for you Stephen. They were fine about it, it was done in an inclusive and jocular fashion. If any of the opponents dared to use homophobic language about me the other 15 were on them like a shot.

On National TV: To be honest I suppose I actually have to identify as bi-sexual, even though I have only had one opposite sex sexual partner, though I was engaged to her for five years. However, most of the Scottish Liberal Democrats were aware of that as most of the five years coincided with my early days in Scotland. Indeed that was the reason I ended up there. So in 2009, three and half years after that relationship ended, I hadn't got around to telling everyone. Key friends and colleagues were all aware, but not every conference rep. However, we were going to have a debate on the blood ban. Here were my opening comments.

"Conference, my Grandfather donated blood from the early days of the Blood Transfusion Service. He was an on-request donor due to his rare blood type. My father received his gold badge for 100 donations. I used to give blood, but not now. I'm not allowed to, as (slowly) I have sex with other men. (long pregnant pause)"

This was going out live on BBC Scotland on a Sunday Morning, but there was also some interesting reactions of shock around the hall.

More work colleagues: At one point in recent history our team in Edinburgh were 4 straight, 3 LGB* (unlike Stonewall I know there was no Transgender involvement, nor did there have to be). However, despite subtle pronoun corrections and other such things in the work place 2 or maybe three of the straight members of the team hadn't quite picked up on the diversity in the group. The three of us all had from the first few days that the other ones joined the team. However, it was the turn of one of the three to leave (not me). So the leaving do was arranged for The Street, probably one of the most straight friendly, gay friendly bars in Edinburgh's pink district (so much so that some straight friends have missed what is happening around them). Slowly as the three of us waited for partners to turn up it became apparent to our newest team member and another innocent one that we were in a gay friendly environment in the more gay leaving do I've even been fortunate enough to attend with my own work colleagues.

These are just some of the coming out stories that there have been in my live. As I said at the start it is almost a daily experience as you meet someone different and you have to decide if you can go ahead with it and let them know that detail about you. As you can see there is a variety of ways that can be achieved. My opinion is if you are confident in yourself and go and do it your friends, acquaintances have no option but to respond in a positive way. If you are positive in yourself and happy to let them know. Sure there are also some bad tales to tell. But the more people who know and love you through it, the more people who will also watch your back when things go nasty.

* Yeah one of each.

National Poetry Day - Home

Today is National Poetry Day and the theme this year is Home. However, as you may be aware from my recent posts that means a lot of different things to me, that come out in this poem. So this is a story from comtemplating teen suicide, though coming out, to being who I am today.

I

Home is where the demons lived
Home is where I moped.
Home is where I first thought shit!
It's time to bring an end to it.

Home is where they bullied me
Home was from where I had to flee.
Home held many bad memories
For that younger me.

II

Home was where I first returned
When the times got rough.
Home is where I turned to mum and dad
Saying enough's enough.

No more secrets, no more lies
Your son is gay you see.
Home is where I found you love
Cos you both accepted me.

III

Home is where I'm at once again
Father's gone he's out of pain.
Home is where I'm stronger now
Than in that first refrain.

Home is where it's better now
Than twenty four years ago.
Home has changed a lot since then
And so have I you know.

Home is where I now can give
Those years of lessons learnt.
Home is where I'm glad to still be alive
Not a short wick fatally burnt.

Home is where the heart is
Whether that heart is full of joy or pain.
But those you love will love you truly
Time and time again.

© Stephen Glenn
7 October 2010

Forty Eight Hours of Worship!

Over the weekend there was a marquee erected next to Bangor Abbey and inside for 48 hours there was continuous praise going on. It was an event organised by Celts on Fire an organisation founded by dear friends of our family Tom and Iris Ross.

You may think that 48 hours is a long time for a cycle of people to keep up praise to God yet in the 6th and 7th centuries it is believed that for 150 years the practise of Laus Perennis (continual prayer) was kept up at the Monastery in Bangor, close to the present day Abbey.

It was considered to have been interrupted by the raids of the Vikings. So it was fitting that on Friday night at the start of the 48 hours of worship that Scandinavian Christians led the first hour.

Some of you who followed my Twitter over the weekend will have been aware that I spent the first hour I had back in Bangor* (in the early hours of Sunday morning) at the marquee. I also sandwiched in another couple of hours in the afternoon between being part of the Worship Group at Trinity Presbyterian Church for both Sunday services (my first time playing bass guitar, or any instrument, in public for a number of years**).

Some people ask it is possible to be a Liberal politician and a Christian at the same time? It was actually the subject of yesterday's evening's sermon on 1 Thessalonians 4, which at one point made me a little tense. But I say it is, contrary to the sermon last night, though I've come on a long road to get to where I am and I'm sure it's not travelled yet.

But seeing people reaching out and back to the early traditions of our Christianity is invigorating to see (and if you see my current reading material courtesy of Mícheál also intriguing). There is a lesson never lose sight of the past while striving towards a better future, that is true of both fields.

* Having spent most of the week up in Belfast with a post-hospital Mícheál.
** So what better way to do that than with only a brief run through once as the only rehearsal time.

Who's Where in the Liberal Democrats: A Black Hole

I have just been updating my entry for Who's Who in the Liberal Democrats and interesting exercise when your local party chair is sat on the other end of the sofa adding his.

A few things have changed since the last time I updated. A second Westminster candidacy, a publication, one or two minor tweaks to information here and there. Plus of course a change of address and local party.

Of course updating the address details is simple. However, when it came to the party details there was an issue. I could select my new (well once again) constituency as North Down, my local party as Northern Ireland, it was the region that caused me problems. There is no region that matches the local party, which is hardly surprising. As I've just received a new Scottish membership I kept that as my region. However, when you go to the in your area page on the Lib Dem website you can click on Northern Ireland but not get returned any details.

I find this odd and unsatisfactory, not only do I know we exist but as I said I can see the local party chair out of the corner of my eye as I type. I even been in the address that is listed as my local party contact. So I know that exists too. Yet somehow people without that personal knowledge may have a hard time tracking us down.

One other thing, isn't about time that we added a twitter category to the general information. Even adding a blog as well as website section. After all there were all available on the candidates' detail form for this year.

Update: Mícheál was typing his own take on this at the same time.

The Speech That Never Was Take 2: Equal Marriage #LDConf

Just about now if things are going to schedule item number F35 Equal Marriage in the United Kingdom is being debated at Liberal Democrat conference. Here, slightly modified, is the speech that I am not able to present for a second time (the first at Scottish because I moved the transgender amendment, now because I am absent).

Conference, it is with great delight that I am able to dust of this speech that I didn't make at Scottish Conference this Spring, on this very matter. Especially because lines 4-5 and 29-31 look very happily familiar to the Transgender amendment I moved there. But I stand before you today to commend the motion as a whole. a

Whilst the coalition government is making moves to allow ceremonies for LGBT couples to be performed in religious buildings. The Prime Minister has said that these will be civil partnerships.

That means that these will not have the appearance of a Church marriage ceremony that you or I would attend for our heterosexual friends, because a civil partnership is not allowed to contain any religious elements. It is just that a civil ceremony. Yet at present if our heterosexual friends want a civil marriage they can do so at the local registry office alongside those self same civil partnerships.

This assumes that I and other gay Christians or members of other faiths are happy just to have a civil partnership in a location that we feel is like home. That is why like our own leader has said we shouldn't me so hung up with the word marriage.

There are some who say that allowing people of the same-sex to have the right to marry will debase the sanctity of marriage. That would be the same sanctity as Britney Spears 24 hour marriage in Vegas.

Love is a many splendoured thing and when I find the man I wish to spend the rest of my life with I want to have the option of marrying him in a church and having our friends sings the hymns we have chosen and the readings we want. That is of course if he says yes and also wants a religious ceremony.

To misquote the bard of Stratford

I am gay! Hath not a Gay man eyes?
Hath not a gay man hands, organs, dimensions,
senses, affections, passions?
Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons,
subject to the same diseases, healed by the same
means, warmed and cooled by the same winter
and summer as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we
not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you
poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall
we not speak out? If we are like you in the rest, we
will resemble you in that.

You know something conference, as a gay christian I'd love to settle down with the man of my dreams. I'd love to enter the house of my God and join that man in union. But I want the words in the presence of God to be part of that ceremony. Not as a civil partnership in a religious building seems to me, sneaking in when the lights are out and God isn't home.

I want the choice.

I have the choice to be with the man I love.
I have to choice to be partnered with them.
I'd love to have to choice to invite God to the wedding.

And conference you know something else. As a Northern Irish man if the biggest dilemma is whether to have a ceremony that is protestant or catholic or some combination of the two I wouldn't mind. I'd be very happy just as long as I had that choice.

Conference, support this motion and I'll let you know when you can start shopping for hats.

UPDATE: There are some other blogs about speechs. This one from Sarah that similarly was never made about the issue of Gender recognition. Then there is the speech that Sara Bedford actually made yeah if you've read the above you can tell I was that Northern Irish friend.

It's My Birthday...I Must Be at Conference...Oh NO!!!

Normally at this time of year my lunches consist of hotel buffets at whatever fringe event I have chosen to attend. Occassionally on my birthday I have been travelling so it is a package of Boots sandwiches or the equivalent that I have eaten while in transit. There have even been the odd occasion it has been by election fayre grabbed when I could be fore getting shipped back out again.

Not today I was at the Cafe Manor, Donaghadee with my mum. Thinking of missing some friends I'd have loved to have seen at conference already I noticed on the specials board Roast Beef, Yorkshire pudding, champ and vegetables (pictures above). So thinking of Jennie Rigg I tucked in.

I was too full at the time for dessert though I think some of my birthday cake is due to be eaten later at afternoon tea. However, anyone who knows me knows of my love of tea so I was delighted that on offer was a wide stock of Teapigs teas so I ended up having the Chilli Chai variety. It is Assam tea, with cinnamon, ginger, cardamom and chilli, and it was lovely (see below).

Fluffy Justice, My Deal to End the Curse

The authors of this blog along with Millennium Dome Elephant, his Daddy Richard,
Mr. Iagreewithnick and other bloggers at last year's #LDConf bloggers interview.

I'm a Boston Red Sox fan to I believe that curses can be lifted.

So while I and Lionel welcome Fluffy Justice finally being served we are a little worried about the curse of the BOTY affected the muse of everyone's favourite pachyderm over the next 12 months.

So here's the deal, whoever the judges are for next years BOTY's keep up the StephenGlennPosition curse of not shortlisting me for anything, and the rest of you make it easier by not even nominating me for anything in the first place*. I hope that this singular, small, selfless sacrifice on the altar of the great BOTY will suffice to ensure more selubrious, satirical and hitting the nail on the head post from a ten year old soft toy with two daddies.

* Of course if you chose to ignore these missives and Millennium does maintain writing and I do get shortlisted next year that's alright too. Mind you I'm currently having to focus on being Northern Ireland's top blogger, having usurped the blog whose trophy I collected last year, see I'm cursed I tell you. :)

PS My plan B was to write only 15 really stonking blog posts all year and hope to get shortlisted...but then I think I've written over than amount in the past week alone.