qparty

strange dream

Last night I had an utterly bizarre dream in which I was at the Q party, which for some reason was at Dan and Claire’s huge sprawling country bungalow. The sun was shining and everyone was running about in the garden. I wish I could remember more, I do remember having a random cuddle with Dan. But yeh, fingers crossed the actual party goes as well as my dream one :) Have bought a new dress for the occasion so everyone had better look damn smart!
Missing Aber terribly and will be visiting asap after the party, maybe a weekend in early October. Work is going fine, about to enroll to do AS Biology evening classes and also will be volunteering for something. Can’t decide between assisting mentally handicapped people with arts and crafts, reading with children or working at a nature reserve. Living at home is having its ups and downs, the ups including free food and wine and the downs including being driven insane by my overbearing father. Ah well, tis free, can’t complain. Other than that, not much to report, just very much looking forward to the party next weekend.

Well, there’ll be no bungalow and there’ll be no garden, but everybody will look smart (Claire‘s just now bought a dress) and you’re welcome to a cuddle.

Excited

I’m really quite excited about Claire and I’s upcoming round trip of the UK. In case you’re not “in the know,” here’s what we’re planning:

BiCon

On Thursday afternoon we’re off to BiCon, the National Bisexual Conference, in Glamorgan. To think, this event’s been running for a almost as long as I’ve been alive and I’d never heard about it before this year. Evidently they were advertising in all the wrong places. And then, after all of that, the first one I hear about is just “down the road” (well, so much as anything is just down the road from Aberystwyth) in Glamorgan.

Anyway, it sounds like a good event; I’ve spoken online to a couple of dozen people about it and it sounds fabulous with a capital FAB. The workshops list is certainly… unusual: Teddy Bears & Whips? Time Management And Non-Monogamy? Writing Erotica To Share? There’ll be Wi-Fi there, so I’ll do what I can to post bits and pieces of my experience back here. I’d love to say that I’m sure Claire will do the same, but it’s a little optimistic, considering her blog update rate.

Fringe Festival

Then a week on Monday (20th August), after the event finishes, we’re driving up North – perhaps with a visit to Preston on the way – to meet with Ruth and JTA and head on up to Edinburgh for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival! A whole week of live comedy, drinking to excess, eating haggis, and loving the Edinburgh Fringe party atmosphere. For a handful of reasons, I won’t be performing this year (probably): still, there’s always next year. My mum and my sisters, Becky and Sarah, are going to the Fringe as well and our visit will overlap theirs by a day or two, and it’ll be good to see them. We’re also informed that Kit and Fiona might drop in on us for a day or so, too.

Nonetheless, it’ll be a great opportunity to see the Free Fringe performers yet again and spend all of our time drunk and laughing. And if Claire manages to get through the week without flashing any old ladies, all the better.

I’ll be on GPRS by this point, rather than Wi-Fi, so weblog updates are less likely, but I’ll see what I can do.

Oxford, back to Aberystwyth

Post-Fringe, we’ll be delivering Ruth & JTA to Oxford, and staying over briefly ourselves before coming back to Aber on Tuesday 28th August. Yes, this means I’m working for about 13 days this entire month. Sweet.

And of course, when we get back, it’ll only be 11 days until QParty, so we’ll be spending the most part of our time fretting and making last-minute arrangements for that. There are those that have suggested that this party-fortnight – and in particular BiCon – should be seen as a “stag night.” Which is a nice idea, but doesn’t really reflect what QParty’s actually about. I’ll write more about what QParty actually means, to me at least, and all that… at some other point. Watch this space.

Meanwhile…

In the meantime, life in Aber will, I’m sure, go on pretty much as normal. Paul will be making arrangements for the intervening Troma Nights, so keep an eye on Abnib Events for them, and he’ll be looking after Mario and Luigi in Claire’s absence. I gather that Sian (no, not that one, the other one) is getting married on the weekend of BiCon; would somebody who’s going to her wedding pass on my regards and best wishes.

QParty Progress

After weeks of debating and procrastinating, Claire and I have finally managed to order the invitation cards we’ll be sending out for QParty. I’m quite pleased with how they look (well, in proof form), and I hope that those of you who’ll be receiving them within the next fortnight or so will smile when you see them, too. Gratitude due to Paul for helping us to arrange them.

It’s all surprisingly complicated. Today, we spent some time discussing the concept of speeches. As anybody who knows me will agree, I love the sound of my own voice, but it’s always been a traditional part of wedding receptions – on which, in our own way, we’re modelling parts of QParty – to get certain other people… the father of the bride, the best man, etc… to say a few words too. But with no bride and no best man, it’s somewhat difficult to decide on the best way to provide the same kind of experience. We think we’re set, now, but for a moment I was wondering.

I’m looking forward to it, and it’s not even just because I like to drink and dance or because I like to get big groups of people I know together into one place: it’s because, though what others have said, it’s turning out to mean something. That’s kind of hard to explain:

I suppose it’s because other people are taking QParty so seriously. We weren’t sure that they would. We’d always said – once we discovered that neither of us were interested in marriage – that we would one day have a party in leiu of a wedding, because that’s the kind of party we like. Since then, we’ve gone to three weddings and one engagement party, and we’re even more sure that we don’t want to get married, but even more sure that we want to drink and dance and show everybody exactly we care about where our relationship stands.

I don’t know about Claire, but I’m genuinely surprised (it’s a good kind of surprised) at some of the responses we’ve had when we said we wanted to have this party. Especially from our parents, who’d already taken our name change in their stride, and from my dad in particular, who’s been especially proactive in helping us make our plans come to life… but also from our friends, who’ve been very positive about the idea (even those for whom not marrying would be an inconceivable life choice), coo-ed and “aww”-ed in a sweet and only slightly sickening way, and have suggested all kinds of activities and themes for the party itself, some of which we may have adopted. So; thank you all for the surprise.

I’ve had some difficulty working out the addresses of everybody I’d like to send invitations too. In particular, right now, I’m lacking postal addresses for Beth and Pete, and non-termtime addresses for Ele and Andy K. If you’re reading this, could you get an address to me within the next week or so; thanks. An inevitable problem with this time of year is that a lot of our friends – even the ones we had addresses for – have just moved. Such is the risk with having friends who are students or recent graduates.

More to follow, I’m sure.