Iris Goodbye BBQ

My dear housemate/friend Ruth blogged after the nice BBQ evening we hosted in our house.

From Iris Goodbye BBQ

Here it is for your convenience

Bringing the sunshine to Ireland by Ruth

Yesterday we had a bbq in our garden. It was the first one I've had in my house, in Ireland!

Somehow it is difficult to associate barbecues with this country. The sun has been pleasant to us during the last few days and we grabbed the opportunity to feast It. We got our little bbq set a couple of days ago, I still cannot deal with the idea of having disposable ones. They were a novelty to me when I came here..but then again it's Ireland..a country blessed by its showers.

We invited a few friends. Mediterranean blood kicking in, we were worried we won't be having enough food for all. Alon made his beef kebabs, I mad my tofu kebabs..then we had mushrooms in a balsamico/honey marinade, Quorn sausages, garlic & wine sausages, pork sausages, beef burgers; bread - wholemeal, mixed seed, white, mediterrenean loaf (M&S); Greek salad; tahini, tzatziki, marinated olives, cheeses..all washed down with white wine and champagne. Then we had lemon cheesecake, irish mocha cheesecake, and fresh strawberries..and Tea to finish all off!

Being 3 Israelis, a Greek and a Maltese amongst the Irish, German and Dutch I felt 'we' brought some Med element to it all.. could have been louder! Oh yes all this was accompanied by background music. No..there was no latin music..it was Madonna's latest album..and that's the queer touch for you ;)

That's sunshine to me..it's the pleasant, late and relaxed nights outside with friends.

Other Photos:
Iris Home Good byeBQ by Milli

BBQ photo album by Ruth

are you GAY?

While on the Andamans I've spent most of my time with my fellow diving course students. One was special in particular. A beautiful girl (an actress/model), well educated, with spectacular poetic English and noble manners.

Earlier this week we had another catch-up correspondence on Facebook where I mentioned a guy I was dating. This was her respond:

"ok alon, u said, u r dating a guy? u mean u r my gay friend?? :) if yes, europe is the right place to be in because ppl dnt consider u out-caste like in america or most other countries. i'm so excited to know this, for some reason!! does ur family know??"

So why am I writing about it anyway? Because I was shocked!
Beside the fact that I was sure she knew I was gay (how can it be more obvious?) every now and then I come across amazing people that never had any interaction with the "scene" or with "gay/queer people" and I get a reality shake.

Since I'm spending most of my time in a very particular environment and even more particular circle of friends around in Europe (or Israel) I tend to forget that in many places LGBT is yet to become visible or even far beyond that - do they exist?

"what do you mean by gay-friendly? do you mean I need to live with 2 gay men?", 2 weeks ago, a random phone call from a girl trying to arrange viewing. Dublin, Ireland

"I've only seen gays on TV. OMG, this is sooo coool" Elleni, a good friend of mine from Ethiopia

Here's a funny example for the extreme opposite:


It also reminds me that Doron purchased the domain cure-homosexuality.org and we're still discussing what should be there. It will probably be how silly is when people want to change the nature and try to help people who search for "How to cure homosexuality"

Jason's 30th in London

Last weekend we headed to London to celebrate Jason's 30th birthday.
Mostly passing by for a conference or youth exchange I've been to London many times. Since I never had the i-love-this-place effect I just didn't bother planning any holiday there. Now 5 years later I discovered its magic and I LOVE IT. It was such a great weekend. Having lovely sunny weekend with hanging out with my friends - it was just perfect.

The highlights were eating at The Troubadour cafe/restaurant couple of times, Sunday night in Soho shaking our bums around Illusion @ THE Village, a walk with Panos in Hyde park where we luckily found handsome British lads playing stupid games and showing off their white flesh and a night out with the locals to Popstarz.

From London

Ski trip to Solden and couple of hours in Munich

Couple of weeks ago we went with work on a ski trip to Solden (Austria). It was so much fun and the best break I could ask for... tasty food, beautiful accommodation, awesome snow conditions accompanied by my personal power supplier - SUN.

From Solden

Although we arrived in Innsburk airport we had to go back from Munich. Since our flight was at 8pm I thought it will be great to be in Germany and enjoy a day around Munich. We managed to hop on a cab to the airport at 9.30am and arrived by noon. Shortly after leaving our luggage in the lockers we took the train to city center (45min).

With the sun shining above, it was so nice to walk around the calm, clean and beautiful streets of Munich.

From Munich

Thinking about India, Gay scene in Hyderabad and Kingfischer

Are you looking for?

Gay Scene in Hyderabad

There isn't such. I spent 6 weeks around the city and talked with *few* queers which sadly informed me there is not even a gay friendly place to hang out at (they used to have something but then police bullied the visitors). The gayest vibes I had were in Le Cafe De Art in Banjara Hills but locals couldn't confirm it was. So seems like there is no Gay scene in Hyderabad. I guess the city didn't have the time to realize the potential with the massive amount of expats around... Taking into account the city is packed with expats, at least 10% are Queer and they have dollars in their pockets it is just a matter of time until it will happen.... Do let me know if anything changes...

Kingfischer Dublin - What the heck can it be?

a. misspelling for kingfisher (India's best!! airlines) which as far as I'm aware does not fly to Dublin.
b. the kingfisher bird and its connection to Dublin, Ireland
c. The Kingfisher which is apparently a restaurant in Dublin

Lonley Planet India Mumbai

For some reason I'm ranking for this one as well...
Lonley planet was indeed helpful for while traveling around Mumbai. Just take into account the raise in prices from the latest edition.

Phoenix Park

Probably because of the blog post I had a while ago about Phoneix park and the lads where Jason told us it is a known gay cruising area...

What is this post?
I got visitors that looked for this information (kingfisher or kingfische, mumbai, lonley planet, India, gay, hyderabad, scene, dublin, expats) and I though this post might be helpful...

Cheers