Tag: UK
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What Do You Need In A Rug? A Fertility God… Obvs
A giant rug has gone on sale on EBay featuring a giant penis…
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THEATRE REVIEW | The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, The Birmingham Rep
★★★ – a delicious journey into Narnia
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HOTEL REVIEW | Hilton London Syon Park
I’m starting a new trend, rather than having one big summer holiday in the year I’m going to have lots of little holidays!
Preferably in places that I can get to within an hour or two. Maybe even in my own city? Because let’s be honest the getting there bit is rubbish. Lots of little breaks make you more evenly relaxed throughout the year.
The key to this new concept is to pick somewhere that feels like you’re really far away from your life but you’re actually just a short drive away. I will be putting this theory to the test in 2016 but my first taster stop on the tour was Hilton London Syon Park for a spa weekend with my bestie.
Hilton London Syon Park is in Brentford around 2 miles from Twickenham and easily reachable by car or public transport. Set in lovely grounds with Syon Park estate as a backdrop and modelled on the old stable block which originally sat there 200 years ago.
When we arrived the staff on reception were extremely friendly and efficient. Sometimes they are not and you have to wait around but our request for early check-in caused no added stress or issue and we were whisked right through.When we got to our room the first thing we did was get in our fluffy white robes, lie on our beds and order room service because why not! We stayed in a twin with view and it really was gorgeous. Stylish, modern décor in grey and lavender hues with a stunning view of the grounds from our balcony. The best touch in the room was a TV in the bathroom above the bath; the lazy women’s dream come true.
We were booked in for treatments at the Kallima Spa in the basement of the hotel so padded down there in our slippers. This hotel has some random quirks which add to it’s charm, for example the glass walkways talk to you or spit out film quotes and there is a fairly out of place statue of the blues brothers on the outside of the building.
The Kallima spa is a tranquil space in the basement of the hotel. You can book individual treatments or just use the pool, steam room, sauna and Jacuzzi. We did all of it! The spa is open to the public as a day spa so my top tip if you are staying the weekend is to have treatments on the Saturday and use the spa on the Sunday. The Saturday was really busy but on Sunday most people had left and children must vacate the pool by lunch time. I loved the pool and really did feel far away. I pretended to be back in Morocco for quite a while whilst floating around.
We plumped for the Tranquillity face and body treatment. I’ve never had a body wrap so thought it might be a new fun experience. I loved this treatment. It combines a lot of elements so you get so much from it. The facial and massage made me feel fab and she got rid of some really gruesome knots in my back. I found the body wrap a little strange, it is quite something staring down at your naked body wrapped in cling film! However I have to say that my skin was the softest it’s ever been and smelt wonderful and fresh after. I highly recommend it.
The Marco Pierre White restaurant at this Hilton is definitely its trump card. Make sure you pre book when you check in because it’s super popular in the evenings. Now I don’t make this statement lightly as I have eaten in some fine restaurants but the meal we had here was one of the best I’ve ever eaten. If you are a vegetarian or vegan you won’t find much for you as it’s a steak house and doesn’t really accommodate for the non-meat eaters. We chose the 10oz Sirloin steak and it melted in the mouth. It comes served with triple cooked chips, and was cooked to absolute perfection. The roast rump of lamb was equally great so much so I think about it roughly twice a week! Please please make sure you order the creamed spinach whatever you do because the only explanation for how amazing it tastes is that they have fairies casting spells in that kitchen, it’s heaven in your mouth!
After that meal I slept like a baby (I’m sure the wine had nothing to do with it)
I absolutely love hotel breakfasts so I was really looking forward to what was going to be on offer. It was a bit disappointing that there is a only a buffet as we had hoped to order something a bit more bespoke – Eggs benedict or an omelette freshly made. Having said that the buffet was very well put together and all tastes are catered for with plenty of continental breakfast choices and a hot plate for the full English.This hotel really meets a high standard for a very reasonable price point. It does feel luxurious and the pleasant and friendly staff add to its relaxed nature. We both left feeling rejuvenated, relaxed, well fed and like we had been away for way more than one night. I’m already planning a second trip there in the New Year. Maybe see you there for your first mini holiday of the year!
Stays at Hilton London Syon Park start from £149 per room per night, based on two people sharing a Queen Guest Room on a bed and breakfast basis including taxes, complimentary WiFi and full use of the spa facilities. Reservations – www.londonsyonpark.com /020 7870 7777.
Reviwed by Chloe Misson | @CselinaM
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Nigel Farage HIV Patients “Struggling To Get The Drugs” Because Of Immigrants
According to the UKIP Leader many HIV patients in the UK have written to him to say that they are struggling to get HIV drugs because of immigration.
Speaking on LBC, UKIP Leader Nigel Farage was answering a question from Nick Ferrari about whether he and UKIP were politically toxic. Answering, Farage brought up the controversy he caused during a leaders’ debate earlier in the year, when he made “outrageous” claims about “health tourism” with immigrants with HIV – testing positive in the UK, obtaining medication on the NHS costing £25,000 per patient per year.
During the debate he said, He didn’t believe in health tourism and “We need to put the National Health Service there for British people and families.”
However Farage said, that since the debate and making those claims he has received letters from “lots of HIV sufferers in this country” who have said that their “local clinics are unrecognisable (with) the number of people that are here”.
He went on to say that people were “struggling to get the drugs” they needed.
However THEGAYUK reached out to the NHS media team to ask if they were aware of any problems of drug shortages in clinics.
A spokesman for NHS England said,
“We have not been made aware of any capacity or drug shortage issues in HIV clinics.”
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Rules Surrounding Gay Men Blood DonationsTo Be Reviewed
Great news from the gay men’s blood donation campaign.
Public Health Minister Jane Ellison MP has just announced that the advisory body will now review who can safely donate in 2016.
As it stands gay and bisexual men who have had penetrative sex in the last 12 months are unable to legally donate regardless of whether they are in a monogamous relationship, they use protection whilst having sex or they test negative for HIV.In 2011 the outright ban for gay and bisexual men to donate blood was removed and reduced to a one year ban. Meaning only gay or bisexual men who haven’t had sex within a year can donate blood. A practice many believe is discriminatory. In Northern Ireland the life time ban is still in force.Ethan Spibey from the Freedom To Donate campaign said,“The FreedomToDonate team have worked tireless with our brilliant supporters to raise the case for a review into who can safely donate blood. I’m extremely happy that this morning the Public Health Minister Jane Ellison MP in answer to a question on the FreedomToDonate campaign confirmed that this review will take place in 2016. Those that can safely donate blood should be able to donate and securing this review is a step towards that. It’s time for the FreedomToDonate.”
Shaun Griffin, Executive Director External Affairs, Terrene Higgins Trust said:
“We welcome today’s news. The 2011 review that the one year ban was based on is now out of date, and the rules need reviewing to fit the facts today.
“The review announced today, as well as considering the latest available data, should also address the contradictions attached to the lifetime ban on former sex workers and past intravenous drug users, which were not addressed in 2011.
“The safety of the blood supply must come first – but the one year ban, and the information the decision was based on is out of touch with the reality of conditions like hep C and HIV in 2015.”
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THEATRE REVIEW | Four Minutes Twelve Seconds
James Fritz brings you West Croydon’s version of an Eastenders Christmas Day special, but with more tiers than one of Pat Butcher’s earrings and acting skills far superior to the likes of Dirty Den. ★★★★
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Sex Box Is Back On Channel 4
Channel 4 has commissioned another mini series of Sex Box, a show that explores the intimate world of sex being couples in front of an audience.
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15 Minute Self HIV Test Released In The UK
A 15-minute self test kit has gone on sale in the UK.
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THEATRE REVIEW | The Prime of Ms. David Hoyle
Have you ever loved a poxy, gaping wound that never heals?
Have you ever loved a poy, gaping wound that never heals? Welcome to the pure disease of radical thinking, the open-heart artistry of David Hoyle. A precision provocateur, he’s a beautiful leper puking on the bland smirk of consensus dissent. Never afraid to offend, he’ll stare, point-blank, at dead-eyed conformity, and test-drive blanket idiocy to total destruction.
So, tonight –in character as a no-limits, libertarian headmistress for tonight’s show, ‘The Prime of Ms David Hoyle’ – he’s in his element. And, as always – perhaps acknowledging some fractured, kindred mind-set – his intentionally smeared make-up is a cosmetic-Cubist’s spin on Liza Minelli. It’s pithy, visual ventriloquism, an instant, persona transplant of Liza’s unshakeable self-belief, an immediate, autocratic departure point for Ms. Hoyle.
And it’s wholly appropriate. Tonight, David’s manifesting – and inverting – that patronising sense of belonging British schools cram into pitifully vulnerable minds. Quite brilliantly, he’s subverting the crypto-fascist overtones of Muriel Spark’s Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie novel into a school-night for unedited, sexualised scandal. How? With extreme satire, the preferred poison for killer, social comedy since theatre began. Essentially, it’s the freedom to question any standards of etiquette, taste and so-called decency, and push them to blatant heights of self-evident absurdity.
Therefore – as headmistress in tonight’s mock, end of school-term assembly – David unflinchingly proclaims his inflammatory manifesto. ‘Ladies and gentlemen, and those clever enough to have transcended gender’ he begins, ‘We are now free from the ridiculous expectations of our genitals. It will be trans people, and trans consciousness that will liberate the whole of humanity’.Wow. Simultaneously utopian, hilarious and upstaging blinkered identity politics, it’s a typically stellar David Hoyle starting-gun, but not one winning full approval. One heckler –ex-forces, befuddled, confrontational – obviously feels his servile, binary-sexed values are being mocked, a surly, potential flash-point. But immediately, he’s beautifully love-bombed by David, and instantly evolves from feisty reactionary to besotted disciple.How could he not? David’s seductive power of surreal persuasion totally rewrites any opposed punter’s world-view with a stunningly queer lexicon. Fittingly, David queers our global pitch from its first, bedrock principle – education – and, as always, asks gloriously awkward questions.
‘Does education make us conform’ David ominously inquires, ‘by hacking off our beautiful eccentricities?’ Oh yes; British state and public schools give a kiss of Guantanomo Bay brutality for arty queens enduring term-time torment. But not tonight, as, quite gorgeously, our devil’s advocate headmistress unleashes three recent graduates of his maverick regime.
First, there’s Bambi Sexsmith, self-styled, queer conversion therapist, with her projectile-diction sermon on avoiding ‘Straight Complex’. In an assured blizzard of quips, she diagnoses, treats and cures any obstacles to thoroughly liberated, thoroughly queer existence. And, remarkably, that’s just for starters; each fabulously unpredictable prodigy from the Hoyle class of honour ramps the anti-hetero stakes stunningly higher.Take Ray, a flawless, drag-king Fred Astaire clone. Tap-dancing like a frenzied needle probing an addict’s veins, she strips to a startling androgyny, all duct-taped, flattened breasts and stencilled six-pack. A take-no-prisoners attack on the mediocre, mundane and pointlessly mean, David’s graduates conclude with the starkest, cautionary warning yet; enter, ‘Cis White Male’.
Naked, mute and nervous, his name scrawled on his belly, ‘Cis’ is a shocking indictment of state education crushing social and sexual dissent. Is there an antidote? For sure -Ms Hoyle’s fearless call to self-expression at any cost. It’s a fantastically liberating lesson that, ideally, should be taught and memorised from birth, the ferociously humane heart of David’s stunning rejection of global despair. Live free, live fierce, live now; there’s no finer riposte to mindless fascism.
David’s next show is December 9th at Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club.
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Church That Bans Same-Sex Marriage “Bewildered” By Ban On Cinema Advert
A new advert which was due to be aired in cinemas across the UK has been banned because it may cause offense.
The advert which was due to be played before showings of the new Star Wars film has been banned on the grounds that it could offend those of other faiths and no faiths.
The 60-second advert featured the Lord’s Prayer being recited by many different types of people. The Church of England warned the ban would have a “chilling” effect on free speech.
The advert, which is aimed at encouraging people to “just pray” was passed and given a U certificate by the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) and cleared by the CAA (Cinema Advertising Authority) but it was banned by the Digital Cinema Media (DCM) agency, the company which administrates the advertising for the UK’s big brand cinemas including Odeon, Cineworld and Vue.
Speaking to the BBC the director of communications for the Church of England, the Reverend Arun Arora said,
“We find that really astonishing, disappointing and rather bewildering.
“The prospect of many families attending the release of the new Star Wars film had seemed a good opportunity to launch the advert and a new website justpray.uk to promote prayer ahead of Christmas.
“The Lord’s Prayer is prayed by billions of people across the globe every day, and in this country has been part of everyday life for centuries.”
The advert is for a campaign called #JustPray and carries the names of The Church of England and All Churches Trust Limited.
The Church of England were strong opponents of the same-sex marriage law when it was being debated and passed as law in 2013 and issued a response informing the Government that it could not “support” the law calling it “divisive” and “unwise” and threatened that any change in the law could and adversly affect the Church’s placement in the legal system. It said,
“The Church of England‘s unique place in the current marriage law of England means that the proposals will potentially have a very significant impact on our ability to serve the people of the nation as we have always done.”
The response from the then coalition Government was to place a legal “lock” on the Church, meaning it would never have to allow same-sex couples to be wed within any of its Churches, effectively banning LGBT people from using the Church in the same way heterosexual people have access to the Church.