Perceptions

It's amazing how the places closest to you, those you know that are there, that you walk past on a regular basis are often the places you know the least. I guess you gain some preconceived notions of such places, perhaps because of where it's located or because due it is locality you automatically associate or label it as the places you're familiar with. I know that's wrong, such preconceptions are often flawed, my baby and I live with that on a daily basis due to our sexuality - being gay we're supposed to fit in to some preconceived homosexual ideal. Because we're gay we're not supposed to have any individuality, we're supposed to walk, talk and act in a certain way; do you know what I mean? So applying such rules to a pub in Stockport, it's going to be homophobic, correct? Wrong...................

I'm talking of the Arden Arms, the pub we visited last night and what a wonderful pub it is; as I said in my post last night I thought it had some affiliation to the gay community and I wasn't wrong. Because the landlords are a gay couple, they live together and run the pub together; and what wonderful hosts they are, they made us feel real welcome. Not that it's an out and out gay pub, far from it and we didn't feel as comfortable as say we would in the gay village, but still it is genuinely gay friendly. It felt weird to be honest, I mean it's a kind of old world pub, real traditional - it's even got an open fireplace; it felt like it should be a working mens pub - it just had that feel to it. But it's not and it attracts a real mixed clientele, not that we spotted a great deal of openly gay people in there but at least there were no idiots either. And it's a great place to chill out, have a few beers and not have to worry about hiding our sexuality; the place wasn't bouncing or nothing but if we want that we head further afield anyway.

To be honest it felt like a Winter pub and I appreciate that makes no sense at all - as it did to my baby when I mentioned it to him last night, so I'll explain. It's the perfect pub to head to on a cold Winters midweek night, to sit cosy and warm in front of the open fire whilst sipping a pint of real ale. That's how it hit me, it's not a Saturday night pub, well not for us anyway, which may suit us well because once a month they hold a social night for the local gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community. We couldn't believe it when the landlord told us, our chins collectively hit the floor, a GLBT night in a pub in Stockport and it's still standing, oh my gosh! And it's allegedly not a kind of meet and shag some stranger kind of affair either, it's a proper social gathering who plan trips out, have literary nights and just get together primarily as friends to help and support each other. We honestly still can't believe it, all this going on right under our noses, my nose in particular, I mean it's a 10 minute walk from my house and we knew nothing of it; so we may give it a try just to see what it's all about, who knows it may be fun!

Talking of walks, we left the pub at around 11 o'clock and took a slightly different route home. With it being Halloween and all we walked up the steps off Newbridge Lane into the grounds of St. Mary's Church; it was quiet, dark and kind of spooky. My baby pretended to be a ghost haunting the graveyard, running around with his hands in the air whilst making a strange groaning sound - I guess it was meant to be scary but he had me in fits of laughter. If he is a ghost then he's the most loveable ghost ever, I caught up with him and gave him a big kiss and hug. We walked the short distance back home, the streets were quiet so we held hands all the way, stealing the odd kiss as we went. Sometimes life passes up the most pleasant of surprises, last night was one of those moments...........