It's the last day of Summer today, heralding a weekend which is leaving little space in the diary to write anything; Jewish New Year tonight/tomorrow, the first day of Autumn tomorrow and the start of Ramadan either tomorrow or Sunday, depending on which diary you look at and whether you're looking for the moon above your own country or over Mecca.

Tomorrow also sees three of us going to Chig's first Villa game of the season, at home to Charlton, in a rather more optimistic mood than when the same three of us went to the equivalent fixture last year, a 1-0 win for Villa, when it was so cold that my body went into shock afterwards and left me bedridden with 'flu and off work for the whole of the next week. Admittedly the match was on 26 November last year, but the signs aren't good this week either. I've been suffering from sinusitis for the last week, I'm completely knackered all the time and I'm currently on antibiotics, which should make tomorrow's pre- and post-match drinking session fun.

I wonder whether any of this lot, snapped at Brighton Pride last month, will be at the match tomorrow?



Can't see why they would be? Take a closer look at the Charlton tattoo on the central lad's back:



It's been a weird Summer, hasn't it? Or is that just my perception? A hot July, part of which I missed through staying indoors, again due to illness. (Yes, that quiet month on this here blog.) Then a dull August, followed by a brief Indian Summer in September. In the last 48 hours, we've had the extremes here in Birmingham. Yesterday was hot and sunny all over again, and Summer finally exited today with a dramatic mini-monsoon season. All very odd, but probably just a taster of even stranger weather to come in future years.

I've probably been away more weekends this Summer than ever before. I've also taken loads of photos. Loads and loads and loads of photos. More than ever have been published (including my Brighton Pride ones in the current (October) edition of gaytimes), which pleases me a great deal. It seems a shame to let the rest go to waste. It also seems a shame to admit that it's Autumn tomorrow. Summer is always over too quickly for me. Therefore, starting next week, some of my favourite, as yet unseen, photos from my travels this Summer will be featured on here. Ever mindful that one or two people have, on occasion, accused this blog (ergo me) of being shallow - the swines! - we will endeavour to live up down to that expectation, in a series that I think we'll call The Boys Of Summer. My lesbian reader and my heterosexual male reader may like to look away for the next week or so. But in the meantime, bring on the vernal equinox! Bring on the totty!


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