12th March 2006
Just after Christmas I received an email from my friends Joffrey & Chris inviting me to attend a weekend break with them and their friends in the country. As the invitation stated, once again another year has passed and once more we all get caught in the hustle of the big city and rarely have the time that we would like to commit to sharing with dear friends. So to this end it was that for the past three years Joffrey & Chris invite their close friends to share a weekend chilling together.
To keep costs down and to ensure that everyone could partake despite of anyone’s budget Chris had booked a Youth Hostel for the Friday to Sunday. It was not maintained and so we had free roam of the place.
Every year they invite a couple of new people to join the group and this year wanted to include me in their invitation list. Thrilled to be invited I accepted and was kept up to date by a series of Emails including the one of last week with directions and address.
Being a modern city boy and a man of my mod cons I programmed in the address to my Global Positioning Satellite System and figured that as the town of Lowescombe only had two roads it couldn’t be that difficult to find ones way to the Hostel. Woops. How wrong could I be? The signal kept cutting out and as the light faded I found myself lost on country lanes. Thankfully I managed to contact Joffrey and he & Chris were about to arrive at the local train station. Off I headed to pick them up.
Within 15 minutes we were winding our way down the smallest of country lanes you have ever seen that would not have looked out of place on the set of Postman Pat. A Single tracked road that wound its way up and down the Sussex Downs until we reached our home for the weekend. 2 several hundred year old cottages knocked through to make a twee but cosy Youth Hostel. Lounge, Dinning Room, Kitchen and 6 bedrooms filled with bunk beds that reminded me of the sort of home the Famous Five or Secret Seven would have spent their summer holidays in.
Joffrey & I made the run to the Supermarket & stocked up on enough food to cater the boys and enough drink to make everyone merry. The rest of Friday was spent bonding and chilling.
Saturday afternoon I woke at 1300 to discover nearly the entire group had left already. Feeling slightly worse for wear from the excessive levels of grape juice (Shiraz) I had consumed the night before and groggy from having slept for nearly 12 hours I decided to skip the option of a hike on the downs over having a chilled afternoon of coffee & a shower before making my way to Brighton for some fresh sea air and a little shopping.
I got back to the Hostel at around 1900 and most of the gang were back. We sat up until 0400 Sunday morning playing Poker, Underwear Twister (why are gay men so quick to get their kit off?) Ending up playing Spin the bottle and “Kiss, Truth or Dare”. Not one to be shy I chose a dare as my first spin and thanks to Joffrey ended up having to play the whole game sat in my underwear. Still was a truly unique weekend. Away from the hassles and commitments of the city. Away from the signal of my mobile phone. No internet access and only good old fashioned bonding and sharing quality time with a group of lovely people. (Not to mention, some real hotties too).
In all the years that the youth hostel has been there I wonder if it has ever seen a group of 15 gay men as residents before? Its times like this & other events like Pride that make me proud to be gay. We have a true sense of community. I realise how lucky I am to have such a broad group of friends. Away from the outside world & in a 100% Gay environment its hard not to be happy to be be a poof.
So a huge Thank you to Chris & Joffrey for a unique and enjoyable weekend! Cheers boys!
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