Boldly to go …
It is always refreshing to go somewhere different and meet new faces. So on Bonfire Night (so often a vulgar celebration) we were delighted to enjoy our Roman Candles and flaunt our sparklers early so as to brave the midweek streets down towards The Sugar House for the first gay night of the new academic year. The toilette accomplished, the sartorial arrangements finally complete, the breath duly bated, the camera in a slightly tremulous hand, and off we tripped.

Hedonism
Mmmm. We were not disappointed. Over two hundred souls were there, Apollonian and androgynous, male and female, callipygian and lissom, young and less so, all in the pursuit of pleasure. This is a theme close to our hearts. I may write a novel on the subject. The muses were certainly weaving a strong spell.

The music, rightly, catered for wide tastes, and many responded to it by dancing and other sexual movements. Others were inspired by other stimuli, and much glottal and oral exploration was evident. The whole ambience was such that even Bosie, who is always so coy in public, felt moved to indulge in a cheeky kiss. For such initiatives he usually needs much gin, but this strangely active aberration was welcome and totally appropriate. There is no wonder the camera batteries expired so quickly.

Civility and service
We were grateful for the side room (of course it has a bar!) as a respite now and then from the onslaughts of the dance. But no wine? I was shocked into drinking cider, which made for reminiscence about my own student days. Another novel, Bosie fears.

But the bar staff were more polite than many in this City, and we were both delighted by the affability of the students we chattered with. How proper to find that Good English is still spoken in the provinces. Some of them may even do well.

Much gown, little town
I said we were not disappointed with our soirée. But, as with all good literature (you are reading the best source of news, entertainment, fact and fiction in Lancashire), there is a sting in the tail. That is right. We were disappointed that more people from this City and its environs were not there to avail themselves of the enlivening and heady opportunities of the occasion, in spite of easily-available membership at the door. For ready money, of course.

More interaction needed
That, as I have said elsewhere, is their misfortune. As a student I was always keen to meet people from the town, and after going down naturally returned to the glades and groves of acadæmia for inspiration. Here, there is goodwill on both sides, but to miss an opportunity where the two parts of the one community meet is, like losing both parents, a tragedy. Both parts lose so many opportunities. This is a situation one should never encounter.

Suffice it to say that we, nevertheless, were diverted and entertained by the evening's activities. The Sugar House (such a bijou name) should do it more often. We two shall certainly come again.

Copyright © 7 November 2003 Oscar O'Lune (words) and Bosie O'Bare (photographs)