Its a week till our Brighton Pride celebrations start and Im feeling a bag of mixed emotions. It will be the first time weve been in a few years, and the first time since they started charging to get in, AND it looks like its going to be a very different event to the fun, happy go lucky events that I remember.

Looking back to the first time we went to Brighton Pride brings back really fond memories – it was the Dazzlers and my first time in Brighton together and we stayed at a posh hotel (we even had a jaccuzzi) we had only just got together and we were in LUUUURVE!!

Not the deep love that we feel now, but that ‘just got together’, ‘cant be apart’ kind of feeling that only couples that have just met feel.

You see we had only been together a couple of weeks and were both completely loved up – so it seemed sensible for us to get engaged!! We wandered through the laines in Brighton, bought a couple of silver rings, 3 bottles of champagne and 2 punnets of strawberries and we just celebrated in the middle of Preston Park all day. People came and went, the sun shone, the fizz flowed and the day couldnt have been more perfect. Why wouldn’t we have got engaged within minutes of meeting??

I suppose I have my mother to blame! I mean the example she set with her last husband was abysmal!! She met, got engaged within the week and married within the month so what chance did I have? Although hers ended in disaster so it was always destined to be a long engagement for me but at the time it just felt right.

9 years later and we are still together, still loved up and finally going back to Pride.

I’m looking forward to sooo much…. there will be a main stage and Alison Moyet, I cant wait to see some of the acts in the fabulous cabaret tent, I cant wait to meet up with people I haven’t seen for years that have aged miserably and of course there will always be partying with Jack and Daniel.

I’m not looking forward to seeing people that have aged better than me, the impressive prices that will no doubt be charged on the day and the fact that Lulu cant be with us, but Ive been told the weather will be amazing so if I can smuggle some fizz and strawberries in there will be hope for us!!

All in all I think its going to be a FLABULOUS day!!