The late May Bank Holiday once again saw me travelling up to Birmingham for the annual pride event. With excellent weather, it was great to see so many pups out and about … and so many other people too. It’s a bit strange being asked by the Chief Constable of the police for a selfie though! With thanks to Wolfy and Halvor for organising the walk, I think the pictures of the day say more than I could in words!
There’s a selection of pictures of me… and a few of the rest of the pups too!
Apologies for this post being so late… I’ve been so manic recently that I haven’t had time to write the post or get some of the photos edited.
The late May Bank Holiday weekend saw me going to Birmingham to join in Birmingham Pride, as I’ve done for the last few years. Thankfully, the weather was a lot better than I was expecting, as the early forecast was for rain… and I go a bit see-through in the rain!
I joined the Midlands Pups walking group again who were, perhaps ironically, placed behind The Dogs Trust walking group. This caused some amusement in the crowd but we didn’t really get up to any mischief – although I did manage to get a snappy wristband!
The parade, as ever, was enjoyable and the crowd fantastic. I managed to do quite a bit of it on all 4s, but not all of it as most years. I do prefer to do it on all 4s but sometimes, needs must… from the pictures, it also looks like I had a sleep half way through!
After the parade had finished, and after queuing to get the wristband, I went in to the village to have a wander round and also to join @Puppai_Buumi‘s Club Scritches outside Clonezone. Buumi roped me in to helping him with a contest as well for the pups that were there, so we had some fun with that as well 🙂
I had a little rest here as well, but for some reason I seemed to end up half in the tent and half outside it!
During the time in the village, I also took a wander around, looking at what else was happening and posing for photos with people as they requested. The village had a different layout this year, which meant things weren’t quite in the same place, but it was still enjoyable and I ended up chatting to a few people – including the Chief Constable who was quite cheerful!
Of course, as is becoming traditional – Spot had to go on the funfair!
As I got off the funfair ride, a couple of the staff came up and asked if they could have some photos with me as well as they aw my owner taking some as well.
The late May Bank Holiday weekend saw the Annual Birmingham Pride weekend event, and like previous years Spot went along for a day out… although this time, I had some time constraints so wasn’t able to stay for the entire afternoon.
As in previous years, we took the train, and I was intending on travelling up in Spot, but circumstances got in the way and I couldn’t change until I got there. After a quick pause in the Bullring shopping centre to get changed, and cheer up a few people on the way back through, we wandered down to the pride area.
After receiving the wrist band, which was attached to my harness as in previous years, we headed in to the pride area. To start with, we ended up having to go through security, where the bags and both my owner and I were also searched – I suppose for safety and legal reasons mainly.
This is where the fun begun – wearing figure hugging Lycra, there wasn’t really much place for me to hide anything. The comment from the security guard was along the lines of “I need to be sure that you haven’t anything to hide”, as I’d made the comment that I had no pockets to hide anything … I let him pat me down to be sure … he then announced to his colleagues, that I had nothing on me I shouldn’t and then proceeded to point at my middle area and went on to say “… well, apart from maybe that!” … he was referring to my manhood …. while another security guard exclaimed on the fact that there was a dog in the bag as well – referring to my pup hood and paws! We all chuckled and then were allowed in to the Pride village
We headed out in to CloneZone to have a quick look at some of the stuff in there, and we spotted a couple of things we liked and decided we may head back in later.
On to the wandering around the village… or after a quick stop for some food! Then it was on with the hood and paws, and the exploring began. We started with a few stalls, where the stall holders were wanting to chat to me and take selfies. We also collected a load of flyers and stickers while we wandered down the stalls.
Our next port of call was one of the fun fair rides, where I went on the ride as Spot – fully hooded and paws. Although, I did feel a little queasy when we came off as my peripheral vision is restricted when wearing my pup contacts and wearing the hood… but it was good fun anyway!
After the ride, we visited the police stall, where I managed to get my photo taken with some of the cute puppies that were there, and also let them meet a different sort of dog! One of the slightly older pups decided to lick my pup hood and nose … which brought a smile to all.
While we were wandering around, I kept getting stopped with people wanting pictures with me – or selfies. There was also a great reaction from the crowds in the bars, with people pointing and staring.
We were approaching our curfew for getting back home, so we headed back to the fairground section so I could go on the other ride I wanted to… again, the lack of peripheral vision made me feel not so good – but it was still fantastic fun.
Shortly before we left Pride, we bumped into Pup Echo.
Leaving the pride area, we headed back to towards the train station, with me still in full pup gear. An irresistible opportunity arose outside the O2 store in the Bullring though – a picture of a human pup next to the “Be More Dog” poster!
We continued to head back to the station, and had to do the obligatory picture outside the Selfridges Building
While we waited on the train, I was sitting on the floor like a good pup…
and it’s just as well trains only run the way the tracks go – as there was at least one train driver who was looking at me rather than the way he was going!
I then proceeded to stay as a puppy on the train where upon I slept for most of the journey home.
It’s the first time I’ve actually slept with my pup hood and paws on. Our tickets were checked by the guard on the train, and he chuckled at me as I couldn’t hand him my ticket due to my paws. On leaving the train when we got to our stop, quite a bit of the passengers hadn’t realised I’d been there, and so as we came into the station, there were quite a number of people turning round from their seats to have a look and causing some amusement to some of the passengers. Shame the day came to an end so quick, but all in all it was fantastic fun!
*wags*
Saturday 24th May marked the main day of this year’s Birmingham Pride, and like last year, a group of pups decided that we’d go for a walkabout after the parade around the Pride Village… well, we had decided this but the weather gods didn’t quite agree!
My owner and I did decide to do the sensible thing this year, though, and arrived by train rather than trying to drive in to Birmingham and park… It was a little wet on our drive to the train station we stated at (Warwick, but more of that in a later post!) so we weren’t holding out much hope, and FugaPup was also trying to coordinate everyones thoughts on what to do…
I was already travelling in my Zentai outfit, just with my trousers and a fleece over the top as it was a little chilly, and I’d go see-through in the rain! On arriving at Birmingham we met up with everyone in on one of the pubs in the village for a drink while people were deciding what to do. After a bit of time in the pub, it was decided that those that were going to be in Rubber would go off and change which left the rest of us to wander around while they were away…
Really, this meant sheltering in a doorway while it rained and rained… but eventually, the sun did come out, the rubber pups returned and the fun began. We headed back to the pub we were in earlier first so that people could fully pup up and change in to their gear first of all.. At this point, there were four pups: Me, @PupGizmo, @PupTyler and @MLatexM
We set off from the bar, and before we’d even got 50 yards from the bar, we were being approached for photos and pictures and being petted etc. We made a quick walk down to the Cabaret tent, where we then made a slower walk up from there so that people could see us etc. This was definitely a slow walk, as people kept stopping us and asking for pictures which was great fun 🙂
We ended up walking for just over 1hr on a stretch of road you could normally do in 10 minutes with so many people around, and so many people wanting pictures – young to old, male and female and even security guards and people representing the Emergency Services on site 🙂
We were later joined by a couple of other puppies who had just their pup hoods on and hadn’t changed, so by the end of the walk there was about 7 of us – all being stopped for photographs etc. As it was starting to get chillier, and @KinkyKKOB had an app on his phone predicting rain in 10 minutes, we headed down a side street to take a couple of group photos and head off. Even then we were still getting requests for photos though 🙂
We then went off and had a social meal with everyone and then it was time for us all to head home… but it was another fantastic day (despite the weather) and this pup had a great time *wags*
Spot
From chatting to some of the various pups that I know (primarily Pup Gizmo) I was told about the plans to be walking around the Birmingham Pride site dressed up as Rubber Puppies. As I was invited along, and I had the time off work, my owner and I decided it was a worthwhile idea to go and join in the fun 🙂
We had originally intended to join them to watch the pride parade, but unfortunately, things got in the way of being able to leave the house on time, so we left late. We were then further delayed when we tried to find a parking space in Birmingham… but we eventually got lucky when exiting the car park that someone else decided it was time to go too! We got parked up, and my owner went to pay the fees while I got changed in to the Zentai outfit… we then hit another snag – the car park closed at 9PM so we wouldn’t be able to stay the whole night 🙁
We went off to find the entrance to the pride village, where we could exchange our e-tickets for wrist bands… and we hit another snag! With the paws on, I couldn’t wear the wrist band, as I wouldn’t be able to get the paws off if I needed the toilet or anything 🙁 Resourcefulness struck though, and I attached the wrist band to my harness, meaning it was on display *wags*. After getting in to the village, we set about trying to find the other puppies, who had managed to get a head start on us.
Thankfully, a group of pups in rubber are quite easy to spot, and I went bounding after them as we found them. It turned out the group of pups was: Gizmo, Fuga, Statik, Cosmo, Tyler and Kass (apologies if I’ve forgotten someone!). We then spent the next hour or so wandering around pride, and being stopped and asked for photos.
After wandering around, those in rubber started getting warm, so we headed back to their hotel and then those of us not getting changed, or staying at the hotel, ended up heading back to the pride village for a drink.
As we wandered around the village, I found a poster which I just had to take a picture next to – advertising a dog show. Unfortunately, it was taking place on the Sunday, so I wasn’t able to go along, or be entered in to it.
After wandering around, we headed back to a pub which was outside the pride village to meet up with Gizmo and the others to have a drink and a chat. At the end of this, my owner and I decided we best make a move to the car park… but first, we had to go to the Fairground so that Spot could go on the rides fully! There’s a video of this embedded at the bottom of this post, beyond the gallery.
In the end, although we couldn’t stay the full time, my owner and I were happy and enjoyed a fantastic day out and fantastic company 🙂
