![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Look At My Horse
Nov. 17th, 2019 01:51 pmYesterday was our usual monthly LeedsFurs meet, and I was expecting quite a low attendance considering it was clashing with Scotiacon and MCM Comiccon Birmingham. However, in the end, we had a sizeable number of furs attending and twenty-nine fursuits - down on recent highs but still signifcantly more than we were getting at the start of the year (indeed the number of fursuiters attending has increased considerably since the middle of the year for some reason). The meet was also rather lenghty too, with a sizeable number of furs hanging in the bar past 5pm, which is quite rate.
I spent much of the time talking to a student journalist who wanted to do an article on why people hate the fandom so much. He didn't hate the fandom himself - indeed he ended up staying for five hours and wanting to come back to another meet - but he knew people who would be put off by furries. He was aiming to interview some furs here and contrast their views with those of some of the haters he knew back home. It was for an assignment for his university course so I was more than happy to oblige, plus he was genuinely easy to talk to. Hopefully I've painted the group in a positive light.
After the meet, we headed over to the Christmas Market, which was thronging with people, it being Saturday. It is rather overpriced but it is still one of the better Christmas traditions in the city, and it was good to see that both the sausages and the wonderously garlicly Knobibrot were still on top form. We had our meet suitcase though and lugging this about through the crowds was somewhat difficult, so much so that we decided to drop it off at my work, what with the office being pretty close by. I wasn't drunk but clearly had had some drinks, so chatting to colleagues proved to be interesting as I deposited the bag near my work station. I haven't been at work all last week of course, so getting the lowdown was good too.
Another reason why we deposited the bag was that we were heading to Queen's Court on account of the fact it was Derek's fiftieth birthday. He is one of the pup handlers from Kennel Club who Stray knows particularly well, although we have met on occasion too. We were invited out for his celebrations, not realising that they were in Leeds's rather ropey gay district. Indeed, I hadn't been in any of these bars for at least a decade and anticipating bouncers and crowds, we thought it best to leave our meet bag elsewhere. I don't really feel part of the LGBT scene and gay bars are certainly not my thing, which was demonstrated when we were stood outside in an alleyway listening to horrendous and loud dance music coming over from nearby Fibre. The range of beer was poor but at least there was Punk IPA, although Wolfie's had an odd metalic taste which he didn't enjoy. There were a few other furs there - Stray's boyfriend, a guy from Cambridge and Kobalt who was wearing a pup hood - but despite friends and kink, I did feel somewhat out of place, not least because there were a number of posers and chavs there too. A high number of them were already drunk, with some offering out chips as well, and the whole thing made me feel a little uncomfortable. It was also too loud to have a decent conversation really so after an hour or so, we made our excuses.
Safely ensconced back in Brewdog, we ended up sampling some pretty high strength stouts from the Evil Twin tap takeover which had started pouring earlier in the week. While doing so, we enjoyed the relative quiet and played Mario Kart on the N64, which was a first for me. In the end, I seemed to be quite good at it as I beat Wolfie twice, although some of the controllers were better than the others. Still, it was a great relaxed way to end the day, which we did over at the bigger Leeds Brewdog trying some more beers. We ended the evening about 10pm, with Wolfie still tasting metal in his mouth and not wanting his final beer as a result as it set it off. Still, we had probably drunk enough and thus ended a good day pretty perfectly.
I spent much of the time talking to a student journalist who wanted to do an article on why people hate the fandom so much. He didn't hate the fandom himself - indeed he ended up staying for five hours and wanting to come back to another meet - but he knew people who would be put off by furries. He was aiming to interview some furs here and contrast their views with those of some of the haters he knew back home. It was for an assignment for his university course so I was more than happy to oblige, plus he was genuinely easy to talk to. Hopefully I've painted the group in a positive light.
After the meet, we headed over to the Christmas Market, which was thronging with people, it being Saturday. It is rather overpriced but it is still one of the better Christmas traditions in the city, and it was good to see that both the sausages and the wonderously garlicly Knobibrot were still on top form. We had our meet suitcase though and lugging this about through the crowds was somewhat difficult, so much so that we decided to drop it off at my work, what with the office being pretty close by. I wasn't drunk but clearly had had some drinks, so chatting to colleagues proved to be interesting as I deposited the bag near my work station. I haven't been at work all last week of course, so getting the lowdown was good too.
Another reason why we deposited the bag was that we were heading to Queen's Court on account of the fact it was Derek's fiftieth birthday. He is one of the pup handlers from Kennel Club who Stray knows particularly well, although we have met on occasion too. We were invited out for his celebrations, not realising that they were in Leeds's rather ropey gay district. Indeed, I hadn't been in any of these bars for at least a decade and anticipating bouncers and crowds, we thought it best to leave our meet bag elsewhere. I don't really feel part of the LGBT scene and gay bars are certainly not my thing, which was demonstrated when we were stood outside in an alleyway listening to horrendous and loud dance music coming over from nearby Fibre. The range of beer was poor but at least there was Punk IPA, although Wolfie's had an odd metalic taste which he didn't enjoy. There were a few other furs there - Stray's boyfriend, a guy from Cambridge and Kobalt who was wearing a pup hood - but despite friends and kink, I did feel somewhat out of place, not least because there were a number of posers and chavs there too. A high number of them were already drunk, with some offering out chips as well, and the whole thing made me feel a little uncomfortable. It was also too loud to have a decent conversation really so after an hour or so, we made our excuses.
Safely ensconced back in Brewdog, we ended up sampling some pretty high strength stouts from the Evil Twin tap takeover which had started pouring earlier in the week. While doing so, we enjoyed the relative quiet and played Mario Kart on the N64, which was a first for me. In the end, I seemed to be quite good at it as I beat Wolfie twice, although some of the controllers were better than the others. Still, it was a great relaxed way to end the day, which we did over at the bigger Leeds Brewdog trying some more beers. We ended the evening about 10pm, with Wolfie still tasting metal in his mouth and not wanting his final beer as a result as it set it off. Still, we had probably drunk enough and thus ended a good day pretty perfectly.
