You don't make friends with Salad in London

It occurred to me over a lunch date a couple of weeks back, that despite this being my 13th month here, I have only encountered one palatable salad.

The Talbot in Islington treated me to a delightful Waldorf salad, my taste buds savouring the rarity of such a dish until well after the last morsel was swallowed.

In England, salad tends to translate to 'plate of lettuce drenched in salad cream'.

I think this can be explained by the UK's general inability to grow it's on fresh fruits and vegetables.

This doesn't explain my most awful salad experience to date though.

At The Light Bar in Shoreditch, I ordered a rocket, tomato and haloumi salad. What I got instead more closely resembled my mortal enemy the ceaser salad and actually contained 13 sardines (yes, I counted them).

After some fuss they agreed to bring out the salad I'd ordered. However they actully brought out the same salad, minus the anchovies; haloumi added. Anchovies have a nasty way of infiltrating the senses when you're someone who does not appreciate them.

Vomit.

Luckily I had wonderful company and a kopparberg mixed fruit cider to soften the blow.

I now resolve to attempt no further salad consumption until I return home or land in the Mediterranean; whichever comes first.

Fresh Australian fruit juices and our vast array of fresh produce are both something my body craves and misses often.

London Pride 2011

Pride London celebrations culminated this year with the parade held on Saturday the 2^{nd of} July. Coinciding with New York legalising gay marriage, I felt the event had far less of a political message this year. Less of a cry for equal rights, and more of what I feel was a cultural celebration. It made for a lovely prelude to the hosting of 2012’s World Pride.

Leading this year’s march was Deputy Mayor Richard Barnes and former Mayor Ken Livingstone, with London Mayor Boris Johnson notably absent. What was ever-present was the mass corporate representation throughout the event; in particular supermarket chain Tesco, which I think marks a definite shift in the mind-set of Londoners. It wasn’t too long ago that big chains would have run a mile, yet this year saw Tesco’s ‘Out at Tesco’ brigade of employees take up a remarkably large portion of the parade.

The Original Bucks Fizz, X-Factor contestant Rachel Adedeji and a female folk rock group from Brighton named Grey Matter were amongst those that treated us musically in Trafalgar Square. Amongst others adding to the main stage line up were Ben Cohen (former England Rugby star), Stavros Flately (finalists from Britain’s Got Talent) and the Dame Edna Experience.

What I adored about the event was the sense of unity brought about when so many individuals from various walks of life come together with the sole purpose of creating a community of unison. Kath Gillespie Sells, who is an activist for the disabled, was at the front of the procession in a white Corvette; and then followed drag queens walking alongside bodybuilders and soldiers, with a camp salute being given to a group of Christian protesters.

I have been an avid supporter of parades of this nature for many years, predominantly at home in Sydney. However, this year quite overwhelmingly I walked away with a real sense of admiration for those marching on, heads held high in a society that by and large still considers them a minority, and criticises those they simply cannot fathom. Their sense of self is truly something to be applauded, and something I aspire to. A group that particularly struck me, and that I drew a lot of inspiration from are lesbian group Luleki Sizwe. Flying a South African banner, they aim to raise funds for the creation of safe places to house lesbians who fear for their lives after suffering what is known as 'corrective rape'.

After the parade the fruits and queer-friendly spilled out over the streets of Soho, the weather staying fine for a beautiful outdoors party, and clubs opening their doors.

While I agree there is still a lot of work to be done, society has made leaps and bounds in recent years. The first march of this kind in the UK was in 1972; when approximately 2,000 protestors took to the London pavements on the first July Saturday as part of the first official ‘Gay Pride Rally’. Several name changes later and the event as we know it has become a London institution with crowds of over one million.

These marches tell a very different story to each participant, but the resounding message of pride is something that is heard by all.