My own public IDAHO

Today is the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia - otherwise known as IDAHO. In honour of the occasion, my office building flew the rainbow flag all day and also hosted a soiree with stalls, nibbles, music and a few (mercifully brief!) speeches.

Liverpool not only has a gay Lord Mayor (a ceremonial role), Cllr Gary Millar (well, he's due to become Lord Mayor in 3 weeks time but who's counting!) but also a gay Deputy Mayor (an elected role), Cllr Paul Brant - pictured above doing his stand-up routine! Both attended the celebrations, alongside other dignitaries and community members - and a good time was had by all. Thanks very much to Gail who did a massive amount of work to organise everything!

But that wasn't enough of a social engagement for one evening - oh no! It's also Light Night, the evening when civic buildings, museums, galleries etc are open until the wee small hours with many entertainments and delights to be enjoyed. So, I legged it over to the Anglican Cathedral to have a look at/walk through a candlelit labyrinth before repairing to a Portuguese tapas restaurant for food with Mel, Amanda, Emma, Claire and Steve and then a walk back across town for the opening of the refurbished Central Library - which is phenomenal! It's been closed for a couple of years but the wait has been well worth it - do visit it if you're in town, you won't be disappointed.

As we arrived there was a light show being projected onto the outside of the building and, inside, a spectacular job has been done of incorporating a new, ultra-modern, high-tech atrium with refurbishment of original parts of the building, not least the awe-inspiring, circular Picton Reading Room - where I could live quite happily! Even just before 11.00pm there were hundreds and hundreds of people there, oo-ing and ah-ing at the wonder of it all!

Today has been one of those rare days when I could have blipped several pictures - but the library will still be there next week so I've decided to mark IDAHO tonight. I think I may well go back to the library on as many days as I can next week and take a series of pictures... You have been warned!

I'm back blipping this picture from London where I've come to visit my dad. Pa Booknerd has been very poorly this week... Goatee was, happily, able to see him a few days ago and has kept me in touch with progress but I wanted to say hello too. So, once again, please forgive my rather sparse commenting for the next couple of days - and have a lovely weekend!