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*
