I've been here since the beginning of 2008. The site hadn't been up for very long.
Marshlander and I had just been disconnected from a site that just gave up called uk.Gay.Com. or something similar, where we'd learnt to have some really lively discussions with all sorts of members (some rather ruder, wildre and more provocative, or flirty than those on this site). Yes, this site is pretty sedate, mostly compared to other sites I've been a member of, but I like the atmosphere too.
How I got here? Well it's
Shadow 's fault: this man here
http://gayspeak.com/member.php?u=1244 who's not visited GaySpeak recently, but he'll probably still be lurking.
Shadow and
Michael (no longer on the site) and
Marshlander and I had met on Gay.com.uk (or whatever) and when the site fell,
Marshlander and I didn't join anything for a few months, but kept in touch regularly through MSN with
Shadow and
Michael and
Fred etc......
Eventually
Shadz said he'd found a great site, with fabulous people and insisted that
Marshlander and I joined. We listened to him. Well, it was friendly enough, even if it wasn't always very vocal about political issues etc. It has been more political in recent times with the elections in the States.
I keep coming because I'm a man of habits, I suppose, and also because there are many people I enjoy the friendship of on this site (you should see the length of my friends' list, haha
). Some have disappeared from the site and I miss them, but new people join and then we get to make new friends. Life goes on.
I think I can truthfully say that one of my best experiences on here is meeting
Joseph. (this gay man here:
http://gayspeak.com/member.php?u=1910 ) This particular gay friend helped us to see the difficulties of growing up gay and with a learning disability. We've since enjoyed many cards, phone calls, chats etc... together even though we've never met in real life;
Joseph is very real to me / to us.
This particular friendship belittles in no way all the other friendships I have struck up here. I've met some of you in real life.
Sudanese was one of them. From the remote city of Khartoum, he now works in England quite close to where
Marshlander has his boat. I know that
Shadow and
Genersis have met, I know that
Dave met his
Pancakes on this site and then became a couple.
One day, I wonder if we'll ever get the GaySpeak reunion going. We've been toying with the idea of taking us all to Fredericton to party with
Xrimo.... (I wonder if he still thinks that Xena rules in his opinion?) We also met the wonderful and expressive
Frank here although his elderly parents' situation and his poor health took him away from GaySpeak. I'm still in touch with many of you either here or on facebook or through mobile phone numbers.
It would be fun to meet everyone too, but honestly it'll never happen. It would be too complicated. Nevertheless, I don't despair of meeting some of you, one day and sharing a cup of tea, coffee, cake, cookies, barbecue, you name it. :biggrin: I'm a good cook and good host, so I'm told.
mile:
Good luck to all, and be blessed by whatever spiritual thing you believe in (I'd call mine LIFE
mile
Take care.
PS thanks
JIsTheNewK
I too would like to thank
Andy for letting us use this site. He's made great improvements, but gratefully (I'd say), not so many as to disturb the ongoing life of GaySpeak.