Duke's on Houndsditch looks far more like a bar than a fetish venue; but then most of the places that host fetish clubs seem to look fairly mainstream, apart from Mass. The ground floor had a bar and tables (and the cloakroom and reception) with music you could talk over. It wasn't too busy - we managed to get a table - but there wasn't much room to walk round. We sat and people-watched from our table, which is always fun. Some great outfits, and the people seemed friendly and non-intrusive.

Newbies, those with little real life experience or anybody looking to extend their BDSM friendship circle, can come and chat, try play and enjoy the company of dominant ladies and sub males. Not hardcore, almost like a house party atmosphere.

Cool auction site. I have got some kinky bargains through them. And also sold quite a few items that I was a bit embarrased to take to the charity shop... Hopefully more people will be posting more items as it grows, needs a bit more variety. Sure I will be there bidding. The website address is www.usedfetish.com

I know that there are a lot of people that read these comments and I thought that perhaps an insight to what trials and tribulations occur when trying to organise an event. On Thursday afterneeon I arrived at the venue to set up for Fridays event. After succesfully hanging the drapes, we had the venue management unlock the room that we use as a part store room and dungeon only to find that there had been a small water leak and the romm was incredibly damp. That was the first problem. Problem number two was that someone had nicked the cash tray from the till. I did not think that things could go futrther askew but I was wrong. On Thursday morning I had alreay spoken with both my DJs for the evening to check that they were still ok for the night. I tried again on Friday but was unable to get them.....strange. 8:00 p.m. I thought I had better pick up some CDs from work to drop on for the early part of the evening. When I got to the venue, I was told that the Venues resident DJ would not be able to play for Absolution. So with a handfull of Cds, a 5 min course on how to use the decks I was dropped in the deep end 5Hours of DJing wow!!!. So that was the third problem. The fourth problem occured when the security peeps started letting vanillas downstairs and as I was Djing I could not eject them as quickly as I would have liked.

Following on from the online meeting, we are planning a real-life meeting Saturday week, at the ST, 28 Warren Street, London, W1T 5ND

The nice folk at Skin Two have donated 2 tickets for their world famous Rubber Ball and the Skin Two Expo. So we've come up with a caption competition that's open to all. Check out www.violate.co.uk/rubberball for details of how to enter the competition. Remember, anyone can enter.

Today I paid my first visit to the BBB. I wasn't actually as impressed as I was expecting to be, finding it fairly similar to the London Fetish Fair, another event that leaves me wondering 'yes, but now what?'. I think these events may be more valuable to the BDSM crowd rather than fetishists - although there were quite a few clothing stalls dotted around the place. There did seem to be a little more variety in the goods on offer compared to the LFF though, from what I could see/remember.

I finally made it back to Compulsion this month, after having my plans for a faster return foiled by the motorbike accident last summer. The venue remains one of the best laid-out I've ever seen for a fetish night, and the event has built up a solid crowd in two of the three areas it seems to be aiming at. For a relatively small event, this is definitely one of the best I've been to.

Every year and in every industry more and more shop owners are adding organic and all-natural lines to their inventory due to a rising demand in healthy altenatives. Why then do we not see this tendency in adult products?

After some time away we ventured out to Absolution last Friday night which is now based at Pink Punters. The club has improved greatly with seperate entrance, bar area, dance floor and dungeon.Well done to Absolution and PP on providing a great venue.We were a bit early (10pm) and the club was slow to get going but improved as the night went on with great music. (how about all in by 11.00p.m. as at Ceasars) Anyway it was great and hopefully will get even better. We understand this is now a monthly event and hope to make it reguarly. Its a great mix of people all very friendly and having a good time.But would like to see a few more. Perhaps needs better advertising?