With TG downgrading their music policy from 'hard house and techno' to 'electro and sleazy beats' this year, I've been looking for some other clubs to go to. Much as TG has a lot to offer, it doesn't quite hang together for me without that driving dancefloor in the middle of it all - NYE was particularly disappointing in that respect. So, this weekend I took a trip back to a club that's relatively local to me - Subversion - and I was pleasantly surprised by how good it's got.

I left for the party with trepidation, unsure what or who i would find. Expectations i admit weren't high, as other previous events hadn't quite hit the mark in my book for whatever reason, mostly due to lack of advertising, the night chosen, the venue, petty council rules or the sheer lack of support from local deviants (you know who you are!)

I hadn't been for a while to Club Rub due to the ‘real world' taking precedence. Previously that night I had a dull evening out with friends in SW London and realised I needed a fetish top up of fun and frolics.

My first time to the LFF - and I was surprised at how good organised it was. The venue is called the Hoghead, situated just a few minutes by foot behind Tower Hill station it was easy to find. For the 5 pounds entry you will get plenty of stalls, seating and a cafe. I saw yummy Burgers and french fries going around which smelled delicious.

Saturday July 30th 2005 saw 1000 plus kinksters celebrating their Kink at the SEOne club in London - and boy did we celebrate. A day of workshops, stage shows, speeches, playing in the playground, stalls,shopping and socialising.

Went to Torture Garden on Saturday [9th July 2005]. Another exciting mini-adventure, especially as the venue was near Kings Cross and I was having a bad day. However, recovered enough to don leather jeans and assorted silverware to make an acceptable goth (though not really an acceptable fetishist - I didn't have the energy... thought for next time is to attend in the form of a strict school-marm - irony intended in light of my current profession...).

Our first time at a fetish party. Loved every minute; the build up, the anxiety and the fun we had all night. The venue was good and the people friendly. Thanks WWB, we'll be back for a go at the main event ball soon!

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.

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.

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.