Being the bearer of a lush chest rug myself, I am more than a little encouraged (and somehow simultaneously disturbed) by the concept of the Bear Beauty Contest which takes place this Thursday night at Bistroteque, the bar whose location puts the glamour back into retail parks.

A beauty contest with a difference, The Bear Beauty Contest is a celebration of all that is big, hairy, and masculine, and seems to offer the same kind of redemption for the large, hirsute of body chap, that the classic old jazz mag 'Big and Fat' (sample strapline 'Find a Fold and F**k It!!!') offered to larger ladies.

I'm not quite sure who this is aimed at, but in the general spirit of Londoner open-mindedness and "it takes all sorts, eh guvnor?", I'm prepared to give it an enthusiastic thumbs up.

The more you think about it, even if the bears don't do it for you, the audience is bound to be fascinating. Isn't it?