Minker la-la.

Giant was interesting. You'll probably have read about some people's nightmares on assorted blogs anyway, but I'll add in my whole ten pence worth. The evening started nicely with a quick pre- pre-Giant drinks drink at Stevie P's. Then onto Paul and David's for the official pre-Giant drinks. Lots of chatting and drinking and generally ramping up in preparation. We split into a car's worth and a taxi worth of people to make the short trip from Paddington to King's Cross, and it turned out to be a fortunate move. I went with American Thom, who very, very fortunately knew people in the queue. Right at the front. We blagged our way in!! Normally I hate people that do this, but having heard subsequent 1½ hour queue nightmare stories from those people who waited WITH tickets, I feel less guilty. Overly zealous searches for drugs on entry - everyone was treated like a dealer until proven otherwise. Things like chewing gum taken away - why? Once in we joined the coat check queue, until someone sneakily told us that you could push in round the back. We did that too. Whatever - I'm leaving the country.
Once in, I had a great time. There were 5 areas:

Heaven: Trashy dance. Podium in the middle. We spent no time here.
Crash: Surprisingly good music. Kind of slightly harder or funkier Vauxhall. Bore no relation to the music they play in Crash proper. For that we can be thankful. Spent bits of time dancing here, with Little Steve, Drew, Andrew and Stuart.
Trade: Excellent. Probably slightly lighter than normal, but great atmosphere. Spent most time dancing here with Nick, Kay and Tara, Mark, Dave (cor!), Danny, Jason, Rodger and Tony. Great fun.
Down to Barcode: Our meeting place, that worked very well. Less dancey, more social. Ran into heaps of mates.
Down to the Hoist: Faux-sleaze. Apparently there was a dark room. No investigations undertaken.

Other people have said it was too crowded. Sure, it was busy but the people added to the atmosphere and I don't remember being overly pissed off at the hoardes of lovely, sweaty, mostly bare-chested men. Funny that.

Leaving wasn't such a bed of roses. We decided to try and beat the queues by leaving at 5.35am as it was due to close at 6am. We failed. However it wasn't a complete failure as we were in the first batch that eventually got out after about 45 minutes. What a crush. If there had been any sort of emergency, a fire for example, we wouldn't have had a hope in hell. Scally commented on the difference between the smoothness of the whole Mardi Gras party in Sydney compared to Giant. I couldn't agree more. And that copes with 25,000 people versus a measly 5,000 or so at Bagley's. Still, all in all a fun night. Good music, good company, good times.

Back to Stevie P's to chill. Fantastic. Thanks Steve once again from your many grateful mates. Spent most of that time entwined with Dave and Tony. Talking and minkering. Fabulous. Left there at 3.30pm having not slept. Home and showered. Got Mark and Dave from down the road and hit the Vauxhall. Great night. More than a little minkered by the end of the night, but great fun. Nick joined us, as did Steve, Rob & Wayne, Karl et al. Lovely. Home and bed 12.30am.

Happy Easter!!