Wednesday, October 31, 2001

The goatee has gone on a short holiday. I was getting ready to hit the beach today so trimmed it right down to get some sun to my face. Then I tried to just tidy it up and it went all uneven - don't you just hate that? In the end it was easier to get rid of it and let it grow back by the weekend. I feel naked - it's the first time it's not been there for over 3 years! You can see that I wasn't most pleased...
One reason I love Australia? The availability of cheap fresh mangoes. The aroma and taste of fresh mango is second to nothing else I can imagine. When I first came to Australia in 1997 I had no real concept of fresh mango - all my experiences had generally been of the ice-cream or tinned variety. One of the first problems I had with mangoes was the 'how-the-hell-do-you-eat-this' dilemma. My first attempt had me covered in mango pulp, juice and with more in my beard than in my mouth. However, a simple trick sorted me out, and considering my name it should have been more apparent - say hello to the mango hedgehog. I'm just about to have one now for a late brekky. Anyone care to join me?
Well it turns out I'm not Uncle Hedgehog at all. Say hello to Uncle Otter. Thanks to David for the link. Best thing about being an otter? Turns out one of my hobbies should be cuddling. Well they got that right!

Tuesday, October 30, 2001

I'm feeling so uninspired, it's untrue. Up at 9.30am and straight down into town to meet Adrian. Bought some new trainers and you wouldn't believe how happy I am. Lunch with Kelly (a friend of Adrian's from the States) and then bought a book on PhotoShop 6 and came back to Bondi. Did a couple of spreadsheets and realised how flat broke I really am. Cooked the cheapest meal I could find and watched telly. Didn't want to spend any more money. I can next go out in December. 2004. I really need to start working again. Week Monday it all happens, but I'm literally going to earn enough to live. Red Cross parcels to Bondi please.
Charlotte and I were discussing our weekends earlier and Charlie said that she was never going to be minkered ever again and that her body was a temple. I, still a bit woolly from my own minkering, thought she said her body was a tampon. Easy mistake to make. I then decided that mine must be too, otherwise there's no way I could have drunk all that vodka on Saturday unless I have an absorbent, leak-proof, lock-away core. Maybe I was going through a drunken period.
OK guys. Do your worst!

Monday, October 29, 2001

Lordy. What a weekend. Friday started out all innocent. Slept a bit later than planned after working for Tony Thursday night, and so me and Garry decided to skip brunch in favour of coffee later. I met up with a guy called Rado (no, really - but it makes a change from Dave or Steve!) for coffee. Or sushi in the park as it turned out to be. Quickly to the doctors and then met Garry as planned. Adrian came and joined us and it was nice just to watch the world go by. Down to the Midnight Shift at 5.30pm (early doors, but not these Early Doors!) where we were joined by Mat (that's Vath Mat, not to be confused with...).

We've found a new pastime in the Shift. Playing pool. Pool sharking. Well makes a change from the other sort of sharking that we're used to!! I'd forgotten how much fun playing pool with a bunch of mates can be. Scotty joined us and we had quite a run on the table taking on challenges from all-comers and getting slowly quite drunk. Garry went home (and very kindly took my bag so I didn't have to keep lugging it around!) and came back and I'm sure various other people came and went too. Fantastic time. Me and Scotty got flirtier and flirtier and... went for something to eat. Or something.

Saturday morning started with a brisk walk back into town from Chippendale. Well, it didn't quite start with that, but that's where you join me loyal reader (my god, I sound like a preface to a Stephen King novel). MacDonald's beckoned like only it can after a bit of a night, and then I called Garry to go pick up my stuff. Of course I couldn't turn up empty handed so took him more MacD's and I had another Sausage and Egg McMuffin™ and hash brown too. Pig. Met up with Pete and Paul for coffee in Go-Go's - nice to catch up with them - and then it was time for the Sydney Food and Wine Fair in Hyde Park. Seemingly everyone was there. Although it's not a gay event, the combination of food, drink, DJs and live music on stage, a park, sunshine and most importantly all the money raised going to the Aids Trust meant that it might as well have been!! Having wandered around doing the social bit, we ended up on a table near the stage: Garry, Claire, Scotty, Steve, me... and Mat and Alex came and went through the afternoon. We had a riot! Probably courtesy of lots of cranberry Ruskis (Stoli vodka), and a 'New for the Naughties' version of an old classic - Spin the Mobile Phone! What started out as Truth, Dare, Double Dare, Kiss or Torture very quickly just turned into Truth or Snog™. We'd never met Steve before, but that didn't stop us all getting completely snog-tastic. In fact he and I had to snog 4 times in quick succession (but not that quick as he was actually really sexy!!). Claire had the time of her life kissing all the men in the group. Writing it down now it seems a bit childish, but it was definitely a case of 'You had to be there'. The fair ended with whoever was left dancing by the stage to various acts and DJs that were on and it was just the most fantastic time. Combination of drink, sunshine and nice people - what more could you ask for?

Well we asked for the evening to not end there. Fortunately there was a post-Fair party at a place called the Civic, which we'd not been to before. In the midst of all of this I'd somewhat naively agreed to enter the following day's 10K Fun Run with Tony and we met up and went to register before I headed back to meet the others at the Civic. We had a blast there too - continuing the multi-snogging without the need for the mobile phone this time! Finally after a bit of dancing there we wanted more, and the group split up for the first time that day. Garry and I headed up to Palms, which is a fun little place that's hard to describe properly. Essentially a cocktail bar, there's a small dancefloor too which plays trashy Vauxhall type music. We were there for a good couple of hours before they played a song we didn't know - and if you know Garry and I then you'll know that we'll have been singing along to every one! We didn't move from the dance floor until the place closed - and it closed early because of Daylight Saving time. We weren't through with dancing yet though, so wandered down to the Shift. Ay caramba. Very busy and, as they say over here, going off. We danced some more and soon had a bevvy of lovely daddies around us to improve the view! I got flirtier and flirtier with two very sexy guys called Al and John as the evening progressed. Suddenly it was 4am and there was little chance of me making it back to Bondi for 5.30am to be ready to go with Tony to the run! I did the very cowardly thing and bottled out of the run by SMS whilst in a cab with Al and John...

Sunday morning passed quite swiftly with little sleep. Use your imagination! Suddenly it was 12.45pm and I was meant to be playing tennis with the lads at 1pm. Ugh. Did I SMS my way out of that one? No, I didn't. The guys happen to live really close to the tennis courts so I just had a swift jog over the park and there I was. Have to say that the level of tennis wasn't at a peak, but it was a laugh once again. We sat round afterwards in a complete haze telling each other how bad we looked. We weren't wrong either!! Soon though we went and forced down some lunch on Oxford Street before all having a postprandial lull. Everyone went their separate ways for a bit - I came back to Bondi (for the first time in over 48 hours!) and showered and shaved and changed before heading back out to meet Mat and Gary Jones. Pool in the Zee Bar but it was a bit empty so we hit the Shift yet again. More pool - I've never played so well in my life! Scotty arrived, Gary left, Alex came and I decided I really couldn't take any more. Bus home (via Palms to pick up my bag that had been minkeredly left there the night before) intending to collapse. However Charlie had friends here - people I know from here and the UK so it was chat and glass of wine time. Finally it ended with some impromptu 'Guess the intro' messing about on the CD player before I finally fell into bed around 12.30am. What a fantastic weekend!! Best fun I've had in a long, long time.

It's now Monday afternoon. I've done nothing today, but that was the plan. Heading off into town to meet Garry for coffee. Gym starts again tomorrow. Ugh. It'll be hard but I'm determined to get back into it. More later little ones...

Thursday, October 25, 2001

Ay ay ay. If I never see another helpline; government department; ombudsman; rape crisis centre; residency tribunal and the like it'll be too soon. Research stuff for Tony took forever, but at least it's done. That's all I've done all day. Adrian took a stroll up to Bondi and had lunch. We finally had a talk about what's happening. The upshot? Er, nothing really. No change. All is as before. We're friends essentially. Cuddle buddies :o) Both happy for no commitment and to catch up as and when. See other people. It's weird. Never been in anything like it. Think I'm overanalysing it more than it needs to because a) that's the way my mind works and b) coz I'm trying to create possible issues when it seems like in actual fact there are none. Bizarre. Lunch was great too - B.L.T sandwich with an egg. B.L.E.T? B.E.L.T?? People often say I deserve a good belt...

So, my weekend unfolds ahead of me. Don't think we're having a big night tomorrow - we'd planned Caesars but don't think that'll happen now. Brunch with Garry. Meeting someone for coffee. Going to the doctors. I know how to fill my day. No beach tomorrow then probably, but that doesn't preclude the rest of the weekend...
Quick blog before getting my head down and finishing the research stuff for Tony. Coffee with Olivier turned out to be "coffee", which was kind of unexpected. But very nice! He's a nice guy. Headed to the Oxford to meet Garry (who was all set to send out the cops thinking I'd been chopped into small pieces!) and Vath (a special hello to Mat, joining us here on Minkered... for the first time today). To the Shift to try and play pool but too busy. Back to Vath's where we had the most fantastic grilled lamb sandwiches and drank red wine whilst listening to trashy music. Home via the Oxford for one last drink and I fell asleep on the bus. Hmmm. Woke up in who knows where and after walking for about 10 mins in one direction plucked at random realised I had no idea where I was. Thank the lord for cabs. Home and collapse in a heap. Up early this morning but all I've done is drink tea. Right. Work for Tony. More later.

Wednesday, October 24, 2001

Had lunch with Tony and we had a really good natter about life, the universe etc. before covering the work stuff in the last few minutes! I then rushed down into town to play tennis with Garry (we didn't pay - result!), and then had a coffee. Back to Bondi where I concocted some lovely pasta creation, caught up with Charlie and watched The Secret Life of Us. Fantastic. Long chats on the internet to the lovely David Perry who I've not spoken to in a while, and Michael from NYC who sadly lost his job today - it was great to chat to them both. Bed late - 1am.

Tuesday was my first day of work in a while. Doing some research for Tony and it's surprisingly absorbing. Garry came over for dinner, Tony stopped by to go through what I'd done, we watched Teachers and some other crap, Garry left, I chatted to Charlie and Duncan, chatted on the net till late and stumbled bedwards at 1am again. Naughty.

Slept until 11.30am. Ugh. Feel drugged. Did mail and stuff and some chats online. Brekky and so on. Heading down to meet Olivier for coffee and then it's Mat's turn to make dinner. Or should I say Vath as he's now known after a drunken exchange in the Oxford on Saturday.

"John, this is Mat."
          "Vath?"
"No, Mat!"
          "Maths?"
"No, Mat!"

This coupled with the fact that Mat said "No, that name will stick!!" meant that of course it has! And me amending it to Lord Vath and doing the vulcan 2 finger sign thing which Mat can't do helped cement it. Bless. Apparently we're having grilled lamb sandwiches with all the trimmings. Fantastic say I. More later...

Monday, October 22, 2001

Tell me why I quite like Mondays... Coz suddenly the pressure of being unemployed has gone and I've three weeks of leisure time before starting work.Yippee. The plan is to try and get some sunshine on the beach here in Bondi, and also to get back to the gym. Might run later this morning, but meant to be having lunch with Tony to talk about a couple of days work for him. Waiting on that call...

So, the weekend. I blogged from Adrian's on Friday very briefly after the call from Borders telling me I'd got the job. Resisting the temptation to go out and get very drunk, I had a quiet evening with Adrian, ate steak and roasted veg and watched Galaxy Quest - which I thought was great fun. Lots of in-jokes for people that watch sci-fi stuff, and the leads (Sigourney Weaver, Tim Allen and Alan Rickman) hamming it up for all they're worth. In bed by 10.15pm, I slept very badly as my mind was racing with the job news. Having been not working for 2 months it means I can start and really get my act together and sort out my life and lifestyle.

Up at 7.30am (Adrian's a bit of an early riser - Matron) we had breakfast and took a walk down to Paddy's Markets in Chinatown. Just a collection of junk for sale really, though they do great fruit and veg. Finding it a bit dull we wandered back Oxford Street way and had coffee before being joined by Garry and Mat for brunch. Adrian wanted to potter and so the rest of us boys hit the park to watch people playing softball. It was a bit cold, even though the sun was shining but nice to catch up with Pete and Paul, and Chris, the first guy who interviewed me for Borders. Got the lowdown on the company a bit more and it seems that they have a thing called 'the sorting' over the first three or so weeks. This is where they work out who's good and/or suited to being departmental lead, or be put in charge of training and so on. So best behaviour for me when we start then! Although 'the sorting' sounds a bit like this to me...

Back into town for a quick drink and then home for me and an attempt to get some sleep. Managed about half an hour or so after chats to Dad, Karen and Sue. Got ready and headed back to Adrian's at about 11pm. Met Mat at the Oxford and then after a chat to the lovely Gregg (Who's your diddy daddy?) we headed down to the Pheonix. Met up with Pete and a few of the others and had a great time. Initially the music was fantastic but it did go a bit pear-shaped towards the end. We took a bit of a latin turn, followed by Bootylicious (bearing in mind most of the other stuff had been quite hard up until this point), some sort of Spanish guitar duelling and then Wordy Rappinghood by the Tom Tom Club. Whaaaaat? Very, very odd. We hit the Shift for a quick dance before Arq where we danced with Richard and Russell. Home and sleep around 6am.

Up around 11am. Quick brekky and then it was almost time for tennis! Good fun yet again, though not sure any of us was that good bearing in mind the weekend's minkering. Battuta's for a snack then back to Garry's to shower and then out again to the Shift! Lots of playing of pool and the odd flirt here and there. There were two guys giving me the eye who were as sexy as hell. Unfortunately they left before I got chance to do more than a bit of eye contact, but this is Sydney, the scene is small and we will see them again. Oh yes. Home and bed around 11pm after tea and choccie.

Friday, October 19, 2001

Well, well, well. Good news. This afternoon, at 5.40pm, whilst in the supermarket, I took a call. Good job I did too, as it was Borders offering me a job! Yippee!! I'm going to be working on the music section of the new store that opens at the end of November. This means I have about 3 weeks until my start date of 12 November to work on the gym and my tan :o)

It's quite a weight off my mind - the money's crap, but it should give me the time to do the other stuff I want to do so that can only be a good thing. More later, but I'm excited!
Not much happened yesterday. Slept late, pottered around here and then finally got my act together and headed into town. Oh, but in breaking news, Tony has offered me a possible couple of days work next week, which should keep the wolves from the door. Also, he asked me if I wanted to join him in a 10k fun run from North Sydney back into town over the Harbour Bridge next weekend. I've said yes. I must be mad. Actually in the run up to Sleaze I was running between 20 and 25k a week so it's an incentive to get back to it. Downtown I hit the Oxford for beers with L of D, Steven, Stephen, Stephen and Gary. But not Garry and Mat, who'd gone to Fruits in Suits earlier and hoped to come to the Oxford after. I didn't want to do Fruits in Suits, but started to sulk when (by text message update) it seemed like they were having a good time, they weren't going to come back to the Oxford after all, and Garry had been bought a beer by a guy I think incredibly sexy. Great. Second night running I'd been left on my own waiting for Garry to call/turn up and then him not to, so was a bit peeved. And annoyed that I was missing out on all the fun. I got a bus home, ate more of yesterday's pasta, had a family sized Milkybar Milk and Cookies and a pot of tea and went to bed at 10.10pm. To stew in my own juices.

I can't remember all my dreams, but they were weird. There were aliens; an introduction ritual that involved us stroking them (their skin was spiky if you rubbed it the wrong way) and then dancing; a small alien being snatched by an owl; a hunt for said owl taking me and someone to a house with a woman and two kids where we thought the alien had been dropped down the chimney; finding the alien having had to move an entire chimney breast by finding a hidden lever; other people (baddies) who'd been there had been photographed and the image left for us to find... it gets a bit blurry after that. There was a boat involved at some point too. I'm going bananas.

Thursday, October 18, 2001

The Marilyn site did also lead me to this site - the TOTP site. There is the danger of spending too much time here - in videoclips there are snippets of lots of your favourite bands through the years (at the bottom, arranged alphabetically). The clip of Dead or Alive is worth it for the image of (Whoo!) Gary Davies' hair in the border of RealPlayer alone..
Somewhat bizarrely, 2dayfm here in Sydney has just played 'Calling your name' by Marilyn. One of my favourite tunes from 1984, it rarely gets a radio play these days even though it did get to number 4 in the UK charts. It got me digging around, and here is the official Marilyn website. As the recent pics show, from a gig somewhere in town (can anyone tell me where?), the years have not been kind...

Wednesday, October 17, 2001

Slept late and then had a Milkybar for breakfast. Yum. Did stuff round here - tidied room, laundry, applied for 6 jobs before heading down into town to meet Adrian (who for some reason was looking very, very horny) for coffee. The jobs range from the sublime to the ridiculous. Sublime? Working for AOL. Ridiculous? Working at IKEA! Maybe that's not that ridiculous - I can see the interview now:

IKEA person: So, what makes you think you are suited to working here?
Dave: I am a gay man. Therefore by definition I know your entire product range by heart.
IKEA person: Fantastic! Start immediately.

Other jobs included marketing for an unnamed company in the 'entertainment' industry; admin assistant at a hospital; night editor at a city bank and 'varied, unique' role for the Australian Performing Rights Association. So, really found my niche then.

Wandered round downtown then had a sudden urge for pumpkin chilli pasta, so came home and cooked it. Yum. Made enough for about 4, so if anyone wants to pop round and share a bowl... Eaten another Milkybar since, and there's another one in the kitchen calling to me...
Oh, and you may have noticed a shift in the colour scheme. Well, it's good enough for me if it was good enough for him...

Tuesday, October 16, 2001

Saturday 4pm headed back out to coffee with Adrian. Then met Garry and Anthony for quick beers at the Shift before going to Claire's martini party. It was fun - and we just had to drink pure alcohol from 8pm until about 11.30pm. I'd realised I'd left my keys in the flat, so had arranged to ring Charlie so she could let me in later. I got back to Bondi at 11.45pm, and rang. Er, no answer on Charlie's mobile, or the buzzer. Great. Not knowing how long she might be I did what I didn't want to do but what had been kindly offered - ringing Adrian and heading back down town in another cab and staying with him. Bless him - I didn't really want to wake him as he'd been in bed from earlier on as he was working early the next day.

I awoke at around 8am as Adrian was getting ready to leave for work, and he kindly left me to lock up after myself. I had coffee and watched this fantastic episode of the New Avengers on UKTV before heading back to Bondi. Me and Charlie went for brekky at 'Love in a Cup' and pigged out. Garry called at 12.40pm and said that he was at the tennis courts. 'You're early' said I, 'we're not playing until 2pm.' We're playing at 1pm' said Garry and so I ran like a mad thing, got sorted and got down there smack on time. Tennis is great! We'll be doing that again (and have already booked for this Sunday). I used to play a lot as a teenager and it all came flooding back. Great fun. Me, Garry, Mat and Gary Jones (Boo). Took a bizarre drive to the airport afterwards to eat KFC (too long a story), and then back to Garry's for tea. Met Adrian for more coffee and then to the pub. L of D was there but Garry not in the best frames of mind as he and Anthony had split the night before. He went home and me and Mat hit the Shift. OK. Home around 11pm for me.

Monday went shirt shopping for interview, failed to find one, came home, washed and ironed comfortable stuff and then hit the interview for Borders. As I said, OK, but not sure. Won't find out until next week - or maybe slim chance at the end of this week. Either way it feels like forever! Met Garry and Mat for coffee after that and Claire joined us. Us boys hit Mat's where I cooked and we drank our winnings from last week's quiz. Home and bed around 1am.

Today was a bit of a nothing day. Slept late. Brekky. Job hunting - nothing I fancy... what's wrong with me? Charlie came home and she worked whilst I looked through all the weekend's papers. Not much else to report. Bit of telly, bit of a play on here, lots of tea and choccy. I must get healthy again! Right - coming up to midnight and bedtime for me. Want to get some stuff done tomorrow and meeting Adrian for coffee at 4.30pm. G'night.
So. Friday. Can't remember what happened through the day, but met Adrian for coffee before going to the Oxford. Me, Garry. Met Mat, Phil, Tony, Andy, Patrick and so on. Various people left for someone's birthday meal, some came back, more drink was drunk and suddenly we decided we should go to Arq and dance. Oh dear oh lord. We did. It was great fun! Downstairs was a revelation, being quite good music and much more friendly than the bigger upstairs. This kept us entertained until about 4.30am, when for some reason Garry and I decided it would be best to leave. And go for a beer in the Oxford!! Weird. It was actually fairly busy and fun. Time to go home after that, but I may have taken a small detour...*

I turned up on Garry's doorstep at 10am. We chatted and watched Video Hits until about noon when I walked back to Oxford Street, got a bus to Brontë and then walked across the cliffs to home. Charlie was here with a man (shock horror!) so chatted to them a bit until finally getting a little sleep from about 3-4pm.

* If you want any further details of this, it will have to be by e-mail. Cryptic, schmyptic!
Half past midnight. I should be in bed. I'm going. Weekend update tomorrow for y'all. Highlights? Er, lots. Beers. Naughtiness. Of several kinds. No much sleep. Coffees. Vodka party. Being locked out. Tennis. More beers. Today I had my second interview to work in Borders. It went OK. Fingers crossed. Hell is not finding out for about a week. Don't you just hate that? Nighty night...

Thursday, October 11, 2001

I'm in love. However, I can't find a pack shot of the thing I'm in love with - Milkybar Milk & Cookies. It's Milkybar with chocolate cookie pieces - fantastic. Meanwhile, here's a link to some Milkybar porn. No, really.
As the more observant of you may have noticed - there's a small pic of me miraculously appeared in the left hand column of the blog. More to see if I could do it rather than anything else - this does mean I can now put images up though - yippee!! This one was a few days after Sleaze Ball whilst I still had the mohican. It's gone now. However, I'm sure this will get some comments...
Via a rather circuitous route I've been listening to the Human League's 1989 album Romantic? (Actually it was the mention of them in the quiz, and then searching for something I'd not heard in a while (800 CDs - I don't want to play any!) that got me there.) It's fairly mediocre stuff, apart from one track - Soundtrack to a Generation. The music is the League at their best (well IMHO anyway) but it's the lyrics and singing that will make you either love it or hate it. For me it has a similar feel to both Together in Electric Dreams and The Never Ending Story (both of which for me are inextricably, inexplicably linked. Except they were in the charts at the same time - my first term at Uni). The lyrics border on the absurd at times - the girls singing 'Holy Cow!' and Phil intoning 'The world's a massive place. But we run into each other. Just one small happening. An accident of fate. Or the work of co-conspirators?' So, so Human League. I love it. And whoever this is does too.
David compares searching on google for David girls and David boys - concluding that I don't appear! If you search on Dave Boyes however, minkered is there (as is some Canadian rower). Searching on David Boyes though produces a couple of interesting things. Apart from being a doctor, there's a link to what sounds like a Roald Dahl kid's story: David Boyes and Test Plan Charlie. However, read it and weep. It's the dullest thing in all Christendom. Another thing thrown up though sorts out at least one of my career choices. Adrian's last name is Turner, so if we were ever thinking of going into business together in the legal profession, we've been beaten to it.

Wednesday, October 10, 2001

We watched Star Trek Insurrection instead of the video (Mission to Mars) with ever increasing stomach ache. Both of us. We can only blame the brownies. Sat on our stomachs. No, don't go there - any of you!! We couldn't eat anything more, and in the end I was kept awake until about 3am with severe stomach ache - I thought I might have to admit myself to hospital at one point! Sunday I stayed in bed yet again - Adrian had to be up to make sure Glenn (house guest) got to the airport on time. We had a lazy day and I cooked the food we should have had on Saturday night. We finally watched the video and I finally headed back to Bondi around 5.30pm. And had the biggest urge to go out. Charlie was heading to Paddington for drinks, so she dropped me back near the Oxford. L of D was there, and his bro, and then Mat, Andy and lots of others arrived. Little Ian. Oh dear. As if by magic, I was in Arq and minkered. Suddenly it was 4am and I'd been snogging boys. Ay caramba. Oh dear oh lord.

Monday was spent tired and in a state of 'ugh'. Yesterday was a bit of jobbing, then headed downtown and joined Garry for coffee. We hit the Lizard Lounge where we found our new found quiz. We won two bottles of wine, but didn't then win the separate $75 dollar extra question. Someone else did, but donated it back to the bar to buy drinks for everyone! We found out it was supposedly because he was straight, and wouldn't be able to explain to his wife where he'd won it!! Yeah right...

Today did a job application, was talked through loads of stuff by Scally (thanks again!) and then had coffee with Adrian. Oh yes, and there was the small interlude around 12.30pm for an hour and a half. Or should that be interlewd? Suffices to say that one of the guys from Sunday at Arq just happened across my profile on Gaydar and didn't have to be in work until 4pm...

Charlotte demanded I make her a slap up meal. I came home and did so. Blue cheese and tomato on crackers with marinated olives as a quick starter. Veggie pasta al forno as the main. With whatever was in the fridge. It was nice. One bottle of wine later...

Right. To bed very soon. Meant to be gymming again at 8am. Will I make it? Lemme know on the new comments facility (ooh, get me!).
So. Wednesday night and first and foremost major thanks to two Davids - this one, and this one. Scally has sorted my FTPing to the proper Minkered... domain so expect something to happen soon. David Swish stopped me drifting to the right. But that's enough politics for one day.

Friday night saw me in a very good mood. Don't know why, just was. This resulted in me being absolutely minkered. Drunk as a skunk. Drunk as a mink. Skunkered. Adrian joined us at the Oxford (us being me and Mat and minkers various) before we headed to Bears at the Beresford. I had to ask Adrian to take me home as I was so la-la. Bless him - he did so, even though he didn't want to leave. He also very sweetly left me in bed whilst he did the gym thing Sat a.m. I eventually got up and we had coffee and toast and sat with Glenn and watched Star Wars on video. Excellent. I spent the rest of the weekend with Adrian. Originally we were doing Bondi, but then decided to stay downtown. I hit Bondi to grab stuff and then we had lunch with David and Jason before going to the park to watch the gay softball peeps have a knock around. Back for coffee and brownies. The most gigantic portions I've ever seen! (Missus). Got a video and went back to Adrian's having bought stuff for me to cook dinner. So far, so good.
I'm Rebloggered!!! But drifting slowly to the right. Hmmm. Something's not quite right. Will try and fix that tonight!! Out for coffee...
Two minutes past Wednesday and I' ve got to go to bed. However, in breaking news, we've found a quiz to go to on Tuesday nights! It's so not the Retro Bar, but it's fun, there's a fantastic drag queen, and most of all, we won on our first time of asking! 40 questions, split into 10 easy (2 points each), 10 hard (5 points each) and repeated. We got 98 out of 140. Not great, but clear winners by 12 points. All categories, not music, and much harder when you're a foreigner. We'll be there again next week... Fun though. More about the last weekend coming very soon!

Friday, October 05, 2001

Something I forgot to blog from the other day. At Brad's party (sometime before Sleaze, a few beers a-minker) me and Garry were chatting away and scanning the crowd. Brad had his do at Cafe 191, or at least in the bar area, Sol, above it (famous for being featured in Muriel's Wedding, albeit briefly). There was this lovely looking guy in a group of men and women sat a little way away from us. Me and Garry were staring as he was just gorgeous - hairy, horny, masculine etc. Tongues out. One of the girls caught us looking and smiled.
"No chance, he's married" she said.
"Who to?" we shouted back.
"Me" she said and smiled.
I walked over to her and whispered gently in her ear "Lucky cow".
How I didn't get beaten up I'll never know!!
I was wandering round HUM records earlier, prior to heading to pick up new contact lenses. I thought I'd just have a quick peek in case they threw some questions about music at the Border's open day. You never know - they did that when I had my HMV interview in 1994!! Anyway, I stumbled across a new Way Out West album and having given it the once over went to the listening posts to see if it was on there. I've actually no idea if it was or not because, at the top of the listening posts, glistening in its shiny spangly cover, was this. Oh, bugger - I can't link to it as it's too new!! No cover art or anything. Go here, go to the News section and scroll down to the bottom left. I think that will put you in the picture. Suffices to say I skipped gaily to the counter and paid my scarce dollars. It's fantastic. Like having the Vauxhall condensed down into one lovely double CD. Fantastic!! Oh, and according to the site they'll tell you how to get hold of it soon. I can get it now, if you're interested!!
Interviews eh. Either love 'em or hate 'em, they're a big part of getting a job. They reduce some people to sweaty, shivering wrecks; others to swarmy, oily pieces of work; others still to affable charmers. Still, they always produce some sort of reaction. So, it's not every day that you turn up for an interview and you know the interviewer. Less times still that you can say you've been for a BBQ at the interviewer's house. Probably less again are the times that you've been to the interviewer's boyfriend's book launch. And, speaking purely from a personal perspective, it can only be on the smallest amount of occasions when you've actually seen the interviewer wearing only a pair of boots, a harness and a silver studded black G-string.

Guess today was my lucky day then.
Friday afternoon and I'm waiting for the removalists to come and take my fridge away to Matty's, when I'll be $350 richer and he'll be a fridge better off. Yesterday was a fairly dull day in the end. Up not that early and sort stuff out here. Got ready and headed into town. Popped to see one agency but to be honest I've no real hopes from that - the guy I saw seemed interested because I said media, then lost interest when I didn't do web design. Soon my child... Had another interview about 3pm which was better, but the bottom line is that there's not much work around. The woman was very nice though. Met Garry and Mat and we had a coffee/snack at the MLC. Home after that and did a bit of shopping on the way. Sat with Charlie and ate a big bag of Dorito's and salsa. Burp. Intended to cook but couldn't be arsed so ate half a litre of mango sorbet instead, whilst watching trashy telly. Big e-mail catch up after that, nice chat to Jonce online and bed gone midnight.

Wednesday, October 03, 2001

Monday - 2.30pm onwards: Up for a little while. Originally going to go and eat, but having got downstairs and had a glass of coke we couldn't manage anything more and headed back to bed until about 6pm. Out and ate properly for the first time in 48 hours, and then back to chat with Fred and Glenn. Finally we couldn't last any longer and so crashed at 7.45pm, sleeping solidly for 13 hours until 8.45am Tuesday morning! What a fantastic time!!!!

Had brekky with Adrian and Glenn and finally made it back to Bondi. Must say the hugest thanks to Adrian (and Fred) for their hospitality over the entire party weekend. They live smack in the middle of everything and it made it so much easier to walk to things and be able to shower and change without hiking back to Bondi. Bless you guys, you're stars. Tuesday was a day of sorting stuff. Cleared out cupboards; the cleaner came; I made a chilli. That was about all I was good for. Spent a quiet night in with Charlotte and it was much needed.

Today was nice too. Up not too early, job hunting (interview with an agency tomorrow), haircut, meet Garry and Mat, pop to see Adrian, beer with Garry, home. Both Tim Red Shoes and David O called tonight, which was an unexpected pleasure. Big blog. It's now 11pm and time for me to hit the sack I think. Nighty night!
Sunday - 10pm onwards: Got up and ate a muffin. Wow. Got ready to go out. More slinky outfits - slightly longer shorts, footie t-shirt. This time we left at around 11pm for another party called ICE. I didn't really know what to expect, but it was billed as much harder music and horny, hairy men. Wonder what made me want to go?? Anyway, we arrived and it was quite empty at first. A couple of vodka and red bulls later and it was filling up. The venue is great - dance floor the size of Trade, but on a number of different levels and a funkier DJ area. We plonked ourselves on a little ledge opposite there and me, Adrian, Glenn and Craig didn't move all night apart from the odd trip to the bar or the loo. The music was a cross between the last hour at the Vauxhall and Trade. The atmosphere and men were pure Vauxhall. It was fab! The DJ set from 1-3pm was great - very me. Luke Leal played, amongst other things, The Vision by Mario Piu (featuring DJ Arabesque), which I've never heard properly out in a club before. It fitted perfectly and the music carried on being fantastic until 7am, when it finally closed. Yippee!! However we weren't done and after a quick drop in at Adrian's we hit Arq to dance a bit more. Like you do. Finally my energy gave out at around 11am and we got to Adrian's and showered and crashed a while.
Saturday - Sleaze Ball: We grabbed Adrian and Glenn and walked down to Fox studios is our freshly changed outfits. I was wearing a singlet, short shorts, trainers and with mohican in full effect. We arrived just after 10pm as it opened, and as Garry had never been before we gave him a quick tour. From the Royal Hall of Industries (RHI) where the cheesier music is played; through the Hordern which is slightly harder; to the Dome which is harder again. Each of those venues reduces in size too, but still there's enough space for the 20,000 or so people. The theme for this year was Beast, so there were many animal type costumes - some of the best can be seen here. The evening is a bit of a blur from that moment on. I saw more people there than I realised I actually knew (Fred, Paul and Pete, Claire, David B, Boo, Sandra, Darren, Darren, Ian, Peter, Dean, John and Andrew, Adam, Kevin and Craig, Richard and Russell, lots more...), lost and found Garry, Adrian and Mat by turns, spent time in the Dome and the RHI, saw the midnight show in the RHI (lots of bears doing a performance), missed the last one (Paul Mac) and finally spent the last hour and a half dancing and cuddling with Adrian in the Dome. Fantastic. Wandered back slowly to Adrian's at 8am and collapsed there for a few minutes. However, the night wasn't over and soon we were in the Barracks for recovery. Met Mat and we danced some more and chatted to people various. Finally called it a day at around noon and went back to Adrian's to shower and sleep.

Sunday - 1-10pm: Slept.
So, that was the weekend that was. A minker entry a day coming up, ish, as the days kind of merged into one. Or several at a time.

Friday: Did the coffee with Adrian thing and did indeed join the boys in the pub at around 7pm, having picked up tickets from Paul and Pete. Fun. The gang was all there and beers were had. L of D whisked me off to his place at one point, much to Garry's chagrin. Sadly no chagrin with L of D though!! I can't actually remember what we did, but I think we hit the Shift and I eventually stumbled home. Drunken. Drinken. Minken. (Go to Saturday and then come back to this bit when you hit the asterisk!! *Ah. No. Just remembered. We were joined in the Oxford by several other people, including Dennis and Darren and others. We went to the Beresford, not the Shift, for Bears night. Me and Darren got friendly. And friendlier. And as if by magic, I was in Pyrmont. Go back to Saturday after the *).

Saturday - day time: My brain is addled. Having trouble remembering anything!! I know I stayed round Bondi in the end, as originally Garry was going to come here and then we kind of ran out of time. Oh yes... I remember now. Er, going back to fill in some bits from Friday!!* Woke around 9am and Darren very kindly gave me a lift home to Bondi. In his open top sports car. With Kylie on at full blast. Ahh, the only way to travel. Took myself off to 'Love in a cup' for brekky. Back here feeling almost human again. Finally got all my stuff together and headed down into town. Met up with Adrian, Garry and Mat for coffee. Adrian headed back to his and we hit Garry's to get ready, with a couple of bottles of wine. Showers, girlie music and various outfits later, we got a cab to Adrian's and dropped off bags. To the Oxford for beers and then me and Garry hit Brad's birthday drinks. He was slaughtered!! Stayed until 9.30pm when we got Mat and Andy and hit Adrian's. Finally it was time for Sleaze Ball itself!
Ay caramba!! It's 3 minutes past Wednesday and I'm shattered. Had the most fantastic weekend. More about it tomorrow... we had a ball!!!