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...