Thursday, January 30, 2003

It's weird. Arriving here feels like a holiday with Australia as home. That's the first time it's felt like that way around. Sure the scene here is fantastic, and it's really great to catch up with the gang again, but the quality of life that Australia offers is much more what I want. Overall anyway. I'm in for an interesting time over the next few days as something's brewing with my sisters in terms of a big argument I think. We'll see. I hope not.

I'm hating it here in York I have to say. It's great to see my Dad, though as I mentioned earlier it does do my head in after a little while. I need to be more tolerant though, that's for sure. I'll never lose it with Dad but I wish he'd do more with his time - no real hobbies and so on. I don't think he's happy, but he's unwilling rather than unable to do more stuff. Talking to him about it draws a big blank. Hmm. See what sisters suggest. York itself is so smalltown it's untrue. I look at the people here and want to scream at them to spread their wings and see something of the world. Beyond Club 18-30 holidays to Ibiza that is. I can't believe that some mates still live here, and have done most all of their lives - are they happy? I guess that's not my call. I just know I could never be here. OK, more thoughts from Chairman Mao soon.
So Tuesday morning came a bit too early and soon I was at King's Cross for the 10am departure to York. Read all the way whilst listening to music and soon I was here at midday. Lovely to see Dad again, though within 10 minutes he was driving me mad! I must learn to be more tolerant and realise I won't see him probably for another 2 years. Calm your short temper Boyesie! I've been OK with him actually - the short-temperedness is all just in my head... so far! Wandered back into town in the afternoon and had a look for a phone battery for me - no go. Oh well. I'll struggle along with this crappy thing until I can borrow Scally's spare one tomorrow. We were going to go to Betty's (my favourite eatery in York) but it's closed for refurbishment (how dare they!) and so we hit home. Helped Dad re-jig the living room as it's just been painted and so we sorted all of that out. Down the local pub with Dad later as there was a darts match on (hold on to your hats everyone!). I lasted a couple of pints before deciding to head home before falling asleep (not a good look). Yesterday I came into York to update this, but Blogger was down so I shopped a bit (£10 work trousers in the Gap sale - yay!). Met Dad for lunch then home again to finish the living room - we re-hung all his pictures (yes, I'm handy with a hammer too!) and tidied around. Went up to the cemetery to see Mum's grave and check on the flowers and stuff. Still feels a bit unreal. Dad went to the pub but I was too knackered so a relatively early night with my book for me. Into town today and so far about an hour and a half of typing later... oh, and it's snowing!! It snowed overnight and is still going. So very cold. York looks beautiful however. So, to Betty's for lunch as it's back open again today and then later to the local pub quiz (I know how to have a good time!). Heading back to London in the morning and meeting University crowd Saturday night and sister Karen's birthday shenanigans Sunday pre-Vauxhall. OK. That's the diary entries updated. But what's it really feel like to be back?
We arrived into brilliant sunshine, though it was a bit cold. We tubed it back into London proper, and after a couple of false starts got into Steve's lovely new house in Balham! The original idea was to sleep, though we were all too excited and so after two cups of tea it was into town. We got Rich and Russ booked on a 2 day trip to Paris and then went and got food at Pizza Express - one of my favourite old haunts. Then - let the games begin! To Barcode where we were joined by Scally, Jonathan and Mark - with regular updates from Steve as to his exact whereabouts. We detoured across to The Yard and then to Comptons, where things started to hot up a bit. Steve joined us, as did Jason (the Vauxhall landlord) and we had some fun with Neil (the Compton's landlord). Back to Barcode and suddenly the gang's all there. Danny, Darryl, Steve and Audrey, Tom and Jake, Stuart, Andrew... much more like it. So of course we got caught up in the hype and decided to go to Sleaze at Crash. Fun. Lots of sexy men and good music. Busy too. Of course once started, we couldn't stop and soon we were at a new venue for Orange (just the other side of Vauxhall Bridge from Crash and the Tavern). It was us three and Darryl though we bumped into a couple more people too. Everything was flowing just fine, and again the music was great. As if by magic it was suddenly about 8.45am - er how did that happen? (As if we didn't know!). We left somewhat disorientated and landed on the war zone that is currently Vauxhall Bridge roundabout. Ever tried negotiating a major London roundabout whilst completely minkered? No? I don't recommend it. Finally, having circumnavigated it almost fully once we hit the tube and slowly returned to Balham. Russ wasn't feeling too well by the time we hit home and so we put them to bed pretty immediately after a cuppa. I had a bit more of a catch up with Steve and also finally hit the sack...

Saturday later: we woke around 7pm, and we were meant to be at Scally's for his Burn's Night party at 7.30pm! Oops. We gathered our thoughts and bit and as if by magic Richie had joined us too. Great to see him. So, off we toddled to Brixton in a lovely cab ready for David's party. And what a fun night it was! Scally had kind of lined up a blind-ish date for me - Martin. How sexy??? Sadly he wasn't interested in that way (bugger) but we did bond over me cutting his shirtsleeves off. (Don't ask!). David served up lashings of haggis, neeps and tatties and me, Rich, Russ and Richie worked our way through 1.125L of 50% proof Smirnoff. And not slowly either! I ended up snogging the 50 year old very sexy Daddy dressed in police uniform. Er yes. It was a Burn's Night party, so not sure how that outfit worked, but I wasn't complaining! Anyway, soon it was time to mosey and so we hit Crash again - this time for the normal Saturday night. It was great. Lots of people there too - Steve, Big Steve, Jason, David Ogle (oh no, that was last night!) oh I can't remember! Anyway - more great music (why is it seemingly soooo much better than in Sydney) and more sexy men to snog and dance with. Of course we were now on a roll and so went again to the same new venue as the night before - though on a Sunday morning it's called Beyond. And it's incredibly busy. And just fantastic. We bumped into Mark (Gizmo) initially, and then all of Nick's crowd - Chris, Colin, Kay and Tara - and boy did we have a blast. Richie was the most minkered I've ever seen him and we just had a blast. Finally we had to leave coz of a security alert some time around 11am Sunday. Probably just as well as we had no intention of leaving! Back to Steve's for cups of tea and we decided it wasn't worth sleeping. Onto the Vauxhall around 4.15pm and there we waited, vodka and red bull in hand for the gang to arrive. And oh how they did! By the time Dame Edna graced us with her presence on stage there were a million of the old gang there. Just fantastic to see everyone again. Rob, Wayne, Tim Red Shoes, Ian, Baby Tom and a few more we hadn't already seen I'm sure. The boys had a blast - the music was again fantastic and the crowd as up for it as ever. The boys were whisked away to the LA3 (la Trois sweetie) by Chris at around 10.30am though I hung around with Steve until about 11.30pm. Down to Old Street and off we went again. Upstairs funky, downstairs more electronic but either way fun. We'd had enough around 3.30am (we hadn't slept remember!) and so we finally made a move. It was mild and so we decided to walk the streets from the city back into Soho to get a coffee but most places shut. We ended up on Waterloo Bridge around 5.15am just looking at London in the dark - fantastic. To Waterloo station for coffee and panini and then back to Steve's for about 6.30am. Sleeeeeeep. At least for a wee while. Up around midday - Steve was working from home so we had brekky and chatted a bit and then hit London town again for the boys to pick up their Paris tickets and for me to get my train tickets. That done they hit Jon and Mark's and I went back to Steve's for some dinner and an early night (after Cornonation Street!) What a weekend!!!!
OK - let's get you all up to date before I launch myself into what has happened since our arrival almost one week ago to currently snowy England. The week of dinners was lovely: thanks go out to Tony and James; Charbel; Dave and Jason. Great food and company at every one. A bit more than that with Jason on the Friday night, but you get that (and very nice it was too!). Saturday night was Pete Lindhe's party where a good time was had and too much white wine was drunk. Ostensibly to keep Rich company (yeaah right!) I went to Transcend at the Shift along with Pete N - and stumbled out of there having had a great time somewhere around 4.30am - how did that happen?? Managed to just about keep myself noice until Bad Dog - there was a bit of sleep I think, but not much. Bad Dog saw me meeting Pete and David round at Gary Jones' place for pre-party beers. Down to Waverley in the sunshine - and the party was a good as ever. The weirdest moment? The DJ playing a mix of two songs that I've just mixed on my PC at home - and they're not even that well known! Odd. From there to the Phoenix. And then Arq. And then back to the Phoenix and bed around 5am, just in time to sleep for 3 hours before work. Ugh. Not good. Rough as a badger's bits all day. Dinner with Rich, Russ, Adrian and Steve that night. Tuesday just hit the gym - work was busy the last 2 weeks so it kept me out of mischief. Wednesday met Gary and Michael for a post work coffee. Mark of Mark and Carston was there too as they all work in the same building. That coffee turned into a beer at the Colombian (did we have an alchemist amongst us?) and suddenly it was 9pm and I'd not packed. Home. Jason popped over to help me pack. :o) Well he helped me pack something!! To bed. Work on Thursday and then sprinted home, finished packing and to the airport. The flight was a bit tight, but as it turned out I was check straight through to London and Russ managed to blag us into the lounge. Lots of champagne later we got on the flight and it was great. We all got some sleep; Singapore was stress free and we all slept a bit more until London. We've arrived!

Thursday, January 23, 2003

Off to the airport in 20 minutes. Oh my god. Some stuff to update, but mainly catching up with mates before heading back to the Uk for almost 4 weeks. Oh, and Bad Dog. Lots of fun. More from Blighty!

Tuesday, January 14, 2003

Oh, really. Jason's just told me that he's leaving work early to get 'bits of him pierced'. Yikes! Which, what, where? He's offered to show me on Friday. You probably didn't need to know that. And Jason, if you're reading this, sorry mate - the world needs to know :o)
Almost a full week since I last posted. And what has happened in that time I hear you cry? Well, this and that…

I swam with Gary down at Cook and Phillip last Wednesday and it was a bit of a larf. Knackered after hald a kilometre though! Hope to do better next time. We had a couple of beers at the Colombian and were joined by Pete Lindhe. Pete Nash and Crusty finally turned up, but with no specific birthday plans for Pete’s drinks so Gary and I did T² and then one more beer before home. Thursday was gym at 6am (no, really) then more work and finally more play. Home via the supermarket to get potatoes and a weird bump into Dave after having a strong sensation of going to bump into him. Home to cook potato salad then onto Tim’s for a BBQ – I am so Aussie. It was good to see people outside of the normal pub/club environment for a change. Lots of the usual gang there, plus a couple of cute interlopers – one of whom, Jason, right at the end said that he wanted to take me home. Well he only had to ask! Read on – there’s more…

Friday we decided to do something different and we half succeeded! The day was spent just getting through work and trying to track down Jason’s details from Tim and Adrian – culminating with an exchange of SMS messages in the afternoon. Later – 11 of us went to Newtown for Thai. It was great fun and good value - $13 each for decent nosh. We then went to the Newtown for beers and then, as if by magic, we were transported to the Imperial after a brief trip round all our houses. Very girlie dancy music and lots of fun later… it was 4.30am and we were headed home. Well we almost succeeded! At least we managed to stay away from Oxford Street. One step at a time…

Saturday morning didn’t really happen. Brief chat to Garry, then down to have coffee with the boys. Instead Pete L and Steve were at Rich and Russ’s and we took an impromptu picnic down to Mrs MacQuaries Chair. Very nice. Lazed there a while before going back to R’n’R’s and finally – after a brief lull – down to Jazz in the Park at the Domain. It was fun! Adrian had met Darren down there earlier and saved us lots of space on the grass and about 16 of us took yet another picnic and wine and it was great. Very relaxing. It almost rained but didn’t. Finally left there at 10.30pm. A few others were kicking on, and there was the temptation to go and see if Jason was with Tim at the Phoenix, but in the end tiredness got the better of me and home I toddled.

Sunday was an early up as Adrian had offered to drive us out to Birkehead – a shopping mall. We did that via the Ves-bar for brekky and via Balmain on the way home. I then had a little doze, did the gym and then went to meet Pete at the Green Park – he needed some consolation as he and Crusty had just split up. A couple of beers there. Jason was there with Tim and Ross, so we had a quick snog and said we ought to catch up. I hope we do very soon! From there to the Palace. Great fun. It was the Touch Footy Fundraiser. Marcus and Brett in drag was very scary and took me a while to place them. Brett looked uncannily like Tracy Ullman. With a handlebar moustache. The gang all there. Down to the Shift with Steve, Dez and Andrew. More fun. Walk home with Andrew. Bed.

Yesterday was a bit of a nothing day. No gym so that was a blessing. Work was busy but I spent most of my day doing social emails. Email flirting with Jason – he seems very nice. Date on Friday. Calls from Adrian, Pete and Dave. No gym last night either, but instead took Pete out to dinner to try and keep him occupied. T² and then coffee. Home and bed for me – but not until I’d spent ages messing around on the PC, burning CD’s for all and sundry.

Woke today with the old swollen eyelid thing again. Great. Didn’t sleep well coz of a mozzie in the room – and that’s been the case most times this has happened. Is there some sort of link? Well I’m off to the doctors later to see. And then briefly meeting Gary to give him his CDs and then to dinner with Tony and James in Bondi, which will be great. Got a nice week lined up actually – dinner with Charbel tomorrow,; cooking for Dave Thursday; date with Jason Friday; Pete Lindhe’s birthday party Saturday and Bad Dog Sunday. Very social :o)

Wednesday, January 08, 2003

The week in brief so far...

Actually not much has happened so far so this will be quick and dirty. Ran at the gym as predicted on Monday evening and then cooked for me and Garry. Ended up ditching the life admin for some music mixing on the PC. Sat down for a few minutes and was still at it 3 hours later. Hmmm. Was really pleased with the results though - got about 25 mins of good stuff laid down and still a few ideas left yet. Am mixing new electro sounding stuff with a few 80s tracks and it seems to be working. The main difficulty is that as they're not necessarily dance tracks it's much harder to seque in and out of tracks. I'm getting there though, and I'm starting to understand what it must be like to DJ. There was about a 15 minute period when I had a couple of epiphanies about the perfect track to play next and the feeling of vindication as they worked in perfectly was fantastic. Real butterflies/adrenalin stuff. Also knowing in my head that a couple of tracks would work but not getting it straight away - and persevering until you get it right - good stuff. Not sure I'd have the balls to do it live and with vinyl, but I guess it's about practice and confidence. Dave the DJ said I should be a Dj in that I had an arrogance about wanting to inflict my music on other people. In that he's right - and so when it's done and ready I'll be sending copies to anyone that's interested!

A quiet day at work yesterday and then gym again - run, chest, abs. Home to leftover pasta and then more messing around on the internet. Today was ridiculously hot and humid. Skipped up to Mascot to break up the day and now it's off for a swim with Gary. Then dinner and hopefully birthday drinks with Pete if he ever calls. Am lining up lots of dinners and stuff for the rest of this week and next as it's going to be a while before I see everyone again. Well it's almost a month! And trying desperately to organise the time in the UK too...

Monday, January 06, 2003

Oh, and I haven't forgotten the promised 2002 in review and hopes and aspirations for 2003. Keep your eyes peeled!
Already it’s well over 5 days past New Year and I’ve not blogged a jot. Or jotted a blog to be fair. So, here goes. Welcome to 2003…

We did indeed get let out early on New Year’s Eve – around 3pm in fact. However I’ve packed such a lot into the last few days that I can’t actually remember what I did that afternoon! Actually I remember – I did go to the gym and I think I did try for a disco nap but only managed about 30 mins… Finally I got myself organised and headed to R’n’R’s for the fireworks. Arrived smack on 9pm and up to the roof we went. And stayed. For about 30mins of nothing. Until we found out they’d been cancelled due to wind. Or some such nonsense. Russ had gone to Tim’s but Rich and I didn’t really want to so we grabbed Keith (Russ’s mate from Perth) and headed down to the Shift at around10.45pm. We’d decided to eschew Pride (Gold theme; girlie music; girlie, mixed crowd; ticket price $95) for Indulgence (Leather and denim; harder/hard music; older, predominantly male crowd; ticket price $25). I wasn’t 100% convinced as often those parties are a bit too full on and the music in particular can be very inaccessible. However I was more than pleasantly surprised and in fact had a riot. Walking in to the sound of ‘Shiny Disco Balls’ seemed to augur well for where the music was going to be at, and I have to say it was perfect for me. The DJs seemed to realise that New Year is about celebration and having fun rather than anything seedier, sleazier or darker. We’d also realised that most all our mates would be at Indulgence – and lo, they surely were. The party foursome of me, Rich and Russ and Adrian were aided and abetted by the lovely Pete and Crusty (my ex David Bassett) and Tim; and there were several others who came and went – Rod and Tony, James and Kim, Andrew and Tim, Alan Bright, Craig the vet (woof!). Too much fun. All good things must, er carry on and so once the Shift was drawing to a close we were up and off and at the Barracks. The frivolities continued long into the morning – I’ve lost count of who else came and went though Tony was a welcome addition to the fray, post Pride. Ah yes, and Brent. Mad. Great snogger. There was a slight hiccough in proceedings around midday, when half of our crowd left, in fact only really leaving Tony and Tim and I. We decided a beer at the Oxford would be good. Wrong. It was vile. Tony went on his merry way and Tim and I did the next best thing – we decided to go to Arq. However in the end we just went back to the Barracks until 3pm, picking up Triple F Steve on the way. Then we decided to go to Arq, as it was closing at 4pm – ‘just for an hour’. It was fun and in the end stayed open until 5pm! At that point we decided to just have one drink at the Shift… and were still to be found there at 9.30pm. Oops. How much fun? Tim did in fact leave but Steve and I stayed and chatted to two lovely guys – Dave and ? – until finally it was time to call it a day. Mad. Fun. One of the best party New Year’s in recent memory.

And so into work the next morning. Oh yes lovely readers. No respite for me. I somehow made it through the day and didn’t do a great deal that night. But I think I did coffee with someone. Somewhere. Probably. I seem to remember dinner with the boys. But where? Who can say. Friday was much the same. Work but not overly hard. Home. Gym as it’s always empty on a Friday. Stayed in! Yay. Played with some music mixing stuff. I need to put it all onto one CD though as currently it’s a bit all over the place. Watch this space. Saturday was a very relaxed day. Finally wandered into town at 1pm to meet Adrian, who was already with Rich. We wandered down to Victoria Street for coffee for a change in the sunshine. From there to truck for another coffee and to be joined by little Michael. From there we picked up Russ and pottered up and down Oxford Street almost as far as Paddington. Very chilled. We all went our separate ways for a little time before I bumped into Pete whilst eating at the Milk Bar. The boys came back but we finally went our own ways again. I had some nice pasta at home and then hit the Barracks much later. Drinks with Steve and Anthony and then the Phoenix. Fun. Some of the merry band were there – Dez, Andrew, John and Bruce, Murray… and the music was fun. For a change. Stumbled home in the early hours…

Sunday woke at around11.15am and it was glorious. Rich and Russ weren’t speaking so after a little drama I took myself off to the park to sit in the sunshine. Did Alfred Park and then Victoria Park then home. Gymmed with Andrew and then home and to the Palace. Nice to see Dave again after the Christmas break, bless him. Chatted with Dave, Brett, Dez, Neil until Pete and Piggy arrived, and then finally Rich. We hit the Shift and had more beers, snuck out for pizza and back for more beers! So much for a quiet night. Finally to the Colombian to drink a bit more and chat some more to the lovely Dave…

Home around 11.30pm. Sleep. No gym to get up for (though the downside of that is that I have a 6am session on Thursday – joy!). Into work today without the buffer of that Christmas/New Year relaxed attitude. However had a sociable morning emailing and chatting on the phone and I’ve managed to do all my work and still have time for this. Will head to the gym tonight for a run and then food and hopefully some life admin – it’s long overdue!