I have no concept of time right now. What with Xmas, shift work, having Steve here and going out and about and getting ready for New Year I'm kind of at a loss! The next few days are mad. Working until 8m tonight and then straight out for a meal with the lovely Andy Carter and Sue from the UK. Out after that no doubt with Steve, possibly to the Imperial... Sunday probably a bit beachy, with Karen and Melissa arriving at 5pm. Monday is NYE, so no doubt running around before drinks somewhere before heading down to Pride - 10pm until 8am the next day. Frisky starts at 6pm that night... and then working on the 2nd at 7am. Oh lordy. Oh, talking of which, saw Lord of the Rings the other night. Go see it immediately. It beats Harry Potter into a pointy, witches hat!

Merry Christmas to one and all. It's Boxing Day and I've been at work. Christmas Day was fantastic fun - 10 waifs and strays up to Bondi for full turkey lunch with all the trimmings! More on Friday as I'm not working then until 2.30pm. Stevie P's here. Yippee!!

Work was fun yesterday - finished at 7am. Out for date with Martin - coffee, then fab thai food at The Three Thai Turtles. Nice. Over to the Oxford for a drink - already present: Craig, Mat, Mikey, Rod, Richard, David Bassett... etc. Martin very kindly dropped me back here and he's now going to join us on Saturday night. Lovely. Quick internet and to bed. Up reasonably early today and just sorted stuff. Phoned Dad, tidied and organised ready for Steve coming. Oh, and I'm now cooking Christmas lunch for 10. Yippee!! Should be fun...

Running out of time to do things. Not quite sure where all the time's going!! Had a great night out at Darren's on Tuesday night - think me, Garry and Craig were the entertainment for the night! Stayed at Craig's and then dragged myself into early work yesterday. Quiet night in last night - Garry stayed up here and we had pizza with Charlie, watched some trashy telly and a really good documentary about Chuck Jones - the guy behind the Warner Brothers cartoons. Up for work again today, date tonight!

Argh! Blog backlog. Since you've been gone (I'm out of my head, can't take it...) I've done the following:

Worked Wed-Sat inc.
Had a very nice date last Wednesday at the pictures. Saw Hearts in Atlantis. Go see.
Quiet(ish) drink Thursday with Garry.
Went for one drink after finishing work Friday and rolled home steaming at 4.30am.
Straight to a party at David and Jayson's on Sat after work. Minkered. Upstairs at the Shift. Didn't really do it for me. Pheonix. Naughties. Coffee at Adrian and Fred's at 10.30am Sunday...
Walk on the cliffs at Watson's Bay with Garry, Craig and Ant Sunday arvo.
Shift downstairs for Retro Sunday night. So drunk... crashed at Craig's.
Coffee on the roof terrace this morning. Brekky at Una's. Here. Sort out Xmas stuff. Made nice food. Ate it. Chatted Stevie P - he's in Oz. Yippee! Chatted Darren to get details of his drinks do tomorrow. Chatted Martin to arrange date 2 - dinner Thursday.

Now it's time for bed. More updates soon. Some really funny stuff from the weekend, but not sure how well it'll translate!

Bugger. My comments are down, and will be for the near future. Curses. Otis - if you're reading - please come clean. I can't be bothered to play games and find out who you are! You can mail me... look down the left hand side. Anyone else with comments - please mail me too, and I'll post the best ones...

I've not done anything other than diarise for a while, so I thought it was time to put my house in order and do something a bit different. CD review time. This evening: Roger Sanchez - First Contact. I bought this CD about a month ago and I've fallen in love with it, in much the same way as I did Daft Punk earlier in the year. I sometimes get odd feelings that a particular album will become a favourite and most times my instincts are right. I'd loved Another Chance and had been waiting for some cash to buy the album. In the end I just bought it anyway - and a wise move that was! In a lot of ways it's like the Daft Punk album - fantastic French-stylee production with lots of beeps, layers, knob twiddling and lots of noises recorded backwards to help stimulate your little ear drums. First up is Computabank - crossing early Kraftwerk with Stephen Hawking and like a lot of these tracks it builds and fades in a hypnotic, almost tidal way. This runs nicely into the aforementioned Another Chance, a huge single back in the UK not long after I left. This is the long version at some seven minutes... I loved this single for the 'Dumpf Dumpf' bits - where Rog breaks things up with a couple of beats before coming in with synth drums in full effect. A word of warning though - as it's the extended version those 'Dumpf Dumpf' bits come in at different times and you have to unlearn where to join in! Track 3, Contact, could have been lifted straight off Daft Punk's Discovery. It's almost over-produced, with layer upon layer assaulting the listener, and the first time it was on I thought at one point the CD was skipping as there's a clever little effect part way through that I now love. You Can't Change Me is Rog's answer to Armand van Helden's You Don't Even Know Me featuring, er, Armand van Helden! Funky and I think the next single. The Partee (sic) is my least favourite track. The intro is incredibly like, er, Armand van Helden but not featuring him this time! The rest of the track is a latin dance track by numbers with little imagination from Rog. Sounds a bit like Funking for Jamaica by Tom Browne. More like Daft Punking for Jamaica. Ventura brings to mind the funk of Cuba by the Gibson Brothers, but stripped down, re-jigged and unleashed on a new generation. Daft Funk almost, until it turns into an Ibiza chillout track for the last minute or so. I Never Knew starts with a string intro that wouldn't be out of place on a Craig Armstrong track and then steps up the tempo into another piece of commericial 2001 DTPM style funk - this time more Modjo style but none the worse for it. Guest vocalist Sharleen Spiteri (put your hand together ladies and gentlemen, she's all the way from Texas!) adds her velvety tonsils to Nothing2Prove and does a great job - the mix of her voice and Rog's music work well together and good that she's here as the track isn't something I could ever imagine Texas producing by themselves. And finally Esther, track 9 - Leavin'. It starts off slow with a chill out feel but builds into a track that has you dreaming of vodka and tonic on the balcony whilst on holiday in the sun. It would be the track to get your chill out going again!

All in all then, pretty good stuff. Great played loud in your apartment, great played loud on your Discman. Love it. What does anyone else think? Comment away...

If I were a work of art, I would be Pablo Picasso's Three Musicians. I am colourful and provoking, always looking to break out of the mould and to pioneer new ways of doing things. I have a jaunty outlook and although I am a bit weird, most people have some idea what I'm about. Which work of art would you be? The Art Test

I'm happy with that. Already most people at work think I'm crazy. Or on something. And I'm not! Unless you count the asthma medication. Thanks to Jonathan for the link (via Sparky)

I started this blog entry yesterday (it's currently 8.30pm Tuesday) but didn't finish it. Here goes nothing:

Well I guess that was the weekend then. I should be outside in the glorious sunshine, but my head hurts and I'm not sure I can face the day - even though it's already 2.30pm. Read on...

Friday worked until 11pm, came home and chatted with Garry (he was staying over) and played on the net. Bed around 1am. The idea was to get up at 5am and go and meet Craig (Garry's best mate from the UK) at the airport but in the end I was too whacked and so Garry went alone. I slept on until gone 9am and then hit work. Finished there at 8pm and went straight to Craig's hotel room to change so we could all hit the town. We had a couple of quickies in the Oxford and then hit Newtown - first the Newtown Hotel and later the Imperial. I know we had a great time. I'd arranged to hook up with Martin, a cute guy I met a while ago in the Shift, and he was there when we arrived. I know we drank way too much. I know a had a very nice time with Martin. I know he put me in a cab because I was so drunk. I don't know much more than that!! Except for the yesterday's hangover. Ouch. Sunday morning didn't amount to too much. Eventually I headed off to Bronte for our 'Welcome Craig' picnic. Shame the weather wasn't better! Lots of people there - Garry, Craig, Mat, Jason, Haydn, Mikey, DJ, Michael, Charlie and little old me! Oh, and Gregg Diddy Daddy arrived later. It was quite a laugh - lots of beer drunk and nibbles nibbled. I came home to change and then met Garry and Craig down at the Shift for our (now) traditional Sunday night singalong to the crazy retro tunes. Oh dear. We drank too much too fast and I don't remember leaving or arriving home or going to bed. Hence feeling so spaced out yesterday!

I did survive Monday by eating my new wonder food - boiled eggs and soldiers. The best thing. Thanks to a brief check up with Delia, I've remastered of getting my eggs just the way I like them - boil for a minute then take the pan off the heat and cover and leave for another 5 - white firm, yolk runny. Magnificent. I finally ventured out of the house at around 5.45pm and headed down to meet Garry and Craig again, and bumped into Ant and Laurie and then Clare on the way. As we were debating where to go for a beer, Darren Shaw rang. I'd met Darren once at Richie's about 3 years ago and he'd been given my number and so on to get in touch as he was going to be here a while. As things turned out, his plans have changed and it was his last night in Sydney (just the long weekend then...!!). So, via a few in the Green Park Hotel, we went to Stonewall and met Darren and Jon and John. It was good fun, but ended with us drinking too much again, having pizza and me getting home around 1am. Not the best plan when you've to be up at 5.40am to get into work at 7am. I did though, and survived the day. Home around 4.30pm and I've done not a lot since. Coffee, toast. That kind of thing. Early night tonight as I'm working early again tomorrow. Though tomorrow night I'm on a date. That's a "date". Proper and all that. The movies no less. Get me!

Last night was fun. Worked until 7pm and then met Garry, who's just got himself a job starting in January which means that we can start and plan our house share. Yippee! Got some cash from the ATM and found $50. Double yippee!! So I paid for the evening - lots of beers and an indian later we came home and fell unconscious after a bottle of wine and a play on the internet. This morning we've done the same but had bacon, eggs, mushrooms, toast and pots of tea. Fantastic!!

Friday morning. Getting into this shift pattern thing (see roster down left hand side). Tuesday was great - finished at 3.30pm and then did all my Christmas shopping in one fell swoop at Borders! Well why not... Met Garry for impromptu beers at the Oxford and a good time was had by all. My dream Tuesday night is a bit vague now, but it involved me playing football for a top flight team, in the return leg of something like a Champion's League match. It was meant to be somewhere hot, but the pitch was waterlogged - but only around the edges. Can't remember much more than that, except for afterwards I was due to get a massage by someone called Beong Bong, which brought to mind tennis and Bjorn Borg! I think there's something in the water...

Those regular Minkered... readers out there might remember me harping on about this some months ago. This has now been well surpassed by my three guys at the Illy coffee shop in the MLC Centre in downtown Sydney. It's a place I used to go sometimes when I lived here before, but now with working at Borders it's the best coffee nearby by a long shot. So in the first week I went a couple of times and got my order and by week two, when I went about 4 times, they knew me, where I worked and what my order was. We like that. Also, one of the guys is very sexy - though he's the least communicative. Until this week, when he was really friendly too. Fantastic. I went the other day and they gave me a Portuguese Tart for nothing. And I do like a good tart... Bless 'em. I know they do it with everybody, but it does make me feel incredibly welcome and local and they'll get my money every day as a consequence!

Tired again - two days of 7am starts, though I have finished at 3.30pm both days. Remind me (in the morning, not in until 10.30am) to tell you about the coffee shop, my dream (football! massage! tennis!) and whatever else pops into my head about the last couple of days...

More blushing. Someone named Otis left a comment on Saturday saying I was cute. He thought. I have no idea who Otis is. Can anyone enlighten me?

And now I'm blushing. Thanks David!

After the walk we hit Food Game for coffee with Pete and Paul, Adrian, Fred and Mat. Nice to catch up with everyone. Then it was time for beers in the Oxford followed by more beers in the Shift. Me and Mat adjourned for a quick Indian before going back for more. Ay ay ay! Finally stumbled home around 3am and crashed until 9.30am. Pottered this morning and then Harry Pottered this afternoon. Caught Karen online and had a chat to her. Met Garry and Adrian for dinner and then back here for a couple of glasses of wine and early bed - got to be at work at 7am tomorrow. Yikes.

Quietish weekend so far... except for the opening of the shop. Mad! Absolutely packed. It's a bookstore! It's madness! It's madness! It's a bookstore! Bookstore madness!! We were fun off our feet from the moment the store opened at 5pm until it closed at 10pm. Good to see everything come together and at 4.55pm the place looked incredible. Never will it do so again...

We finally left the store at 11.35pm and loads of us hit the pub. Drunken and fabulous. DJ was very ill, bless him... I crawled home at about 5.45am (no, really!) and the was up again at 9.30am as I was working 11am-8pm. Work was much more laid back yesterday - I spent a lot of time on information and restocking all the front of store displays. Generally people coming into the store were lovely. Long may that continue! Back here with Garry and we just had a quiet one. Played on the PC, watched The Craft, listened to music and so on and had boiled eggs and soldiers :o)

Crashed until about 10am this morning and haven't done much today. More PC play, more music downloading, a quick minker update. Heading out for a long walk which will culminate in coffee and eventual beers...

Just realised that by the time I get home tonight it'll be December. I am so not ready for Christmas!

Yay! It's Friday at just before 11am, and for the first time in what seems like aeons I'm not at work and it's not Sunday and I'm not trashed somewhere!! Though of course the one day I get to sleep in, Stevie P chooses to ring at 8.15am, bless him. Was lovely to speak to him and can't wait to see him in 3 weeks time! So, Borders opens later today - 5pm to be precise. I'm working 2-11pm, though may go in a little bit earlier than that to lend a hand. Keen or what? It's a bit like that though - one big happy family. I've said how nice the people are, and it's true. And it's more like being back at uni than anything - lots of new people thrown together with one thing at least in common - well more really I suppose. We're all workmates, all enjoy music and books and it seems to me, I've landed with a group of the most non-bookstore stereotype bookstore employees you could wish to meet! Fun, social, mad... I think there are going to be some wild nights out ahead!

So, we were in training from day one - I've worked in retail for HMV (for 3 months, 7years ago) but not since. We went through the whole bookstore thing, how Borders operates, what it considers its competitive advantage etc. And then we got down to dusting. Really. That was the first day. The place was full of construction workers and so we cleaned. Then the books came. Boxes of books. Palettes of boxes. Trucks of palettes. We stock in the region of around 190,000 different titles - and there's a lot more than one of most titles. God alone knows much stuff we've shifted over the ensuing almost 3 weeks. A lot. We ached from shifting boxes. We had a laugh. We learned. We worked long, long hours. And suddenly it's opening day and it seems like I can't remember life before Borders! Also, at least until Christmas it seems, I'm not working on music. I've been given 'front of store' to look after - so all the displays of new books and promotions that we have on (Borders Best, 3 for 2 etc.). It's going to be fun but mad in the run up to Christmas. We'll see how it goes. Last weekend got incredibly trashed as it seems a couple of weeks of working 60+ hours and a couple of beers are a great way to get smashed! Think I was almost delirious! Fun though. Drunken pool table snogging Friday, beers and flirting with Rod Saturday (very nice, shame he's got a boyf!) and then trashy singing with Garry at the Shift on Sunday. More of the same this weekend I think. I've got every Sunday/Monday off until Christmas which is great. Looking forward to getting back into some kind of routine too. OK. Time to go get ready. Update on the opening later!

It gets worse. 14 hours today. Bed now. Update after I've slept as promised yesterday.

Another 12½ hour day. Third in a row. Great. Time for bed. Sleep again. Full update Friday morning Oz time as I don't have to go to work until 2pm that day. Yippee.

I. can't. go. on. like. this.

Need. Sleep.

Please.

Tired. So very tired. Sleep. Worked. Watched last episode of Secret Life of Us. What are you going to do now it's finished? Proper blog soon. Honest guv.

I'm minkered. It's madness. It's madness, I'm minkered. It's minker madness!! Ay cararmba. This working 60+ hours a week certainly makes one up for a night out...

Tired again. Finished work at 9pm and so it was around 10pm when I got home. A vodka and tonic helped. Only 2 more days until a day off. Then working 8.30am-9pm Mon-Thu next week and then we open Friday so not sure what hours we'll do for that first weekend. Ay caramba. Pooped. Apologies for dull blogging. Normal service etc. Have you any idea what goes into setting up a huge bookstore? No, neither did I. I will tell you eventually...

I will update my blog. Honest. I'm just too tired. So far worked a 63 hour week last week and this week is going to be 66. Next week will probably be nearer 70. After that I'll be rostered to do 76 hours every fortnight... much more civilised! The people are lovely though and it's a great laugh. Now if only it paid a bit more...

I'm bushed. And haven't blogged for a few days. Hopefully tomorrow night will have me less tired and more able to think! Work still good but tiring. Weekend fun but no major stories...

Full update on work tomorrow. I'm too knackered tonight, and have spent loads of time trying to sort out my October archive, to no avail :o(

What the...?

Hi daveboyes@hotmail.com,
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As you know a flat-bottomed boat, canoe or kayak also serves as excellent means to effect an ice rescue. These craft can easily be slid along the ice until contact is made with the victim. If the ice breaks under the boat or rescuers, they have a good rescue platform to continue the rescue or retreat to the safety of the shoreline.

However nobody carries the boat in his/her routine and also has many limit to be used.
Thus I have worked this out as below ;



It's a storage on a car top, a boat, a sled and also a wheeled stretcher, too.
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Unless you request info, we will not send an email again.
Thank you and best regards.
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WildTop Manufacturing Ltd.

I'm really not sure I can live without one...

First day at work. Today, I've been mostly... dusting.

I did indeed go for a run on Saturday morning, which is why my legs are aching today. Had lunch with Pete and Paul and their friend Doug and then met up with Garry after that. Back to Bondi where we messed around here for a while instead of hitting the beach. Ant rang and popped over and we did the Brontë walk again. Charlie and Tracy were here so I knocked up an impromptu pasta feast and we had some beers. Finally me and Garry went back to Woolloomooloo and then hit the town. Gregg and John joined us in the pub and Gregg did the quiz I'd done for him - 17 out of 25. Not too bad. That means he has to do a quiz for me now... On to Palms for some trashy dancing. Charlotte and Tracy joined us and we all went a bit mad. On to the Shift which is a little blurry and then I hit the Pheonix for more dancing. Caught up with Pete and Doug, Adrian and David Bassett. Finally got home at 8am Sunday. Oops. Was meant to go for brunch with Paul, but slept through until 12.45pm. Oops again. Felt bad about missing Paul and felt dreadful in general. Watched Jack the Giant Killer as it was about all the intellectual stimulation that I could muster. Vegged out all day. Beans on toast. Tidied a bit. Work tomorrow. Oh my god!!

Ohbejesus. So that was a quiet night was it? Lordy.

No word from the Borders contingent. Maybe I've scared them off. Alternatively this could be the shortest employment in history! Saturday morning now and a glorious morning after a few overcast days. Thanks Michael Fish. Going for a run in a minute. No really. Charlotte's promised me bacon and eggs if I do. Think it's worth it. Thursday night did nowt really. Watched telly with Charlie and chatted to a couple of people on here. Bed around midnight.

Friday woke at 8am after a crap night's sleep, fell asleep again and woke at 9.30am. One of last night's chats was with Gregg (Welsh diddy daddy) and we were talking about 80s music which has been a theme of a few of our chats. Decided to put together a short 80s quiz for him to see if he's as good as he claims. That kept me busy for a while. Met Garry in town and had a wander and then it was coffees a go-go. Firstly with Garry and Anthony; secondly with Adrian and finally (after a brief bus journey to the Junction) with Paul. Paul is a nice guy - we're hopefully doing brunch on Sunday. Then it was home for a night in coz I'm stony broke. Ended up half watching a crap movie (The Saint), half cooking dinner, half chatting to people on here and half re-learning fractions. Bed.

Right, off for that run. More later...

OK. Slightly scary stuff. On stats4all (my faithful stats package) you can find out the last 10 people that looked at your site. It gives the IP address of those machines last to view, as a number or sometimes (presumably depending on how certain organisations configure stuff) as an organisation name. Someone from Borders has now looked at Minkered... three times. Now, I'm kind of assuming it's Chris - the guy who first interviewed me for the job and who I know from meeting him via friends at Mardi Gras. I mentioned the blog at the end of the interview and I wrote it down on a Post-It which went onto my application. But what if it's not Chris? What if someone else from Borders is reading my blog? Well I guess they'll know all about me when I start on Monday. I am really looking forward to it - I think it's going to be a blast. Either way - does my Borders reader fancy making themselves known to me by either a quick mail or a comment after this little post? I thank you!

In the chat the other day to Jonathan I mentioned that a lot of the Aussie men were 'swarthy'. Not sure if that's just me noticing them as I like a bit of 'swart', or whether I should be drawing parallels between the fact that Oz is essentially populated by convicts, who are always portrayed as 'swarthy' in comics, cartoons, as film villains etc. Also I tend to associate 'swarthy' with hairy, though its definition according to the dictionary doesn't include that. That's probably the 5 o'clock shadow that's drawn in on all the cartoons influencing my decision.

Main Entry: swar·thy
Pronunciation: 'swor-[th]E, -thE
Function: adjective
Inflected Form(s): swar·thi·er; -est
Etymology: alteration of obsolete swarty, from swart
Date: 1587
: of a dark color, complexion, or cast
- swar·thi·ness noun

Either way, it makes for a lot of nice looking men to look at when walking round town :o)

Felt a little bit homesick this morning. Woke at 10am after finishing Harry Potter last night at 2am! Had to read the first one again with all the hype about the film - am really looking forward to it. Spoke to sister Sue online and caught Scally too - who then invited me and Michael into a little chat room together. Think that was what did it - they were talking about the possibility of Michael hitting London next month and I just wanted to be there. It's at times like this when Australia does indeed seem on the other side of the world... I also had nice chats to my niece and Jonathan recently, and Dave in Brighton and I see Danny on here all the time but it's just not the same. Particularly when my next planned visit home is 2003. Hey ho.

Done little else with the day. Brekky. Lunch. Laundry. Some life admin. More to come. Fancy trying to mess around with the website stuff though, so watch this space.

Well the pics came out OK - and I even did a little table in Dreamweaver to get them there! Little by little I will get the hang of this web site design malarky...

Yesterday was Melbourne Cup day here in Oz. Think Grand National. Everyone goes mad for it and for those lucky enough to live in the state of Victoria, they even give you the day off. Weird. It's a horse race for god's sake. Was at the doc's in the morning as I've agreed to participate in some asthma trial thing. Did that, posted a CD off to David K (yes, it's on the way!) and met Mat, Garry and Mikey for a quick lunch. In the interests of saving money, Garry and I bought the cheapest bottle of wine that we could find and then went back to Mat's to watch the race on the telly. No sooner had we arrived and cracked open the bottle than Ant rang to say he and a co-worker, Pam, were going to be in the pub opposite in 10 mins. Oh dear. We necked the wine and hit the pub and watched the race. It was over in about 2 minutes! Missus. Nowhere near as exciting as the Grand National. We chatted and Ant and Pam left and then suddenly we'd had 4 beers and put the world to rights. Back to Mat's and we decided to hit Oxford Street to meet Mat at the Shift. However we hadn't eaten so we needed sustenance. Now, Mat lives in Woolloomooloo - which also is the home of one of Australia's institutions... Harry's Café de Wheels. I kid you not. In a fit of drink-induced appetite we both shifted two pies and peas and lurched up to the Shift. Pool playing ensued, and then things get a bit hazy after that. Oscar (a guy Garry met at the weekend party after I left) turned up and joined us and I can remember Mat hanging off some big hairy daddy at some point but other than that...

I know I got the bus home. I know I bought and ate Milkybar. I know I collapsed in a heap on the bed. I know 8am seemed very early when I woke with sore head and throat. Spent the morning doing very little except drinking tea and suddenly I was rushing to hit North Sydney to meet Ian (ex-flatmate) for lunch. Did so - nice to see Ian, though he's having a bit of a bad time at the moment. Cancelled gym membership on the way home (it's just not convenient there anymore) and then met Adrian for coffee in Battuta. Nattered there then headed back here. Charlie couldn't be arsed to go to Coles (supermarket) and so we went out for dinner and had some nice Thai. Told Charlie I'll probably have to move out fairly soon in order to be able to eat regularly. Shame but needs must. Back here and vegged a bit. Spoke to Paul (from Friday) and meeting him for a coffee on Friday. He seems nice, and not mad - which is a blessing. Garry and I have decided that there is a higher percentage of mad people in Sydney, and most gay men are all barking. We fit in fantastically well...

No real plans for the rest of my time off before working again. Weather turned crap and been raining. Not happy about that! Might even do some exercise again soon...

OK, it's experimentation time. Davie's playing with images today children... I mentioned some of the digicam pics I took of the Sculpture by the Sea. The best ones are the flowers made of inverted rubber glove finger ends, and a rather mad pic of me and Garry reflected in a piece of sculpture that was half marble and half mirror. I'll try and get them to upload OK onto here - see what you think!

Mirror mirror, on the piece of sculpture on the cliffs above Bondi...
		Marigolds or marigolds??

Lazy day today. Up around 10am, brekky and bit of a computer play. Green rice again (I made enough to feed a small thrid world country) for lunch and then I decided to attack the problem of my COM ports being knackered. I managed to fix them so that I could link up my Palm Pilot again, and the digicam pics are now saved for posterity. That done I've started to sort through all my paperwork and have at least made a start. Time for some food now I think. Back later...

And suddenly days have gone by and I've not blogged. The remainder of last week was a relatively quiet affair. Garry came up here Thursday and we did a bit of a Bondi thing - sunbathing by the sea on the rocks, followed by the walk to Brontë Beach. This was made even more fantastic than normal because of the Sculpture by the Sea exhibition. I'm not sure how long the walk is between Bondi and Brontë, but normally you just look out to sea, take a peek at any cute joggers and avoid any dog poo. However Thursday it was transformed. Around 90 or so exhibits had been strategically placed throughout the walk turning it into a moving, living, breathing gallery. I took some digicam photos, the best of which might make it up here later, but follow the previous link to look at some fantastic stuff. As with all art stuff (in my humble opinion) some of it was a bit up its own art, but other stuff was clever, inventive and fun. The exhibition ends on November 11 and it looks as though they aren't updating the site with the new works until then. Favourites of mine? Difficult to convey one of them, but it was body parts secured under the sea so that all you saw on the surface was a face, two breasts, two hands and two feet - as though some great bronze god were floating on the water. Another really clever one was inverted snipped-off ends of Marigold rubber gloves pinned around rocks to resemble flowers growing in a rockery. Fantastic.

We arrived at Brontë needing food and so bought some chips. The next scene was like something from Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds as about 40 or so seagulls decided they wanted to eat with us. Or eat us, it was a difficult call! We ended up in a beach hut just to escape them. Worringly scary! Finally back home and chilled out and then I cooked and we watched TV and messed about on the net. Fun, and more importantly cheap for us unemployed types!

Friday we did the walk again after tea and mangoes here. Ended up having brunch proper at Brontë this time and by the time we got back it was becoming overcast. Finally down to town and changed at Matt's before heading out to the Oxford. The we hit the Beresford for Bears and then the Barracks for their 5th birthday. Fun, but way too hot. Like the Tavern in the old days! Lots of people were there we knew. I chatted to Paul a while (I'd met him two weeks ago at the Pheonix) and we snogged a bit... nice! Garry disappeared, Adrian was occupied, Paul had left so I managed to entertain myself a while...

Back to Bondi at around 9am and straight to bed! Slept until 2.30pm and finally up and down to Matt's yet again. We were joined by Anthony and hit the Woolloomooloo Bay Hotel where Mat ended up roped into a Guinness promotion, playing scalextric until beaten in the final. He was happy with his hat and t-shirt though. Then it was time for Anthony's friends house party. It was fun if a little quiet. I headed back to Matt's around midnight and slept.

11.30am we were up and about and ready for tennis at 1pm. Garry bailed out having gone dancin', so me Mat and Gary Jones played. Fun. Quick change and met Adrian for coffee and eventually dinner and then Mat joined us and we tried out the Lord Porter's as the new 'Beauchamp'. It's a nice venue actually - chill area, pool tables, outside area and DJ area. The idea is to find a place like the Beauchamp used to be - a friendly social Sunday without attitude. This place might just be the place to take over...

Home relatively early - 9pm ish, net, bed. Sleep...

Can man survive on a diet of green rice*, nutella on toast, tea and fresh mangoes? Well if there are no more Blog entries, you'll know that the answer is no. :o)

* Recipe details available from The Minkered Chef...

Grow goatee, grow!

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!

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!

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...

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.

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...

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.

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.

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...

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...

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...

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.

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!

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.

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!!!

One day before Sleaze. I'm so excited and I just can't hide it. I'm about to lose control, and I think I like it. Actually I love it!! Quiet beers last night post coffee with Adrian and a quick trip to see Pete and Paul. Me and Garry met up with L of D, the Steven's, and bumped into Phil and Dean (not Pearl). We also finally spoke to Blueybluey68 off gaydar, having threatened (both of us) to talk to him ages ago. Nice guy. Goes by the slightly more normal name of Colin. Home after a quick bite at around 10pm. Quick chat to Charlie then bed.

Up and gym. Haircut. I am the proud owner of a Mohican for the second time in my life. This one is longer and more effective. It gets launched on Sydney for Sleaze - tonight I'm wearing a cap! Home for lunch and stuff and in a while I'm going to meet Adrian for coffee and something to eat and will join the boys at 7pm in the pub. The weekend starts here...

May try and move Minkered... onto the domain the guys kindly got me as my leaving pressie. So, if there's a gap in communications, you'll know why...

And, no it won't be coz it's Sleaze weekend and we're all minker la-la. Oh no...

Just realised I'm way behind with the blog again. How is it that when I'm working I blog almost constantly, and when I'm not I go for days between posts. Weird. Or just that I manage to do things with my day away from the PC when not working, whereas when I am I'm almost tied to it. Anyhoo...

Thursday just afternoon. I left you Sunday morning (4 bloody days ago!!). I did indeed take a walk along the cliffs between Bondi and Bronte. And back. Shirt off. Got a little colour. Met Garry in town and we hit Adrian and Fred's for the BBQ. Nice people, nice time, beers and good food. Garry's first BBQ in Oz ever. 4 months? That must be some sort of record. After that we hit the Oxford and met the tennis boys. Fun. Drunken. Shift. Bag dramas. Pedro saved the day. Home around midnight.

No gym Monday. No way. Can't remember what I did. Some half-hearted job hunting (let's face it, I'm not going to throw myself into it until after the big party long weekend in now only 2 days time!). Some laundry. Finally into town to meet someone off the internet for a beer. Or three. Nice, but... Home, watched some telly with Charlie and then bed.

Tuesday. More strange sleeping patterns. Woke at 6am, but managed to get back to sleep so didn't gym with Charlie. But gym I did, later. Picked up Sleaze tickets from Peter and Paul, then had dinner with Adrian and Phil, who's up in town from Melbourne on business for a week. Home, telly, bed.

Wednesday. Up early and to the gym at 8.30am. Into town d'après and after brekky went shorts shopping. You have no idea how much trouble I've had working out what to wear for Sleaze. It sounds camp and queeny, but... I wanted a pair that were comfortable, had pockets, weren't too long, weren't too short, and went OK with a blue singlet. Easy you'd think. Oh no... All the surf type shorts are huge. I could fit inside one leg and they'd be down to my ankles. Not a good look. I looked at smarter shorts, rugby shorts, trunks, you name it. Finally I hit the children's section of both big department stores - David Jones and Grace Brothers (ooh my pussy etc. No, it's really called that). A revelation. Firstly the shorts fit - scarily for one with elasticated waists I can fit in a boy's size 8 or 10, and for none-elasticated waists a boy's size 12. Now I'm not that small - they must breed their boys big over here. Secondly there is a lot of really nice stuff I can buy - trousers and shirts and tee's included - and they don't have the Government Sales Tax applied as they're for kids! Bargain! Anyway, I'm now sorted. With my boy's size 8 Adidas shorts. Woo-hoo!!

Home where I'd agreed to do dinner for Charlie, Garry and Mat again. Decided on homemade crostini with smoked cheese, prosciutto/salami and cherry tomatoes drizzled with olive oil to start. Next was coriander roasted vegetables in balsamic vinegar, chicken stuffed with roasted red pepper, rocket and mozzerella and home made gnocci in tomato sauce. Finally dessert was raspberry and mango sorbet, served with a shot of vodka poured over the top. Seemed to go down very well. The others joked about employing me full time to cook. I'd love to! Anyway much minkering was had and continued, as we ended up dancing around the living room to Kylie, Sclub and Samantha Mumbler!! Bed around midnight.

Up again and to the gym. Weird dream last night about drowning. Was with Charlie, and Sue and Kev (sister and bro-in-law) amongst others. Sue had won some SMS pop quiz by spotting the connection between 3 songs (the connection being that they were all anagrams of the same letters. One was Oscar, making the reality of anything else being able to be made out those letters very hard, and I've never heard of a song called Oscar, but... that's why these things are dreams!!). I'd dropped my money near a car and the money had split in half and was mixed in with my old stamp collection. Then we were suddenly on a boat, backed into a quay. The bow of the ship was almost underwater, and people were swimming around chatting to us. I suddenly had the realisation that if the bow went under, we'd sink. One of the swimmers leant on the bow and sure enough, it started to go. Me and Charlie looked at one another. "This is it, we're dead" I said. I started to fell the boat sink and the pull of the water start to take us... and woke up. Urgh. Didn't like that. 6am. Started to go back to sleep and went back into the dream. Woke again. Had another dream about the pop quiz - I'd got 29 out of 30 (odd as it's never out of 30!) and thought I'd won. Wendy checked my answers and saw I'd mis-marked one and it was a 5-way tie. Then I was stood round a corner and didn't know the tie-break had started and so came late into it. We had to memorise a page with bands that had been playing at some festival - none of them famous. The one who could remember the most would win. One of the bands had a very long name and I started to try and memorise it, suddenly realising it would make more sense to remember more of the shorter named bands. Then I woke. Odd.

Back to the flat. Email and blog. Job stuff. Meeting Adrian for coffee later and then maybe a quick beer. Nothing too mad as we're saving ourselves for the weekend. Yeah right...

Up early. Again. Coffee. Left Adrian to do his thing and hit Oxford Street for a banana smoothie. Phil ended up joining me by chance, as he happened to be walking by. Garry finally joined us too. All this by 9.45am. Toast and coffee and then me and Garry hit Paddington and met Claire. We hired roller-blades and Charlotte joined us in Centennial Park. Fun, fun, fun!! We togged up near the car, which meant we had to negotiate the downhill road to the blading path. Whilst doing this we were passed (in cars) by not one but two Elvis impersonators. Strange. We finally made it to the path, just in time to see the Elvises (Elvi?) getting out of their cars and start to walk around. One Elvis only got as far as bellowing out "You ain't nothing but..." before one girl, unsteady on her blades, shrieked in fright, lost her balance and fell into a crumpled heap. Never seen anyone Hound-dogged to the floor before. Blading was great. Charlie is a pro, I've been once before and neither Garry nor Claire had bladed before. All got the hang of it, though Claire did manage to drag Charlie down with her when attempting a hill and bottling out, throwing herself to the floor to stop herself. Claire sustained a broken boot buckle, Charlie scraped her elbows. It was great fun, the weather was fantastic, the park not too busy - something definitely to be repeated.

One sweaty hour and a half later, Charlie and I hit Bondi to change and I met Garry and Claire back at the pub. From there we hit Fox Studios for a wander and some food, then we walked to Moore Park to watch some of the boys playing tennis (Mat, Haydn, Andy). That got a bit dull so we headed back to Oxford Street in the sun and after a bit of a wander had coffee. Suddenly it was 6pm and we were in the pub. Lots of beer, trashy songs etc. The tennis boys joined us. A few others were about. Olympic Yeeros for pizza. The Shift. A cab home with Claire. A cashpoint when I realised I had no money. Bed. And here I am, Sunday now 8.30am. Toast and tea and maybe a walk on the beach. Fantastic. BBQ at Adrian and Fred's later this arvo. And they've so much booze left over from the last party they won't let us take any. Shame...

Friday I did the gym again. Good for me. Back to Bondi where I made a half-hearted attempt at job hunting. Must do that big time next week. Finally went back to town and hit Adrian's around 6pm. We went and got some food and then back to his for a video. Adrian quite likes sci-fi stuff (as do I) so we wanted something along those lines. I half remembered someone (Danny?) telling me about a film where people crash land on a planet and then get attacked by things when it gets dark. I could vaguely remember the title being short either one or two words of one syllable. I searched, not hoping for success. I stumbled on Pitch Black. Yippee. We rented it... and both really enjoyed it. The plot is as described, though the crash also frees a murderer who the people also have to protect themselves against. It's one of the most effectively shot films I've seen in a while - good use of colour and filters to illustrate when the planet's red sun or blue sun is providing the light. It's very much in the vein of Alien, but well worth a look. Early to bed after that. Me, Adrian and the mosquitoes.

Right then. Sunday morning, 8am. I've been up for about an hour and a half. Again. For some reason, I'm not sleeping much beyond about 6am. Don't feel particularly stressed or anything, so not sure what it's all about. Bondi is quiet, the room doesn't get overly light. I do remember from living here before though that I always woke reasonably early. Maybe that's how it's going to be! And I've been gymming a lot, so it's not as though I'm not physically tiring myself out.

OK, dreams from the other day. Would have been better had I blogged them fresh, but hey... life's like that. Tuesday night's dreams after the meal with Tony. First one about Tony - no surprises there. Except for him having dyed his hair blond in the dream in a lovely bowl shape halfway down his head. We'd gone to get pizza, but the pizza place's oven was broken and the pizza wasn't cooked so we had to take it to his place and cook it there. Dream two. Me and Andrew Fordy (a guy I was at school with and not heard hide nor hair from or about for some 19 years) having pizza in what seemed to be a Pizza Express but with much more foliage than normal. We were discussing detentions. Kay and Tara (Nick's ex-flatmates) were trying to catch a canary with a fish net. When they did they were dismayed to find it not moving. On further inspection it turned out to be stuffed, and on little castors. Third dream. I'd gone to join a gym somewhere. Seemingly just off Wandsworth Bridge Road. In a library. I got up some stairs to find a crèche, and lots of people in a jacuzzi having cocktails with straws. Bizarre.

Wednesday night's dream featured Kay and Tara again. This time having a go at my friend Katrina. They were all out (with Jo - Kat's partner) and Kay and Tara asked Kat's opinion of some girl. Kat said that she didn't think she was very attractive. Kay and Tara flew into a rage and said that Kat shouldn't judge someone by their physical appearance and that it was all about what sort of person she was. I then had to take Kat to one side and go through it with her again, so that she got the message. Not really sure who that message was for! Odd.

Not the full Monty. Not even half a Monty. I'm tired and heading for my bed. In brief: Did the gym early. Ran 6K. Upped weights and reps. Got a credit card with a $7,000 limit. Yippee. Danger Will Robinson. Headed back to Bondi. Hit the beach. Burnt a bit. Finally met Garry at the Oxford and then to Mat's for dinner. Too much red wine and carbonara. Yum. Home at 9.30am as I was knackered. Bed by about 10.15pm. Strange dreams - more about that tomorrow. Also, strange dreams the night before that. All will be revealed.

Today: Didn't sleep well so was up around 7.10am. Tea. To the gym again. Rowed. Upped weights and reps on the other part of my program. Back to Bondi. Did stuff here. Ate. Ate more. Met Adrian at 4pm for coffee as it was his birthday. Back to his for "coffee". To the pub to meet the boys - everyone there. L of D, Steven, Gary (Boo), David ex landlord, Richard... but no Garry. Shame. Home via local pizza takeaway. Hawaiian. Yum. Bed as up for the gym again at 7am or so. I'm sure there'll be more dreams for analysis by tomorrow. Nighty night!

Time for bed. No sleeping yesterday afternoon after all. Wandered out and bought The Stand by Stephen King second hand for $8. Bargain. Back here and sat on the daybed. Charlie arrived home and made dinner. We watched some TV (Boston Public, The Secret Life of Us) and then I went to bed and read a while. Slept until 9.30am today and feel much, much better. Did a job application after brekky, sorted some stuff, met Garry, Mat and Gary for lunch, went to the gym, had my sunglasses bent back into shape and headed back here. Tidied my room some more and then Tony arrived to have a look at the flat. We had a lovely dinner over the road at No Name's (tuna, salad, potato wedges) and a couple of beers. The most relaxed evening I've spent with Tony since we split. Home and a quick chat to Andy B who still might be coming out for Sleaze. Hope so. Brief telly watch and now bed. Meant to be getting up to do the gym at 7.30am. We'll see!

Adrian called to see if I wanted to meet for coffee with Paul, Pete and Fred. So I did. Forced some raisin toast down me (barf!) and then me and Adrian wandered around here and there enjoying the day - both days were beautiful weather. Finally I joined Garry, Mat, Mike and Haydn at the Oxford and then another Adrian joined us as did Andy and Tony. Me and Garry decided to go to the Shift, which was OK. Not as good as the last couple of weeks, but I did snog Richard again - one of the guys from the other week! Tart. Home at around 10pm and bed. Much needed sleep.

Today's been odd. Not a good night's sleep. Weird dreams again. Another one about fuseboxes and torches - what's that all about? Also, I dreamt that someone I know died, which was horrible. Not saying who. Nasty. So woke before first light, and didn't really sleep well again at all. Up at 7.45am, feeling very ropey indeed. Diarrhoea back in full effect, so not happy about that. Have pottered, done lots of washing, posted some stuff, got some more information about a job that sounds good, bought some bits and eaten dry toast. Felt ropey all day and still not back to normal. A quiet night I think. Going to sort some more stuff now and maybe kip on the daybed for a while. Laters...

Monday afternoon. Another weekend of shenanigans! Must have a quiet weekend this coming one, as it's Sleaze Ball the following week and we don't want to peak too early now do we!

Friday I didn't make it to the gym as it took me too long to get into town. I need to remember I'm in Bondi now, and a good half hour bus ride from the city as opposed to a quick walk. Went to Adrian's as arranged and we walked down to Fox Studios to the movies there. Weird seeing it on a normal weekend - it's the place where they hold Mardi Gras and Sleaze and so it's normally teeming with semi-naked men. Not on Friday though. Curses. We decided to see A.I. Bad move. I've just reread Jonathon's review and I have to agree. Except that overall I'm not sure if I was that entertained. It's a long film and it maybe tries to cover off too many issues in one. Basic themes though are having someone to love, belonging and going in search of your dreams. Now for some reason all of that put me in a most sombre and pensive frame of mind after the movie had finished. Great for the date! Actually it was OK, as Adrian and I spent a while talking afterwards and over dinner. Think it was all a bit too soon for me having come here and having the flat/job/Tony stuff going on. Hey ho. Early to bed at Adrian's and no alcohol! Shock horror!

Up at 8 o'clock! Crikey. Said my fond farewells and headed for the gym. The trains over to the North Shore were cancelled (thanks!), so I had brekky and then headed back to Bondi. Garry came over and we went for a walk down to the beach and on the rocks at the north end. Frozen yoghurt and then back here to watch the most surreal film on ABC (the Aussie equivalent of the BBC). Filmed in the 70s it was probably best described as a film about a glam rock band and their groupies, but in a most Ealing/Carry On vein. I can't find any links on the Net to it, but it was so trashy it was entertaining, and best for me, Garry and Charlie to name the actors and actresses. Richard Beckinsale, Paul Nicholas, Roy Kinnear, Arthur Mullard, Hattie Jacques and others. Best of all when Nicholas Young came on (who used to be in the Tomorrow People) Charlotte nearly wet herself - as he's married to one of her best mates back in the UK and she went to their wedding! Fantastic.

We had some chicken and rice and then me and Garry headed to his before meeting Mat at the Oxford. Brad had called and so we met up with him after nipping out for a slice of pizza. So rock 'n' roll. From there we went to Palms, which is small and camp and had a dance floor playing trashy music. We loved it! And soon were equally as trashy. The need for more minkering manifested itself and soon we were at the Pheonix again. Lordy. Horny, hairy men and good music made us feel very happy indeed! Eventually one by one the boys departed, leaving me wondering where to go at 5.15am on a Sunday morning. I won't give you all the details, but I decided to walk home to Bondi at 7.30am. It took an hour, which isn't bad considering it's half an hour on the bus! Sleep from 9am until 2pm...

Yesterday up early and the gym again. Adrian called and I ended up over there for a snoggle about 11am. We grabbed a sandwich later and went for a walk and a coffee.He's a nice man indeed. Off to the opticians for me at 5.30pm and then to the Oxford. Big L of D flirt night. Garry joined us, and L of D's mate Steven there too. I ended up with a nickname of Sigourney. Don't ask. Me and Garry grabbed pizza and then had one in the Shift. Pedro the sexy barman gave me him number. I must be giving off pheromones or something. Home.

Today's been lazy. Not done much. Gym now and then to the movies with Adrian and then dinner. Think it's like a date. Wow!