Thursday, March 27, 2003

At last, an interesting Big Brother story.

Wednesday, March 26, 2003

Remind me to post a bit more about Bad Dog. They really are the most incredibly parties. Hard to describe unless you've been to one, but I'll give it a go!
Honestly, you turn your back for two minutes… and when you turn around there’s a queue! I should be so Kylie. So, it’s two full weeks since I updated properly, other than talking about drag shows and women’s clothes. Oh dear, that’s suggesting a worrying trend isn’t it? Well read on…

Brief synopsis from 2 weeks ago. I did write this all down to update on here, but I’ve thrown away the bit of paper and the memory isn’t as good as it used to be. I’ll expand where I can (ooh er missus):

Tue 11th: Supposed relaunch at the gym. Ran for 20 mins and did some sit ups. Andrew Carfrae came over afterwards and we messed around on the music mixing software for ages. Fun!
Wed 12th: Work and then beers with Michael C briefly; coffee with Michael and Canadian John. Michael left, Gary arrived. Beers at Oxford. Gary left. John and I had Thai. Very nice!
Thu 13th: Work then rock climing with Allan at Sydney University. Fantastic fun! I’d never done it before and would very much like to do it again very soon. We had dinner at Don Don after, in a shaky heap.
Fri 14th: Woke up and ached for a while. Work was fun as I’d not really cut my hair since mid-Jan and we had a Hair Shave Day for Leukemia. I had my hair cut into a mohican and dyed blue. Nice! It was kind of interesting it has to be said. Garry came home and tidied it up for me. I know I went out, but not sure where. That’s kind of scary. Probably the Shift. Hmmm…
Sat 15th: Dave called and asked if I fancied a run. So I headed up to Potts Point and then we ran to the Opera House and back. Knackered, we sat around at Dave’s and read the papers. And had coffee. And had kangaroo burgers and beer. Fantastic. Dinner later with Gary and Gregg – first time we’ve seen him since his BBQ in December! Nice, though he thought Gary and I had started seeing each other… From there to Rich and Russ’s for goodbye drinks for American John. Fun. Lots of laughing. Until we were crying. Particularly Gary and I. Then to Phoenix for more laughs. I was still sporting mohican and had gone out wearing an England soccer shirt just for the effect! It worked. A guy at the Phoenix asked me to take him home and shag him, whilst still wearing the shirt. What’s a bloke to do?
Sun 16th: Lazy day. Messed around in the morning and then met Pete at the Green Park later. We hooked up with Dave and Dez and again just laughed and laughed and laughed. I was on fine form – not been like that in a while – I’ve really missed making people really laugh out loud. Also fun for someone licking my ring at the bar (no, really – but the eyebrow thing sometimes has that effect on people); and for a big guy coming over to me and snogging, and then asking what he could call me. I took one look up at him and just said ‘You can call me Daddy!’. Oh how we laughed. On to the Shift where the fun continued. Had no end of fun with a $10 note (you had to be there) and then lots of singing and dancing. Stumbled home with Dave where we watched two episodes and fell into bed. More ring licking. :o)
Mon 17th: Woke around 8am and decided I should go home. Into work finally about 10 minutes late. Oops. Struggled through the day the over to Dave’s at 7.30 pm as he’d previously invited me over to his ex Mark’s for dinner and Buffy. I also borrowed Buffy Series 1 on DVD as I’ve always wanted to watch the whole lot from the beginning. Nice night. Met Megan and Genno too. Lovely girls.
Tue 18th: It was all a bit much and I woke feeling crap. Phoned in sick. Good move. Spent the day pottering, tidying, watching Buffy and having a discreet liaison with a mate in his office. On the sofa. Fun!
Wed 19th: Work. Met Jason for beers after work at the Trinity. Nice to see him for the first time properly in ages.
Thu 20th: Work. Went for a run in the park on getting home. That was too healthy so met Pete for beers at the Colombian. Murray was there, and Marc and Bongo. And Allan E came in briefly. And Rich. Burger and home!
Fri 21st: Work. Run after work. Met Gary and Raphael in the Oxford which would have been completely vile were it not for the fact that the Daddy from the Green Park (Jason – another one!) on Sunday was there. I reintroduced myself and got his number. To dinner at Lure for fish and chips (yum!) and the onto the Palace. Jason also arrived at the Palace and so I’m sure you can guess the rest…
Sat 22nd: Meant to be meeting Pete to shop for bridesmaid dresses for Bad Dog. No, really. Ended up having coffee with Rich, Russ, Adrian, Gary, Pete, Keith, Tim and Ross. Then went shopping with Tim, Ross and Adrian and got the perfect thing… then home. Met Dave and Dez for coffee then we ended up at the Colombian for a quick beer and all we did was laugh again! Fun. Home. Wasn’t sure whether to go out or not. Eventually did – Colombian to meet R’n’R and Keith. Tim and Ross came. Dave joined us. Down the Pheonix. Home around 2.30am.
Sun 23rd: Up and Buffy. Got ready and Dave and Dez arrived. Vodka, silly music, SpongeBob SquarePants, beer, dressing up in women’s clothes. Pics to follow. The Bad Dog theme was marriage so we had Dave as the bride, Dez as his mother-in-law and me as the bridesmaid. In full gear. Yes really! Down to Waverley Bowling Club where we socialised in our frocks a while. For some reason Tim and I decided it would be a good idea to have a walking on our hands race at the party as there were organising some games. Now, bearing in mind I wasn’t wearing underwear under my dress and it ended up round my ears… oh you work it out! The most fanastic party in a while. Onto the Phoenix with Dave (via the Oxford with Brett) and finally stumbled home around 4.30am, having renewed snogging acquaintances with Brett (no, a different one!) and Ian.
Mon 24th: Had the day off, but was awake at 9am so Buffied. Dave rang from Sean’s at 11am or so and we hooked up around 1pm and had a fantastically lazy day. Coffee and lunch. Mooch around. Coffee. Mooch back. DVD’s (Young Frankenstein, Head over Heels) with popcorn and milk on the sofa. Finally round to Mark’s again for dinner, Oscar’s and more Buffy. Home in a cab with Megan after midnight.
Tue 25th: Work. Home. Food. Chats to Dave and Dad. Buffy. Mess around on the net. Bed at 10pm. Read for half an hour.
Wed 26th: Work. And up to date. Yay. Off to BBQ at R’n’R’s in – bugger – an hour and a half. Time to switch off the PC and head off!

Tuesday, March 25, 2003

Bad Dog. I never knew you could have so much fun in women's clothes. More later tonight after work. Be afraid...

Monday, March 17, 2003

Fun weekend. More laughing than in a while - proper 'laugh until you cry' laughing. Haven't had that in a while. More please. Full update to come.

Thursday, March 13, 2003

Wednesday, March 12, 2003

OK. This is something that occurred to me on the train yesterday and I didn't get chance to blog it yesterday. I'm wondering if this'll start a meme but if so I'm not sure I want to put my hand up to say that I started it. I was listening to ABC's fantastic How To Be A Zillionaire from 1985, as there's a track called 15 Storey Halo that I've been trying to mix into some other stuff for my 'songs from now and then' stylee mix CD. However as it came on yesterday another thought struck me, and it was this. If I were ever to do drag (unlikely I think, but living in Sydney you should never say never) this is the song I'd love to do drag to. If you know the number, then you might be able to see (hear) what I mean. If you don't know the song, try and find it somewhere and listen to it with parading drag queens in mind. It's almost perfect - big, bold, brassy, upbeat and so almost overproduced you're left breathless by about halfway through the song (when the barbershop quartet harmonies kick in - I told you it was almost perfect!). It kicks off with a stomping beat, followed by some audacious brass stabs and a few Latin tongue-rolling rrrrrrrrrrr's. The bass rolls in like thunder in the mountains (though look where that got Toyah these days) and we're off. It's almost a big band style number updated for the 80s but still sounding good today. I'd be happy to hear it out in a club (but that's probably just me!).

"Bottle blondes and beachboys might marvel at the size
But honey something that big you know the best don't advertise
Has no-one ever told you you gotta body build to last?
But with that 15 storey deadstop you're going nowhere, and fast
10-20-30-40! 15 storey halo! 10-20-30-40! 15 storeys high!
10-20-30-40! 15 storey halo! 10-20-30-40? 7 miles wide! 7 miles wide!"

Great drag queen lyrics. I can picture the dance steps (lots of tap as you back away, fingers snapping), the hand movements (I wonder what you could do for 7 miles wide for a drag performance??) the whole shebang (no, not Ricky Martin. But then again... it's kind of Latin-y...). 2 minutes in and the song's still bowling along at 100 miles an hour at this point (you'd have to be a fit drag queen believe you me) and then we get a bit of a change. We drop down to an almost spoken next bridge:

"And so you meet this guy a regular Galahad
A real house-trained barbarian
And so you drop him like a bad habit
But anything that comes along you grab it (you grab it!)!"

This is sung with close harmonies and the song explodes again on the final "you grab it!" building up into a huge crescendo followed by some repeated lyrics and harmonies backed by sweeping synth chords as the song finally loses some of it's energy and calms to a much slower end (I'm not surprised, it's probably knackered at that point - if I were dancing to it I know I would be!!). It would probably need to fade just after the crescendo in reality as I think 5'30" is probably a little too long for a drag number. Maybe not. Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself, as it's not like it's going to happen is it? Is it?? Is it??? Maybe I should offer to produce it for some local drag queens - I kid you not there's so much oomph in that song it'd knock any crowd dead.

So, if you were to do drag (or have done), what song would you do it to and why? Comment away please.

Tuesday, March 11, 2003

In a moment of realised illiquidity this morning, I grabbed a handful of coins as I fled the house to enable me to buy breakfast. I really wanted coffee, juice and toast. The total of all of that at the cafe downstairs? $6.00. The total of my change? $6.10. :o) Happy Jan.
OK. A quick round up to bring us up to date on this autumnal Tuesday morning. Wednesday did end up to be a night of cleaning and tidying. We've heard nothing from the real estate people other than them leaving their card so am assuming all was OK with the inspection. Thursday night... ah yes. Very quick beer with Jason and Tim (and Garry as it turned out) at the Colombian before going over to Rich and Russ's for food and Charmed. Ah, back in the old routine (except for this series being shown on a Thursday instead of Tuesday). Russ did a great Thai meal - fishcakes and then chicken curry and the four of us (Steve Atkins joined us) got pleasantly squiffy on some nice wine too. Marvellous. Friday was more of the same. I had coffee with one of the many David's at Comity at 6pm, before joining Rich and Russ and Adrian at the Courthouse for cheap food, whence we wandered and coffeed and wandered some more. Home at 10.30pm and that was that! PC/music stuff and bed around 1am.

Le weekend: fairly uneventful. I had such events planned, but they weren't to be. The gym relaunch. Woke up, felt a bit woozy so decided not to go. Finally headed down to meet R'n'R, Adrian and Michael in Kings Cross for a bit of a change of locale. We had a bit of a mooch round and then had another coffee down there. It was all getting a bit much so we adjourned back to Rich and Russ's and then took a drive out to have a look at progress on their new flat and a quick shop at Marrackville. (It was all go, trust me). Home and veg out. Steak, the Bill, chats to Garry - which culminated in a late let's go out for beers. Out at 11.30pm, home again at 2.30am - Shift and very, very briefly to the Phoenix (so not in the mood).
Sunday was meant to be healthy too. I failed. Jason texted me at 8.30am to say he had no balls and did I have any? Tennis was off then. We decided to play later and both went back to sleep. I woke at 11.15am and waited for him to call with rearranged time. He finally called at 3.30pm, by which time I'd messed around with music and the PC, and turned down an offer to go to the movies. (I should have gone!). Jason then found out that the courts were all booked and so that was the end of that! Bored by this point I did the only sensible thing and went off for an internet shag. Of course as soon as I turned my phone off, the calls came flooding in... Pete, Dave, Rich - all wondering about catching up for beers. Bugger. Hey ho. In the end I met up with Pete and R'n'R in the Shift. Canadian John was there too. Fun night. Home not long after midnight.

Yesterday. Got a couple of dullish days at work. Concentrating on re-setting up my flights (all my flights changed numbers and so all my special eventing parameters become invalid and need re-doing) to perform in certain ways. Very systemsy. Very monotonous. Should alleviate some of the day to day grunt when all's done though. More mixing last night - should have a couple of CDs ready to launch on my friends very soon. One's a mix of 80s/new electroclash stuff, the other is recent dance stuff. Looking forward to feedback! Had a good long chat with Dave about Buddhism and hiking; caught up with UK mates on the net; stumbled on an old work colleague too - most bizarre. Stayed up too late. Tired now. Sore eyes - and lots of computer work today. Joy.

Monday, March 10, 2003

Hmmm - I'm not sure which is the more grey: the rain-filled sky or my overdue for a haircut hair :o)

Thursday, March 06, 2003

My opening gambit (and no, that's not something Joanna Lumley ever said to Gareth Hunt in an episode of the Avengers in answer to the question "Where shall I put my hand Purdey?") on the last post prompted a surge of comments. Well one. Recently, that classifies as a surge. David spotted my Undertones lyric and it sent him into a flurry of nostalgia. This give me an excuse to do two things: also get nostalgic and remember just how good the Undertones were - go see their official website and remember such classics as It's Going to Happen, Julie Ocean, Jimmy Jimmy etc; and sneak in a link to The Jeevas, my nephew Andy's band fronted by former Kula Shaker frontman Crispian Mills. There is a reason for the link - I caught the Jeevas live whilst back in London recently and they opened the set with You've Got my Number (soon to be appearing on their forthcoming long player). I'd not heard those opening bars for a number of years, but I knew instantly what the song was and it sent shivers down my spine. The crowd went wild :o)

Wednesday, March 05, 2003

Wednesday week she loved me. Wednesday week never happened at all...

Dull, duller, dullest. Having the greatest of difficulty getting back into the swing of things since holidaying in the mother country. It's no great desire to come back - not at all, but more of a general fuck-you to all things routine and mundane. Bored of work, bored of things outside of work, no cash, no enthusiasm. I can only seem to find the energy to sit around and discuss how dull I'm finding everything. It'll pass. I'll kick myself out of it very soon.

Meantime, things trundle on in limbo.
Monday - dull day at work plus suffering the weekend's excesses. Food at home; PC play; attempt to re-mix the music files I'd lost; anger when I couldn't; read; sleep.
Tuesday - dull day at work plus still suffering the weekend's excesses. Food at home; beers with Gary on the strip; home; PC play; attempt to re-mix the music files I'd lost; partial success; read; sleep.
Wednesday - dull day at work so far. Plans to tidy the flat (the owner's coming for an inspection tomorrow); food at home; PC play; yada yada yada.

Bored. Listless (and you never normally find me without a list). I need to get back at the gym, and going on Saturday for the official relaunch. Catching up with people over the weekened and hoping to fit the beach and a game of tennis in there. Things could be worse I guess.

Monday, March 03, 2003

Tell me why I don't like Mondays. Coz of all the weekend minkering of course! Let me cast my mind back to Friday night and see what eventually eventuated. Coffee with Adrian was had Friday night after popping home from work to get changed and sorted. We then had another coffee as the street was busy being Mardi Gras time so we sat around oggling the men. Can think of worse things to be doing... From there met Jason in the Colombian very briefly before heading down to the East Village Rooftop Bar for Andy Palmer's 40th birthday. Relatively quiet on arrival, it soon filled up with plenty of familiar faces. We ended up staying until not long shy of midnight before heading down to the Barracks as we couldn't let it lie. Spent lots of time with John, Bruce and Allan, Tim and Ross and Dave. Drunkenly home around 2am-ish and fell into a stupor.

Saturday was a weird old day. I was in a weird old mood which kind of festered the more the day progressed. Up at a reasonable time to go and check out the new interim gym (ours is closing for 6-8 weeks whilst it moves location). Back to meet up with the boys for brekky as Russ and Rich flew in that morning from Bangkok. Great to see them again - it seems so much longer than 2 weeks days since I'd left them in Blighty. We did more coffee after that and then just pottered a while. I felt the need to lock myself away so was home by 3pm. Did lots of laundry and stuff and organised for an acquaintance to pop over to further our acquaintance... and waited and waited until finally realising that he wasn't going to show. Bugger. Hate that. Hate it even more when you're in such a vile mood and just want some good old fashioned uncomplicated sex to get it all out of your system. Any road up. So I just pottered more until a message came through from Reed - a friend of Tom and Jake and Richard from the UK - saying that we'd met at the Vauxhall whilst on holidays and that he was in town and did I fancy a beer? Cool. I'd already made my decision that I wouldn't go to Mardi Gras, and a couple of beers instead sounding like just the thing. Didn't see the parade either - think I was just a bit party/gay-ed out after all the clubbing and stuff back in the UK. So beers at the Shift and the Barracks. Nice to meet Reed properly and we had a bit of a laugh. Home by 2.30am for me.

Set the alarm to do Recovery at the Shift for 7.15am, but was too bleary eyed when it went off to actually move until about 8.15am. Got to the Shift about 9am and things were still relatively quiet. Pete and David were first to arrive about 9.30am and then more and more people I knew arrived from the party. It was good apparently. The Shift was also great fun. Spent time with Rich and Russ and then time with Gary. Finally it was thinning out around 4.30pm so Gary and I reconvened downstairs. Chatted to a few more friends and then Garry arrived. Gary left. A few more people arrived. Rich and Russ turned up. A guy called Trevor (who I'd met in a drunken snogfest at the Shift the weekend before Christmas) arrived. He asked if he could take me home. Who was I to argue?