So no post for a while

So no post for a few days and Mardi Gras was over the week-end yes you guessed it – another huge entry coming up…
Oh and not checked for spelling errors or anything as this is a blog on the go…
Saturday I actually managed to wake up kind of early. I added some finishing touches to our fantastically cheap Shoes from Woolworths and added some more glitter and sparkle. David arrived around midday and we set about adding more sequins to the already over the top with sparkle outfits. By 2.30 in the afternoon we sparkled from head to toe in silver and black with extra body gliter and crystal tatoos for effect.
We arrived at the Albion Street Centre and met up with the other volunteers and dancers who all had more silver than you could possibly imagine. I think Sydney must sell out of sequins, glitter and hairspray in the week before Mardi Gras. There seemed to be an inordinate amount flying around the centre while we all preened and prepared for the big event. We then made our way down to our designated meeting point and armed with our ‘parade participant’ stickers set off to see the other floats all lining up. There seemed to be hundreds of them
We had the Melbourne marching boys beside us practising their routine, the Albion boys and girls also got into the swing and the few hours we had to wait before the parade started seemed much more fun. [we did have a few trips to the pub and some champagne too]. Around 8pm our section started to move off and a cheer ran through the street. As we moved off it was hard to stay calm everyone looked so excited and the crowds were yelling and screaming support. As we turned onto Oxford Street I was amazed by how many people we saw.
Earlier in the day when we had gone wandering it had been busy but nothing like the number that had now lined the streets with their step ladders, milk crates and the like. Every balcony and flat roof along the route had people sprawled all over. There were fireworks a plenty and the crowd was raucous. The 45 minutes or so it took us to walk the route seemed to go in a flash. As we hit Taylor Square I realised that Oxford Street was just the beginning all along the end of the route there where stands of people who had paid money to be entertained by drag queens during the whole parade and have seating. All the money going to the Bobby Goldsmith Foundation.
At the Captain Cook hotel I was snogged a couple of times by a gorgeous aussie boy. It seemed rude not to loiter for ore but the float had already continued so I had to run to catch up. In amongst the hundreds of thousands of people I managed to see Fran too and have her take a photo :o) So soon you will all be able to see the lovely outfit
The parade itself is very well organised and at the end we even had our own parking spot. So we al bid farewell and arranged to meet at various points and times at the party. By now it was 10.30 pm and the party was just kicking off. Scally and I took a short walk to see some of the rest of the parade and then headed off to Fox Studios for what turned out to be the party of my life!

The venue is hard to describe if you have never seen Fox Studios. All I can say is that it seems to be around the same size as Euro Disney – or perhaps larger with a little village and a few huge [and I do really mean huge] rooms full of dancing people. We met a few of the people we had arranged to meet up with but also bumped into some we hadn’t and with the amount of people there that was astounding. Saw Brad again – kept bumping into him all week actually more on that later but for now I’ll try and describe the party. Probably no words would ever be able to describe the atmosphere or the outfits ;). I would suggest you just book tickets for next year and see for yourself. It was the largest event I have ever attended and there were the most casual bunch of peole I have ever seen. People wearing nothing more than a thong or jockstrap through to those that had spent many months preparing their outfits in lame and fun fur or leather and rubber, sequins and feathers, body paint and lycra. Everyone looked fantastic and I could have just sat for hours looking at people. Unfortunately there is a no camera rule at the party so there will be no photo’s to show you unless there are some in the gaypers here before I leave that I can scan in. The party went on until 10am but around 8 in the morning I encountered trough man which brought me down big style and although we had just made another group of best new mates who were giving us beers and joints I felt hte need to leave. So we headed off to the taxi rank and went home for some much needed shut eye. After a shower to remove the glitter of course. I still seem to have more glitter than is humanly possible in my hair todat and it is Tuesday morning lol.
Woke up late Sunday and could not face Oxford Street or the recovery parties. Why they call the recovery I am not sure as al you do is end up taking more drugs and getting more muffed. So I settled down with comfort food [pizza and ice cream] to watch channel 10’s coverage of Mardi Gras.
It was fantastic – If anyone wants to see the video we taped it so give me a yell! The Sydney Marching Boys did Madonna proud!
Monday was a bit of a blur really went and changed my flight tickets at Gulf Air so I now fly home via Singapore again – not bad for $75 for another 4 days on my trip 🙂 so delaying cold and rainy London until Saturday afternoon now woo hoo. Went to Darling Harbour with Scally and some of the AOL and ex-AOL crew out here and consumed a few bottles of wine at Pontoon before Bettina and Margy turned up for dinner. We went to The Clock and I had Kangeroo which was lovely and then went of roaming Oxford Street again
So today is my last day in Sydney I’m gonna head on over to AOL here and beg them for a job and then will need to be heading to the aiport for the flight to Singapore and another few days on the tropical island for rest and recuperation. This last 10 days or so has been one long hard party but I will certainly be coming out again next year. Hopefully dragging a few morepeople out here to experience the awesome parties and the parade of course but perhaps just as a voyeur next year not a participant.

*LONG UPDATE ALERT* (from Sydney)

*LONG UPDATE ALERT*
My eyes started to feel much better by Tuesday night so I put my glasses on and went into Oxford St to meet Brad and the gang at The Albury to watch Pam Ann. Unfortunately the rest of sydney’s gay population seem to have had the same idea so there was already a line at 9pm and they where not letting anyone else in. So Brad and I decided to go for drinks in the bar next door – soon it too was packed and we went for a wander with the others in search of pizza.
Brad gave me a lift back to Redfern where I am staying which was nice – he really is much better off now he has moved back to Oz than he ever was in London.
Wednesday was mostly a shopping day – with an outfit to find for the Mardi Gras float we trolled up and down Oxford Street. We had already seen some trousers in Daily Male which are a bit sparkly [and very silver] but had to go check out the competition. An awful lot of the shops look like all they seel is outfits for Mardi Gras – either that or the Sydney scene is normally much camper than the London scene
After all that shopping we ended up at Cafe Comity for a well earned rest and drink – this country is so civilised – not quite so much as Singapore but…
In order that we did not spend the entire day shopping I dragged scally up the AMP Centrepoint Tower for some tourist sight seeing – he is too wuss to do the harbour bridge walk with me :o( something about being scared of heights. So as part of our centrepoint ticket – bearing in mind all we anted to do was go up and have a look at Sydney we got a ‘skytour’ thrown in. Talk about tourist trap aghhhhh. Okay so how many little films can you watch about australian history before you become tempted to throw yourself off the tower – should you ever make it up there.
We wandered around this ‘guided’ tour for what seemed like hours before we finally made it up the tower itself. The views though where well worth it – and I recommend anyone visiting makes a trip up. Sort of like the twin trade towers or the empire state in New York really.
Wednesday night was Barbeque night *lol* no really though Bettina, Linda and Margy had the barbie all fired up and raring to go – the steak was fantastic and the beers went down a treat too. Ice Poles for desert and hey presto I could have been a local [except when I went to the bottle shop for beers he automatically handed me Fosters]
Thursday was one of those mornings – well actually it stretched into the afternoon but in general we all sat and watched trashy daytime TV [which is as bad in Oz as anywhere else] and then watched the channel seven daytime movie – really trashy one about a ranger searching for some lost kid with the woman from terminator showing as little acting skill as possible yet again. Scarily it had the same terminatoresque voice overs too.
Okay so then we spray painted the $13 trainers silver to match the sparkly trousers and went off to do some more touristy stuff! I dragged scally to the Opera House which was looking a bit jaded actually. Looks fantastic from afar but when you get up close it reminds me of the Civic Centre where I grew up in Crosby. You know the sort of thing a concrete communal space with a concert hal and library with unfinished concrete walls and stairwells and dark wooden finishings here and there for effect. Allegedly the Opera House is due for a refurbishment which will be good. I never realised though that the entire thing is tiled!
So a bit more shopping followed this tourist extravaganza and we picked up a sparkly black shirt to go with the sparkly silver trousers. Oh and lots of body glitter and a couple of stetsons. In for a penny and al that! Oh and then suprise suprise it was time for yet another party. Thursday night being the Arrivals Party – a good excuse to get all the foreigners in one place. We met up at the Oxford first and then went to flag a taxi to Fox studios [seems to be the place to have all your Lesbian & Gay events] were we met Daniel a rather nice American whom we chatted to for most of the evening. The music was pants but that didn’t stop me having fun and it was after 4am before I knew it – so staggered back home around 5am this morning.
Off now into town to go and see if I can change my flights and stop over in Singapore for a couple of days on my way back – my neice is missing me already!
Also caught up with a few people today – chatted with Adam a friend of Spencer’s whom I am meeting tonight for a meal with his partner and also Jo my friend who moved out here recently and chatted to Andre who works for AOL out here – I realy want a job out here [No Sheena I am not joking]. So erm the next update will no doubt be after the parade and party so Happy Mardi Gras 2001 and look out for the Albion Street Centre 2001 a safe sex oddessey float and the two sparkly english boys handing out packs of condoms and lube 😉
*/LONG UPDATE ALERT*

WARNING: long post (from Sydney)

WARNING: long post
Okay well today is Tuesday and it has been non stop partying since arriving in Sydney on Friday night.
Bettina who I am staying with [and her sister Linda] is wonderful and so generous. She picked me up from the airport and took me out into town after dropping my bags off at their house. We ended up at the Imperial after a troll down Oxford street. The Imperial is the bar in Priscilla Queen of the Desert where they start out from. It is a wierd mix of small bars and a club area downstairs but not a place I would recommend highly.
Saturday B and her lovely other half Margi took me to Bondi for breakfast and then tried to show me how to body surf – I was not very successful I must admit . Followed by a trip to the shops. It was ‘Shop yourself Stupid’ a charity shop-a-thon here in Sydney for AIDS charities. So lots of shows, drag artists and the like on street corners and on the back of trucks. Ooh and a cute boy in a shower cubicle on Oxford Street doing a bit of dancing with not much on. Bought a nice new shirt with Velcro fastening which went down very welll that night when I met up with David and we went out for drinks with Kim and Matt. We got stupidly drunk – well actually the four of them where stupidly drunk when I arrived at Scally’s hotel room and I just played catch up.
Matt, Scally and I then ended up at Oxford street and eventually I headed off home.
Sunday I was not too well – a bit of a cold – I know how do you get a cold in sunny Sydney? Anyways stayed in bed for a bit with Max the cat and then got up and helped Bettina with her hair. Margi had started it with strips of blue fabric. Linda and I then had a rethink and did Bjork style bunches with the blue lame? [shiny blue stuff]. It looked fantastic but I do not think I will be opening a salon in the near future!
They managed to source an extra ticket to the Harbour Party – a very difficult thing to do by all accounts as tickets had long since sold out and the lines to actually buy them in the first place had started at midnight the day before they went on sale.
On our way to the party a car pulled up and a guy came up to us looking puzzled and then decided he did not recognise me. It turned out he did I had just had my hair shaved and was wearing my contacts. Brad I used to know in London – he went out with a friend of mine [James] – I thought he was living in Adelaide so had not bothered trying to contact him for the trip. Turns out he is living in Sydney and was on his way back from the airport – he now works as a trolley dolley for Ansett! He was also going to the harbour party so we arranged to meet up and catch up later – wierd co-incidence or what?
So I ended up having a fantastic night – overlooking the opera house and the harbour bridge with 3,500 assorted fags and dykes partying under the stars. It was truly wonderful. I cannot thank the girls enough or Brad for that matter
Seeing Brad was realy wierd – I will be posting that one to Meg‘s Strangely Familiar site when I return!
Yesterday was another lazy day really – went on the farry across to Manly with Scally and had loads of fun in the sun – after a quick meet up with Kier and Liam who are also over. Then went back and got changed and over to scally’s hotel again. Met Fran – yes another of the London crowd who is over for Mardi Gras and went out for Dinner and drinks. Scally and I ended up at Stonewall where he pulled within minutes and I danced myself to exhaustion on the podium [no change there for me then].
Woke up with swollen sore eyes and had to take a trip to the doctors – I have an opthalmic bacterial pathogen so am on antibiotics. Was supposed to be meeting with Brad today but have decided to stay in the garden instead and read. Then will meet up later at the Albury to see Pam Ann. We usually see her in the 2 brewers at home so it will be wierd to see her in her home town ofr a change – she has flown over for a one off Mardi Gras Special.
Scally and I need to sort out costumes for Mardi Gras too as Margi has arranged for us to be on the 2001: a sex oddessey float. So we will be participating instead of spectating – can’t wait. Hope my eyes are better by then.
Also gonna try and change my flights on the way back to spend some more time in Singapore and catch up with Naz.
Sorry for the extremely long update today but I have been busy enjoying myself offline for a change
Happy Happy Happy – and so blissed out it is untrue – I wanna move to sydney woo hoo.
local time of post – 12:46 – lunchtime – and hot as hell

okay so I am seriously

okay so I am seriously relaxed now and the days are merging into one big relaxed coffee shop/cafe experience. I am struggling to remember what I did on Monday and it is only Wednesday morning. This could in part be to do with the fact I visited the Night Safari last night with Nazir though. I have no real way of describing the experience but I’ll try.
First off my brother’s 10 minute walk to the MRT [tube] station was a bit off – more like 20 minutes. You can tell he drives everywhere. I was lucky in that Pasir Ris is at the end of the line so I could only go west so no chance of getting lost . Changed at City Hall onto the Line North and ended up at Ang Mo Kio. Now luckily while I was making these arrangements with Naz earlier he mentioned N9. So Singapore is great for another reason. Since the names may be difficult to get to grips with if you are a foreigner they also have letters and numbers to designate where they are so Pasir Ris where Alec and Linda live is E12 – the 12th station East of the city and Ang Mo Kio is the 9th station North of the city – come on London Underground sort it out for the lost tourists in London. I was amazed by how clean the MRT is – a bit like Washington DC’s Metro no food or drink is allowed so the trains are very clean. Also the MRT is part of the reason no chewing gum is allowed in Singapore. Anti-social elements were leaving gum deposits on the floor allegedly so hey let’s just ban it completely!
Okay so then I met up with Naz [after a quick call since I had no idea what he looked like and oh yeah suprise suprise I was late]. We hopped on a bus and chatted about his move to New York – lucky devil – I think he will really enjoy is as he seems to be trying to break out of Singapore. He has visited before so he knows what he is getting into. We arrived at the Night Safari and paid our dues to get in and then the adventure started. We initially took the bus tour all around and saw all the big animals and went through a bit of the rainforest there too. Anna our guide took it upon herself to mention that as this was night time the only animals in the Night Safari are nocturnal – like hello. Also if we were wondering why we hadn’t encountered any primates this was because they are diurnal. Okay so I hadn’t been wondering but now I know.
At the end we went on a few walks around the safari – and it is a big big place – it was hard to imagine all of that space inside the city. The zoo here has an open policy so the animals are not caged they use non intrusive barriers like moats and natural cliffs etc. The whole effect was fantastic and the company was great too. My favourite – well okay hard choice between the mouse deer – so cute and small, the sloe loris [I would have taken one home if I thought it would survive in Streatham] and the bats. We wandered through the mangrove bat enclosure. This was such an excellent experience. I have no idea what I expected but it was amazing. I can see where horror stories of bats come from as we watched a few hanging from the netting above and as they flapped their wings it could have been a scene out of vampire bats come to kill you [if a film of that name exists…] Naz pointed out a bat resting not more than 12 inches away from us – so close if we wanted too we could have touched it – probably not a good move though. Totally mind blowing.
Then we wandered over the bridge of suspense – okay wandered is a relative term as we actually loitered for a good half hour chatting filming etc. Smack bang in the middle of a rainforest with no other people around it was very very hard to remember you where not lost miles from anywhere but actually within the Night Safari. If I ever become a millionairre [any suggestions?] I would love to have a hut in the middle of that. Yeah I know it defeats the object but you know what I mean.

Before I go I have to mention the toilets too. Walk in the door and you are still in forest. Very well done the Night Safari Team and thanks to all the rangers who help make it happen. I can well see why Naz goes so frequently.
So tonight hopefully drinks on the [allegedly small] Singapore scene. So I’ll keep you posted. Oha and the whole HDB thing… Yeah I’ll mention that later I think this post is quite long enough already.

happy happy monday – for

happy happy monday – for the first time in ages a monday has been good. :o) Probably has a lot to do with last night though late night but fun.
just been looking at the MardiGras2000 website for ideas and things for next month. It all looks so much better than pride and mardi gras do here in London. I think it has something to do with the weather!
meg has finally lost the plot! I mean what does she think she is doing? Happy bunny today too I think though :o)

Tired and in bed but

Tired and in bed but can’t sleep. Went out last night again and I think my body clock has readjusted to party time. It is so used to me staying out until 3 in the morning that it thinks this is now th norm and refuses to let me sleep anytime before this.
Took Elric [the new straight flatmate] to the 2 brewers last night. He is almost as good as a fag hag except the man I was trying to pull was much more interested in him. Still we had a fun night all in all. I had my reservations but these turned out to be completely unfounded.
I have spent the last couple of days tidying up the flat and throwing out my old life – wel the papers and stuff you collect over time anyways. I never realised how living with someone can be so pervasive. I’m feeling much better now that so much is thrown out. Feels fresh and new shame it isn’t tidy too.
Also decided to throw a quick NYE party for friends who will be in London so will b having fireworks on the roof and lots of intimate chats with lots of wine. Sounds ideal to me to start the New Year the way I intend to spend it – catching up with people and being intimate.
Just chatting with scally who is slutting on gaydar [like I neve do :)] and decided I feel very sick [again] so I am gonna call it a night and go to sleep now. Have a party to plan tomorrow!