Wednesday, March 7 2007, 21:28

One fabulous gay blowout and the holiday's over

And it's all over for another year... Craig, Greg, John, and I watched the Mardi Gras parade on Saturday from the comfort of my company's offices on Oxford Street: Ruairi, Ronan and friends in the Surf Life Savers, Scott and Sam with the Sydney Convicts Rugby team, and Tim and Bryan in their black Speedos with the Stingers, the water polo team. Around four hundred guys and gals marched as Kylie boys and girls, followed by a forlorn group of Dannii fans with placards announcing "The Other Minogue" and "I can sing too!" :) There were bears and catholics, leather queens and Democrats, orange-clad Guantanamo protesters and Melbourne firefighters in red hotpants and shiny helmets, Priscilla drag queens on a huge silvery high heel trailing streamers, Vicki Pollards pushing pushchairs, Federal police, NSW police, a float shouting "F**k homophobic religions - free yourself!", the usual John Howard lampoons, Boy George street cleaners, the legendary dykes on bikes, and much more besides...

This year the rain stayed away, so we walked home nice and dry and freshened up for the world-famous after-party at the Entertainment Quarter, where we joined over 15,000 other people who'd come to partay. This year we were entertained by the Freemasons and Boy George at the decks and Australian Idol songstresses, the Young Divas, who do a good job of ripping off and dancing up 80s pop diva favourites... It was great :) But for me, the main event was Toybox, about which I bang on at every available opportunity. Suffice to say we went home and slept for as long as possible before heading off to Luna Park again for an eight-hour session. This year the whole amusment park was closed to all but ticket-holders, but I didn't so much as look at a ride - I went into the main venue and stayed there, and a good thing too! People who went out for a breather had to queue for at least 40 minutes to get back in!

Anyway, enough of that. On Monday, I took Craig and Greg on a cruise around the harbour, stopping for lunch at Watsons Bay for a bit of fish and chips and a walk around The Gap, a beautiful clifftop spot (and popular suicide venue!) near South Head, from where you can look out in one direction along the Pacific coast, and back in the other across the harbour to the city. Unfortunately it was a shitty day, and rain beat against the windows of our ferry, so I'm not sure the boys could see all the things Judy, our garrulous tour guide, was pointing out. We took shelter from the rain in the Lowenbrau Cafe in the Rocks before exploring Cockle Bay Wharf and then going to meet John at Summit. Craig and Greg had 47 floors of lift travel in which to do a quick shorts-to-jeans change before we were disgorged into the revolving restaurant/bar with a fantastic panorama of the city. We had a few cocktails there before dinner back at Darling Harbour.

It's all a bit busy, eh? Tuesday was a bit more relaxed - lunch with friends in Darlinghurst and a stroll over to the Bridge to see the view from one of the pylons, before a little drink at Opera Bar and then home. And before you know it, it's Wednesday - the holiday's over. I think it's the first time I've had the chance to show off Sydney as my home to a visiting friend before, and I was probably a little overzealous in trying to show off as much of this beautiful city as possible, and wanting Craig to see what I love about the place. But I think he and Greg had a great time... Their visit has made me realise that I've been so busy settling in here and finding my feet with new job, and new home, new flatmate, and John's arrival, that I forgot how much I miss the people I've left in the UK; I think my heart has done a great job of numbing all of that, but I've just had a great week - a short, sharp, intense burst of fun with Craig, and suddenly his departure feels just as sharp, and I feel like I'm at an airport saying goodbye all over again. Ouch.

Photos from Mardi Gras - I know I'm way behind, but they're coming soon, I promise!

Thursday, March 15 2007, 14:23

Chicken fatsu

Scott is returning to London tomorrow after his little Mardi Gras break down under. I just had lunch with him and Brent over the road from my office at Don Don, one of Scott's favourite restaurants. I've come out of there feeling F A T. My chicken katsu don was heavily HEAVILY deep fried. So deep fried, if they'd been fries in Burger King, they'd be King Fries. How do Asians stay so slim!? It's a mystery. Just like how I'm going to shift all of these calories (sigh).