January 2005

So, how bad was it?

The Shift wasn't too bad. The music had it's moments but the crowd was nice. It certainly wasn't what I would call the best New Years Party, but at least I didn't spend $100 to attend like some. Greig went to Pride party, which did cost him $100. He reported that it was a fun party with a fun crowd. Actually there wasn't much of a crowd so naturally they made a loss. But this is supposed to be about me - not him.

Anyway, I lasted until close at the Shift and headed home to sleep. After spending the day in bed went out again with Jimi to Queer Nation at Home Nightclub. Now, Queer Nation has now put their prices up over the $50 mark, which is probably the limit for me. Next party I will probably look at another event because I don't see the value in the price-rise.

It's a shame really. I like Queer Nation and I always run into friends there. This time was no exception. As usual I spent a lot of the night partying with Paul and Rishi. We stayed until the bitter end when we wandered around Darling Harbour in search of coffee. We probably didn't look the best after spending two nights on the dance floor, but then again neither did anyone else at that time of the morning.

I still had a bit of party left in me (I obviously measured it wrong) so I wandered off to Manacle and continued on there until about 11am. It was then finally time to stagger home and sleep.

I took the first week of the year off work to recover, which turned out to be a very quiet and relaxing time. I spent a fair bit of it on the beach at Lady Jane, where I met a nice couple of guys (who were not a couple) from Melbourne - Stu and Maurice. They convinced me to head out again on the Thursday night for a few drinks. Followed by a few more drinks. Followed by a few more.

It's Greigs birthday this month so I brought him a few DVD's. Leave me alone! It was about all I could afford at the time! Greig, Brad and I went out for a nice dinner at a restaurant on Norton Street.

Also this month is our annual housewarming party. Unfortunately, on the same night we were booked for a gig at GAS Nightclub for NOVA 96.9. Greig and I divided our efforts and he focused on getting the party happening with a huge amount of help from Jimi while I went to GAS.

The party that I couldn't make it to

I'm told our party was excellent. There were about 100 people including one of the neighbours who we didn't invite and would have preferred if he left. Greig did a lot of the food prep before the party and then Jimi took over the kitchen, running around and generally being an excellent host in my absence. I was told later that it is the ultimate in "cool" not to attend your own parties, so I have now moved up a few steps on the cool scale.

The GAS gig was pretty good too. Obviously it wasn't catered like our party, but the music was great. Christopher Laurence, and American DJ was playing what I think was his first gig in Australia. Everyone was asking "What would an American know about Trance Music?" A lot of people were expecting to be disappointed. We weren't. He played an excellent set of nice hard Trance. The crowd of 19 year olds went off on the dance floor and I went off in the tech room. Excellent.

I was also my birthday this month. I got DVD's too. I think we are all broke. Jimi treated me to a nice home cooked dinner to celebrate. We both ate far too much and then wallowed around watching TV for a few hours before falling asleep. Jimi also had an Australia Day BBQ at his house. It was a beautiful day and we all sat around burning the traditional snag and getting traditionally pissed.

While I was out shopping in Parramatta one Friday, I ran into Jameel, a friend ex of Singapore. He insisted that he was also shopping and not doing the beat at all. How could I suggest such a thing? He convinced me that I should get out more so the following Friday night we went out to Manacle (again?!) for a few drinks followed by a bop at Phoenix.

Now everyone has been telling me that Phoenix goes off on a Friday night. What they didn't tell me is that it goes off as a Lesbian club! We had a great time dancing with the girls there, but I think there were a total of about 4 males in the whole venue. For some reason I found it a bit disturbing to have a lesbian dirty dancing with me. I guess that they all sensed that I was no threat to their sexuality. The DJ was a bit over the place so we left at about 2am and headed up to the Shift instead.

The Shift was full of gay boys who thought they were girls.

Jameel managed to get himself picked up so I headed off again down to fARQ. Now, I'm not normally a big fan of fARQ, but I knew that on that night was their A Night Of Trance party. It's a mostly straight night, but you can expect the music to be good. I lasted until the club closed, dancing among cute straight boys. I was a perfect gentleman and didn't grope any of them, despite the fact that they were all begging for it!

I finished the month off with a massage by Peter. God I needed that.