March 2005

Ahhh. Mardi Gras. This is a big one. Get yourself something to drink.

I've given myself an extra-extra long weekend for Mardi Gras. After last years fiasco, I've decided that I am gonna enjoy this one if it kills me (which is certainly on the cards). I took the Friday off before the party so that I could have a nice relaxing time with no distractions. I chose to relax at the beach.

I spent a lovely afternoon at Lady Jane laying around, reading, swimming and chatting to a nice young guy from Melbourne. I ended up giving him a lift back to the city where he was staying.

The day of the parade and party was also a nice quiet one. I managed a sleep in and then decided to wander back down to the beach for some more relaxation. This time Jimi came with me. Strictly speaking, he should have been working on his Mardi Gras float, but he needed a break. Unfortunately soon after we arrived at the beach it started to cloud over. I drove Jimi back so he could finish working on the float and against my better judgment helped him out for a couple of hours, just as it was starting to rain.

Wot Jimi was doing
while I was sleeping

While the Mardi Gras Parade went on, I stayed at home, had a nap, watched some TV, ate a nice dinner and generally lazed around. As it turned out, the weather cleared up for the parade and it was a huge success. Greig had been talked into helping out in the radio tent which wasn't too bad because it simply involved sitting down and monitoring radio communications between all the teams. I certainly didn't mind missing out for a year though. Actually this is the first Mardi Gras Parade that I haven't been a part of in quite a few years. I needed that little holiday.

So, late on Saturday evening I headed into Jimi's house for his pre-party drinks. From there we headed off to the Mardi Gras Party at Faux Studios. As usual it was a huge affair with about 18,000 people attending. There were five different dance spaces but I spent most of my night in the Horden where 4-strings, a Dutch DJ, played a 10 hour trance set. I loved the start of his set with a live string quartet playing on stage.

I did have a look in the RHI at about 1am, but it was far too crowded and the sound was shit. I couldn't believe that people were actually trying to dance in there. In any case, the music was a little too "handbag" to keep me interested for very long. I didn't even make it on to the dance floor before leaving again.

At the party I met up once again with afore-mentioned beach-boy from Melbourne and spent the rest of the night partying with him. He has dubbed me "Golden Boy" apparently because he likes my tan. That explains the "golden" bit, but "boy"?

We also spent some time relaxing in the Dome, where the music was a little more laid back but certainly funky. They had big soft cushions around the side of the dance floor which were great to crash on to every now and then, but you had to be careful not to close your eyes in case any of the patrolling "helpers" thought that you'd passed out. Next party I am taking a little sign to pin to myself that says "I have not taken GHB. I have not passed out. I am lying here enjoying the music."

Actually one thing I did love about the party was that there was live music. Real musicians playing real instruments! At one stage I was wandering around the Dome, bopping along to the funky sounds and stumbled across the stage with a band. Sweet! Good on you Mardi Gras for bringing live music back to the party.

Anyway, we partied on until the end of 4-strings set at 10am and then beach-boy and I headed home. I'll skip over how we spent the rest of Sunday.

After spending a few hours at a recovery party on on Sunday night, I headed into the Shift to go to the Indulgence Party. By the time I got there the place was pumping and I took no time to get into the vibe and lose myself on the Dance Floor. Earlier in the week I'd spoken to Master Dan who is currently working on a movie in New Zealand. He was keen to catch up with me at Indulgence so I made a point of turning up.

I lasted until about 7am at Indulgence before heading home again. I crashed into bed and spent most of Monday asleep. On Monday night Jimi wanted to drop into Manacle Bar for a few drinks so I joined him for that. There were far too many guys there who looked like they hadn't slept since Mardi Gras two nights prior. They were the ones just swaying slowly on the dance floor rather than actually dancing.

I still had another couple of days off, so I spent Tuesday and Wednesday back at the beach. Tuesday was a lovely sunny day and this time I got talking to a very cute young local guy. We finished our conversation in a more private area of the rocks. It was here that I made my biggest mistake of the Mardi Gras holiday. Here was a very hot boy, slim and toned, beautiful face and eyes, and very hot other bits too. I was hot for him and he was hot for me, and . . . I forgot to exchange phone numbers! DAMN! DAMN! DAMN! DAMN! DAMN!!!! (Tim, if you're reading this... :-) )

Anyway, Mardi Gras wasn't all I did this month.

The Goodies are in town. If you are over 30 then you probably remember The Goodies. Tim Brooke-Taylor, Graham Garden and Bill Oddie. Greig and I went and saw them live on stage at the State Theatre. Actually we had great seats, three rows back from the stage. It was a wonderful trip down memory lane with an audience full of middle ages people who also never grew up.

We went to Ma's post-Mardi Gras party, a regular event at his house in Newtown. It's a quiet little stand around and have a few drinks and nibbles affair, but was a good opportunity to catch up with people that we normally only get to see at dance parties. I dropped a couple of very friendly boys off to the city after the party before dropping in to see Jimi.

The Easter weekend was quite fun despite not being a huge party weekend. There is nothing open on Good Friday so I spent the evening at a sex party. Yeah, I know you aren't supposed to eat meat on Good Friday, but in my defense, I didn't swallow. I made many new friends, none of whom told me their names.

The dance floor at GAS during Alphazone's set.

On Saturday night we ran an Outside Broadcast for NOVA 96.9. Alphazone were playing at GAS Night-club and the place went off big time. I think for the first time since they opened GAS sold out and had to close the doors. There were people lined up down the street outside to get in and at 2am the venue was at capacity and no-one was leaving.

The music was great. Very hard, thumping trance with enough melody to keep things interesting. Greig and I had a little roped off area for our gear and we spent the night dancing there, occasionally remembering to check to see if we were still on air.

I was also impressed to see a lot more rampant drug use at this party. This was a good thing because with a venue packed to the rafters with testosterone filled straight kids, the chances of fights breaking out are pretty good. Everyone behaved themselves and the night went off without a hitch.

I finished the weekend off with one of Pete's wonderful massages. He spent almost 2½ hours trying to get my muscles to go places that they were never meant to go, and fixing the damage that I'd done over the last month.. It was total bliss and the perfect way to finish off a somewhat over-indulgent month.