December 2007

No sooner had Greig left the country, Jimi arrived. Greig of course, was holidaying in Thailand. Jimi was visiting for Christmas. Being the man of the world he is now, Jimi is currently living in Paris. Or at least he's trying to live in Paris. That's part of the reason he's back here in Oz.

While he's here, Jimi is staying at with us at Château de Shéd. When I say "staying", I mean his luggage is staying with us. He is ensuring that he spends equal amounts of time with as many of his Sydney friends as possible during his short time here.

To celebrate his arrival back in the country, he held a traditional BBQ at Bronte. There he burnt traditional sausages and we drank traditional wine. We also spent a lot of time looking at the other traditional boys who were also having BBQ's with their traditional shirts off. A very traditional time was had by all.

Rocky and his new boyfriend,
Bruce at Bronte.

Like I said, Jimi is trying to organise a study visa so that he can stay in France for the next two years. What he was intending to do beyond that two years, I'm still not sure. When he's not been getting reacquainted with the natives, he's been running around organising the various pieces of paper, DNA samples and first-born male children that the French Embassy demand for such an application.

But enough about him. This is about me.

Once Greig arrived back in town Ma also hosted a BBQ for just Greig and myself as well as him and his not-husband, Michael. We attended on the condition that there would be no mention of Mardi Gras, a condition that he agreed to. Unfortunately it rained which meant the BBQ'ing had to be done indoors on Ma's semi-efficient cook-top. This simply meant things took a little longer which allowed for much animated banter between the not-couple.

I am gonna get into so much trouble for that last paragraph.

There were a couple of birthday dinners this month. Sam held a celebration of his getting older at a Spanish restaurant on Oxford Street and Peter Hall held a similar event at a restaurant in Rhodes. The major difference between them was that Sam was expecting his birthday party - Peter wasn't.

We also had a very nice meal at Dud's home where he introduced us to a nice lad called Zach. Dud and Zach seem very close. Dinner was lovely. Conversation was animated. Alcohol was consumed. Again.

Christmas is a great time for dragging out old jokes and repackaging them as a new show in order to make a few extra bucks to fill the Christmas stocking. Well, so thought Bob Downe anyway. He teamed up with Denise Drysdale, an old stalwart of Australian show business at the Sydney Opera House in a lively show called Until Tomorrow. I have no idea why.

Greig and I went along to the show with Rod and Mark. We were unlucky enough to have front row seats, but lucky enough not to be picked on by Bob during the show.

Poor little orphan boys. And girl. And chicken.


Sam shows Bailey how much he loves him by trying to
drown him while Rocky keeps a safe distance.

Our big event for the month was hosting an "Orphans Christmas" at the shed for those of our friends who hadn't received a better offer. Let me think. Who was there? Errrr . . . I'll get back to you. There were a lot of us. About ten I think.

So we spent Christmas afternoon and evening sitting around eating, drinking and doing generally stupid things. Deb brought along a lucky-dip of toys and I was lucky enough to earn myself a pair of plastic chattering teeth. For some reason she also bought along some red and white plastic barrier tape, which she tied everyone to the table with. I tried my best not to show too much enthusiasm.

The afternoon of Boxing Day was spent at Sam's with a small group of his friends. Highlights of the afternoon included Sam beating Bailey to a pulp in a boxing match, a pizza shovel spanking competition, attempted drownings in the pool on the roof of Sam's apartment block and locking ourselves out of the apartment and needing to call a locksmith on Boxing Day rates.

As you may have gathered, alcohol was consumed. Quite a bit, actually.

A couple of days before New Years Eve, Jimi, Greig and I jumped into our SAAB turbo prop transport and left sunny Sydney for less sunny Lismore. I just had a look at the entries for previous years and see that the report from the New Years Party is traditionally held over until the January entry.

You'll just have to wait.