September 2007

Well, the inevitable has happened.

My father died this month after about a year of ill health. I believe he had various cancers and one or all of them finally got the better of him. It was certainly no surprise to us. He was 79 years old.

I spent a fair bit of time at my mother's house, helping to organise things for the funeral, and for the wedding that she'd moved forward in the hope that dad would still be around.

My father's death had little real impact on me. For the past 20 years I've had my own "family" so while his passing is sad, I am at least in a position where my life very much goes on. The same of course can't be said for my mother. I'm guessing I'll be hearing quite a bit from her over the coming months.

Me, Kirk, Greig and Will suitably tanked.

On more pleasant news, Kirk and Will arrived in town from the U.K. This of course meant a great deal of drinking, starting with the very first day they flew in. We walked over to the home of Nick and Bruno, who live not far from us. The boys are actually staying with them. The evening started with Mojito's and the drinks got more and more deadly from there.

The following day of course, we met up with them at the Bank Hotel for more drinks.

We also had a very nice meal with them at "Liquidity", a restaurant on the water at Rozelle. Over the course of a few hours we enjoyed their Degustation Menu with a glass of an accompanying wine for each of the courses. Don't ask me how many courses there were - I was too pissed to count.

I did a quick trip to Melbourne for work, but it was a complete and utter waste of my time and I shouldn't have bothered.

As part of trying to get people roped into staying involved in his Mardi Gras Float creations, Ma organised a pleasant little picnic in Centennial Park. About 20 of the usual offenders turned up. We sat around in the sun, munching on things on biscuits and drinking toasts to never building a Mardi Gras Float again. Well, most of us toasted that. I don't think Ma did.

I received a very interesting, rather formally phrased e-mail from Bailey and Sam early this month. Without going into too many details (this is, after all, a respectable site), I have been advised that certain "rights" that up 'til now had never been challenged, have hereby been rescinded. This is indeed an interesting development.

What this means in a nutshell, is that I am now their "property".

Sam and Bailey and their "property" at Mancle.

As part of proving their point, they organised a nice public show at Manacle Bar. I was the show. I became intimately familiar with the chain web at Manacle. I also became familiar with the chain web back at The Shed afterwards, as well as many other devices that I am normally used to being at the "other end of".

This situation is continuing. I even attended Sleaze Ball at the end of the month as their property.

Speaking of which, Sleaze Ball seems to have been somewhat of a success this year. While the music was nothing to write home about, Mardi Gras finally managed to pull off some lighting production that was finally innovative and interesting. Full marks to them for that.

Of course, I wasn't paying that much attention to the lights. Here were more pressing matters on my mind. :-)