March 2008

If you look at my entries for March of previous years you will have noticed that on the day of Mardi Gras I have a very busy day. Not this year. Somebody else's problem. This year Greig and I slept in, had a leisurely lunch, wandered into the city at about 5pm to join the float and had a quiet coffee and snack in a café before the parade started.

Our view of the marshalling area before the parade started


and Greig spotlighting cute boys along Oxford Street.

During the parade we sat ion the top of the rig and played "follow-spot operators". We spent the entire parade trying to pick out cute boys in the crowd with our spot lights. It's been quite a few years since I've seen Mardi Gras from up there. There were a hell of a lot of people out with 10,000 people in the actual parade and hundreds of thousands lining the streets to watch. Hell, our float alone had 400 people involved!

But the best thing was that after the parade, instead of spending hours knocking the float down and pulling thousands of dollars worth of sound and lighting gear off out three (yes, three!) trucks and packing it away, Greig and I wandered off to Bailey's house for a pre-party Pims and a shower. That's a much better way to end the parade.

After making ourselves all beautiful we headed into the Mardi Gras Party. No mean feat because many of the thousands who came into town for the parade were still there, milling around drunkenly. We managed eventually. The reason I wanted to avoid working on the float was so that I could go to the party. This is the 30th Anniversary of Mardi Gras and I was expecting a big one.

The party was fun. It was huge. It was sold out so there would have been about 15,000 people there. The sound and lighting production in the Horden at least was great. We did venture into the RHI on one occasion, but it was just too much of a crush. Dome was similar.

We spent most of the night in our group and didn't really make any new friends, which I guess defeats part of the purpose. But still, it is a nice little group.

But enough about Mardi Gras.

A week later Ma held his annual Post Mardi Gras Thankyou Party. Disturbingly, he was already using terms like "next year". I guess I should take some solace in the knowledge that at least now he knows he can build a Mardi Gras float without me. It might cost him a little more cash, but it certainly takes the pressure off.

It turns out that Bailey can certainly
hold his own on stage.

Every few months the Sydney Convicts Rugby Team lures boys to the Midnight Shift with the promise of gratuitous nudity. This month the Shift was packed to the rafters with people hungry for bare footy flesh. I thought I'd best pop along to show my support for Bailey who was part of the "Full Monty" show.

It was a huge turn-up. You couldn't move. You'd think that these boys had never seen a dick before.

The show was great. I think it may have been one of their better efforts. It was more than just a strip show. It was more creative. Not only bare flesh but fluorescent paint smeared over bodies in an orgy of colour. The dancing was . . .well, they are still footy players.

But Bailey must be happy now. Up till now he's only ever appeared on stage at dingy venues like the Sydney Opera House. Finally he's made it. He's appeared at the Shift.

On the subject of smearing paint all over bodies Rugby, we are in the throes of organising the Sydney Convicts Rugby Team Supporters Club Tour of Europe. That's just my excuse for jumping on a plane with Sam and Bailey at the start of June and spending a month touring around Europe. I do have to turn up and watch a few Rugby matches in Dublin first, but it's a small price to pay for a few weeks swanning around The Netherlands and Germany.

Other highlights this month was the Easter long weekend which started with indoor climbing followed by a traditional Good Friday BBQ where red meat was served. (We're all going to hell anyway apparently. What's the point trying?) It was a fun night, if not a little impromptu.

Most of the weekend itself was pretty quiet. Much of the time was dedicated to getting over the amount of alcohol that I'd consumed on Friday night. By the time Monday came around it was decided that there was more red meat and alcohol left so we started again.

The final event for a pretty full-on month was Bradford's 40th birthday celebrations at the Marlborough Hotel in Newtown. There were lots of very tasty, very alcoholic cocktails going around. Greig and I chose to walk home.