My new favourite...

I bought this album first thing on Saturday morning and its been in high rotation ever since. While I think its not quite as good as Inna Styles of 4ormation, it makes for nice background music.

You can download my favourite track (at the moment) from the album here

Souths at Sunset

Wedding Goodness!

The Invitation

On Saturday afternoon at about 3pm I arrived at my cousin's wedding at a BIG fuckoff house in the suburb of Centennial Park. Not surprisingly it was within spitting distance of Centennial Park. I was greeted at the gate by some of her (now)inlaws and was ushered down to the backyard where I was handed a glass of champagne (none of this sparkling wine crap). I downed that pretty quickly and helped myself to another one as I did the whole "hi how's it going" thing with my family.

My brother travelled down from Queensland for the wedding and he and I seemed to be the only ones not wearing a tie. He didn't seem to care as he was already drunk. after another glass of champagne we were invited down onto the tennis court where the ceremony was to take place. All the guests took their seats and the celebrant crapped on for a while before announcing the bride and groom would state their vows (which they had written themselves). Not a moment later there was a grumble in the sky as the clouds that had been blowing over for the last hour decided to say, "hi".

My cuz in her hot Akira dress (which was reversible - totally hot)

The 2 vows which really stuck in my mind were "May I have integrity in my words" and, "May I have love in my heart". It even brought a tear to my eye. As the couple kissed a few light spots of rain dropped on the 100 or so guests. It was quite beautiful... almost a blessing.

We all made our way into the marquee and the heavens opened up like they had been dying to do it all afternoon. Another glass of champagne and I was feeling quite pissed. The food started to come out. Seafood platters for entree, and every other kind of lebanese cuisine followed. I couldn't stop eating. the food was magnificant.. and there was so much of it.

The centrepiece was huge, the pic doesn't really do it justice

The cake was a tower of baklava. I'm not normally a fan of baklava but this was so fucking good, not that syruppy, sacharine-sweet crap you get at petrol stations.

The speeches were short and sweet and even though the groom mentioned his dead brother, to whom he made a toast, it was all very love filled, genuine, and personal... Unlike my brother-in-law who mentioned his dead father at his 40th and stunned a room of 50 silent people when he proceeded to say "he won't be here tonight" (I don't know why I didn't elaborate on the terrible speeches in my original post - this shit is GOLD) I didn't know if I was supposed to laugh or not when he said that. I'm glad I didn't (even though it would seem pretty obvious that a dead person wouldn't be attending a party).

Where was I? Yeah, so the bride and groom had their first dance and then 12 x 1L bottles of Johnny Walker Black Label hit the tables. My parents fucked off and my bro from QLD got stuck into the good shit. As I waited to use the bathroom in the house I noticed an artwork on the wall that would make a good wallpaper on my phone. I turned around and discovered an original John Brack on the wall. Venturing further into the house I also found an Arthur Boyd, 2 x Jeffrey Smarts and a Brett Whiteley.

It looks like my cousin married up. This people were way out of my league. After being politely asked to leave (along with everyone else - we weren't being trouble or anything), my brother and I decided we needed more beer.

Me and my cuz

We walked to the Bat and Ball... which was closed (it must have been 1am or so). We jumped in a cab and headed to Newtown. They wouldn't let us in to Zanzibar or the Townhall, but we got into the Imperial for a few more bevvies.

I don't know exactly what time I got to bed but I felt pretty fucking crook the next day. A $10 roast lunch at the Erko made me feel a bit better... I highly recommend them.

Where the hell have I been?

Well seeing as I don't have pinky back yet I don't have any photo evidence of the truly exciting things I've been getting upto and you wouldn't believe what I blogged wthout some kind of proof. I haven't done anything all that exciting really. I saw "Sister She" a couple of weeks back, followed by the cabaret show at "Sydney's Las Vegas" aka Marrickville RSL club. Very, very messy. I couldn't remember how I got home.

I also went to the Newtown hotel last thursday with Muzz and saw lots of familiar faces, and even met a couple of nice new people! :O

Now that I have that crap out of the way...

I feel horrible, I think depressed is the word. I work with great people, I work for really nice, flexible bosses... and I get paid well for the amount of bludging I do. Unfortunately I am finding it more and more difficult to ignore the fact that I am bored shitless and I get little to no job satisfaction.

Over the last couple of months I have been making lots of mistakes and each time I do I feel like I am letting my co-workers down and I get a serious case of the guilts(I get over it quickly enough though.. hahahah). I have even been much less complacent than I was 12 months ago and still I keep fucking up. There was a point last year for months where I didn't check ANY of my work becasue I hadn't made a mistake for so long I figured I was due (how bad is that?)... Now I actually check my work and still I fuckup because deep down I don't give a shit about flash drives, or mouse mats, or the 99% of customers who ask the earth, get it served to them on a silver platter and can't be fucked saying "thank-you".

So I'm putting it out there... I need a new job. Actually, I need a new career... and I don't think I can put it off much longer.

A Cub Called Knut

Awww... how cute

Unconscious Mutterings

1. San Francisco :: gay gay gay gay gay

2. Sadness :: waaaaaaah

3. Spirits :: whiskey

4. Harriet :: the spy

5. State :: of affairs

6. John :: cock

7. Offense :: defence

8. Timeless :: classic

9. Account :: balance

10. Refuse :: help

Ebay attitude

Click here first to see a rather stupid and not very well thought out ebay advertisement. I kind of giggled at it and thought I would ask the seller to clarify a few points for me.

1) Does your ex put out on the first date?
2) Does your ex swing both ways?

I don't think the guy is hot or anything, but in the past I have found some very amusing questions and answers on similar advertisments to this, so I thought I would be a part of the fun.

I received this (rather poorly written) response this morning:

serious questions only thank you very much not appreciated i dont know what he odes on the first date, but i certianly know he does not swing both ways

What the fuck is with the $10 postage as well? Will that get him to Sydney?

I encourage any of you ebay users to ask this newbie seller some SERIOUS questions for this obviously SERIOUS auction.

The Lair

On Tuesday I received a random email with details about a band called !!! (chk.chk.chk). There were a few contests to enter so I emailed someone the answer to a simple question and forgot about it. The next day I received another email telling me I had won 2 tickets to be part of the audience for an MTV show called "The Lair" which was being filmed at The Metro last night.

I met Chris after work and we caught the train into the city and as we passed the Star Bar (formerly Planet Hollywood) an advertisment for $5 steaks caught our eyes. 10 minutes later we were scoffing down dinner.

The security at The Metro was laughable, anyone could have walked in (and I think I might be doing just that in the future if a bad I fancy is playing there). Upon entering The Metro I though I would grab a beer. To my suprise the beer was FREE. This helped me to overcome my dislike for Tooheys Extra Dry. As the night wore on they ran out of Extra Dry and started serving VB - YAY! They still served it in Extra Dry cups though so that the TV audience would think we were drinking extra dry... funny, no?

We couldn't really see the first band who played as they were right above us (there were 3 stages set up in a very weird formation). !!! (chk.chk.chk) played next and they were quite cool... some guy in a huge bunny suit stage dived.. then someone in the audioence poured a beer into the mouth of the bunny suit.. then the bunny hit the floor.. next thing I saw was a bunny head flying at the stage.

We wandered up the back and discovered another stage where these weird looking guys in skeleton suits started playing a very familiar bassline. It turned out to be "Who Made Who" and they were playing the track that Benny Benassi made famous by remixing, "Satisfaction". It fucking rocked.

That other nameless band played another underwhelming song. Then !!! (chk.chk.chk) played their new single (i think) called "Heart of Hearts". It completely went off. we left the mosh pit just before it ended to ensure we were up the front for Who Made Who. Those guys kick arse. I wish I could afford to go to Playground Weekender this weekend. There is going to be so much cool music being played.

We left as soon as they stopped serving beer and managed to get soaked walking home in the rain. It was kind of nice actually.

That was my exciting night in TV land. I think I'll do talk shows next.

Pinky is in the shop

My Motorola V3X, affectionately known as Pinky, is a piece of shit and is in the shop getting repaired. My loan-phone isn't so crash hot when it comes to taking pics. Luckily my good mate, Billy, was taking pics at MG and managed to capture me "Pre-parade" and right near the end as well.

you can click here to check out more of his MG Parade and Party pics.

Thanks Billy!

Unconscious Mutterings

Nude :: dudes

Support :: network

Rachel :: Hunter

Crane :: Dr Frasier

Candy bar :: choc tops

Material :: Girl

Mind games :: arseholes

Eviction :: notice

Produce :: fresh

Joke :: toke

Moving Mayhem and Marching

The weekend started at 3pm on Friday. Chris and I drove over to Concord West to collect all of my crap and drive it to my new place. We did 2 trips and it was a great relief to have all my stuff out of my parents' house and in my new bedroom.

Saturday morning we did some shopping for housey things, got the cat's some collars w/tags and got them engraved. They look very cute. Chris wanted to have a nanna nap so I went to the new pad and started unpacking etc. I have sooo much wardrobe space. It's excellent.

At about 2:30pm I gave myelf a haircut and started getting ready for the evening ahead. A week or so ago I volunteered my services to a friend who was making a float for the Mardi Gras parade. He said it was almost finished but they needed some more people to march. I said I'd think about it and after about 30 seconds I said i'd do it. "What the heck?", i thought, "You only live once".

Living in Sydney my whole life I really had no excuse as to why I hadn't attended the Mardi Gras Parade... but I just hadn't. I'd come as close as Town Hall steps when I was about 17 but we ended up getting drunk in a park in Burwood instead. (classy)

I think I had certain misconceptions with what the Mardi Gras was all about. When I was younger I disliked the way it seemed to portray a stereotype of homosexual men that I neither liked nor conformed to.

In more recent years when my managers have asked me if I was going I would simply say, "It's not really my thing". I'd seen the parade on TV hosted by some god-awful drag queens and B-Grade celebrities, and although some of the men were quite sexy I didn't see the big appeal.

As soon as I found a seat on the train at Redfern I started shitting myself. What the fuck had I gotten myself into? What is this Mardi Gras Parade business all about?

As I sat in Hyde Park yesterday afternoon, an hour before I was due to be at the meeting place for our float, I lay down on the grass and looked around me. People were already lining the streets and the atmosphere reminded me of how I felt on the day of the school fete when everyone was setting up their various stalls. (I don't know why exactly). There were mums, dads, babies, drag queens, bears, kids, leather clad people, trannies, Jews etc.

I was fighting an internal battle. I really didn't want to march, and I can't say why. Maybe I didn't want to march up Oxford Street going "Look at me, I'm a fag". I didn't want people to think I wanted to be looked at. I hate glitter. I am fine with my sexuality but I don't need everyone else to be fine with it. But I wanted to support my friend and his work, and I wanted to stick to my word.

I think the thing that made up my mind was the overwhelming sense of community. Not gay community, but just community. It was strange to sit there and not know why I wasn't cool with this whole Mardi Gras thing. It seemed stupid to not want to be a part of this community feeling. So I got up and wandered to the meeting place and met my fellow marchers just in time to be led down to the holding area.

The holding area was jam packed with floats, performers and people of all shapes, sizes and inclinations. In elaborate costumes, in "petite" costumes or in no costume at all in some cases (both naked or civvies). The atmosphere was electric. As each float had the finishing touches applied and tested their sound systems, the members of the float would rehearse their choregraphed dance moves one last time... Everyone else would have a bit of a boogie if they found the music to their liking. I bumped into George and Billy at various times and it was nice to be able to share the excitement with people I knew. (Marcus and Dino were too busy to chat; running around like headless chooks).

As the sun went down and the lights came on it was hard not to be excited (and petrified). Float by float the street slowly emptied and I was informed that it was almost time to go. As our sound system cranked up with "Stayin' Alive" I wondered if there was ever a better song written to strut to.

There were sooooo many people. We all kind of boogied as we waved to the crowd and I couldn't help but cheer, "YAY!" over and over again. Some of the people with my float were running up to the crowd kissing randoms but I that's not really my style. I would say 1 in 20 people were waving or making some gesture to us, and if I was to catch their eye I would wave to them. And they'd get excited by that and wave more furiously... and then I'd get excited by that "YAY!". It was a cycle that lasted the whole hour it took us to walk from end to end. The atmosphere and energy was overwhelming. It what seemed like an instant the parade was over and we all looked at each other bright eyed, ear to ear smiles, lost for words.

I left my group and wandered to the Bat and Ball where Chris picked me up. When I arrived home I lay down to rest my eyes and 8 hours later I awoke.

Sunday I got pissed and ate all day... feeling a bit rough today.

Look what I got...

YAY! KEYS!

We got the keys and signed the lease yesterday afternoon. Still arguing over who gets the big room but I am a bit over it to be honest. As long as I am not sleeping at my parents place I don't really care.

I haven't had a good night's sleep in a while thanks to stress and my parents' arsehole neighbours who think 2:30am is a good time to take the bins out to the street. Then they think 5:30am is a good time to "talk" to each other (they must be half deaf the way they scream at each other). 6:30 am is a good time to honk the horn to say goodbye. Tomorrow afternoon will be a good time to tell them to fuck off.

Arseholes.

Anyway, tomorrow afternoon Chris is going to help me move my stuff in and then I will officially be back in "the 'hood".