365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 10 : It's a Fair Day Today

..... or at least the planning for it...

This is the second year we will be doing something Over The Top Super Camp Special for Fair Day, the launching day for Mardi Gras, and tired and sick though I was, I dragged myself to Buzzzbar with my beautiful guy, who's the creative mastermind behind the whole endeavour, and we met with good friends Ian and Bill, with input from Ian & Gary's friend, Rose, and another friend, Mark to start planning the day.

The theme is going to be Toyland which will mean bright primary colours (red, blue and yellow), luminously colourful food, another fun story for me to write featuring all our characters, and costumes reflecting toys old and new, commercial and traditional. I have no idea what I will be yet, but we're underway, and if it's anything like last year, it will be a fun day!


Only trouble was that sitting in a cafe for 2 hours - sitting mind you! - exhausted me completely, so my beautiful guy stayed for a little while, gave me some lovely affection and dinner, and then headed off to get ready for the week, while I lay inert on the bed watching the start of Season 1 of Big Bang Theory...

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 9 : No First Night But Hard To Swallow Day

The plan was lofty, ambitious and foolhardy....

My beautiful guy and I, along with good friends Warren, Ian and Peter would all head into the City, along with 200,000 of our closest private space invading acquaintances, and experience the sensory overload of the Sydney Festival's First Night (not to be confused with the First Noel, which attracts far more smaller crowds of shepherds and wise men generally). We'd done it last year and had a ball wandering through Hyde Park and hearing a funky French folk band that played with vigour and jois de vivre, cramming into Martin Place to watch music being played on a giant metal ship belching fire and smoke (don't ask!), and finishing up with thousands of others in The Domain watching Grace Jones do her wacky, wild  thing.

So hopes were high for tonight until.... I got sick. Very, very sick. So sick it hurt till I cried every time I tried to swallow. I wasn't really in the mood for wandering around and experiencing all manner of fun and frivolity, not to mention that I had no strength at all, so my beautiful guy and I had a very quiet night in, watching Big Bang Theory episodes.

OK there were no funky French bands, or weird light shows, or cooky Caribbean songstresses, but I had my beautiful guy with me, and while it didn't make me feel physically better, I did feel much loved and cared for, and that made up for whatever entertainment I missed out on tonight.

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Oh, and after MONTHS of reading chapters here and there, I feel finished off a massive sci-fi series by Jay, which was great reading, even if it was a little repetitive and cliched in places. All that's beside the point anyway... the fact I finished the book! So there's at least one upside to being exhausted and sick.

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 8 : Sick Again in Summer

It never fails.

Wile the rest of Australia falls desperately ill with the flu etc in Winter, my body bravely soldiers on, ignoring entreaties from each and every virus and bacteria to play host to their demented carnival of cell-wrecking horrors. I celebrate my rude good health, extol my healthy living, and hold up my much vaunted lack of sick days taken as a sign I am not your typical Winter-sick employee....

Alas then comes Summer, and my body plays some cheap two bit whore from a saloon saturated town in the Wild West and throws it's legs wide open for any and every virus and bacteria to have a go at it, without so much as a by your leave. (Yes I know its a tenuous analogy and littered with pseudo Wild West English but what the hey!).


And so it came to pass, right on schedule, that the sore throat I thought was heading into a easily fixed cold, instead turned out to be some bizarre bacterial infection of the pharynx. With white spots sprinkled liberally including over what is apparently my resurrected tonsils, who have performed a Jesus-like miracle and risen from the dead. (I snapped today's photo in King Street, as I walked back to my car from another expensive visit to the doctor, who has now given me permission to let loose the antibiotics on the pretty white, but painful, spots in my throat.)

I am reduced to eating soups, and soft pastas, and basically anything without sharp pointy bits, or acid, which rules out fruits, fruit juices and sugars.... thankfully my darling guy came over cooked up a yummy mushroom mornay and watched some episodes of "Big Bang Theory" to take my mind off the excruciating pain of swallowing.....

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 7 : There's a Visitor in These Here Parts

Today was supposed to be a very busy day.


First day back at work after the Christmas break, and then racing home to take a friend of my good friend from Boston, Mark, out for dinner in Sydney. That was the great and glorious plan anyway!


What happened though was that my sore throat, which had been bothering me for a couple of days now, grew steadily worse overnight so that by this morning it was increasingly hurting to swallow anything. But I soldiered on to work, figuring that it was just my throat that was hurting and nothing else. Somewhere between walking out of my apartment building, and arriving at work, my body developed a fever, ramped up the "OUCH!" factor on the throat and I barely lasted 3 hours at work (got a lot done thankfully so next Monday won't be the horror story it might have been) before hightailing it to the doctor who was very helpful but had no idea what was wrong. A swab of my throat and a sizable bill at the chemist later, and I headed home, slept for a few hours and then hauled myself out of bed to take my American friend of a friend out to dinner.

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It was his , John's, last night in the Emerald City and I didn't want to disappoint him by canceling dinner just because I wasn't well. Besides he was so friendly and easy to talk to that within seconds of meeting him in his hotel lobby - a lobby we were late finding because my friend Fahmi's Tom Tom got a tad confused about it's location... I am fairly confident that should the machines rise up a la Terminator, that we will have plenty of time to escape while the machines endlessly go left and right trying to find us - we were getting on famously. 

Fahmi, and then Stephen hit it off just as well with him, and pre-dinner drinks and nibblies (dips/Turkish bread/wedges) on the roof top at Zanzibar, followed by a delicious Thai meal at Sumalee Thai, across the road at The Bank Hotel, and dessert gelato at Dolce and Gelato (love the pun) flew by in a rush of shared experiences, anecdotes, cultural comparison and laughs. We even made it to the facade of The Imperial Hotel (still sadly awaiting a grand reopening) so John (and my beautiful guy!) could get photos outside this iconic gay pub.

A wonderful night with a new friend made, and another voice added to Mark's insisting I make it to Boston yesterday already!

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 6 : More Fabulous Nothingness

I dedicated this day to doing very little of anything.

Yes I went to Marrickville Metro to get my haircut - buzz cut on setting 1.5 thank you mistress of the scissors! - spend a gazillion dollars at the chemist to combat a brewing cold complete with the worst sore throat in ages, ran into some old work friends from FedEx...Nicole, Skye and Dean.... bought a discounted book or two including one about the creation of the iPod.... may god/s bless all the creators equally and bountifully..... oh, along with the people who created air conditioning and Lindor Balls..... and grabbed the newspapers while grocery shopping for lunch....

Back in the bosom of my apartment  a weird term to use for a gay man but what the hey, I ate the chicken I'd bought on a bagel I had also bought (see a pattern here? Yep, no shoplifting! Always a very good thing), watched a taping of the NBC Today Show from USA (from Dec 18 - yep I am sooooo current!), read the papers I had purchased (and wondered once again why I ever bother getting The Daily Telegraph which makes all those right wing juntas around the world look like paragons of leftist restraint), and then napped on this bed....

The napping done I did some farming on Farmtown on Facebook - yes I know it's all a bit silly but I am so addicted to it! - did this blogging, got a very sweet text from my beautiful guy and got mentally prepared to mop my bathroom floor..... it's grueling baby grueling!

The mopping done, I realised that probably wasn't the smartest course of action since I am battling the start of a cold that seems to be heralded by an incredibly sore throat.... so exhausted again, I went back to bed and read a few chapters of my book, watched the TV news and tried not to swallow.... it's not working and I am googling to see if you can temporarily remove your throat ... apparently not it seems since the head then falls off..... dang!


Postscript : throat still between head and torso and giving me much grief and not much sleep alas.... seriously considering going on a continuous Aspro Clear drip.... is there such a thing? Anyone? Bueller? Anyone?

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 5 : Cleaned Up the Room and..Oh Never Mind...

After dropping my beautiful guy at the train station, I came home, culled clothes in my wardrobe (like culling feral animals but far less bloody work), sorted through bags of paperwork, napped and welcomed my housemate back from Ireland......I enjoyed the slow pace of the day but it's hardly epoch making stuff, and not the sort of thing even I would photograph, so here's some hilarious ads from the 1930s, sent to me by my sister that had me killing myself laughing..... enjoy!

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 4 (Monday 4 January 2010) : Elementary My Dear Watson...It's All a Bit Fishy

Is there anything better than a day off during the week?!

OK well winning lots and lots of money, and living in Yaletown in Vancouver for a year, and the love of friends and family, and that episode of Glee I missed sometime back, but besides all of that, is there anything better?

Before you present me with your list a kilometre long (still doesn't sound as good as mile does it?), let me just pretend that a day off during the week is fantabulously glittery and reeking of gorgeosity, and so much better than sliced bread, that the aforementioned loaf is even now sobbing and turning itself into a doughy mess in some neglected Baker's Delight somewhere.......

Today was one of those wonderfully chilled great days off during the week... we slept in, opened my beautiful guy's new Dell laptop (out of the box; not the laptop itself) and oohed and aahed at its sheer sleek newness before we walked languidly out the door and did some shopping - finally got a funky red doona cover after 2 years of looking and on special! Yeah!!) - before a lovely drive to Watsons Bay and lunch at the Doyles Fish and Chips kiosk right on the beach.

The food was delicious and well-priced - get the seafood basket! - and apart from sneaky seagulls (one of the which half succeeded in snatching one of Steve's fish pieces while we distracted by his brethren going manic on the sand before us; we managed to stop him before he got away with the purloined piece of seafood!), we enjoyed a beautifully sunny lunch with stunning vies of the Harbour and City, before walking along the beach and into Watsons Bay proper and finally the National Park right on the water behind all the houses.

Just magical, and the day was made even more lovely by the wine and cheese and olives on the balcony before dinner with a soft cooling breeze wafting across the building complex. I didn't have to work but alas my baby did, so we decamped from my place to his for the night and went to sleep, after that outdoor air and sunshine (a tad too much in my case!), very easily....

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 3 : Avatar and the Jumping Onto a Pretty Fabulous Bandwagon

I am suspicious of hype.

Yes, I know, a weird thing to say when you are an exuberant extrovert, prone to going so far over the top you have a perfectly lovely view of the ground below... and yes the people really do look like ants it's true. But while genuine infectious enthusiasm is wonderful, and usually based on something great that's happened, or is happening, hype, at least in Hollywood's less than subtle hands is usually a prelude to crushing disappointment.

So while I was excited to be seeing Avatar in 3D (hence the fabulously hip eye wear!), the film du jour that everyone is seeing, and not just sci-fi watching geeks, I was also a tad trepidatious, worrying that it would be all bright blue pixels and not much else. 

Well I needn't have worried. Along with my beautiful guy, and very good friends Fahmi, Stephen, Essie, Ian & Bill and Brett, I watched a movie today that, while inthrall to some cliches and sledgehammer political messages (ones I agree with yes but subtle as an earthquake nonetheless) and derivative as hell at certain points, was also wildly imaginative, richly alive, with heart and soul, and visual imagery that took your breath away more times than it didn't.

I loved it....... and the Indian Thali food my beautiful guy, Essie and Fahmi had at Maya in Cleveland Street, Surry Hills afterwards....YUM!

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 2 : Sleeping in, Sloth, Shopping and Stirring Like Crazy

Today is another one of those fabulously special anniversary days.

After getting together at my friend Fahmi's NYE party, 31 Dec 2009, Steve and I went on our very first real date at Stir Crazy Thai, Erskineville, which has now become our favourite restaurant in the area. Not just because of the sentimental attachments, which admittedly is considerable, but because the staff are sweet, the food is delish-yum, and sitting outside on the footpath is a great way to watch the world go by especially on the balmy Summer nights when a soft breeze is blowing.


On the night of Jan 2, 2009, we actually sat upstairs, and I must confess that while I felt very good about Steve, and our prospects as a couple - yes even then! - I was still wondering if the wonderful connection between us started in October 2008 (at the impromptu key exchange), and continued on during the party (and after it!) would last. Well, It did and how. We talked for hours and hours, about our backgrounds, families, jobs and even my beautiful guy's love of encyclopedias. The conversation was also fun, interesting and sparkling and it further cemented the wonderful beginning to our relationship....

The night of Jan 2, 2010, was in a similar vein. Yes we are very much together, and walked hand in hand all the way there and back from my place (taking pics of a fantastically over-decorated place in one of the streets that we loved!), but the conversation still flowed with the ease borne of being with your closest, dearest friend and lover, and we were even served by the same waitress, who had only just started the night we had our first date! We even ordered some of the same dishes (including curry puffs and Heavenly Beef curry - see above) we had a year ago, just to hear her repeat the order, and be transported back to a magical night exactly one year earlier, which has led to the lovely romantic night we spent together at Stir Crazy tonight.

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 1 : Sweep, Scrub, Eat, Nap.... In That Order

Just After Midnight on 1 January 2010

What a morning!

We watched the fireworks from my balcony, and the harbour ones on the TV with the soundtrack turned way up (with a wonderful long snog with my guy to complete a wonderful marking of the New Year ticking over) then went back to lots of eating, champagne quaffing (perhaps a tad too much! LOL) and wonderful conversation till everyone left about 2.30 a.m. and my guy and I crawled into bed and..... went soundly immediately to sleep.....

After a suitably long sleep in, we bounded out of bed at the crack of midday, sort of ate some toast (perhaps a little too full still from earlier in the day!), then spent an enjoyable hour or so cleaning up the mess from the night before, which, thankfully, wasn't too bad thanks to cleaning up as we went along, and the help of our lovely guests before they left. With the apartment back in pristine condition, and cleaner than it's been in months (ya gotta love parties or guests staying to spur you to a complete and total freshening up), we got ready to host our friends, Fahmi, and Brett (see below) for afternoon tea - party pies (see one decorated way below!) and sausage leftover cheese, olives, dip and rackers, and generous slices of the enormous orange and poppyseed cake I picked up for the party and we never ate. The weather was balmy, a little humid but we talked, laughed and behaved remarkably like adults who had a full night's sleep...

All except my lovely guy who needed a nap once the guests had left and proceeded to sleep right through to 8.30pm. He claimed it was still afternoon, and that there was simply an eclipse but I had to break the news that the sun had in fact set and it was night time. I am not sure he still believed me, but we had a very pleasant 'eclipsed afternoon' eating more food and drinking some wine on the balcony before watching Fanny Hill on the ABC and then a few songs of RAGE.

It was a wonderfully chilled start to 2010, a year I expect to be every bit as wonderful as 2009, although as I have said previously, it will have to be freaking stupendous to beat the sheer amazing wonderfulness of 2009, which was the best year of my life, thanks to being with the most sweet, gorgeous, kind, handsome, intelligent man in the world - my beautiful guy Steve.

Project 289 - Day 289 (Thursday 31 December 2009): Happy New Year to Everyone.... and His Pastizzi

After only arriving into Sydney again late the day before, and sleeping in this morning - in retrospect not the smartest thing to do! - my beautiful guy and I headed out to try and shop for, and set up for a New Year's Eve party that night!

In my doe-eyed innocence, or ridiculous extrovert optimism - call it what you want! - I thought we'd pull it all off with time to have a nap.... Hahahahaha! That didn't happen but like that's a surprise right? We spent the afternoon and evening in a blur of grocery shopping, alcohol buying, picking up things from my beautiful guy's apartment (he is better equipped in the party supplies area than me, which makes me an embarrassment to gay men everywhere I think! LOL), creating mini quiches and vol au vents - our fabulous 70s throwback that was quite tasty thank you, and hey if they bring back the Tshirts I wore as kid, we can bring back the food I say!!) - mopping a very dirty balcony, stringing up lights on the balcony fence, vacuuming twice (we love it more than anything!), setting up the tables with food and drinks.....phew! It's amazing my beautiful guy and I didn't crash out from exhaustion before the party started!

We couldn't have done it, of course, without the wonderful help with our friends, Warren and Fahmi - see above - who pitched in and helped us get everything ready in time.... well, I am not sure that wasn't some kind of pyrrhic victory since naturally no one turned up on time.... LOL... still we were good to go, and while we didn't get the numbers expected (meaning we will be eating crackers, cheeses, chips and party sized hot foods for decades to come since we naturally over catered!), we had the best time seeing in the New Year with close friends like Warren, Brett, Fahmi, Peter, Fahmi, John and Esther and the twins, and some wonderful people they brought along like Terri and Alan.....

We ate lots, drank lots, and watched the 9pm and midnight city fireworks from my balcony - I got to kiss my gorgeous guy at midnight which was wonderful since it was our FIRST ANNIVERSARY! YEAH! Everyone drank champagne to the New Year and us which was very sweet - and saw in 2010 which given how wonderful 2009 was with my wonderful man, is going to have really dig deep to make itself a truly outstanding year! I have a sneaking suspicion it will be great since my beautiful man is going nowhere, neither am I, and so together 2010 will be as fabulous as it promised to be....