In my ongoing frenetic quest to make the Energizer Bunny looked like a lazy white trash dole collector, I hit the ground running (and likely drove a fairly sizable crater into it with my forward momentum!) in January, enjoying the outdoor fun of Sydney in Summer. As usual, January was dominated by Jazz, Symphony and this time, Opera in the Domain, all shared with very good friends, lots of wine, cheese, salad, and some killer desserts.... actually Symphony in the Domain ended up being Andrew, Warren, Ian and Justin eat Tapas and watch "P S I Love You" thanks to an almighty downpour of rain... not even remotely an outdoors event but we clung doggedly to the spirit of the event.....
I pose with the glamorous Tina and my friend Mark from Boston
Massive amounts of rain, and a wildly spectacular lightning and thunderstorm also drove another outdoor event into the far drier indoors when Peter and I tried to see "Waitress" at my beloved OpenAir Cinema... it was the first time it had been cancelled in 11 years due to weather, but given the imminent threat of death from the lightning strikes, no one was going to argue with them! I did manage to see a few other movies at the Cinema including "Juno", in pouring rain (sans nature's deadly light show this time) with Warren, and I also finally made it to the other outdoor cinema, Moonlight Cinema, in early March to see "Casablanca"... what a wonderful movie which I finally managed to see after all these years....
Mark and I at the Moonlight Cinema screening of "Casablanca"
I saw it on the same weekend as the Mardi Gras Parade which I saw with very good friends Warren, Peter and Ian, and some other special people including a delightful lady called Tina (see the pix above - my friend Mark and I pose either side).... As usual the parade was lively, colourful and boisterous as always, and a great affirmation of the thriving mad diversity that is Sydney.....
My friends Ian and Warren pose either side of me with Will and Jason from Brizvegas as we await the start of the Mardi Gras parade
My friend Mark was in town that weekend for Mardi Gras (and a tour of Sydney) from Boston, and I also met a lovely guy called Jason (in the blue T-shirt above next to Ian, me, Warren and Will), in town from Brisbane who I dated for a few months till the tyranny of distance defeated our very best of intentions (we remain firm, wonderful friends).... I need to make it clear (after a badly worded pervious sentence... who is writing this anyway? LOL) that I just dated Jason, not the entire city of Brisbane, which would of frankly been exhausting, and beyond my ability to juggle (and my circus-oriented skills are woefully inadequate!) .....
When I wasn't dating men from other cities, I was also racing to see "Billy Elliott" the musical in January, dashing to Melbourne for the first time in February to see a friend (Graeme) and falling in love with fabulously offbeat suburb of St Kilda and it's yummy bakeries, to see a play called "Corpus Christi" and the stage version of "Rocky Horror Picture Show" in March, and bopping away to concerts by Kylie Minogue (yes finally made it to a concert by Kylie!!) and Alicia Keys... and the fantastic fun of the "Sound of Music" Singalong, which was basically a madcap dress-up event where you can do your best karaoke singing along with Julie Andrews to the movie.... so much fun!! Next year I plan to dress up as a schnitzel or something wacky... which will differ from my usual standard of dress how? Hmm... maybe I need to re-think this...
My sister Helen and cousin Rebecca (red skirt) pose with me around the birthday gal herself
The biggest event of them all, and a monumental achievement for anyone was my Great Aunt's 100th Birthday Celebrations up in Alstonville, where I joined my whole direct family, my Uncle and Aunt and cousins, husbands and kids to wish my darling Great Aunt Liz all the very best on an amazing milestone (I was thinking I should go non-Imperial and try kilometre-stone but (a) it sounds weird, and (b) Auntie Liz is 100 so she gets the measurement system she wants!) .... we ate lots, laughed lots, and Auntie Liz lapped it all up, alerted and animated and thoroughly enjoying all the attention.... it was a very special time, and I loved seeing everyone!
The entire extended family on my Mum's side pose in my parents' family room
So yet another quiet do-nothing year in the life of this never-say-no-to-a-fun-event extrovert... next year I may take it easy.... start gardening, knitting tea cosies and making scones.... yes, and then I shall herd my rainbow-coloured unicorns on the Yellow Brick Road to Oz.....
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