Happy Mardi Gras - 2008

This is Mardi Gras weekend in Sydney. Last night, the Parade (similar to Pride Parades everywhere) and then the after party from about 10pm until 10am for approximately 18,000 hardy souls. The rain held off until after the Parade finished but from about 3am this morning it was coming down in buckets for a few hours, so lots of drenched costumes, makeup of all descriptions running, and the wet bedraggled look which follows people caught in the rain.

I watched the parade from a vantage point near the end of the route,not too far from Fox Studios where the party was in 4 different venues, each dance space a little different. After the parade, I met up with a choir friend, and we entered the former Sydney Showground which is now Fox Studios, where they made Happy Feet, a couple of the Superman series, (I think)and some Tom Cruise Mission Impossible stuff (but don't hold that against them.

My friend, was chaperoning the friend of a mutual friend (if you get my drift) and they both went off to watch the mutual friend perform with the choir in the 12pm show (1st show of the night). I retired to the cloak room which was run by MCC who had a team of volunteers trying to sort order out of chaos, trying to label and stow various bags, costumes and accoutrement which our community uses to party with (all the legal stuff). A bonus of this was that cloakroom volunteers were classed as Service crew and got a free ticket to the party, but by the time the shift finished at 3.30am, and I put in another hour just to help with the sorting I was as they say in the world of horses, knackered. So I didn't stay to party, but beat a hasty retreat, found somewhere warm to rest for a couple of hours, tried to sleep but couldn't and stayed in town for my usual Sunday roast at my cafeteria of choice.

So now I'm home, will try to kip for a couple of hours, and then watch a bit of tv etc before retiring for hopefully a goodnight sleep (possums in the roof permitting).

Have a great week folks.