Melting moment...

Last night, we had a client seminar which was OK. After these things, the Bank always puts on drinks and canapes so that the clients can mingle with the Bankers/Advisors and the speakers. The client that I had invited had dinner to go to so he left straight after the presentation so that left me to be free and easy with the drinks! So I had about 3 glasses of wine and a few nibbles. I really felt like slamming some serious alcohol down as I'd just completed my DFP assignment (which was a complete nightmare - damn computer lost half of it and I had to re-type it yesterday afternoon) which is due today. Anyway, it seemed like a few of my team felt similarly, and so once we were booted out of the Bank drinks, we headed down to GPO for another round of drinks. We all had a couple of glasses and then that bar closed. So we toddled off to a new little wine bar that's opened behind Ivy for another couple of glasses. I was, by this stage, rather merry and so decided that a visit to McBrad's would be in order - normally, he's not keen on a tipsy me turning up at his door late at night but for some reason, I thought that he'd be fine with it and so grabbed a taxi and hightailed it over to his. I let myself in, had a quick shower and then crept up to his room and slipped into bed next to him - not a protest in sight. It was lovely.

But, I was thinking of just dropping him a quick sms or email this morning, just to say sorry for waking him up etc, when lo and behold, he emails me! "If I am really honest, I did enjoy the snuggle last night, you were all smooth and snuggley ". Talk about making me melt, I turned all gooey when I read that. What a sweetheart!!! Is there any wonder why I love him so much!!!

Speaking of lovely moments...we had planned for me to spend last Sunday night at his (as I do pretty much every week). Normally, I've been driving over to his and driving home in the morning as you can't park in the street all day (it's a one hour limit). But my car has been broken into twice now while parked outside his place and so it's a bit of a concern. Anyway, on Sunday, he drove over to my place (a very scary thing for a gay guy...driving over the bridge to the "dark side") and collected me which was a very sweet thing to do. We went to dinner in Newtown and then drove back to his place and watched a DVD, me snuggled in his arms. It has actually been several weeks since we've done that - we've been out lots with friends, or to the cinema etc and so Sunday night was just wonderful. You know those nights where you do nothing special, but the night is just special anyway? It was one of those nights!

I've turned into a drooling idiot haven't I? Can't help it I'm afraid. Sorry. :-)

Dinner Party...

Well, it's 3pm Saturday and I've been up since 6am and I'm just a touch weary! I got up so early (which is so unlike me) as I had to go to the flower markets out at Flemington. Unfortunately, it seems that most of Sydney had the same idea...traffic was appalling - had to queue for about 15 mins on the highway just to get in the gate! Anyway, I bought up big and have done up two arrangements. One is for the table, the other is on my hall stand. I'm hoping that they'll last until Christmas, in which case, I'll take 'em down to the beach house.

I then went grocery shopping. Now I normally don't do groceries until the afternoon (my mornings are usually devoted to sleeping in and then getting some breakfast and reading the paper) and so I didn't know whether it would be busy or not. Of course, it's the weekend before Christmas so it was crazy! But I battled through the crowds and into Woolies! And then I realized why I don't go in the mornings...there's all these flipping old people doing their shopping! And they are soooo slow!!! I'm sorry to all the old people out there, but they have all the time in the world DURING THE WEEK to go and yet, leave it until I'm needing to rush around on a Saturday! Grrrr...

Anyway, I've come home, made the dessert, made the main, and prepared the entree. Now I'm half-way through cleaning my apartment. It's just so hot and sticky today that I needed a bit of a rest...hence this post.

At Campbell's request...the menu.

Entree - Lightly steamed asparagas spears, wrapped in smoked salmon, with shaved parmesan and a sweet balsamic dressing
Main - Veal Scallopine with a fresh garden salad and baby potatoes
Dessert - Brandied Apricot Trifle

I've got champers to start with the hors douvres, a nice WA Chardonnay Verdelho with entree, and the bottle I'm fanging to try out - 2002 Grant Burge "Holy Trinity" Grenache Shiraz Mourvedre - will accompany the mains. I've also got my last bottle of Lamont's Navera which I will serve with dessert. And of course, I suspect that my guests will probably bring some more wine and so I have a feeling that this will end up being a bit of a lush evening! Wahoooo!

Well, my rest time is over...back to the cleaning! Hope everyone is having a great weekend! :-)

The Weekend That Was...and other miscellaneous musings...

What a weekend it was! I don't think I've consumed that much alcohol in such a short space of time for quite a while (and that includes my big weekends overseas). Friday night found Monty very inebriated and just a little toey after the first of our work Xmas parties, and with a willing Rick waiting at the Flinders Hotel, there was no stopping me. Well, apart from the fact that I had to stumble and sway my way from Pitt St to Flinders St...that took a while (yes, for some reason, I was determined not to take a taxi...don't ask me why, I had decided to walk and nothing was going to stop me). But made it I did, and so we grabbed a cab back to Rick's place and I fell asleep in his arms.

I woke up surprisingly hangover-free and rather early! Rick had organized to meet his personal trainer at 9am so I was up and ready to leave at 8.45am and feeling rather perky too! Strange. Caught a taxi home, had a quick shower and toddled down to my local cafe and grabbed a Ham and Cheese Croissant and a coffee and the paper and spent the next couple of hours pleasantly engrossed.

In the arvo, I popped down to my local flower man and purchased masses of flowers - it was, after all, Evan's birthday and a very significant one at that, which meant it needed to be celebrated with one of Monty's special arrangements. As Evan is a very carbon conscious man, McDreamy suggested that Australian native flowers might go down well. And so, although I don't think I do my best work with them, I gave it a go and they seemed to go down a treat with Evan! McDreamy took pics of them, so hopefully he'll either email them to me, or post them himself.

We then motored in to Oxford St and rocked up to the Beauchamp Hotel nice and early and slammed a champers or two before the rest of the guests arrived. A highly pleasant evening was had. Apart from Sam, I had not met any of Evan's friends so I was intrigued to see the kind of people he hung out with...all very nice, what else could I expect from such a lovely guy! But it is interesting when talking with someone who's known him for 20+ years and the insights you get!!! Muzbot turned up later on, limping slightly from his war wounds, wearing his "Third Place" ribbon proudly on his chest, and unable to wipe the grin off his face!

Proceedings ground to a halt around midnight (I think), with Evan and McDreamy jumping in a cab back to Evan's. I, on the other hand, was in a party mood - despite my excesses the previous evening - and so wandered down Oxford St...firstly to the Midnight Shift - dull - and then back up to Stonewall. Started chatting to a rather friendly Bostonian who was here for the weekend but then Rick rang me. He was wondering if I was going to come over to his that night. I was a bit tired by this stage, and despite my overtures to the friendly Bostonian, I knew it was going to require a bit more work before I got anywhere with him. Not being up for the job, I grabbed a cab and headed to Rick's.

So, so far, I've spent 3 nights at his and all we have done is sleep together (quite literally), apart from some very general play. I think Rick is a lovely man, and we get on quite well, however there's just not the zing with him. I don't feel anything deeper than friendship for him, and am very happy just snuggling/sleeping with him. He's more of a snuggle-buddy than anything else. He seems pretty content with that too, so I shall have a chat with him later this week to clarify things, and going forward, hopefully things will be good.

Sam was at the party on Saturday night, and as soon as he turned up, he came over and said hello to me and to the friend of Evan's that I was talking to at the time. And that was about it for the night, apart from a passing word or two spoken in a group setting. I must say, I was a little disappointed in that, but what could I do? I still had a great time at the party. But it was lovely that this morning, waiting for me when I logged on at work, was an email from Sam. In it, he apologised for not chatting to me and suggested meeting up for christmas drinks sometime this month. So all was forgiven! I don't know if there's anything more than him being friendly but at least we'll have a chance to have a proper chat, which we haven't done since I returned.

Yesterday, it was my friend Jacqui's birthday and so last night, James, her b/f and I took her for a couple of quiet drinks at our local, the Commodore Hotel. It was a lovely evening; pleasant weather, a couple of drinks, great company. Muzbot turned up for a quickie before he headed off to take some pics of the Australian Idol fireworks which look quite splendid! He's one talented man!

So it was an extremely social, extremely alcoholic weekend, but I feel very little effects from it, which is very unlike me. NOT that I'm complaining mind you. I had a marvellous time, particularly Saturday night!

Monday Bloody Monday...

The weekend has come and gone and I'm sitting wondering what happened! Why is it that the week drags ever so slooooooowly and then the weekend flies by in a wink!


Anyway, here in Sydney last week, we enjoyed somewhat of an Indian summer, with temperatures hitting 25 degrees Celcius over the weekend! And buckets of sunshine! Perfect weather, but highly unusual for the middle of winter! Today, it seems like the weather remembered it was winter for the chills hit big time!!!

Anyway, the weekend was a bit up and down for me...some really good bits, and some just average bits. The weather, as I mentioned, was awesome! Early Saturday arvo, I met up with one of my readers, one of my adoring public! ha ha ha! It was great to meet him, exchange some stories, clarify a few details and to put a face to his otherwise quite elusive identity. Then had a date with a guy that I had been chatting to on Gaydar - was OK...nothing to write home about (or even blog about) - nice guy but no sparks.

I was in a strange mood late Saturday arvo...really felt like some serious beer drinking, so purchased myself some beer, got home and received a text. It was my mate Muzbot and an invitation to the Commodore for...yes, you guessed it...a beer (or two). Perfect. Another excellent night spent with a good mate, drinking beer and chatting! Sensational!

Sunday was interesting. Once I dragged myself out of bed, I received a text from the guy that I previously met a few weeks ago at the Stonewall. He suggested a coffee in the arvo which worked well for me, needed coffee after the amount of alcohol consumed the previous night! Unfortunately (well, actually, rather fortunately) we never got to the cafe! tee hee hee Afterwards, raced home, had a quick shower and then met up with the smiling Evan and his ever so sober boyfriend McDreamy at the Commodore for a late arvo drink...beer for me, LLB for the boys! Sat outside on the terrace and progressively got colder as the sun sank beneath the horizon until I could stand it no more. But it was great to catch up with them; as always, an interesting and informative chat and a highly enjoyable time!

So a bit of a mixed bag for a weekend, but still, I can't complain. What's the point, no one will listen anyway! Hope everyone has a great week!

The end of the week...

It's now 5.05pm Friday and I've had the laziest day! I took the day off as a reward for having such a hard June (and as it turns out July too). Dragged myself out of my toasty warm bed around 10.30am this morning, really wanting a coffee. But alas, I realized that I had an official doctor's appointment with McDreamy and he had told me not to eat or drink anything except water! arghhhhhh! Monty without his morning espresso makes for a very dopey man! Anyway, eventually made the trek across the city to "the Shire" where McDreamy practises his medicine, 15 mins late for my appointment. Thankfully, I was his last patient and so he was pretty chilled out about it. I jumped up on the couch, he sucked the blood outa me (which I did not watch, otherwise it would have been all over red rover for Monty) whilst chatting to me, trying (mostly sucessfully) to distract me. That over, we headed off to Cronulla for a yummy lunch overlooking the windswept beach and churning, crashing waves (and the spunky waiter was also most pleasant eye candy). Checked out his new love nest which is well, in need of the attentions of an interior designer...oh, that's right, Evan is one! he he! Actually, I do have to say, he only moved yesterday so he's still got lots of unpacking and sorting and tidying up to do, but once it is done, it'll look great! Look forward to many a weekend hanging out there with he and Evan (yes McDreamy, that's a hint for an invitation). :-)

Tonight, I'm hibernating at home sans alcohol. I had planned on reducing my alcohol intake this week, after the battering that my liver got last week, however things didn't quite go according to plan. Monday night, 4 glasses of wine and a beer with a rather cute redhead; Tuesday 3 glasses of wine at work at the end of the day; Wednesday night, 4 beers and a couple of vodkas (rather strong ones too) with my mate Muzbot; and last night, I attended my first ever Fruits in Suits gathering at Slide where I consumed another 5 or 6 glasses of wine (my memory is a little hazy on the specific number). So, tonight, dinner with a non-alcoholic beverage, a couple of dvd's, and it's off to bed for Monty! Hope everyone has a great weekend!