QVM – GREYHOUND – THE PRINCE
14.07.02
After breakfast, I decided to called Jem, and see if we were still right to got to the QVM [Queen Victoria Markets] but couldn’t contact her. No answer on her phone, and she wasn’t at home when I called her sisters’ place either. So I figured I wasn’t gonna wait around for her, so I went along by myself. Consulted me ever handy map. Caught the loop tram to Elizabeth street walked up two – three blocks and hit the markets.
Walked each and every inch of the markets. I really do like shopping by myself, more so than shopping with the more ‘girlie’ of my friends, purely so it allows me to look at and spend considerable amounts of time looking at stuff I like and not having to stop at the shops/stalls that I have absolutely no interest in. So a few purchases were made while at the markets. $99.00 for a pair of Levi Red Tab Jeans. A leather wallet. [Saw a couple of chicks with similar ones last night so I figured I really should break tradition and get one for myself, being a guys wallet caused a few funny looks but hell, I like it] 4 little badge/pins with various sayings on them. And a bunch of fluoro coloured plastic/rubber bracelets to start off my collection of glowing rave gear.
That was pretty much my trip to the markets, but all of this including walking the entire spread of the stalls shed A – L or M [cant’ remember] filled in the time between breakfast and dinner so that was a good effort for someone who doesn’t like shopping.
Got dinner at the hotel I think when I dropped all my shopping back into my room. Tried to call Jem again to see if she was interested in coming out again with me tonight. Again no answer. By this time I was wondering if she was OK, or whether she had just let her phone battery die off again. But after getting genuinely concerned about her, and not being able to contact her, or get anyone at her home to pick up the phone either, I decided that I was gonna go out anyway. My first adventures out in the really world by ‘myself’, and not only that, by myself in a town in which I could so easily get lost. Kept $50 bucks in my wallet, in case I needed a taxi to get me back to civilisation. I decided that the sign outside The Greyhound earlier in the week advertising Karaoke would be an interesting night at the least, and something I could do by myself. So hell I got on a tram and turned up a few locks away from the pub. Got directions form a very helpful gentleman, and walked the rest of the way. Wasn’t all that far. Thought it could have been a lot longer. Made it as far as the directions took me, asked further directions “just up the road a bit love” from a ‘homeless’ gentleman who was scavenging goods from out the front of a Salvation Army/Smiths Family store. Got to the pub, walked in. This step in itself was very weird for me. Never have I ever walked into an unknown pub by myself. So once I got over the initial shock of that. I settled down with a seat by the bar and got myself a drink. Talked to a bunch of guys who were also seated at the bar. Spotted the fact that Turtle was working. [Boy does she keep moving, she was bopping around the place all night]. After bot an hour there was a major shift into the back bar. The Karaoke was about to begin. So I traipsed in there. Saw some scary looking guys singing pretty well up in the stage. [The same stage as Fame girl was one Saturday night] Started talking to another bunch of people. After Eleanor came up and introduced herself. And asked how my night had been going. Had a lovely chat with her, and ended up meeting a bunch of people, including Kathy, Tony and Tyrone. Tyrone was one to watch, according to him he had all the moves. All I could tell you was he was very drunk and Eleanor was not in the slightest bit interested in him. Spent the rest of the night in awe of the karaoke talents and in a state of shock of the antics of the supreme DJ’s that were working the evening.
Had a deep and meaningful, yet drunken [on her behalf] with Eleanor about her dad being gay, and about the fact that she spotted me across the room [in the public bar] and noted that I was gay. “It wasn’t the hair, it wasn’t the clothes….It was the X factor]. The gaydar she has could totally be helpful to me, who can’t tell a gay chick from a broom stick. Well not quite that extreme, but certainly some time needs to be invested in sorting that out. I need a gaydar.
This night would not have been the same had Kate been able to come along. By this time she had left for home, about 40 minutes out of the city. So in a few ways I was thankful for the night that I spent without her, and how I could develop my ability to talk to complete strangers in a pub situation. And in other ways it would have been nice to see her again before I make the trek home tomorrow.
Left The Greyhound and ended up at The Prince of Wales with Eleanor and Tony, who found out tonight that they lived practically on each others doorstep. And who vowed to share the driving next time they went out. Caught up with Kathy and Tyrone and ‘Frenchy’ [guy who’s name I didn’t catch but had a French accent, nick named Frenchy by Eleanor] in a side alley near the pub drinking too many VB stubbies. And coming out of it worse for wear. They were definitely sloshed by the time we ran into them, about 1 am. Kathy, Tyrone, Frenchy and one more stray that Kathy ended up picking up off the street went on to Sunset Strip [club 200 metres down the road], Tony and Eleanor went home. I got pizza at Topo’s. Not eating there again. Too much slime/fat left on the tray once I finished, so imagining how much I ate, is just disgusting. I got in a taxi, paid the lowest amount of fare ever known to folks going out. $14 and some cents got me back to my hotel door. Went inside, decided to pack, because I so wasn’t tired yet. Crashed, woke up, had breakfast checked out and went and dumped my stuff in a locker at the train station.
