...This week has been recovery from the Mardi Gras parade, which happened last Saturday! Have always wanted to go and see what all the fuss is about, and was happy to realise would still be in Sydney when it was on! It's the biggest gay festival in Australia, and probably one of the biggest in the world, so attracts a fair crowd of tourists, both gay and straight, but is really just an excuse for one huge party!!! We got to Oxford Street in the afternoon to check how busy the streets were gonna be and "found" ourselves some abandoned milk crates along the way (a tip we got, very handy to stand on if you're near the back of the crowd!). Surprised as the crowds weren't as big as we'd expected - probably due to the buckets of rain which had been tipping down all day!! We had a few drinks and soaked up the atmosphere watching some "interesting" costumes being paraded past! Took up our spot by the railings and joined in with 15,000 other onlookers for a (apparently!) World Record breaking rendition of the Village People's "YMCA"! Then it was another rainy wait until the parade started. They opened with about a hundred motorbikes, rode by more of the "interestingly dressed" participants and then followed by more sequins, feathers, lipstick, dancers & cheesy pop tunes then you could shake a spangly stick at!!
The Mardi Gras is not all glitz and high-heeled glamour though - it also seemed like a big platform for protesting and campaigning, so there were loads of political banners and equal rights messages dotted throughout the floats - a memorable one being people dressed up as Saddam Hussein and George Bush walking hand in hand, and John Howard (the Aussie PM) and George Bush "just married", oh the irony of it all!?!
Well, with the parties over for a while, it's back to prayers for some decent weather and a bus ticket to ride...well, out of Sydney at least! Have some more stories for ya as had a few visitors over lately, namely my parents and some great mates from Norwich, but will leave y'all with this for now before you all start suffering from Oz overload!!
Til the next exciting installment...
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