Most weekends I have nothing on. I just sit at home and watch television or surf the net. Occasionally I might have something festive. But generally, my weekends are quiet, with most of my socialising confined to weeknights. Today, however I attended two parties and was invited to a third which I had to decline.
The day started off with an ABBA Party at my friend, Cotton’s place, which she has written about here.
In essence, it was an afternoon of music, chatting, and video watching. A personal highlight for me was seeing a “video diary” made for submission to Channel 4 in the UK back in 1995 about “hard core ABBA fans”. It was interesting and entertaining, and a wonderful highlight was seeing a young boy who, aged three, used to dress up like one of the girls from ABBA and sing-a-long (quite well) in front of the television. By our estimates, he would be eighteen or nineteen now. “Twenty-first birthday material” we all agreed.
It was a fabulous, fun afternoon, although the men attending lost a little interest when the conversation turned to costume making. We might be ABBA fans, but we’re still blokes, I guess.
Brilliant organisation, Cotton, and thanks for a fabulous afternoon.
And then later, my friend Sam and I went to the annual New Dulwich Hill Mardi Gras. In essence, it’s a house party Glen and Greig have been holding since 1996 when they lived in Dulwich Hill. They’ve lived in Petersham for many years now, and have carried the name over with them.
As always it was spectacularly organised, with wonderful lighting, food and music. (Very pleased to hear Robyn’s “Dancing On My Own”). Amusingly, they also had a “countdown ticker” this year to the end of “Dry July”. “What’s next? Alcoholic August”, some wit commented.
I’ve gone to this party most years, with the first recorded photographic sighting being in 1999. I’m in the green shirt at the front of the shot pictured with others, including the late Chris Jones who died a couple of years later. Me and the ex can also be spotted in photographs from 2000. I’m pretty sure that’s me with a full head of hair wearing the black t-shirt, but maybe no.
As it’s an annual party there are sometimes people you only see once a year, and there’s one lovely guy who I chatted with last year, who I chatted with again.
As always, a fun evening.
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