James O'Brien

The sunrise over Brisbane on Monday was really beautiful. Even the city’s ugly buildings looked good against the backdrop. I wouldn’t normally have been up and about so early, but I’d woken at 4.00am Brisbane time. Most days I wake at about 5.00am, but because of the change between daylight saving time and regular time I was up, out and about.

The night before I’d gone to The Sportsman Hotel, one of Brisbane’s longest-serving gay bars. In a nod to the time when I used to live there and regularly went to the Sunday session at The Alliance (with drag queens Freda Mae West, Toye de Wilde and others), I thought it would be fun to have a meal, have a beer, and watch Brisbane’s nightlife. As I often do when I come to Brisbane, I paused for a moment to wonder how my life would have been different had I stayed there, and had not pursued my career ambition in radio.

It was a week of “remembering” in some ways, as I also caught up with family members this week, and learned a little more about “life in the old days”.

Overwhelmingly though, it was a week of work for me. Hard work. By the time I arrived back on Thursday night I was exhausted.