Saturday

Ahhh, Saturday. It was nice to wake up to the exotic birds instead of the annoying alarm clock. Today was Sydney's 30th Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade. It was a huuuge event, and you couldn't go anywhere without hearing people talk about it. It was like a holiday, people in stores would wish you "Happy Mardi Gras!" as you walked out the door... First we went to a barbeque at a nurse's house (he's from Miami), where we had delicious food, great music and good sunny weather. The website states about the history of Mardi Gras: "The first march took place on Saturday 24th June 1978 at 10pm and it met with police violence. The Mardi Gras was Sydney’s contribution to the international Gay Solidarity Celebrations, an event that had grown up as a result of the Stonewall riots in New York. Two thousand people followed a truck with a small PA system down Oxford Street to Hyde Park and then dispersed up to Kings Cross. After harassing the marchers for much of the route the police swooped and violently arrested 53 people. Over the months that followed more protests and arrests took place and the actions of the police came to be seen as heavy handed." The parade started at about 8pm and is only a mile long, but it was incredible. The participants included, among many others, the New South Wales Police Force, Jewish, Catholic and Muslim gay groups, IBM, the NSW Fire Brigades, the armed forces and staff from Royal Prince Alfred Hospital (my hospital - "Sisters marching for sisters"). We met so many friendly (and very drunk) people, the weather was balmy and it was great. Here are some pics from the day...

Lu (Lucinda) cooking our food. She shares the house/apartment with David. It's a great place...

One of the floats... I'm not even sure which one, but most floats included lots of basically naked, buffed up men dancing around. This float was no exception.

Just a picture of the crowds and the pre-parade. It was gorgeous weather the whole day and night.
A picture of me and Lu at the end of the night waiting for a cab to drive us and our step stools home.