NEW WAVE DAZE....(part 2)

Yesterday when I was young
The taste of life was sweet as rain upon my tongue
I teased at life as if it were a foolish game
The way the evening breeze may tease the candle flame

The thousand dreams I dreamed
The splendid things I planned
I always built alas on weak and shifting sand
I lived by night and shunned the naked light of day
And only now I see how the years ran away
 
Returning home again for a few months I was to find a new group of friends.  Still working at the menswear store I became a beacon for peers who, like me were into the new wave image.  There weren't many of us, but between other sales people in the mall and old school friends we formed a collective group. I wasn't the only 'gay in the village' after all.  But with my outrageous dyed hair and effeminate ways I was the most obvious.

We partied at each others houses on the weeknights and on Saturdays went to Stranded.  We were a mixed group of both gay and straight, boys and girls. Their friendship and our shared tastes made the next few months living at home bearable.

I changed jobs and was now working for a company making diet meals for rich, society women in the Eastern Suburbs.  The job was less well paid and hard work.  I was a kitchen hand , cleaner and took orders over the phone.  Our clients were too embarrassed to pick up from the shop so everything was packed and delivered daily.  There was no dress restriction so I was free to wear what I wanted and finally style my hair into the latest design. 
 
I vividly remember one day when I was shopping at the local fruit and vegetable market for work supplies.  It was an enormous barn like building with 10 checkouts and a public address system used by the workers.  I walked in wearing something I had made for a party the previous evening, out of green and white hessian.  White hessian harem pants and a green hessian blouse which had a long shawl which draped over one side of my face and down to the ground.  Over the P.A system one of the store-room boys announced 'Bloody hell, it's the Queen of Sheba'!

I met my next boyfriend at Stranded in early August and a few weeks later he asked me to move in with him.  Again he was older than me, but lived in the suburb where my job was which was a good enough reason to say yes.  He was a hairdresser and for the first two months we lived above the salon where he worked.  It wasn't a flash place but had a wonderful balcony with panoramic views across Sydney Harbour and was only a 5 minute walk to my work.

He wasn't my ideal boyfriend, but again he was generous and easy to live with.  The bonus was that I was now getting free haircuts and colouring!  Every week when the salon ran their training night I was the guinea pig for the latest cut or colour and started modelling for them at various award nights and hairdressing competitions.

We had to move after about 2 months.  Both of us contracted a really bad case of body lice which of course were infesting the building which was nearly 100 years old and had been a hair salon for at least 20 years.

The apartment we found was amazing.  Situated in the small and exclusive suburb of Rushcutter's Bay which is right on the harbour and the suburb neighbouring Kings Cross.  The apartment was huge with a 5 sided lounge room, small kitchen, bathroom and an equally large bedroom with a small balcony.  We were directly opposite the park and had great views of the bay and neighbouring exclusive suburb of Darling Point.

My boyfriend was really into Art Deco.  At the time you could buy the most amazing second hand furniture at really cheap prices in many of the inner city suburbs.  We had the apartment totally decked out like a scene from a 1930's movie.  Everything was 10 - 15 minutes walk away, clubs, bars, restaurants, but the location was an oasis of serenity, with the park across the street and the adjoining house, one of the few houses in the suburb, boasting an enormous tree filled garden.

We played our roles well.  He was the bread winner and I was the home-maker.  As a qualified hairdresser he was payed a lot better than I was and his clients were all wealthy and often gave him generous tips.  So he paid the rent and bought the furniture, while I bought the shopping and cleaned the apartment.  While he worked on Saturdays I would start my day getting high on marijuana and spend the next 3 hours happily cleaning away.  Our friends always commented on how clean our apartment was!

We lasted together for 14 months.  He didn't smoke dope but was a drinker.  In the evenings when I would smoke a joint or two he would down a bottle of wine...this wasn't a problem until we went out.  Then he would get really drunk and obnoxious with people, often getting close to a punch up - which he physically wouldn't have been at an advantage in.

After clubbing, it was always a taxi ride home as the risk of him abusing a total stranger waling home was too great and as we had to walk through Kings Cross the risk of him getting into a fight with another drunk yob was inevitable.

One night his salon held a hair show in a very straight pub.  I and some of my friends were modelling on the night and the place was packed with very drunk, very homophobic young guys and their girlfriends. I had made all the costumes for the event and they were as daring and outrageous as I could get.  It was a fantastic night and not only did the show go down really well, but the music we had chosen for our modelling was a big hit with the clientele.

After the show the DJ played our different songs over and over at the request of the patrons.  We had a great night mixing and dancing with people whom we would never have mingled with normally.  Everyone was having fun until my boyfriend had one drink too many.  He started abusing anyone and everyone around him.  My friends and I tried to control him but he was too far gone to take the warning.

My biggest worry was that, while nothing would happen inside the bar, there were at least a dozen young guys ready to take him outside and belt the daylights out of him, and probably us as well.  I remember threatening him to stop, after managing to stop two guys from dragging him outside, and then when he went in for a second go at them I just punched him in the face.

Bang!  I who had maybe hit someone once or twice in my life had knocked my boyfriend unconscious!  Funnily enough, while his work mates took him home in a taxi, the boys he had been abusing asked me to stay and bought me drinks for the rest of the evening.

The next morning my boyfriend told me he was moving out and that I could have the apartment. It was all very simple and civil.  Two days later he found a new apartment and moved out taking all the furniture with him.  I wasn't earning enough to cover the rent so that night after work I went up to Fitzroy Gardens and prostituted myself.  This was how I managed to cover my rent and bills and slowly start buying furniture over  the few months  Then boyfriend number 3 would come along.  Looking back, he was probably the only boy I truly loved and was loved by in return........