GLORY DAZE......(part 2).

When the working day is done
Girls - they want to have fun
Oh girls just want to have fun

Some boys take a beautiful girl
And hide her away from the rest of the world
I want to be the one to walk in the sun
Oh girls they want to have fun.

And fun I did have!  My new found lease on life was all due to my new found crotch - pills.  They took me from my introverted, miserable, baggage-carrying self and transformed me into a new person.  A person who was suddenly now confident in both my abilities and my personality and a person who was suddenly now interested in the world and people around me.  I was seeing the world through rose-coloured glasses for the first time in nearly 10 years and I had a ball.

I was clubbing every weekend on Friday and Saturday nights.  My club of choice was the Imperial (the Priscilla Hotel) as it was not only the closest club to me but it was also a great club which didn't quite fit into any category - neither gay or straight  It wasn't in the established Oxford St gay strip just east of the city.  It wasn't even in the newly growing gay enclave of King St, Newtown, rather it was tucked behind it in the old and tiny Victorian  era suburb of Erskineville.  Originally a working class local hotel, the Imperial had started slowly as a gay friendly pub in the upcoming trendy Newtown area and had shot to fame with the filming of the opening scenes of Priscilla Queen of the Desert movie in the early 1990's.

From my  coming out days in the early 1980's I had been friends with two of the original characters in the movie and had actually been part of the real group of well wishers who had fondly waved our friends off on their big adventure - never knowing that a almost a decade later this moment would become a legend in Sydney Gay history.  The Imperial and the area around it would become my home away from home for the next many years.  It was only 20 minutes walk to my school and many of my students lived close by - in fact it wasn't unusual to see some of the parents there on a weekend night enjoying drinks in the front bar!

There were 3 main areas at the Imperial.  The front bar, which was your typical Australian pub during the day and not much different during the night except the crowd was more diverse.  Behind this was the show room where they had a huge dance floor and stage where the drag shows were staged.  The crowd here was very mixed.  Many suburban straight people came on the weekends specifically to see the Priscilla show and a lot of locals as well as the big gay crowd.  Downstairs was the dedicated dance club area.  Black walls, amazing lighting with a dance floor in the middle.  I would start of in the show room and then once the pills had kicked in and the first show had finished move downstairs to dance the night away.

I was 34 and going on 24 and I could get away with it.  The pills enhanced my natural dancing ability (a legacy of the ballroom dancing lessons from my youth) and made me glow with a passion.  In my long shorts and platform trainers and very little else I would dance the night away.  I loved everybody and it wasn't long before I found that everybody loved me.  I was making friends with all the regulars and the staff including the show girls and if I didn't pick up on any night it was only because I was more interested in dancing than going home with someone.

Even though I only lived 15 minutes cab ride away my suburb was generally a no go area for most of the gay crowd who either lived around Newtown or in the city so I would generally go back to my trades house at the end of the night which suited me fine. It was a good excuse to have simple, fun one-night stands.  I wouldn't hang around long enough to get close to anyone using the excuse of having to get home to let my dog out to ward off any clingy partners.  After years of being so dominated by Matty the last thing I wanted was to get into a relationship.  Psychologically I hadn't gotten over him and wasn't looking to replace him.  I just wanted to have good, hot, fun sex with like-minded people.

I soon had another excuse to leave early.  A few months after I started clubbing my principal asked me if I would be interested in starting a school farm  where we would have a range of small animals which the children would be responsible for.  This was supposed to be a way of teaching them responsibility and give them some nurturing skills - something which most of them sadly lacked from home.  So along with teaching 4 grades together, running the school sports, co-running the school breakfast club and being in charge of unlocking the 4 school entrances each day I was now looking after a farmyard full of smelly animals.

A few of the parents and I constructed a large, fenced enclosure in the top corner of the school grounds one afternoon.  For city dwellers we actually did a really good job.  It was a large area with grass at one end, a shaded dirt area at the other and we even dug in and made a pond which we lined with plastic and edged with old bricks from the neighbourhood (natural rocks being in short supply) to make a duck pond. Over the ensuing weeks we had chickens, ducks, rabbits and guinea-pigs which had been bought by the staff and a few of the decent parents and the children loved it.

It was no trouble to maintain during the week. The children all loved having 'baby animals' to look after and play with during their breaks and almost every child in the school took turns in feeding, cleaning and looking after the animals, including taking them in and out of their cages where they would be housed overnight and put safely away into one of the old school sheds.  On the weekends, however I was responsible for going in on Saturdays and Sundays and taking them out of their cages to run around for an hour or two while I fed them and cleaned out the shed.

I would come straight from the Imperial or my trade's house on both mornings.  Normally I would have taken my second or third pill not long before and be peaking to the max.  Full of unspent energy I would go about my rural chores some time between 6 and 9am each morning.  Then I would jump on the bus and be home within 30 minutes.  This was the only time that my school life and night life came together but no one was around to see so I felt that it was no problem.

The last statement is not quite true.  The euphoric effect of the pills and the energy buzz that the pills gave me on the weekends seemed somehow to carry over during the week days.  Not that I was taking any pills but I was carrying that positive energy throughout the week.  The thrill of the weekend would keep me buoyed at the start of the week and the expectation of doing it all again would keep me going to the end of the week.  It was all positive however.  I was having a great time with my class and challenging the other teachers to get into the spirit which they did with glee.  Our principal suddenly found herself as a minor player in how the school was run and in who the students and parents looked towards as the school community leaders.

After I arrived home after a night clubbing I would take my dog on amazingly long walks.  Up to the big park and down along the river and through different streets before returning home, sometimes I would have done 4-5 km before my neighbours had even woken up.  My house was spotless, my neighbours all included in my new love of life - I even used to bake scones (which I rarely ate myself) and give to them - the old man next door was delighted.  He looked forward to our Saturday and Sunday morning chats over the fence and rarely missed them.

I would go out shopping still buzzing and buy cute shorts to wear out that night, have turkish coffee which was available in the

many Greek or Lebanese coffee shops which my area was home to and chat with the owners or perv at the hot young ethnic boys who arrived in their souped up sports cars with their gorgeous girlfriends - all who were as high as I was after a night clubbing.

Of course I was still smoking heaps of dope.  On the weekend days I probably smoked more than ever as still coming down from the pills the dope would hardly touch the sides.  I would end up at John and Trudi's at least once on the weekend and spend a few hours with them often helping out in the garden, which neither of them were particularly talented in doing, but always having a fun time.  They even told me after a month or so that the change in me was amazing.  I knew they were right.  I was finally truly enjoying my life.  I had a great career, a lovely home and community, and an amazing night life and everything about it was positive.

This would be my life for the next 18 months and longer before I finally took the plunge and got into a relationship that would again be a life changer.  In between though I had some fantastically fun times and days / nights to remember which I will delve into next time I write.