Those were the days part 3

The continuing saga of my life as a twenty-something... the first part & the second part
The third person to live with me in Lakemba was Mark, a really great guy. We moved from there to a ‘secure’ apartment building in Burwood, (still in Sydney) with about 12 or 15 floors. The building had a body corporate that was quite strict and we had to sneak my cat in. Every time we had someone come to the door we had to hide her, especially as the ‘secure’ part of the building – having a key to get in to the front door or having to buzz the apartment you wanted – didn’t usually work. All ‘guests’ had to do was wait for a resident to open the door and make an excuse about having forgotten their key and the (usually) older tenants would happily help.

While in Burwood I held my first party; I slaved all day marinating chicken wings and making meatballs and didn’t have anything to eat all day. Needless to say, approaching party time, I downed a few wines and not long into the party found myself in bed, as sick as a dog with all the alcohol having gone straight to my head. Fortunately my mother was a guest and she took over for me. It was a bit embarrassing as my boss was also there, but had a positive consequence, because one of the guys who came as a guest of Marks became a boyfriend for a time. He very attentively looked after me while I was recovering in bed… Nothing too serious though, all the guests were coming in to see me and mum kept coming in to find out what else I wanted done.

This particular boyfriend had a motorbike – I don’t remember what kind anymore, but it was turbo charged (nearly thrown off the back many times) and being very enthusiastic and anal about his bike, he refused to have anything other than the grab bar at the back, which was like having your wrists tied together behind you. You had that or hold onto him. Oh, and if my clothes didn’t go with the colour of his bike, well….

We were at Burwood for about a year during the time of the bicentennial celebrations when we watched the special air force planes fly overhead from our 9th floor balcony.

The next stop was 1 suburb towards Sydney – Croydon and it was here that my accommodation-sharing days really took off. Mark and I moved into a great federation-style 3 bedroom house with a huge enclosed veranda at the back that we used as a 4th bedroom. 2 girls joined Mark and me; Kathy; a Novocastrian with a sometimes boyfriend and Karen; a country girl with a uni-student boyfriend. Kathy was (and hopefully still is) a pretty laid back girl who introduced me to lots music that was just outside the top 20 type of stuff I tended to listen to – REM is one that stands out. Karen, on the other hand was into heavy metal in a very full-on way. She used to listen to it really softly in her bedroom, which still seems to me to be a complete contradiction, while she read romance novels. I saw quite a few metal bands during those years, including Christian thrash (another contradiction), which is what her boyfriend was into.

Going to gigs was the go during the Croydon years – yes, I actually did live in 1 place for more than a year (but I can’t remember how long it actually was). One of our favourites was The Croydon; a local pub within walking distance that used to have Irish bands on Sunday nights. The place would be wall-to-wall footballers and Irish – it was absolutely great – the atmosphere, lots of alcohol, great music and just a walk home.

Used to go out quite often with mates from work, too. A favourite haunt when we went out was the pub across the road from the Balmain tigers footy club (can’t remember the name). We used to see Tommy Emanuel and his brother Phil, the Bondi Cigars and loads of other blues bands. The night was always finished off with a hot dog, the likes of which you don’t see anymore – a roadside vendor with sauerkraut, onions, pickles, cheese and anything else you could want on a hotdog. They were really, really good.

Had a couple of parties here, but the one that remains strongest in my memory was a ‘black party’. The food was typical party fare, but everything else was back; decorations, clothes and we used black ultraviolet light bulbs and black candles. We were cleaning candle wax off the carpet for ages.

One party that Mark and I went to that was the best party I’ve ever been to was a Halloween cocktail party. Everybody was told to bring a specific type of spirit or liqueur. They had a couple of blenders, lots of ice, juice and fruit and cocktail recipes plastered all over the walls. They also had lots of dry ice and stuff that looked very like cobwebs and cool coloured lighting and Halloween-themed decorations. Nobody left sober, that much was certain, but it was a great change from beer and cask wine!