Day 116: Mardi Gras.

Ah thank Christ. I am now safely barricaded in my happy tower away from the slather on the streets outside. It is Mardi Gras tonight, Sydney's biggest, gayest party of the year. But what I just fought my way through was not some throng of camp, drag and androgynous merriment. Rather a sketchy mob of hetero youth vomiting their way along piss spattered streets lined with stalls selling chicken skewers and dodgy asian pork balls. Tasty. Never mind. As the parade had passed by hours before, I'm presuming these were the underage dregs left behind the more spectacular revelers, since moved on to any number of after parties. For my own part, and as some small gesture towards the theme of the night, I went to a screening of A Single Man (Tom Ford's visual love affair, heavily dosed in homosexual male gaze - not a bad thing. It was a beautiful film.) with friends, then went to my favourite place in the entire universe right now, The Big Rig. This last part of the evening had nothing whatsoever to do with celebrating gayness, and more to do with pleasing our ears (best music ever, all the time and loud), our eyes (hot wait staff, the chef is a spunk) and our taste buds (chilli fries, guacamole, macaroni and cheese). Oh, and I should probably fess up about a couple of things: 1. Having consumed the aforementioned chilli fries and some corn chips and two Cokes, I kind of fell off the liver cleanse wagon. 2. I really wished I could have had a beer or a glass of red. I didn't of course. But it's been a bit of a theme the last couple of days. I have just been wanting to be able to relax and enjoy an alcoholic drink in a nice moderate and adult way. But as stupid as it seems to not be allowed to, not drinking is the only rule and it's one I'm going to stick to. I think probably adding the liver cleanse on top has been maybe one step too far. After all, when you're beating yourself up over the damage two cokes and some corn chips are going to do to your liver, you're kind of losing the plot. I will get back on the path to purity tomorrow, with liver-friendly eating and some yoga. And meanwhile I will quite happily go to sleep, far from the rat-faced crowds stumbling around on the streets below.