3rd Year Anniversary

Peter and I celebrated our third year anniversary on Oct. 1. It sometimes felt as if we were not going to make it, but we are both very happy we did. We celebrated it by attending the annual Sleaze Ball, the party where we met at. We had a great time and the music was fantastic. Of course, that was not enough. The following evening, we had to go to Extra Dirty. That was also great. The men were ultra hot and we did not stop dancing.

Happy Anniversary my dear Peter.

Flashback to 3 years ago. This was the what I wrote then about meeting Peter then. He is "M".

God, I do not remember the last time I went on a date. It has been that long. So, it came as quite a big surprise to be asked recently.

I met this guy at the most romantic of places, a gay dance party. Let us call him M. We had a fun time dancing and flirting on the dance floor. I told him I was single, and he revealed that he was in a relationship. No problem there, as I was not after anything. It became weird later, because we met his partner outside the dance venue. He was actually very nice. They even offered me a ride home. I gave M a sweet peck outside my apartment and sent them both home.

M texted me that day, and a week after asking to meet up. My first instinct was to decline, because I did not want the complication. But he wrote me such sweet text messages that I could not refuse. We met at a cocktail bar at 7:30 pm on Wednesday in October, and did not leave till past midnight. It was the best first date I have ever had. He was handsome, sweet, funny, interesting, and we had loads of alcohol. He told me that he and his boyfriend were in the process of breaking up. I did not really pry because I did not know what I wanted to come out of this. We have seen each other several times since. He is wonderful.

Winter in the Park

I bought another painting. I know. I think I have an addiction. I have certainly exhausted whatever art budget allocation I have for the year. However, I just could not resist.

Peter and I have admired Alexander McKenzie’s landscape paintings, since we first saw them in an exhibition last year. He paints beautiful, moody, dream-like landscapes with great skill. However, his paintings are usually large in scale with matching large price tags. I was therefore surprised, when I saw a couple of new paintings by him that are only 15x19 cm in size. They were obviously more affordable. It was hard to choose, but I settled for this one as Peter also loved it.

Repack

Peter and I recently visited the Art Gallery of NSW to view the Archibald Prize for portraiture exhibition. Running at the same time were the Wynne Prize and Sulman Prize exhibitions. We both admired a finalist for the Wynne Prize called “Recycle”. The entry was a simple picture of a pile of carton boxes against the blue horizon, with a workman on his phone in the background. What stood out was the photograph-like quality of the work, plus the beauty in such an ordinary scene. It reminded us of the works of the famous Australian painter, Jeffrey Smart. Looking around further, we realized that the same painter was a finalist for the Sulman Prize. This time his entry was called “Teamwork”, which depicted 3 cherry pickers converging on an electrical pole with 3 guys watching from the ground. Once again, it was beautiful.

The name of the painter is Peter Smets. I found out that he was associated with the Schubert Contemporary Gallery in the Gold Coast. I checked out their website, and found other works by him from his most recent exhibition called “Men at Work” still available for sale. I decided to purchase a smaller work called “Repack”, which had similarities to his Wynne Prize entry. Here is a picture of it.

I never thought I would buy an artwork without physically seeing it, but I had no choice in this case. The painting has arrived, and I absolutely love it. I think Peter Smets may be big one day.

Bathroom Reno

After 14 years in my flat, I decided to renovate my bathroom. There was nothing major wrong with my old bathroom. I just never used the bath, the shower was small, and the floor tiles were hard to clean.


I decided to go with the trend, and go for a contemporary look. There were a few dramas with the builder, but I am happy with the final result.


I love my new bathroom. I love the gray colour, the big showerhead, the glass shower screen, the soft close toilet seat, the mirrored shaving cabinet, and the sexy basin and pedestal.

Sydney Mardi Gras 2009

We were looking forward to the Mardi Gras party this year and it did not disappoint. Somehow, all the factors that made a great party gelled. The midnight show featuring my fave anthem of all time, “I Just Wanna Dance”, was fantastic. Alison Jiear sung it live complete with dancers. It was awesome and reminded me of the traditional Mardi Gras shows of years ago. Here is a video of the actual show.

We bumped into so many friends on the dance floor. No complaints this year on the music. Peter and I were on our dancing feet from 10:30 pm till the party finished at 8 am. A fitting ending was finally getting off our feet and lying on the grass outside Fox studios.

For recovery, Peter and I went to Frisky at the Metro. The amazing Jojo played the entire 8 hour set, and I did not want to leave the dance floor for a second. The place was not full, which prevented the party from really taking off. However, we still enjoyed ourselves.

New Year's Eve 2009 at the Sensation White Party

Peter and I celebrated new year's eve at the Sensation Party at the Telstra Dome in Melbourne. Peter designed and produced the outfits that the VIP hostesses wore on the night. We were there to dress the girls, and party afterwards.
It was my first straight dance party. It was a strange feeling. Peter described it as being the only gays in the village. I wore white shorts, and an old white harness with wings, a remnant of past Mardi Gras. Whereas the costume would have gone unnoticed in a gay party, I was most conspicuous on the night. It was flattering to have people want to take pictures with me. We got drunk on champagne, and had great fun with the girls.

Christmas 2008

Like last year, Peter and I flew to the Gold Coast to celebrate Christmas with his family and friends. First was a nice lunch at a restaurant with his brothers John and Francis, and his sisters Anne and Denise, plus their families.

His sister Denise was nice enough to loan us a car to drive the 5 hours to Bundaberg to visit his parents. They were unable to make the reunion due to his father's poor health. Peter and I had great fun swimming in the beautiful waters of Elliot Heads.

Along the way to Bundaberg, we stopped to visit Peter's friend, Elizabeth. She and her mother prepared a beautiful lunch for us.

We also visited Peter, Maxine and their children, Buddy and Dusty, in their new home. We stayed one night there, and was totally charmed by beautiful Dusty. Here is a picture with her playing with Peter's hair.

We spent Christmas eve in Maleny with Annie and her children, Scarlett, Flynn and Will.

Pirate Christmas party

The Card Smart Christmas Party this year was held on a boat that cruised around the harbour. The theme for our Kris Kringle was pirates, so we carried that theme all throughout the party. We had barbeque and salads with lots of wine and beer. The boat also featured laser pigeorn shooting. It felt really fake trying to shoot these "pigeons" with a laser beam.

City 2 Surf

City to Surf is an annual fun run held in Sydney. It is a 14 km walk/run from the centre of the city to Bondi Beach. It is for both serious runners and strollers. I organized a group from work to do it this year, since our workplace has initiated a fitness program. It was great fun, but very tiring at the same time. The winning time for the event was 41.12 minutes. Jeanette from work finished the course in 77 minutes, which was excellent. I walked together with Peter, Wendy, Doreen and Kenny. Our time? 162.58 minutes. We placed 53,296, out of approximately 58,000 participants.

Abu Dhabi Nights

Peter was commissioned to create outfits for Liz and Roderick, who were having a farewell party before they move to Abu Dhabi. It was going to be a grand affair, so Peter wanted to create something special. I assisted him by accompanying him to Cabramatta to pick out cloth materials and stitching beads onto the belt of the Liz's dress.

They were kind enough to invite us to the party at the Museum of Contemporary Arts. It was a theme party, so Peter and I wore these harem pants that he made originally for Mardi Gras. He wrapped this silver material around our heads as turbans. I thought we looked like Norma Desmond from "Sunset Boulevard". The party was indeed grand with the museum decked out like a harem, complete with camels and belly dancers. French champagne was flowing all night. What a fun and decadent night.

Wet in Seaworld

The Card Smart AGM for 2008 was held in Sea World on the Gold Coast. Highlights were a gala dinner with sea lions as guests, a private dolphin show just for Card Smart, and a soccer challenge in the rain. Sadly, the weather was not good as you can see from the pictures. Inspite it being cold and wet, we persisted with enjoying the various rides in the theme park.

Handog Nang Pilipino Sa Mundo

Twenty-two years ago, I was working as a computer programmer at the National Computer Center in the Philippines. Our center was given the important task of tabulating the results of the 1986 Marcos-Aquino presidential elections. On February 6, 1986, a couple of days into the tabulation, 30 of us walked out of the PICC building in protest of the fraud that was going on.

Our small act of defiance is now recognized as one of a series of events that led to the EDSA revolution and the people power that eventually overthrew President Marcos.

Here is a video of that historic time. The title of this post and the title of the song in the video means "The Filipinos' Gift to the World". 3 minutes 12 seconds into the video, you will find the clip of our group walking out of the tabulation center. Do not blink as you may miss it.

Christmas Time 2007

Aaah, Christmas time. I just love the endless parties and celebrations. Peter and I went to the Art Gallery of NSW for the party of the Contempo arts group. They throw such fun parties. One had to come inspired by an Aussie icon. Peter drew masks on both of us in homage to the famous Ned Kelly painting by Sidney Nolan, one of Australia's most famous painters. Take a look at the image behind us in the picture. We are Ned Kelly - sunburnt.

We also went down to the Gold Coast to visit Peter's family and friends. His family had a get together Christmas party at his sister, Denise's place. We then borrowed Denise's car and drove to Maleny to see a few of his friends. I met Annie who is living in a perma culture environment with her children, and Laurie and Elizabeth who are building their own home in the rainforest. Laurie and Elizabeth had one of the most beautiful Christmas trees I have ever seen.

Manila and Boracay

In October, my company, Card Smart, gave me the opportunity to travel to Manila and work for a couple of weeks in the Makati office of Isphere. We have employed 5 Filipino staff, and Paul Lemaire was eager to forge a bond with them by having the Aussie staff visit. This was a perfect opportunity for me to bring Peter along, and show him the Philippines. Peter met the rest of my family in Manila, and he charmed them. My family in turn was very welcoming of Peter, and went out of their way to drive and show us around. I was very proud of both my family and Peter. It was very heart warming how very accepting they were of each other. Richard and Nitz treated us for dinner at Antonio's in Tagaytay. Peter loved the food, the garden integrated into the Spanish terrace, and the fishpond full of koi fishes. Peter also met my good friends Roland and Lorenzo. They took us out for dinner and took the time to show us around.
My former office mates also took us out for dinner. They, of course, embarrassed me immensely by choosing to bring up things from my past in Peter's presence. Thank you Achie, Rocker, Alice, Riva and Gingo. To escape the frenzy that is Manila, Peter and I went for a few days to Boracay. It is still as beautiful as I remember it. I was first there more than 10 years ago. We stayed at the Artista beachfront resort, which was away from the main tourist drag. The water is still crystal clear and soothingly warm. There is nothing like it anywhere else. We hired a bangka and went island hopping. Peter loved diving from the boat onto clear, deep waters.

Happy Anniversary at Sleaze

Peter and I met one year ago at the Sleaze Ball party. To celebrate our one year anniversary, I wanted to go to Sleaze Ball again this year. It was held last September 29. The theme was “Zirkus”. We went wearing Peter’s penguin costumes from his hair show recently. They were perfect as they looked like ringmaster suits. Upon entering the party, we were immediately set upon by the roving costume committee and invited to join the costume competition. We did not win the top prize, but we were one of the 8 finalists and won tickets to next year’s Mardi Gras party. We were happy with that.

It was a good night, and we ended up staying till the end of the party. At 8 am on Sunday, we can be seen straggling down Cleveland Street in our penguin costumes.

Diva Awards

Sydney drag queen, Freeda Corsett, approached Peter to produce her outfits for the Diva Awards, the drag industry’s equivalent of the Oscar Awards. Aside from an evening gown, she wanted a fitted fur coat with a long train. Peter designed the 2 outfits, with Freeda’s requirements in mind.

Peter had the black gown sewn by his sewer. Peter had to sew the fur coat himself though, and he only had one weekend to finish it. He and I worked on it on Friday from 8 pm to 3 am, and midday to 10 pm on Saturday and Sunday. As you can imagine, fur is a difficult material to sew. Fur flies everywhere when you cut the material. Sewing seams together is difficult because the fur is thick, and it gets harder to flip the coat around to sew as it grows and grows.

Freeda was very happy with the final product. She wanted to make an impact on the night, and as you can see, how can she not with this coat.

Paul Gambin was nice enough to invite Peter and me to join his table at the Diva Awards. He even hired a limousine to take the whole group there. The limousine was very "pimp daddy". At the ball, every drag queen in Sydney was out to outshine one another. We bumped into our friends, Legs Diamond (aka Grant) and Kelly. To our delight, Freeda won “Belle of the Ball”, the best dressed award. Peter and my hard work paid off. It was a fitting finish.

Winter Wonderland

Our company's Annual General Meeting was held in Thredbo recently. There has been lots of snow this year, so we were really looking forward to it.

People brought along their families and partners. It was wonderful catching up with the entire Card Smart family. Peter and I had a great time. The official functions were a welcome dinner and the Card Smart Games. This year's games involved rock climbing and an obstacle course in an inflatable in the pool. It was very funny as, one after another, people fell into the pool. Peter's turn in the obstacle course was hysterical, because of his very unorthodox tactic.

Peter last skiied 10 years ago, but he got the hang of it pretty quickly. I did not ski, but still enjoyed myself very much. There was something so serene and beautiful about the white landscape. Peter and I managed to spend some alone time on the last day by taking the chair lift up Merritts. The hot chocolate up there was very good.

Shows Galore

I saw a couple of new plays and movies recently, which I would highly recommend.

I saw Stephen Sondheim’s “Company” on Friday. The American accents sported by the Aussie actors grated at first till I got used to them. The performances and singing were excellent. What struck me was how I knew most of the songs, but am hearing them for the first time in the context that they were written. It was quite a revelation. “Ladies Who Lunch” and “Being Alive” finally made sense. I must admit that “Being Alive”, sung by the 35 year old single character as he contemplates committing to a relationship, hit a major chord with me.

Saw “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” a few weeks back. This musical was inspired by the movie “Spellbound”, which featured kids preparing and competing in the spelling bee. The show was light and very funny. The songs were not particularly memorable, but they were effective. The actors did a very good job of playing kids. This can be annoying and irritating if done badly, but luckily for the audience, the actors were excellent. A nice fun show to make you forget the worries of the day.

On a rainy Sunday afternoon, Peter and I went to see the French movie “La Vie En Rose”. This is a biopic of Edith Piaf. Reviews of the film criticized it for not telling the story in chronological order. One review described it as a “jigsaw puzzle”. I thought this was going to bother me, but I was pleasantly surprised. Actually, it worked really well, because the film avoided the predictability of most movie biopics. The movie was gripping, dramatic and engrossing. I enjoyed it, and was very impressed with Marion Cotillard, who portrayed Piaf. The movie is worth seeing just for her gut-wrenching performance.

I also caught “Stranger Than Fiction” on DVD. It was about this guy, who discovered he was a character in a book and was about to be killed off by its author. It was implausible, but it somehow worked. I found myself totally charmed by the performance of Will Ferrell in the lead. I was in tears several times as I watched the character try to save himself from extinction in this bittersweet story. I think, once again, I identified with this very solitary character.

Hair Expo 2007

My partner, Peter Dwyer, was hired by Adam Noble, an award winning hairdresser, to design the costumes for his 30-minute show during Hair Expo 2007. Adam’s idea is for the show to feature different birds to represent the various clients that visit a salon. Between Peter and Adam, they chose the canary, magpie, flamingo, penguin, hawk, swan and peacock.

After Peter came up with the designs, we trekked to Cabramatta to purchase the materials for the costumes. Peter gravitated to PVC for the main costume material. PVC is flashy, colorful, and great looking on stage. Not having sewn with PVC before, it was quite a coincidence that we bumped into my friend Grant at the Inquisition party wearing a PVC outfit. Peter somehow enticed Grant to sew the canary costumes.

A week before the show, it was total madness. Several costumes still needed to be sewn and Peter had no more sewers. He had to sew them himself. I was in a panic for him. There was so much work still to be done. I tried to help whichever way I can as I do not know how to sew. We worked all week, weekends and weekdays. We would meet after our day jobs, go to his studio and work till 3 am. It was very tiring and stressful. There were several instances when I gave Peter a hard time, because his working style was different to mine. As it is his project, I tried to let him dictate the tasks, but I could not help but meddle specially when the enormity of the tasks got to me. We took turns panicking during the final days. Luckily, when one panicked, the other managed to stay calm.

On the day of the show, I found myself acting as stylist and dresser as I assisted Peter. There were 32 models to dress from head to foot. Having worked with Peter on the garments, I knew where everything was and how the garments should look. With the assistance of Peter’s students, we were able to handle it pretty well.

THE CANARIES
Everyone who saw these costumes fell in love with them. They all wanted one. Grant did a great job sewing them.

THE MAGPIES
The pant suit is Peter's favorite. The sunglasses were Adam's idea and worked really well.


THE FLAMINGOS
These were Adam's favorite. The puffed sleeves were a late addition. We had to pin them in place using safety pins on the day of the show.

THE PENGUINS
These coats took so long to sew. Peter sew majority of them the night before. We were still sewing the sleeves and collars on the day of the show. They look great though.

THE HAWKS
The coats were removed to reveal the hawks. Peter and I even printed the feather-like patterns on the shirts and cummerbunds.

THE SWANS
Peter was very happy with the tulip-shaped skirt that we achieved. I was very impressed with the inner skirt that Peter created from tulle and cut-up crystal organza.

THE PEACOCKS
We found this excellent shiny material in Cabramatta, which had all the peacock colors. We used it to trim and decorate the green skirt. I had to cut and pin all the trimmings, which took a lot of time and patience.

The show went off without a hitch. It was creative, clever and stylish. It was very well received by the audience. The show had a theme, and the various elements of the show worked towards that concept. I felt that was why the show worked so well. Everyone's hard work had paid off. I felt a sense of satisfaction about being involved, as well as relief that it was all over.

I am very proud of Peter. He deserves all the accolades, because of all his hard work on this project. I have witnessed first-hand his enormous talent and creative skill.

Several weeks after, Adam and Peter were invited to appear on Kerrie-Anne Kennerly’s morning TV show. It was another opportunity to present the costumes, hairstyles and make-up that people have worked so hard on. I assisted Peter at the studio. I must admit that one of the highlights for me was meeting Nigel, the hunky gardener from the show ‘Backyard Blitz’ in the green room.