The name game

You found a partner easy, the name game was the only game in town

  

You found a partner easy
Saturday evening in Brisbane, a week since I had met Bec. She had a birthday party to attend so I was left to my own devices. I had been in touch with Gavin, one of my future hosts for when I got to Canberra, who was in town for work. We had decided to meet up for some dinner to meet face to face before I went to stay with him and his other half, Rob. I was on my best behaviour as I wanted to make sure the invitation to stay wasn’t withdrawn after Gavin had met me. Bec had given me some suggestions for places to go and we had settled on an Indian restaurant. It was BYO and there was a bottle shop next door. We were soon settled in dinner and conversation flowed as easily as the booze. Gavin gave me a potted history of his life and their recent move to Canberra, I gave an even more condensed history of my travels, both of us aware that when I met Rob in a couple of weeks time I would get the same questions. The combination of the warm Brisbane night and the spicy Indian food soon had me sweating like a whore in church. The food and company were both good and afterwards we headed back to our respective accommodation. I was confident that I wasn’t going to be on the receiving end of an email saying that they could no longer host me.

On Sunday Bec suggested we head out of Brisbane to take in a few surrounding places. Bec explained that she didn’t do much driving and that she was a little bit rusty. I said that I couldn’t even drive so was in no position to judge or comment on her driving skills. After a couple of minutes of Bec driving us through suburban Brisbane I felt totally relaxed in the passenger seat. I was even relaxed enough to open my eyes and stop gripping the dashboard. We collected a friend of Bec’s and headed off. I was in charge of navigating. We had looked at the route on the map before we had set off. We had both giggled when we had spotted that the route suggested took us through a place called Bald Knob. The drive up was pleasant and Bec pointed out the Glasshouse Mountains and the Australia Zoo on the way up. We chuckled at the street sign as we passed through Bald Knob. The main street in Maleny, our first stop, was lined with shops and cafés and we parked up to find somewhere for food. We found a table outside one of the cafés and ordered our lunch.

I was still feeling full from the curry of the previous night so I decided to go healthy and ordered a salad. Once the food arrived I had immediate food envy, Bec sat opposite me tucking into a huge burger complete with a multitude of toppings. Including beetroot. Why? To me beetroot should be reserved for use solely in a nice cheese sandwich but I had noticed that in Australia it was liberally shoved into every sandwich going. Even McDonald’s (or Maccies as the Australians with the penchant for shortening everything called it) had a burger with beetroot in it – the McOz. McOdd if you ask me. It still didn’t stop me envying the burger. Bec was kind enough to let me help her with her potato wedges. After lunch we got back in the car and headed to the Kondalilla National Park. We had a really nice hike around the park, stopping to watch people swimming in one of the pools before climbing down the valley to the bottom of the falls. The climb back up was hard work but we made it.

The name game was the only game in town

On the drive back I introduced Bec and her friend to the love/minge song game. Before we knew it we were back in Brisbane. Having parked the car, showered and changed we headed out for a quiet Sunday evening drink. We started out at a place called the Brisbane Powerhouse, an arts centre and theatre with a great bar and terrace overlooking the river. The crowd on a Sunday is mixed and Bec assured me there would be plenty for us both to look at. The outside tables were all full and having got our drinks we hovered for a while, waiting for a space to open up. We stayed outside for a while, picking out people on the other tables and deciding what their story was. After a while the rain drove us inside and we found a spot on a sofa. At the other side of the table from us were two guys. Bec and I agreed it was a second or third date. As we pondered what people would be thinking about us if they were playing the game (we decided on “poor woman, clearly doesn’t realise her boyfriend is a huge homosexual”) Bec filled me in on some of the finer details of dating in the lesbian world. She had enough stories and advice on dating lesbians to write a book. I told her that she should, even coming up with a catchy title – 101 Ways to Crack a Lesbian.

After a drink at a bar on the way back from Powerhouse we decided to have one final nightcap in the Wickham, the place we had first met. It seemed somehow fitting and we even managed to secure the same table we had been sat at. As it was a Sunday evening the place was a lot quieter than the previous time I had visited. Bec headed to the bar to get us some drinks. On the next table was a guy who looked in his early twenties and was sat alone. It was just like me the previous week, apart from the looking like I was in my early twenties bit. I caught his attention and said that if he was on his own he could join us. It was the first time in a long time that I had done that but my trip had given me a new found appreciation for how daunting it can be to sit on your own in a bar. I was surprised at how easy it had been to ask him over and I vowed that I would be better at being nice like that when I got back home. Soho could definitely do with a few more friendly people.

Bec came back from the bar, hanging back from the table slightly, in my eye line. She gave me a look as if to say “Should I leave you two to it?”. I introduced Bec to our new friend, Rowan. He was quite shy but joined in the conversation and I think he appreciated not having to sit on his own. Our nightcap turned out to be a bit longer than planned. We were joined by a couple of other random people Bec had got chatting to when she went to the bar. One of the guys introduced himself as Rhino. I asked him if that was his stage name but he assured me it wasn’t. He said he could show me something to prove he was a Rhino. I was a little scared at what he wanted to show me so I said I believed him. It had been a great final day in Brisbane. Sunday was definitely a funday and we finally returned to the Gaypex at 1am.

“You found a partner easy, the name game was the only game in town” 
Lyrics from Continental American from the musical The Boy from Oz