Attention please

May I have your attention please?

May I have your attention please?

After a relaxed Sunday I headed to DT’s to meet Damian and his friends for Sunday Funday. I was on my way there when Damian sent me a message saying he was stuck at work but would get there as soon as he could. By now I felt comfortable heading to DT’s on my own. Since starting my travels I had got much better at being in a gay bar alone but I was certain that there would be some people in there that I knew anyway. I headed in and got myself a beer before heading out the back to the small garden area. Sure enough there were a couple of friendly faces out there and I was welcomed into the group. I managed to remember who everyone was and was introduced to the people I hadn’t met before. I chatted away happily with them until Damian arrived about an hour later than planned. He joined us and asked how I was doing, asking if his friends were looking after me. I said that they had been picking on me as the new boy, hitting me in places where the bruises wouldn’t be noticed. Damian laughed and said what a friendly bunch they were.

We settled in to a seating area out back and as we were chatting away I noticed one of the guys seemed to be constantly glued to his phone, only partly paying attention to the conversation and his friends. Someone made a comment about how he was probably on Grindr. He looked up and admitted that he was but added “I only use it to chat to friends”. It was something that I had heard a few times on my travels from various people. It struck me that even if he was messaging friends he was missing out on talking to the friends he was actually with. Looking back on my travels it had been one of the few constant things that I had seen in gay bars and restaurants across the cities I had visited. I had never given it much thought until now though. Groups of friends stood in a bar or sat at dinner all on their phones, the art of conversation being slowly killed.

I decided there and then that going forward I would make a conscious effort when I was out with friends to leave my phone in my pocket and make the most of the time with the people I was out with. It would be difficult as the devices are addictive and I am just as guilty of using it when I should be paying attention to friends. There is always the thought that you might be missing out on something and while you are busy checking the latest tweets or status updates you are missing out on the life going on around you. The guy still had his phone out even after people had commented on it. I could see his screen reflected in a mirror that was behind him. The photo he was looking at was something only a friend with benefits would send. I thought about saying something but bit my tongue.

After DT’s the group split, some people heading home to have a quiet end to the night while the rest of us headed to The Laird. I got a round of drinks in and was handed four raffle tickets. Apparently with each drink you got a raffle ticket for a draw held later in the evening. We stayed long enough to collect a few more raffle tickets. The raffle draw was a little unusual to say the least. After the first number was called out the lucky winner headed to the DJ to collect his prize. There was a large tombola and it was given a good spin. The guy reached in and pulled out a dildo. I thought that was the prize but it turned out there was a number painted on the bottom of it which corresponded to a prize. None of our numbers were called so I didn’t get to go delve for a dildo. The time came for us to go home I thanked Damian’s friends for being so welcoming before Damian and I found a taxi to take us back to his.

My final day in Melbourne had arrived. I had been messaging the cute guy from the Australia Day party for a couple of days and the messages had turned a little bit flirty to say the least. We had been trying to find a time to meet up but it had been difficult. He said that he was working but I could always head over to the gym he worked at and we could go get a coffee. I thought “Why not?” so made my way out to him. I arrived at the gym and he was waiting outside for me. There was a slightly awkward moment as we greeted each other, unsure whether it would be a handshake, hug or a kiss. We settled on something between a hug and a kiss. I got a little unexpected workout at the gym and it was very enjoyable. Having a fit guy tell you that he thinks you are sexy when you feel a little out of shape is a real ego boost. After the gym we headed for a coffee and spent a very pleasant hour chatting before saying goodbye, this time both going for a kiss. I told him to give me a shout if he ever made it over to London.

My final evening with Damian was a relatively quiet one. I needed an early night as I had an early flight to Uluru via Sydney in the morning. Damian suggested we head for the cinema as there was a film called The Weekend opening and he wanted to see it. I hadn’t been to the cinema since New Orleans although I suspected that in Melbourne I would not be taking in a frozen daiquiri in a cup that needed both hands to hold it in with me. We queued for tickets and plenty of people had turned out to take advantage of it being half price night. I asked Damian what the film was about. It was about gays, which would explain the high proportion of them in the queue. We reached the front of the queue about 10 minutes later and thankfully the gays ahead of us hadn’t bought all the tickets so we got two for ourselves.

We had time for dinner beforehand so headed a couple of doors down to a place called Trotters. The place was fairly busy but we managed to squeeze into a little table for two. As I read through the menu I realised how hungry I was. My little trip to the gym earlier had meant that I had missed lunch. I decided to have The Little Pig burger, which probably had more than enough calories in it to make up for the lack of them so far in the day. I was a little pig and finished the whole thing. I didn’t need to get any popcorn for the film. We returned to the cinema. We didn’t need to check the tickets to see which screen it was on. We headed for the queue that was 90% gay men. The film was good, a sort of love story between two guys who meet in a gay bar and end up spending the weekend together. It was filmed in Nottingham and I recognised a couple of the places in the film. I had a pang of homesickness. 

“May I have your attention please” 
Lyrics from Pirelli’s Miracle Elixir from the musical Sweeney Todd