New Year´s Eve: Perth Western Australia!

Perth´s nightlife hub, Northbridge, truly came alive on this night of nights! The William and James Streets were closed off to traffic and sound stages were installed which attracted the masses to Party. From a Queer Perspective the Court Hotel on the cnr of James and Beaufort Streets was packed to the rafters with punters grooving with a beach theme, complete with sand, which earnt it a pass in terms of walking and a broken leg!

The venue of choice, therefore, was Connections (the Club). Aside from the stairs this was an OK choice, tho one wonders why at 10pm the management felt the need to have a line up at the front door when the venue inside was nearly empty? The music, however, was decent both inside and on the outside deck. The drag show was standard fare by world standards tho there was a costume prize: won by a solitary sister! It was nice to see someone from the Perth OPI out and about tho it was interesting that this was in a social capacity as our solitary nun did not seem to be handing out condoms. In fairness to the OPI, was there also no-one there from the organisation funded by taxpayers to prevent HIV transmission, i.e. the WA AIDS Council? Are they again "missing in action"?

In terms of "specialness" of the night, aside from the White dress theme, which many people ignored, (and increased entry prices) the venue seemed to operate on a "business as usual" basis. Midnight and the new year came and went with seemingly little fanfare or much of a countdown which was somewhat of a let down. In the "good old days" one remembers much more effort being put in such as expanding the venue hence one´s questions regarding "venue effort"!

The price of drinks, $9 for a beer, was ever so gay and one does not mean that in a good way, however, it was good to see that free water in a glass was available on request! A special mention must be made of the female glassy who "operated" on the outside deck. Is it just a gen y thing but did you really need to push and shove your way, with plastic tub, through the crowd in such a way that punters were often nearly knocked off their feet?

The crowd seemed to be friendly enough tho with not much kissy kissy at midnight! The notable celeb, having a good time, fresh from her (thus far fruitless) campaign for Gay Marriage was Senator Louise Pratt and her partner. (One wonders if anyone was brave enough to tell her that the federal campaign for Same Sex Marriage rights seems doomed, given that the current ALP leadership of Kevin "747" Rudd seems to be as equally enslaved to the (loony) religious right as was that of former pm little johnny howard?) All in all the night rated a not too bad tho when we felt the need to leave at about 2.30 was when the real "fun" began!