King of the Wickham

Everyone in Brisbane who knows me can tell you that I don't go out very much anymore. I stopped going out when I started Honours and moved to the suburbs because I was either too tired, too far away from the city or didn't have the time - not so much to go out, but to recover from a night out anymore. Even when I moved back to the city, I didn't go out as much. I was more interested in other things. I still go out occasionally, but those instances are few and far between.

Friday night, however, a bunch of us did go out. And we were out until the wee hours of the morning. I'd organised a dinner at Gaya, the Korean restaurant on Elizabeth Street as a get together before I flew back to SG for a week and a bit. After dinner, Lindsay, Joel, Damien and I decided to go for a few drinks, so we headed to the Down Under Bar for some snakebite. The DUB used to be a favoured spot for myself and my old friends (like Nat and Reuvin and maybe Sam) but most of them have moved and I stopped going. We got there at about 8.30pm but we couldn't go in because they would only admit students and 3 out of 4 of us didn't have student cards.

So we headed over to Friday's, another hotspot back in the day, because they had $5 cosmos on Friday nights. We got there around 9pm and there was an $8 cover charge, which we thought was bullshit. It was too early for cover and if you add that to the $5 cosmos, you might as well head to Jorge for some real quality cocktails - no cover, better crowd!

So we left Friday's and went to the Exchange, which was an even older hotspot, way before Friday's and the Vic. It was a bit quiet, but we never go out for the crowd anymore. So the 4 of us hung around and had drinks at the Exchange until Damien suggested going to the Met. Lindsay was up for it, I wasn't keen on the $20 cover (apparently) and Joel wanted to go home and sleep - the old man. In the end, we decided to go back to our house, have some drinks and go to the Met. I thought, what the hell.

Joel stayed at home. Lindsay went home to change and so did I. Kris decided to join us and next thing you know, we were drinking vodka and tequila at home. We took a cab to the Met in the Valley only to get there and find out that the Met had been evacuated because someone had set off the fire alarm. Darn. So we took a walk down the same street and ended up at the Wickham instead since Kris had some friends already there.

Now the Wickham is a famous gay club, synonymous with bare-bodied men on the dancefloor, groping (of men not women) and a urinal with a mirror from the waist downwards. The Wickham is a gay club full of gay men running amuck, which was fine for Lindsay and I but apparently quite terrifying for Damien and Kris.

What impressed me the most, was the absolute stir that Damien caused at the Wickham. I couldn't believe how popular he was that night! He had men groping him, and chatting him up and eyeballing him - it was just incredible. There we were, a group of 6, with 2 girls and 4 straight men in a gay club. Damien was not behaving any differently from any of the other guys we were with, but he was by far the most popular. I wanted to shit myself laughing. It was a riot.

According to Lindsay, Kris was super-freaked by the whole thing (he was copping some attention too) and suggested we leave for Fringe Bar. I didn't care - I'd already had enough to drink for the night. Lindsay was game and Damien more than welcomed the suggestion. As we left, Kris and Damien headed out ahead of us. In a hurry I supposed. The gay bartender, who happened to be standing at the ropes playfully said to them, "You're not allowed to leave." He was joking of course and released Kris and Damien. Lindsay and I were trailing behind and the same bartender said to us as we were crossing the street, "Take good care of them, girls!"

"We will!" we replied and the gay bartender waved at us and yelled "Bye!"

It was hilarious. Damien was a bit amazed at the attention he was getting and I think he liked it a little bit. It was like he was a freaking demi-god. At one point in the night, he joked "Can we go back to the Wickham? I feel special there!" And he was wearing his blue, muscle t-shirt too that night. The same one which got him a bit of attention the week before, with girls. That's what you get for wearing a shirt like that, in a place like The Wickham.