I just remembered yesterday an amusing conversation I had with the guy behind the counter at Night Owl on the day of the QBCA's and thought I'd share: 

N.O. dude:   Fads hey?

Me:               Yeah, I wanna look cool when I go out tonight

N.O. dude:  Where are you going?

Me:              I've arranged an awards night for Pride Festival this year

N.O. dude:  Oh cool...........so how does someone win a pie award?

Me:              Not pie, pride. like gay and lesbian pride. 

N.O. dude:  OHH!.............you can win an award for being a lesbian?

ha! still makes me laugh hard enough to spray saliva everywhere.   

And the award goes to...

Hello blogging community! I've missed you! Today is the first time in months that I have a day off with nothing to think about except catching up on blogs, dvd's and quality time with my wonderful gf - ahhh bliss!

You may have guessed from the title that the QBCA finally happened, and by all reports was a great success - all thanks to a great volunteer team, professional performers and community groups of Brisbane who really got behind our event and supported it. Although we didn't get as many people there as I would have hoped (I guess I wouldn't have been totally happy with anything but SOLD OUT), for a first time event and something completely different to anything the gay community in Brisbane has ever done, it was a fantastic night. Now that people know about it, I know next year will be even bigger and better.

I couldn't have gotten through it without the support of my great friends Mike and Philip and Cas and Milena, whose house has become 'Hotel Casselina' for Shan and I since the move. You guys are awesome and your support means everything to me. And of course without Shan I would have probably given up on a several occasions. She kept me sane and motivated when things got really hard and made me think I could actually do this.

OK, 'nuff about that! Here's a run down of the night....

On Saturday, in preparation for the QBCA, Shan and I spent several hours running around trying to find cheese for 100 people. The taste-testing was difficult but we got through it and managed to get to the venue around 3pm. After arranging some programs and preparing the mountains of cheese, I gave Shan the grand tour.

Here's my love hanging in the dressing room like the rockstar she is.

Shan discusses theming with Gavin. The guys did such an amazing job. It looked so professional and elegant.

We went to Hotel Casselina's to get ready and came back all dolled up. Shan's folks arrived and gave me flowers and chocolates. They're so lovely, supportive and thoughtful. Now I know where Shan gets it from!

The event gets underway and here Martin presents one of the awards for Volunteer of the Year. You can see the awards lined up at the back of the stage.

Our host, Courtney Act was an absolute pro and kept the night moving along smoothly. Not only is she a beautiful woman and a gorgeous man, she also has a great voice and performed for us later in the evening.

One of the performers, drag king Tricky BoomBang, had Shan in stitches with her giant balls :)

I'm not sure if Shan's parents really knew what to expect, but they seemed to enjoy themselves.

14 awards, 5 performances and two bottles of wine later, it was all over red rover!! Scott and I pose with Courtney. I think Scott (President of Pride Festival) and I both look physically relieved...

The leather crew, Mr Leather Australia (Pierre), Vicki (pres of Dykes on Bikes) and drag king Hunter. Pierre is awesome and spent a good portion of another event explaining to us what all the different colours of leather mean. For Mr Leather Australia, he is really sweet and gets quite embarrassed talking about all the interesting apsects of the leather world.

On our way to the after-party we spotted one of the night's winners eating at Macca's with his award.

At the after-party Scott came and spoke to me and said how much great feedback he was receiving from the community after the awards. The community groups and all the guests who attended all said how this is exactly what our community is missing and that they will all support it to make it bigger and better every year. It was great to hear and great to know that everyone really did enjoy themselves.

After a huge day and night, Shan and I get ready to crash. She's so cute and lovely :)

The end (woooooo!)

CityKat is in!

In exciting Queen's Birthday Community Award news, Brisbane's favourite journalist and blogger, CityKat, has agreed to come along and be a special guest awards presenter! I am very excited by this as I love Kat's blog and she's actually one of the first media representatives in Brisbane to support an event by Brisbane Pride Festival. Woooo!

A face for radio

This evening, from about 8pm EST, I will make my radio debut on community radio station 4ZZZ. I will be chatting to the girls at Dykes on Mykes about the upcoming Queens Birthday Community Awards which I'm helping put together. I'm not nervous now, but you know how nervousness always creeps up on you just as you open your mouth to speak and you promptly forget every intelligent thing you had prepared to say? Fingers and toes this doesn't happen tonight. Luckily my lovely girlfriend will be coming along to secretly hold my hand under the table.

Page 9 girl

I got my first by-line! For the first time in 6 years, something I've written has appeared in a publication with my name next to it. Working in PR I've become accustomed to seeing my words appear in the media with no name or someone elses name attached to them. Which is fine, it's what we do, and in fact it's actually quite the compliment to see a journalist put their name next to something I've written.

As a member of the Brisbane Pride Festival organising committee, I've been assigned the task of coordinating this year's Queens Birthday Community Awards. This includes all of the promotions and PR and so when I wrote a press release for Q News last week I expected that, as usual, the story would appear with no name. But here it is :)

I have to say.. I quite enjoy seeing my name in print!