Preplan: Tracey’s farewell party was on at Verandah bar. Alcohol guaranteed and clubbing afterwards at the same place, so here we go.

About verandah bar: Entry via elizabeth or castlereigh st. Normal hours its a bar and place to have lunch and dinner socially.

On entry is a narrow area which leads to the main dance area, cleared f its stools and tables with a podium next to the DJ booth. On the right is a circle shaped bar. Along the back is an outdoor area for smoking and chit chat. This helps sets it apart from other small venues. Its nicely done, and the atmosphere seems nice, modern and never seedy. Despite the small size of the place. The layout minimises crowd bottlenecks, which I am a total fan of.

About the event (I suspect it was called ‘JAM’):
Crowd: Asian crowd.
Cover charge: was probably $20 with $15 if guestlisted. Free entry if you get into verandah bar before 9pm, which is when the doors are shut off. I totally recommend doing this if you plan to go to verandah. Not on your own though, you’d get bored.
Music: Rnb. Spot of commercial house.

Event timeline
Free entry: Us as a group entered verandah bar at around 7 and drank until the music started. That’s when most of the anglo-saxon suits left the place and were replaced with the short casual asians. Since we were already in the place when the event started, we did not have to pay an entry fee. Was not asked to leave the place beforehand, which is always good.

People: Tracey somehow got kicked out but we all stayed in, being the tight asses we were. Woolie turned up which was a surprise. She was invited by RF. Also present were Darrin and his boyfriend, Sandy and her gay guy friend, Ben and an old lady who refused to stop dancing, Cindy and Aaron, and finally Special K and her friend Sam.

Let the dance begin: We went straight to the podium and danced. It was all of us on the podium. Quite squashy yet cosy at the same time. Not before long, the clubbers streamed in. One of them was Jason the solo bum dancer! My god. Always bump into him. To me and Woolie, he’s the guy Wuz had chosen to use a cheesy pick up line on a few months ago. Jason soon joined on stage and I greeted him. He remembered my name. So nice of him! Also Mick the solo sidekick was there too.

Mick had recognized me once since we first met at skygardens. When I was walking home from SHE a few weeks ago he spotted me from the back of a car and yelled out my myspace nickname at the time: “Father James!!”. He was fun.

Did a mini-prance with Jason, but eventually, I had to dance with my female colleagues as they needed attention.

Not much else happened that night so it’s bitchin’ time:

Lovestruck Con.
So its me and Woolie most of the time, as Woolie didn’t know anyone else from our group besides RF, who in turn had left Verandah (he oesn’t dance at all).

Con comes up to speak to Woolie. Me and Con first knew each other online. Then we had bumped into each other at Gas nightclub. We hung out at the club that night. However everytime I’ve seen him while I’m with heryl, he’s never said hi to me. What a fucking snob. Maybe he truly orgot me, but I doubt it. Maybe he forgot my name.

anyway, he comes up to me and Woolie dancing on the podium. He says ‘hi’ o her. I stick my hand out for him to shake. You know what he did? HE HOOK MY HAND AND SAID ‘hey’. Wow. That’s one small step for horny men. But that was it. He didn’t say my name or anything. He said ‘hey’, then he turned right back at Woolie! Look. I don’t care about Woolie
and who tries to pick her up or talk to her but sheesh.. talk about manners – I was in the middle of a f#cking dance here. At least a ‘how are you’ so I can piss off. Oh well. I joined the other girls to dance with and got over it. He asked if Woolie wanted a drink. Of course. Who would refuse. I gave her the signal to get me a free drink too but alas, not to be.

Later that night when most went home via the last train, it was me, Woolie, Ben and Sam left. Con drops by and talks to Woolie. Asks if she wants another drink. Ugh. I’m going to spew. Then they talk about how she is getting home. Mind you, i’m standing right in front of her while Con is next me. Woolie says that i’m taking care of her arrangements to get home. Con brushes it off with a ‘dont worry about him’ and he laughed. I laughed this off to go along, but inside.. I was mightily
pissed off at this attitude. First snob then brush? F*ck, i’m not a booger in your nostril you just pick and flick away. He didnt even try to put me into the conversation he interrupted. I’m a f*cking person. Finally she shook him off and she went out to talk to random guys. Ironic.

Coda
Me and Sam had a final dance to Sneaky Sound System before she left. The 3 of us left soon after just past midnight. I said goodbye to Jason, who was on the podium stuck with 20 odd people. I probably would see him and Mick again. We left 12.30. Too early.

Recommendation
Safe night to go to Friday if you can’t think of anywhere safe and fun.

Where this site started
I really wanted to stay at Verandah. It was here where I decided to push ahead with the creation of this site. It was a few months ago, and a friend from the states flew over for a holiday. It was Friday. We had tried to go to UN but since there was such a large line we went to Verandah. She soon had to go, because she had to go to ‘Booty Bar’ the next night with her cousin. I had no idea at the time where that was. Booty bar was actually Verandah bar on a Saturday night. anyway I digress. It was me and RF’s Taswegian friend remaining, but she soon left around 1am. I was dancing energetically, and probably scaring random grinders. I slowed down my moves but after nothing, I went to get my bag to leave. Then suddenly 2 girls come up and sandwich grind me in front of their friends! After the song died I left. Haha what a funny end to the night. I realised I had so many experiences with clubs that it was a part of my life. It was no longer place to go every once in a while because all your friends were going (then end up gawking at all the girls or worried about how you dance). I was going because I chose to and I immerssed myself into the dance floor of it. I belonged here. So I had to keep these memories somewhere so I can recount the highs and lows of clubbing while my legs can still shuffle well….

.. I need to watch Saturday Night Fever sometime.