My first exposure to volunteering was with Amnesty International in high school. I can’t recall ever collecting money for them but I did spend a weekend hanging out with other dysfunctional teenagers. I vaguely recall discussing politics in a United Nations type emulation but the the thing that left the biggest impression on me was a boombox sitting on a car hood blasting KLF’s “3am Eternal” at Coolum Beach. I hated the song before that but it was one of those time and place situations that was the right song for the right moment. Now I’m a huge fan of KLF but a cynical bitch who never volunteers for anything because the experience put me off people who care.


So it was a surprise to me to find my cynical uncaring self at the Brisbane Pride fair working at the bar for free. A friend of mine who gets involved in these sort of things was very pursuasive and convinced me to do a two hour shift from 11-1. On the walk from the train station to the park I wondered what the hell I was doing as I don’t function well with strangers nor do I normally do things like this but I though it would at least make for an interesting blog entry. Unfortunately the whole experience was hassle free and uneventful so there isn’t much to blog.

I’ve never served alchohol before so I had to learn the slang for the drinks pretty quick. A light ice is different to a black ice and a bitter is XXXX. Pegs on one side of the bin is the cold side while the other side is the warm drinks. Ice cools drinks extremely quickly. Remember to check for pink arm bands to make sure they are over 18. We were rushed at first because it takes a while to hit your groove but by 12 we were sorted. I was at the pride bar and it had a pretty good view of the stage plus you could observe everyone under the pretense of looking for customers.

Blue and whiteOne of my fellow co-workers was an american called Elliott who was pretty funny. He observed that the women are organised and get there by 11, purchase their drink tickets first up and then only have to go back to get the drinks. The guys roll out of bed around 2pm and buy their tickets piecemeal. I’ll admit that we served way more women than men and the most popular drink was the Vodka Black Ice. It was the most expensive drink but you only need one to totally get wasted.

Around 1pm Pauline turned up to observe me working hard in my pride apron and to laugh at me. I handed over my apron then headed off to look at the stalls. My friend’s ex has a pet photography stall so we stopped in to chat. He was chasing the pink dollar and if there is anyone that would spend money on pictures of their pet turtle it would be the LGBT market. He looked pretty busy so we abducted my friend Lisa and checked out the food stalls. My Chicken satay was incredible and the woman who was selling cupcakes at the Indooroopilly markets was plying her goods at the fair so I got a yummy white one while Pauline had the cappucino looking one. Mine was nicer. After eating we got a drink from the bar which of course made me tired so we decided to head home. I am such a party dancing crazy person. Not.

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