Hey Everyone!

OK - so here's my story *takes deep breath*

For quite a few years I used to be a fairly big guy, so that didn't give me much confidence to go out and meet people. As such I really shied away from pubs and clubs, so don't have too much experience with the scene. Mind you, in all honesty - hooking up really isn't my thing. But I've undertaken quite a transformation in the last 12 months, lost a lot of weight and fitting into normal (medium) size clothes...heck, I can even knock out 50 pushups in a row and can beat most of my fitter friends in a 10k running race now! (Not bragging - you have to understand that for most of my life, I couldn't even do 1 pushup and would have struggled to power walk 1km, let alone run 10k...so I'm being proud of my achievements here!)

Things is - I want to get out and meet some more "decent" people (I know I know - decent is subjective). I see you guys have monthly meets and I'm definitely going to come along to one (or more) of those. But are there other places around Brisbane where you can meet gay guys who might be interested in friends or dating/relationship? I know of The Wickham/The Beat/Sporties etc - but are they primarily used for hooking up, or do the people who visit those places genuinely look for other things too? Apologies for my naivety in advance - I don't have much experience there, and most of my current friends are straight!

Any help or advice on this would be greatly appreciated :-)

AC

Great work on the self-improvement Anthony! I too used to be a bigger guy, all through growing up, so I know the difficulties you faced and continue to be challenged by.
I'm sorry that I can't help you in the social side of things up there, but there are some pretty awesome people around the Brisbane area. I'm sure a few will reply on here!

Hi Anthony

Congratulations on the weight loss and increased fitness,

I know what you mean about trying to meet new decent people, I only came out last year and have been going through the process of putting myself out there to meet new people. I have been to all of the places you mentioned and yes they can be hookup places you can also meet some lovely people (I have found Sporties best for this but maybe that's just because I'm old.lol)

The people I met at Same Same have been great I really enjoyed the monthly meet ups (only been to a couple)

I also joined Brisbane frontrunners, which is a gay running/walking group that meets on Monday and Thursday at Kangaroo Point which is fantastic way to meet nice people, good for the fitness too. It's a bit less threatening being that the focus is on friendship and fitness, we also go for a meal and chat after each run.

Welcome to Same Same and hope to see you at a monthly meet up soon.
Andrew

Hi Andy - that sounds great! I'll have to come along to Brisbane Frontrunners, sounds right up my alley :-)

Is there anything else like this? Gay bushwalking/camping/cooking/driving etc? Sounds much better than the likes of The Wickham etc!

AC

Bushwalking is actually a great idea. prefer healthy day time activities than spending time in a dark room which filled with smell of perfume and alcohol. But I don't even know many gay people interested in bushwalking. anyone?

Hi Anthony & justin 858 ,

There's a gay bushwalking group in Brisbane that has regular bushwalks in SE QLD called Outtrekkers.

I would put out the email here for you to correspond with them in a few weeks time ( being a new member here, I'm not allowed to post out email address until then)

They are great and will come back to you.

Ive done one bushwalk with them at Mount Cordeaux/Cunnhingham Gap. It was lovely.

There's also 4X4 camping group around. I dont have the details, sorry.

Enjoy the socializing outside the clubs.

Cheers
Kit

If you are after sports, there is:
Running: Monday/Thursdays KP
Swimming: Aqualicious, check out the website
Tennis: Tuesday Spring Hill
Touch Footbally 4-4.30 pm Sunday NF park
Rugby union: Brisbane Hustlers Webpage
Bushwalking,
Xand Y social gathering too.
check out the gay directory on Qnews or qahc websites.

Thank you SKLE and trentles for sharing valuable information. Definitely will check them out.

I am pretty sure you can meet a decent gay out there and its good to have one because you will be sure about your feelings.



Motels in Melbourne

I was up in Brissy this past week, and was super impressed by how friendly, non-predatory, relaxed, and comfortable the Brisbane scene is. FAR more accessible than anything we have in Melbs. Good vibe, busy enough, but not too crowded, entertaining, but at a volume where you can actually have a convo - and WOW Queenslanders actually do have conversations :-) - it seems that the southerners have all become afraid of talking to strangers, but the Brissy Boys that I had the chance to chat with were very open, non-sleazy, sane, sorted, and by all means 'normal'!