Sydney man who missed his entire youth to lockout laws and Covid gets first taste of freedom with overpriced 3:30am vodka orange at the Kings Cross Hotel

COMEBACK KID: A Sydney man who spent his youth trapped between Covid restrictions and lockout laws has described his first legal 3:30am vodka orange as “absolutely life-changing.”

“I genuinely thought people were exaggerating,” a widely grinning Joel Adair told DBT.

“But this? Standing here at the Kings Cross Hotel at 3:30am, $16.50 vodka orange in hand, surrounded by people I will never see again? This is unreal.”

The 25 year old Elizabeth Bay man’s formative years were derailed by Sydney’s lockout laws, followed shortly by a once-in-a-century pandemic.

Witnesses say Joel Adair spent several minutes quietly nodding to himself, mouthing the words “so this is it” while watching a stranger argue with a security guard about dress shorts.

“No curfews and no QR codes,” he said proudly. “No government press conference tomorrow explaining why this was a mistake. This is freedom!”

Adair was last seen at 4.30am throwing up a kebab on Darlinghurst Road.