December 2003 – sixthseal.com

Goodbye 2003!

December 31, 2003 by HB

It’s less than one hour before the end of 2003. This year has been
interesting, for the lack of a better adjective. I was still in
university at the beginning of the year. It’s the end of the year now
and I’m in the workforce and I haven’t been fired…yet. 😉 It’s the
year of transition – from studying to working and I’m still learning
the intricacies of this different life.

I’m sitting at home right now – it’s the second year in a row that
I’m not out for NYE celebrations. This time is because my gf didn’t
feel like going out, plus I’m tired from work so we’re just chilling
out at home. I think we’re in the minority though, as the photo above
shows – that was taken at around 9 pm at the KLCC LRT station. The
incoming (into KL city) human traffic is much voluminous than the
trickle of outgoing traffic.

It’s been a good year for sixthseal.com too. Thank you for all your support in 2003. I’ll see you again in 2004. 🙂

Guess the price of my nasi campur (photo included)

December 30, 2003 by HB

Guess how much this combination of nasi campur costs? There’s more
sotong pieces than meets the eye, some of it is obscured by the chicken
drumstick. No, I didn’t play “Hide the sotong” intentionally, it was
due to the real estate on the styrofoam packs. By the way, “Hide the
(most expensive item)” is a technique where you cover up a more
expensive item with a less expensive one – like covering a drumstick
with cabbages. This is an extreme example, it’s just to illustrate the
point. I’ve never done that intentionally though, not for any moral or
personal reasons, it’s just coz I don’t bother.

The way things work over here is like this – you get handed a plate
or take away pack filled with rice and you choose whatever you want
from the array of dishes displayed. You can opt to have as many items
as you want and the portions you choose is up to you. The price (which
can vary depending on time of the day, whether you’re a regular, as
well as many other factors) is tallied up when you’re done, based on
your choices. However, “Hide the xxx” doesn’t work all that well
nowadays, because the proprietors usually check underneath due to the
popularity of this method.

Back to the post, my lunch has a drumstick, sotong and chili covered
brinjals. You don’t eat for a couple of days and then you feel hungry
enough to eat a horse. 😉 Anyway, guess how much this nasi campur pack
costs?

I cut my finger for RM 2000

December 29, 2003 by HB

Okay, I had this big bag of trash with me when I came into work
today. When I say big, I mean huge. The plastic could hold one man
quite comfortably, if he’s willing to go into the fetal position.
Whether it’ll hold his weight or not is another matter, but I
digress. Anyway, this bag had 4 smaller bags inside, all filled with
trash. Don’t ask me why, some thrash is private you know…

Back to the bags of fun, I opened the big bag and stuffed the first
of the smaller bags into the DBKL garbage cans opposite the building
where I work. This one went in relatively easy since it’s one of the
smaller ones. I went to the next one and shoved the bag into the can.
If you’ve seen one of these things, you’ll notice that it’s no mean
feat – the holes are very small…

All is good though, two down, two to go. I crossed the street and
went to one of the cans further away and jammed one of the large ones
into the trash can. It wouldn’t go in. A homeless man looked at me
greedily, probably to see what it was I stuffed down. I don’t want
anyone prying into my trash so I glared at him and went to the next can.

I stuffed it in. It wouldn’t budge. I used brute force to jam it in,
and it slowly…gave…way…and then I noticed that I seem to have a
laceration somewhere because I could feel blood dripping. No, that’s
not good. I’m already dehydrated, I need ALL the blood I have or I’ll
probably pengsan [pengsan.com].

No, I didn’t just pimp that site for fun. Er…maybe I did, but
anyway, I realized all too late that the particular bag I was trying to
get rid of is the one that contains Sharp Things. Anyway, I was pretty
pissed at it by this time and really jammed it in…and gave myself
another cut. Not to worry though, the Sharp Things are mine and at no
point did the laceration or Sharp Things come into contact with the
thrash can’s germ filled side.

However, I naturally did not appreciate being given a subcutaneous
incision for no good reason, especially when I’m dehydrated. But at
least that’s 3/4. I looked at plastic bag #4. It’ll never fit in, it’s
physically impossible. Well…yours truly isn’t exactly stupid, so I
took plastic bag #4 out and emptied most of it’s contents into the
original giant plastic bag and stuffed THAT into the next garbage can.

Actually, a single sentence does not do the act justice. There were
plenty of grunts, maneuvering, crude levers, back support, standing
back and analyzing with the little pats here and little ruffles there
method to make it go in. It took about 5 minutes and 10 profanities
before it was finally in. If anyone had seen me then, it must have
looked like I was humping the DBKL garbage cans. That’s the effort I
had to make to stuff it in – by giving it a counter weight on the other
side.

Now there’s this last one, it’s a Myers bag, festively decorated,
not too dodgy except for the blood stains, so I took that into the
office. I unlocked the door and was confounded with a problem…my
right index finger is bleeding. My right index finger is the one I use
to authenticate myself with the biometrics scanner. I didn’t want to
authenticate myself with an open wound, in the interests of my fellow
coworkers.

No, I don’t have any dangerous pathogens. I just have a high level
of civic consciousness. Oh, and also, doing that would introduce
bacteria and other nasties into my wound. 😉 It’s bad to touch anything
with an open laceration, especially for hypochondriacs like me. All is
not lost though – I remember my thumb (which was clean) was another one
that I could authenticate with. It just never did work for me before
though…

I tried anyway. Nope. Nope. Verified! That’s just on the third try –
praise the Lord! 🙂 I went in and took a photo of my finger and then
went out to dispose of the final bag. This was one of the bags that
have an open, unsealable top. I noticed something that should have been
in my backpack – a bank draft for RM 2000 from one of my bank accounts
in Kuching, which I never got around to transferring to my main one.

There you go, a little anti-climatic, granted, but that’s how my cut
finger saved me RM 2000. I went to wash my finger and wanted to put a
Band Aid around it, except I wouldn’t be able to authenticate after
that, so I just wrapped a clean tissue and used my thumb (which worked
again – whee!) to get in.

Melbourne: Day 3 – McDonald’s Salads Plus

December 28, 2003 by HB

Day 3 of the
Convocation: Melbourne, Australia (December 2003)
series.

I woke up after a solid 26 hours of sleep on Monday. This is the
third day I’m in Melbourne and I realize that I’ve technically wasted
one whole day sleeping. 🙂 I woke up feeling famished and went
in search for food again and to take some photos of Melbourne city. I
went pass a McDonald’s and saw that they had this Salads Plus menu with
healthier options. McDonald’s in Australia has been pitching this angle
for quite a while now so I decided to sample their Salads Plus menu.

The Salads Plus menu consists of a variety of low fat and more
nutritious options that have 10 grams of fat or less each. I’m not
watching my weight or anything…people say I should gain a couple of
kilograms, but work and the related necessities to maintain
productivity has the effect of suppressing appetite and increasing
metabolism at the same time. I digress. The reasons I’m attempting to
eat the entire range and review it should not be foreign to long time
readers – I just want to. 🙂

Chicken Foldover

This is touted to have only 9 grams of fat per serving. It’s made
with Bega So Light cheese and has roasted chicken breast meat and
veggies on a herbed toasted flatbread.

I didn’t expect much from it, but was pleasantly surprised to find
out that it actually tastes good! It could be the 26 hours without food
though, but still, it’s pretty good.

Vege Burger

This one has 10 grams of fat per serving and it’s Sanitarium vege
patty in a herbed foccacia bun. The patty is made from chickpeas,
vegetables and spices a.k.a. fake meat. It also has a piece of beetroot.

I didn’t like this one…the patty tastes like potatoes. Not that
there’s anything wrong with that, but generally vegetarian meat
substitutes tastes unpalatable to me. The only thing that saved it is
the sweet chilli sauce inside. I couldn’t have chocked it down without
that.

Berrynice Yoghurt Crunch

It just says 97% fat free on this one. It looks like ice cream, but
it’s actually yoghurt. There’s strawberries and blueberries in it
though, and it’s topped with oats. They use Nestle low fat yoghurt.
McDonald’s partners up with other food manufacturers in the Salads Plus
menu if you haven’t noticed.

That was what I had in the first sitting. After walking around and
taking more photos, I passed by a different McDonald’s and decided to
see if I could eat through the whole Salads Plus menu. 🙂

This McDonald’s has a fridge at the counter with the salads and other stuff:

The salads occupy the first two layers and the third one has yoghurt
(including the Berrynice Yoghurt Crunch) and fruit juice. It looks like
the Berrynice Yoghurt Crunch is prepared and packaged instead of made
during your order. I decided to have a salad this time, since after
all, this is the Salads Plus menu. There are two salads – Garden Mixed
Salad and Roast Chicken Salad. Naturally, I went for the second one.

Roast Chicken Salad

This salad features roasted breast chicken, Bega So Light cheese,
lettuce, tomato, and cranberries. It’s 97% fat free and there are three
dressings to choose from – French, Low Fat Italian and Mango and Sesame.

It’s served with bagel chips. The above shows the salad with the
small container of bagel chips and a packet of dressing. Here’s a close
up of the bagel chips (croutons?):

This is the dressing I chose – Mango and Sesame:

The salad looks like this after everything is added in:

No, I didn’t toss it because I wanted to eat it like this. It tastes
surprisingly good (again). I was puzzled to find that I actually
enjoyed eating this salad. The mango dressing is really good, goes well
with the salad and complements the cranberry pieces well. It’s also
very filling, but that could be due to the fact that I’ve already eaten
two hours ago…

Orange & Poppyseed Muffin Lite

This is also 97% fat free and it tastes like the normal McDonald’s
muffins…I could barely finish this one. It’s quite large. It’s a
muffin, can’t describe it much more than that. It’s had orange pieces
in it and crunchy poppyseeds on top. I reckon I’ll have an excuse
should I test positive for opiates at customs…”Officer, I swear, it
was those damn poppy seed muffins I had. I hear they produce false
positive for opiates in urine tests”.

That’s true by the way – poppy seeds have morphine and codeine which
(if you eat enough) will cause you to fail a drug test. You’ll still
have explain away the cannabinoids and amphetamines positives though. 😉

Anyway, I didn’t manage to eat through the Salads Plus menu…I
didn’t go to Melbourne just to have McDonald’s everyday. However, the
only items I missed out on is the Garden Mixed Salad, Raspberry Muffin
Lite and the Granny Smith red & green apples (which you could get
at the supermarket anyway). My apologies for not eating though the
menu, but I covered the meat (no pun intended) of it, so this ends day
three of my Melbourne trip.

castitas.com

December 28, 2003 by HB

Whether you love it or hate it, it’s part of the sixthseal.com network, which currently includes:

sixthseal.com
The main site.

castitas.com
The first sister site.

pengsan.com
The second sister site.

castitas.com is where veritas writes and the content does not appeal
to everyone…it’s more of a blog with a limited target audience.
pengsan.com is a work in progress but we’re not talking about that now.
castitas.com was also meant to be a load balancing server, since it
doesn’t receive the 1.6k average (stats for December 2003 as of today)
unique visitors (not hits, visits) this site gets per day.

I feel that the sixthseal.com blog has weakened ever since the
decision was made for veritas to move to castitas.com. We both feel
that the original integrated blog was stronger in that it introduces
the people interested in reading veritas’s drug related entries to my
general interest entries and the people interested in my personal posts
to veritas’s drug posts.

The first works by allowing recreational drug users a look into
other perspectives, like the culture in Malaysia while the second is
meant to dispell the “junkie” stereotype by providing non users a look
into a recreational drug user’s life and hopefully see that there’s
intelligent users who does not pose a threat to society. That’s not to
say that veritas is a the safest and most responsible user out there
(haha), but hopefully, it would foster some understanding and tolerance
and realization that not all drug users are violent criminals.

The move was a mistake because veritas cannot possibly post daily,
so visitors do not know when a new post would be made. We both feel
that the glory days (or zaman kegemilangan as I like to call it) were
when the content was integrated and that sixthseal.com jumped the shark
sometime in July 2003. However, that does not mean that the main site
would stop churning out daily posts – I still like blogging.

veritas still likes writing trip reports too.

This long winded post is meant as a prelude to the future direction
of the sixthseal.com network. There will be changes…very soon. Four
days. I’ll not be revealing anything now, but whether you love it or
hate it, castitas.com will be heading in a new direction on the 1st of
January 2004.

[Edit: 1st of January 2005 changed to 1st of January 2004. Typo. Thanks for the reminder.]

Garlika Burger @ Burger King

December 27, 2003 by HB

Garlika Burger.

Garlika Burger is the new burger at Burger King. It looks good from
the ad so I had one of them. It’s not a large burger – the size is
rather small, smaller than the usual Burger King offerings. I’ll have
to say that it looks quite dismal too. It’s just a burger with a beef
patty with a slathering of garlic paste. This is what it looks like in
real life:

Never looks as good as the ad photo.

It tastes like…a burger with lots of garlic paste. 🙂 I can’t
really describe it much more than that because that’s what it is and
that’s all it is. It’s a little disappointing compared to the
promotional spiel. There’s no reason to dislike it if you like garlic
but I was expecting something more than a no frills burger with garlic
paste.

Anyway, on a more personal note, I will be going to work tomorrow.
There’s bills that needs to be paid and fronts that needs to be
maintained during the CNY reunion dinner. 🙂 Hey, life’s just a play
after all, so let’s just straighten our costumes because the show must
go on!

Look, there’s the guy that fucked up

December 26, 2003 by HB

Hello everyone. I’m having a really bad time now. I feel like i’m
going crazy. Before any of you make any presumptions, no I’m not on
drugs and yes, i did take my benzos like a good boy. i came into work
and i realized that all i have been doing is data entry for the past
few weeks (months?). i’m not a programmer, please change my job title,
i’m a simple data entry clerk. not tha t there’s anything wrong with
that, but i was doing programming for my own project (pengsan.com) and
i realized how i missed it, because it was fun.

i came in work today. it’s a holiday but i have unfinished work. on
opening my inbox i received a deluge of emails from the person i liase
with in another company for more data entry work. i looked at my
outstanding work and it wasn’t a lot, just need to do a mass replace on
ids, prob take 4 hours max. but i couldn’t touch it. i couldn’t look at
it.

i guess some of you would say i had a panic attack. but thats
improbable because i’m on a high benzo maintanence theraphy for my
anxiety, social phobia and panic attacks. you know the drill, i
couldn’t breath, i felt like i was going crazy, there’s sounds that
makes me jump, i can’t breath i feel like i’m having a heart attack, my
heart is jackhammering and i want to hide from i don’t know what but i
feel like my mind is ripped apart and i can’t escape, please help me
god!

it slowly passed and i guess you could say it was a panic attack but
like i said, i’m on benzos already. i’m also not taking drugs if anyone
is thinking along that lines. though the bad part passed and i felt
better, i still couldn’t do the work i came here to do. i took a walk
and came back and still couldn’t do it. i thought about a lot of things.

i felt like calling it quits but i don’t want to fuck up. its
chinese new year soon and i don’t want to go back to the family reunion
dinner with my parents and aunties and uncles and grandma and cousins
and all the other relatives without a job. i’ll be the one that fucked
up. they won’t say it of course, i’m sure they’ll be supportive or not
mention it but i know what all of them would think

he couldn’t take it. he cracked under pressure and he’s a jobless bum.

and i am. am i not? if i quit, that’s what i am. a fucking jobless
loser who couldn’t take it and quit. that’s all i am and that’s all i’m
going to be so i might as well just fuck off from the gene pool and
make the world a more productive and reliable place.

i don’t want to quit. i don’t think i can either, its understaffed
at the moment and contract says 1 month notice. i haven’t cashed in my
paycheck but i don’t think they’ll allow me to give it back in lieu of
one months notice. i’m afraid that there will be consequences from bad
feelings too. and thats not to mention the big fucking smear on my
resume from quitting on my first job and getting a bad reference. in
the current situation (overabundence of it grads), i’ll be lucky if i
could get a job ever again. there’s two million people waiting to
replace me who would be more than happy to have a job and more than
happy to accept my salary and do repetitive data entry.

but the most important thing is i don’t want to quit. i’ll fuck
myself up. and i don’t want everyone to talk about me and be known as
the person who’s WEAK and COULDN”T TAKE IT and CAN”T HANDLE PRESSURE
and QUITTER QUITTER YOU FUCKING LOSER!Q!!!

i don’t want to disappoint my parents and i don’t want to go to the
chinese new year reunion jobless and see what they think in their eyes
even though they won’t mention it.

i don’t want to quit but i don’t know if i can take all this data
entry work much longer.i can’t look at it. yeah i bet some of you would
think i’m weak but you don’t know me, you don’t know my psychiatric
history, you don’t know how many hours i put in recently and how many
hours i sleep and the most important thing is, i don’t give two shits
about what you think, sorry for disapppoiting you. like i siad, i’m
just worried about what my family (inc. extended) and gf and gf’s
family would think.

or maybe i’m just saying that coz i did mention that i don’t want to
be known as the guy who fucked up so maybe i do care about what you
think and i’ m just lashing out as a defensively.

i don’t want to quit and be know as the fucking loser quitter good for nothing piece of shit fucking loser.

i don’t want all that. what should i do?

i can’t look at the work i’m doing anymore. i’ll take the lrt back
now and sleep on it. i’ll see how it goes tomorrow, perhaps i’ll feel
better and come in and do the repetitive data entry but it disgruntles
me coz i’m not learning and updating my skills in programming at work
and i don’t have time at home. this is not to be seen as a critisism of
my company of course, i willingly accepted more work during a meeting
last time.

i’ll just go back and sleep and see how it goes tomorrow.

i don’t want to quit. what should i do?

i don’t want to be the loser in the reunion dinner. the weak one who broke down and quit his job, that loser.

what should i do?

Melbourne: Day 2 – The Paramount

December 25, 2003 by HB

Day 2 of the
Convocation: Melbourne, Australia (December 2003)
series.

The Paramount

There was a change of accommodations on the second day to The
Paramount Serviced Apartments at Exhibition Street. I didn’t know if I
should go to Unilodge or The Paramount when I got back from the doof. I
wasn’t sure if the rest of my family (my sister flew in around
midnight) had already checked out. I tried looking into Unilodge and by
a stroke of luck, there they were – right at the reception desk to
check out.

We checked in at The Paramount after that and the facilities here
are much better than at Unilodge. There are washing machines, dryers,
dishwashers, a full sized fridge, and even a nifty food grinder in the
sink. Here’s a couple of shots of the interior:

The lounge area – sorry about the backlight, was too scattered to notice then.

This is the kitchen.

I was so ready to pengsan
[pengsan.com] then, I’ve been awake for a long time by that time and I
was feeling totally knackered. I was ready to sleep for a day…but
before that, the search for food must begin! Hibernation requires food
intake beforehand – it allows longer hours of sleep and you feel better
when you wake up, especially when you’ve not been eating before that.

Food court at The Paramount shopping arcade.

I’ve been to The Paramount’s shopping arcade before, it’s just off
Little Bourke Street (Chinatown) and there’s a short cut elevator that
exits there instead of in Exhibition Street. I got some food at the
food court, just one normal meal, take away, instead of overloading
like I usually do, because space is needed for the other hibernation
prerequisite – alcohol. 🙂

I have a couple of beers leftover from the night, but I wasn’t about
to put my faith in two measly beers so I also went to the bottle shop
at the shopping arcade to grab another six pack. The photo above shows
Burke’s Original Hemp Filtered Premium Ale. I’ve had these a couple of
times before, it’s a good tasting one. It’s filtered with hemp
(cannabis plants cultivated to produce negligible amounts of THC), and
their ads play on that angle a lot like most hemp beer manufacturers.

Burke’s Original Hemp Filtered Naturally Brewed Premium Ale

Needless to say, hemp does not affect the beer in any way. You’ll have to do what veritas did with 95% alcohol and cannabis
[sixthseal.com] for a cannabis/alcohol concoction. Nevertheless,
Burke’s is an easy to drink beer, perfect for chugging. I made sure to
take generous amounts of nitrazepam (a fast acting benzodiazepine with
long hypnotic effects) and some lorazepam (a benzodiazepine with great
anticonvulsant properties) sublingually before the meal. Please note
that I have a legitimate prescription from a licensed medical
practitioner for the two.

This is the dining area beside the lounge where I ate.

Anyway, the rest of my family was heading out for sightseeing so I
informed them of my intension of sleeping 24 hours so they could take
both the keys down. The Paramount has an excessive security framework
that requires the keys to operate just about everything. You can’t even
press the buttons on the lift without swiping the keys through the
scanner first and there are several doors that needs swipe access as
well before you can exit the building.

Well, after that’s sorted, I started drinking and I may have been
too liberal with the benzodiazepines because I nearly fell asleep on
the table. I decided that I would eat half of the food and then go to
sleep because the benzos sure isn’t going to wait for me to finish up.
😉 There are two bedrooms, one with a large queen bed and one with two
singles. I stumbled into one of the singles and passed out.

I slept for 26 hours.

Nope

December 24, 2003 by HB

Hello, sorry for the lack of updates, I’m swamped with work, so no
Christmas for the wicked. Or something. I learnt something these few
days. I mean, its bleeding obvious, so I already knew about it but
anyway:

If it’s not in black and white, it means fuck all.

Yeah verbal = fuck all. We need a record like email. People can act
all nice with you verbally and fuck you later since, naive boy, there’s
no record of verbal conversations.

So remember dear readers, no record = fuck all.

Have a Merry Christmas everyone! 🙂

Melbourne: Wildlife with Deviant Species (UK) live outdoors doof

February 2, 2024December 22, 2003 by HB

Day 1 + 2 of the
Convocation: Melbourne, Australia (December 2003)
series.

I managed to meet up with Liam, Andrew and Ashley after I woke up
from the much appreciated nap, and we headed back to halls to stock up
on supplies before heading out. It was good to see halls again after
all this while, managed to get a photo of Roberts Hall. Introductions
were made (I only knew Liam then) and we headed out to Glen Waverley
after everyone was sorted. I had only bought along a 1 liter bottle of
water and worn my warm jumper, and was surprised to find everyone
packing bags. Needless to say, I was inexperienced with doofs (outdoor
raves).

Anyway, Liam drove down to Glen where we picked up a slab of Carlton
Draught stubbies and two packs of ice from the bottleshop. In case
anyone was wondering, I meant ice as in “the frozen form of water”.
Just to make things, er…crystal clear and all that. 😉 Okay,
enough lame jokes. Ashley had brought along an esky (cooler) and the
picture you see above is a shot of Ashley and Liam loading it with beer
and packing it with ice.

I forgot the name of this town.

This was all done in the car park beside the bottleshop. We stopped
for gas after that and drove straight down to Jeeralang, where the
event was going to be held. It’s part of the Strzelecki Ranges. The
drive was slated to be about 2 hours and it does seem far away coz I
distinctly remember passing Mt Baw Baw. We did made a pit stop at a
town near the venue for KFC before continuing the journey though.

Driving up the steep road.

The road into the venue wasn’t marked, and it was a really steep
drive up. I did see a “Wildlife – Deviant Species Live” sign at one
point so we were on the right track. There was this sharp turn halfway
up that had a bent street light, so it seems that at least one car
didn’t make it to the top unscathed. 😉 It was a beautiful night
though, the city lights were visible and you could see past the trees
and down into the bottom of the hill with the amazing bush air breezing
in.

Checkpoint!

We got to the checkpoint where the promoters were and damn, was that
guy enthusiastic about the night. It gave off a great vibe. We got to
the top just when it was turning dark and I knew I made a mistake
regarding attire when I stepped out of the car. It was freezing! I
don’t know how cold it was, but the wind chill was insidious. Warm beer
never tasted so good…and there’s no need to worry about hyperthermia
issues, that’s for sure. 😉

Warmth available here.

The doof was starting music at 10 pm so we went to the hobo fire
that was going on in front of the stage. It seemed to be the most
popular spot with the weather that night. I had to make frequent trips
back to the car to warm up. It’s a good thing Liam parked near the
stage and there was this trippy light device under some trees to guide
the way. The lights refracted off the tree leaves in a surprisingly
mesmerizing manner. It felt like a psychedelic light show.

The Great Illuminating One!

The trees were a bit tricky to navigate though – there were branches
sticking out at the most unexpected places and navigating though the
maze without The Guide (which was what we dubbed the trippy light)
without being sober would be unthinkable. The first DJ set came on, and
I vaguely remember someone ordering bales of hay at one point for seats
around the fire. I haven’t acclimatized yet, so the extreme temperature
change was quite uncomfortable. The others had spare coats but I
declined and stayed by the fire instead.

Setting up the set.

The early ones…

The crowd started small and grew larger as the night went on, this
psy-trance event wasn’t heavily publicized – they probably wanted it to
be a smaller gathering for the psytrance regulars. I didn’t dance much,
I was er…mashed, so to speak and besides I was freezing my ass off in
the chilly weather. The fire was good, though it was a wood fire, so
smoke inhalation was an issue after a while beside it.

The crowd fills up…

as the night progresses.

I actually convinced myself that I had hypothermia at one point. It
wasn’t really hard to do that under the circumstances, and I was
seriously thinking about leaving. I thought I was going to freeze to
death if I stayed since the coldest spell hasn’t even hit yet.
Thankfully, the guys talked me out of that thought loop. Thanks
everyone! 🙂 Also, Andrew gave me his warm coat, cheers for that! I
stopped thinking about hypothermia and did the second inventory stock
take and it was all lovely after that. 🙂

Deviant Species live set!

This one taken without flash.

I only managed to get three photos of Deviant Species playing live.
I was too mashed to move. They played till dawn was breaking…it was
amazing to see the sun rise slowly over the valleys and watch the place
light up. It really is a beautiful place to have a daylight doof in.
Check out the scenery:

The venue looks different in daylight too. I thought I saw a large
giraffe or some other animal, details are a bit hazy from the night. I
was standing at the cliffs and was surprised to see a large giraffe
appearing here, of all places. Checking with the others produced mixed
responses, but I saw it vividly, and in daylight too! That is, until
the “giraffe” moved and it turned out to be a man beside a rock with
the opposite hills making it look that way after all. 🙂

This was what our path to the car looked like in the light of dawn.

This is us after watching the sunrise.

Liam was recharging for the drive back so we never got a full group photo, but here’s one of us three:

L-R: Huai Bin (me), Andrew, Ashley.

To the best of my knowledge, everyone in the photo is completely
sober. It must be the lighting that made it seem otherwise. I have to
say that my memory of the night is rather fuzzy, but I can fully assure
you that no psychedelics were consumed at the particular point in time
this shot was taken.

Here’s some photos of the morning set with Santos De Castro and Paul Wright (Deviant Species):

A large frame capture from the car.

Moving into the crowd.

Deviant Species were still playing the set.

I enjoyed the talks in the car, it was great, just gotta love the
scene over in Melbourne. Excellent company – it was great to go raving
with Liam again, and I’m glad I got to know Andrew and Ashley. I had a
wonderful time. It’s not about the music, it’s about the…*cough*. 🙂

I’m sorry that you lost your glasses Ashley, hope you find it!

It was close to noon when we left the doof.

Memorable quotes of the night:

“I think I actually have to start earlier to warm myself up”

“Would be one hell of a come down tomorrow eh?”
“Do you want to talk about this now?”

“I can’t believe you’re yawning right after smoking that hit of meth!”

“I’m going off to check on my hallucinations now”

“I’m peaking so hard…I feel full on rushes everytime I move”

and many other classics I couldn’t remember. 🙂

Despite my expression when the event was over and inventory stock
clearence was done, it was worth every second of it! I’ll do it all
over again. 🙂

I Squid!