Melbourne Moomba Waterfest

I went to Moomba with a couple of my friends on Saturday night.
Moomba is an annual festival and the word is from an Aboriginal word
which means “getting together and having fun” and it lasts a week.
There are concerts, street parades, waterskiing competitions but we
just went to the carnival and fireworks show.

The place was totally packed by the time we got there, which was
slightly after 9 pm. I had to apply contrast, gamma correction and
sharpen liberally to some of the pictures coz my battery was low and I
could not use flash all the time.

The east bank was full of people since it’s the best place for
watching the fireworks show. The boats you see in the middle of the
river are the barges they let the fireworks off from. The west bank had
trees and lamp posts that obscure the vision slightly, so it’s not that
popular.

Well, there were so many people there that it’s hard to even walk at a reasonable pace!


The barge they’re letting fireworks off from

We watched the fireworks, which was okay, but Christopher said that
it wasn’t as impressive as the one our “Au Yong Contingent” produced
this year. Heh. We both live around the Au Yong Road region back in
Sibu.

Anyway, it was good for me to watch the fireworks since I came back
early this year. I didn’t get to spend Chinese New Year in Sibu coz of
my summer subject and IE. I failed my summer subject, which makes it a
fucking waste, but let’s not talk about that. πŸ™‚


The finale, taken with flash

Well, the atmosphere was pretty good, lots of smoke and that that
fireworks smell which is associated with Chinese New Year in my mind.
It lasted probably 20 minutes, and then we walked around for a bit.


The finale, taken without flash

A couple of us went on the Ranger, it’s that ride that goes 360 degrees.


The Ranger

I was planning to bring my digicam on it and take a photo while it
was upside down but hmm…it’s a good thing I didn’t coz even though
technically you know the centrifugal forces will hold you down, there
is a strong psychological urge to hold onto the bar anyway.


Me in front of the Moomba directions signboard

Anyway, there were a couple of other rides there:

Dodgem bumper cars.

A ferris wheel behind the carnival stalls.

Some kind of swing which “allow your to defy gravity for 4 minutes”.
It’s kinda like a cross between a huge trampoline and a reverse bungee.

The Thunderbolt! A mini roller coaster.

Some kind of spinning thingy which will make you throw up so I didn’t get on it, considering we just had a huge dinner before.

The Scorpion. Another mini roller coaster ride.

This is us – the bunch of high school friends from Methodist High School, Sibu who’re in Melbourne

From left: Chuck Yong, Adrian, Karen, Ung Hing, Huai Bin (me), Chuck Fong.
Not everyone was in the picture.

Moomba is fun!

Melbourne

I have arrived in Melbourne, safely if not soundly. More about that
later. Gonna take a nap now. Dead tired. What happened to the three
previous posts? I think something happened to my host and the backup
was a day old. Gonna repost anyway when I wake. Later.

Brass Monkeys Consulting

My network connection was down for practically the whole day yesterday. Thus,
I have decided to sleep early and wake up early today to prepare for the final ITPM presentation. I
woke up bright an early at 8 am and headed down to my campus to rehearse with my other team
members:

Group 702: Brass Monkeys Consulting

From left: Poh Huai Bin, Dan Chandrasoma, Sheralyn D’Rose, Bela Farbas

I think we did pretty well in the presentation, but there was a group with an
impressively feature packed product though. Good thing the marks are not scaled…at least I hope
they’re not. =D Anyway, I had to wake up early yesterday too. It seems that my National [national.com.au] bank account has been
overdraft to the amount of A$11.12 (don’t ask me why a savings account can be over drafted).
Since I already have a Commonwealth bank account (my main account now), I’ve
decided to close the National one. The only branch around here is in Clayton town. There was one
in the campus center last time, but it has closed and the space is now occupied by the Business
Systems laboratory.

Well, I also got to eat the Beef Salsa Burger, which is part of McDonald’s
ever changing New Tastes Menu
[mcdonalds.com.au]. It tasted like the old Italian Romano Burger (part of their Tastes of the
World Menu) to me, and the burger is rather small-ish too. I’ll go for a Big Mac or Filet-O-Fish
over it any day.

Link of the day: Firebugs threaten mosque
attacks
[theage.com.au]

I knew this was going to happen sooner or later.

Chad is stoned…

I headed down to Chadstone today to do a bit of shopping. I wanted to cut
my hair too, but the prices at Chadstone “The Fashion Capital” ranges from
A$45 – A$75 and I couldn’t justify paying those prices. Especially not
when I pay around A$5 – A$10 for a haircut back home. =D I was going to
get

Contacting Aliens: An Illustrated Guide to David Brin’s Uplift Universe

[davidbrin.com] too, but the Borders at Chadstone did not carry it.
Hmm…one of the best things to eat in the food court is the lunch plate
of Sizzling Wok. I like having honey chicken and Mongolian beef. Their
Mongolian beef is really salty and their honey chicken is really sweet and
that combination tastes good. My thoughts are kinda foggy today, I’m still
feeling the flu. More of a runny nose and mental slowness today though.
Yeah…Well, anyway, I like
Lush.

The store smells really nice and I like the idea of huge block of soap
that you cut and wrap up yourself. They have
really
nice names
[lush.co.uk] for their soaps too. Their

bath ballistics
[lush.co.uk] looks fun to use, but unfortunately, I
don’t have a running bath. Oh well. I feel slow today.

Dusted by an Angel

or how I railed on Friday, rolled on Saturday and landed in a
hospital on Sunday. Mr. Foaf’s report on his interesting weekend. All
text below the line (including captions) written by Mr. Foaf. He also
apologizes for being not his eloquent self, he hasn’t slept since then
and is now feeling the debilitating crash from his remarkable weekend.
This is a true story.

********* All lines after this are written by Mr. Foaf **********

Friday (27.09.2002)

railed 1.5 points of methamphetamine powder over a one hour period.
I wanted to go to sleep at around 8 am so I smoked a new bag of weed I
got from a new dealer. The buds came in chopped halves mixed with some
kind of wood shavings (?) and dusted with white powder (?!). The dealer
assured me that they’re just a mixture of the three most potent strains
of marijuana. I smoked two bowls of finely shredded bud and found it
surprisingly strong. It floored and stoned me with just two bowls, and
I already have significant tolerance from smoking daily. The stoney
feeling felt very indica-like and I felt comfortable crumpling myself
into a ball and sitting on my seat. Surprisingly, the weed felt
“speedy” for lack of a better term. I did get the munchies after a
while, and ate a couple of corn chips while I watched a movie, which I
promptly forgot all about. I didn’t sleep much that day from the meth
and “speedy weed”, which kinda brought me up again instead of down.

Saturday (28.09.2002)

After a fitful couple of hours sleep, I woke again feeling totally
untested and rather lethargic, which is common after taking stimulant
substances. I wanted to catch Lab 4 [lab4.com] at Hard Kandy
[hardkandy.com] later that night, so I called up my meth dealer and met
up with him to get 3 points of meth. 1 point = 0.1 gram, which should
keep a casual user up all night. I arrived at Hard Kandy at slightly
past 12 pm and got a ticket for A$35 (A$25 prepaid) and a free Lab 4 –
Virus CD with 9 tracks running at 58:13. I checked my coat into the
clock room and waited for one of the toilet stalls to become free.
There was a long line for the cubicles in the men’s toilet and from the
snorting sounds, they didn’t sound like they were vacating themselves.
I myself dabbed 1.5 points and swallowed it and insufflated the other
1.5 points.

Not much dancing going on.

The dance floor was pretty empty then, despite the DJ’s efforts to
get people to dance. Most people were handing out in the chill room or
on one of the many sofas around the dance floor. Perhaps they were
saving their energy for the Lab 4 set, which is on from 3-4:30 am.
Anyway, I was feeling the drip by then, so I positioned myself dance
floor and started dancing a bit, enjoying the nice coming up of meth. I
haven’t eaten anything since the couple of corn chips last night so the
oral dose kicked in right about the time the nasal dose peaked so I
felt pretty good for a while, typical “body buzz”, but not so much of a
rush, perhaps due to tolerance from last night’s dose. I noticed that I
started to gnaw on my tongue, cheeks and lips, a bad habit I have while
on stimulant drugs. My hands felt like they wanted to constantly keep
on moving too, but I felt the meth plateau at around 1 pm. That seems
disappointingly early, so I started looking around the venue for
someone who looked like they might have drugs. The first guy didn’t
have any, but I caught sight of this Chinese looking guy loaded with
tattoos who stood near the toilet. Seems like a good bet, so I asked
him if he had any “stuff”. He asked me what I wanted and I thought he
said he sells pills and sex. That seems like a funny question to pose
in a rave, but I didn’t think much of it, until I realized he sells
Durex – Safe Sex pills. Ah, now that sounds more logical. Heh. I’ve
heard mostly good stuff about the Durex Safe Sex pills and he has the
white ones, which I hear is a good batch. These pills are round and
white with tiny blue specks and has the word Durex on one side and Safe
Sex on the other. Here is a photo I took in the popular men toilet.

Durex logo on front. White pills with light blue specks.

Safe Sex written on the back.

The white w/ tiny blue specks are said to only contain MDMA
(Ecstacy) but I did not have a reagent or testing kit with me, so I
can’t really be sure. I crunched up the pill at 2 am and was assaulted
by a wave of potent bitterness that only washed away after I grabbed a
lollypop from the counter. Please note that methamphetamine use is not
recommended in conjunction with MDMA as there is research that suggest
the combination could be neurotoxic. Furthermore, it is said that meth
doesn’t add much to the MDMA experience anyway since MDMA can be
“speedy” by itself. But personally, I can’t dance the whole night
without a speedy drug, so usually speed or meth is on my itenarary for
a big night. πŸ™‚ I enjoy the speedy effects of meth too, but there is
some stigma associated with amphetamines in the rave scene. I didn’t
receive any disappovings looks though, even though my dancing style is
“speedy” as opposed to “E-style”. Don’t really know how to describe the
difference between the two though. The people at the rave today seemed
really friendly and E’d up too. I had a lot of good conversations with
other rollers, always a plus in a good rave scene. It’s good to see
that the PLUR aspects has not totally gone from the rave scene in a big
city like Melbourne. I couldn’t for the life of me remember their
names, but I was rolling hard last night as you’ll see as the report
progresses. πŸ™‚

The friendly bartender.

Anyway, the E started to kick in about T+30 (30 minutes after I
dropped). There wasn’t really a noticeable come-up, which happens to
some people when taking meth and Ecstasy together. But when I felt the
first hot flashes, it nearly floored me. Didn’t feel like dancing much
then and sat at the stairs near the Vietnamese guys (found out that
he’s a Vietnamese who happens to speak Cantonese). My Cantonese wasn’t
really good though, so we mostly conversed in English. By this time the
emphatic qualities of Ecstasy made itself apparent and I did felt us
bonding and talking a lot and basically just hanging out. I feel that
the best part of raves can be talking to other people who are rolling
as well. Anyway, after T+50 I start feeling slightly drunk, and totally
clumsy when I was walking. I’m having hot and sweaty palms too. I was
stumbling here and there, general difficulty in moving but still felt
emphatic and a sense of “one-ness” with people I talked to. I postulate
that this batch of White Durexes has some ketamine in it as well. This
is further supported by my total loss of smell as soon as the pill
started peaking. I didn’t want to move then, which is too bad because
the ketamine bits started kicking in right after Lab 4 entered. πŸ™ I
only danced in the first couple of songs, and sat at the stairs with my
new buddies near the set. I could see everyone who had dropped the
white Durexes are getting clumsy and drunken. I laid on my back for a
while and didn’t experience any of the harsher K-trip portions like
disassociation. I did felt my legs lock up and needed to stretch them
out though. I need to state that the only family of drugs that I’m
scared of are disassocaitives. It feels too much like dying at higher
doses and really isn’t fun for me. The white Durex doesn’t seem to have
a lot of K though, and I felt the ketamine portions wear off about 50
minutes after it started, and I was left in a clean E afterglow. Please
note that I did not test the pills with reagents and cannot attest to
the presence of Ketamine in the white Durexes, but it sure had all the
hallmarks of a high MDMA low Ketamine ratio pill. I should allow for
the possibility that the Durexes only contain MDMA and it just hit me
particularly hard and floored me because I had no tolerance to MDMA.
The last time I dropped Ecstasy was years ago.

One of the first DJs.

Anyway, I was still feeling slightly uncoordinated when I moved but
I wanted another pill so I went with one of the guys to withdraw money
from the ATM a block away from the venue. We were stumbling to cross
the road, helping each other out a bit. Must have been quite a sight,
since our balance wasn’t back to normal. After I got back, I heard that
there’s a new batch of Durexes in, but these ones are selling for A$40
instead of A$35. I dropped one of the new batches at around 3:30 am.
Instead of prolonging the previous E’s roll, it instead started a new
rushing sensations and a new peak. I’m inclined to believe that these
new ones really do have only MDMA inside, but it won’t be too helpful,
since I didn’t even bother to check the color or take photographs, I
just popped it and crunched it up. πŸ™‚ Tasted bitter like the first one,
with the first rushes felt at T+30. I was told afterwards that these
pills are also white Durex/Safe Sexes, just a different batch. By T+60
I was peaking pretty good, with frequent hot flushes, but the second
tablet kinda floored me too, in an E way. I guess it was slightly too
much after stopping from indulging in disco biscuits for years. It felt
good though, but too be honest, I feel that rolling after meth only
provides emphatic qualities with much of the euphoric rushes kinda
overshadowed by meth’s significantly speedier rushes. I feel that
Ecstasy is a more happy feeling while meth is more euphoric. I was
kinda stoned too, and didn’t move much, but that’s probably because
I’ve not had E’s fro quite a while. I was hit with blurry/wobbly vision
for the rest of the night too. But that is one of the good effects of E
so I didn’t mind.

Lab 4 in da house.

While still rolling hard, this guy started up a conversation with me
and I found that he has one of the beige Durex/Safe Sex and is willing
to part with it for A$35. These pills were reputed to contain MDA but
again I don’t have a reagent kit and didn’t really care at this point.
I was more than a little farked, generally being happy and just sitting
on my ass talking to people. I crunched this one up and it tasted
bitter with a sourish aftertaste. I did felt the Ecstasy roll longer
and occasional heavy “floor your ass” hot rushes that left me slightly
confused and very blurry vision. At one point I stumbled across the
hallway, fully meaning to go to the toilet, since I hadn’t pissed the
whole night. I tried to earlier in the night but couldn’t even squeeze
a drop out of my poor, shrunk to a third of it’s former glory, penis.
Happens a lot on meth. Anyway, this girl suddenly popped up in front of
me, asking if I’m alright because I didn’t look too well. I felt pretty
good though, just slightly confused by the hot rushes and probably
dehydrated. Didn’t get much to drink the whole night at all. She led me
to the chill room, and I forgot about going to the toilet again.
Finally remembered after she seated me down and asked if I’m alright
again, and went off to the toilet. I looked at myself in the mirror and
could see that my pupils has dilated to a prodigious size, almost
filling my iris. Found myself not blinking much too, just staring wide
eyed. Heh. I looked pretty out of it, I’ll admit.

More Lab 4 shots.

Getting ready…

Close up.

Another close up.

I decided to get some air and took a short walk around the block.
More time must have passed since then but I don’t remember much of last
night after my third pill anyway. I knew the bouncer commented that I
looked really out of it as he let me in though. Decided to be careful
and stay inside the club from now one. It was already 8 am at that
point and I decided to go for one last pill to cap up the night. I
asked around and this girl says she has several pills and asked me
which kind I wanted. I couldn’t concentrate well enough to think so I
just said I’ll like the strongest one. After A$35 was exchanged for a
pill (totally forgot the name), I swallowed in whole and chased it down
with some Red Bull. Still feeling very out of it and it was getting
worse. Major stumbling and several people asked me if I was alright.
Decided to go to the cloak room upstairs to get my cost. This is where
the night turned strange. As I walked up the stairs, I felt a
distinctive “going into a K-hole” feeling. Felt myself kinda separating
from my body, and was watching myself talk from behind my right
shoulder, but still very near myself. I lost my ticket stub so the
cloak room attendants had to show me each of the coats which are black.
There were a lot, but I was starting to have really screwy vision. It’s
like there is a black fog over my eyes and I couldn’t even focus on the
coats. Had a get them to show me coats for 30 minutes before I finally
recognized mine. Cheers to those two girls who were patient with a hard
rolling raver.

The dance floor later at night.

I decided that I needed to chill out a bit so I sat near the stairs
and closed my eyes. I was puzzled to find very bright light shining
through my eyelids even when closed so I opened my eyes but the venue
was still dark. This is rather puzzling since most drugs do have nice
closed eyed visuals, but by this point, it looked like I was looking at
the bright sun whenever I closed my eyes. I never experienced this
“very bright closed eyed experience” before. I decided to stretch my
legs a bit and stumbled over to a table by the dance floor. Now, it was
getting pretty apparent that I was tripping balls at this point. Colors
start to become vivid and flowy and I could see trails of everything.
Felt pretty weird so I looked down at the table and saw that it was
starting to become smaller as I leaned on it. Looked to the right as
saw this girl dressed in a checkered box shirt turn into a sofa! She
was dancing and leaned down and instantly turned into a checkered box
patterned sofa and then leaned up again and become a girl again.
Whoa…I was pretty sure that what I had was not Ecstasy so I decided
to get a water and sit down near the steps to chill out a little. I
have some problem in getting myself understood at this point. Making
coherent sentences became harder so I just sat near the edge and
watched the people dance. I closed my eyes again and saw the bright
sunlight so I decided to keep them open. Major visual trails starting
hitting and by T+30 I was seeing full blown open eyed visual
hallucinations. I see everyone with a fluid face, but it didn’t really
scare me, because I’m still aware that I had taken some drugs just now
and it’s just that affecting me. It was fun to look at people because
their faces looked like a clean pink slate with shadows forming and
swirling on their faces. Liquid shadows, no resemblance to eyes or
noses at all, just flowing liquid faces. I could see the darkness
“breaking down” into the primary colors too. I don’t really know how to
explain it, but it seems like darkness is made up of red, blue and
green blobs and they move around, kinda floating like an amoeba. It was
not a K-hole feeling at all, I still felt clear headed and could move
but I couldn’t focus on people. It seems that my eyes automatically
switched to another person whenever I focused on someone’s face. There
was major, colorful and true visual hallucinations, which prompts me to
believe that either:

Pill No. 3 is MDA and it only kicked in after T+90

Pill No. 4 is MDMA

OR

Pill No 3. is MDMA

Pill No. 4 is 2C-B

I’m inclined to think it was the latter because the visual
hallucinations was really, really clear, not just distortions like acid
visuals. I’ve never seen such vivid open eyed hallucinations before,
but it was good because I was still clear headed and know I’m tripping.
2C-B is not very common in Melbourne, but I’ve heard of people who were
able to get it. MDA in the third pill is slightly unlikely because from
what I’ve heard, an MDA trip lasts longer. The total time of hardcore
open eyed visuals was around 2 hours and I could see people looking at
me all the time. I wondered if I was having paranoid delusions or I
really looked absolutely fucked. Soon 11 am rolled by and I moved my
ass for one last song before the club closed. We filled out slowly and
I could feel people looking at me as I walked past. I decided to keep a
low profile and looked at the street to hide my dilated pupils. I
walked to the Mid Valley Arcade and called for a taxi. I kept on
hearing auditory hallucinations of police cars pulling up and that kept
me paranoid. It didn’t help several times, whitish cars passed by,
making me literally jump. I was feeling uncomfortable at this point
because there were people walking around and it’s already 11 am.
Decided to look at the window instead so I could see the reflection of
the taxi as it pulled in. That really stressed me out. Anyway, the taxi
van pulled up after about 30 minutes and I sat facing opposite the
driver to avoid giving myself away. All the while we were on the road,
I kept seeing a reflection of a police car right in front of us. I
thought the taxi driver must have called the police or something, but
when I looked at the suspected police car, it always turned out to be a
van or another truck. When I looked back again, a police car started
appearing at the corner of my field of vision again. I heard from radio
chatter too. πŸ™ Finally reached my apartment slightly past 12 pm and
tipped the driver a good A$15 on top of the fare.

After getting back, I immediately jumped into the shower to sober
up. When I closed my eyes, the bright lights were back and when I
opened them again, the walls (which were white) looked very yellowish
and depressing. I could see minor trails and a mesh wire pattern when I
open my eyes.

Sunday (29/09/2002)

I still haven’t had any sleep at this point. I tried to sleep at 1
pm after I got back but couldn’t fall asleep for the life of me. Must
be all that meth I ingested. By 12 am I was still wide awake, so I
grabbed a hot coffee and decided to wait till the crash. By 6 am I was
STILL wide fucking awake and closing my eyes only produced bizzare red,
green and blue blobs, so I thought it was time to smoke some weed and
chill out a little. I broke off a large bud from the strong weed I got
before and was puzzled to find it somehow intertwined with wood
shavings. It didn’t look like the normal bud fibers at all, and smelled
like chemicals. I didn’t think much of it at that point though, and
slipped the Lab 4 CD into my CD player and chilled out while hitting 4
large cones and holding them in for nearly 2 minutes each. After I put
down my pipe, I felt kinda weird, as if the meth effects were coming
back. I was feeling speedy and my hands started becoming nervous and
moving really quickly again. At some point I started to trip again.
This is what I wrote while that happened.

The PCP laced cannabis buds.

Trip report:

I can see really promising color distortions and dissection into red
green blue RGP and furthermore can create vistas! Can make myself bleed
camn make myself hairy, can frighthen myself and create realistic RGB
persistant eye trailer detailed movie that a mind can belive and
control, they are too powerfull. Shooting at me with their missles and
their laser weapons. Can feel the speedy effects take over me too. This
is strong weed. I hurt myself. I make myself bleed and comfort myselfs.
White flashes and loud hairs. Rewarads. Stike is called, the swarm
swarm forth and the defenders defended.Close battle, this will be a
close one won by the battle ships under the stress emmiters and
fire@!!!!!!!

ATTACK THEM@!!!!!!!!!!!!
(sounts of warships battling.)

3-2

2-2

1-3

change

You win!

Attack them!\

True!

Battle of heaven and earth!

The battle is being decided as we speak.

True realistic open eyed visuals! Detailed, though only in RGB! But it can now
display more colors as we speak. I evolve…

I upgrade.

True trails when got hand movements now!@

Realistic OEVS! I CAN”T BELIEVE THIS!Q!!!!!!!

More colors now as dawn break! I EVOLVE AGAIN!!!

Wow … indeed he did

Nearly true color now and my left hand is bleeding, now both of them are bleeding….

One last fight to determine who wins

And it said “It’s now the time to terminated your services”

*static*

dead

I EVOVE AGAIN TO TERMINATE THE EARTHLIGS!!!!!

Persistant worls and I don’t even need to wave my hands for them to stay!

I EVOVE YET AGAIN TO TERMINATE THE EARTHLIGS!!!!!

End Trip Report

A closer look reveals a powder sprinkled on the weed.

I was basically seeing opened eyed visuals again at dawn. The red
sunlight shining in caused my low lighted bedroom to swirl with red,
green and blue colors. Red was the predominant color though and I
looked like I was bleeding. I could see a whole forest sprout out in my
room and there was a girl in a blue jumper just in the corner of my eye
and she was there all the time, except when I looked. She scared me and
made me jump a few times, before I realized that she’s not real. But I
couldn’t be sure though coz the opened eyed visuals are starting to
become really creepy now and really realistic. I started to become
really dizzy and confused too and started becoming rather worried. I
decided it’s time to sleep and tried lying down in bed. Now, this is
where things take a turn for the worse. My CD player was off but I
could still hear The Creator by Lab 4 playing from the speakers. Not
just some refrain too, a full song that I’ve only heard for the first
time a couple of minutes ago. Suddenly, I was hit with a severe wave of
nausea and a scary sound started reverberating around my eyes. If
you’re seen The Exorcist, that sound was the loud metallic scary clanks
when Linda Blair was about to be put into the CAT scan machine. πŸ™ It
really scared me and I could feel myself kinda slip away. I was really
worried at this point, so I tried to close my eyes but that scared me
again for some reason. I put my hand to my heart and felt it become
slower and slower and I felt myself breathing shallower and taking
fewer breaths too. I won’t kid you, I was really scared at this point
and just wanted to sleep. But another wave of a nausea hit me and I
turned myself into the coma position so I won’t choke on my own vomit.
Felt something come out and threw up in my sink. I think I threw up
about 2 liters of pure water. I haven’t had anything to eat for days
and not much to drink too. I couldn’t piss as well and this was all
starting to scare me. I tried lying down again but only felt myself
disassociating from my body. I did not like this feeling at all and
felt as if I was dying. I was scared and kept monitoring my pulse rate.
I could hear it slow down again and I quickly sat up when it did and
moved my hands a bit to make my heart speed up. I somehow “knew” I had
to keep doing that or else my heart will just stop and I’ll die. I
wasn’t thinking rationally at this point and was getting really fucking
scared. I could hear the banging noises again and promised that I will
not do any drugs again should I get out of this experience unscathed. I
felt myself disassociating again and willfully pushed my soul back into
my body coz someone was telling me that if I either let my soul leave
of let my heart stop bleeding I would die. I could hear the voice
talking to me, but I don’t know where it came from. I was having a
panic attack because I’ve never experienced this effect before. I felt
my legs shrink and my arms elongate as if my soul was stretching me to
escape. I was frantic at this point coz no amount of movement will make
my heart beat faster so I opened my window and looked down at the car
park. I know the car park is a good few floors below my apartment but
at this point my depth perception was absolutely shot. My large room
felt like a small coffin and I was starting to shrink and shrink and my
cupboard looked very large and mountain-like and I know that if I let
myself shrink I’ll never come out alive. I don’t know why I thought
that, I was absolutefuckingly freaking out in a bad, bad way. I opened
my window and looked down at the car park and it looked like I could
touch the ground if I just reached out with my hand. I live fairly high
up, so that wasn’t possible, but I couldn’t think rationally at that
point. I just know I could touch the car park floor if only I reached
out with my hand, so I did. I leaned out through the window too, and
felt the wind on my skin, which sobered me up only a little. Just then,
the speakers told me “Please don’t do that”. I heard it clearly and I
was totally scared and freaked out and wanted to cry. I closed the
window again and went to throw up. I couldn’t throw up anymore so I
lied down on the floor and immediately felt myself shrinking again.
This time it came faster, if I didn’t pay full attention I will
immediately shrink to the size of an ant. The speakers told me this is
not good, because you’ll need to travel a long distance to reach the
door because you’re shrunk an you’re an ant. I was seriously not
rational at this point and wanted to run away from my apartment. My
thought processes were fucked and scaring me and I was delirious and
paranoid. I did know I took quite a few different drugs over the
weekend and that combined with days without sleep and food and water
was probably causing me to freak out. But disassociation and auditory
hallucinations and frame choppiness and wild thoughts on cannabis? I
don’t think it was possible and looked at the bag again. I suddenly
remembered that there was people selling PCP (Angel Dust) dusted weed
and I did remember the dealer telling me it was “killer weed”. My
definition of killer weed is a strong, indica-like stoney high but
apparently the common lingo here is that killer weed = weed laced with
PCP dipped wood shavings. I’ve never done PCP before and I’ve only
heard bad things about it, so I was getting more and more agitated. I
couldn’t remember much after that, but I know the voice told me to grab
my cell phone and dial 000. If you still don’t feel sober after 30
minutes, press the Call button. I sat that way for a couple of minutes,
not wanting to call at all coz it will lead to a lot of complications.
But I could really feel my heart stopping now, it sounds silly now when
I think about it, but it was really scary last night. I even got the
chills from hearing the Lab 4 track – The Creator today. πŸ™ After about
10 minutes where I was in near total disassociation, I finally told
myself to get up. I couldn’t move at all and felt like I was going to
void my bowels right there and then. The speaker told me to press the
Call button NOW and I said fuck it and called. Except I didn’t call…I
stumbled outside to get a drink of water and knocked on one of my
neighbors door. Didn’t know why I did that, but soon the paramedics
were called. I was still feeling disassociated by then and felt like I
was looking at the scene from a weird angle. I couldn’t feel my heart
beating and was sure I had died and I cannot control my vomiting, which
has become dry heaves that I couldn’t stop. I was totally dehydrated
and my skin didn’t settle back down when I pinched it. I realize now
that I just had a bad PCP trip because I was not expecting it and after
all that major drug use the night before, it made me paranoid and
totally freak out. But let me tell you, while on PCP you feel like
you’re actually dying and start thinking really strange and irrational
thoughts. I can’t remember half of the PCP trip, but I know I was
constantly scared and I felt like my heart stopped beating. Now, I’ve
been a daily smoker of weed for a long time and I know what cannabis
can and cannot do. This batch is either salvia divinorum + cannabis or
more likely, PCP + cannabis. I called a friend up today and he said
that PCP laced weed does come intertwined with wood shavings and dusted
with white powder so that explains it.

Close up showing more powder (they do not look like THC crystals and tasted chemical when inhaled)

Anyway, the ambulance came about 20 minutes later. I don’t want to
talk about this part because it’s kinda embarrassing. I trooped through
my apartment unit with my pants half on (had a pair of boxers inside)
and a tatty shirt. I grabbed my cell phone in my right hand because the
speaker said not to let go of it, it’s a lifeline. In my other hand I
had a number of random bits of paper but I didn’t think to bring out my
wallet nor my keys. I have quite a lot of experience with drugs and can
talk myself out of a bad acid trip, but somehow everything seems
bizarre and frightening on PCP and I could not convince myself of
anything at all. I really wanted to tough the trip out, but I felt my
heart stopping and it was real, I couldn’t feel my heartbeat and nearly
cried because I was scared, confused and just wanting to sleep. That’s
PCP for ya…don’t know why some people can enjoy this fucked up drug,
it made me feel like I had a near death experience and totally freaked
me out. Anyway, I couldn’t walk well and stumbled with the paramedics
to their ambulance and lied down in a stretcher. I felt that the
paramedic was an angel, because she monitored my heart beat and blood
pressure and told me they were low, but still okay. I couldn’t remember
much of the journey in the ambulance except that I’m safe now with the
angel with me. Usually when you think of stuff or hallucinate stuff
while on drugs, you kinda know it’s not real and can ignore it if you
want. On PCP, it can’t be ignored. The stuff you think is really
happening and you have to follow it, you don’t have any volition or
free will or control, that’s the best I can come out with of the PCP
experience. I have no doubt that if the speakers told me to do
something stupid, I won’t even think it was stupid and just do it.

It even had bits of a purple tablet mixed into it. Or maybe it was a remnant
from the previous bag’s contents.

Anyway, I arrived at the ER room of a hospital some time later and
was shot with a sedative. I looked around the ward and saw two Indian
guys opposite my bed and an old Aussie lady with a black eye beside my
bed. I was knocked out in les than a minute and got treated for
dehydration and nausea. I woke up two hours later feeling better and
saw another angel, one of the ward keepers telling me not to move too
much coz I’m on an IV drip for dehydration. She also asked me if I
wanted anything to eat (angel) but I said I’m not feeling much like
eating now and slept for another hour. I was awakened by a doctor who
asked me how I was feeling. He also mentioned that they have drug
counselors if I want to meet up with one. I politely declined and said
that I was only doing drugs recreationally and just had a wild
combination last night that left me with a panic attack. After that, he
said I was free to go whenever I want, so I started undressing my
hospital gown (I didn’t even remember putting it on). The angel nurse
came over again and showed me the way out. I thanked her and she told
me not to worry because the hospital does not have an obligation to
share information regarding admission with the police. She offered to
call me a taxi back but I declined politely and thanked the angel and
gave her a smile and walked around a bit to clear my head. After a
while, I called my friend to meet me near the hospital because I just
realized I didn’t have my wallet with me. Good thing Mr Speaker Man
told me not to let go of my cell phone no matter what. What an
experience. This is surely a weekend that ends all other weekends. Fuck
yeah. Still a promise is a promise and I flushed all my drugs down the
toilet. A promise to God is one you have to keep since he was kind
enough to send two of his angels down and nothing bad came out of the
experience except I probably fried half my brain cells. I’m typing this
about 6 hours after being discharged from the hospital. I did crash
heavily and slept for a while a couple of hours ago. Still feel very
out of it though, and I’ll probably feel depressed for the next week,
but I survived a very wild weekend and had some absolutely wicked
experiences. =D It was an interesting ride indeed, from the arms of the
death angel into the arms of the life angel. Heh.

Things I learnt today

PCP is a strong disassociative and should not be used without a trusted and experienced trip sitter.

Disassociatives can cause bad reactions with some personalities.

Meth makes you paranoid.

Poly-drug use can result in strange interactions.

Get drugs from a trusted dealer and party safe.

The crash from a drug binge is pretty horrible and depressing.

Remember to drink water while on E.

If you feel that you’ve taken a dangerous drug and/or OD’ed, don’t
hesitate to call the paramedics. They have no obligation to report you
to the police.

********* End of Report **********

And then?

I had to attend a WIER research study today. It was held on the 7th floor
of S block and the view out of the windows is amazing. I could see right
to the CBD and Yarra River was visible too. That was not why I was there
though. I’ve been requested to attend the WIER research study to improve
the site. WIER stands for Web Industrial Experience Resource and it should
be noted that I am part of the IE team that is actually going to make the
modifications to WIER. I’m rather puzzled as to why we’re asked to attend
since there is a potential conflict of interest. We as the developers
would obviously like the features on the “To Be Added” list to be kept to
a minimum. Anyway, the study only took 30 minutes and it involves me
answering a couple of questions while a tape recorder was running and
doing a couple of tasks in WIER while a video camera recorded the screen.
I got A$10 for participating in the research. A$10 for 30 minutes…hmm, I
just realized that’s the highest wage I’ve gotten to date. Little known
fact about me: I worked part time for a short stint at a Chinese
restaurant last year. The wages are really shitty (below legal minimum
wage) but the upshot is you don’t pay any tax. I did not stay long though,
because I could not write any Chinese and all the cooks can read is
Chinese. My poor Cantonese didn’t help matters either. =D

Melbourne Spring Fashion Week

Part I: Dunlop Retro in association with General Pants C

I arrived at The Tent about 10 minutes late for the Dunlop Retro show. I
was under the impression that the City Square is closer to Melbourne
Central Station than Flinders Street Station, so I had to walk down
Swanston Street from Melbourne Central. Thus, I had to stand behind the
seats, impairing my shots somewhat. I also forgot to force flash, so some
pictures came out too blurry. I’m kicking myself for missing the lingerie
show because the audience is really close to the catwalk. Heh. There is no
cordon between the seats and the catwalk and the catwalk is not elevated,
so you could literally reach out with your arms and touch the models. If
you’re so inclined, that is. I assume that would cause you to be
forcefully ejected from the venue though. =D Anyway, these are the shots
from the Dunlop Retro show:

Part II: Jeans West

The next show was Jeans West and I had gotten a good seat this time. The
best seats in the house is the end of the catwalk of course, but you need
a photographer’s pass for that. Anyway, there was a freebie on each seat –
a Jeans West bag and a 10% discount voucher for all Victorian Jeans West
stores. I saw this staff member having to clean the catwalk with a rag
because people keep on stepping onto it, leaving footprints. She was going
“Please don’t step on the catwalk” and people were totally ignoring her
and stepping on it anyway. Poor girl. This show was longer than the Dunlop
Retro one (which lasted only 15 minutes). There were three sets for a
total of 30 minutes, I believe. Here are the shots from the Jean West
show:

Shu Yiing

My friend Shu Yiing came down from Adelaide with her boyfriend Andy
today. I was graced by their presence just now, along with Derrick, who
is Shu Yiing’s cousin, also from Sibu and lives in Richardson Hall. The
weird thing is Richardson Hall is very close to Roberts Hall and yet
we’ve never seen each other before. Also here was Selina, Andy’s sister
who is doing law in Monash University. Note that all of us are from
Sibu. Represent!

shuyiing.jpg

From left: Selina, Derrick, Andy, Shu Yiing, Huai Bin

Mt Buller Postmortem Part II

It has come to my attention that Vivien, my classmate from high school,
has set up a blog. You can visit her
here [blogspot.com]
and someone should tell her that she doesn’t need to do 100 push ups after
just eating 4 cookies. Heh. =D

Anyway, I had a one hour break today and decided to pop into the campus
bookshop with my film developing slip to see if it has been processed. I
was told to check in on Thursday and the price lists states that APS film
takes 6 working days to develop. Well, guess what? They were erring on the
side of caution, because it was already done today! Woo hoo.

The pictures didn’t turn all out well. There were only a couple of
good ones in the bunch. I was pretty impressed with the girth of the
photos though. I took most of them in the panoramic setting so they turned
out really long. It seems that APS film can be developed either in C
(normal size), H (sized like a 16:9 television) or P (panoramic). APS
seems to be a pretty interesting film format. I’ve heard about it before,
but didn’t really know the specifics. If you’re interested, have a read
through the summary of the format

here
[kodak.com].

Well, developing APS film wasn’t as expensive as I thought, but it’s not
cheap either. The processing costs for the 25 exposure roll cost me A$21.50. That comes with 2 index
prints and a Kodak Picture CD though. Added to the cost of the disposable
camera (A$25), that comes to nearly A$50. Tsk tsk…sounds slightly disturbing,
because I’m used to taking pictures with a digicam. Anyway, here are the
pictures from Mt Buller on the day my digicam had a near death experience.

A panoramic shot of me at the bottom of Blue Bullet 1 quad chairlift. This
picture was scanned from the prints.

Carving up the slopes. This picture is taken from the Kodak Picture CD.
The quality of the images in the CD is really bad, you can get much higher
resolutions by scanning in the pictures manually instead of getting a
Picture CD.

This is the friendly manager of YHA in Mt Buller.

Ripping the blue Summit run.

A really grainy shot of the village from the chairlift. A lot of the
pictures turned out badly because there was condensation on the lens of
the camera, and I didn’t realize it. Furthermore, a third of the pictures
have been slightly obstructed by my gloves. The viewfinder of disposables
are not exactly the most accurate things, because I could have sworn that
I see the glove in the viewfinder.

Read Mount Buller Part I.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...