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.
