my not so good week got better over the last few days. i had things to take my mind off the negative aspects of everything that is getting me down at the moment. all things considered i managed to have a semi productive saturday, seeing as i only woke up at 11am.

thursday was daft punk day. wooo! to funness. steph came over after work and we had some drinks and ate some dips that she so lovingly purchased on the way over. from my house we went towards the venue to meet up with aaron who was waiting at a pub. the last time i was at the meyer music bowl was for tool earlier this year and i explained to steph that i am not a patient person in line. in janurary we totally cut in line around the back of the venue because people are retarded and dont know how to line up correctly. anyways, we got there and there was a very little queue to get in. strangely i got inside first through the people with bags part of the line. pulling out my ID i was asked "wheres that?" to my drivers license. always.

the first thing we we was go to the bar tent. the lines were still pretty short. two alcoholic drinks per transaction limit. never seen that described in those terms before. two drinks it was (the rest of this post is going to be about alcohol). the event seemingly was sponsored by red bull and jager. everything goes with jager, apparently. i did not have any. i went with sparkling, then first few times, then switched over to the chambulls which i have never heard of before. in general i am not a consumer of large amounts of red bull but if you want to drink pure fizz sparkling and red bull is the way to go. my housemate asked me today what that was so i will explain here too. 3/4 of the lovely plastic flute was filled with champagne, then then remaining part was filled with red bull, then i got the rest of the can of red bull too. in that transaction, 3 drinks and only 2 hands.. a bit of a problem. one must learn to hold 2 drinks in one hand in order to drink the other. this night was all about pure class.

we hung near the back of the lawn while some of the opening acts were on. at some point i found a mickey of whiskey (i dont know what the australian equivalent of this is, 40oz) on the ground which i picked up and gave to steph. i dont drink random alcohol but my friends sure can.

it was a relaxed atmosphere most of the night. everyone sitting around the lawn at the sides of the main view area in front of the stage. it was light until almost 9, so everyone had their sunnies on. turning around and seeing the city and southbank as the view was awesome. even better when it got dark and the light came on. daft punk started just after 9. they were earlier than their posted set time of 9:15. the crowd was really responsive and there was an awesome light show. the best of my memory the set was the 'alive' record from start to finish. maybe live there were some longer mixes, but my memory was not the best by the end of the night.

dancing on a hill left some to be desired. lost my balance more than once. hah. ive only seen regular concerts at the music bowl, so i had wondered how the dance festivals worked. just like a concert but everyone is on GA lawns and you jump around on the lawn. but unlike the freakshows that go there to mosh and start fights, people were more towards the euphoric side of the spectrum and well behaved.

i was told by someone today that over the 2 shows there were 30 some odd people comatosed/ passed out on whatever their chemicals of choice were. the story made the news from the perspective of how the police were not happy about all the "trouble" and footage of kids lying in stretchers and on the ground. i saw one girls being carried away in a sitting up roller stretcher followed by 2 of her friends none of them looked very happy, they were probably getting kicked out.



NEVER EVER LAND

drinks and more drinks

lights

what wold the night be without someone sticking their tongue out in a photo? aaron had a red flashing tongue ring that helped him make new friends to talk to once he disapeared off to the toilets and steph and i lost him until the end of the show. it was pretty cool and made his whole mouth go red.

DA FUNK

the next day was department christmas party, so i slept in accordingly. i went to school around 11 to print out some stuff and find people to walk over to the party with. it was a lunch time event. i had planned to get there eat lunch drink my drinks and go home early. nope. four of us left the lab at 12:15ish, and got to the leveston around 20 to one. id been there before for a couple people's birthday dinners/ drinks nights and thought it was a nice place. the department had the whole back half of the restaurant with the outdoor patio and a bar. i went through my three drink tickets before lunch was served. and i was starving so it wasnt the best combination. finger foods were coming around while we all mingled and hung out before the meal.
one of the guys i was talking to used to be in my lab but left lest year and went to another one. he said he had to leave the party early because he was going to daft punk. i told him i had gone the night before and he asked me how it was. i told him it was really good and to get there early because the opening djs were worth seeing. he said hearing from me that it was really good actually gave it meaning and he believed it. i laughed.

lunch took forever to get served. there were two dishes, chick or beef. they were put down in alternating patterns and you didnt get to pick what you go. it thought this was stupid when they did it last year too. i got chicken i was okay with that. i would have been fine with either but a few of the guys needed to have the steak. kate had the vego meal which was lasagne and looked really nice too. we had wine put on the table for the meal. since i was sitting with mostly guys there were all getting jugs of beer and didnt want the wine. then we got told that there was a tab on the bar. thank you taxpayers. more champagne for me.

i had some good conversation with kate and jim about life and the lab and more life and how shit happens to good people and you move on. it was funny seeing some of the academics a bit tipsy. we left at 4:45 to go to another bar. so much for going home early. a bunch of us moved to the redback on flemington road. i drank only water as i was started to feel very very tired and i had to walk home.

i went home a fell asleep at 6:30. slept for 2 hours woke up made a cheese and tomato toastie and was only 3 hours for dinner at nadeens house. i didnt eat just ate all of the salt and vinegar chips. seeing as i never chips then were damn good. none of them seemed that drunk, compared to past cocktail nights, and we watching sex and the city. season 4 episode 5.. you know youve seen a lot of a good thing when. oh right, then sonia took the piss outta me for going to daft punk. dawn's sister is going to the show in perth. at least someone else can appreciate a varitey of music :P

while going through the city on the way home there was more people than ive ever seen carrying their shoes. even more than race days. every other person seemed to be shoeless and had a pair of strappy sandals in their hand paired with a party dress. i supposed when at a christmas party, drinking on someone elses dime, it is important to full enjoy oneself. i did.