This week will be full on... Wednesday I get to run SOLO in the new warehouse. Thats right, by my lonesome. This is great, except that I'll be doing ALL THE WORK. Why me? Its because I am the one with the forklift license, ain't it. The other one is my supervisor, and well, he has to be over there supervising the moving of parts. Can't be in two places at the same time. That means I will have lunch by myself, no microwave (tho there's 2 stoves), and 3 days of isolation. Fun fun fun. Anyways... need sleep. Big day tomorrow... will have more and more broken stuff coming in (30+ today!) and it seems like it'll be more and more soon...
Monday, January 31, 2005
Sunday, January 30, 2005
Weekend...
Its the final week before the big move, next week. I did some OT on saturday, from 8am till noon. Thats great. I did it moving rubbish. Thats not great. Officially the warehouse people are just rubbish collectors. Even the normal rubbish collector went over there to... peel plastic off windows. Lots of the non-company people (who do the rubbish collecting, re-doing doors and building/painting) were there... Being busy. The new offices are big and luxurious, the cubicles are big and the warehouse is 2.5 size our normal size. Except that there's a lot of police here, and well... Its a big big place, walking around actually takes time now. Good and bad points... bigger kitchen, lots of room. Bad points... all areas have security coding on the doors, meaning to get from one area to the other requires swipe card access. I think one area will be the designated smoker area, which is outside the lower kitchen. Oh there's like 3 kitchens! 3 kitchens, what are they, food eater company? @_@. A couple of boardrooms, and plenty of offices. Needless to say, it'll cost a lot to be renting there, I can tell you that. Next week will be hell.
Also, I managed to cut my little toe. My bro went out to buy a computer Case and HDD. And a power supply too. We came back and started assembling it. All was well, until after we put the computer on the desk, and it won't boot properly. So I removed the side panel, placed it on the side... and it fell down and sliced into my little toe. Where the toenail meets the flesh. No pain was registered, I lifted the panel off, and then, blood flowed out. And then there was pain. Blood sharp side panel... Made out of aluminum... scary... mum stemmed the flow with some red medicine fluid, and it seems to work. So bandaged it and I'm walking around fine. Except when fitting into a shoe.
Went out today to do some shopping, the toe hurts when crammed into the shoe... thats to be expected, there's a huge cotton bud on it... thats why. It doesn't feel like it's bleeding, but still, even after a new cotton swab it still looks like there's blood coming out. Anyways, shopping was buying rice and milk and other stuff. And there was the HUGE dog in the supermarket (wollies). WTF? It was walking around and looked like a huge FAT wolf. Snow/Grey in color, and salavating. One of the staff (3 were walking around trying to chase it out but scared it might bite them) was telling shoppers to be careful since it bites... and mum was like standing there while the dog was sniffing her... I thought that she was stupid, since I told her to move back but she just stood there -_-. But lucky the staff had shooed the dog away. We finished our shopping, and went to the fruit shop, which was just closing. The shop keeper just decided to sell all the 'remaining' display stock for 1/2 price or less. Meaning 3 punnets of Strawberries for $1, pot of nectarines for $1, pot of grapes for $1, and 3 mangoes for $1. Lots of bargins there. Mum was gonna change one of the punnets of strawberries but I told her not to, its not wise to pick and choose. And I was right. This other woman, after choosing 3, tried to change one and the shop guy just told her 'NO SWAPPING!!'. Either get these 3 or don't buy. So she drop them and didn't buy it. I think its wise. You're already getting a bargin, if u don't like it, don't buy it. Simple enough. Some people want perfection for so little (reminds me of the f**cking idiots who buys computer parts. When they know there's not 100% chance that the product will be perfect. But they expect perfection for that price. No wonder people lose faith in the electronics industry. Just make more products and hopefully they have a lower failure rate.). Anyways, after that, did some photo editing for my dad, see if he wants me to put them up on an album somewhere or print them out. Big W sounds good, at $0.33 per pic into a 6x4" print.
Ah work work work! :/ And its a new month :P yay. :P
Also, I managed to cut my little toe. My bro went out to buy a computer Case and HDD. And a power supply too. We came back and started assembling it. All was well, until after we put the computer on the desk, and it won't boot properly. So I removed the side panel, placed it on the side... and it fell down and sliced into my little toe. Where the toenail meets the flesh. No pain was registered, I lifted the panel off, and then, blood flowed out. And then there was pain. Blood sharp side panel... Made out of aluminum... scary... mum stemmed the flow with some red medicine fluid, and it seems to work. So bandaged it and I'm walking around fine. Except when fitting into a shoe.
Went out today to do some shopping, the toe hurts when crammed into the shoe... thats to be expected, there's a huge cotton bud on it... thats why. It doesn't feel like it's bleeding, but still, even after a new cotton swab it still looks like there's blood coming out. Anyways, shopping was buying rice and milk and other stuff. And there was the HUGE dog in the supermarket (wollies). WTF? It was walking around and looked like a huge FAT wolf. Snow/Grey in color, and salavating. One of the staff (3 were walking around trying to chase it out but scared it might bite them) was telling shoppers to be careful since it bites... and mum was like standing there while the dog was sniffing her... I thought that she was stupid, since I told her to move back but she just stood there -_-. But lucky the staff had shooed the dog away. We finished our shopping, and went to the fruit shop, which was just closing. The shop keeper just decided to sell all the 'remaining' display stock for 1/2 price or less. Meaning 3 punnets of Strawberries for $1, pot of nectarines for $1, pot of grapes for $1, and 3 mangoes for $1. Lots of bargins there. Mum was gonna change one of the punnets of strawberries but I told her not to, its not wise to pick and choose. And I was right. This other woman, after choosing 3, tried to change one and the shop guy just told her 'NO SWAPPING!!'. Either get these 3 or don't buy. So she drop them and didn't buy it. I think its wise. You're already getting a bargin, if u don't like it, don't buy it. Simple enough. Some people want perfection for so little (reminds me of the f**cking idiots who buys computer parts. When they know there's not 100% chance that the product will be perfect. But they expect perfection for that price. No wonder people lose faith in the electronics industry. Just make more products and hopefully they have a lower failure rate.). Anyways, after that, did some photo editing for my dad, see if he wants me to put them up on an album somewhere or print them out. Big W sounds good, at $0.33 per pic into a 6x4" print.
Ah work work work! :/ And its a new month :P yay. :P
Sunday, January 23, 2005
3 days of fun and excitement?
Friday.
Work was normal... then went out to meet friend from overseas... went to the chinatown and night market there... and then had dumplings for dinner. After that, we went our separate ways.
Saturday.
I am sick of sitting in a car all day... Got up at 8:30 to catch a train to Parramatta for 9:30 departure (via car) to the Blue Mountains. Except that there's no train to Parra. So had to catch the bus. Friend + companion came later.Fun bit was sitting in the car for 2 hours... we arrived at the Three Sisters at around 12. Spent around an hour or so. Then the friend wanted to go to the Jenolan Caves. Thats an extra 72km out from the 3 Sisters... which is already 120+ km out from Sydney.Extra hour in the car... We had lunch prior (some chicken wings) to departure... but we still ended up arriving there just before 3pm... After arrival, we parked up a really full carpark, and walked to the visitor's center... and found out that in order to see the caves actually cost $$! How much? $15 a cave. There's like 7 caves, but they run on different schedules... each cave runs for 1 or 1.5 hour tour... So, it being a saturday, and 3:00pm, we managed to catch the "Lucas" cave tour. Very amazing, that it has formed so long ago, and well, you'llhave to visit it to see what its all about. After all that, it was around 3 hours back to the city, cut down to around 2 hours (thanks to the highway). Something funny (to others) happened to me, and it was written on the friend's page... "回程ㄉ路上累極ㄌ 躺在朋友膝上 一路睡到ｓｙｄｎｅｙ 可憐ㄉＫＥＮ 坐在前座 沒地方可以躺 睡到一半頭去敲到窗戶 醒ㄌ過來"... Sigh... poor me :P After that we went to a restraunt and had dinner. The friend had a itchy eye, so after that we dropped her off at a chemist with her friend, and I went home.
Sunday.
Got up late, colleague apparently got up late too. I arrived at the Rocks market at 12, after spending an hour on the train. Colleague arrived about 30 mins later, but in the city. He got up at 11:00 or something... Anyways, it was raining and I just walked around, wondering if I willsee them before I have to call them. And I did. So I suprised them... Sure, the Rocks market is a street's length, but there's well over 300 people there... So we finished walking around the Rocks, and the friend also had a friend which she met online. We were waiting for my colleague at Pier 2 at Circular Quay, and then we decided on where we were gonna go. In the end we decided on the fish market. Colleague parked somewhere around, and we got to the fish markets. Had lunch there, my shout. Afterall, they've been shouting me the previous 2 days...After the lunch, there were three options... Beach (bondi or coogee), Museum (not sure which one) or KTV. We ended up going to KTV. Even going to the KTV was hard, since it was a street that none of us were familiar with... even my colleague, who claims to know the city like the back of his hand...We sang for 3 hours (4 hours for $10... Plus a free drink! :P) and then everybody just was tired... After that, since the friend wanted to cook her crabs which she bought, we just went home. Kinda silly, isn't it... but she's probably that kind of person... want to cook food instead of eat out... :P
Anyways, that was 3 days worth of going out... pics will be up on wretch soon (and sorry there's no pic of the friend... just of the cave...):P
Work was normal... then went out to meet friend from overseas... went to the chinatown and night market there... and then had dumplings for dinner. After that, we went our separate ways.
Saturday.
I am sick of sitting in a car all day... Got up at 8:30 to catch a train to Parramatta for 9:30 departure (via car) to the Blue Mountains. Except that there's no train to Parra. So had to catch the bus. Friend + companion came later.Fun bit was sitting in the car for 2 hours... we arrived at the Three Sisters at around 12. Spent around an hour or so. Then the friend wanted to go to the Jenolan Caves. Thats an extra 72km out from the 3 Sisters... which is already 120+ km out from Sydney.Extra hour in the car... We had lunch prior (some chicken wings) to departure... but we still ended up arriving there just before 3pm... After arrival, we parked up a really full carpark, and walked to the visitor's center... and found out that in order to see the caves actually cost $$! How much? $15 a cave. There's like 7 caves, but they run on different schedules... each cave runs for 1 or 1.5 hour tour... So, it being a saturday, and 3:00pm, we managed to catch the "Lucas" cave tour. Very amazing, that it has formed so long ago, and well, you'llhave to visit it to see what its all about. After all that, it was around 3 hours back to the city, cut down to around 2 hours (thanks to the highway). Something funny (to others) happened to me, and it was written on the friend's page... "回程ㄉ路上累極ㄌ 躺在朋友膝上 一路睡到ｓｙｄｎｅｙ 可憐ㄉＫＥＮ 坐在前座 沒地方可以躺 睡到一半頭去敲到窗戶 醒ㄌ過來"... Sigh... poor me :P After that we went to a restraunt and had dinner. The friend had a itchy eye, so after that we dropped her off at a chemist with her friend, and I went home.
Sunday.
Got up late, colleague apparently got up late too. I arrived at the Rocks market at 12, after spending an hour on the train. Colleague arrived about 30 mins later, but in the city. He got up at 11:00 or something... Anyways, it was raining and I just walked around, wondering if I willsee them before I have to call them. And I did. So I suprised them... Sure, the Rocks market is a street's length, but there's well over 300 people there... So we finished walking around the Rocks, and the friend also had a friend which she met online. We were waiting for my colleague at Pier 2 at Circular Quay, and then we decided on where we were gonna go. In the end we decided on the fish market. Colleague parked somewhere around, and we got to the fish markets. Had lunch there, my shout. Afterall, they've been shouting me the previous 2 days...After the lunch, there were three options... Beach (bondi or coogee), Museum (not sure which one) or KTV. We ended up going to KTV. Even going to the KTV was hard, since it was a street that none of us were familiar with... even my colleague, who claims to know the city like the back of his hand...We sang for 3 hours (4 hours for $10... Plus a free drink! :P) and then everybody just was tired... After that, since the friend wanted to cook her crabs which she bought, we just went home. Kinda silly, isn't it... but she's probably that kind of person... want to cook food instead of eat out... :P
Anyways, that was 3 days worth of going out... pics will be up on wretch soon (and sorry there's no pic of the friend... just of the cave...):P
Wednesday, January 19, 2005
Life...
I don't have a life... its sad... even sadder it was told to me by a lebanese woman who processes orders all day... who still has a 486... and a 2GB HDD. I don't know who's sadder there. But anyways, she said I am sad because I have a 160GB hdd and its filled to the brim with anime... -_-. Like she'd know. Anyways, today was meant to be the day the engineer comes back from his month and he happens to be sick. So he'll be back tomorrow. Hopefully, fingers all crossed.
Life sux.
On a funnier note, I think something always makes me feel the world is VERY SMALL. The 'service coordinator' guy, who's been here for about 1-2 months already, was talking on the fone, a bit loud... and then he spells out the letters of my street... 'x x x x x x, xxxxxx ave.' Since there aren't many streets with the same name as ours, I went over and went... xxxxxx? whats that, the street? and he goes yeah mate, its my street... and I go... no way!! its my street, in yyyyyy! and he goes :O you're f**king with my mind man! Turns out he's 5 or 6 houses down...
:O And we didn't even know. Its like the other time in the t-shirt place, me and this other guy used to live in the same house (but at different times, of course...). I believe in something which is messing with my mind... :P
Life sux.
On a funnier note, I think something always makes me feel the world is VERY SMALL. The 'service coordinator' guy, who's been here for about 1-2 months already, was talking on the fone, a bit loud... and then he spells out the letters of my street... 'x x x x x x, xxxxxx ave.' Since there aren't many streets with the same name as ours, I went over and went... xxxxxx? whats that, the street? and he goes yeah mate, its my street... and I go... no way!! its my street, in yyyyyy! and he goes :O you're f**king with my mind man! Turns out he's 5 or 6 houses down...
:O And we didn't even know. Its like the other time in the t-shirt place, me and this other guy used to live in the same house (but at different times, of course...). I believe in something which is messing with my mind... :P
Saturday, January 15, 2005
Saturday~~~
Oh how I am lucky that a thing such as a weekend exists!! The week is just so... tiring... lucky I can use the weekend to recuperate. And I got my hair cut too... since its too hot and I don't want to be even hotter with hair too long... Pics are up on my wretch.
I talked with my colleague, he went and bought a Mazda3 Maxx Sport. Not the SP23, but they are practically the same, just SP23 is more expensive. Me? I won't be buying a new car anytime soon, thats a fact. But he's gonna be poor now... poor guy :P
I talked with my colleague, he went and bought a Mazda3 Maxx Sport. Not the SP23, but they are practically the same, just SP23 is more expensive. Me? I won't be buying a new car anytime soon, thats a fact. But he's gonna be poor now... poor guy :P
Woo 12 days of non-blogging-goodness
I've been for all intents and purposes, dead. Tired, that is. I have been doing the temporary engineer job for about 4 weeks now... and next week the guy'll be back from his holiday. And I will be back to normal. I hope. Then again, the company is moving premises soon... who knows... I might be out of a job then? If so, there are more jobs out there... Sure, I might have to look around, but there's more sentences that I can add in my resume now... 'able to diagnose and fix products blah blah'. Yay. Anyways, a funny thing happened. I was working inside, and my colleague was working outside in the warehouse, he came into the service area and then went to talk with the call center guys... and I went over there and started chatting as well. (it was nearly lunch). Anyways, about 5 mins, my mobile rang. I jumped, since I don't expect fone calls... And I take it out, and it's stopped. A prank call... but from who? I checked the name... (not written here to protect the innocent) and went... huh? why is he pranking me??? I walked out into the warehouse, and looked for him in the office... not in there... then I hear this faint voice... 'Help me ken~~'... ahaha he was stuck on the forklift, right on the top tier (which is over 5 meters high). I went... 'haha ok let me get u down', lowered him down, he was soaked because he was up there for a while... lucky he had the mobile, he actually called out our names quite a couple of times but nobody responded, so he did the next thing and called my mobile. About 3 mins later, colleague comes in... ROFL he was very apologetic... Ah thats fun :P
Also, talk about impulse buying... or premeditated price planning buying... The guy (who I've posted on my wretch under 'misc') is not really my apprentice, but he helps me out by checking units for me... We were sitting there after having lunch, and he's talking about getting the Canon IXUS 40... how its $699 at Myers, and he can get $100 discount because he has the Myer card blah blah... and we just open a webpage which had it at $549... and he just goes 'where's the shop???!?!!' and we say... less than 5 mins drive from here mate... and he just goes 'LETS GO!!!' 15 mins later he is back with my colleague with his new toy... Thats what I call impulse buying... :P Its alright, 4 megapixels, only includes 16mb SD and 3 modes... Auto, Movie, and Playback. also has a 2" screen... I guess mine is better :P For now :P But I admit, its small and cute... Not bad for $549....
Also, talk about impulse buying... or premeditated price planning buying... The guy (who I've posted on my wretch under 'misc') is not really my apprentice, but he helps me out by checking units for me... We were sitting there after having lunch, and he's talking about getting the Canon IXUS 40... how its $699 at Myers, and he can get $100 discount because he has the Myer card blah blah... and we just open a webpage which had it at $549... and he just goes 'where's the shop???!?!!' and we say... less than 5 mins drive from here mate... and he just goes 'LETS GO!!!' 15 mins later he is back with my colleague with his new toy... Thats what I call impulse buying... :P Its alright, 4 megapixels, only includes 16mb SD and 3 modes... Auto, Movie, and Playback. also has a 2" screen... I guess mine is better :P For now :P But I admit, its small and cute... Not bad for $549....
Sunday, January 02, 2005
Happy 2005... and the events preceding it...
Only a few days ago, an Earthquake and Tsunami occured. And now, we are in a new year. It didn't feel right, but the festive mood was undampened by alcohol and crazy people. Its now two days into the new year. One more day of holiday and I'm back to work. But I did manage to go out to watch the fireworks on NYE and come back very late the next day... Let me tell of my story (whatever I can remember)...
Dec 31st, 2004
I wasn't sure if I was going to watch the fireworks. The noise, the people, THE CRUSHING. Its always a charged up event, no matter how you look at it, you might get crushed when the throng of masses decide to surge towards the front of the shore. Certain places simply has no room - you will be standing for a few hours. Other places you can actually enjoy a picnic style seating arrangement. The standing area is usually just around the bridge... and places where people just decide to stand up... otherwise u can just sit down and rest/chat for a few hours... wake up at 11:59pm... count down... and go back home. And that marks a few hours spent celebrating the new year. Now I have to write "05" in every signed document... I think some of us might still write 04... since you do spend around 365 days using 04. It just might take you a few days to adjust...
I woke up the usual time... 11am... bummed around, hopped online to see if anybody has any plans (in syd). My colleague didn't come on till very late (I checked the logs). So I wasn't sure. Anyways, at around 3ish my bro comes back. Previously, he wasn't coming back until the new year... but today he just came back, along with his road trip people. 3 girls (one is his gf, the other two are in his faculty). At that time, I was using my new laptop... installing some software for my parents... And he goes 'you wanna come to see fireworks with us'... hmmmmm... I ain't anti-social... but I don't know... the crowds do go crazy. (And I wasn't proven wrong). My last experience of the crowd crushing was in 2001 or 2002... I was in circular quay with my mum and auntie... and we were watching the fireworks... and this drunk guy just tackles me. Like wtf... I wasn't doing shit, this guy just takes me down... he mutters sorry, and squeezes through the crowds... and I was just... hurt. And my mum didn't even see it happen... So I was considering if I should go or not. In the end I just said why not... couldn't possibly go any worse. And lucky nothing bad happened.
We got into the rent-a-car my bro hired for the trip... he went down south through country towns and went to Melb, and to see some penguins on phillip island or something, and then comes back. (Did 2,997 km in 7 days...) I sat in the front with him, the three girls were in the back. My bro dropped his stuff first, and then we headed off to USyd to drop off the girl's stuff... (we were gonna crash at the college there later...) and returned the car. By that time it was 5pm. Then came the decision... what to get for dinner. I was hankering for some Subway... but the closest one was about 10 mins walk... so in the end I got Hungry Jacks. Its not very satisifying, since a Subway can fill me up for dinner. A burger is too small. :P Bro and his gf got something from Woolworths, the girls got sushi. And so we made the walk to the Botanical Gardens.
Botanical Gardens. A weird place to be revelling in the new year, but with 50,000 other people there it might not be wrong... We got there in about 30 mins... just before 7. Apparently there's a special reserved section for fee paying people with tickets... and we lined up along with about 300 people... then somebody asked what was the deal with this queue... and we found out, and got out of the queue... and found out the gate for the free access closes at 7:20pm... so we were lucky...
We actually walked through and around the massive crowd of people and it took around 20 mins to walk to the end of the gardens... where there were already approximately 1,000 people or so crammed under some huge trees... And there were 2 'sets' of toilets... about 20 toilets in a row... and people were waiting in a big group to use them... -_- My bro tried to call his friends but none of them picked up. So we were tring to find space for 5 people. We found a place... and sat down... and when my bro looked up, 3 meters away... there were his friends... all playing cards... WTF. haha they didn't hear their mobiles and 3 of them had many missed calls... Talk about coincidence. :P Anyways, we still sat 3 meters away since there were no room... And then we waited...
Waiting is no fun when all you got is your bro his gf... the other two girls were also 3 meters behind us, since there were no space... so I passed the time with my camera, which was bought back with many pics... so it was nearly out of room :P. Tried to take shots of this and that... but since the light conditions were dark... hard to take good pics... so didn't take any good pics at all.
9pm came... The fireworks were alright... 10 mins or so... after that, it was very dark indeed... Punctuated by flashes every couple of seconds (digicams)... and incorherent singing, shouting, and other behaviour. Digicams are very popular now... almost one in 3 people have one... or even 1 in 2... as later I will describe. 3 more hours....
11:30pm... We decided, as along with couple of hundred people, to stand up and move towards a better vantage point. This of course, is met with staunch resistance from the old drunks who think that since they've been sitting there since 3pm, its their turf. No, who gives a shit what u think, its not your turf, soon people will be standing up all around you, and you have to stand up too. But there were some shouting matches because of that... but as time goes on, more and more people get placated... and there was a minute of silence with a lot of 'shhhhh'...
11:59:40... "The Cult of Raised Arm" appears. Thats the term coined by my bro... when he turns around and sees all these raised arms with digicams in the air.... and the light show at the ends of the bridge starts counting down from 20 - 1. I was one of the cult members :P Lots of clapping, wooing, and screaming Happy New Year! This lasts for approximately 20 mins...
1st Jan, 2005. Happy New Year folks... now its time to head on home. Or to a 24 hour pub. or whatever...
00:20amIt gets very crowded here... and the air is very thick... like seriously thick... all the smoke from the fireworks drifts across the city in a yellow haze. We follow the crowd... takes 40 minutes to walk (when entering, it was about 15 mins) in the crowd to the exit of the gardens... the crowd is just massive. Pity I didn't take a pic of the crowd... its just a mass of party people.
1:00 - 1:40amWe make it to a bus stop and catch a bus to the college and crash there...
2am.Sleep is good. Unfortunately I was deprived of it -_- (7 hours sleep)
9am.Wakes up with sun in my eyes. We head off to Central station after saying goodbye to the girls. Of course, we didn't sleep in the same place. In a empty room ok. Its still the holidays for uni students :P It's a co-ed college :P Caught the train up north. Since it goes via the bridge, I managed to take a snap of the Disco ball hanging off the coathanger. (The harbour bridge :P). Amazed that it turned out clear, since we were in a moving train :P
11am - 3pmGets to bro's gf's place. Played some table tennis... had lunch (pasta). Bro + gf washed the dog... I just sat around... Then bro decides to help them set up a LaserDisc player that somebody gave them... that took about an hour... all their setup and cables... Then we got to the car... its been very very neglected... :P A week under a tree and under attack by birds and such :P
4pmBack home... tired and ok... and thus its a new year. Yay :P And still got some more time before going back to work. Its all good :P
I guess its not much... but I think its been an ok NYE celebration. Lets just be glad it only happens once a year? :P
Dec 31st, 2004
I wasn't sure if I was going to watch the fireworks. The noise, the people, THE CRUSHING. Its always a charged up event, no matter how you look at it, you might get crushed when the throng of masses decide to surge towards the front of the shore. Certain places simply has no room - you will be standing for a few hours. Other places you can actually enjoy a picnic style seating arrangement. The standing area is usually just around the bridge... and places where people just decide to stand up... otherwise u can just sit down and rest/chat for a few hours... wake up at 11:59pm... count down... and go back home. And that marks a few hours spent celebrating the new year. Now I have to write "05" in every signed document... I think some of us might still write 04... since you do spend around 365 days using 04. It just might take you a few days to adjust...
I woke up the usual time... 11am... bummed around, hopped online to see if anybody has any plans (in syd). My colleague didn't come on till very late (I checked the logs). So I wasn't sure. Anyways, at around 3ish my bro comes back. Previously, he wasn't coming back until the new year... but today he just came back, along with his road trip people. 3 girls (one is his gf, the other two are in his faculty). At that time, I was using my new laptop... installing some software for my parents... And he goes 'you wanna come to see fireworks with us'... hmmmmm... I ain't anti-social... but I don't know... the crowds do go crazy. (And I wasn't proven wrong). My last experience of the crowd crushing was in 2001 or 2002... I was in circular quay with my mum and auntie... and we were watching the fireworks... and this drunk guy just tackles me. Like wtf... I wasn't doing shit, this guy just takes me down... he mutters sorry, and squeezes through the crowds... and I was just... hurt. And my mum didn't even see it happen... So I was considering if I should go or not. In the end I just said why not... couldn't possibly go any worse. And lucky nothing bad happened.
We got into the rent-a-car my bro hired for the trip... he went down south through country towns and went to Melb, and to see some penguins on phillip island or something, and then comes back. (Did 2,997 km in 7 days...) I sat in the front with him, the three girls were in the back. My bro dropped his stuff first, and then we headed off to USyd to drop off the girl's stuff... (we were gonna crash at the college there later...) and returned the car. By that time it was 5pm. Then came the decision... what to get for dinner. I was hankering for some Subway... but the closest one was about 10 mins walk... so in the end I got Hungry Jacks. Its not very satisifying, since a Subway can fill me up for dinner. A burger is too small. :P Bro and his gf got something from Woolworths, the girls got sushi. And so we made the walk to the Botanical Gardens.
Botanical Gardens. A weird place to be revelling in the new year, but with 50,000 other people there it might not be wrong... We got there in about 30 mins... just before 7. Apparently there's a special reserved section for fee paying people with tickets... and we lined up along with about 300 people... then somebody asked what was the deal with this queue... and we found out, and got out of the queue... and found out the gate for the free access closes at 7:20pm... so we were lucky...
We actually walked through and around the massive crowd of people and it took around 20 mins to walk to the end of the gardens... where there were already approximately 1,000 people or so crammed under some huge trees... And there were 2 'sets' of toilets... about 20 toilets in a row... and people were waiting in a big group to use them... -_- My bro tried to call his friends but none of them picked up. So we were tring to find space for 5 people. We found a place... and sat down... and when my bro looked up, 3 meters away... there were his friends... all playing cards... WTF. haha they didn't hear their mobiles and 3 of them had many missed calls... Talk about coincidence. :P Anyways, we still sat 3 meters away since there were no room... And then we waited...
Waiting is no fun when all you got is your bro his gf... the other two girls were also 3 meters behind us, since there were no space... so I passed the time with my camera, which was bought back with many pics... so it was nearly out of room :P. Tried to take shots of this and that... but since the light conditions were dark... hard to take good pics... so didn't take any good pics at all.
9pm came... The fireworks were alright... 10 mins or so... after that, it was very dark indeed... Punctuated by flashes every couple of seconds (digicams)... and incorherent singing, shouting, and other behaviour. Digicams are very popular now... almost one in 3 people have one... or even 1 in 2... as later I will describe. 3 more hours....
11:30pm... We decided, as along with couple of hundred people, to stand up and move towards a better vantage point. This of course, is met with staunch resistance from the old drunks who think that since they've been sitting there since 3pm, its their turf. No, who gives a shit what u think, its not your turf, soon people will be standing up all around you, and you have to stand up too. But there were some shouting matches because of that... but as time goes on, more and more people get placated... and there was a minute of silence with a lot of 'shhhhh'...
11:59:40... "The Cult of Raised Arm" appears. Thats the term coined by my bro... when he turns around and sees all these raised arms with digicams in the air.... and the light show at the ends of the bridge starts counting down from 20 - 1. I was one of the cult members :P Lots of clapping, wooing, and screaming Happy New Year! This lasts for approximately 20 mins...
1st Jan, 2005. Happy New Year folks... now its time to head on home. Or to a 24 hour pub. or whatever...
00:20amIt gets very crowded here... and the air is very thick... like seriously thick... all the smoke from the fireworks drifts across the city in a yellow haze. We follow the crowd... takes 40 minutes to walk (when entering, it was about 15 mins) in the crowd to the exit of the gardens... the crowd is just massive. Pity I didn't take a pic of the crowd... its just a mass of party people.
1:00 - 1:40amWe make it to a bus stop and catch a bus to the college and crash there...
2am.Sleep is good. Unfortunately I was deprived of it -_- (7 hours sleep)
9am.Wakes up with sun in my eyes. We head off to Central station after saying goodbye to the girls. Of course, we didn't sleep in the same place. In a empty room ok. Its still the holidays for uni students :P It's a co-ed college :P Caught the train up north. Since it goes via the bridge, I managed to take a snap of the Disco ball hanging off the coathanger. (The harbour bridge :P). Amazed that it turned out clear, since we were in a moving train :P
11am - 3pmGets to bro's gf's place. Played some table tennis... had lunch (pasta). Bro + gf washed the dog... I just sat around... Then bro decides to help them set up a LaserDisc player that somebody gave them... that took about an hour... all their setup and cables... Then we got to the car... its been very very neglected... :P A week under a tree and under attack by birds and such :P
4pmBack home... tired and ok... and thus its a new year. Yay :P And still got some more time before going back to work. Its all good :P
I guess its not much... but I think its been an ok NYE celebration. Lets just be glad it only happens once a year? :P
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