So this is continuous happiness...
I went to Soundwave yesterday. I think an adequate description would be "bullshit hot". It must have been closing in on 40 degrees, and I have not been well the last few days. I'm still in a concerned phase that I may have contracted malaria while we were in PNG, as it is a malaria infested area. I don't recall getting bitten by any mosquitos though...
Anyhow, let's go back a few days, I haven't updated in a while. So, say let's begin on Thursday night. This girl was staying at the hostel, she had heaps of tattoos so I just assumed she'd be into hardcore, I don't think she really was, and she had this job of a promoter of a German orchestra, who will be playing in a range of places, culminating at the Sydney Opera House. That was fairly unexpected. We went on got some sort of takeaway on my break, Oporto I think it was. We were going to catch up later on for a drink but the final hour of my shift included a light falling out of the roof (I didn't do anything about it, as I didn't want to be electrocuted), then the police came to visit. They asked me if I knew anything about the summertime rooftop party, that apparently 300+ would be attending the next night. I honestly didn't, and told them so, and that I'd give them a ring the next night if anything happened. I worked again the next night, nothing happened.
At dinner time on Thursday I had a bit of a scratchy feeling in my throat, didn't really think anything of it. I felt quite tired by the end of the shift, I had a panadol and went to bed. The next day, I was not feeling so good. In the morning I had to come and let the plumber in to fix the toilet. He fixed everything in about a minute, so that was good news. After he went I lay down on one of the numerous mattresses on the floor, and had fitful naps right through til about 1pm. I was getting hot and cold flushes, and I had quite a sore back. I sent Caroline a message to pull out of our planned footbag session, as I was in no condition for it.
This was the day I was most concerned that I had malaria. I contemplating calling in sick, however I already had a 4 day weekend coming right up, and it would have looked might suspicious, malaria or not. I also didn't want a doctor to say, no worries, just have three days in bed, don't worry about going to Soundwave or the Alexisonfire sideshow.
I was considering going out for Nathan's birthday, but after work, I was spent, so I went almost immediately to bed, after a bowl of chicken soup, which was about the only thing of substance I'd eaten that day. Overnight, I sweated some sort of insane amount. Something I haven't really experienced before, like the sheets were completely soaked with sweat.
Nathan and I had planned to leave for Sydney at 8am. By the time we got away it was 10am. I drove for a while, between Marulan and the edge of Sydney. His car has no right side mirror, it is not really a comfort to drive. I'm sure this is not a good thing to do. I was feeling pretty average on the drive, but not too bad.
I got to Centennial Park to meet Doug and a few others, I was starting to feel worse as we got closer to Sydney. A couple of the guys there said I wasn't looking to great. They had a bike ride, I just sat in the park. We had some snacks and later played pass the parcel, where you would win an object that had been sitting around their place for I would say a long time.
The rest of the gang were heading off to the beach. I was keen to go at first, but then remembered I'd have to stuff around with tickets, buses, blah blah blah, so I joined Kelvin and Fae, who were going back to the city by foot. I joined them for a beer when we got back from the city. I had already said I didn't want one, and my plan was too not drink any beer, but he had already bought it, so I didn't want to be rude. That was the least interest I've had in drinking a beer, probably ever.
Anyhow, Fae is from England. She has a ticket to London that she's going to sell for pretty cheap, if she finds out she can change names and that sort of jazz, it's with Emirates, flying through Dubai, around the same time I am going. I may try and recruit a friend to take that, then we can meet up for a quick dash through the UK, then take a cheap ticket back home. That's something I'm still yet to buy.
On Thursday I have an interview for the position of Duty Manager/Groups Coordinator at my own work, with my own bosses. I've got a feeling they may say "hey, you can't have this leave, you haven't got enough leave to take, you already took all this leave...". I have a few options to react to this, but I will leave those cards close to my sleeve, until I find out a few things such as a) do I get the job, b) will I get paid anymore money than I do now c) Are my days going to be flexible enough d) can I have the easter weekend off to compete at nationals......and many other questions. These questions will be analysed and an appropriate response will be determined.
I've digressed from my main point: sweat. So after having this beer that I didn't want, and which put my 2 month drinking hiatus to an abrupt restart, I came back to grandma's. Uncle Peter was over here and I rubbed it in a bit more re: hey guy, you didn't come to png. We ate pizza for dinner, and I didn't have any trouble with eating. Overnight I lost enough sweat to cover the entire fold out couch/double bed thing I was sleeping on. I woke up at about 5am shivering in a cold sweat.
Next morning I was off to Soundwave. I didn't want potential malaria to distract me, it was going to be a sweet day, with a lot of bands I liked playing. In the end I would say I missed more of the bands I wanted to see, and as per usual, there was some glaring part of terrible disorganisation. This time it was the main stage being horrendously overtime on the scheduling.
My day went a little something like this: I caught the train into Central, Ben and Kara got onto the same train. I went to find them in the carriage, and as I was coming through, some jerk was just sitting on the floor. So I kicked him and told him to get out of my way. Eventually I found them, they were on the top floor, I'd been on the bottom floor of the train. Getting in was incredibly easy. Suspiciously easy actually. After people had to wait for up to four hours last year, I guess it was important they got that part right. One year Soundwave will get everything right, it has happened so far.
First band I saw was Gallows. I was mildly interested in seeing Rolo Tomassi, but didn't make the long trek across the fields to see them. I think that's another problem with Soundwave, it's wayyyy too far from one side to the other. Anyhow, Gallows were alright. I only actually know one song...Black Eyes I KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE....they didn't play it. I was expecting them to be like a new era version of lostprophets, a bunch of pretty boys that play some slightly heavy, but not particularly heavy rock music. The band, especially the bloodnut singer, were not what I would call pretty boys. Anyhow, they had some good songs, and some not so good songs. They managed to keep my interest for the whole set. That's more than I can say for Isis. I've never really listened to Isis, but when I was in Stuttgart last year, I saw a poster that they were playing that night, and I regretted missing it. Now I've decided I really couldn't care less. They were ok, but all the songs sounded exactly the same. Around this time I handed out a hefty amount of money for a part of a watermelon and a cold bottle of water. This stand had a genius idea at a festival with an almost complete lack of shade.
I didn't have a hat, so I invested in a DangerMouse cap. I don't mind DM, but I wouldn't say I'm a "fan" or anything...but all these people were like "yeeeww, Danger Mouse!" I just nodded and ran away. I got a position on the side fence for Alexisonfire, I was standing with Teigan and Oliver and his mate Jack. Teigan was looking ill, as she has done for the past 6 months, which put my potential malaria to shame. I was actually feeling pretty good at this time, and the security guard regularly filled up water bottles.
Eagles of Death Metal were on before Alexis, they played at least 20 mins over their set time. I just hoped the set for Alexis wouldn't get short, but then I was not overly concerned, because I would see them again the next day. Their set was pretty much perfect, especially considering it was a festival set.
ALRIGHT! This is from our hearts
George came out wearing this ridiculous Canada shorts...I'm pretty sure someone from all the Candian bands had some sort of "team canada" merch going on. I would definitely like to see Jay Boychuk or Andrew Grant repping a pair of these shorts if they come to worlds this year, it would be hilarious. The set was quite a good mix of all their stuff, I guess they played more off Crisis than I expected, and only one song off the s/t....I'm pretty sure it was Waterwings from memory. I was getting chills during their set, but that was probably the effects of this potential malaria or whatever kind of fever I have.
After they finished, and I realised that it had gone so late due to that glorified pub rock band that I had missed Glassjaw or Comeback Kid, who were clashing, I felt that I could just go home, I didn't really care to see anymore bands.
I ended up wandering around, mainly looking for shade somewhere. I sat under this tree which gave me a small amount of shade, then I watched A Wilhelm Scream, who were pretty good, for the songs I saw them play. They had heaps of energy, considering it was about a million degrees.
I saw a small bit of Messhugah, but the heat really put away any interest in technical heavy metal. Next up was Anthrax, they actually put a really good set on, although I was just sitting at the side, I could only see a little bit of them. In what seemed quite strange, they covered New Noise....stranger things have happen I guess- apparently Reel Big Fish covered Enter Sandman not long before.
I though about heading over to catch AFI, a band who I really like. On my way I had the obligatory bump into Drew and Jessie. In that time I managed to get a blood nose, and I had was really running to the end of my tether. So I never made it to see AFI. I haven't really listened to their last two albums, and I wasn't sure if they would play a mix or just newer stuff. So anyway, after the blood, the walk was not in my interests, I didn't go.
I saw a little bit of Trivium. They played a couple of songs that mildly interest me, but overall I think they're a fairly weak live band, especially the singing parts. I got some dinner, it involved a hot dog, not particularly well cooked, and I ordered a garlic bread as well. This was completely frozen. I donated it to the ground. I didn't want to add food poisoning to my ailments, and I didn't want to line up to the food van to smack the guy out with the frozen bread. Mongrels.
I was totally over it by this time, so I was off. It was a long walk to head out. I saw a litle bit of Anti Flag, who I see again tonight, and a little of Jane's Addiction. I don't like them, and I've seen them before. Perry Farrel is a weirdo.
I stayed at Shaun's last night, it was good not having to travel so far from the festival. This morning I had a fairly long train ride. Then I got to Grandma and Grandpa's and we went to the beach at Dee Why.
Tonight I go to see Alexisonfire, Comeback Kid and Anti-Flag. This was one third the price of soundwave, and will be approx a million times better. I can't wait.
Tomorrow I'm going to go to the doctor. Hopefully I'm feeling better, I've been felling pretty good today.
Anyhow, let's go back a few days, I haven't updated in a while. So, say let's begin on Thursday night. This girl was staying at the hostel, she had heaps of tattoos so I just assumed she'd be into hardcore, I don't think she really was, and she had this job of a promoter of a German orchestra, who will be playing in a range of places, culminating at the Sydney Opera House. That was fairly unexpected. We went on got some sort of takeaway on my break, Oporto I think it was. We were going to catch up later on for a drink but the final hour of my shift included a light falling out of the roof (I didn't do anything about it, as I didn't want to be electrocuted), then the police came to visit. They asked me if I knew anything about the summertime rooftop party, that apparently 300+ would be attending the next night. I honestly didn't, and told them so, and that I'd give them a ring the next night if anything happened. I worked again the next night, nothing happened.
At dinner time on Thursday I had a bit of a scratchy feeling in my throat, didn't really think anything of it. I felt quite tired by the end of the shift, I had a panadol and went to bed. The next day, I was not feeling so good. In the morning I had to come and let the plumber in to fix the toilet. He fixed everything in about a minute, so that was good news. After he went I lay down on one of the numerous mattresses on the floor, and had fitful naps right through til about 1pm. I was getting hot and cold flushes, and I had quite a sore back. I sent Caroline a message to pull out of our planned footbag session, as I was in no condition for it.
This was the day I was most concerned that I had malaria. I contemplating calling in sick, however I already had a 4 day weekend coming right up, and it would have looked might suspicious, malaria or not. I also didn't want a doctor to say, no worries, just have three days in bed, don't worry about going to Soundwave or the Alexisonfire sideshow.
I was considering going out for Nathan's birthday, but after work, I was spent, so I went almost immediately to bed, after a bowl of chicken soup, which was about the only thing of substance I'd eaten that day. Overnight, I sweated some sort of insane amount. Something I haven't really experienced before, like the sheets were completely soaked with sweat.
Nathan and I had planned to leave for Sydney at 8am. By the time we got away it was 10am. I drove for a while, between Marulan and the edge of Sydney. His car has no right side mirror, it is not really a comfort to drive. I'm sure this is not a good thing to do. I was feeling pretty average on the drive, but not too bad.
I got to Centennial Park to meet Doug and a few others, I was starting to feel worse as we got closer to Sydney. A couple of the guys there said I wasn't looking to great. They had a bike ride, I just sat in the park. We had some snacks and later played pass the parcel, where you would win an object that had been sitting around their place for I would say a long time.
The rest of the gang were heading off to the beach. I was keen to go at first, but then remembered I'd have to stuff around with tickets, buses, blah blah blah, so I joined Kelvin and Fae, who were going back to the city by foot. I joined them for a beer when we got back from the city. I had already said I didn't want one, and my plan was too not drink any beer, but he had already bought it, so I didn't want to be rude. That was the least interest I've had in drinking a beer, probably ever.
Anyhow, Fae is from England. She has a ticket to London that she's going to sell for pretty cheap, if she finds out she can change names and that sort of jazz, it's with Emirates, flying through Dubai, around the same time I am going. I may try and recruit a friend to take that, then we can meet up for a quick dash through the UK, then take a cheap ticket back home. That's something I'm still yet to buy.
On Thursday I have an interview for the position of Duty Manager/Groups Coordinator at my own work, with my own bosses. I've got a feeling they may say "hey, you can't have this leave, you haven't got enough leave to take, you already took all this leave...". I have a few options to react to this, but I will leave those cards close to my sleeve, until I find out a few things such as a) do I get the job, b) will I get paid anymore money than I do now c) Are my days going to be flexible enough d) can I have the easter weekend off to compete at nationals......and many other questions. These questions will be analysed and an appropriate response will be determined.
I've digressed from my main point: sweat. So after having this beer that I didn't want, and which put my 2 month drinking hiatus to an abrupt restart, I came back to grandma's. Uncle Peter was over here and I rubbed it in a bit more re: hey guy, you didn't come to png. We ate pizza for dinner, and I didn't have any trouble with eating. Overnight I lost enough sweat to cover the entire fold out couch/double bed thing I was sleeping on. I woke up at about 5am shivering in a cold sweat.
Next morning I was off to Soundwave. I didn't want potential malaria to distract me, it was going to be a sweet day, with a lot of bands I liked playing. In the end I would say I missed more of the bands I wanted to see, and as per usual, there was some glaring part of terrible disorganisation. This time it was the main stage being horrendously overtime on the scheduling.
My day went a little something like this: I caught the train into Central, Ben and Kara got onto the same train. I went to find them in the carriage, and as I was coming through, some jerk was just sitting on the floor. So I kicked him and told him to get out of my way. Eventually I found them, they were on the top floor, I'd been on the bottom floor of the train. Getting in was incredibly easy. Suspiciously easy actually. After people had to wait for up to four hours last year, I guess it was important they got that part right. One year Soundwave will get everything right, it has happened so far.
First band I saw was Gallows. I was mildly interested in seeing Rolo Tomassi, but didn't make the long trek across the fields to see them. I think that's another problem with Soundwave, it's wayyyy too far from one side to the other. Anyhow, Gallows were alright. I only actually know one song...Black Eyes I KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE....they didn't play it. I was expecting them to be like a new era version of lostprophets, a bunch of pretty boys that play some slightly heavy, but not particularly heavy rock music. The band, especially the bloodnut singer, were not what I would call pretty boys. Anyhow, they had some good songs, and some not so good songs. They managed to keep my interest for the whole set. That's more than I can say for Isis. I've never really listened to Isis, but when I was in Stuttgart last year, I saw a poster that they were playing that night, and I regretted missing it. Now I've decided I really couldn't care less. They were ok, but all the songs sounded exactly the same. Around this time I handed out a hefty amount of money for a part of a watermelon and a cold bottle of water. This stand had a genius idea at a festival with an almost complete lack of shade.
I didn't have a hat, so I invested in a DangerMouse cap. I don't mind DM, but I wouldn't say I'm a "fan" or anything...but all these people were like "yeeeww, Danger Mouse!" I just nodded and ran away. I got a position on the side fence for Alexisonfire, I was standing with Teigan and Oliver and his mate Jack. Teigan was looking ill, as she has done for the past 6 months, which put my potential malaria to shame. I was actually feeling pretty good at this time, and the security guard regularly filled up water bottles.
Eagles of Death Metal were on before Alexis, they played at least 20 mins over their set time. I just hoped the set for Alexis wouldn't get short, but then I was not overly concerned, because I would see them again the next day. Their set was pretty much perfect, especially considering it was a festival set.
ALRIGHT! This is from our hearts
George came out wearing this ridiculous Canada shorts...I'm pretty sure someone from all the Candian bands had some sort of "team canada" merch going on. I would definitely like to see Jay Boychuk or Andrew Grant repping a pair of these shorts if they come to worlds this year, it would be hilarious. The set was quite a good mix of all their stuff, I guess they played more off Crisis than I expected, and only one song off the s/t....I'm pretty sure it was Waterwings from memory. I was getting chills during their set, but that was probably the effects of this potential malaria or whatever kind of fever I have.
After they finished, and I realised that it had gone so late due to that glorified pub rock band that I had missed Glassjaw or Comeback Kid, who were clashing, I felt that I could just go home, I didn't really care to see anymore bands.
I ended up wandering around, mainly looking for shade somewhere. I sat under this tree which gave me a small amount of shade, then I watched A Wilhelm Scream, who were pretty good, for the songs I saw them play. They had heaps of energy, considering it was about a million degrees.
I saw a small bit of Messhugah, but the heat really put away any interest in technical heavy metal. Next up was Anthrax, they actually put a really good set on, although I was just sitting at the side, I could only see a little bit of them. In what seemed quite strange, they covered New Noise....stranger things have happen I guess- apparently Reel Big Fish covered Enter Sandman not long before.
I though about heading over to catch AFI, a band who I really like. On my way I had the obligatory bump into Drew and Jessie. In that time I managed to get a blood nose, and I had was really running to the end of my tether. So I never made it to see AFI. I haven't really listened to their last two albums, and I wasn't sure if they would play a mix or just newer stuff. So anyway, after the blood, the walk was not in my interests, I didn't go.
I saw a little bit of Trivium. They played a couple of songs that mildly interest me, but overall I think they're a fairly weak live band, especially the singing parts. I got some dinner, it involved a hot dog, not particularly well cooked, and I ordered a garlic bread as well. This was completely frozen. I donated it to the ground. I didn't want to add food poisoning to my ailments, and I didn't want to line up to the food van to smack the guy out with the frozen bread. Mongrels.
I was totally over it by this time, so I was off. It was a long walk to head out. I saw a litle bit of Anti Flag, who I see again tonight, and a little of Jane's Addiction. I don't like them, and I've seen them before. Perry Farrel is a weirdo.
I stayed at Shaun's last night, it was good not having to travel so far from the festival. This morning I had a fairly long train ride. Then I got to Grandma and Grandpa's and we went to the beach at Dee Why.
Tonight I go to see Alexisonfire, Comeback Kid and Anti-Flag. This was one third the price of soundwave, and will be approx a million times better. I can't wait.
Tomorrow I'm going to go to the doctor. Hopefully I'm feeling better, I've been felling pretty good today.