Monday, December 15, 2003
A Weekend of Ups & Downs
Soundtrack to this entry: Last night a DJ saved my life - Carl Cox
Friday
The pub was full of pissed obnoxious xmas party types by the time I got there after work. Most looked like they'd been drinking since lunch. I was worried things were going to get ugly, but Cliffy assured me that none of them had any staying power & that they'd all be gone soon enough. We didn't let the hostile atmosphere get to us, we were there to celebrate T-bone's birthday with a retrospective look at the year in the form of the First Annual T-bone Awards. In the tradition of awards shows all of the nominees were thankful just to be nominated, there were bad jokes, lots of laughs, applause and random pub people who stepped up to be guest presenters and did an excellent job. Once the Gold Bone was awarded, awareness of the reality of the surly and lecherous crowd returned and we called it a night.
Saturday
I'd talked to someone on Friday about the stabbing in a lot of detail. I felt fine about it at the time, but I guess it unlocked parts of the memory, because overnight I had a pretty vivid nightmare and woke up shaking in a cold sweat. The usual coping techniques didn't helpt to calm me down; I needed company, but it was 7.30 and I figured the gang would be nursing hangovers, so I called home, even though it was only 6.30 in Brisbane. Talking to Mum helped, but I got more worried that Dad's injury was getting worse rather than better (he came off his bike and broke his collarbone in two places - the break is separating rather than rejoining). I got up and did a bunch of laundry and cleaning to keep myself occupied. I went up to the photoshop to pick up T-bone's birthday present; a portrait of he & Cheese that I got framed. Once that was done I put the call out for company & headed around to hang with Cliffy and Helby. Music video interpretation is a good distraction if you ever need one.
After a bit of that my appetite returned so we went up to Green Square for breakfast. We stopped in at Essential (the new homewares, gourmet ingredients and coffee shop) afterwards for a look around. There're some small things I think I'll get for xmas presents, but the bigger stuff is a bit out of my price range I think. Looks like The Kitchen Shop in Green Square is in for some competition.
I wasted the afternoon away napping on the couch in front of a BBC doco on the Coen brothers and Outbreak. I was a bit apprehensive of sleeping in case I had another nightmare, but I slept ok thankfully. Later I was woken & summonsed to T-bone & Cheese's burrow to see the new toys. New toys are fun, even when they're not mine.
Later...
Echo, on Northbourne Ave, saw the combo birthday party for T-bone and the Pawnstar. It says a lot about how good a mate Pawnstar is that some of mates came from Sydney and Brisbane for his party. Mingling was interesting; in addition to the Canberra public service crew there were playwrites, recruiters, promoters and even a researcher who's looking at endangered Chinese monkeys. There was no shortage of interesting conversation.
One interstate guest, a DJ from Brisbane, worked the decks and kept the hip hop and funk flowing all night keeping the crowd smiling and getting their collective dancefloor freak on. He prompted some discussion - if you take an already funky track and add a clap track, can it become too funky? After Peter's set was done the crew wandered over to Mortis where the 80s were back and clearly in force, both in fashion and music.
The standout tracks for the night IMO were 'The Adventures of Flash on the Wheels of Steel' (Grandmast Flash) during Peter's set at Echo and 'Daft Ice' (Daft Punk's 'Around the World' meets Vanilla Ice's 'Ice Ice Baby') at Mortis.
Sunday
BBQ at the Burrow featuring The Four Feathers (far too long, but worth it for Kate Hudson with an English accent), Bruce Almighty (skip to the scene where Bruce remote controls Evan the news anchor, then turn it off) and Blow (cool, but I couldn't keep my eyes open in the second half - hey, it was late).
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