"Now covering the extended family of Chatalyst & 96.1"

Another year, another 400 dramas!  We're not going to bore you here with all the intimate details, rather try to summarise the happenings and events that made 2002 the year that it was.

DISCLAIMER: hahaha...have a life if you are reading this..don't read into it too much and also...everything in this is true....we swear on it.

JANUARY: For some, the year began at "Boozin in Balmain"...the alcohol flowed freely as the Harbour Bridge bathed in fireworks.  That night (NYE) I had been from my house to Dani's to the city then onto Balmain...from here it was on to a harbour cruise, then onto Bondi Beach and then back home!

Robbie had no idea as how to get to "Boozin in Balmain" and ended up b efriending a few drunken revellers on his walk home.  Grant was 'avin it on Byron Bay and Loz + Sej were getting their groove on at some staff party!

Libby and I were in constant contact through the (new years eve and new years) day as we saw who would outlast who in a battle of lack of sleep.  I raised the white flag on January 2 at 1am, 39 hours after I got out of bed.  Mmmm, field day.

Libby had any parties throughout 2001 at hers and this year was no exception!  Just add alcohol minus what you did that night equalled many questions asked!  Also throwing parties were Bill (Bill thought Grant was going to gatecrash it) and the Big Day Out (which I gatecrashed).

FEBRUARY: "LOCK UP YER MUTHA FUKKIN DAUGHTERS!!!"

As the Fully Ethnic Crew were bundled into a car and on their way south to Victoria, Zihni was in Burwood, awaiting a lift to Kerang.  He wishes he was there.  He bloody kicked himself too!  Scott's 21st had to be one of THE parties of the year.  He only knew that two of us were coming, yet when the FEC turned up, it was the best present anyone could dream of!

Also got to meet the one and only Jase aka Oxy as well, who was quite the funny bloke he was made out to be.  While the rest of the FEC continued on "The Greatest Road Trip of All Time", I continued on the LUYD tour, meeting with Stamatia, Andy and Meredith-all for the first time (with the exception of Andy).

February was also about Chinese Dancing, the very busy season of Chinese New Years.  Going from place to place in a lion's suit on a hot day isn't the funnest thing let me tell you, but it puts the food on the table, until that $$$ is extorted from you.  But that money was more than made up at Suite 105 in the Novotel.  Goddamn Craig and I in that place hitting on the chick in the Business Centre...and we even got Grant to come into the suite and check his email!

MARCH: Mardi Gras came and went, Auggy went, RIP Laddy (i know she died in February but hey i was still sad) and Uni came around again...and what's this?  Me actually studying in the library?!  You better believe it!  It was a new year and i had to improve on my 2 F's from last year-there was no other way about it!

Grant's birthday was a real killer, shame on all of you for not turning up.  For the two that did (Grant and I, Robbie was there kinda...) what a solemn effort that was!  A two man pub crawl: kicked out of four pubs, refused entry into another two and by that time, there were wanted posters of the pair of us out there!  We sat at Bondi Junction, off chops for an hour debating whether to go to the beach to watch the sunrise...or drink even more!  And i fell asleep on the train and woke up at Rockdale! LOL.

We also started going to trivia (and we still do, provided we can get a team together) and on the second time we went, Zihni got kicked out, Craig carried him home so it was Robbie, Grant and I...anyway, these two girls sat at or table and I said..."oh no, you can't sit there without giving us some of your chardonnay"...anyway, she gave us her bottle and the three of us proceeded to get TANKED...by the time that the bottle was near empty, we gave these girls our apologies and walked all the way to Grant's  house armed with a shopping trolley and a million roadblocks.  And Trivia happens on a Tuesday night, btw.....

APRIL: Rumours that Kat (KatBat from Kerang) up in Sydney were true, but she couldn't come to trivia!  Oh well, life goes on I suppose.  And so did the Easter Show.  It went on and on and on and on and on and on ,same shit every year, just more expensive!  Oh well, Shan seemed to enjoy it.

I suppose he had to take his pleasures from other things, seeing that Jodie dumped him.  Ouch.  I took pleasure in meeting Jennybop and her friends (Mooch n Co.) at Panthers one night!  They kept drinking till the early hours of the morning and while they were I was yawning-I wasn't bored of their company, I just had to work the next day (or later that day!).

Work and Uni did take up a lot of my time but it was time to knuckle down and get down to important things that needed doing: but every now and then I'd go to trivia, or on Anzac Day-Shelley Beach.  Jess was in town again and she never fails to put a smile on my face.

It's a pretty face she has-you can sit and gawk at her for hours!  (Yes, her face, not just her booty ya know!)...but I had that opportunity taken away from me when my computer succumbed to a virus, deleting everything in it's path.  Talk about a hard drive.

MAY: Goddamn.  Had a lot on my plate.  A 21st here, a new restaurant opening there, a dinner with my parents when I could.  Final uni assignments for the semester were being asked for and my little sister had her birthday the same night as Yemima...same date of birth too goddamnit!

May also saw me take the decks in my first professional gig!  Obviously other times that I did it, I was just in the right place at the right time but this time it was my turn!  3 hours of solid gold RnB before the security decided enough was enough!

Then on the Wednesday night we went over to Craig's to watch the Blues shit all over the Maroons!  Grand drunk in his sorrows as Joey Johns and the boys won game one!  Alas, I had a hangover the next day at work!

JUNE: June kept on going where May left off-party night!  If I didn't have a sore head after Yemima's 19th and Pawla's 19th then someone had to give me a hammer coz the next night I was due at Tillie's bt was uninvited, as "there were too many people invited...shit!!!!!"...nonetheless, it was a top notch party.  I didn't know how Shaggy's went either...all I know was that I was at Nipper's 21st Bday party.

June saw me investigate new drinking holes.  I hooked up with the West Ryde Woolies crew and kept a strong presence at their karaoke sessions.  Also, late in June saw Grant and I head up to check out the Mingara Rec Centre where Shan hangs out and dj's on a Friday night.

You won't find Shan and I hanging out at Mt Druitt on a night-the pair of us got JUMPED by a trio of monkeys...At last count the three had been caught, they are awaiting charges for other stuff they have done (gay monkey sex perhaps).  Nonetheless, we took out our agression the next day at Paintball!  But Shannon couldn't last the whole day, as per the rest of my team mates.  In the end it was Myself and The Misfits against the forces of my brother, Grant, Zihni and a team ready to play paintball, not be paintballed.

JULY: Stamatia came and paid her return visit to me on what ended up being a boys night out.  OMG.

Grant was causing his own rackus north of the border.....need I say further more. *EG*  Apparently Jesska aint too happy about some of the rackus caused in her bed.... not that she will be in it all day and night, she finally turned 18 late in June!

There was more and more dancing gigs to be done-a few over at Cabramatta and so on.  At least this time I was out of a lion's suit!

I had the dreaded flu which complicated matters even further.  The events I bothered showing up to, I sat near a bin with tissues...but I was better by the time the Johnny Walker Taste Testing night came along!  I tried to get Grant in on it but the bastard of a doorman told me to go elsewhere!

My sister had her 23rd birthday dinner...when I eventually got there..

AUGUST: DA BOYS NIGHT OUT!!!!

Craig, Shan, Zihni, Grant, Robbie, Dirk and I went out on the first boys night out in AAAGESSS!!!!  It was infamous as we went on a pub crawl all around the city-starting off at the Great Southern Hotel, then moving onto Paddy Maguires @ Haymarket, Cheers (I think???) and the queue for the 3 Wise Monkeys was sooooo long!  The Underground was a nice and quiet place to have a beer-before we got there!  Zihni was pissed by then and we all pretended not to know him...by the end of the night we were ALL pissed as Zihni and we really didn't care!

That night, Shan and I also checked out rewind @ home-which kinda had the old sat @ home vibe to it!  Wayyyyy before Kinkitrashdisco!  It was generally about the older stylee music that you had grown up to and learned to dance to...generally, sneaker breaking stuff.

There was loads more booging to do when the 96.1ers went out for Leigh's birthday.  It was shithouse but only got better once we got FUBAR @ Daniel's and causing havoc in the computer labs!

I ended up hooking up with Leigh.  It was ok while it lasted I suppose!  U just had to excuse the fact that she chose the company of Craig over me....I hope they are having fun!

SEPTEMBER: Ugh-more beer please.  I needed it to cope with Leigh's bullshit drivels of "I love you i need you i want you"...ugh.

I also needed a keg with Craig's "I'm genuinely sorry" spiel.  I've still got the empty keg, I'm just waiting to drop it on his head.

Things started to warm up in terms of "WMIC"!  Invites were passed on and out to everyone everywhere!  Angie was coming, then she wasn't, then she was...but she didn't end up coming.  Neither did Kristy, but Libby-oh you cheeky gal, saying that you didn't know if  you could come and then surprising me-OMG...Love ur work darls!!!

On the actual day of my 21st I got a payrise...YAY!  I now get $14.50/hr before tax...the party wasn't too bad either, excepting the fact that a) I have a psycho ex girlfriend and b) a psycho wind and c) psycho neighbours (footnote: Today [Sun Dec 29] they were arrested for breaching the peace) but hey-I kept true to my promise that no ex gf's would be causing trouble-because none of them came!  There was no webcam either, damned to hell....you know what that means, I'll probably have to do it myself...

OCTOBER: Amanda and Alissa finally gave up the "Kids" label as they turned 18!  I partyhooped around as I went from my house to Matt's house to the city back to Matt's then out to Penrith to join Rob, Dean, and the girls!  Somebody gimme a car!!!

The next night (Saturday 19th) Viv was supposed to have a birthday party-it never happened.  As so in 1999, 2000, 2001 and now 2002...she just has bad luck with things I gather.

That Sunday I went to Livid-GODDAMN!  The pick of the night had to be Dynamo Productions, mixing anything from hip hop to house and beyond!  James Lavelle played a pretty good set too and so did The Streets!  Other highlights included Grinspoon, Machine Gun Fellatio and Bodyjar!

Grant moved house to Liverpool from Caringbah but he made a quest to keep on going to trivia!  We loved stirring the shit outta Pommy Andy...we also managed our first 3rd placing...U can thank Big Sista for that!

NOVEMBER:

Uni uni uni-want my assignments

I'm spending all night trying to type them

Whannyd keeps on asking me out for a drink

But right now I've gotta sit down and think!

I spent all of my money on the first Tuesday in November-although Beekeeper gave back some solid returns!!

I also spent the first friday on a smelly boat!  Amazones is the one!  Only the bravest of the high seas would dare set course for the rotting mess that was the toilets on board!

The next weekend, I spent even MORE money at the races!  The last time I got to see Lauren before she headed off on her sojourn around the world!  Grant and Danielle (Ms. Grant) also helped me out with my final project, it came to an end thankfully that week and it premiered on the 22nd!  The next week I did all nighters for my film essay, and yes I finished it...yay.

More parties on the 21st tip: Matt Hunter and Phat Phil, who I met @ Matt Hunter's.  Apparently there was a stripper @ Phat Phil's!  I didn't go, I hosted the lovely Stamatia once again up in Sydney on the JBWS tip, which was the first time the pair of us got to go clubbing!

DECEMBER: Mitch and Daniel's forum came to the forefront as a place for us to post our opinions.  Robbie had an MSN Groups in the works and a geocities one as well, keeping the man VERY busy!  Look out, release date will be New Years Day!

"Those Damn Terrorists" was missing the damn terrorist himself, but gave us the impressive debut of Agnieska on the paintball field!  She put a lot of the other boys to shame as she shot people left, right and centre and was prepared to put all on the line!

Shannon seemed to put all on the line with that infamous coming out post, but it was proved to be a hoax.  Danielle turned 18, Danielle got engaged to Grant on Xmas day.  On Xmas Eve Eve Colleen went out but I couldn't join her, I was working.  Every bloody day too.  Going away in December was for Lauren, joining Sej who left in November.  Grant left for Kyogle a few days before Xmas eve.  Peta (Ms. Robbie) leaves for USA on NYE and forthcoming are tours by Shannon, Robbie and myself to Queensland.

THE FUTURE:  NYE is set to be a blast @ Daniel/Whannyd's on campus @ his uni!  Goddamn!!!  After that, Shan is heading up to see a few maties on his books, but what has me pouring milk down my top like a stripper is NORTHERN EXPOSURE-Robbie and I are making a "respect out" tour to everyone north of the border-it's long awaited, long overdue...just like a burger @ burger king!

Grant and Danielle look like they are going to be in for the long haul with their engagement...Angie and Jase look like they might get married sometime next year!  Adam also got down on one knee to Mel...Tasha also had many a man get down on one knee, but she seems to have settled down on Fleshy Wesh ;o).

I said last year that I was going to get a new job and i kinda did...i said i was gonna get a new gf and i kinda did...2003 looks like its gonna be all about you and me!!!!!

Wishing you all a happy new year...and stay safe...

Johnny*