More drinking action was done for Daniella�s birthday and Andrew�s farewell down at the Star City casino, which meant for a mega hangover the next day. I was supposed to go to a work function at Maroubra Beach but instead �I caught the wrong bus� (we�ll just say I felt like driving the porcelain bus!)
Even more drinking was done at the Sydney Big Day Out, rocking out to Rage Against The Machine. That was followed by Jason and Liza�s Housewarming party on the Aussie Day long weekend, with an extended session on a beautiful weekend in their pool. After drying off, I hauled my ass into town to have beers with Gary for his 35th, at the Belgium Bier Caf�. What a great way to end the weekend!
Jesska was my hairdresser for the day and I thought this would give people the impression that I was wearing a wig, and would stop sticking things in the 'Fro. However, I got one request to "borrow the wig" (sure, just take it off at your own convienience...ooh sorry, you're about to pull out a tuft of my own hair?) and then the rest was just more photos and more randoms chatting me up. And then there were the bogans who decided to pull at it! WTF! I saw more bogans at Good Vibrations than at the Big Day Out!!!
Anyhow, back to the music. Muscles was ok (seen him before), Thievery Corporation was definitely the big surprise of the day. I thought they made music to smoke dope to, but their 20 piece band definitely had the dancefloor going. Cypress Hill also make stoner music but I'll never understand the decision to put big bands in a tent the size of your car port (ie Jurassic 5 last yr). A Trak and Kid Sister were awesome, Calvin Harris, The Rapture and Katalyst was pretty cool too. Kanye West was good, not as good as when I saw him in '06.
There must have been something about that hairspray because I came down with a really bad virus after GV which left me floored and tired for about a week. There were some days that I just slept; too exhausted to do anything else! Also, we bid a permanent farewell to the family rottweiler Bundy, who died of kidney failure, in his 10th yr with us. Poor dog, if only we could understand why he was so weak in his last days with us, but he provided many moments of fun in his time with us. Awww Bundy!
Jess eventually got better and we did end up going thru some of the pubs in Newtown when her friend from the UK, Nikki was down. It just so happened that the team leaders from my work were doing a pub crawl through Newtown as well and we crossed paths about 4 times (I always bump into people in Newtown, hence why Jess tells everyone that I know EVERYONE in Sydney!) but no free drinks�probably a good thing because I was out for the count as soon as I got back to Jess and Adam�s!
Eventually, the �fro did come off � not after raising $500. It was below my target but hey I am happy that I could contribute in some way!
The launch party for the double CD went well with a good crowd and the next day it was up to Wilberforce for Robbie and Sandy�s wedding. It was a marvelous day (for cricket, and also a wedding too) and warmish evening for the reception as well. I definitely think in this environment with some of my friends at the moment, they could do with a leaf out of Robbie and Sandy�s book. They�ve taken the vow of marriage seriously and promise to live by it and so they should � and be rewarded for it with each other.
The couple went on a cruise for two weeks for their honeymoon and when they came back it was straight down to Shelly Beach, Cronulla for the annual Anzac Day Anarchy BBQ. Now in its 7th year in a row, it is now an institution on all of our calendars! It�s just great to catch up with all your friends that you don�t normally get to see or only hear from, especially when it starts to get busy heading into the winter months. Another great day and for once, it didn�t rain!
I had some invites to go out on Anzac Day but I decided not to, seeing that I had an early start, posting a few things (read: Uncovered Beat CDs) and then heading into town to have lunch with a former workmate who now lives in Vietnam (he was originally there but came here to study). Then I got a lift home with Chris A to pick up all my decks and CDs and then we went back to his place to get ready for Sam n Mike's Farewell Party. I got to DJ a bit as well as play music while Lyall Adonis sung over the music (he was in Australian Idol 2007), and then I dj'd a bit more.
Anyohw the party was pretty much over by midnight but I still wanted to party, so Chris A, my brother Julz, our friend Dylan and I headed into Kings X. Chris A'a friend (John) is a doorman at Madam De Biers (which is where the old Commonwealth Bank used to be, I found out) so we ventured in and checked out the place. Full of drunk backpackers and drunk people from the festival at the Racecourse that day and also drunks from the races that day as well. Not bad for an afterparty.
However there was lots of work to be done at work and I even tried my hand at a position in the marketing department, which I was the preferred candidate in, but I blew it because I wasn�t prepared enough for it! I was the definite shoe in and the interviews would have just been formalities, but I guess it showed when it came to interview time. I�ve definitely learnt my lesson for the next time.
I went and saw The Donnas for dirt cheap in the last weekend of May. They were supporting Kisschasy � how the fuck does that work out? Anyhow, it worked out good because I left half way through the main act � I didn�t come to see them, I came to see The Donnas and their trademark 4/4 rock! Woo hoo!
I kept busy with the DJing with more gigs at Grumpy�s in Hurlstone Park as well as party bookings. I still had plenty of CDs to give out from the Uncovered Beat release as well, which was still getting some good feedback, especially the second CD (everyone loves the old school beats).
My computer was being a turd and not working. Further to this, when it would turn on, the cable modem was being a douche as well, not connecting to the internet. It certainly made for one frustrating month in June. That all changed when I got a bonus cheque from work and had a new computer built for me. Intel Pentium Dual Core processor, 160GB HD, 1GB Ram, all this other fancy shyte, to get with the times! I could now actually watch videos on YouTube!
I also got a new mobile phone too; a Nokia 6220 classic. Not a bad phone, the camera on it is 5MP (just like my digital camera, WTF!) and it even has GPS! Nothing wrong with my 6280 but I guess it was just time to upgrade.
We also got invites to what seemed like the �event� of the year. Danielle was getting remarried to her new partner Brad, with a Star-Trek meets Goth/Punk/Emo theme (well that was the dress code anyway), with a black coffin for a cake! Since my invite said �Johnny plus partner�, I put it up on Facebook, advertising it as a free piss-up. The usual suspects replied (boozehounds) � Jess and Will, aka Maxim.
Speaking of boozehounds, there were plenty of them at Liza�s 30th birthday party. It was a wig party and I had a bit of difficulty wearing a wig as the �fro was starting to come back already! However it was a crazy night out�and I owe Paula two wigs. Hahaha.
For the first couple of days, the best thing was just meeting people that I had been communicating with that work interstate (ie sales execs/marketing staff/sales operations) and in some cases it was interesting to put a face to a name!
Best moment ever was yesterday's afternoon session...I thought it was going to be 'another' motivational speaker (we had a few and I think i was motivated enough by then) who set up a team building activity. The activity was to assemble a BMX bike and make sure it was roadworthy before one of us would get to ride it in a race! Everyone was thinking, "WTF it's absolutely pouring with rain", so then one of the leading directors of sales gets up and says, "Yeah - it's a bit unsafe for riding outdoors today - however we're about to let the YWCA come in and they've brought with them 100 kids who are going to be picking up their new BMX bikes" - fucking awesome! Too true, there was not a person in the room who didn't have tears well up in their eyes or a huge grin on their face when those kids came in - a truly euphoric moment and probably the most proudest moment I've had working for Lion Nathan.
It set up the rest of the day and summed up the last few days as a great experience.
It didn�t stop there � I got back to Sydney on the Saturday, went out that night for Adam�s birthday party, then on Tuesday backed up with Jess and Tracy to see The Wombats play an awesome sideshow at the Enmore Theatre. The hangover the next day was worth it (in fact I think it was the hangover continued from the conference!!)
More beer was to be had when I participated in the �Great Beer Relay� for Tooheys New, running about 5KM from Lidcombe to Strathfield. I was still in top form considering my epic lack of fitness that was re-gathered after the City to Surf, only to lose it when I sank endless beers after the race!!! However it was an easy run, and then I did sink more beers afterwards the Great Beer Relay as well!
Finally, I announced the details for this year�s epic birthday party � �The Dork Knight� � the long awaited sequel to Johnny�s LAN party. Nerd it up!
The world hadn�t ended yet when they did fire up that Large Hadron Collider but you kinda wished that it did if you were stuck at Danielle and Brad�s wedding. It was supposed to kick off at 2pm but the bride got into a car accident, it rained and we had to find the booze by ourselves�we were considering walking up to the local golf course to drink there (if it wasn�t raining it would have been a certainty). But whatever floats your boat, I guess. They�re now happily married and that�s what counts.
The weather did an absolute 360 a week later when Paula and I went down to Earthdance at Prince Alfred Park. It was a real global gathering with lots of world music, interactive musicians, a stage for trance, beats, doof, hip hop and more beats. There was an awesome disco castle as well and I noted that a lot of people had updated their facebook statuses to �wow, summer is here��.no you dorks, its Spring!
It was also a nice spring day on Saturday September 27, if only the Geelong Cats could kick goals instead of behinds in the AFL Grand Final (I think they kicked about 300000000 behinds in the second quarter) to make it a top day�oh well. I drowned my sorrows that night at the Aurora Hotel where I had my birthday party, �The Dork Knight�. A seriously top night! I could have hired the rooftop balcony but I was unsure of what the weather would be like so I decided to have it indoors. Thanks to all those that came down and I hope you all had a great time, don�t know if I want to do it again next year but we will see�after seeing that disco castle at Earthdance, you probably know what I want to do!
More weekends spent away from home and this time I was up in Katoomba working with Ben and his gf Polly on a project for the 48 Hour Film Festival. The movie was called Jump and although we finished it and completed it on time I think there will be some edits done before you do get to see an actual copy! However we were happy with the final outcome, even if it was a bit of a stressful process in editing the film.
Again I came down with sickness (WTF), this time food poisoning. A bit worser for my dad who had to get taken to hospital because he was severly dehydrated. It was lucky though that I was sick because I stayed at home, the day that he collapsed (just too weak, had lost so much fluid) so at least I was able to get him to hospital. He was out by the following Tuesday � just needed a drip in his arm and some good rest.
At the end of the month, we had two visitors to town � Snoop Dogg and Brooke McAullay. Luckily, I got to see both! I also got to spend time with my cousin/godsister Neusa who finally turned 21. She had her 21st the same day that she was flying down to Melbourne, so as soon as she left, so did all her friends�but they all left their booze behind. As family, I could only stay behind and help clean up�.
Other parties included Jeff Purser�s 4AD Disco Party and two parties to note in Melbourne � Homeboyz Playground and the RMIT End of Semester party. I went to Melbourne as I was supposed to DJ at Homeboyz Playground but that never eventuated, instead I hung out with Stamatia and found time to have drinks with Scott and some of the boys that used to live in Kerang, now in Melbourne! On the Sunday I went to the Lilydale Show and saw Alicia perform and she told me she was going to be in Edinburgh next yr for the Tattoo�I guess I just have to time my Eurotrip for then!
This year I am taking a bit of time off at Xmas/NYE. I have asked for three days off � being Wed 31 Dec � Fri Dec 2, as for the past few years I have always worked around this period. It just so happens that Xmas and Boxing Day fall on the Thurs/Fri so that helped a bit as well. I just couldn�t be arsed going back to work for one day after having one day off. But it should be a great time, and for once I am looking forward to it.
I seem to have been spot on the money when predicting �trends� in my annual but I find this hard because now I guess I�m a lot more introverted when I write the annual up. However, my key learnings and good work this year will set me up for an even better 2009. Things are looking up, let me tell you. I have a trip planned for Europe, where I already have received �verbal approval� from my boss to take extended leave. I have started reading up about certain countries to visit. I already know of some others that will be there when I am there, so things are looking good!
The status of the �group� has been challenged with the emergence of networking sites like Facebook, Myspace�where its more about the individual rather than the group. The reason why I bring this up is because a) no one makes personal homepages anymore and b) the John Bones group webpage is being closed down � bringing an end of a �shared� webpage. I don�t know how some of those items on the webpage are going to be carried over, but we will have an Eye Candy award winner by the time you read this. It just means that we now have a newer way of keeping in touch with each other.
I�ll sum it up with this message - Embrace the change, and live for the future. You have to know when to let go.