Undulations

I've settled down a bit since I last posted. I managed to calm myself down after a couple of minutes. It was weird that I got that angry though. I'm normally a pretty calm guy, I think?

So my weekend was pretty quiet really. I was in a bit of a funny mood and I guess I was a bit anti-social. It's been like that the past couple of weeks, I guess I'm just being a bit weird at the moment. Or weirder than normal. I watched a bit of the The Usual Suspects at one point. It's a good movie.

On Sunday I went out for breakfast with my Dad, Aunt and Brother. I had a Mega Breakfast that included schnitzel and a curry pasta type thing. It hit the spot. I liked it. I left my bacon though.

After breakfast I did a bit of reading. I've been reading quite a lot in the past couple of weeks. I've knocked over quite a few books. This weekend I read My Friend Leonard, which James Frey's sequel to A Million Little Pieces. It was written in the same distinct style. I'd forgotten how annoying it could be. A good story though, but I don't know how much of it is true.

I also read some Camus. It was The Outsider. This was a great book. I highly reccommend it. It's only a couple of hundred pages long, but a very interesting story. It felt like one of those stories where there was a whole lot more unsaid than was actually said. It was fantastic. I could go on and on, but I won't. It's great though.

I did some gardening in the afternoon. I wonder how my garden will grow.

Later in the day, Dirty Dave asked me if I wanted to go and see A.F.I. I said that I did. So I went. The ticket that I was given wasn't with Dave and his mates, but that was okay with me, I was just stoked to be going. I hadn't been myself for the rest of the weekend, and maybe some loud music and a couple of beers was what I needed. So I went. I had a good time.

My brother Stuart has a pair of tight black jeans. These jeans are so tight that they are actually heavily elasticised. I thought that if I'm ever going to wear some tight black jeans out in public, then an A.F.I concert is probably the right time. I put them on, and I immediately felt like a daddy long legs spider. I felt like my legs came up to my armpits. I put on a shirt (a green one, because I couldn't bear to wear all black, sculled a beer, spoke to Ria and then I was in the cab.

We got to the show and there were lots of people there. Lots of people conirming their stereotype. It was fun just looking at all the people. Dudes with eyeliner, young girls in not much, lots of black, lots of tatts and piercings. It was great. I bought some more beers and then the support act started up, so I parted ways with Dave and his crew. I found my seat and it was in row E, so not too far back in the seated area, but it didn't take me long to realise that that wasn't where I wanted to be. So I left my seat, and went and bought a beer and thought about my options.

I don't know if the beer was starting to take hold, or if I was in the mood for a bit of an adventure, but the only thing that I could think of was jumping down into the standing area. So I went to the merch area and looked for a disguise. I thought that my green shirt was a bit too noticeable in the sea of black, and I wanted to have something that I could take off once I was in the mosh, so the security guards wouldn't recognise me. So I bought a red Bleeders shirt. I actually quite like it, even in the light of day. So I was ready to go. I went back into the seated area, and took down some mental notes on the security. There was only two to get past, but there was a couple in the walkway that I was going to jump down into. I had to wait for the lights to dim, and then for the bouncers to both look the other way, so I could leap down and make a dash for the safety of the mosh.

This is going to sound pretty bad, but thinking back on it is getting me excited again. I know that it's kind of lame, jumping the boundary at an A.F.I. concert, but I haven't really done anything like it before, or if I have, it's been a long time since I have. I've been pretty well behaved for a while. I know that I told just about every man and his dog about it the next day. I was talking to the people behind me at the show to see if they thought that I could make it. They didn't think that I could, but I think that they thought it would be funny to see me get kicked out.

So...

The lights dimmed. I waited a moment, saw the security guards looking in the other direction, then I vaulted myself over the barrier, and down the drop into the walkway. It was a lot further to the ground than I thought, and it took me a moment to regain my breath and balance. Once I had it back I ran straight for the crowd. I went straight through it over to the other side. I got there, took off my red shirt, left my green one on, and headed back into the mosh. I was so pumped that I couldn't really stand still, so I went over to where my brother was sitting and jumped around to get his attention. Then I passed him the red shirt and headed back into the crowd.

The show was pretty good, although instead of seeing A.F.I., they could really have called it the Davey Havok show. He was a great front man, and even with the bass player and guitarist running, strutting, jumping and convulsing, nobody's eyes ever really left the singer. They were all dressed in white, and Davey was kind of made up to look like Alex from A Clockwork Orange. It was a nice touch. The set was tight, they belted through all the hits from the last couple of albums and threw in some older hardcore stuff which was fun. At one point I went right up the front and it was just like the good old Churchie Disco with people falling all over the place and everyone jumping up and down and waving their hands above their heads. Good times.

That's about it really. The show finished, Davey did some crowdsurfing in encore, and then it was all over.

Afterwards, I bought a teriyaki chicken hero from a service station. It was nowhere near as good as the satay chicken one.

This morning I was back in a boat for the first time in a long time. I've got blisters on my hands and feet. My muscles in my shoulders are sore. My back is sore. I had to get up at 4 o'clock for a 4:30 start. I left half a pound of leg and pubic hairs that had been ripped out follicle and all on the seat. It was great. I really enjoyed it. My fitness wasn't as good as the other boys, but I really enjoyed being out on the water. Even when the guy behind me started farting.

I'm back out there again tomorrow morning, but that's it unfortunately. I'm going to see the doctor this afternoon.