| justice day |
[29 Oct 2008|09:22am] |
internet access at home went down since last week, so i can only come online when i'm free in school. and this entry was written offline on oct 27 – written offline because i'd probably forget lots by the time my access at home gets restored!
justice day, oct 25.
jean-marc called and interrupted my sleep at 2:30 pm. he wanted to know the plan. i was still in deep daze, so i told him to make the plan and let me know.
dario would head off earlier to his london home to drop off some stuff before meeting us at the tube station near matter. that left the rest of us to meet up at our town.
got up at 5:30 pm.
dario was on his way out.
was extremely hungry. have been eating one and a half meal each day due to my sleep schedule; i have been going to bed at around 10 am and waking up at around 6 pm for the past week or so.
cooked dinner. shower. grabbed the tickets.
was contemplating whether to wear my justice tee and my silver shoes. decided that the tee would be too obvious a choice considering it's blatantly justice night, and that the silver shoes would not survive the dancing and the possible stampede.
7:40 pm and we boarded the train for london.
fuck-up: the subsequent train to the venue was delayed, and we waited for a good 20 minutes.
during the wait, marianne decided to pop some justice into her ears. she badly needed the energy injection because she had been awake since 6 am because of the move to her new place – from the next town to ours. the move was only over at around 5 pm too.
the wait bored the crap out of us, so we all started singing phantom part two, which we have gotten addicted to.
magic: at one of the stops on the second train, dario popped right through the door we were standing next to. what are the chances of that, considering the madness of the london underground?
got there, and we spent another good 30 minutes or so looking for matter, because the o2 was a kind of leisure megalopolis and matter was like its underground tumour.
everybody was hungry because of the lack of dinner – i think my dinner disappeared quickly because i was hungry as well – so we decided to queue for a restaurant at the o2.
however, the queue felt like it was going to be slow, and the restaurants with no queues were too expensive. we decided to look for matter first, and then eat somewhere near to matter instead.
with the help of an almost mystical one-liner direction from a guard – "when you find the blue gate, turn left" – we finally spotted a huge, huge, huge queue.
went to the head of the queue to make sure it was matter. lol.
magic: as we made our way to the head of the queue, someone announced that ticket holders or guest-list people could just enter right away, and so we did. we were one of the first batch to enter.
fuck-up: right after we got our ticket validated, we were told there would be no re-entry!
what the fuck, we all thought. we are all going to die from hunger, we all thought.
but there might be food inside, we all thought.
but we all thought wrong. it was a super bar for drinks, but no food at all!
maybe we'd not feel hungry if we had beer right away, we all thought.
the beer worked.
there was already music blasting when we entered, despite the venue rather void of people. it was loud, and the bass was earthquake-worthy. good. good.
we explored the other rooms and the other floors. the upper floors were balconies, so you were always going to be part of the event since you can look down onto the dance floor.
fuck-up: you can't bring drinks into the smoking area, which we all thought was a room, but it turned out to be a cordoned-off area outdoors. it was a big space, so no complaints there, but it can get chilly. there were also big umbrellas to stand under.
soon after, the floor got busy and the party started.
we decided to conserve our energy till it was closer to justice's set. found a good spot next to the dj booth to lounge at.
music was fucking good, and we found ourselves moving despite sitting down. haha. still, we decided to stay down and observed. quite a lot of babes too, we observed. one of them came over and asked us for a pill. lol.
very soon, the music got too irresistible. i hopped off, and marianne joined me.
the drinks accelerated. dario pointed out that every round we bought costs more than a ticket. ouch. but what the heck, it's justice night. from some point, we were each holding two bottles, one in each hand. haha.
lots of cool people too. lots of inter-body smashes and crashes, but it always brought on hearty hellos, toasts and smiles. all around greatness.
also made a 'good friend' for the night out of this dark-haired babe because i accidentally head-butted the living daylights of her when the side of my head rammed into her nose. lol. i swear i felt my head hurt. it was one of the worst crashes too.
turned around and saw her grimacing with both her hands holding onto her nose. when i saw her like that, i just felt extremely terrible. before thinking – the alcohol didn't help in this department – i put my hand on her nose and started rubbing it like if it would help. haha.
i felt jean-marc looking, and i'm sure he was thinking: "what the fuck is he doing.."
thankfully, she started giggling, leaned over and grinningly said that she'll send me the medical bill. gave her a friendly wink and returned to dancing.
a minute later, she came up to me and asked if she could have a sip of my beer. obviously, i was happy to hand her my bottle, considering the shock wave i had dealt her. at this point, jean-marc was giving me mega winks. i mouthed him a "woo" to play along but ignored his rallying. haha.
when she handed me back my beer, i noticed that there was a young guy with her. lol. knowing that at that point, i felt lucky that he didn't start anything with me when i head-butted her. at the same time, i thought, why aren't you buying the lovely girl a drink..
despite the impact, we remained dancing side by side, with the occasional exchange of cheering each other on.
after a while, we decided to go for a smoking break. as i was squeezing my way through the crowd, i felt a tap. it was her again, and smiley as usual. this time, she asked if i had a cigarette.
i thought: "sneaky. she knows i'm going for a smoke break."
took a quick glance behind her and saw the guy squeezing along too.
then, i thought: "what a loser.. not buying her any fix.."
nonetheless, she's been really cool. winked and beckoned her to follow. despite the guy following, i knew i wasn't in any danger, partly because he looked harmless.. and i also had my friends!
but funnily, she got lost along the way. haha.
four hours had passed.. and behold, justice!!!
by this point, we were all bloody hammered. the floor was literally covered in bottles, and there wasn't a single dry body. you were covered in sweat and alcohol. the smoke was thick as fuck too, so it felt like some sort of dark heaven. all that sound horrible when described, but it was anything but.
i don't recall a single moment when one of us was not smiling or not moving. every time we looked at one another's face, it was like passing on wild rapture.
an uber version of phantom exploded into the ears, and like if we were bestowed with magic powers, we spent more time in the air than on the ground. although we couldn't hear ourselves, we bellowed every note for every song from then on like if our lungs had fresh warranty.
justice's mix was so cunningly gripping that all we could feel was a constant escalation of joy with every beat that pounded through our bodies. we are your friends drove us to such delirium that we held one another's hands up high and i also ended up smooching. haha.
to be honest, at some point, i was completely taken away. the two gods had used the powers in just their pinkie fingers and unleashed a section that felt like near-death. you hear bits and pieces of justice like they were flashes of memories, and the beat that tied it all up was the fatal heart attack. there was nothing one can do except to just walk towards the light.
after justice was over, i felt like i had left my body and was just a dancing soul.
the ed banger crew – ed banger is the label that justice is on – was to spin the remaining set. i won't bore you with their names. all that matter was that since justice was part of the crew, we were treated with mega-power occasionally.
after it was certain that justice had left, we decided to take a proper break. we bought more drinks and retreated to the balcony above.
somehow, we were still swinging around on the balcony, and when i went stumbling around a bit, jean-marc's wrist connected with my lower lip. i could taste blood. what the fuck, i complained. what the fuck, he replied. what the fuck, we chorused.
after a while, some jerk at the dj booth decided to put on a bunch of real crap. the ultimate was a ymca mix. what the fuck? that's not right for the night..
honestly, when that happened, we all thought the night was over. we really felt the weight pulling on us. what a downer. we decided to escape to the smoking area, which had gotten really chilly already.
we went back and the music had become miles better. did someone beat the shit out of the tyrant and chuck him into the back of a rubbish truck?
unfortunately, marianne had 'collapsed'. can't blame her. she had been awake for 23 hours already. she went back to the spot we first conquered – next to the dj booth – and napped.
some staff kept coming around to tap her awake. also kept telling her that she wasn't allowed to sleep there. we thought the staff was probably making sure she wasn't overdosed really.
we kept her in sight and danced on.
the floor was less packed by then, so we had the space to dance carefree.
eventually, we decided to leave.
and just as we were doing so, the last song trickled in – nirvana's lithium.
nirvana was easily one of the most important bands in my life, but i have kept them in a safe heart-shaped box by now.
i looked at everybody and said with a big grin: "i have to do this.."
happy like a fool, i bounced back onto the dance floor.
you know, after such a great night, the song came as a comfortable meridian – it was like meeting a long-time friend in heaven. as obvious as that may actually sound, considering that cobain had long gone, i have no better description.
to be carried by those words entwined in that music at it all.. i was free.
was so happy to see that everybody joined me on the floor for the last song too. the floor by this point was lit up in quite a bright, warm glow. with that, we can see one another through the smoke perfectly well, and that made it perfect really.
what more can one ask for on a sunday morning?
we jumped and danced as vehemently as we ever did and we hollered along at the top of our lungs.
excerpt:
i'm so happy cause today i found my friends
they're in my head
i'm so ugly but that's ok cause so are you
we broke our mirrors
sunday morning is every day for all i care
but i'm not scared
light my candles in a daze cos i found god
yeah, yeah, yeah..
i'm so lonely but that's ok, i shaved my head
and i'm not sad
and just maybe i'm to blame for all i've heard
but i'm not sure
i'm so excited, i can't wait to meet you there
but i don't care
nine hours of a full-on party. we were elated.
although we came out of it buzzing and ringing, we were up there.
once we were walking along the river, i kept going on about wanting a hot dog. jean-marc kept telling me i'm not going to find one at 6 am.
we decided to go take a boat down the river to spend some time. alas, the ticket stall told us that the boats won't be available until 7 am.
we took a slow walk to the tube station.
along the way, i continued yelping about wanting my hot dog while everybody gave me all sorts of reason why i wouldn't find it – like, there's no hot dogs in london. lol.
and magic happened. near the tube station, there stood a stall and one thing it sold was hot dogs – at 6 am!
like wolves, we quickly placed orders for food and water.
in the end, i bought a cheeseburger. jean-marc was the only one who bought a hotdog.
we sat on the floor, waiting for the tube service to start at 7 am.
jean-marc took one bite of his hot dog and felt that solid food was too much of a shock after all the drinking, so he abandoned it.
we realised that we have spent about 200 pounds on drinks.
after i finished my cheeseburger – which i should have regurgitated right away considering all the drinking – i thought aloud and said that i realised i really wanted a hot dog instead.
dario: "fucking bastard.. going on about hot dogs the whole time and you go order a fucking burger!"
he said it jokingly, of course. funnily, i replied that he got a cheeseburger as well, and he went "oh yeah" even though he wasn't wrong to have ordered one. hahaha. guess he was still quite stoned.
then, jean-marc put the hot dog in front of me. i'd love to have taken a bite off it, but i was too feeling a little shocked from eating – had to stuff the cheeseburger down my throat really – so i couldn't even bear to touch it.
7 am, and we moved like zombies to the gates.
i was so hammered that i had to keep my head down throughout the train journey. we scattered at an interchanging stop.
jean-marc and i hopped on to the next train. i set my alarm to make sure we don't end up completely somewhere else in the uk, since we were on a long-distance train and we were definitely going to sleep.
when jean-marc and i were alone, he told me that he was eyeing a blonde girl who was a friend of "my friend". i found out that "my friend" refers to the girl who i head-butted. lol.
finally got home at about 9 am.
head was pounding.
bathroom.
saw that my lower lip had a splat of blood, obviously courtesy of the impact with jean-marc. at this time of writing, it has become a dark clot mark.
shower was the right thing to do, but i had no strength to do it at all.
listerine. face wash.
dumped all my clothes on the floor and crawled under my duvet.
unconsciousness came instantly.
woke up at 5:30 pm.
cooked up a two-course dinner.
sat with jussi and elina in the living room. tv for them, food for me.
shared a bit of the party with them – a bit, because i was really engrossed with eating. they were gaping, but i'm sure they won't be gaping if they were there.
dario came back from his london home at about 7 pm. he was still spent despite resting the whole time back home. he also said that phantom part two was still ringing in his head. haha.
at one point as we sat side by side in the couch, we started singing phantom part two for a while. he believes that the atmosphere during the justice set was extremely rare, and that it is one party that will remain bright in him.
i do too, hence my bothering to record it in this entry. :D
also, i have sweet memories when i listen to this now.
and i already can't wait for the next justice day.
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