no risk, no return!

i have returned, and the returns were magnificent!

aside from the obvious, of course - the busybodies in blue rocked up and took a dislike to our three-thousand strong throng of smiling faces...
three thousand people at a private party is insane. insanely wonderful - great people, superb venue, incredible music! it was fun even when the music stopped :)

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arriving:
getting to haifa wasn't bad at all, really, only i shouldn't have brought a jacket. and i definitely shouldn't have worn a warm shirt. i was seriously overheating and uncomfortable the whole way.

the walk through my team-mate's town was pleasant, and it wasn't too difficult to remember the way back from his place. i had something to drink, he put good chocolate out on the table (i went straight for the tiramisu), and i lay down on the couch to watch the extreme channel.

we watched for a while, and after he went to bed i must've slept for about an hour before my phone rang. my phone! it rang! i was very excited. even through the hazy daze of sleep i was expressing myself enthusiastically ^_^

he told me to call him before i left, but by the time i was ready to go (about five minutes later) his phone was engaged, so i decided to risk it and began walking back to the highway. by the time he called me back (i'd tried again ten minutes later), i was already on the bus (they have night buses up north!) and almost at the rendezvous.

i didn't have a problem with waiting over an hour - my previous post refers to only the last twenty minutes or so. i even got a bit of reading done :P

the pickup itself was a bit awkward - we couldn't identify each other on a dark stretch of highway - but it didn't take long before i started to relax with them and their awesome music. well - it was awesome until we were almost at the petrol stop, and then it just got hysterically weird when the driver changed to a religious choir album, and we all sang along :P

it's good to arrive with the promoter - we all got reduced-price tickets, no stress on entry, and we parked practically on the dancefloor. none of the guys in the car wanted to try my hot chocolate (rum & marshmallow), but i almost immediately ran into a bunch of friends who all gave it a shot and were all really impressed: including one friend who's a caterer :)

my favourite quote from the start of the evening:
"naaah, man, i don't drink alcohol. what's in that?"
"just rum and hot chocolate."
"rum? rum's cool, gimme a taste!"

party notes:

• bubbles! if there had been a competition, i would definitely have been on the losing end of it. they brought a lot of smiles, and a hell of a lot of amusement later while i sought a ride :)


• an alsation having a go at a rock about the size of his head: that's a dog not to mess with.


• a girl on the dancefloor, just after sunrise, getting excited at a track that came out of south africa:
  "this song is south african!"
  (me, pointing at myself) "*this* is south african!"
  "you're south african?! what city are you from?"
  "cape town!"
  "do you know <name>?"
  "she's my niece!"
  how weird is that?! they were really excited. her friend thought i was about my sister's age, and was shocked that i look so good for fifty :P


• the guy i came with kept telling me that the car was unlocked, or that there was someone there with the keys - and i kept arriving to discover it locked, and with no sign of anyone around. i found out on our way back that one of the girls had done what i'd been planning on doing, and slept in the back of the car (tinted windows) until daybreak :P


• i'm really pleased that i didn't carry out my plan - i headed straight for the dancefloor, and the music was so good that i quaffed an energy drink and carried on digging. i had a nap in the chillout zone for about half an hour, woke up freezing at 6am, got excited at the prospect of rain (it only drizzled a little, though), and quaffed the second energy drink a short while later.
  
  if i'd slept, i would've been even unhappier when the pigs arrived to shut us down. i always complain about their lack of a "serve and protect" ethos, and it kills me that there is crime to be taken care of in this country and these guys go for those who should be protected by "no harm, no foul" policy. in fact, a quick calculation asserts that with one simple action they managed to ruin the saturday morning of the nicest, most decent five-thousandth of the country's population that it has to offer.


• while i was chilling, some girls sat down next to me and i overheard the one expressing the extreme need to relieve herself and her stubborn refusal to do so in nature. i tried to help out by sharing the story of bumbamela, the festival where i first managed to pee in public.
  
  we were sitting by the tents, and i really needed to go. i didn't want to go all the way to the port-a-loos, and i couldn't bring myself to use the convenient bushes not more than three metres away.
  
  all of a sudden, one of our neighbours came running up, panting and cursing and wide-eyed - it didn't take a second before the story came tumbling out. he'd been walking to the dancefloor, when he'd suddenly noticed a line of five girls, off a-ways and spaced apart in the bushes, obviously relieving themselves at the same time.
  
  this wasn't the worst part: one of them smiled and waved at him.
  
  i was so impressed by this (albeit second-hand) display, that i smiled a great big smile, walked the three metres, and promptly experienced the greatest relief of my life.


• i had a chat with the organizer that i met at the goa reunion, and he had some very interesting things to say about the officer's course and the effects it had on some of his friends. i have a lot to say about that, but now's not the time to try and collect my thoughts :P
  
  i was intrigued by his observation, though. he described me as "glowing with freedom" :)


• i would've taken more photos, but the camera button on my phone broke just as it dawned on me how many people had arrived :(

getting home:

i spent about half an hour with the girls who i'd arrived with, sitting on the car and trying to find a ride back to tel aviv. cars were full, and most of the people who went past were from up north - i already had a ride to haifa.

i started offering to be a designated driver, but everyone thought i was looking for one, and i was informed really fast that the sign i'd quickly made wasn't going to help me. the girls had a good laugh when i started yelling that i'd sell bits of my soul for a ride :)

of note: i'm still irritated by a gorgeous girl who took my number but didn't give me hers in return. she and her cute friends offered me a ride, but weren't sure if they'd go back to tel aviv directly or arrive only in the evening. i'd promised to go to my old neighbour's birthday party at 4pm, and in retrospect i really don't know what i should've done. probably gone with them. i hope she calls, but i'm not holding my breath.

during that half an hour, aside from running into a couple of guys i haven't seen in years i clicked with one of the girls who was with me :)

the ride back, with drug checks and a depressed promoter, was toned down. as i said to him when he dropped me off at the taxi rank: it may not have ended well, but until it did it was one of those special, perfect parties, and that's nothing to sneeze at.

i arrived, as i had the night before, just in time to fill the shuttle and we were on our way. not the most comfortable of rides, but certainly better than the way there, and i still had plenty of bubbles left for the walk home.

the grapefruit i cut when i got out of the shower was delicious, but messy :)

i crashed for an hour, then went to the surprise birthday party. it was a really great party, with loads of people and absolutely AMAZING cakes and brownies. it turned out i had more bubbles left than i'd thought, and not only did i make a lot of people smile but i kept the kids busy for ages :)

i sat and talked with a few of people that i've only met fleetingly in the past, and it was a highly enjoyable afternoon.

eventually, though, my lack of sleep caught up with me and i had to come home and crash. getting into bed at 7pm just felt... right :)

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i woke up at 5.30am, took a long time uploading the past week's photos to facebook (their java uploader's broken, it's a killer), watched the lastest (and cringe-worthily amusing) episode of the big bang theory (the pants alternative), and returned to sleep another two hours.

just before getting into bed, while i was washing out my thermos, danny gilboa's another morning was playing - i know from urchin that if you're in the stairwell you can hear my apartment perfectly. an incredibly cute blonde neighbour was walking past my kitchen window and suddenly stopped, staring bemusedly into the distance for a few heartbeats, then carried on. i resisted the urge to tap on the window and wave "good morning" (i always want to do things that normal people would find creepy), but that image of her was the last thing that went through my head when it hit the pillow.

i woke up with my feet so cold that all i could think of was attempting unsuccessfully to sell them to the inuit (i assume it's still winter for them, too).

i can't believe i've just spent over an hour getting all this down :P

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i find these watches highly attractive.

for some reason, the ren quote "steempy, you gave away forty seven MEELEEON dollars - you EEDEEOT!" popped into my head, which is a perfect excuse to link through to the most morally relevant episode (although they rarely fail): the last temptation.