Dreamworld, the World of Dreams... Not Really... Screams... Not Really

Monday night, we (the usual gang) call each other to see which of us would be going to Dreamworld the next day. That night they all went out for dinner, supposedly to this pub that would give you as free buffet dinner if you bought a drink, yes people, buying yourself one drink only, any drink, could get you an all you can eat feast. But this was only on a Monday night of course, but sadly, i found out (the next day) it was closed cos it was the Queen's birthday public holiday when i met Shai for breakfast before leaving the train station for Gold Coast. I didn't join them that night cos i was in a "hermit" mood, normal for me. Sometimes you're just lazy to go out and would rather be alone, know what i mean? Plus i'd rather watch the Aus vs Japan match in the comfort of my own home than at some bar with second hand smoke and people blocking the screen, like that night when we were watching the England vs Paraguay match at a coffee shop near Raimi's place.

Back to the main topic, Dreamworld... Tuesday morning, i woke up at 6am cos my alarm clock rang, and the only thought in my head was: "I wonder if we're even really going today, wonder what time those guys were up til, and i bet no one's gonna wake up this early." So i sent a message to Shai asking these things and mainly to see if she was awake, cos we planned to have brekky at Mackers after we met up in the city at around 7am. So she called me back at 6.15am saying that i'd better be ready and meet her on time, even though i was actually the one who had set the time of 7am. Anyways, it was freeeeeeeeeeeeeezing that morning (officially winter now) and the temptation of my warm bed was really the only force keeping me in bed. Nevertheless, I dragged myself out of bed and got ready. I took the city express bus at 7.06am, yes, i know, i know, i was already late, anyways, because all the stops had been changed, i sorta got off at the wrong stop and wound up at the Cultural Centre which is at Southbank. Dang!!! So instead of waiting for another bus to take me only a stop back, i walked, this was a much quicker solution, trust me. Poor Shairah had been waiting 45 minutes for me. Turns out we were the only two who craved McDonald's brekkie. Fair enough... So we walked to the train station from Hungry Jacks in the city and bought our 10 zone bus ticket before we sat down to breakfast at the branch in the station.

As we were having breakfast, slowly, one by one, our Dreamworld gang joined us... First came Jonathan, then Alex and then finally Martha. Yes, only few came , wanna hear some excuses? Ok, more like reasons. Sonia only had money coming in on Wednesday (it was Tuesday that day), so basically she didn't have enough cash, Kannan, Yuka, Chewan, Sue and Alan had an appointment with their housing agency and were hoping to get the house they applied for near QUT's Carseldine campus and Sherman stayed up too late the previous night to be able to wake up that early. Well, so did i, i slept at 2am, but whatever, it was the holidays and the 5 of us were the ones that were gonna enjoy ourselves that day.

We left the train station at 8.55am and arrived at Coomera where we supposed to get off and catch the Dreamworld bus. And so we did, and by 10am, we reached the gates of Dreamworld, Martha had this 4 person voucher at the back of one of her movie tickets that allowed a group of 4 or less to get in at children prices... Adult price: $62, children: $40. So thanks to Martha, Shai and I got cheaper tickets, we saved $22!!! So we entered. Ahhh... what a pleasure it was to be back there again. I don't remember the last time i was there, but i had been there before a while ago. It was another new experience for me even though i had been there before and i was with a group of good friends. So everything was cool. Sick as it seems, the first ride THEY went on was the GIANT DROP!!! The 5 second freefall ride that dropped you from 39 storeys high. I was too scared to go so i waited for them. I am afraid of heights, seriously. After that we went on the Wipe Out, our plan was to go on all the big rides, and by big i mean the ones that are marked as high-thrill rides on the Dreamworld map. Reasons for this were that first of all, the queues for these rides would get longer as the day progressed and second, they were the only rides worth riding and third, we could repeat the ones we liked when we were done with all of them. So the Tower of Terror was my first ride, but their second. It was okay. It was fun to scream on this one cos of the speed, it went from 0 km/hr to 100 km/hr in 4 seconds, which was cool. I rate this a 4 out of 5. Next was the Wipe Out. I didn't scream or anything, out of 5 (highest score) i give it a 3. Martha and i could chat on the ride. After that, we went on The Claw, which we later nicknamed the Toenail, which sounded so lame. It was a joke actually. Anyways, this one was better, it was the same kind of ride as the Air Force One that was set up by the mini theme park that came to K.K. last year, but bigger and better, it went higher too. This one i give it a 4. Then we had lunch. Shairah was the only one who had one of those breadmans with icing, not a gingerbreadman, just a breadman, the rest of us had hot dogs from a hot dog stand. They were filling cos they were long and had cheese, plus we were drinking coke, all the gas...

So after lunch, we were all full, and therefore decided to go on lame-er rides first. So we went on this stupid mine cart ride that jerked from left to right at high speed and made hard lefts a lot... which i'm sure is the reason as to why i pulled the left side of my neck. Stupid ride!!! Argh!!! After that we went to complete our quest by q-ing up for the final high-thrill ride, the Cyclone, which was the biggest roller coaster in the park. We had to queue up this spiral building, and i really had to pee, but Martha and Shai were telling me not to to because we would be next... So i didn't go, and turns out we were the next after "the first next", so my bladder was on the verge of imploding. Anyways, i held it in and went for the ride, quite disappointing really, i give it a 3. Wasn't that good. Too bad... Next we queued for this Eureka Mountain river rush ride thing... I don't really think that's the right name, but whatever... that's what i'm gonna call it. It's not a thrill ride or anything, it's more of a family kind of ride... minor thrill or none at all. While we were q-ing for this ride, Shai and Martha were talking about going on the only ride worth riding in the park--- the Giant Drop... AGAIN!!! And they were trying to persuade me... So the whole time i was contemplating on whether or not i should do it... some of the lines used to sway me were-- come on, don't you feel incomplete, it's the only ride i felt scared and nervous and excited at the same time, you won't wanna come back just to do that ride again next time would you? face your fears!! it's worth it!! you don't wanna regret when you leave that you missed riding the best ride in the park!! OK, OK.... I caved. I agreed with slight reluctance... But i felt pumped and was scared but determined to do it... oh, back to the river rush ride... It's this ride where there are 6 seats in this huge round floating donut ring and we just basically occupied the whole thing (5 seats) and no one else took the last seat. We were told we'd get wet, and apparently, with my luck, the seat i sat in was the seat that would get the most showers... Nice... by the time we got off, my whole ass was wet, undies as well as my quiksilver surfer pants and my left shoe. DANG!!! It's winter now and you can imagine how cold it must be to be walking around half soaked... But it was fine... i just let it dry... Plus the next ride was the Giant Drop... Yeah, the free fall would definitely dry my pants. Hehe...

This time, Alex and Jonathan chickened out, even though they went the first time... So it was only Martha, Shai and I. Talk about making matters worse, i needed to shit... Those of you who know me well, like i think i've said before, is that when i'm nervous, i need to excrete. So it was pretty bad, all the anxiety and nervousness wasn't helping... Neither was the wet underwear and pants. It took i think about 10 mins for it to be our turn. CRAP!!! I was freaking out as i went to place my loose items in the wooden boxes and took my seat in between Shai and Martha. They had promised to hold my hand so i wouldn't get scared... Hehe... Plus when we were q-ing i told them that i'd sing Jingle Bells when we reached the top because i didn't want to be waiting for us to drop, which, from my previous monitoring, told me that they suspended the people in the air for more than 20 secs, which is a really long time to be anticipating and waiting in sheer terror for your heart to fly out of your throat. Anyways, there was this mixed chinese girl who worked there and was in charge of checking our buckles and harnesses... I asked her, "is this scary?", she simply answered, "yes." And both Shai and Martha laughed cheekily... Gosh... then the mixed chinese girl looked at me and said jokingly, "i'm sorry, but it is!!" CRAP, i thought, CRAP! but there was no turning back... I WAS STRAPPED IN!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!! Yup... As we ascended slowly but steadily to the top of the tower, my adrenaline went into full blast by filling my whole body. As people and things got smaller and smaller from where we were sitting, they offered their hands but i was too terrified to let go of my grips on my harness, i told them i'd rather hold on to something close to my body, another reason i refused was cos they said they wanted to keep their hands up in the air during the free fall... I was like... HELL NO!!! Not my first time!!! As we slowed to a stop at the tip top of the tower with the height of 39 storeys, i started singing out loud the chorus to Jingle Bells. And according to Shairah (after the ride... yes i survived, i didn't get a heart attack), the little boy beside her laughed at me... I didn't care... Martha started laughing after a while... And it wasn't long before Shai and Martha were screaming, "Jamie!!! Jamie!!! Stop it!!! You're freaking me out!!! Shut up!!! Shut up!!!" It's funny when i think back now... But i was seriously terrified of the height, and trust me, singing (which i never do in public, ever, i don't think it was very much in tune either...) actually helped me forget just for the few seconds that i was up there, the fact that we would descend in light speed at any given second... FREAKY!!! Then the moment came. They dropped us!!! For a second as we were freefalling, i couldn't breathe... it's more like i stopped breathing cos of the sudden shock of the drop, then the screaming kicked in... And the sudden halt, really jerked my head... Haha, in the picture this auto cam took, i looked like a ghost cos my hair was all in my face. Yeah, the freefall was 4 secs only, so i survived, and boy, the feeling of falling was exhilarating, i felt alive and re-energized after that. And when we got off, i told them i wanted to go again!!!! Haha... We dragged the boys with us for this final time, and they went before us cos there were 2 extra seats. So once again, it was us three girls. This time we sat on the row of seats on the opposite side of the tower, this was facing bushland, the previous one was facing the park. And for some reason, this new view of the vast land and lake was scarier than the previous view of the park, and this time, they both wanted me to hold their hand. But Shai in the end didn't want to for the same reason as i did the first time, she'd rather hold on to something closer to her body... Martha on the other hand was really squeezing my right hand... Gosh... And her ring was cutting into my flesh... Well, it felt that way, but it didn't, nearly did though... But it didn't. Hehe... Yeah, so we were once again moving upward slowly and then came to a stop. I couldn't stand it, i had to sing to get remove the anticipation of the upcoming drop, this time, surprisingly, Martha sang along, and so did this little boy (no, it wasn't the one previous one that laughed at me, this was a different boy) who was on the ride with his mom. It was funny and fun... And before, when we were q-ing up, we promised (the 3 of us) that we would put our hands up in the air during the free fall. And so we did!!!! It was a scarier feeling, cos we weren't holding anything, i mean, besides Martha's hand... So it was much more of a freefall feeling than the first time. SCARY~~~~~~ But it was much more fun without holding anything... Killer... Martha sorta regretted holding my hand, cos she said i was strong. Haha... COS I WAS SCARED!!! Duh!!! But it was all good... At least i didn't break her hand... even though initially i thought she was gonna break mine. Oh yeah, the Giant Drop was definitely a 5, and i don't regret going on it, i'm glad they persuaded me to, it was for sure the best ride in the whole theme park, would've been a waste if i didn't go... So anyways, after that ride, we were pretty much maxed out. We went to repeat some rides... which i didn't... cos i was bored... They went on the Wipe Out and the Claw again... which were of no interest to me... So i used Martha's camera to video record the ride... It's too bad i can't post videos here on this blog... only pics. Cos i've got dang funny videos of the drunken night at Raimi's place and some nice vids of dreamworld... Oh well... Will just have to show all of you when i get back, they're in my hard disk. All the precious memories and pics... And freaking funny videos...

Ok, to wrap up this dreamworld episode, after they went on the rides for a second time, we decided to shop around the novelty stores... More like window shopped... Well, only Jonathan and I bought a spongebob t-shirt!!! I love it!! It's so... it's so... so... yellow... hahaha... It cost like $29.95. I bought a dreamworld bottle opener key chain too, for $4.95. I'll work to pay that back. Hehe... I plan on getting a job this holiday. Hopefully i can... All in all, it was a good day at Dreamworld, as we waited for the shuttle bus back to the train station, i called Kannan to ask for help on checking my final overall results for the first semester. Then Martha asked... Initially she didn't want to, but after i got my results and was gleaming she decided she wanted to know hers too. What a great day that was... on the train ride back, we all needed some shut eye. As i closed my eyes and leaned my head against the glass, the sound of the tracks against the wheels of the train and the way it swayed gave me the feeling that i was on one of the rides, specifically the Claw. I found out that the feeling was mutual when we got off 45 minutes later as Shai and Martha sounded out the same feeling. The boys, Jon and Alex got off at Southbank cos they wanted to eat at home and save money.

Shai, Martha and I met up with Raimi at Hungry Jacks and had dinner there. Then we parted. Raimi waited with me at the bus stop, cos he had 45 mins to kill before his bus came... I really had to rush back, i needed to shower before 8.30pm and i waited for the bus til 7.45pm, there was still no hot water at my place then, Bart, our landlord was trying to fix it, he bought a new one in the end and now we have hot water. But anyways, i had to get home, bring my shampoo and body gel, towel and clothes to school in my backpack on my bike and be back on time at 8.30pm to watch the O.C. and then Rove at 9.30pm. So i really had little time. Bus dropped me at my stop at 7.50pm. I ran home, threw everything in my backpack, rode to school and showered. I only missed a minute of the O.C. Woohoo... what a workout...

Anyways, today i met up with Scott to help Shairah out, cos she's in K.K. now. Shai wants to do Diploma Economics next sem, Lesley, our Econs1 teacher told us that if we got at least 6s for econs and comm1, we could do diploma econs which she would be teaching next sem. Well, obviously i'm not gonna do that, but Shai who's doing business next year wants to. But Scott said that he's not really happy with her results, she got 2 7s, 2 6s and a 5. Plus diploma econs clashes with 2 of her classes next sem. So i just emailed her to tell her, and Scott wants her to email him. Students can only do diploma subjects in replacement of ordinary foundation electives if they get good grades. By the way, Scott's a dad of new born twins, both girls, Hannah and Georgia... Aah... how nice... His wife just gave birth apparently. Lesley revealed when she was helping Scott out with my schedule. I'm gonna do Introduction to Multi Media Technology, Diploma, cos the diploma subject of Creative Writing is not available... That would've been ideal and what i was hoping to do... but too bad... Plus the other diploma subject of Creative Industries clashes with one hour of my Comm2 class, which i would have to make up by going to consultation every week. Scott and Lesley both said that it would be better to take a diploma subject that would not clash with any of my other classes... Lesley said that i shouldn't have clashing classes cos, and i quote, "i know you, and you'll be all stressed out (smile),". Plus she said that her son did the uni equivalent of that subject and she said it's good. So i'm gonna give it a go.

So subjects that i will be taking for sem 2 are: The compulsories: Communication 2 and TPS2, Math compulsory or alternative: Professional studies, and my diploma subject of Intro to Multimedia Technology and Intro to Creativity... Can't wait... The boring elective i replaced with my diploma subject is Applied Psychology, which apparently is gonna be taught by who else but the boring and self-absorbed Tony Carr... Phew... thank God i dropped that subject... And i got my time table from Scott already... So everything is set for next sem... except my fees... my dad will take care of it when he gets here... and my HSBC fixed deposit thingy too... Aah... the holidays... Enjoy the world cup guys!!! That's all for now.

Thanks for reading and thanks for caring!!!