After an unacceptable drought of communication, the epic beginneth here.

It all began on Tuesday night, when I get my new computer. Well, it's not actually a whole new computer, just the bits that need upgrading about my old computer, which is just about everything. Motherboard, processor, memory, soundcard, box... but not the hard drives. And therein lies the difficulty. Because it's having difficulty reconciling everything, and it's getting late now and I want to go to sleep because I have to get up early tomorrow and go to Sydney because I'm going to see RAMMSTEIN!!

Ahem. Anyway, we decide J¹ will get it working while I'm away so it's ready for me to come back to. Begin, the worst night's sleep of my life. I tossed, I turned, I had weird dreams where I finished reading my book and had to get a new one. I awoke at 6:09, my alarm having somehow failed to go off (probably, I later realise, because I had set it for 5:30pm). The taxi has been ordered for 6:10.

Panic. I dress in thirty seconds flat, grab my bag (thoughtfully packed the night before) and sprint downstairs. I make it on time. Somehow. I tell K^r the story in the taxi. She laughs. What an auspicious beginning.

The train is freezing and I drift in some sort of dozy state contemplating roleplaying characters and other obscurities. In Sydney, we meet up with M and J^e no worries. We hit Oxford Street. We delight in kitsch pulp fiction snippets and the wonderful contents of goth/bondage stores. I fall in love with a corset and have to be dragged bodily from the shop. We ponder getting wigs. Lunch is sushi in the park with a toilet stop at Hungry Jacks where the door to the facilities can only be opened from the inside, and I wonder what sort of secret documents they have hidden in the cistern to require all this security. We go mainstream in the afternoon, hit the QVB and spend a head-spinning hour in a shop called 'Lush'. (Watch out for that link. The first time I followed it, I ended up at some bestiality porn site. But it is the right link. Things are just weird.)

Back to Central station, where K^r and I get changed in the toilets. It's a weird experience, spending any length of time under those blue lights. But they're right, it's almost impossible to find the vein. We bid a fond farewell to our companions until later, and board a train for Newtown. There are other Gothed up people on it, and we know we're going in the right direction.

Wandering the streets of Newtown in search of sustenance, we decide on Thai. Three steps later, we are confronted with a sign declaring the restaurant in question "Sydney's best Thai restaurant of 2000". We decide that will do. It is a great restaurant. We do our make-up in the bathrooms.

And then it's off to RAMMSTEIN!!! Ahem, sorry. Excitement is building as we near the theatre. We can tell we're getting near by the goth and metal types scattered haphazardly on the footpath. We buy overpriced tour T-shirts. We go in.

The mosh pit is already three-quarters full. We decide not to risk our delicate feminine necks in there. It looks dangerous. Besides, we have really good seats, from which we can see everything. Including the support band, when it starts to play. They're called Not From There and they're a three-piece band with alternative rock leanings and a heavy experimental bent. I get the idea they might actually be really good, but the crowd isn't in the mood for anything but Rammstein.

So we get them. Good and hard. The crowd is on its feet at once, and from the first beat of the first song, the mosh is on. It becomes obvious that first song will be, in fact, 'Rammstein'. They're all in white, backed by banks of white light. And then out comes the lead singer, wearing a cyborg eyepiece complete with red lazer sight and a big grey overcoat.

Half-way through the first verse, I notice that big grey overcoat is on fire. And that is when I know that this is going to be a mind-blowing experience.

An hour and a half later, my mind is well and truly blown. This concert has been so spectacular. Everything that could have been set on fire, has been. Various contraptions for showering sparks have been wielded, including boots. There were fireworks on and above the stage. There was an interesting gimp set piece. There was an incident where a guitarist went crowd surfing in an inflatable boat. There's a very wet mosh pit because they keep throwing water all over them.

But most of all, there was Rammstein . Glorious, incredible, loud, irreverent, screaming, laughing, comedic and mouth-wateringly German Rammstein.

I'm in love.

The glow has faded in the past week, but it's still there. These boys are fan-bloody-tastic.

K^r and I float home on trains full of other euphoric Rammstein-watchers. Showers and much raving to M later, we fall into bed and sleep the sleep of the satiated.

The next morning is begun with eggs and blueberry pancakes. It continues with a triumphant return to Newtown, this time to shop. We rave to J^e about the concert on the way.

Have I mentioned before that I love Newtown? It's such an eclectic, noisy, wonderfully quirky place. Sparse boutiques snug up against second hand clothes and books, with dodgy little restaurants of every ethnicity competing with trendy yuppie cafes. And scattered amongst them all are furniture places and sex shops. It almost boils. It's so alive. This day, we turn it upside down and shake. I score the entire Fionavar Tapestry second hand and in good condition, while J^e picks up some obscure and valuable treatise on heroism in history for $5. Score. I debate buying a large, silver ring in the shape of a rose that fills the entire knuckle of my middle finger. It's gorgeous. But I'm poor. Maybe later.

Finally, M leaves to climb the Harbour Bridge, and J^e puts us on our train. The train, once again, is freezing, and I drift while K^r sleeps. It rains outside.

We get back to Canberra and my computer still isn't working. It takes another four days and two C drive formats before it starts working again. I lose a lot of stuff I was very attached to. I am annoyed.

But hey, my computer can run Carmageddon 2 now! Woohoo!

Now returning you to your regularly scheduled mayhem.