a trip down under

Another long strange one.

I had been sent to Australia on business. after walking around the part of downtown I was dropped off in. I spent a bit admiring the buildings. I stopped to take a few pictures of a shallowly flooded square with a view of one of the Australian landmarks (not the opera house, the other unnamed one). The water in the plaza reflected the stonework buildings around me, and I thought it looked pretty appealing in photos. I also spotted them building a giant ripoff of the Eiffel tower on a peninsula across from me. I thought about sending them to my Aussie friend laughing about how dumb Australia was.

For some reason I wandered into an office building that had all sorts of sub-companies renting out various spaces through the whole thing. It was very modern, like a fishbowl. It had a glass balcony with someone calling down to me from the opposite end, apparently I looked like someone who had an appointment with them? Eventually I took a call from my boss and decided to elegantly dip out of this place I had no business being in. I decided that it would be a good time to make my way to the hotel that had been booked for me. It had a strange name, like Marnie's Outback Lakehouse Locale. So I expected some cabins or something. I made my way to a somewhat grungy back-alley snack vendor (?) where I looked through an insane amount of beverage choices. For some reason the woman (pretty and fashionable, with long hair and a very nice red jacket) behind me blurted out a no more heroes reference and I told her I recognized that, setting her off on a giant geek-splurge of all the cool stuff about nmh. While I did sort of want to indulge her, I really did need to buy my beverage and be on my way. I talked to the cashier while half-listening to her, and she kinda nodded and walked off at some point. I ran into her again on the sidewalk outside and apologized and ended up awkwardly agreeing to walk with her to her apartments despite her saying that she needed to be there FAST, as my hotel was somewhere in the area past it on my gps. We walked and chatted. I dropped her off at her place and made my way to the "hotel", though upon arrival it turned out to be a campground. It was now obvious there were no cabins or anything, but dang if the area wasn't gorgeous. I had met up with my coworker at some point in the interim and we discussed how we'd have to go to a camping store to get something quick beforehand after confirming the site. I looked around and honestly the area was absolutely drop dead gorgeous anyway. There was a small crowd of people blobbed around a sort of trail-head entrance and a short rolling hill down to the camping area below. There was a gorgeous shining lake to the left, reflecting the light of the now-evening (night) sky. I looked at the crowd, then at the campsite purveyor and suddenly we were on towels at night looking at the sky, seemingly still waiting to get our sites. The sky was absolutely filled to the brim with stars (despite the city being so close, I thought to myself) And you could see the galaxy smeared across it as well. The lake was also twinkling on its gentle waves. I ended up watching some kind of projection screen TV they had on in front of our half of the group while halfheartedly discussing with my coworker and person next to us regarding the tent situation, seeing if I could squeeze into someone's. The tv was showing sayonara zetsubou sensei.

I woke up in a seedy hotel, all mottled eggshell white with narrow high windows, knowing that I was in a room with my coworker and family members(?) somewhere nearby on the same floor. I saw light through my dingy window above my bed. and through it I heard the sounds of a violent assault. I could hear someone begging and pleading and several others shouting at her in Australian accents. I was somewhat nervous about being hit with a stray bullet, and I was thinking that I didn't want to inform my parents about whatever was going on. Eventually there was a BOOM and I looked out my window to see ribbons of what remained of this poor person floating through the air, arcing away from another rooftop. Apparently the hooligans had stuffed this poor soul into a air canon, which had shredded her beyond recognition, she looked like a gristly jellyfish/paper sculpture, floating gently on the breeze as the bastards what did this to her cheered from the rooftop below.

I found a big white envelope, manilla-sized and addressed to me on my bedstand and it was filled with a physical version of a nigerian prince scam, even including several different varieties of "proof" such as documentation, photos, stamps, and other things. I think the letter was even typed out on a typewriter. I stashed it away.