Absolute Mayhem Read Online Free PDF Page A

at the pre-ABN
AMRO Lloyds Bank as the most memorable of my
financial-markets career. We were like one big happy
family, up on the 47th floor of the Governor Phillip
Tower in Sydney (which appears in a scene in the Keanu
Reeves film The Matrix ). It had the most beautiful view
of Sydney Harbor, and the people there were all so
cool. We'd all go out drinking and attend corporate
dinners, and I made many good friends out of it.
    But shortly after, Lloyds Bank was acquired by ABN
AMRO, and I had no choice but to stay with them. We
had to move to the ABN AMRO offices, and things
suddenly changed. Their whole corporate culture was
so alien to us and it became not much fun to work there
any more, but we still managed to go out and have a
good time.
    After living with my dad and step mum for a year,
I moved out and was living in Manly. I had a room in
a three-person share-house. My two housemates were
nice, although we did't hang out as friends. We all kind
of did our own thing – went to work and went out separately
after work – so I can't say I knew either of them
particularly well.
    I used to get up at 6 am every day just to go surfing
before work. I paid for surfing lessons, that's how I
learned, but it was probably the hardest thing I've ever
done as a sport and I actually wasn't all that great at it.
You need sheer persistence to keep getting out there and
trying again every time you get slammed by a huge wave,
which is bad enough in itself but might also involve
getting hit by your board or being forced underwater
and then struggling to resurface.
    After surfing, I would catch the JetCat – an express
catamaran that used to shuttle back and forth between
Manly and Circular Quay – to get to work, which was a
really nice way to start the day. Life was good.
    In order to meet more people and try something new,
I also did a course in bartending and got a part-time job
at a pub called The Orient Hotel in The Rocks. I had a
great time tossing bottles and glasses, and I practised
when it was quiet. That wasn't oft en, though, because
the place was usually packed and really rowdy, and there
were lots of brawls there. It was so much fun. I did that
for about six months, and looking back now I don't
know how I ever managed to juggle it with working
full-time at Lloyds. I was doing at least a few shift s at the
Orient every week – mostly weekends, meaning from
Thursday to Sunday. I would go straight from work and
get changed at the bar, and then get straight on with the
bartending. (Talk about being a workaholic!) It did turn
out as a great way for me to make new friends, though.
    On nights when I didn't have a shift at the bar straight
after work, I would go clubbing with the people from my
bartending job, and it was on one of those nights that
I took Ecstasy for the first time. That same crazy night,
I met my first Lebanese boyfriend and I thought I was
in love (when it was the Ecstasy speaking, of course).
I spent most of the night dancing on the podium in the
club while I was high as a kite, and so I was a serious
mess the next day. I was supposed to work at the bar
right afterwards, but I actually quit the bar job that very
day. I just wanted to go out and have a good time for a
change and felt I didn't need the extra money.
    After living in Manly for six months, I left to move
to the city, because it was taking me too long to get to
work and back, especially if I wanted to go out clubbing
at night. I got myself a studio apartment on Elizabeth
Street, within walking distance to work and the clubs of
Oxford Street.
    Over the next few months, my life was all about
clubbing, especially with my friend Kristie, whom I'd
met out partying one night. Kristie lived in Penshurst,
south of the city, and she asked me to move in with her.
I was getting a bit lonely and was happy to have new
friends, so I moved. I didn't care that it was almost as
far away as Manly, because now I had more people to
go clubbing with, and we would all pile