11:39 p.m. - 2004-06-02
Survival of the Insane - Day 82
Damn i hate being right sometimes... i said yesterday that today was going to be fragging insane and boy oh boy i was more than right.
people were lining up even before we opened and Lai San handed Scaling over to me. as soon as we opened at 10am about 30 people stampeded in.. and that was only the beginning.. the day soon degraded into pure madness
man where do i even begin?
well.. i did Scaling for 8 hours straight, with only one 5 minute toilet break at around 3pm. the crowds were just NUTS today. my first directing partner was Ann. i feel happy for her cos while i was sitting and turning the key, collecting cash, giving out photos and change, writing receipts and calling out cues (thank Primus for multi-tasking abilities), i could hear people in the queue behind me complimenting her directing skills =).
there was a point though where i think she got so tired that she just fell down! O.O.. it was a bit scary at first but she recovered pretty fast, and trust her to fall down in front of two strong, young guys who wind up helping her up. hmph! that guy-magnet!
well after that Ann was called out to help with crowd-control (i'll get to that soon), so i was on my own for an hour or so, either running back and forth between directing and key-turning (not an easy task i swear), or standing on the edge of the stool and yelling out directions (gah! no voice left!!)
believe me when i say it was just chaos. none of us took a lunch break. consider this: i cut my finger while stuffing money into the pouch and couldnt even move to run to the back and get a plaster. i had to keep licking the blood off till it stopped bleeding. good thing i have a fast clotting system.
thank goodness after 1pm Ridhwan and Melvin took turns helping me with the directing. bless you lads!
now about that crowd thing... it got to the point where Science Center staff had to be called in to help. it got to the point where Ann had to climb up near the Argonath with a loudspeaker to make herself heard. it got to the point where Krist and some of the volunteers got into costumes and started directing the flow of people into less crowded areas of the Exhibition hall. it got to the point where the showhosts (incl me) had to keep coming out to make announcements because the VSA people were busy selling tickets.
still dont get the idea?
well then... lets just say that the the queue to buy tickets stretched all the way out of the Annex building and into the carpark. the queue of people waiting to go into the Exhibition hall stretched all the way into the Science Center - and back again.
to put it simply, by around 6pm (which was when i FINALLY got my break), we had reached somewhere between 4,000-5,000 visitors.
Scaling surpassed its last record: when i left it, it was around $1,350 and rising (last record - $1,235)... the merchandise shop sold out its supply of Evenstars and One Rings and Primus knows what else and made a small fortune... the cafe made about $4,000... ticket sales went over $100,000...
are you getting the idea yet?
i swear i never want to go through a day like that again, eventhough i can look back on it now and laugh, but only cos i survived it... Lai San and Ridhwan acted out a Frodo/Gollum scene just as i was leaving at 9pm, which was absolutely hilarous. Ridhwan kept singing the "Rock and Pool" song in a high-pitched, off-key girly voice. both of them kept laughing and falling over when Lai San tried to do the "This is Sting.." line... took about 5 takes before they finally got a decent version recorded.
i'm thinking of making an "I Survived the LOTR Exhibition" t-shirt.
