Move Your Mind

INTRODUCTION

I just didn't know any better.

Time stopped, just like in the movies. I could see the houses in front of me as my car was spinning, and I could hear the song ‘Under the Bridge’ by Red Hot Chili Peppers at full blast. I remember thinking quite clearly, ‘This could be the end’, and having a wave of emotions crash over me. My heart sank.

It was a cold, rainy night on 13 July 2007, on the back of a big week of partying. My parents were away at our family holiday house in Wye River, Victoria, and I had a group of friends staying over at my home in Williamstown, Melbourne. We'd been out drinking on consecutive nights and, apparently, I'd been drinking everyone else under the table that week. Always the dedicated obsessive: if I was going to drink, I was going to do the job properly.

That night, we'd been out drinking again at Seven Nightclub at a night called ‘Unlucky Thursdays’. It was our favourite and I looked forward to it all week. Drunk after another big session, I finished up and left, along with my best friend, Huw, and mates Aidan and Jason. We took a taxi and headed back to my house.

Once home, I don't know what had possessed me to get into the family Saab. Maybe I wanted to grab some food. I can't be sure. Huw, who I'd grown up with, decided to jump into the car with me. He was in a similar drunken state, and for some reason decided to lie down across the back seats of the car.

I took off, flying down the main street in Williamstown at 90 km/h in a 60 zone, ...