No one’s so sure if the crime had a reason

[Me And The Moon – Something Corporate]

9 days and I forgot to write things!

The week past has been pretty routine – free time? Catch up with Mela. She has time before work? Go to Knox and hang out. On the Friday just after the previous post, I went to meet a lot of her friends when Mela held a BBQ at someone else’s house. In the end, Mela and her friends cooked while I sort of sat there and looked useless. On Wednesday just past we went to Tiffany’s house for a small group catch up, where Sonam attended, and it was amazing, because Sonam exists still! We literally did nothing at her house – just ate, lounged, played Monopoly Deal, then just sat there for a long time watching YouTube videos. It was very hot this week so we mostly tried to stay home. Yesterday, I took Mela to meet Catherine, who was so cool she was gonna get her Ps next week. I am very jealous.

Today I guilted Mela into coming into the city after her work to have dinner with me after my deathly 4.5 hours of dining shift. We had Red Silks, of course, and then sat in Fed Square while it rained all around us. We huddled under the one umbrella and kissed. I think it counts as kissing in the rain!

My feet are about to drop off.

Next week I have a 9am shift on a Sunday, meaning I need to take the first train of the day and be there half an hour early…or be late. Still, it was that shift or an 8-midnight shift the night before, and I wouldn’t even be able to get home!

Things with her are going so smoothly that neither of us can believe that it’s going to be 3 months on Monday. Has time flown so fast? At the same time, I find that day by day I am useless without her – when she’s at work, I carry conversations with myself (or the teddy bear that represents her) to keep company, because I am now so used to having her around. I think if we really count the minutes, we more or less spend every waking moment in contact with each other – and when we’re not I think it’s safe to say we both are thinking about each other. My phone’s gallery is simply filled with photos of her and/or the teddy bear. I suppose you all can say that I am a very dependent and clingy girlfriend, and yes, I am, but I feel so normal when I call her up first thing in the morning, and her response is so warm that there isn’t a moment when I get the feeling that she may not want to talk to me. Well, there are some moments, but I try to ignore them…I’m sure she doesn’t go AWOL on purpose – and I’m sure there are times when she’s wondering where I am when I totally forgot to text her or something.

On the friends front: I haven’t had the chance to really hang or talk to Clare in ages, and I miss her a lot. I think after this coming week which is a bit packed, I will try to hang out with her, maybe a whole day! Wow large dose of Clare. Josh and Anna I’ve also had little chance to really see, they’re both very busy people, and when they are free I am not, which is sad. Jen and Annie I see regularly, but since the holidays have started and they’re both working more, not so much. Brendan and Cindy I haven’t really seen since the last Chadstone shopping trip, and although Brendan and I text back and forth a bit, it’s not really connecting kind of conversation. And, Dani received the birthday parcel that Mela and I sent, and hopefully she’ll be back in Melbourne soon!

There are a lot of other people who I have not seen in a long time due to Mela – I guess I’ll have to take the on the title of “one of those“.

Alex.

Undercooked sausages

Last night I went to Brendan’s new house with Amelia to keep him company while his parents hold a BBQ party where all the kids are younger.

Originally, the plan was to go wingman for him, because we thought there might be some daughters around his age for him to prey-uh…meet.

But alas, the closest we could get to were 2 14-year old male cousins. So, as far as winging went, Mela and I couldn’t do much.

Before we went to Brendan’s, we dropped by Ser-‘s house for to pick up some of Amelia’s stuff. Ser- was watching Sense and Sensibility but British shows put me to sleep, so we started watching Vampire Diaries. Because, yeah. In the end, we realized we couldn’t stay long, so I went through the episodes trying to determine for how long the show started with “For over a century I have lived in secret”. We found: Season 2 Episode 9 was when they stopped.

Mela and I missed the bus, so we waited 40 minutes for the next one. I had a headache, so we went to the Maccas for some Sprite and a chat.

Brendan’s new house is a few dozen times more amazing than his previous house – and his previous house was actually incredibly good for parties. The new house had one of those staircases which would perfectly suit Brendan’s needs to come sweeping downstairs in his prom dress. His bedroom is also much bigger and brighter – but he needs a proper bed. Also, better and bigger kitchen, an area just waiting for a pool table to be installed, and a really well designed entertainment area in the backyard. The only downside is, it now takes me over an hour to get to his place via bus.

His family, all from South Africa, had a South African BBQ, and despite one sausage being slightly undercooked – the one I ate – the rest was ASTOUNDING. One of the sausages, whose name I forgot, but it was a South African style, had a very intriguing mix of spice, and a firm texture, and I regret not eating more of it.

We were watching Shrek and Wall-E, and realized that Brendan could quote about 75% of Shrek with amazing accuracy. I suppose 4 years ago that would have been amazing, but I don’t know, just not as cool anymore. We also watched Wall-E on mute, which was fine because Wall-E isn’t a movie that you really need too much dialogue to, so we made up our own sound effects.

We also watched Supernatural on the computer after kicking his little cousins off. Amelia wasn’t as scared as we thought she’d be, so perhaps she can handle some mild horror in movies after all. Not that last night’s episode was any scary.

Spent the rest of the night hanging out in Brendan’s bedroom, and then got dropped off at Amelia’s house, where my parents picked me up.

Can’t wait for Brendan’s own housewarming/birthday party. Maybe I should try to organize games like I did last year.

Alex.

You’re Gonna Listen To Me

[Faint – Linkin Park]

Preeetty sure I won’t hit 15 this month. I noticed I haven’t done a song post in ages so I might knock that over tonight as well.

So yesterday was Australia Day, and true to tradition (actually, it was my first recall-able time in the near 11 years since I’ve been here) I went to an Aussie Day BBQ.

I haven’t done a long and almost pointless documentation post in ages, so I might do it full on properly now.

Everything was going pretty peachy in the morning, despite being nearly late for my bus. But as I got on the train, with my hair sitting perfectly (pfft, who am I kidding), it started to drizzle. By the time I’d reached the 3rd station, it was a downright animal zoo out there.

Thankfully, Melbourne weather decided to mood swing towards niceness, and the skies let up the tears – albeit still rather dark and moody. I decided to be adventurous, and take a different tram to the one I would have normally taken.

Yeah, that was a bad idea. I got utterly lost, missed my stop, and had to wait an extra 10 minutes to take the tram one stop back. Then came the confused tourist walk to find the group. There was an awkward moment when I started walking towards a bunch of people near a BBQ purposefully, only to realize I didn’t recognize anyone there. Finally, I spotted a familiar face – the only one who’d arrived.

James, Jen’s friend who joined Juggling with us but then he actually went, had brought a football (the American kind) and, I know how ironic it sounds, but we started throwing that around. He tried to teach me how to throw it properly, but I suppose my hand-eye-ear-brain coordination simply went into hibernation this summer, because I don’t think I have the knack of it, still.

After a while, the MacRob girls arrived, meaning I had actually found people to talk to who don’t insult my lack of sporting abilities. So passed a good hour of sitting around chatting and catching up, followed by what seems to be a time-honored tradition of playing Big-Two and having at least one person not understand the rules and/or tactics. I am ashamed to say, however, that I lost a game.

When Jen T noted that there was another MacRob group who was also at Albert Park Lake (probably forgot to mention where we were), a few of us decided to take the walk to their area to say hi. We started the trek with enthusiasm, having been promised friends “just behind those trees”. The mood soon turned sour as “just behind those trees” turned out to be “halfway across the lake”. Annie, Julia and I watched in high mirth as Tiff weaved her way through the carpark, completely sober, but drunk on being herself, and Annie laughed so hard that she choked on her 20 years of existence.

We met up with the other MacRob group, which was essentially the other Japanese class plus some of our own. Huey had come back from her year in England, tanned as a Jersey Shore kid (oh, did I just make that reference), which was illogical to start with because she spent a year in ENGLAND.

Having stolen one of their drinks and made some great conversation about where people had been in 2010, we decided it was around time we started heading back. We went back in time to realize that while we were gone, the ice at the party had broken and everyone was getting along. So, in true MacRob style, we all sat in a circle and consumed food. Jen went on to consume half a chicken. Not kidding. I wish I was.

Er at some point I drank beer on an empty stomach and got a bit blurry but obviously nothing bad happened, because I’m not like that. So people started putting ice cubes down other people’s backs, and it may or may not have been at my instigation.

Anyway, at one point people started leaving, and as I saw two girls leave, I shouted, “BYE! NICE MEETING YOU!” only to realize I hadn’t actually spoken a single word to her. To correct myself of this mistake, I decided to introduce myself to the next new face I saw. The next new face I saw happened to be a name that I’ve heard many, many times previously, and with whom I share many mutual friends – Linh. So, you can imagine how creepy I was when I said, “LINH! Oh I know you! I know who your friends are! I FINALLY MET YOU!”

Lesson, children, don’t do that. Ever. Play it cool. Thankfully, she’s heard of me before too, but that didn’t stop her from noting that the awkward scale just went from 4 (random introduction) to 10 (admission to online stalking).

Lily showed up at, I don’t know, 4, and I finally managed to give her a birthday present, 2 months late. It was a toothbrush that played music for 2 minutes, in attempts to cut down her nightly bathroom ritual time. Also, it freaking played music into her mouth, man.

A bit after that, the BBQ drew to an end, and everyone dispersed. A large group decided to go to Fitzroy for milkshakes, and even though Julia, Annie and Tiff all left me, I had Jen, Steven, Brendan and James, and my newly made friend Linh (she kept on noting how awkward I was. I had to have Julia vouch that I was tired and usually I was rather sociable. Julia sort of nodded slowly and sarcastically).

The Milkshake place, whose actual name I forgot, is actually a pool arcade, so we all got our delicious milkshakes, and played some pool. I think I met more people at pool than I did at the BBQ, purely from making fun of one guy, Victor, who missed shots that first-timers would have managed.

When the games have been played and lost, and the milkshakes drank, we all headed back to Parliament. For some reason, the guys thought it would be a show of dexterity if we walked instead of caught the tram, so we had a nice cool dusk stroll back to the station, and I took the train home with Linh and Donuts (his last name is Duncan, so Dunkin’ Donuts. Get it?).

When I was at Glenny station I got stopped by this tall white guy who wanted to talk to me. He asked why Asians seemed to “only want to assimilate with their own kind, and not talk to others.” At that moment, I heard my mom honk to let me know she’s waiting, so I said “sorry, my parents are waiting.” He scoffed, and said, “I knew there was a get-out clause”, and walked off like I offended him. I thought, “How about ‘there was a my-parents-are-holding-up-traffic-at-a-busy-carpark?”

Some people need to calm down. He’s reading racism where there aren’t even text written.

At any rate, I had a busy night on Facebook last night, what with all the new adds and hellos (I made friends with the girl I forgot to make friends with as she left, and it turned out we had a LOT of mutual friends. Small, small world). I also got sunburned in the duration of an overcast day.

Alex.

Jagged Watermelon

Today, I went to Steven’s birthday BBQ. It was in Doncaster. Do you know how LONG it takes to get to Doncaster on a Saturday public transport timetable? On the way home, we didn’t have anything planned, and as things turned out, it took over 2 hours to get home.

Anyway, backtrack to morning. I got up UBER early and arrived at Steven’s BBQ at 10, and BEFORE he did! Hung out with Clem, Swang and a few of his other friends for, oh, an hour or two, before people slowly started showing up – no other girls showed up until Tracy, at around 12:30 or something.

Steven’s mom got a LOT of meat, and we cooked about half of it, and it fed the 15-odd hungry teenagers there. That’s how much meat there was. Elaine came along some 30 minutes before Mandy and Dot (even though Mandy first made contact with Jacky for instructions on how to get to the park around 15 minutes before Elaine arrived). In fact, the getting-to-the-park became a much favored topic of conversation – Big-Head arrived sweaty, and told me he had gotten off the bus 5 stops too early, and walked perhaps 2 km in the full sun and uphill.

There was a Nerf gun at the party, and we tried to shoot a can with it – which soon changed to shooting at Jacky. Mandy couldn’t seem to figure out the mechanism, and in trying to teach her, Jacky shot her in the face. Everyone “OHHHH”ed at that.

Susan was also lost, and she needed to be picked up by car. I asked Clem to pick her up, but he said, “I don’t know what she looks like! I don’t want to pick up random chicks!” Sureee he doesn’t. In the end, Brendan (not Whitty), who knows Susan and can drive, picked her up.

Viv arrived without too much problem, and she gave me a really nice hug. This was particularly important because she commented her concern on my blog before, and I had to mention it.

Later on, Jo L and Anna showed up, and after eating a LOT for their small figures, they made what they called Daisy Chains with Dot, put them on their heads, and took 50 photos of themselves (I saw this on their camera later on).

Brendan noted that I made fun of Swang a lot – but I think he doesn’t understand the love between us. I bag her but I do it with love – and she is the same. It’s all good!

I tried to make a new nickname for Elaine catch on, but it wasn’t working out. I can’t explain the nickname because it has something to do with her last name, but you can trust me when I say that it is an amazing nickname.

Susan was thirsty, and there were no more drink left, so she cut up the last of the watermelon. She decided to be arty with a big knife – which scared me – and tried to cut jagged pieces, like teeth. It actually worked.

The day ended when Mandy finally won a game of Big-2, after Jacky let her win. He had a winning hand, but she wouldn’t leave until she won, and it was getting late.

Mandy, Anna, Dot, Joanne and I took the bus home. At Nunawading station we just missed a bus, and ended up waiting 30 minutes for the next one. Like I said, it took me over 2 hours to get home.

Happy birthday Steven!

Alex.

Everybody’s Screaming

[Untitled – Simple Plan]

You know, the whingey one. Now, I haven’t written about yesterday, and since I have some time to kill before I gotta go shower, so I’ll write about both days.

Yesterday was my first O-day thing at Melbourne. I took the train up with Elmo (…Did I call her Jackie or Elmo? Who cares. It’s Jackie now.) and met up with Jen at Melbourne Central. She texted me saying “see you UCMC.” I replied, “Wtf is UCMC?” Now, who here remembers that blog post where I wrote “I invented a new acronym for ‘under the clock at Melb Central’ so it’s easier and faster to type”? Yes, I failed at remembering my own code.

Took the tram up to Melb U, and went to get my ID and concession cards done. I managed to look like a gimp in mine. Yes. I’m now stuck with it for 3 years.

Made it to my Host group just on time, despite getting lost and having to call my Host. Didn’t really know anyone there, quite a few of the other students in my group are doing Art as breadth or something, as a 2nd year transfer, or something like that, so I felt pretty small.

Oh, but there was this Norwegian guy in my group who closely resembled Cory Monteith from Glee. I may or may not have been walking close to him for the rest of the tour, just to hear his accent.

After the Host tour, I caught back up with Jen, Jackie, and then met up with Nay. We went around trying to get free stuff. We went to the Nando’s stall, thinking they’d hand out free Peri Peri sauce packets. We did get a packet. On the front it said “Not for soft cocks”. It took a good 20 seconds for us to realize we were each given a condom.

Got more free stuff walking around; lined up for 20 minutes for pancakes that came with really good strawberries, and then lined up for 20 minutes for the free BBQ. While we were eating we bumped into an old face from back old VET days with Nay. To cut a long story short, that was a very bad meeting.

Then lined up for snow cones. I wanted a massage too but you had to show that you were in the Student Union, not just lying and saying “yes I am” to get a free snow cone…

Caught up with more MacRob girls, then went home with Jackie. Hung out at the Glen for a bit before taking the bus back, just ‘cos there was nothing else to do.

Anyway, that was Tuesday. Now onto today.

Took the train up with Jackie again, and dropped her off at her building, which was pretty far away from the rest of the buildings. Went to my building which took a good 5 minutes to find, with many rotating bodies and maps.

Caught up with Spanna, who I hope doesn’t mind but from now I’m going to call Annie, her actual name. Then the Asian friends she made the previous day arrived, so I introduced myself. Thus I met Kristie (Christy? Christie? You know what I mean) and Josh. Josh, who was from Scotch, turned out to actually have many mutual friends with me. Also saw Pris, who looked really tanned, still.

Fast forward through a rather boring lecture, and we were lined up for the free BBQ (I love Uni having free BBQs all the time. Apparently later on they’ll have more, but with alcohol instead of soft drinks). Jen and Mai appeared, and smoothly we let them cut in line with us. Introduced Jen and Mai to Josh.

There’s a Facebook event called “Make things sexually awkward” so I decided to bring that up. It resulted in Annie asking Mai to hug Josh, because Mai has…rather…well…endowed assets. And Josh’s response was bloody funny (Let me clarify now that it was all in good humored fun, good humored and platonic fun, there was nothing there and it was all a joke):

“Wait, why are you hu-…WOAH!”

It was fantastic. And. Very awkward. So, mission accomplished.

As we were eating our lunch later, Dom and D.P. came along. Dom ditched us to hang off his MHS buddies (literally), so Josh was the only guy sitting with us. Had a pretty good lunch (I also remember an instance where Mai was holding my sunnies, and Josh pointed at them saying “Woah they’re HUGE!” But Mai was holding my sunnies around her chest area), and thank God we sat in the shade.

Went to another lecture thing later on, and it was so boring and patronizing. After that, Jen and I went to a final lecture, and I nearly fell asleep, or I did fall asleep, I can’t remember. Afterwards caught up with Annie and Josh who’d ditched us for something else. Jackie found us again, and then we took the tram back down to Melbourne Central.

At Melb Central, I managed to bump into Catherine and all, and it was fantastic to see them again! They were coming back from their Swimming Carnival (haha high school carnivals). Got home with a blister on my foot, from having to walk so much. Yes I am complaining.

So that’s my first 2 days of O week – two more days after this. There’s something happening with the Arts camp I think but I don’t know what. It’s rather confusing. Maybe I should rephrase: Arts “camp”. Yes, that does sound more suss. Good.

Will keep you posted.

Alex.

The Savior Of The Broken

[Welcome To The Black Parade – My Chemical Romance]

This post was written by Alex but posted by her lovely “master”, Jenny.

Yesterday was Jenny’s 18th birthday, and she had a BBQ at Jells Park. At least, she thought that was all there was.

I got up really early and went with my parents to Springvale so they would be able to drop me off at Glen on time. Had some weird but enlightening conversation with my mom regarding problems in her side of the family.

Got to the Glen at past 9:30 (after Jenny had called me almost 3 times demanding to know where I was) and met up with her at Safeway. We went around shopping, and then drove up to Jells.

It was warm but windy, and still getting better from feeling slightly coughy, I wasd worried. But then people started arriving, and I forgot about it. We started blowing up balloons (“ballons”, as Jenny’s shopping list read) and strung them up like a free-flying kite. It actually looked pretty nice. Met Alex C (I’ll call him AC in this post) and Hele-.

So when more guys came we started cooking. Steph played her awful K-Pop music.

Steph really wanted to go to the playground. She actually whinged about it. So we (Sam, Hele-, Steph, Ven- I think and myself) went to the swings. Then we went back, and by the time we’d gotten back most of the good meat were eaten.

We all sat down and had lunch. Hele- drowned my food in tomato sauce, making my lunch look like road kill. So I tried to kill hers in BBQ sauce. I remarked that my lunch looked like it was bleeding; she retorted that her lunch looked like it was taking a dump.

After lunch, and after taking about 2 hours to buy some drinks and change pants, Lois and AC arrived with a whole box of Cruisers. Thus the drinking started.

Jenny had maybe a total of 3/4 of a bottle before she felt ill. So ill that…well you can imagine. We figured, since she’d downed vodka shots before, maybe it was something in the Cruiser that didn’t agree with her. The best moment in what was a pretty awful moment was Nashi running up to Jenny with a bag and, standing like he was about to haul ass and run, thrusted the bag at her.

Pom was left to carry the (leaking) bad dripping with the stuffs to the bathroom. That was sorta funny too.

Anyway, sat with Jenny while she was trying to feel better, and watched Pom fail at frisbee with the boys.

After Jenny felt good enough to stop staring at a wall, we joined the others playing Blackjack: loser has to do a dare nominated. I sided with Jenny seeing as I forgot mostly how to play Blackjack, and so when we busted to 25, as the birthday girl, Jenny had to do the dare.

I think I won’t re-mention what she had to do. Because not mentioning it makes the dare sound even more…dare I say…Juizy?

Then came cake cutting time! Pom stayed up late and made the most beautiful pink cake. Then after that people had to start leaving. Some for the day…some…for what we made Jenny think was the day.

When everyone had more or less left, I was left with Jenny, waiting for her dad to arrive to “drop me off at the Glen”. Well, what was REALLY happening was that Lois had organized a surprise dinner for Jenny at the Sichuan Hotpot!

Apparently, though, the special girl knew about it (or rather knew there was something going on) because when I’d called her parents the previous night (and explained the situation in my crappy Chinese) she’d sussed already. Still. She looked reasonably pleased.

We ordered way too much food (and Pom spilled AC’s Smirnoff Ice that we snuck in) and so we sat there for over 2 hours eating our way through nearly 15 plates of food. Near the end, we smelled burning in the hotpot, and told the waitress whom we’d already pissed off (and who Kevin tried to boil) that we burned the hotpot.

3 minutes later, Andrew started scooping in the murky water, and lo and behold scooped out a metal ladle that had been sitting in there for maybe 20 good minutes. Burning? Try boiled metal.

I hope we didn’t get food/metal poisoning.

I got home ready to burst and collapse at the same time. But I was happy that (despite minor setbacks and regurgitations) Jenny seemed to have enjoyed herself very much.

Happy Birthday Love!

Alex.

Somebody To Lean On

Ah, thus my 3rd installment of one of the most awesomest weeks of my life.

Now, as you may remember I went to sleep at 1 am on the Wednesday night (Thursday morning, whatever) and I had a 5 am wake up on Thursday morning in order to catch a 6:25 train so we could be at school by 7:30. Saw Eunice at Glen Waverley which I didn’t expect because she’d previously said she wouldn’t. But meh.

She was in brown overalls and later bandaged up her head, because as Jack from Jack and Jill, she fell down and broke her crown.

More MacRob people arrived, and then some MHS guys in UNIFORM as well. Annie came on at Mount Waverley with a huge spoon. I thought it was a dirty metaphor until she said that Jen T is a fork, and they’re the famous (if not stuffed up) “dish and spoon” (you can see the stuff up because Jen T was a fork).

I was in this huge cape as Phantom Of The Opera (Yeah, I gave up on Mojo Jojo or the whole Powerpuff Girls thing, for that matter). The mask stuck out weirdly so I didn’t wear it. People thought I was Dracula. I was okay with that.

Eunice, Fel and I got off at Melb Central to go to Coles, and I thought it would be a good idea to buy a small box of tissues. Met up with Carmaine who was the train after us, and we took the tram up to school, getting off at Bowen (I’m just using these terms because I won’t really use them  much after this….sad) and going over the overpass. There were no bras on there, much to Eunice’s disappointment (there was a prank or something planned where we all tied a bra to the overpass…I don’t know). We went around to the Lakeside Courtyard where we were celebrating, and there were teachers standing around making sure we didn’t have fun.

Had some pancakes and fairy floss for breakfast, and then went on to start camwhoring. THERE WAS A JUMPING CASTLE! Went onto it 2 times, once with Sonam who landed butt first on my face, and the 2nd time with Julia and co., with the former deciding to test the side safety nets by pushing me repeatedly onto it.

Took photos for the first 20 minutes until woe woe woe my batteries ran out. I relied on other people for photos. And, of course, I became the camera mule, taking pictures for other people.

There were many amazing costumed groups, some of the memorable ones were:

The Powerpuff Girls (of course) and the Rowdy Rough Boys

The Soft Drinks Cans (they made these huge cans that they wore, and Huey especially wobbled in them)

The 2 Rubiks Cubes (I tried solving them. The girls inside asked what I was doing. I said solving them. They laughed.)

Bridezillas (it was freaking scary)

Snow White and the 7 Dwarves (Nug was a dwarf. I got to laugh) and of course the entourage of Evil Witches and whatnots

Bumblebee arm on Optimus Prime from Transformers (here’s looking at Bel)

Madeline and the French Nun Woman Whose Name I Forgot! Someone remind me.

Firemen.

The French Revolution people (I have no idea who they were meant to be, but they had good facial hair)

And of course, the Oompa Loompas and Willy Wonka, which scared the crap out of me. I meant the orange people though.

There were many others unnamed, and all of them were good and you could tell everyone put a lot of effort into it.

After much excitement and photos, it was time to go to the hall for the assembly. We yelled, we cheered, and of course we…but back up…background first.

For the previous week, it has been known that the clocks have been disappearing from every single classroom in school. While most of the year level knew that was happening, we didn’t actually know WHY. This wasn’t revealed until at assembly, Saf stood up there onstage and said, “Okay girls, on the count of 3 sing with me.” No one knew what song, and Saf said, “Just go with it ladies.”

“1…2…3…”

“I want one moment in…time!” And at that exact moment every clock that we had (which was every clock the school had) were raised to face the rest of the school behind us, and we all joined in a heartfelt, off-key, screeched out and by all means AWESOME rendition of One Moment In Time (the high-high-highlight being “when I’m racing with destiny” when everyone forgot EB’s advice to let the note envelope us and instead tried to shoot it from the top of our heads…it was nasty).

Then, the first act came on, and it was a lovely little dance number. I can’t recall all of the songs, but I just remember 2 scenes. 1, the first scene, when Mishie and Rach Tan (the former being a MacRob girl the latter being an “ENTER score” sought each other out through the crowd to Swift’s Love Story (“we were both young when I first saw you”). And then the 2nd scene was when Mishie was left by herself when ENTER abandoned her, and she sobbed out “ALL BY MYSELF!”

Then it was time for the video! Except there was a technical difficulty, so Amee went ahead with her piano improvisation. It brought tears for many of the girls, and started the mood for the video off.

The video was great, even if I do say so myself (and on behalf of my fellow committee-ers). It brought laughter where it was wanted, gasps where it was planned, and tears where it should be. Mr Rus- as Superman was amazing (and it was the first time I saw that skit, so I laughed so hard I teared), and all the other videos were of top-notch standard. People said afterwards that not a single video in it was boring, every one of them was great. That was the best compliment we could have gotten.

After the video, the tissues I bought came in handy, as those around me started bawling (I got the aloe vera kind, so it was good on their noses).

Then Pru- and Mari- went onstage and sang “Lean On Me”, during which Pru- cracked up which cause most of everyone else to cry (I still didn’t cry…which was weird).

Later on, when the rest of the school had left (we all did a standing ovation for the Yr 11s and others who were with us. I NEARLY felt like tearing at the thought of leaving Catherine, Fa and Julia L)  we started on the awards of “Most Likely”. And, true enough, Bel and Julia got “Most likely to be each others bridesmaids”. Mari- got “Friend Whore” because she was the most frequently mentioned person in the 3 categories “Most Compatible Pair” “Most Unlikely Pair” and something else.

After everything, after farewells to everyone, we headed out to leave. The Yr 9s gave us a human tunnel for us to leave by, each of them saying “we’ll miss you! Good luck!” and we all agreed, perhaps this bunch has some hope left yet.

Had a final Form get together at the picnic tables, where Jen and Nay handed out these little envelopes and in it they’ve described each person as an element. I was Sodium. It was a salty (not sweet) description, and it was lovely.

Left with BRuCE, Fel, Dani and Zara to Dani’s place for an impromptu BBQ. I felt sleepy by that point. Called Julia L to wish her a happy birthday and turned out she cried!! What a darl.

And thus ended my career as a high school student. In less than 1 month I will be free. Free from exams. Yet at the same time free of the protective and familiar environment that I’ve grown accustomed to over the last 4 years, and free of the faces that I’ve come taken for granted to see. And I don’t feel like it’s a good thing at all.

Alex.

BBQ

Yesterday I went on a BBQ that I was invited to by someone I knew from two years ago. I figured it would be okay. I ended up being introduced to a whole bunch of MHS guys who I either will never meet again or hope to never meet again.

But there was free food, which was a bonus. Although the Tim Tams melted in the sun (a guy dared another one to eat a melted Tim Tam, figure) and the picnic rug was a pale floral bedsheet and the mushrooms looked like brains, the sausages were good (oh, ha, ha) and the snacks were good. People brought heaps of soft drinks, and a small esky in which we tried to stuff a shitload of ice and meat in. It didn’t close.

Cathy and Ang- were there, and Ang brought her friend Andrew. I knew Cathy was gonna be there but it was a pleasant surprise to see Ang- there, and thank god too, because the four of us (including Andrew, who by the way in case you got confused is not the Andrew that belongs to Dani) just sat at a picnic bench and talked (it was by the Yarra, so it was windy, and I DEMANDED shade!). Then a guy called Keiran (I’m guessing that’s the male spelling) who’d previously thrown a Freddo at my head joined us, and threw half of Ang-‘s unwanted sausage into the river. We screamed at rowers and then when Linh came I managed to convince everyone that she was my second cousin (god I love that) and sparked a solid 3 minute debate on what second cousins actually are. I maintain that second cousins are when one of your parents is cousins with one of their parents. Others said it was your cousin’s cousin. I said, “That would be yourself.”

In the morning before the BBQ, Carmaine had a volleyball game at MSAC and when she finished she found me at Melb Central, and we went to RMIT to play pool (that’s fast becoming a regular thing. We’ll seriously end up being regulars there, even if we don’t go to RMIT in the future). We met (I met, Carmaine saw) Jack and Charles and Tom, all MHS guys going to the BBQ, and I played Carmaine twice, won once, and Jack did the same. I dubbed Carmaine “crazy ninja” because she always managed to get some pretty nasty shots in. For what it’s worth, the games were very close, for we all fought out with the 8-ball by the end.

Carmaine and I went to the BBQ only to have Carmaine leave almost immediately (but not before meeting Jalex (yes I realise the semblance to my previous blog, but these two are completely irrelevant) and subsequently…well I won’t say anything nasty but if you’d met Jalex then you’d too be…) and I picked up Cathy. Cathy, Ang-, Andrew and I left at around 2 promising to come back (we never did. The food ran out and everyone was getting bored) and we went into the CBD. We said bye to Ang- and Andrew at Dymocks and later April joined us. The three of us bought Bubble Cup (they need bigger menus for shorted sighted folks) and sat in front of State Library and talked. April and Cathy got along quite well! I think it was mostly because they were both DUX’s of Year 10 (nerds) and both had a boyfriend they gushed over.

Cathy left and April and I went to find some new shoes for her (her current shoes look like they’ve been to hell and back, and then had to make a return trip because it fell apart in Helllll) and at around 5 I found Carmaine again and we took the train home.

Because I was so late home, I ended up taking the bus and walking home from the bus stop. It pleased me that I wasn’t at all out of breath when I arrived home, nor were my parents scolding me for being late (I called in advance to say I’ll be home later, but I still expected a telling-off and a lecture on safety).

Aaaaand that was it for the week. Nada and zilch for the rest of the week (which suits me fine but also I want to see BRuCE again, god do I have absence withdrawal) and next week is officially the last week of unofficial holidays. Carmaine leaves next week. I hope that sentence has as much impact on others as it does on me.

De Fluffe, Out.

BULLFUCK!

It was a long day yesterday. And I LOVED IT!

And hooray, for having something to write about.

The day started with my walking to the bus stop, despite my mom’s invitation to drive me to the train station. I didn’t want to be in a car with her telling me and lecturing me about next year. The walk is much much better.

I arrived at school half an hour earlier than I’d planned, mostly due to funny bus times and extra trains (who would’ve thought Connex actually had more trains than before?) and went on my man-hunt for Jess-with-my-money-for-Jap-books. Got Julia to advertise and sell a couple of my books, and walked around with Nug trying to find said Jess. Found her in the gym. Got my money. Hoo-ah.

Sat with Carmaine and L- (okay, so she has 2 letters in her name so I had to censor it like that) in Methods orientation, then Julia Yr 10 joined me on my other side. Realized how thoroughly I need to revise over the holidays if I wanted to catch up, seeing as freakin’ Julia was smarter than me (I maintain that I will be the dumb Yr 12 and she the smart Yr 11). Saw Bee and other Peer Support people afterwards, and hung out with them. Sang happy birthday 3 times. Okay but I won’t go into detail as the day was long, and Bee is waiting to read what happened in the evening.

In singing rehearsals, I sat with Dani and April and Liz, and D.P. was in front of me. Endearing Brute kept on stopping after every song – technically, just before every song, which drove us mad because we were all taking a breath to start the next son when she stopped us – and we were all chattering when Endearing Brute screamed “SILENCE!” True to our nature, Dani and I both shrieked (softly) “I KILL YOU!” April rolled her eyes and Miss Har- who was standing next to us looked thoroughly confused, but not angry. I don’t think she likes Endearing Brute very much.

Mumbled our way through Gaudeamus and Vale, then it was OUT TIME! After an impatient wait, a few of us went to Dani’s apartment, to start preparing for the BBQ. But, of course, the kittens were there. Who cares about a BBQ when you’ve got tiny curious kittens trying to eat your stockings? D.P. had a cat stuck on her stockings and pull as she might, she can’t get the cat off. Poor kitten was in the Superman position, absolutely refusing to let go of its prized possession. I had to go in and pry the fibre off its claw. Diep had 3 kittens at the most crawling around her, and Andrew had one on his bum. He tried to shake it off but we all screamed at him to stop. Apparently the kitten was more important than Andrew not having his bum scratched out.

Finally we went down to start cooking for the BBQ. Soph, Fra- and Shaz arrived, as did two of Dani’s old friends. I had to leave after eating half a sausage to buy a text book from a Yr 12 – thus nearly completing my book requirements for next year – and so I walked all the way from Dani’s apartment back to the school, a good sold 20 minutes’ walk, then, when I’ve NEARLY made it back to Dani’s apartment, my dear Carmaine calls me from the school to pick her up. So I start walking back to the school, I find her – it was hard, for some reason – and we make it back to the apartment in time for her to take nearly 20 minutes to change, wrap Dani’s presents and for me to play with the kittens more. Dis- and Leanne were both there when I got back, as were Marco and Nat and a couple of other people. By the time we all went downstairs, the food was mostly gone, it was windy and cold, and I had some of Sonia’s boob cake (don’t ask, won’t tell). Actually, the boob cake was good.

After screaming out happy birthday for the 4th time that day, 2nd time to Dani, and eating the cake, watching the other Asians camwhore, cleaning up – something that only Andrew and Dani did, ha – we all went back upstairs, played with kittens (Eater tried to eat us. Car- was very much scared. She couldn’t go pee without making sure Eater was well clear) and then decided to head off for KBox – karaoke.

Somehow, we lost a bunch of people getting on the tram. By the time we got to KBox, only Dis, Soph, Andrew, Dani, D.P., Carmaine Diep and I were there. KBox was booked out (bastards) so we went to Party World. Party World wasn’t open and plus was too expensive (double bastards) and by that time Dani was very very very annoyed. We thought about watching James Bond but in the end, decided to go to an Asian grocery, buy a whole heap of food, and going back to Dani’s apartment to eat and watch DVD. Lost Dis- and D.P. along the way. We started watching The Bee Movie, but the sound file was not working so we watched Ghost Rider instead.

It was crap. Didn’t get it. Didn’t like it. All I remember is Andrew yelling “BULLFUCK!” in a particular scene. Carmaine retorted “Isn it usually ‘bullshit’?” and she looked at me for confirmation. Being engrossed in how J.B. was going to jump pver 30 trucks, it took me over 5 seconds to reply, “yeah that’s right.”

Speaking of Andrew vs Carmaine. Bee, you remember on the photoshoot day there were remarks about the size of both parties’ eyes made? Well last night it was taken to a whole NEW LEVEL. Andrew tried to integrate a “because your eyes are too small” joke about Carmaine in EVERY SINGLE SITUATION. Eg, Carmaine: “I want to kick him but I can’t because he’s attached to Dani.” Andrew: “It’s just ‘cos your eyes are too small you can’t tell the difference between Dani and me.”

Carmaine and I left Dani’s at around 10, much to my parents’ distaste. On our train there was a business-looking woman listening to loud doof-doof music on her leaky headphones. Needless to say, I started to bop to her music.

Slept at 12. The rained hard and long (Ha. Ha. Ha.) this morning and it was nice to be in bed listening to the pounding.

Carmaine and I both agreed that a day out is much better than a day in. Dani’s place is like a place of freedom, of fun, of independence. Go Dani!

And so concludes yesterday. Julia Yr 11 is going overseas tomorrow. Jen and the Jap crew had touched down in Japan yesterday. I’m not goin’ anywhere.

De Fluffe, Out.