Sometimes I want to disappear

[Houdini – Foster the People]

I know I am almost a week late on these posts but it sort of just occurred to me I hadn’t written anything.

So, last Monday I went to see Foster the People at the Palace Theater with Amelia, who else… It just so happened that I somehow capped my incredibly large allowance of Internet because my entire family was streaming and downloading lots, so I didn’t have a way to do my timetable registering. I ended up going to Mela’s house super early to use her Internet, while getting the chance to cuddle her dog which is starting to like me quite a bit.

As usual, Portal crashed spectacularly, so in the end I got Annie to do it for me anyway, but at least I got the chance to cuddle with her a bit and play with the puppy before we realized that we were late. We were trying to move some Doctor Who episodes onto an SD card because the hotel room has a TV that can read SD cards, but in the end it took so long that we brought Mela’s laptop along anyway.

We took the train up from Ferntree Gully station, which was a, oh, 1 hour ride…and we managed to get to the city when it was getting kinda hot. We took the tram up to the Palace Theater, where around the corner our hotel stood, and we passed a girl sitting outside the doors with a book and a water bottle. “Surely,” I said, “surely she’s not waiting already? There’s still 5 hours left!” But Mela said, “why else would someone sit outside a venue?”

We went to our room, which was smaller and less luxurious than the NYE one, but came with a kitchenette and cutlery. We watched Ready Steady Cook for a bit, then went out to a late lunch. It took us a while to decide, but we ultimately decided on the new Taiwan restaurant on Swanston, which turned out quite nice. We missed out on an ice-cream parlor because we were running late on relaxing, so we’ve tucked it away in our mental to-do list. We got some cup noodles and cheeseballs which I was craving, and went back to our room with the leftover fried noodles from lunch to relax. We laid about a bit, then started watching Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood on Mela’s laptop, which I promptly became engrossed with. We started watching an episode of Doctor Who, and I didn’t realize my phone was on silent, because we missed a text from Julia saying she was lining up already. We hurried downstairs and met up with her.

To cut a long story short, I drank a lot of liquid which made me need to pee early, but I was way up front and if I left I wouldn’t be able to make it back. So we stood waiting for the opening act Last Dinosaurs for 90 minutes, and my feet were well sore before the first note was played.

During the open, this girl came up and stood behind us and started having a conversation with another girl in the middle of a song. So loudly. That I still remember that she works at the Art Center and earns 25 an hour. I ended up turning around to tell her to tone it down, at least while the song was going.

Foster was another hour away, and my bladder was really screaming. I didn’t want to leave Mela by herself up front, so I tried to stay with her as long as possible but 4 songs in I had to leave. It was so hard to get out, some people tried to push me back up front. I tried to get back again later, but the crowd was packed from the merchandise table, there was no chance 3 rows in.

Still, even from the back, I could feel the buzz of the crowd. If anything, Foster the People were good performers. Their big finale, obviously, Pumped Up Kicks, shook the place, and even at the back we were jumping.

After the gig, I was drained and unfortunately had no energy to go with Mela and Rebecca from the Wombats to Maccas, so Mela and I went back to our room. We heated up the leftover noodles and watched more FMA, then Mela ate some of the instant noodles, then felt really sick. We ended up just lying there while I rubbed her tummy, then we tentatively ate some cheeseballs and got ready for bed.

Accidentally left the air con on, so we froze if we didn’t pull up the blanket, and boiled if we did. Got up super early the next day to pack up and check out. Mela was tired and not a morning person, so I made toast and washed up. We got out just in time, and went to State Library to drop off our super heavy bags then went to Degraves for breakfast, as Mela’s never been.

We ate a full breakfast and ran into Dani who saw my check-in and called me to say she was next door. Then we walked around a bit and shopped for presents, then watched some more FMA at State before taking a train home.

So yeah, big day. Some else happened in Thursday which I will write about very soon.

Alex

Cardboard Boxes Took Us Miles

[Inevitable – Anberlin]

Yesterday (my net having finally uncapped today) I went out for a whole day of Brentwood people fun. Well, it would have been just Brentwood people except, as the world is small, MacRobs have started infiltrating that group too.

Started my morning at 8:30 am, and got ready, then walked to Jac’s house so we (Novo) and I can finally work on the song together. (I”ll spare you the hesitant exaggerations: we managed to ascertain the first verse, and get an imagery for the 2nd verse. We’ve more or less agreed on the pre-chorus, but not so sure about the chorus itself.) Jac made her sleepy and wet-haired appearance a while after Novo and I got there, and (I guess it was mean but) the three of us – including Jac’s mom – sort of teased Jac about sleeping so much.

(Jac slept through the first half of when Novo and I were working.)

Anyway, we managed to convince Jac to play a song on the piano. I don’t know what she was so shy about; she’s fantastic.

At around 12, Novo left because he wasn’t going to Brendan’s house, and then we waited for Nash to show up, and took the bus up to the Glen. It was getting quite cold and I felt a bit guilty for asking Jac to wear one of those big dress-shirts and stockings. She said she wasn’t cold. Her hands told otherwise. On the bus to Rowville, Nash kept on dozing off so I started throwing random bits of rubbish I’d accumulated in my pockets at him.

Finally, we made it to Rowville. Walking to Brendan’s house, Nash and I were shocked to realize he lived a mere 20 meters away from one of our other mutual friends (who doesn’t know Brendan). We were tempted to knock on this friend’s door and run away.

We sort of sat around for a while at first – Brendan has a cute baby niece called Brenda (yes yes I laughed too) – and Jac and I played with her for ages. That kid simply loves plummeting her fist into whatever she likes – and she liked me. She threw a ball right at my face, then chortled. I wasn’t sure whether to be flattered that she likes me so much with violence, or that she seemed to dislike a consequently unbruised Jac.

We were watching Tom and Jerry when Swin arrived, and as we were watching, as per usual, we played the ‘that’s you’ game. Jac decided at the start of the cartoon that I was Jerry. I looked at her and said, ‘You’ve never watched this cartoon before have you? You really picked the wrong team.’ She understood what I meant after, 3 episodes later, she realized Tom loses in every episode.

When Swin started feeling a bit bored, we decided to watch the 2nd Transformers movie. It was, to say at the least, a disappointment. Megan Fox didn’t even get that many awesome lines. I did like the scene where Shia’s mom got high off weed (half because Jac wasn’t aware that it was weed so didn’t understand why we were laughing, and half because the mom got insanely high).

After Transformers, we got pizza! Ate pizza while watching the Exorcism of Emily Rose that I brought.

I also found out I tend to make friends with people who are very grabby in a horror movie – April, and now Jac. It would have been funnier if my arm didn’t start aching.

People starting leaving at a certain point, and it got to the point where only Swin, Mani, Kay, Brendan, Jac and myself were left. We watched Doctor Who, the David Tenant episode with the Angels who move when you blink. That episode was freaking awesome!

Then, Brendan decided to put on Lesbian Vampire Killers. I was shocked he had it recorded. I also wasn’t aware that it was a very British/Tarantino movie (if not very C-grade).

Got home to find that my net didn’t uncap like it was meant to, and then slept rather late because I was up reading NCIS fan-fiction. Sue me.

Alex.