Hello Again

Yesterday was a day for reunion.

In the morning, I took the train up with April to the city so we could all meet up. Waiting at Flinders St station, I bumped into 2 people who I knew from my previous high school Brentwood. When the 2nd friend came along – Rach – I was rather pleased to hear Julia say, “How many people do you know?!”

Tiffany came along last, and when she arrived, we set off for Southside, in South Melbourne (it’s en route to Dani’s apartment via the Number 1 tram). We settled, and started ordering drinks and foods. April’s dish came first, and it was insanely large sized. We didn’t think she could finish it! (This isn’t one of those “but to our surprise she did” stories. She didn’t finish it.) Vania got her gnocchi, and seeing the large serving, we decided there was no way Vania – or any of us bar Jen – could finish it either.

We ate, and talked. There was a small discussion of Tom Felton started by Julia (the discussion was originally started by Jen about Rupert Grint). Pictures were taken, and then Bel gave Tiffany a “bear hug” with velcro bear-paw gloves! They were fantastic gloves.

Julia waited ages for her steak to arrive – long enough that everyone did their round of “maybe they’re still killing the cow in the back” jokes. As Julia worked her way through a steak larger than her face, April and Vania gave up on their dishes. The owner of the restaurant warned them that if they didn’t finish their food, they’re not allowed out.

Jen started eating other people’s food. It was to be expected, no?

After paying for lunch, we took the tram back to the CBD. Most of the girls got off at Flinders Station, and then SonJ and Jen got off at Colins St to go grocery (Coco Pops) shopping. Annie, April and I went all the way to Melb Central to meet up with Dani and Andrew who were already there.

April stayed under the clock waiting for Si, and Annie went to Borders to find Josh and Anna who were supposed to meet us as well.

I went downstairs and found Dani, and it was a lovely familiar feeling seeing her face again. We went back up and waited for Josh and Anna under the clock. It took them a while but eventually they arrived. After that, we went to Room 8 on Bourke St to play pool – my first time there. Watched Andrew be all hardcore with a pool glove. He won every match yesterday, with the closest game being between him and Si, both being on the final 8 ball. I played around on Dani’s iPhone. We played (they played) for 2 hours, and then we went to…where else…Red Silks for dinner.

During dinner, (Dani left halfway to meet her mom) Andrew was having a bitchfest to us about a member of Dani’s family. It involved a lot of swearing. Anna’s ears were ASSAULTED by the amount that Andrew was swearing.

After dinner, walking out, everyone voiced that they weren’t SO interested in going to see Nina Conti in the comedy festival. April was also sick! She didn’t tell me. So in the end, it was decided that Josh and Anna will go see a movie together, and April, Simon, Andrew and I took the train home after a detour to Laguna the Asian grocery.

Got home, watched a spot of TV, and then slept. I felt inexplicably drained after the day.

Oh, right, I have decided I may not adopt the calendar style for the 365, and simply just take 1 picture each day and post it. I do have a link for the site. I might link that picture back to a post here, each day, in the case I write one. Of course, I wouldn’t have to put too much effort into it because it’s just a webcam thing, but I figure Project 365 shouldn’t be taking over my life, but be a part of it. So. There you go. You’ll start seeing my work up soon!

Alex.

A Night Out With The Beast

(No, I’m not talking about Dani’s cleavage. Ahhh in-ish joke.)

I am extremely glad I have something I can post under “social life” again.

Last night I had a really full night, because it was Julia’s birthday dinner as well as Beauty and the Beast, the combined musical by MacRob and MHS.

The evening/night started when school ended and I headed off into the city with Sonam, Tiff, Vania and a bunch of others who, to make this blog more coherent, will only be named and censored when need be. We planned to meet up with Julia, Bel and Jen (and a similar other bunch) later on at the restaurant.

The plan had originally been to go to this cafe on Little Collins to let Tiff perve on some hot guy. We were slow getting out of the school so we powered up Little Collins (Town Hall side) only to find that the cafe (assuming it was the one April recommended) was closed. So we powered back down to the other end of Little Collins where we were about to enter Laurent. It was full so we went down a causeway and went into an Asian-run Italian themed cafe. It wasn’t bad, quite cosy, but it wasn’t as good as Giraffe (and I forgot its name).

After drinking and paying for coffee (I read my drink price wrong which held us up for about 10 minutes as Lisa tried to compensate for my stupidity) we went back down to Swanston St to catch a train up to the restaurant. There was some sort of giveaway going on and there was a mass of people on the opposite side to the Town Hall. I thought it was a gig but apparently not.

Went up to the restaurant. I forgot the name of the restaurant, but it was Italian and you get there via the Glen Iris tram stopping at Stop 31. Most of the people arrived and we started eating. There were pizzas and gnocchi and pasta and so forth and we all had a pretty awesome time joking around and making fun of Jen – who is such a good sport – and eating. A while into dinner we realized that the other end of the table was definitely having more fun than our end, so we tried to think of something fun to talk about but all Jen could do was bleat (literally).

Then food finished and we all made a racket taking pictures and singing happy birthday AGAIN. Jen and JenT tried to harmonise for 5 minutes to no avail. Then, when Tiff went to the bathroom Suse had the bright idea to hide under the tables so that when Tiff came back out she wouldn’t know where we were. We did it, and we were totally idiotic, with us giggling and hissing “SHH” all the time.

Got told off by the owner of the store so we paid and left, and decided to walk to MHS instead of tram.

Had a pretty interesting conversation with Lisa on the way there. I had to find a bathroom halfway down and unfortunately got lost coming back out (IT WAS MAZEY OKAY?!).

Got to MHS with time to spare, and waited around for Fel, Bee, Shaz, Mash and Fel’s friend Ryan. Turned out they’d passed me and were inside already (despite Bee saying she called my name I was annoyed and cold). Met Ryan, and saw a Yr 10 MHS guy with uber long/big blonde hair. I can’t describe it. It’s sort of punk/skater boy, shoulder length, huge fringe etc. He was an usher so I kept on trying to see his hair.

My English student teacher sat in front of me, coincidentally, and I wasn’t sure if it was her because her hair had changed. But it was her.

I don’t think I’ll give a review of the musical because I can’t be bothered, but I thought – and this was agreed upon – that this was the best one in the 4 years I have been here (and I went to every single one of them). The costumes, especially Cogsworth’s, was SO COOL! And Mrs Potts ACTUALLY had steam coming out of the spout of one “hand”. Or the hand of one “spout” whatever.

So, if you have the time, there is one last show tonight at 7:30 at MHS in South Yarra. Tickets aren’t that expensive and it’s totally worth it. No idea if it’s sold out.

Afterwards, we said bye to Ryan and (OH YEAH I saw Khanie during intermission and talked for a bit) Fel’s dad drove us home. I slept at 12:30 in time to be woken up at 6:00 by my dad forgetting to turn off his alarm (he was on conference so of course he wasn’t there to shut it).

“Tale as old as time, song as old as rhyme…Beauty and the Beast.”

Alex.