And since we’re being honest, I feel I should tell you

[Between You And I – Every Avenue]

Big day yesterday.

Got serenaded while being asked out by one hell of a girl called Amelia (ahh it all makes sense now, doesn’t it, reader?) who only picked up the guitar about half a month ago. She wrote the song herself (with some help from Brendan and Cindy). She refuses to send me a copy of the lyrics, but basically it was the sweetest thing anyone has EVER done for me. Bar has been set damned high.

Haven’t stopped smiling for about 48 hours.

Spent a whole day with her today when she went to a job interview. Pretty much stoked and excited to have someone I can just hang out with all the time and go do things with.

You’re probably not going to be graced with a moody post for a while! Fingers crossed, at least.

Alex.

Rip Down All The Picture Frames Of My Life

…this time we’ll leave this town.

I personally blame Carmaine for this, but a nice blame sort of way. Like a friendly ha-ha-damn-you kind of thing.

This is the Big M ad (the one where they’re driving around, riding on bikes in costumes they bought at a garage sale, and then they jump on the milk cartons). It’s very summery. I think I will enjoy playing this song over and over again this summer.

Picture Frames – Georgia Fair

Alex

Big girls and bigger girls – all are beautiful

I suppose you wondered why I quoted FERGIE in my previous previous post “Big girls don’t cry…” etc.

That was because I wrote that on Tuesday, which was the day of the Middle School Soiree.

Jen and I, being in the guitar ensemble, stayed behind afterschool for the soiree.

The dress-up theme for that day was Previous School Uniform and Carmaine came in just casual, but it looked a bit preppy (save for her short shorts). Someone asked her if that was her old school uniform. I said, “Yes, because her old school was Ralph Lauren.”

Afterschool, after sound check (I had my first sound check, and last, and it was awesome), Jen and I went into South Melbourne just basically to unwind and eat/relax before the soiree. It was a hot day, 27 degrees celcius, so we went to the Coffee Club on Clarendon. It had free Wi-fi which made our afternoons. We had our iced drinks and instead of JUST TALKING TO EACH OTHER across the table, we Facebook messaged each other.

It was fun.

Went to Baker’s Delight and I bought a chilli pizza which was actually chilli, kudos to them.

At 5:20 pm the weather suddenly changed to become colder. I took the time.

Walked around South Melbourne for a bit so Jen could have a gawk at a few things, and went past the Bookstore on Coventry St. We went in and went to the back which was the kids’ section. Spent about 40 minutes there just browsing through kids’ books.

Saw a book titled 1001 Books Kids Must Read Before They Grow Up. In the ages 12+ section there was Twilight. I reckoned the book could’ve just been 1000 Books.

Also saw these two books (one of which not only do I know already I’ve actually posted a blog about it over a year ago, to whomever can remember it):

Does anyone remember this post?

And also this:

It made me rofl hard.

Then, as Jen went to the counter to buy “Where The Wild Things Are” the guy behind the counter asked, “is this for a little girl or a little boy? Or a big girl or a big boy?” And I started laughing because it was for SonJ, who is a big tall girl.

When I then went up to buy the first book for Carmaine, the guy asked, “Is this for the same big girl?”

Jen replied, “No this is a different big girl…a biggER girl.”

We laughed all the way to Nandos.

I bought a coleslaw because I wasn’t hungry, Jen bought regular chips. We went to the playground area near the roundabout near Napier St and ate it, and then went back to school to perform.

We were okay.

That’s the end of Tuesday.

It was awesome fun.

Alex.

I’m now rockin’ (more than I was before)

Today, my parents got me my birthday gift early (because Billy Hyde had a sale on and we didn’t know if they will soon again).

It was an electric guitar…specifically the Squier Guitar by Fender. Mine was called Starburst (as in the color. I suppose I should give it a really cool name too).

Isn’t it lovely? I think it is. And the broken skin and soundly bruised fingertips that’s aching with every word I type think so.

That sentence didn’t even make grammatical sense.

Anyway, I’ve taken a break for tonight, lest I actually mess up my fingers. I’ll probably be Googling tabs all night, so screw Chinese homework! I am very very behind on it.

Alex.

OOOH OOOH OOOH cont’d

Ah, so where did I leave off?

Right, Eunice and I had just watched Nereids’ rehearsal.

So, we went to Maccas and came back to school to eat with NicJing, Kris-, Bald Bec (I’m not being mean; she’d shaved her head for charity) and some other people. We made jokes about Kris-‘s industrial sized tub of food. Well, it was a really large tub, the kind that would feed a family of 8 for a day, and she was eating it for dinner. It was amazing that she’d downed 3/4 of the thing already.

Finally, went up to the House Room (ie a heavily crepe-paper-and-ballooned-science-room) and sort of walked around a bit in there, watching the cast members put makeup on each other. I commented that you could tell the front half of the room was artsy cast people, as they were all off their heads shouting and makeup and hairspray etc etc, and the back half of the room were the orchestra people, dressed conservatively in black, quietly cradling a ‘cello or sucking on a Chupa Chup.

Then, Chorus was called for a last minute rehearsal. Chorus, for those who are not familiar with Greek plays, are a large bunch of people who stand off to the side of the main stage, and they sort of act/interact with the play. So, if something shocking happens, the Chorus would gasp. If there is a song, the Chorus might sing along.

Avs and Millie took the Chorus, a crowd of maybe 30-odd girls, out behind the gym. By this time, dusk had well settled in. Well, dusk was about to get a very loud show.

Suse had gone with me out of curiosity to see how Chorus would rehearse. Avs and Millie told the entire Chorus to back, back, back into the oval. They themselves took 15 paces back, until they were roughly 100 meters apart, across the grass from each other (my perception of distance is somewhat shite. Maybe it was 50 meters). Then, Avs said, “IF YOU DON’T SHOUT, I WON’T BE ABLE TO HEAR YOU! SO BE LOUD!” (as Chorus don’t have microphones, to be heard in the hall they’d have to be loud).

Then, they proceeded to rehearse and show me the funniest part of the night.

One of their lines were cued by Enrique’s “I CAN BE YOUR HERO BABY!” to which they all chorus “OOOH OOOH OOOH” as backups. So, Avs and Millie at one end of the oval, screamed their cue, and like 30-odd angels of hell, the Chorus hooted “OOOH OOOH OOOH!” into the appalled dusk (and much to my continued amusement). After the 1st time, where I fell down onto the ground in laughter, they did it again. A cyclist going home passed just as the 2nd round of hearty yet haunting “OOOH OOOH OOOH” pierced into the terrified atmosphere, and he – the cyclist – turned his head around in a sort of “WHAT IN THE NAME OF FUCK WAS THAT?!”

I watched them go through Bohemian Rhapsody, which the Chorus did well in, but of course Avs and Millie had to give them their cues. They didn’t know the lyrics, so they sort of did a combination of drums/electric guitar/dananana in a hectic harmony. I suppose words aren’t good enough to describe how insanely funny that was to witness.

Suse and I went back to the House Room, and then Nat provided me with the 2nd funniest moment of the night.

For some odd reason, Nat stood next to me and pointed off into the distance. She’d done that thing where you look off into the distance and get someone else to look at what you’re looking at (that is, nothing). So, Nat and I decided to prank a few more people, and flagged down whomever we recognised as they passed us. We pointed out the window, “SEE? Oh my god see that? It’s so awesome! Look! Can’t you see it?” Most of our victims tweaked after a while and walked away shaking their heads, but Fatty Tran (merely a nickname to censor her name; she is by no means fat) was so excited to see this “AWESOME THING! JUST PAST THAT FORK IN THE TREE!” that she even put on her glasses and consented to making binoculars out of her hands and turning her head to the side, which is the “best way you can see it!”

Right before our performance, we all went back behind the gym (furthest from the hall, so if we made noise it’s okay) and did a warm up. We, as a house, stood in a misshaped circle and shouted the “Hokey Pokey”, shaking all our limbs as well as our bodies, and generally making a very weird cult-like presence. All warmed up, we realized we were a bit late to go onstage, and hurried into the hall.

So, showtime. Got the laughs we wanted, and Fel did fantastically conducting us, especially in Bohemian Rhapsody (the time change just before “he’s just a poor boy”).

Afterwards, we said bye to Eunice and Fel, Bee and I went home, driven by Fel’s dad. Slept at 11 and could barely force my eyelids open this morning. I went to Dani’s place in the morning and while she was getting ready Andrew and I watched Dracula. It. Was. Cool. I want to see it all now.

And that, was most of yesterday and this morning.

Now, I will go watch Ghost Whisperer. Will Jim/Sam remember Melinda? Haha.

Alex.

I can be your hero, baby… OOOH OOOH OOOH

I’ve left myself a very small amount of time to write about a huge day/night. I’m really sorry!

So, last night was Chorals. Chorals is a sort of house-competition musical thing that MacRob does annually. It’s a big deal, house-wise.

This was the first, and last, Chorals I have been/will be in. It was hectic, especially in the last few days. People yelled at people, and it was all okay because it was all for Chorals.

On Tuesday, I spent Period 4, lunch and the start of Period 5 in the hall rehearsing with the orchestra. I’ve never been in an orchestra before, so this is massively awesome being in a huge musical performing group (I was doing guitar for Hero, by Enrique. I think I’ve mentioned this).

Alright, so Wednesday morning was all good and all for the ones not that in charge of anything. But then 1:30 came and there was a massive problem with who gets the hall when. We hung around wringing our hands for about an hour before it was decided that 3:45 was our hall time, 3:00 was our prior-to-hall-rehearsal. Jen and I went on a Maccas run (unfortunately, that won’t be my last. I had a whole day of Maccas on Wednesday. Say it with me: FAT). She told me a rather amusing story on the way which I won’t repeat for her sake. On the way home we ran across SonJ and Diep, and soon realized we’d gotten on the No 1 Tram to Sth Melbourne, which turned off St Kilda Rd. SonJ was freaking out until I told her that I knew the way to school on the No 1 tram.

Got to rehearsal, had a quick run through in a music room, and then we went into the hall for our final dress rehearsal. Gen’d forgotten to plug in the electric guitar which I would also be using so I was freaking out because my classic does not have a pick-up and is NOT loud enough. Gen came running in 2 minutes befores I needed to be playing, and again, s’all good. Turned out she was late because someone had sat on a piece of costume and broke it, she was remaking one.

Rehearsal ended, and Eunice and I stayed behind to watch Nereids’ dress rehearsal. It. Was. Fucking. AWESOME! Eunice and I were sitting near the front, and were the only 2 active audience members in the hall watching their performance. We laughed loudly at all the jokes, woo’d and woah’d when Pras- took her coat off to reveal a femme-fatale dress underneath, and we swayed with the cast at the end.

Sorry, dinner is happening right now and I have to be there. There are more fun stuff to read about soon. I will try to blog the rest of this tonight or, failing that, tomorrow during my frees.

Alex.

SEE MY PANTS!

It’s the 2nd day of Term 2, and it’s alright. We’ve been told that this term will be a wakeup call, which is daunting since the previous Term was pretty enthusiastic an alarm already.

So, the title of my post.

A while back April was trying to describe to me this style of pants she wanted. She went as far as physically trying to show me, before I tweaked and said that Carmaine has a pair sort of like what she’s describing. Today, she wore those pants so I told her to go show April.

Something else that would’ve been funny for Carmaine to actually say out loud (the first being “SEE MY PANTS!”) happened yesterday. We were taking the train home with Sonali, and we got onto the topic of Carmaine’s blood. She said that she has an iron deficiency, to which Sonali said that there are supplements you can take for that. She added, “Apparently they turn your shit black.”

Carmaine said, “Oh, I’ll let you know.”

I said, “How are you gonna let her know? ‘Hey Sonali, guess what? My shit turned black!'”

Today, I stayed back afterschool to rehearse for my English oral tomorrow. Tiff had been running around to pick up printoffs, and when she got back into the room it was her turn to practise her speech. So she sat down and started reciting her speech, and she was puffing and speaking very fast. Ly said, “Okay slow down. You’re talking really quickly because your heart is beating 24/7.”

I said, “THANK GOD! Because that would mean she’s still ALIVE!”

Chorals is tomorrow. I am involved this year, playing Hero’s introduction for Oreads orchestra. So it’s gonna be a long day tomorrow.

Not a long update. Dom’s finally got ready access to internet so he’s emailing more often. Maybe he blogged. Hmm, I shall see later. You should go see it too, why not. Free advertisement.

Alex.

Swimming Carnival 09

Today I went to my last school organized swmming carnival ever. (In 2 weeks’ time, we will have Aths, that being my last school organized sports event ever, ever.)

It was stuffy and chlorine-y in MSAC, of course. Eunice swam…four races? Carmaine was downstairs most of the time taking pictures (with her new G10 “boy” camera) and got a good picture of Eunice just before her race started, looking athletic and awesome.

Bianca and Dani also went around taking pictures. I think. I watched some of Zack and Miri Make A Porno with D.P. until dicks started showing up, and then I went and sat with some people from my class for a while.

Today was the birthday of 5 people I know (6, if we count Tony 4 if we count the Double Chins as one). I said happy birthday to all of them – one of whom was Bon, who comments often! – and we basically just sat around. Julia wore a really really cute pretty tutu today, and Bel was a big red truck. We sat in this area and started attempting duets for Lucky (that is, Jen and I) and I think it failed sort of miserably. Annie kept on hitting me with a balloon which we called Balloon-da, after Julia called it replacement Bel.

Swimming sports ended with Oreads coming last (enh), Naiads 3rd/2nd and Nereids and Dryads both equal 1st. Eunice cheered my eardrums out. I did the parade with Naiads (again, I know I said I’d do it with Oreads but) and they had “Living On A Prayer” as parade music. Carmaine, Frank, Nug and I were near the back of the parade and when the chorus came on we shamelessly “moshed” and screamed “WOAH! WE’RE HALFWAY THERE! WOAH! LIVING ON A PRAYER!” and received well-earned looks from the juniors.

We went to Giraffe, a cool quaint little cafe near Elizabeth St. Dani had gone on a previous occasion and drawn a giraffe on a napkin and pinned it up. When she returned, she was shattered to find it taken off. Then she noticed that they’d placed it amongst the display on the shelves. The cafe is incredible, because it gives a very homely feeling (that is, they’ve set it out to feel like a dining room at home). We had our food and took pictures (of course. Dani, Bee and Carmaine all brought their uber-cool cameras so…). There were a salt and pepper shaker set, that was a white dog and a black dog. Carmaine, next to me, posed the black dog and the white dog facing each other, and took a picture. In the background of the picture were Dani and D.P. conversing, almost like a humanoid reflection of the dogs (look, if you know Dani and D.P. personally you’d know why). When I have the picture, I’ll put it up to show.

We went home afterwards, and who do we see on the train but Blue-Violin-Case-Boy! We talked to him for a while, and it was rather fun because we got to hear his life in Uni.

Hung around the Glen for a bit, because Bee wanted to print off photos at Rabbit Photos. I’d forgotten my house key so I had to be home after 4:30 so that mom will be home to open the door for me, so I strolled VERY leisurely home from the bus stop.

Got home, and I recorded myself singing Lucky, Jason’s part. Then I listened to the recording and sang along to that, but Colbie’s part. I’m out of key and a bit out of time but otherwise I’m happy with my efforts. And now I’m blogging, obviously, and typing up Legal notes.

And that was my last Swimming Carnival. I can’t wait until Aths. Who knows. Provided we have a do-able theme, I might dress up.

D.F.

Lucky

Lucky – Jason Mraz ft Colbie Caillat (I can’t spell it right haha).

First introduced to me by Joey. Thereafter by various other people in love with the song. Now I love the song too! I just don’t have my own copy, so I will start asking around for it.

The video I have embedded is not, of course, the original music video. I’m sure you’ll get to watch the music video on Video Hits pretty soon as it will (if it hasn’t already) become very popular. This video is of Lucky being covered by those two awesome Asian folks, and both their voices are amazing!

And, just so it is made easier for other people, I’ve included the chords for this song. I got it off Ultimate Guitar, so all creds go to whoever tabbed the song (sorry I forgot your screen name!)

Lucky

* means palm mute chords
[] use bar chord version

Intro: [C]*

Verse1:
[C]*                               Am*
Now do ya hear me talking to you
Dm7*                          [G]*           Em*
Across the water, across the deep blue ocean
Am*                 Dm7*
Under the open sky, oh my
[G]*
Baby I’m trying

Verse2:
[C]*             Am*
Boy I hear you in my dreams
Dm7*                        [G]*
I feel your whisper across the sea
Em*                     Am*
I keep you with me in my heart
Dm7               [G]         G#
You make it easier when life gets hard

Chorus:
Am           Dm7                                     G
Lucky I’m in love with my best friend
C                     (C/B)               Am
Lucky to have been where I have been
Dm7                  G
Lucky to be coming home again
C                       Am         Em                 G
Ooooh ooh-oooooh ooh-ooooooh….

Bridge:
Dm7                                  Am
They don’t know how long it takes
G                        Dm7
Waiting for a love like this
Am                     G                          Dm7
Every time we say goodbye, I wish we had one more kiss
Am                            [G] G#
I’ll wait for you, I promise you, I will

Chorus:
Am                    Dm7                                     G
I’m lucky I’m in love with my best friend
C                     (C/B)                Am
Lucky to have been where I have been
Dm7                     [G] G#
Lucky to be coming home again

Am                  Dm7                         G
Lucky we’re in love in every way
C                       (C/B)                    Am
Lucky to have stayed where we have stayed
Dm7                               G
Lucky to be coming home some day

verse3:
[C]*                               Am*
And so I’m sailing, through the sea
Dm7*                         [G]*
To an island, where we’ll meet
Em*                     Am*
You’ll hear the music, fill the air
Dm7    G
I put a flower in you hair

Verse4:
C                                     Am
And though the breezes through the trees
Dm7                             G
Move so pretty, you’re all I see
Em                                    Am
Let the world keep spinning round
Dm7                    [G]              G#
You hold me right here, right now

Chorus:
Am                     Dm7                                 G
I’m lucky I’m in love with my best friend
C                   (C/B)                 Am
Lucky to have been where I have been
Dm7                   [G]  G#
Lucky to be coming home again

Am                   Dm7                        G
Lucky we’re in love in every way
C                         (C/B)                    Am
Lucky to have stayed where we have stayed
Dm7                               G
Lucky to be coming home some day
C                 Am                 Em                      G
Ooooh ooh-oooooh ooh-ooooooh….

D.F.

/edit It has occured to me that the chords are not over the right words where you change them. Figure it out, it’s not hard.

It’s Beautiful, Man!

I went out today with Bee to watch YesMan and then had lunch with Carmaine and Eunice.

Haha, if only all my blogs were that short.

Regardless of how fucking hot it was yesterday (because I didn’t go out at all – score) I still maintain that today was close to being unbearable. Anything above 26 is pretty bad for me. I said to Bee, “I hope this winter is a cold one because we get to wear our own clothes so we don’t have to be stuffed in school uniform.” and she argued that our uniform isn’t that bad. But still. Those blazers stink when wet.

I took my walk to the bus stop and as I was sitting there waiting, April called. So I chatted a bit, and got on the bus, and Bee got on at her stop down the road, and at the end of the bus ride I nearly toppled over the seat in front of me because it – the bus – braked suddenly and I was in one of the back seats.

Bee laughed. Jerk (not really. I deserved it).

We went to the Glen and I got my recharge (yeah, there’s a gripe behind that that more or less goes along the lines of “stupid Optus”) and then went back to the cinemas and bought out tickets. Who do we see being the solitary ticket girl? Pam. Yep, I had actually thought this morning that it would be rather funny if we got Pam for our ticket chick and sure enough, Pam was our ticket chick. So of course I asked to be put down to children tickets. Gotta love Pam. Chatted a bit (but not too much) and then I got my Chop Top and we went up to see YesMan.

We got there rather early, and were the first ones in the cinema so we just talked loudly to each other until one of the guys who I suppose makes sure the cinema is in good shape came in, and according to Bee he was “really cute” and he chatted with us for a bit with his “nice voice” and then after that a few more people came in so we couldn’t talk loudly anymore.

Anyway, so my two cents on YesMan.

It wasn’t the best movie that Jim Carrey has done, then again Jack Black and Ben Stiller and Adam Sandler have all gone a bit kooky (granted I’ve yet to see Tropic Thunder so don’t hold me on my words there). But I had some pretty good laughs and came out of it feeling like I could…say yes to ANYTHING! (Except, as Bee found out soon enough, wear a dress. Ha.) But there was a rather sweet scene in a barn in the rain when the lead girl Alisha suddenly hugs Carl (Carrey) and I’m sorry, I nearly said “aww” there. Or maybe I did. The old lady “repaying Carl for his kindness”, that part, that was rather disturbing. Because he actually liked it.

After the movie, we were a little late to the pre-arranged meet time for lunch at The Arena in the Glen near David Jones (nearly 9 years living in this area and I’ve never been there) and so Carmaine and Eunice were there already when we got there. I said to Bee later on, “You either miss someone like crazy from the get-go, or you don’t realize how much you’ve missed them until you see them again.” And somehow both were the case today. Because I’d been on the phone with Bee a lot I hadn’t been out of contact per se with her as much, but I hadn’t talked to Carmaine and Eunice much at all and it was incredibly good to be BRuCE again, just being retards (or just me. Look I was influenced by Carrey, alright? Got a big loud and gesture-y) and laughing and catching up.

I ordered a really big burger, unfortunately it wasn’t good enough to warrant a “this burger is so good…”  but the fries were really good, and everyone kept on nipping one or two there.

We went to Country Road, then David Jones (you may remember The Arena was NEXT TO David Jones and Country Road IS NOT) and then went out to Real Gelati near the library. I saw Carmen working there! (I mentioned Carmen a couple months back from Chinese school) And so we chatted for a bit, and then we…went back to David Jones for Carmaine to be picked up by her mom – who was really nice and wished me a Happy Chinese New Year. Eunice and I had a couple of “Your Face” moments before that, and a lot of high-fives (or burger-five, or parody-five) were passed around. I even made Bee high-five me a couple of times.

Eunice went down the escalator (sorry, chronological disorder. This was all before saying bye to Carmaine at David Jones) and so Carmaine and I shouted down from the first floor “BYE EUNICE!” And yeah it was fun to embarrass her like that. You should try it. You, in general.

Bee and I took the bus home to her place, and we watched Scrubs. Oh, Eunice, we watched the episode with the line “I love this moment so much I want to have sex with it.”

Mom picked me up – and with the fact that she has a phone now, I called her on her MOBILE to confirm I was at Bee’s place – and came home and my face is hurting a bit so I’m guessing I got a bit burnt. Yes. I burn easily. Laugh it up, mortals, laugh it up. Because…THIS…IS WHAT A MONSTER LOOKS LIKE…[throws glitter in face].

I don’t think I’ve ever employed my [] in blogging before. Have I?

In one scene in YesMan, Carl stopped a guy from jumping because he played a song on the guitar, an instrument he learned in a whim. I think if I can stop one person from jumping by playing them a song, it’s worth it.

I have no idea how I hit 1000 words already but I should stop.

Keep Cool (apparently),

D.F.