Super organization

Today at work, much to the dread of the three of us out front, we saw these three adults come in with around 8 kids.

Usually, the kids would be walking around and not deciding if they want Coke or Sprite, and the order will run on for 5 minutes and in the end someone complains that they didn’t get Sprite when they said Coke.

Except this time, the mom was so super organized. She said she’ll do one order at a time. She started off with a hundred dollar note, and each kid had to pay for their own meal – and if they didn’t have enough on them, she told each kid to remember how much they owed her, and to pay her when they get home. The kids all decided really fast, and didn’t complain, and were all really polite. After they finished, they all came back for ice-cream, and were very patient.

I have to tip my hat to the lady, she was so well organized, and so polite to us even though I can tell she was pretty stressed. Good parenting? She was definitely doing it right.

Alex.

Ooh I Really Hate Yo Ass Right Now

[F*ck You! – Cee Lo]

I don’t know why I was fishing for a blog topic yesterday; I went out on Sunday and everything.

Gracing Melbourne with a visit, Cathy invited us out for Karaoke before she has to jet off to Europe. So, meeting up at 11 on a Sunday (meaning I had to leave the house extra early and sit through the damn clock singing again. I turned up my Maroon 5 and tried to tune it out), it was my first time seeing Cathy since July, and boy has she grown even prettier!

Okay this really isn’t a blog post about how beautiful Cathy is – she already knows it.

Apparently, Cathy has never been to Max Brenner. We – Pearl, Sheina, Carey and I – were so excited to be the one to take her “Max Brenner virginity”.

The girl who worked the counter, however, shared no enthusiasm. When Sheina brought up that “this is her first time here!” the girl sort of looked blankly at Cathy, as if to say, “great, what do you want to drink, order already!” Cathy was introduced to all sorts of wonderous things, like their hug-mugs and the kangaroo cup.

I had a cappuccino in the kangaroo cup, which is basically a normal cup with a small part to put a bit of chocolate in. It actually made it kind of hard to drink from the cup.

After Max Brenner, where I had my first souffle (those things are good. I’m sure I’m failing my aspirations as a writer when I say “good” but sometimes one word is enough. Those things are GOOD!), we sat on the fake grass at QV waiting for Alex, who comes in a twin-set with Jack (thus Jalex), and it will be confusing cos I’m Alex too but yeah…

There were these two kids running around – you know the toddlers who you can tell just learned how to run – and they were clearly friends since birth (all of 3 years), so they had their own little language and chasing each other, in utter bliss because it was sunny and Christmas was around the corner. Sort of realized that there are days where I should just enjoy the fact that I’m young and I can still get away with some stuff, and stop trying to grow up so much. In 7 months I’ll officially not be a teenager anymore, so I need to milk the “teen” thing for all it’s worth.

We went to Melb Central because K-Box wasn’t open yet, so we were going to Partyworld. Partyworld decided not to open for 20 more minutes, so Cathy sort of grabbed a few wrists and dragged them to Valleygirl for shopping. In actuality, it was just Sheina, Cathy and Pearl grabbing clothes, and the two Alexs (Alexi? Alexa…anyway) and Carey standing around giving thumbs up to most things. Not that we didn’t mean them, they all looked VERY good in what they tried on.

After we had to leave because the store people were giving us odd looks because Carey was taking pictures of Cathy in the clothes, we decided that we won’t go to Partyworld after all, that we would just wait to go to KBox. So we had some sushi and sat and chatted, and the topic of conversation went onto who was stronger. At this point, Alex and Sheina decided to have an arm-wrestling match. Having exhausted the “Oh my god Chandler’s making his orgasm face” jokes (remember, Pearl was the girl who knew FRIENDS inside out), it became a bit embarrassing because Alex just couldn’t beat Sheina – and Sheina was straining so hard that some tendons in her arms were actually popping out.

(In case you were wondering, the match never ended. They were so evenly matched that it was wasting time.)

Cathy then went on to suggest that Pearl and I “wrestle as well”. We all gave Cathy some very highly raised eyebrows at her apparent Freudian slip, and Carey wondered where we could get some jelly/chocolate sauce cheap.

KBox, having been renovated since I was last there (2 years ago), turned out to offer some sort of 4-hour deal, so we all went in and sang songs for 4 hours. I’d almost forgotten how funny it was to watch Jalex sing (Jack joined us later bearing KFC) and dance – at one point Alex was trying to grind against the wall (don’t ask) and the guy who came in with our drinks opened the door and sort of did a double-take.

We belted out F*ck You! among other songs, and just let me say, belting out the bridge and acting all hardcore gangster is even more fun in Karaoke than at home.

My voice is hoarse, still, but every time I think back to Carey singing Mary Had A Little Lamb I would smile, so it was all worth it.

I went home that night pretty happy, and to make things better, Catherine was online! I haven’t talked to that girl in weeks, and it was really good to just catch up and make some small banter. I really want to see her in person soon, I still owe her birthday lunch.

Alex.

Smack…?! NO!

I promise! The first part will sound a bit boring but it gets to the funny punchline.

Today, in Legal, we were learning about civil cases and the process and all that, and so we went onto the topic of negligence. Mr Sho- was saying about how there are some parents who aren’t the best of parents, and are negligent of their children, or just not taking care of them properly. He told us about a toddler who was screeching at the supermarket one day, and the mom seemed not to care.

Marit- said, “A firm backhand would do the trick.” We all sort of laughed because…well smacking children seems a slightly old-fashioned thing now.

I then turned to ask Jen if she was smacked when she was little, to which the answer was “yes” (which is my answer too). Julia responded with a “no”, but we figured it is because she’s the 2nd child (and she confirmed this because her brother did get smacked).

Then I turned to ask Nik if she got smacked when she was little. We were in the front row so I had to say it quietly or else Mr Sho- would pick on me again, which probably contributed to the result that, when everyone grew quiet, Nik asked loudly:

“What? Why would I want to smack you?”

FML.

Alex.

Haven’t seen you in a while

Today on the tram ride to Flinders, as a joke, when I sat down next to Jen I pretended that I hadn’t seen her in a while.

“Oh hey! It’s been a while, how’ve you been?” said I.

“I’ve been well,” said Jen.

“Yeah? Katie’s grown up a bit now hasn’t she? How’s she doing?”

“She’s great. Yeah she’s 17 this year.” (Which is of course the same age as Jen currently)

“How’s Tommy?”

“(Tommy’s a crap name.)”

“(YOU’RE the mom.)”

“Tommy’s good. He starts kindergarten next year.”

“Oh wow he sure grew up fast. I still remember when he was this little.”

“Yeah, and Bindi’s 21.”

“Oh wow, must be a handful.”

“Hey you goin’ to the reunion next month?”

“Yeah, the 30th right?”

“(Wow that makes Tommy have a really old mom.)”

“20th? (No that means you had Bindi when you were in Yr 12. 25th, then.) Yeah 25th Reunion. Wow it’s been ages since I’ve seen Julia…”

“And SONAM! Yeah oh did you hear Jen T- is now the…”

“President of China?”

“Yeah and plus she discovered a cure for cancer.”

“And April…well we have to call her Senator Scarlett now. (No wait, you can’t be a Senator if you’re not born in America.)”

…

And so it went on.

The looks we got.

Alex.

10. Viewed

Today was Melbourne Cup Day. It was the “race that stops the nation”. So was F1 Grand Prix. And they’re both in Melbourne. It’s kind of funny that the entire state gets a day off for a bunch of horses, but not cars. Well, my school does for both, but that’s because it’s too close to the Grand Prix for classes to be able to run without people NOT HEARING ANYTHING!

ANYWAY.

I went over to Bee’s house because she was holding a family friend sort of party for Melb Cup, but Carmaine and I (and Eunice, who couldn’t show) were invited because Bianca usually felt rather left out because no one is her age.

I arrived early and helped “set up” some things but mostly I just prepared a salad. We sat around and Greg, Bianca’s brother, and I bullied Bianca by hitting a balloon at her. Carmaine showed up later than she’d said she would, and then we waited for about 1 1/2 hours before people started showing up.

Bianca, your family friends are all so pretty! Goan (sp?) people are really awesome. They’re so friendly and happy and smiley, and yeah it was rather…shocking when Christine your aunt greeted Carmaine and me, and she said, “oh yes I’ve seen pictures.” What do you get up to, woman, when we’re not there?!

We played Wii for most of the day. Mario Kart and the shaking thing game. I never caught the name. I didn’t like the shaking game because – no, not because I am uncoordinated – the Wii remote doesn’t register properly. And Mario Kart is way better on DS.

Okay, the reason I titled this 10. Viewed is this:

Well, for those who bothered to watch, number 10 horse, Viewed, won the Emirates.

At the party they did a sweeps thing, where everyone put in 2 dollars and drew a horse out of a hat, randomly. Bianca chipped for my 2 dollars since she didn’t tell neither Carmaine nor I that we had to bring money. So all together the pool was about 40-something dollars.

When the race was running, we kids were watching it in the other room from the adults. It was boring at the start because nothing was really happening, and there was one horse that was leading but we couldn’t see the number. Then the names came up across the bottom, and Bee’s and Greg’s horses were on there. So they started screaming and shouting abuses at each other as their horses went neck and neck. I couldn’t find my horse and Carmaine’s horse, Profound Beauty, was absolutely nowhere to be seen (but that Carmaine drew a horse named as such was rather amusing to me). Then, in the last few moments, a horse broke from the pack and started chasing the leader. We all started the “wo….aaaahhhhhhhh” as the two horses all ran to the finish. I said that the inside horse won, but it was down to a photo finish. And yes the inside horse won.

Bianca asked me, “what did you get?” I said, “I couldn’t find my horse.”

Then, on the screen we saw a jockey with “10” and I said, “hey, that’s my horse.”

Then I saw the jockey pumping his arms.

Well, so I left Bee’s house today with sandwiches, pastries, biscuits, juice and apple crumble in my stomach, and holding a small box of coins and notes, totalling 40-something dollars.

It was funny when we went to the next room with the adults, and everyone was yelling “who drew 10?” And I put my hand up, and they all turned to look at me, and apart from Carmaine, I was the only non-Goan there. It was daunting when all the males kind of stared at me but hey I won 40-something dollars.

It was a fun day, to be able to play with kids again and scream at the video game and drink red juice (apple, cranberry and pomegranate. Very very tasty. And Bee got a bit funny after drinking champagne).

De Fluffe, Out.

P.S. Carmaine and Bianca, you both looked very pretty today.