I need to get my story straight

[We Are Young – Fun. ft Janelle Monae]

I am aware it’s March, but I am also aware that I haven’t written on here since over a month ago. I think I’m either outgrowing this blog, which has to be silly because this is such a good place to record memories, or I’m simply too lazy. This doesn’t mean I am going to return to frequent blogging now, I don’t know, we’ll see I suppose.

So things happened since I last appeared on here. Most of February, to be exact. I hung out with the girl almost every chance I had. I had a job interview for Elwood which I didn’t win. Spent Valentines day doing that, too, and then watching Chronicle at Jam Factory, something that Mela didn’t like but she did it for me. Watched Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close as well, which was really sad, but kind of well sculpted to be so. I did a lot of TV watching at home as well, burning through Bloody Monday, The Walking Dead, Alcatraz, Family Guy, more Doctor Who, but somehow not making such a big dint into Will and Grace and Parks and Recreation.

Celebrated 5 months at work, because we had bad timetabling there, but we decided to try celebrate it on Valentines day as well as 3 days prior, to make up for it.

Visited Cindy at her restaurant, and made her wait on us. That was terrific.

I capped my net usage on my phone somehow, and had to pay a $150 bill, which was terrifying and shit. I managed, though.

Went to Mela’s orientation days, which were sort of interesting but mostly just boring. They were not sufficient warning for how tough her course is though.

So then Uni started, and Mela was snowed in by how much work she has to do, and while I was getting it easier, I knew my life was gonna get tougher soon. Sure enough, I was notified almost too late that my internship was to start the following week (now the upcoming week), at the same time having to go to work (the internship is full-time) and keep up with my school work and suddenly A Wild Assignment appears! So yeah, pretty unstoked at the moment.

For the Wild Assignment is actually an interesting one: a short human interest blog piece. I interviewed my long-time friend Ping who has dwarfism, and just during the interview I was inspired to go out and rock my life. I don’t know if I can write a piece to do him justice, but I can try.

And, finally, I slept over at Amelia’s house – the circumstances leading to which included a lot of lies – and it was actually really nice, even though she had to study most of the night. She has a single bed, so halfway through the night she offered to sleep on the floor. When I got up to pee during the night, her dog woke up and followed me. I had to tuck Meg back in, which was cute, but strange that she wakes up so easily.

So yes, that was a quick catch up for my month past. I don’t get to see Mela as often anymore, which makes both of us really sad, and in the coming weeks I won’t get to see her at all.

Also, tomorrow is our 6 month anniversary. Easy.

I might write more when my internship starts, but I do have to be careful to write most of it positively, or objectively, or simply password protect it.

Alex.

Graffiti decorations under a sky of dust

[Runaway – Linkin Park]

Not the best song for the situation but that’s shuffle for ya.

Overdue post: Monday just past saw the 3 month anniversary of Mela and me!

We met up at Glen station with warm and happy hugs, excited (but not surprised) that we made it to now, and without issue too! Took the train up into the city so that we could go see Mai at her store for Mela to give her what Mai ordered from UO. I ended up putting on the Beats by Dr Dre headphones they had on display, plug it into my own phone for better music, and playing Fruit Ninja on their display iPad while Mela and Mai talked. At least, they talked for a while about Malaysia (the former being from, the latter going to), but after a while, when they realized I can’t hear them, they just called me names.

After saying bye to Mai to let her work, we took the train down to Windsor station where Dani has taken me a couple of times to let Mela op-shop. We strolled along Chapel St walking into any store that caught Mela’s fancy, but at the end of the day (spoiler alert) she didn’t find anything that suited to her likes. We walked up and down Chapel St, reaching Jam Factory and then back a few times without realizing it. It was no surprise, then, that I was extremely tired.

We had lunch at Lucky Coq because I’d been wondering about their $4 pizzas – and they lived up to expectations! Gourmet and crunchy, but full of flavor, and come on they’re 4 bucks! Washed it down with some Dapple Cider, and took a few photos with Mela (or, well, we took photos of each other).

We then we to Topshop which was the original intent of going to Chapel St, along with the op-shops. It was crowded in there with many many late-teens, early twenties girls walking around, and quite a few of them attached to their boyfriends. Mela and I tried on two things each, but the price-tag (in proportion to how much the clothes wow’d us) coaxed us to meekly pass the clothes back to the exhausted looking sales assistants.

After Topshop, we strolled back down Chapel (yes, I know…) after a misunderstanding about where I’d wanted to go to get some iced-coffee/milkshake (I wanted Soda Rock which was just a stop past Jam Factory, and Mela thought I meant back down near Prahran station or something), so by the time the confusion was cleared, we ended up getting an ice coffee at this place which boasts that theirs is the best in town, but really they just had really sweet whip. We trammed back up to South Yarra Station, thus completing our lap of Chapel for the 4th or 5th time, and attempted to take the Cranbourne train home, except the signs were off and we stood on the wrong platform for about 15 minutes.

I took a new bus home, and realized that it took at least 10 minutes off my trip. It led Mela and I to agree that in the future when we wanted to go to the city together, we should just meet up at Oakleigh station, which is easier on the both of us.

So, my feet were throbbing and sore after two long shifts over the weekend and the big day of walking, but no, I had to pluck up the strength to go out once again for Tuesday…the dreaded and long-ago-promised viewing of Breaking Dawn Part 1.

Long story very short, I started live-tweeting and being sarcastic about the movie at the start, but when Mela got upset at me (don’t get me wrong, she’s not a Twilight fan, but I think she disliked having to sit next to someone who was constantly complaining) I stopped. The movie was…yeah anyway then we had some food and got our ears pierced together (one ear each) before I kissed her goodbye for her work.

And, today, once again, went out to her place so we could buy Cathy’s presents (and she got me a 3DS, but refuses to let me even see it before Christmas…don’t worry, I’m getting her a Wii, so it’s all not-awkward or anything) and hang out. She ended up being called into work last minute, and accepted, so we went off at around 3.

Tomorrow I work a rather long shift in the evening, and on Friday is Cathy’s get together, so I don’t really get time to just sit down and take a break until Saturday…an entire week since these hectic days started!

Oh, and Mela’s friend Andrew helped me get Skyrim running, so I’ll be trying to play it in the coming days, but I’m not so confident yet. It’ll just take some time! I got used to FFS X2…right?

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.

I wonder if it even makes a difference to try?

[Makes Me Wonder – Maroon 5]

I went to see the final Harry Potter installment yesterday/day before, but I will write about the entire 2 day thing here before giving my judgement on the movie.

I got up at 7 am to meet up with Vinchi to go see X-Men First Class (we’d put it off for ages). She’d never been to Jam Factory, so it was one hell of a tram ride of her asking we were there yet. It was also REALLY windy and cold, and the girl was wearing a flannel shirt with a light jacket.

We were a bit late to the movie, and the theater was pretty much empty save for one other guy. The movie was pretty good, despite my having seen half of it through GIFs on Tumblr. It was a fun moment when Xavier reached out with his mind for the first time and we saw Little Storm on screen.

After the movie we went back into the CBD to have lunch, and Vinchi took me to a really small Chinese-run Japanese restaurant (which is pretty much every other Japanese restaurant in the city), and I had super salty Katsu-Don. That wasn’t really a highlight, but I just had to remember that the place sucked. I forgot the name of the restaurant but it’s on Russel St close to Crazy Wings.

We walked back to Gloria Jeans on Elizabeth for her to quench her Ice Chocolate thirst, and I soundly beat her Fruit Ninja Arcade best score. Before we knew it, it was time to meet Dani, so I picked up my things from Vinchi’s convenient city-based apartment (10 minutes’ walk to Uni, 2 minutes to work, 30 seconds to a 7/11), and headed off to an awesome night of not sleeping.

We went to Dani’s mom’s apartment to help babysit Lyshana. This, by the way, is little precious and very intelligent and great at dancing (even at such a young age) Lyshana:

We played around with Lysh’s Legos, which basically consisted of Dani and I making cars or ships, and Lyshana ripping it apart and us pretending that our fleet of warships have been destroyed. The kid finds amusement out of our cries of terror.

We also filmed our questions video deal, which was funny to start with but Lysh kept on interrupting. Halfway through my video you can hear “I need to go toilet”. After the videos are done, we realized that it was pretty late and dinner time, so we took Lyshana to Bel’s apartment where I was going to spend the rest of my night (bar the movie, of course).

When we were at Bel’s apartment, her older sister Anita was still there. We got out some paper for Lyshana to draw on, and she was of course talking loudly, and Anita emerged from her room saying “I hear a baby, who does she belong to?”

Sonam, Tiff and Julia were at the apartment already, and Bel had gone to get pizza. I told Lysh to show Sonam her drawings, so she went up to the jetlagged girl (having just touched down from Canada earlier that day) with her masterpiece, to be greeted with “Oh wow, that’s beautiful! …What is it?”

We spent most of dinner discussing how creepy kids’ cartoons are these days, as well as reminiscing the awesome ones we had as children. Bel put on X-Box Kinect, and Lyshana soundly beat 3 19-year-olds in rounds of Rally Ball. After Dani and Lysh left, Julia, Tiff and I played a few more rounds on Kinect, with Tiff providing, as usual, the most number of laughs. Bel brought this huge container of Red Vines.

We then put on Deathly Hallows Part 1 to get ready for the movie later that night, but the mood was somewhat tainted by all of us (mostly me) making comments about the movie, and Sonam falling asleep and dreaming that we were the 3 Brothers. Bel sat by and made her tiny ships in light bulbs. When Dobby died, everyone sort of went quiet and there was a lot of blinking.

A bit before we left, we got out all the trundle beds, and having failed to bring a sleeping bag, I was told I’d sleep on 2 sofa cushions on the floor, wedged between two trundles. I’ll just say now, without meaning to, I ended up getting the largest sleeping area on the couch.

At around quarter past eleven, Annie and I had to leave for Hoyts, because we thought it would take us a long time. We got there perhaps 20 minutes early, and stood around feeling out of place, being the only ones in normal clothes. We saw a few what we thought were owls, a lot of slutty female Harrys, the treats trolley on the Hogwarts Express, a few Death Eaters, and a lot of just really random scars drawn on.

The movie itself disappointed me slightly. I suppose on its own it would have been pretty well done, but after the hype and the first part which I still deemed to be better, it felt rushed like the 5th and the 6th ones were. The Snape parts were good, but not as emotionally hitting as I wanted it to be, and the whole story of young Dumbledore and Grindelwald were COMPLETELY omitted. The movie aimed for many jokes, some of which were great, some of which kind of felt lame. It was definitely good to see it with an enthusiastic crowd, though, because everyone applauded and whooped when Ron and Hermione finally kissed – which, even after the eye-popping Hermione/Harry kiss, still managed to be an amazing moment.

After the movie, Annie and I walked the long walk back to Bel’s. We did our film-students analysis, and kept warm by practically jogging. When we got back, the others, of course, had already been back, and we did our washing up and Sonam and Tiff somehow had an argument over brushing their teeth. We sat around for a while because we found out Bel actually had to get up in 2 hours to take a friend to the airport, so we all stayed up talking and listening to Annie play Kpop on her iPod.

At around 4 or 5, everyone simultaneously decided to all just go to sleep. It was initially very hard because Tiffany was still wide awake and laughing, to the point where Julia told her to just close her mouth, and forget about closing her eyes. I myself prepared to try to sleep in the city apartment – having gotten used to the suburbia quiet – when Annie’s blocked sinus started announcing its existence in funny but very distinct little snores. When Bel’s friend called to be let in, it was nearly 6, and I had given up on sleep, instead opting to lie on my back and watch the light filter through the blinds like a weird zebra trip.

At around 6:30, 7, Sonam rolled over and pushed Annie off the trundle, making her fall on top of Tiff who took my little sofa-cushion bed, and so Tiff and Annie both became awake. Tiff was feeling sick from lack of sleep and how hot it was under the blanket, so after some rather noisy packing, she slipped out to go home for a quick nap.

Annie went back to exercising her sinus, and I sat awake, playing with my ring. I suppose my sleep deprived brain shut down temporarily, and I found myself waking up at around 8, then at around 8:30. At around 9, everyone got up, and Annie, Sonam and I got ready to meet Dani and April for breakfast at 10. We said goodbye to Julia who was waiting for Bel to come back to take her home, and left the apartment to…

Rain. Somehow we forgot which city we lived in, and were even slightly surprised that it was raining. We met up with Dani and April, the latter of which seemed to have stolen Timberlake’s sexy. We had breakfast at The Quarter on DeGraves, and I dropped my bacon. It was not shaping up to be a good day. To cheer me up, Dani took pictures of me on Instagram. Unfortunately, I was so tired that I came out looking super Asian – tiny small eyes.

After breakfast, April, Dani and I met up with Maggie at Flinders Station. We went to Chapel Street to shop – or rather, they shopped while I tagged along and dozed infrequently on husband chairs. I think at some point I just turned off all smart retorts and just told Dani her face was [insert adjective here]. Carmaine joined us a small while later, and they went to a lot of stores and got a lot of discount goodies at Op shops.

We went to Dani’s South Melb apartment in the afternoon (my God I missed being there. It felt so familiar climbing those deadly flights again), and I took a quick nap in Dani’s new makeshift mattress bed – it was strange to be in her room without her walls being covered by posters.

Went home, and had a lot of Tumblr catching up to do, so despite being at nearly 30 hours with no proper sleep, I stayed up. I slept at 11, and ended up gaining consciousness at 5 pm the next day. Oops.

It was a darn good day/night/day.

Alex.

P.S. Sorry for the very late posting. The original date of writing was 14th of July, which was timely. I forgot I’d saved a draft, so I posted it on the 26th.

L-O-V-E’s not what this was

[Starstrukk – 3OH!3 ft Katy Perry]

Should I go meta and explain why I haven’t been writing? Nah, the truth is I have just been plain lazy.

I finished my assessments for Semester 1…last week, and despite the fact that it became a last minute rush, I finished to some degree of satisfaction. And now I am living in that blissful constant, where whenever I feel like I should be doing something, I don’t really have to do it.

Except, of course, I really need to get my exchange process going. Yikes.

So yesterday I watched The King’s Speech finally (obviously not in the cinemas), and I know I probably missed all sorts of auteur references and all that stuff, but the one thing that really struck me about that movie was how Helena Bonham Carter played her character’s love and support of Bertie. Without overusing physical affection, she managed to convey how much pain she was in to watch her husband stutter through his first speech, and how his victory is as much hers as Lionel’s. I think it’s a very succinct way to depict how, when it comes to monarchy, the Queen is usually pushed to the sidelines, when most of the time it’s her love and support that makes the King who he is – Helena Bonham Carter played her Queen with a quiet and determined dignity, never questioning her husband’s decisions, but always supporting him when he starts to waver.

And that’s my rant on that movie.

In other news, my friend Clem helped me get the game Portal, and I’m learning how to play it properly – kind of stink at solving the puzzle, but I think it’s a good game to get me used to FPS games.

Got my midnight tickets to HP7.2 already, and very excited to be going! I should probably start deciding if I will dress up, and if I do, how.

Alex.

Every Aching Wound Will Cauterize And Bruise

[I Fell In Love Without You – Motion City Soundtrack]

Trying to write a few more posts, seeing as people actually read these. I cannot re-iterate enough that if you don’t comment, I just assume no one reads it (the increasing blog hits are MAGIC).

So today I had a pretty full day, which made up for the lack of anything previously. I went to brunch at Pancake Parlor (first time there) with my 12I group from highschool, and saw April for the first time in what felt like months. Because I had another lunch date later, I opted to only order a coffee (still, as you can guess, I ate food off people’s plates). The coffee was stronger than my usual competence, so by the time we left Pancake Parlor at around 11:30, I was positively buzzing.

For some odd reason, it’s hard to put into words why brunch was good, but it was. Nothing spectacular happened, no amazing revelations were announced, and it wasn’t like I haven’t hung out with these people (bar, as I said before, April) for ages, but for that period of time, it actually felt like we were going out as a group on a no-school day – an illusion shattered pretty quickly when we started discussing timetables and visiting each other’s universities.

At around 1, Lily showed up for our lunch, so after having various restaurant suggestions shot down, we decided to go to Dessert House to eat. We ate for maybe an hour (and the food was worse than I remembered, which was saddening, and salty), and when we went back out to go to JB for an errand, we ran into my 12I group at the lights. There was a fun/awkward moment when I stood right next to them as if I belonged, and then they told me to go away. Har-har hilarious.

I’d recently gotten the $7 movie voucher and was itching it use it up, so I somehow convinced Lily to see a movie. Unfortunately, I had to print out the movie voucher, so we went to State Library to use the printers, except when I plugged my USB in it won’t register. After deciding on No Strings Attached, and noting that it wouldn’t start for over an hour, we went to Melb Uni to print the voucher off at the library.

The Bailleiu Library is under construction, and I looked pretty noob in my own university getting lost trying to find the other entrance. We spent some time in the library just browsing the internet (there is a symposium (HA SPELLED IT RIGHT) for screen and TV stuff, including a talk with the WRITER OF DEXTER, so I’m totally gunning for that). We made it back to Melb Central just in time for the movie, because we just HAD TO check Facebook one last time. (By ‘we’, I meant Lily.)

The movie was pretty enjoyable – I wouldn’t say astounding, especially compared to Black Swan – and it had some pretty good laughs (my favorite being the period-mix-CD that Ashton made for Natalie – never memorized their character names. Andy and Emma or something) with a slightly-too-sweet-and-cliche ending. I wouldn’t say it’s a must-see, but if you’re in the mood for some light-hearted laughs (with a slightly awkward sex scene at the start, I mean I couldn’t stop comparing Ashton to Mila…), it’s a good choice.

I suppose it’s a pretty good way to spend my last day of holidays (weekends don’t count). Here’s to Easter! Oof.

Alex.

Sitting Here Lonely With No One To Hold Me

[Control Myself – Maroon 5]

I went to see RED today with Catherine.

The cinema wasn’t very full – I think it’s at the end of its run – but I think that it was actually better off that way.

The movie, in my opinion, was actually really enjoyable. It didn’t go over the top with amazing improbably action stunts, but it did have it’s amazingly cool moments – Bruce Willis stepping out of a spinning car, calm as a hardwood coffee table, John Malkovich exploding a bazooka missile by shooting it dead on its head – but I think the best part was that they made it funny without appearing to try.

A lot of the humor were more subtle than in-your-face comedy – there were some reactionary expressions, meaningful silences, and some plain hilarious situations. There were times when the pacing of the dialogue, in trying to show that these guys were relaxed seasoned spies, was a bit slow, but mostly they made up for it.

And I think that John Malkovich did a pretty damn good job of being a paranoid retired spy who was “given a dose of LSD daily for 11 years”. I liked him since Johnny English, and every time I see him on screen I think “oh this should be good”.

I wouldn’t say go out of your way to see it, especially since it’s ending, but if it comes up as a movie choice on DVD night, pick it!

Anyway, after the movie Catherine and I had our newly made yearly tradition of a Nandos lunch together, and we had a good talk about Uni and her future choices. She did not laugh like Ernie once. I was disappoint.

Alex.

Make It Through With Hopes And Wrists Intact

[I’m Like A Lawyer With The Way I’m Always Trying To Get You Off (Me & You) – Fall Out Boy]

That is a bloody long title. So this is another I-was-watching-TV-and-remembered-I-should-blog blog.

I’m sure that a lot of TV shows and movies do this to some extent, but the one I remember the most vividly is from Bring It On. It’s the scene where Kirsten Dunst is brushing her teeth and her new-found friend’s brother who will soon become her love interest is brushing his teeth next to her, and they take turns spitting into the sink.

I have no idea what the point of that scene was, but the whole time I was distracted by one thing:

There was no toothpaste foam to be seen.

Now, I’m not saying that when I brush my teeth it’s little Asian Santa Claus, but I mean, there is a noticeable slightly minty rabid look to me when I brush my teeth. When I spit..I actually have stuff to spit out. In the movie, their toothbrushes had NOTHING on them, and pretty sure they weren’t spitting anything out really.

So, I concluded that either I’m actually the odd one out in the whole world, or they simply were doing it to make the actors look good.

If it’s the second one, then I gotta say, that annoys me. I get it if, for aesthetic purposes, you fix hairstyles or put more makeup on than usual, but brushing teeth? Really? Is a little bit of toothpaste foam around the edges that un-sexy that you have to create a scene that is so annoyingly fake?  One excuse could be that the actors can’t enunciate through the toothpaste – but how many times have you seen actors pretend to have a mouth full of toothpaste when their mouth is completely clean? And how many people have been unable to understand someone with toothpaste in their mouth to the point of complete incomprehension? And if worse comes to worst, just get the actor to SPIT OUT THE TOOTHPASTE! It’s more natural than seeing someone brush with a clean toothbrush.

And that’s…how deeply I am thinking these days.

Alex.

Taught Me How To Take Defeat

[Touchdown Turnaround (Don’t Give Up On Me) – Hellogoodbye]

So, well, with all the modesty, today happened to be my 19th birthday!

Jackie and I went to Knox today to celebrate. We got the movie tickets – it wasn’t the session we wanted, because that got filled, but we ended up seeing a 3D version. It was the 3rd pair of 3D glasses I bought. Damn.

I will talk about the movie later. Anyway, so Jackie got me this really awesome beanie for my birthday, and she surprised me with a cake. (She’s sitting next to me as I type this, and she chortled when she repeated “surprised” because it was…semi…surprising.) I have yet to eat the cake but yeah.

We had lunch at the Dragon Boat at O-Zone, and there were 2 other birthdays there today too! I pretended that everyone was singing for me. Jackie didn’t eat much, but that wasn’t a surprise.

After lunch, we went to see Toy Story 3. Jackie is the type to gasp in every shocking moment, and say “awww” loudly whenever any emotion was depicted. I think it was to make up for her lack of emotions. Just a theory.

I finally got Jackie her birthday present. We named her Ally.

Ah for some reason the uploader isn’t working. So, it was just a really cute plushie dog.

She came over for dinner, and for cake (which we haven’t had yet but we will. I bet it will be delicious).

I want to say a special thanks to the following people who texted me happy birthday (more might come but at the time of writing I have):

My cousin Julia, Jac, Yeleng, Dom, Mani, Swang, Jen, Katherine, Julia, Sam, Xi, Pris, Dani, Mandy, April and Susie Q! And thanks to EVERYONE to said happy birthday on Facebook and Twitter. And thanks to Bianca who called me.

Alright, so Toy Story 3 was one of the most EPIC movies I have ever seen! What a good storyline, and what good lessons to learn from it. I will NEVER cheat on my toys. EVER! It was overall a stronger finish than Shrek (Shrek was being pushed out too fast, in my opinion) but the jokes were very child-centered. That is, Shrek has some adult jokes that kids don’t get but Toy Story didn’t. I don’t know if it is a good thing, but I enjoyed it quite a lot.

Well, time to just relax now, and eat cake. Take care!

Alex.

P.S. My bones are creaking.

/edit also, Bel texted me at the very end of the day, and I forgot to mention my lovely Fa actually called me to wish me well too. What a girl.

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.