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.

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.