You’re Gonna Listen To Me

[Faint – Linkin Park]

Preeetty sure I won’t hit 15 this month. I noticed I haven’t done a song post in ages so I might knock that over tonight as well.

So yesterday was Australia Day, and true to tradition (actually, it was my first recall-able time in the near 11 years since I’ve been here) I went to an Aussie Day BBQ.

I haven’t done a long and almost pointless documentation post in ages, so I might do it full on properly now.

Everything was going pretty peachy in the morning, despite being nearly late for my bus. But as I got on the train, with my hair sitting perfectly (pfft, who am I kidding), it started to drizzle. By the time I’d reached the 3rd station, it was a downright animal zoo out there.

Thankfully, Melbourne weather decided to mood swing towards niceness, and the skies let up the tears – albeit still rather dark and moody. I decided to be adventurous, and take a different tram to the one I would have normally taken.

Yeah, that was a bad idea. I got utterly lost, missed my stop, and had to wait an extra 10 minutes to take the tram one stop back. Then came the confused tourist walk to find the group. There was an awkward moment when I started walking towards a bunch of people near a BBQ purposefully, only to realize I didn’t recognize anyone there. Finally, I spotted a familiar face – the only one who’d arrived.

James, Jen’s friend who joined Juggling with us but then he actually went, had brought a football (the American kind) and, I know how ironic it sounds, but we started throwing that around. He tried to teach me how to throw it properly, but I suppose my hand-eye-ear-brain coordination simply went into hibernation this summer, because I don’t think I have the knack of it, still.

After a while, the MacRob girls arrived, meaning I had actually found people to talk to who don’t insult my lack of sporting abilities. So passed a good hour of sitting around chatting and catching up, followed by what seems to be a time-honored tradition of playing Big-Two and having at least one person not understand the rules and/or tactics. I am ashamed to say, however, that I lost a game.

When Jen T noted that there was another MacRob group who was also at Albert Park Lake (probably forgot to mention where we were), a few of us decided to take the walk to their area to say hi. We started the trek with enthusiasm, having been promised friends “just behind those trees”. The mood soon turned sour as “just behind those trees” turned out to be “halfway across the lake”. Annie, Julia and I watched in high mirth as Tiff weaved her way through the carpark, completely sober, but drunk on being herself, and Annie laughed so hard that she choked on her 20 years of existence.

We met up with the other MacRob group, which was essentially the other Japanese class plus some of our own. Huey had come back from her year in England, tanned as a Jersey Shore kid (oh, did I just make that reference), which was illogical to start with because she spent a year in ENGLAND.

Having stolen one of their drinks and made some great conversation about where people had been in 2010, we decided it was around time we started heading back. We went back in time to realize that while we were gone, the ice at the party had broken and everyone was getting along. So, in true MacRob style, we all sat in a circle and consumed food. Jen went on to consume half a chicken. Not kidding. I wish I was.

Er at some point I drank beer on an empty stomach and got a bit blurry but obviously nothing bad happened, because I’m not like that. So people started putting ice cubes down other people’s backs, and it may or may not have been at my instigation.

Anyway, at one point people started leaving, and as I saw two girls leave, I shouted, “BYE! NICE MEETING YOU!” only to realize I hadn’t actually spoken a single word to her. To correct myself of this mistake, I decided to introduce myself to the next new face I saw. The next new face I saw happened to be a name that I’ve heard many, many times previously, and with whom I share many mutual friends – Linh. So, you can imagine how creepy I was when I said, “LINH! Oh I know you! I know who your friends are! I FINALLY MET YOU!”

Lesson, children, don’t do that. Ever. Play it cool. Thankfully, she’s heard of me before too, but that didn’t stop her from noting that the awkward scale just went from 4 (random introduction) to 10 (admission to online stalking).

Lily showed up at, I don’t know, 4, and I finally managed to give her a birthday present, 2 months late. It was a toothbrush that played music for 2 minutes, in attempts to cut down her nightly bathroom ritual time. Also, it freaking played music into her mouth, man.

A bit after that, the BBQ drew to an end, and everyone dispersed. A large group decided to go to Fitzroy for milkshakes, and even though Julia, Annie and Tiff all left me, I had Jen, Steven, Brendan and James, and my newly made friend Linh (she kept on noting how awkward I was. I had to have Julia vouch that I was tired and usually I was rather sociable. Julia sort of nodded slowly and sarcastically).

The Milkshake place, whose actual name I forgot, is actually a pool arcade, so we all got our delicious milkshakes, and played some pool. I think I met more people at pool than I did at the BBQ, purely from making fun of one guy, Victor, who missed shots that first-timers would have managed.

When the games have been played and lost, and the milkshakes drank, we all headed back to Parliament. For some reason, the guys thought it would be a show of dexterity if we walked instead of caught the tram, so we had a nice cool dusk stroll back to the station, and I took the train home with Linh and Donuts (his last name is Duncan, so Dunkin’ Donuts. Get it?).

When I was at Glenny station I got stopped by this tall white guy who wanted to talk to me. He asked why Asians seemed to “only want to assimilate with their own kind, and not talk to others.” At that moment, I heard my mom honk to let me know she’s waiting, so I said “sorry, my parents are waiting.” He scoffed, and said, “I knew there was a get-out clause”, and walked off like I offended him. I thought, “How about ‘there was a my-parents-are-holding-up-traffic-at-a-busy-carpark?”

Some people need to calm down. He’s reading racism where there aren’t even text written.

At any rate, I had a busy night on Facebook last night, what with all the new adds and hellos (I made friends with the girl I forgot to make friends with as she left, and it turned out we had a LOT of mutual friends. Small, small world). I also got sunburned in the duration of an overcast day.

Alex.

The Way You Move Ain’t Fair

[Hey Soul Sister – Train]

Happy birthday Jac!

Today (but because of one reason or another, WordPress has time-stamped this for Wednesday. Today I meant by Tuesday) was Jac’s long awaited 18th birthday, and I think it was rather a successful day.

Starting with the awful weather, it went uphill from there. Took the train up with Mandy and Dot cos we ran into them, then Jac and I went to Journal Cafe near City Library.

Jac got this creepy text message asking if she was at Flinders, and it was from an unknown number. That number never texted back again…

Had lunch (or rather, I ended up eating most of her food anyway) and then we went to Melbourne Central because we wanted to see Toy Story 3.

But, it was getting really full, to the point where the only seats left were in the front. Jac doesn’t like that, so instead we went to State Library and went to the Games Room.

UNFORTUNATELY, it was full due to school holidays, so after some random presentation started, Jac and I went to play pool at RMIT. At first we didn’t realize that if you paid the money, the white ball would roll out, so we sat there dejected until someone else came along and did it.

It was a tight game, and ended with Jac’s victory, because I’d mistakenly stuffed and set up the black ball for her. Oh well, it’s her birthday anyway.

After that, we went BACK to State and watched some guys play on the Guitar Hero for a while, then decided to walk to Crown for dinner. That girl walks so slow that it got to the point where she had to drag me to slow me down – and it was VERY slow walking.

The thing that she didn’t know, and the reason I’d wanted to walk fast was that we were meant to get to Oriental Express by 6, where the others were waiting to surprise her. Because of her slow walking and my inability to find the restaurant, we ended up being 20 minutes late.

The fun part was that she didn’t suspect a thing! I was glad that my subtleties seem to have worked.

Dinner was sushi train, and it went by without a problem, and then it was time for cake. Now, I’d asked Nash to get a Black Forest Cake but apparently there were none left, so, being the awesome boy he is, he got a cake in the shape of a dog:

It was particularly funny because I’d always called her my puppy. And the restaurant people sang and everything, it was excellent.

And it was proven that we argue a lot when, on the train back, Yeleng and Aym- both decided we were the on-board entertainment.

I love you, Jac!

Alex.

P.S. The guy in the soccer ball is still in there.

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.

Can You Hear The Sound Of Hysteria?

[American Idiot – Greenday]

Alright! I’m writing this on time. Today, I went to the Jap festival thing that Jenny dragged me to. Yes, I will say dragged.

Now, beforehand she told me that she might be ditching me for a bit because she has a birthday dinner with some friends. So I didn’t want to be alone, so I texted Josh to come meet up. He was home, but he said okay and came out anyway.

There seemed to be problems in his interpretation of my perfectly worded text, he arrived at Southern Cross at 3, when I said PAST 4! So I made him wait at Southern Cross for a good hour, before telling him we’re going to be at Flinders Street.

Took the train up with Wilson, Kevvy and Jenny. Met Josh at Flinders (that boy complained) and then waited til Andrew (from now on, if I refer to Andrew, it’s Andrew from Brentwood. If I say Hamwu, that’s Dani’s Andrew) arrived. Then took the tram down to Waterfront City. (As we went past Southern Cross station, Josh gave me a greasy look.)

Okay, so I think I will take the blame here, and I got off about 2 stops early. We followed 2 people who were in costumes, who we assumed were Cosplayers, about halfway down the docks, until we thought, no. No that’s not right.

We looked across the body of water, and saw the festival in the distant bank. EVERYONE RAGED AT ME! (Sort of. Ok I raged at myself.) Turned out the “Cosplayers” were actually just in cossies for a costume party. We knew this because 2 minutes later a guy in a full body purple superhero costume walked past.

Finally made it to the festival (see, if I had seen April’s old place a bit earlier, I’d’ve had some point of reference. But as things were, the building was behind me, and I got my directions mixed up). We walked in, found Lois, realized the line for food stretched way into the water (jokes, but not really), and literally sort of turned a few times, watched women wrestling on screen, and then walked out and went to Harbor Town Shopping Center and bought KFC.

Got the Ninja Assassin, Year One and American Virgin DVDs off Lois! Very excited to watch. After KFC, we went to Melbourne Central (I was pretty sure Josh wanted to kill me because I took him back to where he was before), and then to Chinatown. There, Jenny ditched the rest of us (Andrew, Kevvy, Wilson, Josh and myself) for dinner with her group. So yes. We went to play pool at Strike. Josh gave Kevvy the nickname of Cloud, because he looked like him (Final Fantasy). Kevvy pulled off a few insane ninja shots, like jump shots, crazy blind pottings, etc, it was awesome.

Andrew potted the black, thus losing his game.

Finally, Jenny said she’s nearly done. We trekked back to Chinatown, IN THE DRIZZLE NO DOUBT, and picked her up from the restaurant. She said she wasn’t feeling well.

After that, we walked back to QV (Because it would be nearer to Josh’s bus stop, and like hell I’d make his highness walk anymore than he should). Andrew got more KFC (but mind, it has been about 3 hours since we ate prior), and then Jenny and Lois disappeared.

To cut a long story short, Jenny was sick again.

Said bye to Josh, and took Jenny back very gingerly. I may have teased you a lot on the train, dear, but I really was very worried.

At least the staff at KFC were helpful. I said my friend was sick, and we needed bags, and they gave us about 5.

Uni starts in 2 days. I am officially getting those twists in my stomach.

Alex.

P.S. Thanks Josh for shouting me that creamy cookie puff thing at QV. I recommend them, but actually I think they’re better cold.

Bonjour, 2009

I went to sleep at around 1 yesterda…no this morning (force of habit. Before Sleep is “Yesterday” After Sleep” is “Today”) after watching the fireworks by myself in my dark living room, with the volume turned down to 7 because my parents went to sleep. I silently mouthed “happy new year” to myself as Channel 7 counted down the New Year for me.

So, what did I do NYE night after I blogged?

After finishing dinner and watching What A Year on Ch 9, I played The World Ends With You for a long time, and then came downstairs to watch Lovely Complex (an anime). I laughed a lot watching it so it wasn’t too bad. I watched it until 11:50, and went upstairs quietly to turn on the TV for the countdown. I knew that Carmaine was at a party (which she told me about today, and it sounded and looked really awesome from the photos) and I knew that Bianca was probably dancing her time away and Eunice…who knows. When midnight came I sent off the batch of texts I had pre-done. Vania replied that I got it on the dot again, so I’m very happy. Jen replied “so everyone knows it’s my birthday?”. Got a few more, then I went to sleep.

Woke up at 9 today, had breakfast, checked emails (net uncapped, hoorah) and went upstairs to start chopping stuff because mom planned on making dumplings. Then, just as I finished chopping, the phone rang. I thought it would be Bianca, it usually is these days, but a soft and familiar voice said, “he-llooooo”. I couldn’t hear it properly because it was soft and I had music in, so I made the voice say it a couple more times before “Oh hey Carmaine! Happy New Year!” She told me about the party yesterday and then she said that she was really bored at home. So I invited her over (first impromptu invite ever) and she arrived in time to eat some fresh dumplings. I looked through her photos of her cruise – backwards chronologically – and it was really awesome, everything that she took, the beach,the sea, the ship, and of course a backwards trip through her various stages of sun burn. Which has now progressed to a very rich dark tan. I mean, her socks and shoes were almost fluro against her legs, and her white short shorts gleamed. Her teeth, when she smiled, was a bit like Ross’s on that episode of FRIENDS when he whitened his teeth too much. I think that the tan will fade after a while, but Carmaine is now indubitably worthy of dark-tan jokes. Which I took full advantage of today. It got to the point where Carmaine called me mean for making all those jokes. But you know that I love you and wouldn’t make those jokes if I didn’t.

We played a few games of pool, she soundly beat me in all games but one. Then we went upstairs and watched some afternoon kid shows (Malcolm In The Middle was good but everything after that got Carmaine to make a face like she’d swallowed a lemon covered in acid) and we did a couple of sudoku’s (she’s so cool, she’s got a sudoku book).

Went back downstairs, watched an episode of Lovely Complex (I thought Carmaine would like it since it’s about a freakishly tall girl) and then she played one last game of pool before leaving about 20 minutes ago. Of course I hopped right on and blogged about it. Ha..ha..sigh.

Not a bad way to spend the first day of the year though. Since I made her laugh a lot, I am about to send off an email to make Eunice and Bianca laugh, thus starting my year long campaign to make them laugh at least once a day.

De Fluffe, Out.

P.S. Happy birthday, my baby Jen.

BBQ

Yesterday I went on a BBQ that I was invited to by someone I knew from two years ago. I figured it would be okay. I ended up being introduced to a whole bunch of MHS guys who I either will never meet again or hope to never meet again.

But there was free food, which was a bonus. Although the Tim Tams melted in the sun (a guy dared another one to eat a melted Tim Tam, figure) and the picnic rug was a pale floral bedsheet and the mushrooms looked like brains, the sausages were good (oh, ha, ha) and the snacks were good. People brought heaps of soft drinks, and a small esky in which we tried to stuff a shitload of ice and meat in. It didn’t close.

Cathy and Ang- were there, and Ang brought her friend Andrew. I knew Cathy was gonna be there but it was a pleasant surprise to see Ang- there, and thank god too, because the four of us (including Andrew, who by the way in case you got confused is not the Andrew that belongs to Dani) just sat at a picnic bench and talked (it was by the Yarra, so it was windy, and I DEMANDED shade!). Then a guy called Keiran (I’m guessing that’s the male spelling) who’d previously thrown a Freddo at my head joined us, and threw half of Ang-‘s unwanted sausage into the river. We screamed at rowers and then when Linh came I managed to convince everyone that she was my second cousin (god I love that) and sparked a solid 3 minute debate on what second cousins actually are. I maintain that second cousins are when one of your parents is cousins with one of their parents. Others said it was your cousin’s cousin. I said, “That would be yourself.”

In the morning before the BBQ, Carmaine had a volleyball game at MSAC and when she finished she found me at Melb Central, and we went to RMIT to play pool (that’s fast becoming a regular thing. We’ll seriously end up being regulars there, even if we don’t go to RMIT in the future). We met (I met, Carmaine saw) Jack and Charles and Tom, all MHS guys going to the BBQ, and I played Carmaine twice, won once, and Jack did the same. I dubbed Carmaine “crazy ninja” because she always managed to get some pretty nasty shots in. For what it’s worth, the games were very close, for we all fought out with the 8-ball by the end.

Carmaine and I went to the BBQ only to have Carmaine leave almost immediately (but not before meeting Jalex (yes I realise the semblance to my previous blog, but these two are completely irrelevant) and subsequently…well I won’t say anything nasty but if you’d met Jalex then you’d too be…) and I picked up Cathy. Cathy, Ang-, Andrew and I left at around 2 promising to come back (we never did. The food ran out and everyone was getting bored) and we went into the CBD. We said bye to Ang- and Andrew at Dymocks and later April joined us. The three of us bought Bubble Cup (they need bigger menus for shorted sighted folks) and sat in front of State Library and talked. April and Cathy got along quite well! I think it was mostly because they were both DUX’s of Year 10 (nerds) and both had a boyfriend they gushed over.

Cathy left and April and I went to find some new shoes for her (her current shoes look like they’ve been to hell and back, and then had to make a return trip because it fell apart in Helllll) and at around 5 I found Carmaine again and we took the train home.

Because I was so late home, I ended up taking the bus and walking home from the bus stop. It pleased me that I wasn’t at all out of breath when I arrived home, nor were my parents scolding me for being late (I called in advance to say I’ll be home later, but I still expected a telling-off and a lecture on safety).

Aaaaand that was it for the week. Nada and zilch for the rest of the week (which suits me fine but also I want to see BRuCE again, god do I have absence withdrawal) and next week is officially the last week of unofficial holidays. Carmaine leaves next week. I hope that sentence has as much impact on others as it does on me.

De Fluffe, Out.

Dedicated

You’re so dedicated in pool! 10 games! It astounds me.

If only I was so dedicated in something. But hey, maybe I am. Maybe I’m just dedicated in making you happy. So, eg, I provide pool table.

Anyway, I hope you had fun.

And you, with your awesome banana cake! My kitchen still smells incredible. Okay, so you gotta teach me some baking skills now, because  want to make use of my oven more. It’s a good oven.

I hope you had fun, too.

Love,

Me.

De Fluffe, Out.