Sealed The Exits With Caution Tape

[Dear Vienna – Owl City]

Clearly I’m playing Owl City today haha. Okay, today I caught up with some primary school friends.

Sorry, I guess I’ll be dropping a lot of new names here.

I got on the train this morning at 10:26 (which is earlier than I’ve been waking lately) and saw Ula when she walked on. Got excited ‘cos it’s about 19 days ’til her wedding! Nice.

Ka- called me freaking because she apparently doesn’t take trains often, so she ran onto a carriage and thought, “Okay I’ll stay here and they’ll figure out how to find me.” I told her to go up the train, and when she was running up, she heard the announcement that the train was on Platform 2, so she freaked and ran into the wrong carriage again.

Okay, okay sorry I had to say it! Noob…

Cas got on at Mount Waverley, and it was really great to see those two again, because I haven’t seen Cas since Yr 10 (or thereabouts) and I haven’t seen Ka- since Gr 6.

Talk talk talk on train. Ka- had an awful cold. Then got off at Richmond, and waited for Yas. I made a bit more fun of Ka- regarding trains, and Cas said, “Oh come on, don’t call her a noob, especially when she doesn’t know what it means.”

We high fived.

Yas appeared (hadn’t seen her since Gr 6 pretty much, either) and we took the train to South Yarra. I didn’t get lost to Jam Factory this time! Got our tickets and sat down at Gloria Jean’s outside for some drinks. Some guy in there had PMS or something and demanded a refund for a drink they messed up, so we got 2 free drinks.

Chatted, caught up, laughed a lot (Yas laughs like an old bed-spring) and then went to see Sherlock Holmes.

Yas and Ka- were pretty noisy but it was funny because…well when you haven’t seen friends in a long time everything they do is weird but funny. I felt sleepy halfway through, and didn’t enjoy the movie as much as reviews would’ve suggested I do. Still pretty cool the way he fought, and deducted from observations.

Went back to Flinders and then went to Melb Central. Unfortunately we passed Photoplus where Ka- (a while girl, no less) insisted we get sticker photos. Of the 4 that were printed, I wasn’t in one of them because Cas stabbed my ribs and I jerked out of the shot. Lovely.

Cas had to leave at that point, so after getting some quick sushi she left. I took Yas and Ka- to Big W and got these babies:

Many thanks to Katherine for telling me they were on sale! Big W for 30 bucks. Not bad bass for it, too!

At that point we went back to Melb Central and decided to go home. Said bye to Yas and took the old ass train with Ka-. It was really hot! Just our luck to ride that bloody train too. Discussed TV shows on the way back (NCIS being a clear favorite. Go NCIS.) and then bid her farewell while I took the bus home.

Nina was meant to come but she…couldn’t. So I think another reunion is in sight! Very much looking forward to it.

Alex.

P.S. It was endearing that they tried so hard to call me Alex (I forgot and called myself by my other name), and apparently I never showed affection to them, so me hugging them was new. Huh.

Whatever It Takes I’m Not Going To Break The Promise I Made

[When I’m With You – Faber Drive]

This is Day 1 of Sorrento:

I thought that I’d write down some stuff that happened on my iPod so I wouldn’t have to sit through the process of remembering things, and then getting them chronologically off, etc. In the end I put myself through it.

So this is Dec 1, Sorrento Day 1, as far as my memory can reach.

The Glenny line decided to fuck itself up in the morning so after I grabbed some bread for lunch, I met Tiff outside Bubble Cup and her dad drove us to Nunuwading station. We went to Box Hill where we waited for Spanna (and where Katherine failed to get her ass to Box Hill on time to say goodbye. Tut.) and then we took the train to Richmond. Saw Nik, which was a nice surprise. Waited at Richmond for ages because the rest of them missed the initial train. Sonam was with us at Richmond for a while. Took the train to Frankston 20 minute later than thought. The new train system, Metro, seemed to life referring to itself in 3rd person (“Metro now arriving at Cheltnam”).

Arrived at Frankston minus Bel and Julia who were being driven ahead with all the food, and Susan who apparently drove there as well, herself (with her parents in the car too, of course. I think). Waited for the bus to Portsea, and then sat down for the long-ass bus journey. April and I sat near the back of the bus while the rest of them sat in the huge area near the front. A group of dumb girls sat with April and myself. Their conversation provided entertainment and ego boosts.

About 2/3 of the way through the bus ride, and it was around the point of Rosebud or Dromana, some old ladies got on. I told the girls up front to offer their seats and they said that have, but the old ladies didn’t want them. Two seconds later a bogan crazy woman at the back got up, rushed to the front and screamed at my friends to get off the seats and give them to the older ladies. She went back to her seat (where her bouquet of flowers took up an entire seat next to her. Just saying.) and I swear Sonam was about to blow up with anger.

The old ladies then started making lovely conversation with Sonam.

Arrived at Sorrento, and walked to our house, 1 Maverick St, “Winton”. Five minutes in (the house was really great actually) April, Lily and I left to walk to Blairgowrie which is the closest town to get some more stuff. Blairgowrie was approximately…actually Google Maps.

B would be where we stayed. A would be where IGA and the post office was, roughly. 3.2 kms each way, 39 minutes by foot, each way. My feet caned when I got home. (But that wouldn’t be the only time I make that trip.)

The afternoon of the first night was a blur, but I do remember eating BBQ and the cous cous April made. I swear I really did got vegetarian for a whole day, but the BBQ was too good to say no to.

Started on the large DVDs we had to watch. So we watched Silent Hill and that was shockingly bad. Then they watched 10 Things I Hate About You but I sort of knocked off a bit before it finished. Then when they were all done I went back to the couch. The couch, by the way, was actually really comfortable.

I slept well, I had to keep my strength up for the next day.

Which I will write about later.

Alex.

Big Girls don’t cry when they have to catch a replacement bus…

It was been a long day and I was GONNA blog about it tonight BUT THEN I had to catch a replacement bus ‘cos the train tracks were broken or something.

So I am very tired right now, and won’t have the effort. Might blog tomorrow at Dani’s place.

Goodnight,

Alex.

Jitterbug…jitterbug…

(Obviously, Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go – Wham! Am I going to copy Mai’s lyrical title thing? Probably not. But this once.)

Today I woke up my first sleeping train passenger!

We pulled up at Glen Waverley and I stood up, and he was totally still asleep.

So I was all like shaking him.

But he was all like still asleep.

So I totally was all like shaking him harder.

And he totally opened his eyes.

And I was all like, “we’re here!”

And he was all like, “Thanks.”

It was awesome.

Alex.

Excitement to the Maxxx

The Glen Waverley line was “suspended until further notice” today because there was an accident somewhere at Glen Iris. So we (BRuCE, Fel and Nat) took a much more cooler route.

We took the Blackburn, disembarking at Camberwell to take the Alamein and got off at Ashburton where we took a bus to Glen Waverley.

That meant nothing to anyone, did it.

When we were at Ashburton, we were waiting for a bus to come. I took out my Jila mints from my jacket pocket, only to have 4 of them spill out onto the ground. Needless to say I was traumatized.

Nat picked one up, and after lengthy discussion, decided not to eat it, and threw it out onto the road.

We tracked the little white mint, rolling away.

And then it started rolling back towards us, being on a slant.

At the nearby lights, the traffic started coming closer.

“It’s gonna crush the mint!”

We watched as the cars came even closer.

We watched as the mint rolled steadily towards the gutter.

The car was 10 meters away.

The mint is going to be crushed.

It’s coming.

It’s coming (oh shut up)…!

IT MISSED!

THE MINT ROLLED CLEAR OF THE CAR BY ABOUT 20 CMS! THE CAR MISSED THE MINT!

We all shouted in disappointment.

Carmaine shook her head a little, and told me I can blog about this, it being such an exciting event.

So I did.

Alex.

Because Of You

To lighten the mood I’d joked that I’d blog about it but in a mock-serious manner, making it worse than it actually was.

But the truth was it was nonetheless one of the scariest moments in my life.

Here is a dramatic recount:

7:19 am. Carmaine has embarked onto the 3rd carriage of one of Connex’s oldest models of trains at Syndal station. She rejected the offer for a seat and stood by herself to the side. Her back was facing the rest of the group.

7: 19 am – 7:45 am. Onboard the train. The train ride passes as per usual, with light hearted conversation being thrown around. Other passengers of the morning train embarked upon the locomotive, partially blocking Carmaine from the rest of the group.

7:42 am. Passing Kooyong station. Carmaine has remained noticeably quiet throughout the train ride. Sudden thump sounded. At first it was mistaken that the train, in its age, had a mechanical problem. But as I turned around to look, I noticed that Carmaine was no longer visible.

7:43 am. Stood up briskly, shouting, “Carmaine!” Rest of the group noticed that something had gone awry. Pushed aside man partially blocking Carmaine. Carmaine was on floor, having collapsed. Her eyes were closed and her face pale. Asked someone to press the emergency button only to find none on board. Dialled 911. Yes. In my state of utter shock I’d dialled the American emergency number. Fortunately it reconnected to 000.

7:44 am. Train arrived at Heyington Station. Was on phone with Ambulance. She asked for the nearest suburb. Wasn’t sure, so said, “Heyington Station on the Glen Waverley line! St Kevin’s College!” Woman repeatedly told me to calm down and tell her the nearest suburb. Disembarked train, helped Carmaine to nearest bench. Caitlin was on phone with Ambulance, having more success than I. The train driver, being notified by a kind lady who had ran from 3rd carriage to inform him, made sure all was under control, and promptly left.

7:45 am. Called Carmaine’s mother, received no answer.

7:46 am. Called Carmaine’s dad. Explained situation to him. Carmaine was feeling better and color had returned to her cheeks.

7:48 am. The next train arrived on platform. We had been standing around trying to keep ourselves warm and make small talk. I was not cold, I was running on adrenaline.

7:49 am. Embarked upon the crowded carriage, and asked that Carmaine have a seat as she had been ill. A kind woman and man gave up their seats and Annie sat with Carmaine, who was still rather weak.

8:10 am. Arrived at Melbourne Central station, where we disembarked so to allow Carmaine to sit down and eat. Sat down at food court. Got Carmaine cinnamon pretzels and the others had McDonalds.

8:12 am. Made numerous phone calls to the school to ensure their awareness of our circumstances. Joked lightheartedly – away from the phone – that Carmaine had given us all an excuse to skip Period 1 and have McDonalds for breakfast.

8:40am. Having spent enough time at Melbourne Central, departed to take tram to school.

9:00 am. Arrival at school. Promptly took Carmaine to Sick Bay. The lady behind the desk looked at Carmaine meaningfully and said, ‘I’ve been talking to your mom.”

9:01 am. Bid farewell to Carmaine, and proceeded to do the necessary paperwork. I.e. Seeing Mr Rus-, filling out late book etc.

9:05 am. Put bag back in locker. Walked Carmaine to her next class, which she insisted on attending.

All times were rough estimations.

The preceding story was based on a true story.

Alex.

P.S. Take care of yourself, Carmaine.

Bloody Fel

Mm, first and foremost, that was a play on “Bloody Hell”. I don’t mean for it sound like a gripe about Fel. It is a bit though.

I spent the entire day with the lovely “Fail-icia” today at Walters, because Bee and Carmiane are both [sigh] sick.

[pause for silent sadness]

We filed and archived our way through a really monotonous day. I called up Bee and Carmaine at lunch break. They sounded alive.

The reason I wrote “Bloody Fel” was because, on our way home, we’d gotten to Gardiner train station on the tram, and as we were walking towards the platform, the boomgates came down. So I said “Oh hope that’s not my train.” Fel was going the other way, to clarify.

Fel says, “yeah bruh (don’t ask) that is your train.” So when I saw it pulling up at the station and I had still about 30 metres to go, I made a sprint for it. Full on sprinting, and seeing as I’m insanely unfit, that wasn’t fun.

The train goes right past.

It was a freaking express.

Fel was on the other platform, laughing her head off at me.

Bloody Fel.

Alex.

I’m a dick…I’m addicted to you…

While I was thinking of a snappy title I remembered that weird-ass song by Simple Plan.

So, going with a non-my-life-is-shit-because blogging style, I think I might share a few things that I’m quite into at the moment.

Firstly, and I know it’s disgusting that I’m eating it for breakfast, but I love MICROWAVE POPCORN!

I especially like how sometimes, because the flavor isn’t distributed properly, one particular popcorn would taste saltier and greasier than the others. Mm, cholestrole…

Speaking of cholestrole and heaps of salt, I like those Campbell’s CHUNKY canned soup things. You know that ad “Fully loaded man’s got ball of meat”? Well at least I think that’s how the ad goes. It’s a random-Panda ad (ok ok I’m trying to get something caught on here. Random-Panda, or if you say it fast it enough “Randa-Panda”) but the soup is quite nice, if you get past the momentary blindness from the soup. No no no I’m kidding.

Okay that wasn’t quite the one I was looking for, but it’s close enough.

Speaking of manly (loving my segways?), there is a duo that’s NOT SO MANLY but still pretty fully-loaded. Yes I’m speaking about the HAMISH AND ANDY SHOW! Specifically, their Podcasts.

Because you don’t look stupid enough on the train bopping to your music, but to actually be trying to suppress a very creepy smile when listening to Hamish trying to read Fred Baset while being chased down by cars…

TETRIS! No segway there but they don’t NEED one!

(Whoever was playing that during the screen shot is an epic noob…I mean LOOK AT IT!)

I’ve been trying to beat my best score of 1:38 on Tetrisfriends Sprint for about a month now. I know the time is quite shit, compared to oh, Dom’s 58 seconds, but I’m trying my best okay?!

Yu-Gi-Oh, the Abridged Series. I’ve watched most of the episodes, and yes, I have been quoting “ATTENTION DUELISTS! MY HAIR IS NOW AN INTERNET PHENOMENON!”

And finally, I know this is a waste of time, I’m addicted to uberly long phone calls. I’ve been calling (or have been called by) Catherine for nearly every night and we’re just chatting and chatting and I’m not letting her study. Which is shit for her because she has an exam on Wednesday. But phone conversations are awesome, and as Train said, “Can you imagine no…five hour phone conversations, the best soy latte that you ever had, and me?”

I thought that was a funny picture, because that’s what Catherine’s probably doing every time.

Well, that’s all for today. Just wanted to update and be awesome, as always.

NCIS and HIMYM finished for the season (like, a week ago, but anyway) and so right now I’m just catching up on Merlin and Ghost Whisperer. I suppose I should put those two on as well.

Could her shirt  BE any more open?

Alex.

Did you miss me while you were looking for yourself?

Can you imagine no

Love, pride, deep-fried chicken,

Your best friend always sticking up for you?

Even when I know you’re wrong.

Can you imagine no

First dance, freeze-dried romance,

Five hour phone conversation,

The best soy latte that you ever had

And me?

I can talk to you about anything. And you can talk to me about anything. Why did it take 3 years for us to find that?

Lyrics: Drops of Jupiter – Train.