So, it's been awhile, which means lots to catch up on... Yay!
The pub quiz was fun, although I knew nearly nothing and quite a bit of cheating went on... One of the questions that I was really annoyed about not getting was: 'In which turn of the century novel does the protagonist alight at Whitby?'* If you know then well done, you're better educated than me/didn't drop English after AS... There were also three very clever cryptic clues to film titles, which were: **
1) The actors are not at home
2) They used to be masculine
3) West 11
The overall winners were team Quiz on My Face, which I thought was excellent. We also decided that an Esprit pub quiz would be fun so suggested it to the office and it's going to happen I think, which is very exciting!
The next day (February 29th) I had shift(!!!), which are really few and far between right now, and it was so much fun because there was basically nothing to do... There were six of us waiters all together and we arrived about twenty minutes before the actual catering company so we just sat in a meeting room on swivel chairs listening to This Is What Crazy Looks Like Via Text Messaging on Gabs' phone, which is, like it says, CRAZY! And also hilarious! After the chefs and the man running the event actually arrive, Sammie and I spent the next half hour helping the chefs, who were (unusually) lovely, to make canapes and then drifting around an office offering them to people. Then all the people at the party went home and we ate most of the remaining canapes and then finished an hour early. So that was good, although £6.75 less on my pay cheque next Friday...
Gabs and I were going the same way home so we talked about a Crimson Petal and the White night (BBC TV show starring Ramola Garai) which we've been vaguely trying to organise since last May! I really believe it's never going to happen...
Back at home, Lucy excitedly informed me that she had got Netflix and, after much searching, we decided to watch Dead Poet's Society. This is a film that I have vaguely known I should watch for years and I was completely blown away by it. I'm not going to go on about it (and I really could, because I have a lot of views about teaching and education and schools) but basically, everything that Robin Williams' character, Mr Keating, does in that film is right, and everything that all the other teachers and parents do is wrong and, sadly, I think there are still not enough teachers like Mr Keating and those that are like him are invariably not given the respect they deserve and are, in some cases, regarded with great suspicion. Anyway, watching it reminded me of how much I loved school and how much I respect teachers and how important I think that stage of a child's/young person's life is, and it made me seriously consider teaching as a possible career path. I've emailed some of my teachers from school and am gradually bringing myself round to the idea of doing a degree in something I'd want to teach; probably English. So that's all a bit weird really, as I've spent the past three years being determined never to enter any kind of academic institution ever again! I'm going to be doing a lot of mulling (of thoughts, not wine) over the next few weeks.
On Thursday, I sat outside with Olive, and she caught a mouse... I was aware of her dashing behind some cushions (that I was sitting on), a lot of panicked squeaking coming from just behind me and then she re-emerged holding a mouse between her teeth. I got as far as standing up with a view to maybe helping the mouse, and then just froze. The thoughts that ran through my head went something like: 'I should let nature run it's course, like David Attenborough, and it's probably injured anyway so I should just let her kill it. But she's killing it SO SLOWLY! She's put it down and is just watching it and, oh, now she's picked it up again, please kill it this time, it's got such pretty beady eyes, it's like they're stuck onto it. Maybe I should get a kitchen knife and kill it myself, but I don't think I can move... I'm going to ring my mum.' So I did that and she said: 'Oh, better just leave it.' and then brightly chattered away for the next ten minutes while I watched Olive toy with this poor mouse! It was probably one of the most intense experiences of my whole life. I then spent the rest of the day watching episodes of New Girl (best show ever), whilst feeling a little uncomfortable in Olive's presence.
The following day, I went to the Esprit office for some development training, which was really quite fun and I can now officially do silver service, lead team service, box a table and do a Windsor tie knot (although I actually knew how to do that anyway, due to a book called 81 Ways to Tie a Tie which my friend, Rebecca (probably my favourite person in the whole world), bought when we were in Year 11). This is all pretty exciting stuff. Next, I need to do bar training and then ambassador training and then I'll be super responsible and have to write feedback after shifts and be on £7.00 and hour!
Saturday was a lovely day in every respect. I met up with (another) Esprit friend, Joe, who is an excellent human being and we ate ice cream and walked around Regent's Park and chatted about how we really hate the question: 'What are you doing?' so resolved not to ask it to each other. We also talked about Cabaret because Joe is completely in love with it and we always talk about it, or at least sing something from it!
After parting ways at Baker Street station, I went to my brother's house to say goodbye to him (as he is going to Nigeria today for three weeks!) and to talk to him about my potential becoming an English teacher plans, which he was very encouraging about. Although I do wonder if that's partly because he's very pro Uni and proper jobs.
I then headed home and Lucy and I set off to Battersea Arts Centre to attend Nabokov Arts Club: Fable, which was one of the coolest things I've ever been to. There were basically all these different 15-30 minute performances going on in different rooms and once the performers had finished their stuff they just wondered around and went to other people's shows with everyone else. So it was just such a lovely and supportive vibe. We saw a little bit of this lady who sang and played the ukulele, who was really good, and a sort of dance piece called Dante or Die, which was very pretty, but didn't make any sense at all and seemed to be doing more for the actors than the audience. However, from then on in, everything was amazing! We saw a comedian called Patrick Magee doing a very amusing set about Aesop's fables (Lucy gave him her card so he could email her about doing Chatback and he gave us a picture of a seahorse that he'd drawn during the show, which Lucy and I planned to colour in and put up in our house, but Sofi didn't want us to...); an absolutely BRILLIANT twenty minute musical of a modernised Cinderella by Arthur Darvill (Rory in Doctor Who) and a beautiful, enchanting, magical (there aren't really enough good words to describe it) show done by a man who called himself Flying Dutchman Theatre. He had this lovely, boyish charm and enthusiasm and told a story called The Fantastical Tale of the Boy on the Run using pop up books! I have never seen an audience so enthralled. We hung on his every word with a child-like fascination and there was just something so pure and joyous about it (can you tell that I really liked this show?...), so you should absolutely, definitely go see it if you get the chance! I'm also pretty sure that he was looking at me when the boy told the magical flying pony to ask the carousel horse for his number because it's OK for girls to ask for guy's numbers, which made me feel very special! We then saw some spoken word and a short play by Jack Thorne, which were also very good.
On the various night buses home, we wrote reviews of the shows on Lucy's phone and spent most of the journey laughing hysterically at amusing auto corrects, the memory of a lady snorting during the Flying Dutchman's show, and the fact that the end of one our reviews read: 'hot, commanding, climax a bit weak'. Oh the mirth that late nights, cold and tiredness can bring!
This morning (as in after I got up so this afternoon really), I talked to my mum and then had a shower and Skyped my friend, Lucy (another Lucy), SIMULTANEOUSLY by putting my laptop on top of a saucepan that I put in the sink and leaving the shower door open a crack. An excellent time-saving device! I then talked to a hungover Mab and Tom via Facebook video call and had a productive conversation about making a British version of Bridesmaids, directing quality pornography (although I did point out that it might not be a good idea for me if I was going to be an English teacher and Tom said my name would have to not be affiliated with it, to which Mab pointed out that that would probably destroy the whole point) and making a documentary about Mab and Tom's life.
Eventually, about two hours after I meant to, I got the bus to my cousin(Alastair)'s house and we talked about homophobia, watched Annie Hall (very good film), ate nacho cheese popcorn, went to Nandos (my second time ever and it was delicious) and talked about homelessness. I then got the bus home and watched videos of comedians on Netflix with Lucy for a bit; read Josh's latest blog post about brooding characters in fiction (which was excellent); chatted to other Lucy on Skype about a boy she likes; held a glass of water at an angle for aaages so that Olive could drink out of it, even though she has a clean bowl of water on the floor, next to her food; and now I really, really need to go to bed so that I can go to sleep and get up in time for a financial meeting at 11am tomorrow... I am definitely catching up on Take Me Out first though!
*Dracula - really annoyed I didn't get it!
**1) Cast Away
2) X-Men
3) Notting Hill
Aren't they just SO clever?!
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