I'm sick. :-(

So I’m sick. Lucky me. Headache, sore throat, upset stomach, the lot.
I started feeling sick on Thursday. I initially though the headache and sore throat were down to listening to students bashing away on keyboards, drums and electric guitar and talking over said instruments, respectively. But apparently not. The next day I managed to get through teaching the year 10s for first period and it was actually the best lesson I had taught so far. After that it went downhill with me feeling like I was going to throw up, my throat hurting like hell and my head punding. Yay. I stayed until after school, watched the barbershop choir rehearse and then went to the city to buy a present for my friend who has her 21st tonight. Which I’m not attending cos I still feel like shit.
Thursday night I couldn’t sleep properly and kept waking up because my throat was killing me. Yesterday evening I was about to head home when Annie called me and said that she had tickets for this Greek performers in the concert hall. It was some fundraising thing for St. Andrew’s. Apparently they have Greek ties, who knew? It was fun. It reminded me of holidays in Greece. Especially with all the Greek people in the audience. Greek women sure know how to dress tackily. Well, not all of them. Just the ones in their 30s and 40s. Ah well. Who knows, maybe I’ll be walking around in a spandex reptile print turquoise mini-dress one day... Just like when I was 10. Oh the memories.
Anyway, I ended up leaving during interval cos I felt like shit and was soooooo tired. Luckily for me my parents were on their way home from the movies and had just got on the freeway. So they decided to turn around and come pick me up at the concert hall. Yay!
So this morning I didn’t go to WAYO. And tonight I’m not going to my friend’s 21st. I was really looking forward to it. Seeing her and all my other friends from high school again. I don’t see them nearly often enough. Finally meeting her boyfriend. Partying after teaching all week! But just the thought of leaving the house is enough to make me collapse on my bed indefinitely. Well, at least for the next ten minutes. There is no way I’d survive more than an hour at a party right now. And what would be the point in that? I also called up my boss and told her that I can’t work tomorrow. She was very nice about it. I wonder who’ll be doing my shift...
Oh, I should also call Sam and let him know that I won’t be at rehearsal tomorrow evening. Gah. Being sick is more effort than just turning up to rehearsals, work and parties.
So now I’m listening to Reggae in an effort to actually know more than the year 9s I’m teaching next week.... I’m trying to get as much lesson planning as possible done on the weekend. When I get home from school I’m too tired to get much work done. I really want to do some practice. Right now I don’t have the energy to play viola, but hopefully once I’m better I can squeeze in ten minutes or so... I’m also supposed to learn my part for eneksis. Although not sure if my throat will be up to singing by Monday’s rehearsal... So, time to do some work.

My Weekend!

Things always happen en masse. There will be entire weekends where nothing much is happening and I’ll be sitting at home sighing and watching TV. And then suddenly a weekend comes along when I have more things to go to then I have time for.
This weekend I’m going to see Phantom of the Opera on Saturday night. YAY! And my parents are giving me a lift there, which is great. I was afraid that I’d have to take public transport which would’ve taken two hours. I’m really excited. Last time a Phantom show was near where I lived was when I was in primary school in Switzerland. Most of my friends went to it but my parents weren’t interested, so I didn’t go. I just heard all their stories about how great the show was. The same happened with a Magic Flute performance where three of my friends happened to be watching the same show and Pamina lost her voice. How exciting!
Well anyway, this Saturday I get to watch Phantom and I’m really looking forward to it even though I have to go on my own because nobody wanted to go with me. I have a good seat as well. My dad offered to pay for a ticket when I complained about not having money and once we looked at a map of the seats decided that if I was going to watch it I might as well have a good seat, otherwise what’s the point? My dad is really awesome like that.
Then on Sunday night I have two options. Either I go watch the WAYO at Burswood concert. It should be fun with WAYO playing music from various music, including Titanic, as well as some operatic pieces with young stars from the WA Opera. I love Titanic. We played it when I was in the Philharmonic Orchestra. It’s pure cheese but I absolutely loved it. Especially when the drum kit came in when we played the “my hear will go on” section. I really enjoyed playing with drumkit because usually we don’t do that. In that same concert we also played Handel’s Watermusic. Or was it Handel’s Fireworks music? Either way, it was polyphonic baroque stuff. The sort of stuff that doesn’t really sound good unless played by a really good orchestra, but always played by bad to moderately good orchestras because the notes aren’t that hard. Anyway, we didn’t really get a good pulse going so Pete who was conducting us got us to play it with the drumkit in the rehearsal. That was fun. J
So anyway, I could go to the WAYO concert. I’m not in it because the stage isn’t big enough for everybody. So my desk and the last desk got cut. I was in the last concert instead. The one with WASO in Kings Park. That was great! So I was thinking that I might go to the Burswood concert with Annie and some of her friends and we’ll have a picnic. But I’m not sure yet. It depends on how Annie feels. I don’t want to go by myself.
So if I don’t go to that I’ll go to the movies with Nat and her sister instead. To see Watchmen. We were going to go last weekend but then we were both busy. So if I don’t go to Burswood I’ll go to the movies. Actually, we should go out after that. Although we probably won’t, seeing as it will be Sunday night and we’ll have to drop her sister home right after the movie because she’ll have school the next day. I don’t have uni until 12.30 on Monday although Nat has history at 10.30.
Of course after standing around at work all day on Sunday I probably won’t feel like going out after the movie anyway. So that’s my weekend. Hopefully. J

Awesome Valentine's Day!

So, yesterday was Valentine's Day. And I had a great day despite not actually having a 'Valentine'. :-)

I went to Kings Park with my parents because I was playing in the WASO/WAYO concert there in the evening. It was one of the concerts in WASO's Classical Spectacular Series. We had a few rehearsals without WASO first and then three rehearsals with WASO. There were about 150 people in the combined orchestra. It was always a WASO member and a WAYO member together. We played the Festive Overture by Shostakovich, and then Shaun Lee-Chen played Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso by Saint-Saens with WASO minus WAYO. We went off stage and listened. Shaun Lee-Chen is such an amazing player. I know the piece quite well, even though I've never played it and I didn't know what it was called or who it was by. Listening to him was heaven. Sigh....

After that, all us WAYO players piled back on stage (me with the addition of some really annoying mozzie bites) and played Stravinsky's Firebird Suite (1919). Then it was time for the interval and we all found our way back down the hill in the dark to return our instruments to the safety of their cases for the duration of the interval. I once again made my way to the portaloos which were available to the performers (just like during the break from the previous day's rehearsal). There were two for the ladies and two for the gents. For some reason there was a queue for the ladies' both nights but not for the gents. On the rehearsal evening I decided to wait until one of the ladies' got free and then made it back on stage just in time for the second half of the rehearsal which contained some drama. More of that later. So when it came to the interval in the concert I decided to not take any chances by waiting for a ladies' to get free and went into one of the gents' portaloos instead. All I can say is that I sincerely hope that the liquid on the floor was water... I made it back to the tent in time to talk to Bec who'd gotten back before me from saying hello to some friends who had come to watch the concert. Oh, did I mention the portaloos were on top of the hill, but on a sort of an incline, actually about halfway up the hill. So you sat at an angle. It was quite a weird experience...

After the interval we played Peter Sculthorpe's Sun Music III followed by Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition (orch. Ravel).

Out of those pieces the only ones I hadn't played before were those by Sculthorpe and the Firebird Suite. We played Pictures at an Exhibition in our midyear concert last year with gues conductor Vladimir Verbitsky (awesomely great experience!) and the Festive Overture was the opener of the WACO concert last Monday. Wow, I've really been busy...

So, back to the piece I hadn't played before. The Sculthorpe was mostly effects and counting. No difficult runs or anything like that. However, the Firebird Suite is a killer. I can honestly say that I could not play every note. Although one of the more difficult movements was our encore piece and I played it much much better the second time round. I think everybody did.

It was a really great concert and such a good experience to play with the professionals and see how their rehearsals run, although I guess they made some concessions for us kiddies. The woman I sat next to was really nice and chatted with me and told me funny stories about previous outdoor concerts. :D The weather for the concert was really nice too. Earlier in the day it had rained on and off and as we arrived at Kings Park there was one last shower and then it cleared right up. Actually as I sat in the sun with my parents and ate dinner it was quite hot. In the end I decided to get myself backstage before I actually had to because it was behind some trees and the stage, so it was cooler there. Also fellow young musos including a rather cute bassist had congregated there while I was eating dinner. :)

Anyway, so the weather for the concert was great. Pretty much windstill which was great for us because we didn't have to cover the music with clear perspex sheets which make page turning a real chore. (Move perspex, turn page, replace perspex, don't drop instrument in the process and don't hit anyone with any part of your instrument either.) Due to the calmness of the evening we were able to leave the perspex sheet on the floor and all page turns went off without a hitch. :-)

The day before it was quite windy, so we used the perspex thingy and I had more than one page turn which took longer than the time I really had... In the second half of the rehearsal we also had to stop for a while because it had started to rain and quite a big portion of the orchestra was not covered by the roof of the stage. Actually, most of the string players weren't under the roof, which considering we play wooden instruments which are highly susceptible to changes in temperature wasn't ideal. So then 10 minutes before the official end of the rehearsal we all sought cover and they told us we'd wait a while to see if rehearsal would resume (we still had some movements of the last piece to go) or if we would leave the rest of the piece to chance. In the end it stopped raining long enough for us to bash through to the end and then it was time to go home.

Below are some pictures of the concert.

I know the picture quality isn't very good. But you get an idea of what the stage with the orchestra on it looks like. If it was a better quality picture you'd be able to spot me on the right. :-) Another photo of the stage.

A close up of the right hand (or left hand depending of where you're standing) of the stage. I am pretty much in the centre of the picture towards the back... My head looks really tiny. :D

In this photo you can see me putting the little microphone on my strings near the bridge. I'm the one with dark brown hair looking down when you look past Catherine in the forground. These pictures will no doubt pop up on Facebook in better quality.

Creepy Posters

When I went into work today (I didn't work last week because I went to a friend's engagement party) I was greeted by a new poster in front of the pile of posters for sale. With the new store layout those posters are pretty much the first thing a person sees as they put in the code to disarm the alarm. The poster that I saw was this:

Or at least a poster with a similar picture. Now, I know that there are many girls who would love to be greeted by Edward at work in the morning, but I think the poster is creepy. The corpse like complexion isn't really improved by the bad lighting in the store before I turn on the lights. As for the expression and stare... Let's just say I found myself avoiding his stare for most of the day... Needless to say, Robert Pattison isn't really my type, otherwise I would probably love this poster. As it is, it has a place in my top two creepy movie posters I could be greeted by when I go to work.

I was going to take pictures of the two posters today, but I ended up leaving work early because I wasn't feeling well. So I found some approximations of the posters of the internet. I shall have another attempt at taking my own pictures of the posters next week...

The other poster which I told my work mate to move towards the back of the posters because it nearly gave me a heart attack when I first went into the shop one morning is a poster of the Joker. My work mate obliged and the poster has not been on top of the pile for some time now. Maybe we sold it. Since I haven't seen it in a while I can't really remember that well what it looked like. But I think this might be it:

There seems to be a theme when it comes to creepy posters: ghostly complexion? Check. Staring at camera? Check.

As I mentioned above I will attempt to get the actual posters on here next week. I will also post more creepy posters as I encounter them.

Poser Alert!

Here are some pictures of me taken with my camera phone by me. Lots of poses! :-)

Movie star pose!!! Now with bonus under-eye bags!

Audrey Hepburn pose!!! (aka Who Hid My Drugs???)


Deer in Headlights pose! Surprisingly similar to the Audrey Hepburn pose! (aka. It's ok, I found them! :P)

Lady Di pose! Note the coy tilt of the head! The looking up through the lashes! The mysterious smile! Now compare to a photo of Diana or Prince William! That's right, he also uses this pose!

Ye olde take one's photo in the mirror pose! 'Nuff said!

When is an Australian not an Australian?

Yesterday I got accused of not being a real Australian. I was just sitting in the shade with an Australian friend and two German backpackers. We were in King’s Park to celebrate Australia Day. I can’t remember what we were talking about. Something to do with being Australian. I said: “I’m Australian too.” And my friend answered: “Yeah, but not really.” And I said: “Yes, I am. I’m an Australian. Really.” And my friend said: “You’re only an Australian on paper.” I answered: “So are you.” And she said: “No. I’m seventh generation Australian.”
I did not want to make a fuss on Australia Day, so I left it at that, but privately I was quite offended that she did not think I was a ‘real’ Australian. What is it that makes me less of an Australian than she is? Is it that I speak with a Swiss accent? But many Australians have different accents. Hardly anyone speaks with the stereotypical broad Ozzy accent anymore. Is it the fact that I was not born in Australia? Does the fact that more of her ancestors have been born in Australia make her more Australian? Is she more Australian than say, someone who is sixth or fifth generation Australian?
I suspect that her line of reasoning is that I was not born in Australia, therefore I am not a ‘real’ Australians. I’d like to think I’m a real Ozzy. I’ve been living in Australia for years. I went to high school here. I study here. I have many, many friends here, some Australians some not. I had my first boyfriend in Australia, although he was not an Australian. I voted in the last federal election. I voted in the local elections. I have an Australian passport. I cheer for the Australians at the Olympics. I go to the ANZAC Day service. I have sung at ANZAC Day services in France, England and Australia with my high school choir. I celebrate Australia Day every year. Over the years I have considered moving either overseas or just over east. But as the song says: “I still call Australia home.” I live here. I study here. I work here. I live my entire life here. I may be a Swiss Hispanic Australian. But I still am an Australian. I don’t think there is such a thing as less or more Australian or ‘only an Australian on paper’. As far as I’m concerned if you’re an Australian you’re an Australian, nothing more, nothing less.

There is a Review in Perth? Why didn't I know?

Yesterday before orchestra I was grabbing a bite to eat at the McDonald's in the city. The 24 hour one that's just up the road from the underground trainstation. As I was eating I looked out of the window and what did I see across the street? A clothes store with a line of clothes along the glass wall. I thought it looked quite nice so I checked where the entrance was and over the entrance I saw REVIEW. I did not know this brand until I went to Melbourne in December and stumbled across it in the DFO. My sister's boyfriend's dance partner bought a really nice grey wrapdress there. I loved most of the clothes but didn't buy anything because I was a trying not to spend too much money.

Here is a link to the website. I think it's divine! http://www.review-australia.com/