All children are gifted; some just open their packages earlier than others.
I love when something unexpectedly exceeds my expectations. Tonight was a perfect example. Tonight, I saw Lior perform at the Tivoli. Really, my expectations should have been far higher than they were. I was looking forward to it, but I've had a hectic and exhausting week, and my head just wasn't in the right place. I went along without any real anticipation or excitement. Which was entirely unwarranted.
I've seen Lior perform before ... at a tiny little venue in London a little over a year ago. The audience was, primarily, Aussie ... despite being on the other side of the world from his hometown of Sydney. And it was a fabulous show - he's a brilliant artist to see live. This alone should have built my expectations higher than they were.
Another clue ... the venue is potentially my all time favourite venue. The Tivoli is such a brilliant place to see a show. It's small, and intimate, but big enough to have a decent crowd, and the feel is always pretty special. It's a nice venue. Artists always comment on how much they love playing there. I've never seen a bad show there, and I've been to my fair share. So again, this should have built my expectations.
But strangely, they just weren't that high. I was the sole instigator in getting tickets. None of the friends I asked even knew who he was, and the one who wanted to come decided purely on my recommendation. So I guess I was a little worried that she might not appreciate his style as much as I do.
I have also spent the last week or so listening only to his most recent album, and I think perhaps I prefer his previous album a little more. I'd forgotten how much I love some of those older songs. So my expectations were being built on songs that I haven't developed the same appreciation for (... yet - I still love the new ones, I just don't know them as well).
In a interesting turn of fate, the friend I was planning to go with had to pull out at the last minute on account of some rather evil work commitments, and luckily I was able to find another friend at short notice who came along in her place. The replacement has been a long-time Lior fan, which immediately improved my excitement and anticipation.
We also found a rather lovely spot upstairs from where we had a perfect view of the stage, and I quickly began to realise how much higher my expectations should have been. Plus, the unadvertised support act was the brilliant Abby Dobson ... such a nice surprise!
The concert was, in one word, brilliant. It was a noticeably larger event than the London concert. There were more musicians on stage to begin with, and far more impressive sound and lighting especially. The audience was obviously much larger as well, and in a good way. It wasn't as intimate as in London, but it was nice.
Katie Noonan joined him on stage to sing the beautiful duet I'll Forget You ... rather a lovely surprise! And she did it so beautifully. Then a disturbing amount of shouting by a girl right by the stage resulted in an unplanned and unrehearsed performance of Gypsy Girl ... one of my favourites.
Quite simply, it was a fabulous night ... kindly exceeding my expectations by quite a way. The band was incredible ... the drummer especially caught our attention. The string quartet added a great new element that wasn't there in London. And the stories and introductions were entertaining and amusing. I just wish it could have gone longer, and that I'd spent more time looking forward to it ... after all, half the fun is in the build up to something fun. An opportunity wasted. Shame.
Don't say you don't have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.H. Jackson Brown
I'm about to do something I must have been considering doing for a good seven or eight years. I'm seriously exploring the possibility of purchasing a Mac! Seriously to the point that I have figured out exactly which one I want, where I can get it, and which accessories and extras I'm likely to purchase as well. And I've scheduled in a trip to the Mac store on Wednesday in the hope that I'll be able to purchase it then!
It's terribly exciting! I'm looking at purchasing a 2.4GHz White MacBook. Very simple, lower end of the price scale, but basically exactly what I need. I'm ultimately in need of a laptop ... something portable that I can take with me to prac, classes, meetings, etc. A second machine which I'll use in conjunction with my perfectly suitable desktop PC. My old laptop is no longer reliable, the battery is near death and it's a little on the bulky side. It's approaching five years old, so it's not unrealistic to replace it.
I also want to learn the Mac operating system. So many schools in Queensland use Macs, and I'm ashamed to say I really don't know the operating system. I can find my way around it, but I don't know it to a point that I can use it confidently or fix problems like I can on a PC. I really want to change that. So more recently I've been contemplating my need to learn Mac OS X. A Mac laptop seems like the perfect solution ... effectively meeting both needs.
Plus, they're so pretty. And we all know anything technology/gadget related is all about being pretty. ;) Well, that, and ease of use ... which I'm sure the Mac will have.
I must give a shout out to the sales staff at the Next Byte store in the city - they have been fabulously helpful. Far more so than any of the staff at the larger department stores. I'm so pleased with the deal they're going to do too. I get the MacBook at student price, reduced price on Office for Mac 2008, significantly discounted price on the extended warranty, plus a free iPod Nano and access to free weekly training courses for a year. Sounds like a rather perfect deal really.
So hopefully, with a little luck, by Wednesday night I'll be the proud owner of a pretty new MacBook ... and for the first time, I proud Mac user!
My original Wagamama restaurant is having a birthday! The Camden restaurant in London is turning 8 years old this month - I just got an email informing me of the exciting event, with a lovely little two for one voucher to go with it. Oh, how I'd love to make use of the voucher! Anyone up for noodling at Camden?
The very first time I went to Wagamama, it was with my beloved St John friends in Camden. I have some wonderful memories from that restaurant. I have been back many times since, always with St John friends and always good fun.
Camden Wagamama was also the start of a rather silly obsession - I have now been to Wagamamas elsewhere in London and the world more times than I could count. I've covered about five different countries and seven or eight different cities. I have introduced so many friends to the Wagamama fun they should be paying me a commission.
But it all started in Camden! So to Wagamama Camden ... Happy Birthday! Thanks for the good times and the fabulous memories.
I'm going to see Phantom of the Opera!! I bought tickets last night. I'm so excited!! I've been resisting for so long. Nearly all of my friends have seen it already. Everyone has been telling me how incredible it is ... something of which I have absolutely no doubt. I've been smiling, and nodding, and politely agreeing, while turning green with jealously.
However Phantom is one of many shows I have already seen multiple times. And it's getting ridiculously expensive to see a show these days. So I was struggling to justify the expense for something I've seen before. Silly me trying to resist though ... I knew it was eventually going to happen. They've just released the final two weeks, and I've just had the most hideously busy week at work ... meaning a significantly higher pay this week than usual. The timing seemed to be telling me something.
So Phantom is my reward for an insane week. I'm going on the Friday night just before closing at the end of April. Seeing as all my friends have been already, I'm dragging my parents along ... they missed it last time it was in town, so it didn't take much convincing. Our seats are fantastic too ... very front of the balcony! I'm so excited!!
And now, I must run ... heading to the airport to fly to Cairns for a CanTeen camp. Such fun!! One of these days I'm going to catch up on my uni work. Maybe.
I found a bridesmaid dress! An announcement which should perhaps begin with ... I'm going to be a bridesmaid at my sister's wedding! Which perhaps should have been preceded by ... my sister's getting married! Both of these announcements are perhaps more newsworthy than the one about finding a dress. However, the dress is more recent, and as such more exciting at the moment.
Michelle (my sister) is down from Darwin at the moment, and busy with wedding preparations. Yesterday was Day 3 of looking for her dress, which she found in the morning. And immediately after deciding on hers, we started looking for mine - which we found in the next shop we went to. So convenient!
I love it! It's a Mr K Winter 2008 bridesmaid dress - colour Atlantic. Looks gorgeous on, and I love the colour. So stunning. It looks gorgeous with Michelle's dress too ... which is really the point. Of course, if I can look this good in it in June, I'll be thrilled! And I'll definitely wear it again ... I'm thinking Education Ball in September.
I've just gone an entire month without blogging! I have no monthly archive for February 2008. That's so very slack. It has happened once before ... October 2004 from memory. But in October 2004 I was living in London, travelling loads ... visitors from home, plus parents over and a road trip through Europe. There was a pretty good explanation for my lack of posting that month.
But last month ... I have no excuse. It was pure laziness. I wasn't even studying ... I was on holidays the entire month. Admittedly I was working a fair bit. And I had a trip to Sydney with CanTeen one weekend. A visitor from Mexico another weekend. Peer mentor training and so forth at uni. A few callouts with SES (even a request to go to Mackay, but I couldn't make it because of uni ... grrr). Voluntary prac at my last prac school. Gumnuts started back again. Quite a few meetings. Catching up with friends.
I guess I've been busy. And busy with non-uni related things, which means there's very little need to procrastinate. So perhaps that's the problem! Now that I'm back at uni I'll be procrastinating loads, and the blogging will perhaps pick up again. Sounds logical to me! And on that note, I need to share the latest PHD Comic ... it's rather frightening just how much I can relate to it!
