Wicked is the new Good

On the 22nd of September, Wednesday, it was my first time watching a musical. I've been to threatre plays and all, but never a musical. I'm glad I did, even though it was $86.70 (including handling fees) because it was definitely worth.

What was the musical, you might ask? it was 'Wicked.' What can I say, it's the epitome of anything that defines wicked - no! It's beyond any definition because there are no words that can describe the awesomeness of the musical =D. It's a shame that it's over now, but they will be showing at Brisbane at the beginning of next year. As much as I loved it, I'm not sure if I'm willing to travel all the way to Brisbane to watch it again. 

Out of the two Elphabas, we got Jemma Rix who, I thought, did a great job in portraying her character. To be honest, I thought Glinda (played by Lucy Durack) was an annoying character but I love her lines because they're hilarious =D. I admit that her voice was quite good, but I still like Rix's voice better. Also, compared to the original Elphaba from San Francisco, Idina Menzel, I still prefer the Sydney's Elphaba, but I do like the voice of Kristin Chenoweth (Glinda) better than Sydney's Glinda. To be honest, initially I thought that if they actors were to sing, they would just focus solely on singing however; they actually included their acting into their singing. I was quite surprised and amazed by their talent. No wonder 'Wicked' was rated 5 stars. To be honest, I think the voice of James Smith (Boq) was much better than Tim Campbell (Fiyero), but who am I to comment about the casting. AH! What surprised me was to see Bert Newton (Wizard) perform because although I knew he did a lot of acting on television, I never expected him to be singing on stage =S. How shocking. Anyways, I was going to do some research and write about it on my blog, but I'm not bothered, because there's always wikipedia.org =3 just search up 'Wicked (musical)' and you'll find it.

The story itself was such a great plot with a very sad twist. It really did open my eyes to fairy tales - never take things at face value; don't judge a book by it's cover; etc. It was just like a movie I watched about Jack and the beanstalk. It was live action movie with a twist to the story. I thought it was pretty interesting. Man, Kinokuniya was selling two books in one (Wicked and Son of a Witch [sequel]) for $25. I should've bought one for myself =.=! Anyways, back to the musical, I cried when they were singing 'For Good.' It was such a great and sad song! Now, almost every time I listen to it I cry >.<

The architecture of Capitol Theatre is commendable; the interior design looked a lot like Old England if you ask me. I especially liked the lamp posts. Why there are lamp posts inside buildings, I have no idea. I guess they replaced indoor lights =S. The toilet's quite clean too. Why I mentioned that, I have no idea. Moving on, Kelly and I gave our belated presents to Susan as an apology for not going to her birthday dinner. I gave her a Korean drama called 'You're Beautiful' and Kelly gave her a box full of paint samples from Bunnings. When I said 'a box full', I seriously mean 'a box full.' I mean, there were barely any gaps. According to Kelly, there were ~300 samples of them. Why did Kelly get Susan that? Simple. It's what Susan wanted =). Anyways, I had a great night watching a musical with Linh, Kelly and Susan. Thank you Susan, for giving us drinks and the photos, and Linh, for driving us home. Well,  for driving me there as well =3. Oh, we actually met a high school friend that night. Apparently, it was his second time watching it =D and he was generous enough to let us take a photo with his colouful martini glass =). Later on, on Facebook, I found out that a couple more friends also watched it on the same night as us , but we weren't lucky enough to bump into each other. Oh wells =P.

 I told you there was a lamp post inside the building =P. The background looked like a sunset/sunrise =D.

 The green martini glass we borrowed from our friend =D.

bad timing

Birthdays: 11O81O - Kylie's, Yvonne's and Jessica D.'s 19th HAPPY BIRTHDAY GIRLS =D! ; 13O81O - Mimi's 19th ; 14O81O - Nona's 19th (R.I.P).

Adam and Kelly performed in this competition where $3000 is up for grabs. Unfortunately, Minhky, Joes and I didn't make it in time so we didn't get to watch her. Sorry Kelly and Adam! Since there were five of us (Paz, Edim, Minhky, Joes, and I) it was too expensive to take 2 cabs, so mum suggested that I drive them instead, in 2 rounds. I first drove Paz and Edim because they were there first. Then I went back to the station to drive Minhky and Joes. Unfortunately, on the way back the duet started already. When we got there, it ended 5 minutes ago. Can I say what pathetic management it was? The show only lasted for 10 minutes, the speakers were too loud, and there were no sits for people to sit down and enjoy the music. Although I wasn't there at the performance but Paz, Edim and Karen told us about it. 

We just hanged out after that. It was the first time I've ever been in Liverpool Markets, and it was pretty big. It was kind of like a Flemington. We went to Officeworks next and it was hilarious to see Paz so amazed by the place. Apparently, it was her first time entering Officeworks, which I find quite amusing and strange, seeing that she lives in that area. To Paz, it was "a dream come true" for her lol. Seeing she's was artist, I guess it is. I seriously need to take her to more places; she's just so oblivious to so many things!

Next stop was Krispy Kreme. We bought a pack of a dozen of original donuts, and some burgers from Maccas, and just relaxed and enjoy our food in the dining area of Krispy Kreme. By evening, I had to take them all back and again, another two rounds of driving. I honestly don't like driving. The traffic, the rules, the beeping, the embarrassment from my mum, etc. *sigh*. 70 hours down, another 50 to go.

PS. Thanks Joes for the food =).

singing note

Last Sunday, Kelly, Adam, Paz's sister and I watched and cheered Paz on for her singing performance at Cabravale Diggers. It was only a heat, but she was so good that she made it into the semi-finals; she came FIRST =D !!! Whoever said to 'leave the best for last' was definitely correct! When watching the other contestants, there some pretty good singers, and then there were some not so good singers... I know it's disrespectful to leave during a performance, but there was one that was so bad that I couldn't help but leave on purpose. I say that because there were times when I was force to leave when my mum called. 

Anyways, Paz was just amazing! She practically blew our minds away =D. If only I recorded her singing! I took a couple of photos with my mobile, but of course I couldn't upload them or anything. Besides, the megapixels on it was crap anyways. Still, I took them for memories =). I hope to keep cheering her on for the semi-finals, and hopefully the finals as well =D. The songs she sang were 'Someone like you,' by Linda Eder, 'Son of a Preacher Man' by Dusty Springfield and 'I Dream a Dream' by Susan Boyle.

Anyways, that's it for now =). I'll try to be consistent with my blogs =D.

as Vivid as Avatar can get

I have a confession to make: I went to play during the exam period.

The Sunday before the exams started a group of friends and and I went to the Vivid Festival at Circular Quay. My initial excitement for the festival came crashing down at the sight of the so called 'vivid light show' *sigh*. Yes, the continuously changing lights on the Opera House were fascinating. And yes, the free torches was also amusing to play with. But I was quite disappointed at the lack of vivid lights =(. Even the trips around the crowded markets was more exhilarating. I admit, there were a couple that were intriguing, but overall the entertainment wasn't that commendable. 

Another unhappy moment was when my short stature got in the way again. We wanted to watch the water show but it was too crowded. Mark even gave Kelly a lift, but was futile as well. We only managed to hear the story, and with the help of Naomi's camera, we get the tops of the equipments and other colourful props and people =D. The show was about how an Indian explore found Australia. It was unbelievable, but it was true. It's a shame that we only learnt about the history of the Aboriginal and the British history. There were so many other histories, about Australia, in the perspective of other countries as well.

May I say that I have never been so tired in finding food until that Sunday night. We literally trekked all around Circular Quay before ending up with where we began: McDonald. *sigh* It was worth it though, since Kelly shouted us the family meal =D. Thank you Kelly =D !!! So after the meal, we took one last trip to the Opera House before heading back to the station. I guess Naomi got a bit excited about leaving because she played with her torch so much that it fell apart! After 10 minutes worth of concentration and hard-work, we managed to put most of the torch back together again. Naomi had to leave to meet her parents, so she was left with a handful of torch gears in one hand and an almost completed torch in the other. Mark was nice enough to give Naomi his to have a look at when she got home =). 

On the way home, Samuel taught us how to play this ABC slap game. It was fun =D. A bit painful, but fun =D. I think the game really lightened up the tired atmosphere around us. I was really glad to see Sarina again =D. I haven't seen her for half a year, or more, so I was very happy and excited to see her again =). I hope Kelly enjoyed her night seeing she was the one who organized the outing =). Besides the disappointing lights, I quite enjoyed my night =). 

The next outing was after my Psychology exam, which was a B*****!!! It was THE hardest test I've done. I thought I would be alright with it since I liked studying psychology and that I studied fairly enough for it. But no, I was extremely mistaken. No wonder people doing psychology needed a 96+% ATAR for it. It may be an interesting course to learn, but it was a b**** to study for. I hate the fact that it's such a heavy weighing too! 65% weighing! Are you trying to make us fail on purpose?! 

I digressed. Anyways, before going to Thanh's house, Eric and I ate lunch at Ichiban Boshi. Please have the omelet =D. It was delicious! Really worth the money =D. So at Thanh's house we watched Avatar, which was AWESOME =D !!!! I would rate it 9 out of 10!!! I took a point of for the ending... the Jamunji title replica, as suggested by Mark. I'd go on about the storyline, the quality, the acting, etc. But why not let you watch it yourself and see for yourself instead. One thing's for sure, it was more vivid than the lights at the Vivid festival =D - or maybe it was because it was on blu-ray ... either way, the movie was excellent overall =D. The storyline may have been a simple one, but the execution was great =) good job James Cameron =D! Thanks for the movie Thanh, and thanks for the food Susan =D!!! The popcorn was yummy, as usual =). Anyways, here's the trailer for Avatar to keep you interested ;D :

piano > violin ?

Tonight was the Accelerated Centre of Education (A.C.E) annual student concert and presentation night, at Bankstown, and Vicky and I were fortunate enough, or just plain bored, to watch the juvenile, amazing, talented children perform their lovely pieces of music and/or dance compositions.

An inside fountain/koi pond @ Bankstown Club.

Vicky and a pretty background =).

Vicky and I =).

Actually, the main reason we were there was to watch Minhky play the cello =) YAY!!! Unfortunately, to me, the violin practically overwhelmed the other instruments, though the piece (Waltz in A minor) was still a nice piece to listen to. May I also say that the ratio of piano pieces to violin pieces is quite great O_o. I swear, it's like 99% of the concert was piano pieces and the other 1% was on violin and/or dance performances. 

Minhky: back row, 2nd from the left- singing Beauty and the Beast.

Minhky playing the cello =).

The night began with the youngest, which gradually ascended into the older generation. Initially, I was patient and still, enjoying the sound of music echoing through the hall. Alas, that didn't last long. I became restless and tired as the concert was about to end. There were many times where I whined and complained to Vicky like she was my mum/aunt/sister/grandma =). Of course she never bought it. Damn.

There was this moment when the hostess came back on and she said: "Weren't they beautiful - " Now you'd think that she was going to comment about the performance, but she actually said "costumes" instead. It was hilarious, but I guess it was one of those 'only-funny-because-it-was-in-the-moment' things. Oh wells xD.

OH! There was this incident where a pianist was supposed to play Cannon. Unfortunately, I didn't recognise it because apparent, it was Cannon in C Major, by Ettore Pozzoli, not in D Major =.= it's not even from the same composer SHEESH! Cannon in D Major was composed by Johann Pachelbel. You know, as much as I like music, it can get pretty ridiculous when there's so many different pieces of music for the same composition JUST because they're in different keys xO! I was chucking a fit because I was annoyed at the fact that they didn't play Cannon when I was later informed by Minhky that they did play, but only in a different key *sigh*.

 FREE CHRISTMAS CANDY CANE YAY!!!

Me, Vicky and Minhky.

Vicky and I =).

As we departed, we received candy canes and lollies. Yes, it's an early sign that Christmas is coming soon and that

Santa Claus is coming to town...

=D Then Vicky and I went to eat before heading home, thanks to Vicky's parents. That's it for tonight, so good night everyone and sweet dreams!

PS. That indoor koi pond and garden in that Bankstown Club is AWESOME!!!

Thanks for the memories

The day had finally come - our graduation. What does that mean? Tears, photos, hugs, signing on t-shirts and books, tears, laughter, smiles, tears, screaming, clapping, singing, awards, antics, jokes, pranks and have I said tears yet? Since the main event was the formal, I'll just briefly talk about the highlights of our final formal assembly:

• Confetti poppers are already awesome, but what made it even more awesome is that the boys bought like a KING-SIZE popper, which spread confetti across 1/3 of the hall =D WOOT! According to Kelly, this was the first time it has happened at our school=D! Is our grade awesome or are we just awesome?
• Performances include: string accompaniments for Pachelbel's Cannon; Fianna and the violinist tutor for Merry People; the CVHS band for The Great Escape by Boys Like Girls; Kim and Bach for Scar by Missy Higgins; Kelly and Danny C. for La by Old Man River. Antony and Kim both started crying during their performances, which made some of the girls cry in our grade, which made other people cry, etc. CHAIN REACTION PEOPLE!
  
• Mr. Donohue and Captains' (Mei and Patrick) speeches triggered the tears and laughter. Mei got teary during her captain's speech AWWW! "You make me want to be a better person" - Mr. Donohue AWWW!
• It was funny how all the other teachers received boxes of gifts while Mr. S (deputy principal) received an envelope ROFLS! Don't worry, we gave him tickets =) It's not empty. We also gave Mr. M (principal) a photo ouf our grade LOL! I'm not sure how to spell their names, and I'm not bothered to learn them now since I'm an ex-student.
• Congratulations to Aaron Tran and Linda Lu, for captains, and John Ly and Rosalyn Hoang, for vice captains, of 2O1O!
• Me? I received a Perfect Attendance for 2OO9 award and a Faculty Award for General Maths =) WOOT WOOT for me!
  

Congratulations 2O1O captains and vice captains =D. SRC - except for Shirley =). String accompaniments. Graduation 1. Graduation 2. Graduation 3.

Graduation 4. Our last free period xO! Groupie 1. Groupie 2. Groupie 3.

FASTFOWARD

In Mrs. Kowalin's car - Jason, me, Sarina and Kelly.

Ladies and gentlemen, lets PAR-TAY! The ladies were just stunningly fabulous, the gentlemen were just absolutely impeccable and the teachers looked just lovely =D! Hummers and limousines were parading around near the venue, giving an essence of prosperity and opulence to the Dockside scene. Although DocksideI was slightly smaller than our year 1O formal, at Parravilla, overall it wasn't so bad... it had a nice view =)! Oh, Mrs. Diep even brought her daughter, Natalie, and husband to the formal YAY! However, the teachers weren't the only guests at our formal. The ex-captains 'O8, Kevin and Natalie, and the future captains '1O, Aaron and Linda, were invited as well =D! Hope you had fun guys!

Natalie, Kevin, Linda and Aaron - captains of CVHS.

Before I continue about the formal, let us give a round of applause for the Seftoners (Vicky, Eric, Shirley, Adnrew and Kenneth) for courageously crashing our formal >=D According to their side of the story, a female blonde teacher had somehow influenced their course of action *cough*.

Female blonde teacher: Why are you down here, the party's up there!
With confused/blank looks the seftoners followed the teacher up to the venue, passing the security guards.
Female blonde teacher: Why are you dressing to casually? *to Shirley*
Vicky: She's going for the casual look.
Female blonde teacher: Oh, the casual chick look.
Smiles all around.

They would have stayed longer during the second time round, except ...

Same female blod teacher: I think you should go back to your own formal now *to Kenneth*
Hence, the Seftoners were forced to leave.

Seftoners crashing our formal xD!

May I say how Minhky was more paranoid than the Seftoners? ROFLS! Anyways, firstly, Kelly accidentally left her camera in Mrs. Kowalin's car and hence, she had to come and give it to us. Thank you for the ride and camera Mrs. Kowalin! Yes, she drove Sarina, Kelly, Christina, Jason Q. and I to the formal. Christina wasn't going to our formal, but she wanted to go anyways =D hehehe! I seriously thought we wouldn't be able to enter because of our tardiness xO!

The food wasn't bad either, but I liked the desserts the best! For my entree, I had risotto, then steak for my main and this vanilla pudding for my dessert. The steak was kind of chewy... too chewy for my liking =/ and hence, I couldn't finish it. Actually, it's not that I didn't want to finish it, it's just I went to play tips with some girls before I finished my main course ... HAHAHA! Yes, I didn't believe it either. Fianna, Cindy H., Cindy V., Annie, Linda, Julie C. and I played tips in our heels around the venue HAHAHA! Although, after an hour of playing, Mrs. Wright told us off, after a half and hour rest, they went and play another game of tips again LOL! As for I, I hit the dance floor >=D. I do apologise to those who I accidentally stepped on while dancing ^___^" and I guess karma hit me back, because eventually I also got stepped on LOL!

The girls.
More girls.

The boys.
The stripping boys LOL!

There were no slow music for the lovers; there was only fast up-beat music. That's okay, I'm pretty sure we all liked it that way anyways LOL! There were conga lines, lifting people up and moving them around, stripping from the boys and even some pre-choreographed dance routines! Shain made a speech to the grade, while David C. and Philip did a beatbox duet =D. Eventually, the dancing was temporarily stopped because it was awards time WOOT! Here are the awards and winners:

• Shocker of ther year: Jacky Hanh
• Most Mature of the year: Minh Troung
• Clumsiest of the year: Annie Praseuth
• Prankster of the year: Thomas Tran
• Blondest person of the year: Tiffany Tran
• Drama Queen of the year: David Hu
• Intelligent person of the year: Jenny Ky
  
• Addict of the year: Peter Do 1.
• Best dressed male: Jordan Van Etten
• Best dressed female: Shirley Wong
• Best dressed Teacher: Miss. Gazanfer

Recipients for the awards.

I would like to point out the fact that Jenny won the same award for both year 10 and year 12 formal! Good for you Jenny! *sigh* Unfortunately, near the end of the night, Kelly's camera ran low on batteries xO! Again, silly of Kelly to bring only half of the charger (the wire, but not the plug - if you know what I mean) LOL! Hence, I went borrowing other people's camera for the remainder of the night ^_^'. Thank you Lisa L.!

Kelly and Philip (date).
Kim and Jonathan (date).
Jenny, you PIMP! xD
Victorian Period FTW =D!



Anna and Bach (date).
Katty and Peter (date).
Kelly and Robert (date).
Tu and Lisa (date).
Darren and Lisa (date).

There are also 4 things I want to point out about the formal: we started AND ended the night with Black Eye Peas's 'Good Night;' Loyee was smart enough to bring thongs along; Athena wore pants with pockets underneath her dress; everyone received an engraved CVHS O9 champagne glass, as a sorvenir, which is to be used at our reunion in 10 years time. ROFLMAOS! To view the formal photos we took that night, go to this site please =).

Teachers and students:

Food:

Entree.
Main.Dessert.

The clock strike 12. With aching feet, sweating bodies and tired eyes we dragged ourselves to Kelly's father, where him, and his car, waited for us with open arms. Thank you Mr. Huynh! After changing into my pjs, brushing my teeth and having me feet soaked in warm water for half an hour, I finally hit the hays. Goodnight, good luckies, and farewell everyone.

Our reunion class =).
Our table.
Decorations.

PS. I'll be taxing/getting photos and uploading them from other people, thank you!
PSS. Thanks Linh and My Linh for coming over, giving me cake and poppers, just to congratulate me for my graduation! You guys are so sweet!