The Gift That Keeps On Giving

I was immersed in the world of musicals when I was growing up, and as such I grew up with an excellent working knowledge of songs and dialogue from many of the musicals you may have heard of (and probably some you haven't). A sentimental favourite musical of mine (because it was the first one I performed in, when I was in Year 7) is The Pirates of Penzance. My love of this show was timed perfectly with the Australian stage version, starring the delightful Marina Prior in her first ever professional gig.




I'm not ashamed to admit, therefore, that I've always had a bit of a crush on Ms Prior. She is beautiful and an absolute honey ... not to mention so extraordinarily talented that it makes my brain implode.

Seriously, the voice on that woman is astounding. Her good nature and good humour set her apart from many other performers, as do her positive attitude and impeccable integrity.

So when Wifey and I decided to celebrate our upcoming sixth anniversary early (the actual date is 7th July, but we couldn't help ourselves -- and we also had to arrange for Wifey's parents to babysit), it was an obvious choice to buy ourselves tickets to see Guys and Dolls at The Princess Theatre at today's 2pm matinee.




What. An. Amazing. Show.

We had a great time, and the A Reserve tickets we got were fantastic. We were in the Stalls (no balcony seats for us!), Row J, Seats 34 and 35. That's right on the outer edge of the aisle, in case you didn't know.

I know others (including RichardWatts) didn't like the show, but we loved it.

The acting from Prior, as well as Garry McDonald, Lisa McCune, Ian Stenlake and Shane Jacobson, was superb. I was grateful that Magda Szubanski was unwell and did not appear, because she was cast as the 'heavy' gangster (no pun intended, honestly) from out-of-town, there to menace and threaten and generally be a figure the other characters were meant to be afraid of, so the idea of a woman playing a man with a false suit and a gruff voice just didn't appeal to me. In fact, I wasn't looking forward to that aspect of the show at all, because I knew it'd "break the fourth wall" for me and really burst the bubble, destroy my suspension of disbelief, and other similar terms of phrase like that.

The rest of the cast -- particularly Wayne Scott Kermond as Benny Southstreet -- was also fabulous, and the show-stealing number towards the end of Act II, "Sit Down, You're Rockin' The Boat", gave us both chills.

I've been singing the songs all night (a sure sign that I loved every minute of it), and want to tell everyone I know to go and see it.

But you know what the last impression is that I have? The one that I can't shake and will be with me until my dying day?

Marina Prior's right breast, which I saw in perfect profile for several seconds from my side-angle vantage point during the Act II opener, "Take Back Your Mink". Now, I've seen Guys and Dolls four or five times, but I've never seen a version of the show where Miss Adelaide and the Hotbox Dancers actually strip down to nothing but their briefs, and shimmy to the beat while facing the back of the stage (in full view of the surrounding ensemble cast members on stage, no less -- wouldn't you think it'd at least be a 'closed set'?). I was stunned. I was gobsmacked. I had a funny feeling in my tummy.

I also wouldn't have expected them to be that colour ...

But anyway, Wifey told me afterwards that the six Hotbox Dancers revealed just as much of themselves to our gaze, but I honestly couldn't tear my eyes away from the glorious vision that awaited me when I feasted my eyes upon my Prior convictions.

(I don't even think that last bit makes sense, but why stop now, just when I'm clearly enjoying myself so much?!)

Nah, clearly I'm exaggerating a tad. We loved the show, and the unexpected sight that had the 14-year-old BEVIS inside me whooping with excitement was a bonus. Yes, they were definitely topless (with not even 'pasties' to cover themselves -- why, I do not know), and we did see exactly what I claimed to have seen.

And it will be an image I take to the grave. (But only because Wifey's gonna kill me when she reads this post.)

Happy anniversary, darling!


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Twice The Trouble

Today, it was with great pleasure that Wifey, Sweetums and I finally got around to visiting our good friends Riss and Logan, and their two darling little twin daughters, who were born three months ago!

It's terrible that it took us that long to see them (especially considering they live only ten minutes away), but it came down to the new family getting their heads around having babies in their lives (we had enough 'fun' with just one; I don't envy them having a baptism by fire with two!), and then every time we arranged to visit them, invariably either Wifey, Sweetums or I would be too sick to visit the newborns (due to Sweetums going through a manic stage of repeated teethings, which gives him colds ... which we often catch due to Wifey being pregnant and having no immune system, and me being a big child and not looking after myself properly).

Excuses aside, we were just delighted to get to see them. They're absolutely ADORABLE. They're definitely identical, and they look a lot like both parents. But they've got more hair than Logan.

I also received an early birthday present from Riss while I was there (that makes all three seasons she's bought me now, leaving just two more birthdays to go for her to be able to claim sole responsibilty for me adding this marvellous series to my DVD collection!), and I'm very excited to have received it.






Not that the day was all about me.




... Although it kinda was.




(It always is.)


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I'll Get My PhD For This

Guess what? I'm a published author!

I wrote something that was recently published in one of the following magazines. You have to guess which one it was:



A) Empire Magazine





B) Better Homes & Gardens





C) Dolly





D) Business Financial Review





E) Playboy





F) Guns & Ammo





G) TIME Magazine





H) BARk





I) Muppet Magazine (specifically this one; a Christmas edition featuring PeeWee Herman)





J) The Biggest Loser Weight Loss Planner Prevention Guide





K) Floral Design





L) Texas Monthly





M) Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel Magazine





N) Woodcarving Illustrated





O) Men's Health





P) People Magazine (the US version; not the smutty Australian mag by the same name -- because as you can see, the US version is entirely without smut)





Q) Bridal





R) Laughter Magazine





S) Beatles Unlimited Magazine





T) Computer Shopper





U) Metal Pages





V) Circus Photo Magazine





W) That's Life!





X) Model Airplane International





Y) Hot Rod (from December 1967)





Z) The Goonies Souvenir Magazine






Well, as much as I'd love it to be a few of the above, and despite some of them being very likely, the correct answer was the first one, EMPIRE magazine. Not the edition depicted in this photo, but one of the recent editions. If you're really keen and you have some of the recent issues, you could try scouring the pages for my name. (But what a waste of time for so little pay-off!)

Anyway, the thing is this: I won a cap for my efforts (hold me down, I think I'm going to convulse with excitement over winning a cap) ... however, the letter I received with the cap said: "Congratulations on winning this awesome DVD".

Wha??


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A Tissue, A Tissue ...

... Sweetums fell down!

He tipped over this morning and fell face-down on some concrete, scratching his face quite badly in the process.




It. Absolutely. Broke. Our. Hearts.

Hearing him crying and seeing the tears streaming down his reddening cheeks as he reached up his hands for us in such a vulnerable, "help me, only you can fix this, you're my comfort and my heroes" kind of pose was just heart-achingly beautiful.

My heart melted.

As it turned out, despite the damaged flesh and the slowly weeping blood from just below the surface of the cuts, he stopped crying pretty quickly and was okay (until a brief stinging incident during his evening bath). So he's a tough little nut and a well-behaved boy to boot.

(I get the feeling I boast about Sweetums a little too much on this blog. Sorry about that. I ain't changin', though. He's ace.)

Anyway, it looks like he's gonna be fine. By the time he wakes up in the morning, he won't even remember the incident or feel any pain from his scars, I reckon.

It was more of a tragic event for his parents than for him, I feel. And I'm sure we have a lot more of those in store for ourselves over the years.

This is gonna look stupidly lame by the time he's five and wrestling brown snakes he finds in the sewers ...


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Grow Up & Eat

Well, tonight it finally happened. After more than five years of wedded bliss, Wifey and I bit the bullet and decided that it was about time.

It's probably for the best. I mean, fair enough. We were living irresponsibly.

Yes, that's right. We ate our evening meal at the dinner table, rather than on our laps in front of the telly.

It was a lovely experience, eating as a family. I heartily recommend it to anyone.

Unless you don't have a family.

So now we've finally joined the ranks of adulthood, and we even eat our meals without having the TV on at all. (I know, it's bizarre.) We've greatly enjoyed sharing each other's company and actually engaging each other in conversation. And Sweetums has had a ball telling us about his day in between shovelled mouthfuls of his mini-version of the evening meal. It's a delight and a joy, and it all works out for the best, because you can now view a whole week's worth of Neighbours episodes back-to-back on the Network Ten website each weekend anyway.

Huzzah!


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Not At All Annoying

I'm not sure it this is going to work when I post this (I'm guessing it won't), but it works on my computer after saving it from the Internet to my desktop. It's just some advertising banner from some random site somewhere, but it flashes and rotates and blinks at you as brightly and intrusively as you can possibly imagine.

I publish this an homage to Jobe from What's This On My Hand?, who did a similar post (and made it work because I daresay he's smarter than me), but it was a long time ago now and I can't be stuffed searching for it on his site.

(Just kidding. Here it is. If the below image isn't flashing and being horrid, check out Jobe's original to get the right idea.)






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