I wish everyday was as fun and exciting as this Wednesday

I had one of the most wonderful Wednesdays this week and as with all my blog posts, I dedicate them to my friends and to all the beautiful people in my life because without them, there'd be no one to share my food, musical and everyday experiences with.

Woke up a lot earlier than usual to do some work. Was super excited to be meeting up with Bella in the arvo so I practiced piano and finished some a musicianship harmony and a harmonic analysis. I'm getting a lot better at doing them both and with the exam in less than 2 months, I just hope I can learn all my theory in time :(

Travelling to the city, I always like to read on the train. Recently I started reading "Like The Flowing River" by Paulo Coelho. It's a book of reflections and thoughts from his online blog, compiled into a small book. It's filled with many beautiful stories, anecdotes, experiences in his life he shares with a charming wit and beauty. I really want to share this short story, as it was one that got me thinking as I gazed out the window in the train:

A boy was watching his grandmother write a letter. At one point he asked: ‘Are you writing a story about what we’ve done? Is it a story about me?’
His grandmother stopped writing her letter and said to her grandson:

I am writing about you, actually, but more important than the words is the pencil I’m using. I hope you will be like this pencil when you grow up.’

Intrigued, the boy looked at the pencil. It didn’t seem very special. ‘But it’s just like any other pencil I’ve ever seen!’

‘That depends on how you look at things. It has five qualities which, if you manage to hang on them, will make you a person who is always at peace with the world.’

‘First quality: you are capable of great things, but you must never forget that there is a hand guiding your steps. We call that hand God, and He always guides us according to His will.’
‘Second quality: now and then, I have to stop writing and use a sharpner. That makes the pencil suffer a little, but afterwards, he’s much sharper. So you, too, must learn to bear certain pains and sorrows, because they will make you a better person.
‘Third quality: the pencil always allows us to use an eraser to rub out any mistakes. This means that correcting something we did is not necessarily a bad thing; it helps to keep us on the road to justice.’
‘Fourth quality: what really matters in a pencil is not its wooden exterior, but the graphite inside. So always pay attention to what is happening inside you.’
‘Finally, the pencil’s fifth quality: it always leaves a mark. in just the same way, you should know that everything you do in life will leave a mark, so try to be conscious of that in your every action’

source: “Like the Flowing River” by Paulo Coelho

I really really love Paulo Coelho's books because of these little gems of wisdom that fill the pages of his novels. I don't know how he comes up with these - I suspect he adapts them from various sources he has - but they're just so fitting and I feel wiser myself with every story. He has loads of them - www.paulocoelhoblog.com - if you're interested :)

Moving on, I'm not a frequent traveler to the city and so when I walked to UTS to meet up with Bella, I took a major detour and ended up being quite late. She took me to Charlie Lovett for a chat and she even shouted me a drink - Freckled Ice Chocolate whilst she had the Blended Ice Chocolate. The Freckled Ice Chocolate contained very small 'freckles' of chocolate (Sexy Ecuadorian Chocolate) in it and whilst being very tasty at first, becomes annoying when all the freckles sink to the bottom and clog up the straw. The Blended Ice Chocolate was much richer in chocolate and I actually prefer it - it being cheaper by a dollar too! Nevertheless, I had a great time chatting with her :D If you read this, and I know you do sometimes, THANK YOU :D

Somehow, every time I have a conversation with someone, if we manage to talk for long enough, it always ventures towards the future and our plans for it. It's daunting because I'm still in the segway between high school and university, but so many others are beyond that, earning money on a cadetship, starting internships, going on exchanges and so much more. I don't regret my choice of music and not going to Uni yet, but I can't help but wonder what I would be doing instead if I had gone for USYD Comm/Law. Would I be happy? What would have become of me?

After she had to go home, I rung up a few people - they were still at uni and so I met up with Smel, Sandhya and a guy called Scott. It was my first time to the UTS Haymarket Campus and boy was it filled with Asians. I thought S was going to study so I brought some stuff to do until dinner with B but instead, ended up chatting for almost 3 hours! Once again, seeing people all suited up and talking about which firms they wanna work in makes life feel so real. It was so awesome to talk to Sandhya about Baulko hehe I really missed that school. It was the type of school you loved not for what it was, but for the friends, the people who made up the school and all the great times and things that happened there.

Met up with Bosco and more people from our musical group all came along to join us for dinner. Bought some food from Chinatown and had it at Market City. Got called up to pick up Kel from Town Hall station and so ran all the way to Town Hall with Smel to try and find her because apparently her phone had run out of batts :P Bumped into Joseph on the way there and it was pretty cool because he was going with us too! :D Gave up after looking for 10 minutes - we figured she was smart enough not to wait at Town Hall and miss the musical - she knew it was at Star City anyway :P

And what do you know, there she was! Met up with all 16 of the people who were interested to seeing it with us and WHAT A GREAT MUSICAL IT WAS!

I got a little annoyed when it was compared to Wicked because Dr. Zhivago is a musical in a different dimension. It's a musical not solely there to entertain. Wicked was a fantastic musical because of its visual appeal as well as its many humourous moments. Of course, the music was memorable and there were a few songs like Defying Gravity and Popular. Doctor Zhivago is different because of all the themes, emotions and events it manages to deal with. For me, the best part of it was its ability to capture your heart and make you feel everything that was happening in the moment, whether it was in the song, the dialogue or the drama. And who could forget Mr. Warlow as Dr. Zhivago. He was just as good as I thought he'd be but not as good as I imagined him to be. I wanted to hear more raw passion in his voice and instead, I heard a wonderful and clean technique, blending oh-so-well with the other principal females. I wanted to hear him take on higher notes, bigger climaxes and feel the frustration, anger and love that was the character of Dr. Zhivago.

The music was very well sung and there were a few memorable songs, especially 'Now'. That is a truly great duet which I don't mind listening to all day long. It's getting late and I'm losing concentration, but this was definitely worth all the money I paid for it. The musical dealt with a lot of issues and for some, I can understand if you thought it was rushed, but it captured the emotion and feelings of the characters and moments very well. I'd gladly go and see it again.

I leave you with this photo of us as a group :)

We bought out a whole rectangle of seats - all 16 of us - and this is our row, minus Belle and Smel on my left. Top row coming up next!

Yes, I know the photo's blurry but we look oh-so-happy here!

Gonna go to bed zzzz. Have to wake up in 5 hours for my piano lesson :(