Sunday, July 24, 2011

A Little Bit of Theatre

So I was kept quite entertained last week, caught up with Ness a few times, and Jacinta as well!

Sunday night I finally saw the last Harry Potter film. It was really good! But then again, I don't really remember much from the book as its been years since I read it, so my opinion may change if I get around to re-reading the books...which I would like to do...but I'll have to complete my collection, I only have the last 3.
We went to Century City at the Glen. It was still really busy, I'm glad I decided to book online in the end. It just meant I could pick decent seats. Which at 18 bucks a movie these days, you want a good seat! I can't believe it costs almost 20 bucks for a regular no frills 2D movie!

Tuesday I had another appointment at Centrelink, all that is going along pretty well. But I still haven't had any job interviews. In the evening I went down to Ness' and we watched some quality Bones. We have become addicted to the Oreo choc shakes from Maccas, but when we went out to get some they didn't have any chocolate, so we had to have vanilla ones. They were nice, but not quite the same.

Wednesday, Jacinta came over and we watched some old SNL and odd tv here and there. That night I went to the arts centre to see Anything Goes with Amanda Harrison of Wicked. I had become obsessed with this show after seeing it at the Tonys. Then when reading the paper on Monday, I came across an article about Amanda doing it THIS WEEK ONLY at the arts centre. So I knew I HAD to go, and Mum was in too. Since Ness was working every other day 'cept Wednesday, that made the decision about which night to go easy. The tickets were pretty cheap which was good, and even though we were 3 rows from the back we still had a great view of the stage...and the seats in front of us were empty which was awesome!
The show was a lot of fun, Amanda was awesome as Reno. The rest of the cast were pretty talented too! The girl that played Erma was great, and Billy and Moonface Martin was great too! Overall it was a limited budget production, so there were not really proper sets or multiple costumes, but in terms of production value it still was really top notch when it came to the performances. There wasn't quite as much tapping as I would have liked, but you can't have everything!
Now I'll just have to wait for the Broadway production's cast recording to come out, so I can listen to the songs whenever I want!


------------
Carlie

Friday, July 15, 2011

Problems Solved, for now.....

So the thing in with VCAT and my uncle went pretty well yesterday. The VCAT lady (I don't think she was technically a judge or anything....)saw right through my uncle. That he had no real claim, or issue. He sounded like a little kid whinging over what his siblings were doing. There was no proof behind all his claims. They even had their financial planner there to back them up! John was there alone, with a friend...we'd expected all their side of the family to turn up. They have completely alienated themselves from the rest of the family....but I digress.....anyways so all the woman said was that if my Mum could give my uncle a statement of my grandmother's expenses and where the money is going every 6 months. -I think that was just to shut him up.
So my Mum was happy about that, we all came back to our place, Geoff, Neil, Colleen, Marg and Jay, for drinks.

Tonight I caught up with them all again at Neil and Marg's for Tracey's Tupperware party.  Mum and I bought a few things. I just got some little things to add to my collection. A lot of the stuff is really expensive...however it does last forever, so if you like it it is worth it. But overall none of the colors were that exciting, and some were exactly the same colors as last time.

I was going to blog about my sleeping habits this week, and my weird dreams, but I'm so tired right now I might do that tomorrow or later. I got home to find the Emmy nominations up, and will probably try and comment on them at some time over on my tv blog.

Goodnight world.

-----------
Carlie

Monday, July 11, 2011

Shopping and More Shopping!

Wow, I have sort of forgotten about blogging in the last few weeks. But I've been kinda busy too - in some ways anyways.

I finally did get my appointment on the Thursday, even though they were running late, so they didn't call till an hour later! -I was getting nervous for bit there....
It went pretty well, and seemed not too complicated for them to do over the phone. Then I just had to go to the recruitment agency on the Tuesday...which turned out to be not what I expected at all. I had an appointment, so I thought I'd get to chat to a person about jobs...but nope. The girl at the desk took my resume, gave me a job seeker ID, and I was done. It seems kinda stupid to me, but whatever.
Then I had to go into Centrelink that arvo to hand in my forms. I did and it took a while, but finally I was done. I got paid on Wednesday. including back pay to the start of the month. So that was great, I was able to pay my credit card bills and phone bill.

Wednesday I went to Jacinta's, and we wanted some quality, and some very bad SNL. Good times!
On Thursday, I went to Chadstone with mum to look for some new interview clothes. Seeing as I have to apply for 10 jobs a fortnight now, in order to get my payments. We looked in Myer, and found a top and cardigan which was good. But no luck with skirts. We looked around a bit more, and had lunch, and then headed over to visit Grandma. She was upset about a letter John had sent...which is what has been bothering the family ever since.... he wants to take away my mum's power of attorney....He doesn't want to sell the house...his reasons for all this remain unclear...some say its about money, some say he just wants to fight. Anyways...it upset my Grandmother that he said she had dementia and was incompetent and drugged up....she's very with it in my opinion...especially compared to all those other people there!
So after that we raced off to see Mum's solicitor.
She has to go to VCAT this week for the hearing. Its 3 siblings against 1, so it shouldn't be a problem...and my Grandma wants mum to do it, so things should go our way....but you never know.

Last weekend, Ness and I did our thing Friday night, watched some quality Bones....and a terrible movie because Janel Moloney was in it....oh the things she makes us watch to see her!

Saturday night it was just us 3 sibs home, Nikki was having her friend over, then Scott said he was having all his friends over...I protested. Then he started bothering me, when I was out in the other room, and it caused a fight. My brother is acting like he is entitled to everything just because he has a job...and is a man. He has this terribly skewed view...which I blame on my dad...he used to act that way. But my bro was saying some very nasty and hurtful things...ass.
I'd offered to take Nikki up to get Maccas for dinner...we picked up her friend on the way, and Nic asked if I had money...I did...MY money. But it was my choice to shout them, and take them. But Nic was totally rude about it. She fussed when I asked her to hold my drink while I drove the car...because that car doesn't have cup holders! She wouldn't carry the bags either! And was not 1 bit grateful for the whole thing...next time I'll go by myself!

Didn't do much this week, but had the whole house to myself on Thursday, so I watched some movies and dvds. But then got ditched by the family for dinner, so wasn't so happy about that...I'd actually gotten bored having the place to myself!

Friday I went to DFO with Ness....and found SO many bargins! I went with a plan to get jeans and skechers....but managed to get jeans and a singlet for only $20 at just jeans! CRAZY! I had to get skechers to replace the ones I had to take overseas, that had to be thrown out when I got back...cause they smelled. But my new ones are pretty and purple! I also got a few new long sleeved tops from Giordano.
We headed back to Ness' and did moviepalooza! We watched the newer Annie with Kristin Chenoweth...and lots of other tv people. Then we got dinner....with a side trip to maccas for oreo milkshakes, and watched the comedy ladies emmy roundtable, which was well worth the hour it took to watch -funny stuff! Then we headed down to JB...and I ended up buying a few movies cause they had a buy 3 pay for 2 deal.
After that we watched a movie we'd been trying to find for ages, but it still hasn't come out. Its Kind of a Funny Story. Great movie. After that we watched Yes Man, then He's Just Not That Into You, and then Valentine's Day....by this time it was 4:30am and by the time I got home and in bed it was about 5:30am!

I only slept in a bit, but wanted to go to Target with mum, so I was up at 11am. I then went on to buy some much needed new bras! Go figure, Target had good ones and cheap! I spent the rest of the day dozy...but watched Julie and Julia that night with mum, and then slept for a long time yesterday...and again today.
Last night Jacinta and I went out to dinner at Michaelangelos in Burwood. The food was good and we had coffees and desserts. We did a trip up to Kmart cause she wanted to get stuff out of her locker, then we headed back to my place for some random chatting and tv time.

All last week I had not been sleeping well. I have been having trouble falling asleep, and then waking up early! Finally my lack of sleep on Friday night seems to have reset that. I am finding it easier to fall asleep, and also am able to sleep in. But now I'm having all these weird dreams, but not just weird....scary and unsettling things are happening too! Last night I had one about how I ran out of petrol in the car, and then got a ticket for not putting the new registration sticker on....and also one about sharks right outside the backdoor of a beach side house! I miss the nice dreams.


Got a few things on the agenda this week...should be an interesting week.

-------------
-Carlie

Monday, June 20, 2011

Busy Busy Week!


Wow was I busy last week! Between a busy weekend, then the Tonys on Monday, then there was Thursday night’s trip to the Jam Factory in South Yarra to see Bridesmaids –with an introduction by the director, Rose Byrne and Kristen Wiig! That was exciting to see them, but they hardly said anything at all, and then they were  gone...it was kinda pointless – on both sides. It seemed like a lot of effort to drag them out for less than 10 minutes. That said...it was still awesome. And the movie was FAN-Freaking-TASTIC! It was hilarious, it was nuts! And totally worth the wait!
Before the show we (Ness, Me, Bella and Vicky) had dinner at the pancake parlor. And ended up going back afterwards for coffees.

Then on Friday I went down to Grandma and Grandpa’s house to help clean it up for the photos to sell it. It’ll be kind of sad to see the place sold, but its not their place anymore...there is no one living there, and it doesn’t feel the same anymore. It was fun going through stuff though. Mum and I cleaned up the kitchen and insides, Neil and Jay mowed the lawns and cleaned up the gardens. Then Margaret showed up and she helped clean up inside. We ended up going through the garage and I found a few things like old coloring books from when I was little, and a hand drawn birthday card (by I’m assuming Tracey) from Neil, Marg, Tracey and Jay for my 2nd birthday. Jay and Neil also got Grandma’s car started, so that we could take it home. The battery had died, but they jumped it, and we left it running for a while. They left and then Mum and I headed home a little while later, I followed closely the whole way home in case the car died, but it didn’t.

Saturday I headed down to Ness’ early in the arvo so we could watch some Bones before her party. I decorated her walls with the Broadway pics she bought in New York, while she made cupcakes.
We got ourselves dressed up in our costumes, I was Fran Kubelik from Promises, Promises and Ness was Penny from Hairspray. Kay was from Anything Goes, Nick was Captain Hammer, Meg was from Miss Saigon, and Brett was Frankie Valli. We had fun listening to Broadway music and chatting about all sorts of things. Then we watched Scott Pilgrim vs The World. I liked it! It was weird, but in a really good way.
It was fun hanging out with the whole group again, it’s been a while since I’ve seen Brett, and ages since we were all together. And it’s funny how I went from not seeing Kay and Nick in ages to seeing them 3 times in a week! 

Sunday I was planning to sleep in late, but I woke up earlier than I wanted, and had a really bad headache, I had been getting a cold over the last few days, so my head was kinda fuzzy anyways. But then I felt queasy, and then it just went from bad to worse...I spent the whole day lying on the couch and it was not pretty! I don’t know if it was something I ate or if it was the migraine, but something made me really sick. I finally felt less awful around 3pm, and felt well enough to turn on my computer and check twitter – a sign that I really WAS sick! Haha.
After that I was able to eat a little, and slowly got better as the night went on, but I went to bed REALLY early for me, by 10:30pm. –I was falling asleep earlier, but didn’t want to go to sleep too early, in case I woke up extra early!
I was also really annoyed cause I was supposed to hang with Jacinta, and had to cancel. I haven’t seen her in weeks!
This morning I was up early, as I was supposed to have a phone interview with centrelink about getting jobseeker allowance, but 10, and then 11 came and went and no call...so after hearing nothing for a few hours, I called them up and they had no booking of an appointment...which sucked, and I had to make a new appointment for Thursday. I think this also means I won’t get back paid from the original date which I was supposed to if I got my interview today. Grrr. Oh well. I just hope it doesn’t take too long to get the process started, and get paid.

I think that is my entire busy busy week in full. I haven’t got a whole lot planned for the next week which is nice for a change. Haha.

------------
Carlie

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Tony Awards 2011 Wrap Up


So its that time of year again, Tony Awards. Last year was a lot more interesting to watch, because I knew I was going to NY in Sept/Oct and was shopping for shows I wanted to see. But of course I still loved seeing what Broadway was doing this year, but just really mad that I’m not going to get to see any of it!

Neil Patrick Harris was host again. He IS a great host. He’s funny, adorable, and can get away with some jokes because of it. This was his 2nd time hosting the Tony’s. Last year was done wonderfully, but in a very different style by Sean Hayes. I loved his little songs, and I loved the dance number with Hugh Jackman...as much as I hate Hugh Jackman, it was funny and cute!

As for the awards themselves, nobody I loved was nominated. Book of Morman took most of the awards. Norbert Leo Butz from Wicked won for Catch Me If You Can –(which looked really good), so I was glad about that! The brother (John Benjamin Hickey) from The Big C won too, which was nice. 
Even the presenters were not that exciting, with one major exception - Joel Grey was adorable, I love him, I mean how can you not! –I really wish I was seeing Anything Goes, which he’s in right now. A couple of other people I like presented, like -Vanessa Redgrave, James Earl Jones, Jim Parsons, Angela Lansbury, Alec Baldwin etc were all good. But I was really missing a lot of ‘my people’ and also just BIG theatre names in general...Kristin Chenoweth (first show in 4 years she wasn’t there), Idina Menzel, Bernadette Peters, Bebe Neuwirth, Nathan Lane, and a bunch of other people I’m probably forgetting were not in attendance as far as saw! So that was disappointing.

I LOVED the number from Company, with Neil, Katie Finneran, Martha Plimpton, Stephen Colbert, Jon Cryer, Patti Lupone, and Christina Hendricks! It was cool to see so many of my top people there!

The stuff with Brooke Shields was both terrible, but HILARIOUS! And it wasn’t bleeped either! 
I also loved that I got to watch the Tonys live this morning, and before the West Coast of the US! That’s kinda crazy! But why it wasn’t at Radio City Music Hall I have no idea?! It was a little sad, like its being pushed out of fashion! Better go back there next year!

Overall great fun, I re-watched it last night with Ness, Kay and Nick. It’s even more fun with a group, especially THE group!!!

-----------
Carlie

Big Weekend Fun.

So I’ve been extra busy and barely at home all weekend. It was the Queen’s birthday long weekend, but it was also Ness’ birthday on Sunday. I went down Friday and we did our thing, got some Chinese food for dinner, and watched some more Bones. 

Saturday we slept in, watched some silly tv (abc...enough said), walked the pooches, and then got ourselves glammed up for the Theatre. We headed into the city early, to look at Myer and a few other shops. There wasn’t really a lot to look at though – which was good for me, seeing as I am not in a position to buy anything. Lol. But it was fun to mock all the crazy clothes and the people wearing them!!
We met up with Ness’ friends and headed to the Elephant and the Wheelbarrow. Kay and Nick turned up not much later. We had a nice pub dinner, I got my staple fish and chips – what can I say, I know what I like...even if that makes me lame and unoriginal :P After dinner we headed to our little café on Bourke for coffee and cakes etc. 

It was then time to go to the Comedy Theatre to see Rock of Ages. We had great seats, 3 in row D and 3 in row E. Which in some ways was much better than sitting in a long row - this way we could all talk instead of having people stuck on the ends. I had a great view too, Ness was in front of me, so no giant people to look around!
We did however have annoying people sitting behind me. They were singing along, and talking while stuff was going on...where’s the respect?! So RUDE!
After the show, we headed to the stage door and got a few of the actors to sign our programs. Kay was super excited to meet one of them that she knows from other stuff...see its not just me :P hehe.
I headed back to Ness’, hid her pressie, got all my stuff and headed home.
I ended up sleeping in a lot Sunday, and didn’t get out of bed till noon or something. I was a bit of a zombie all day, watched some tv, did some laundry, and just chillaxed.

Yesterday was a public holiday, so everybody was home, but I was up first at 9am, so I could be organized for the Tonys which started at 10. I misjudged the time, so the whole thing didn’t fit on the one disc, not in great quality, so I’ll have to put the last half hour on another disc.
I then capped off the weekend with another trip down to Ness’ for Tony night – which may become an annual tradition!
See next post for my wrap up of what happened. 


-------------
Carlie

Sunday, June 05, 2011

Been Busy

So I've had a few things on this past week, which made me busy...for my current lifestyle. hah!

Not a lot going on earlier in the week, went to visit my Grandma on Tuesday, had my annual doctors check up at Peter Mac in the city. My appointment was for 2:30 and we drove in, got weighed (eeek) and measured (I was a whole cm taller than I thought - which for me is excellent!), then waited about an hour for my appointment...finally went in, discussed my diet, general health, had my blood pressure taken, chest listened to, etc...and I was done. It was a little silly and felt kinda pointless.
Stopped in at Camberwell on the way home, to get dinner, ran into a girl I used to work with a Safeway, which was nice.

Saturday night Ness and I did our thing, finished off Rizzoli and Isles...started the next season of Bones...and got home just in time to be in my bed at 5am...She held me hostage! I slept in till about 10:30 and dozed till it was time to move the car when my mum and sis went too the footy. Spent the arvo mucking around on my computer, Dad came over and mowed the lawns. I had a bad sinus headache all arvo, but tea made it go away.
Caught up with Jacinta tonight, we went to Century City in Glen Waverley to see Pirates of the Caribbean 4. We got burgers for dinner - they were pretty good. The movie was good. It was in 3D - it wasn't overly worth it, but it did look really pretty and had some good 3D moments. The story itself was okay - I'm not a huge Penelope Cruz fan, and it wasn't as good as the last 3 in my opinion, but still very good.
But the cinema was really really cold! I was wearing my American Eagle jumper, and I had to zip it all the up and pull the neck right up! SOOOO cold. Why are cinemas always weird temperatures?! When I went to Hoyts in Frankston it was really really hot! Crazy!


Not a lot planned for the week ahead. Busy weekend a head though.
Still no job prospects...which really really sucks!

-----------
Carlie