Saturday morning though was fantastic. With no kids to jump on us we got to wake up ourselves (ridiculously before 8am lol) and not have to get up and change nappies or make up sippy cups of milk and toast and peel bananas. We just got to stretch langurously in bed, curl into each other and then doze again for another hour or so. I cannot state enough how incredible it feels to actually get enough sleep!! There are other benefits as well to not having small people barge in on you in the morning... something we've not got to experience since our honeymoon 2 and a half years ago. Let's just say I've missed it enormously and no amount of evening activity makes up for it.
I had to pick up a Christening present for my best friends' daughter in the morning, and LH wanted to make a roast for lunch, so after cleaning up the house (How much freaking easier is this when there's no one "helping" by upending boxes of toys on the floor!!) I betook myself to the shops. Where as I got off the lift in Myer I was confronted by sales racks extraordinaire. Being as I was feeling happy and rested I figured I'd try on a few things before heading home, and spied a rack of jeans hiding in the corner. I have been trying to buy jeans for a while, price being no object. But I am a difficult shape to fit, without looking like I've added about 10kg, or promoting the dreaded muffin top. So I didn't really hold out much hope.
Standing in the change rooms I caught several people admiring my shoes (black with white polka dot peep toe stilettos) before trying on the jeans and first pair, to my amazement fit! and looked nice! and were comfortable! I was so excited I took them straight to the counter (once I'd got dressed again of course lol) and plonked my cards on the counter excited that not only had I found the perfect jeans but that they were reduced to $65 which isn't that much for a fantastic pair of jeans... but best was still yet to come when the lady processed my transaction and I looked at the receipt and realised that they were only $32.50 - a further 50% off. Woot, total score.
I also tried on some Esprit clothes and fit in their medium tops now. I am very excited about something very very superficial!
Saturday afternoon was spent lazing around some more, playing computer games and just relaxing in our clean house. Then it was time to get ready for our night out at the theatre. I love getting dressed up, and looking lovely and unyoghurt besmirched for an adult evening. I wore my favourite 1950s-esque red silk dress that flares gently from the silk sash at my waist to my knees over LH's favourite corset that gives me that desired 50s shape. And on my feet (for Cylie) my much adored raw silk covered nude shoes.
I also wore my pearl necklace to set off my scarlet coloured lips and dress and my very dark pinned up hair. Overall I felt glamorous even if it is impossible for me to look it.
The waiting in the foyer to head to our fabulous balcony seats was very interesting. I love people watching at the best of times, but for an evening such as this it is like voyeurism overload. Women dripping with faux diamonds, satin and fur stoles all the way through to the man in dusty blundstones with his flanny shirt with pack of Marlboros shoved in the top pocket. I was not enamoured with the fact that when we sat down that I was seated next to an overflower, but LHs view was slightly obscured by a lady whose very large sheep like hair do oveflowed into the surrounding space(which LH asked if he could shear).
Once the orchestra started up though I was completely oblivious to these distractions as I became lost to the music and melody and passion of the Phantom of the Opera.
The storyline is relatively simple...
Christine, a young beautiful ingenue is given tuition by her Angel of Music who wants her to be all that she can be. The Angel/Phantom an older man disfigured by a childhood of neglect and abuse longs for her soft words and touch and passion and comes to her at night time filling her thoughts and mind.
When Christine is reunited with her childhood sweetheart - the amiable and likable Raoul, she is somewhat torn between the dark passionate Angel and the light, fun, boy from her youth.
The Phantom, somewhat insane from both years of hiding out in the Paris Opera, his childhood abuse, the reaction of others to his dark side and also his love for Christine does not take her falling for Raoul very well. He writes his own Opera with Christine as the lead and manipulates the new owners of the Paris Opera to stage it.
On the opening night Raoul and the theatre owners plot to capture the Phantom while Christine is caught in the middle. In one aria, Christine plays a young girl who is romanced by an older Don Juan - forgoing her morals and ethics to spend the night with him. The Phantom kills the lead who is playing Don Juan and steps into his place so that in a stage parallel, Christine and the Phantom are singing of their passion for each other past the point of no return with Christine acting the seductive young coquette and the Phantom the older enamoured lover. It echoes the way that Christine is seduced by the Phantom and of the passion that they share.
When it is revealed that DJ is being played by the Phantom you have the cataclysmic finale, whereby Christine is abducted by the Phantom to his secret lair where he both begs and orders her to marry him. They are pursued by Raoul who is desperate to save the woman he loves. When Raoul finds them, the Phantom strings him up by the neck and orders Christine to choose... marry him or her lover dies. It is a poignant and suspenseful scene, broken when Christine passionately embraces the Phantom. You should feel sorry for Raoul at this point, but the Phantom, shaken by the purity of love that Christine feels for Raoul - that she would be his only to save another man relents and frees them both.
I first saw Phantom of the Opera when I was about 10 years old and I loved it. But obviously I didn't get a lot of the storyline because watching it last night was just magical. I could not remember what choice Christine made at the end and I did not know what I wanted her to choose - the Phantom, the scarred, disfigured, pained artist who wrote music in the darkness, who had killed men with passion but who loved her completely or Raoul, the boyish, loving, fun comrade who asked nothing but love and promised to protect and calm her as they frolicked like children on the rooftop.
I have been singing Christine's parts most of today (my register is nowhere near as good as it used to be :( ) and wishing that I had an excuse to traipse around with waist length Lady Godiva hair and fabulously embroidered French 19th century robes while giving myself over to love. The Elfling has already told me several times though that it is quiet time and not singing time so I had best get to washing daycare sheets and cleaning out the car... stay tuned next week for me actually recognising that I have a lot of exams that I am unprepared for and much freaking out thereof...
4 comments:
I am very jealous (almost forgot how to spell that correctly!) of your big sleep!
lol every time I write it properly it looks wrong. I wonder if the Macquarie would accept jaelhys?
Is that what you're going to name your next child? Jealhys? lol
I"m glad your weekend turned out so well - it sounds as if you had a magical night on Saturday. You deserve it.
[quote]encouraged me to be responsible and mature and not ruin the rest of the weekend and actually discuss the issues with LH.[/quote]
I'll have you know I did nothing of the sort. I wanted you to call him the C word so N would stop making me feel horrible for doing likewise to my own husband.
Glad you had great a weekend though, even if you didn't kick any walls in... ;)
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