Crazy Karaoke Competition in Wonderful Windy Wellington (now THAT'S alliteration)!

Last night Grace and I experienced the first true rainy, windy Wellington evening. The wind was so unbelievably strong that it almost knocked us over a few times... incredible! And it was raining so hard that, combined with the force of the wind, it was raining horizontal. Simply amazing! The bottom of my pant legs were actually noticeably heavier than they were before the rain hit, and my feet were actually slipping around inside my shoes (I suppose that's what you get for wearing dress shoes with no socks in the pouring rain!).

So Grace and I went into town in the early evening to catch the Vector Wellington Orchestra and Orpheus Choir performing Beethoven's 9th and a piano concerto by John Psathas (the NZ composer whose work I'm studying with my Year 11s right now - and there was even a pre-concert talk with John Psathas!). So we went into town, all gung ho, ready to meet Brett at the Wellington Town Hall, and when we got to the box office we saw that the show was sold out. NOOOO!!! So we texted Brett and made plans to meet up for Indian food instead. Grace and I then walked back toward the train station where we had seen a sign for a karaoke competition in the entryway of a bar, and we went in and got the details. Registration would be from 8-9pm and it was only 6:30, so we headed back toward Taste of India to ease our growling stomachs before our big karaoke debut. Grace, the master of directions in Wellington, led me astray for a whopping 40-minute walk "toward" Taste of India (which really wasn't close at all, thanks Grace! haha) in the pouring rain and wind. We laughed all the way there, complaining intermittently about how hungry we were.... By the time we got there my stomach was just about eating itself... I've never tasted better curry in my life! We met up with Brett and then went back to his hostel to eat and visit before heading back off to the karaoke competition.

Grace and I took the bus from Courtenay Place to the train station, then we walked to the bar and registered for karaoke. There are 4 heats or something, one every Saturday night, and then the finals are on September 1st. The grand prize is $1,000, and there's also a $500 prize for 2nd place and a bunch of other random prizes to be won, so Grace and I thought "Why not give it a shot?" We both competed, had a blast, and at the end of the night I moved on (with a few other people) to the finals... not to mention the fact that I snagged a fantastic brown t-shirt that says BROWN on the front, and Wellington Brewing Co. on the back.... the ultimate in fashion! I sang "Don't Know Why" by Norah Jones and "My Guy" by Mary Wells (a flashback to my first karaoke experience with Karyn and Diane at Johnny's in Winnipeg!). Grace sang "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and "Danny Boy." And then, of course, we had to pull out our famous duet - "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me" by Culture Club. So fun! We also met a bunch of silly funny guys at the bar, so we hung out with them, singing duets, dancing, and taking pictures. We ended the night dancing at The Establishment on Courtenay Place with our new friends before heading back to Grace's place on the train for the night.

*** Note to all readers: I can vividly picture my mother cringing, right at this moment, at the thought of Grace and I making friends with random strange men at the bar in Wellington, and going out dancing with them.... but don't worry, they were very nice and we had a lot of fun... no problems! ***

Oh, and by the way, if you haven't noticed yet, I've just discovered the joy of using different text colours in my blog entries. Fun, fun!

Anyway, there's the update from my fun weekend in Wellington. Grace and I met up with Paul on Friday and it was nice although a bit awkward, as I think Grace's and my excitement at seeing each other again combined with the very quiet Paul's jet lag was a bit overwhelming for him, but he has since messaged both of us to say that he had a good time and would like to get together again at some point. So we'll give that another shot and see how it goes!

Grace and I have also started a tradition of taking Photobooth pictures every time we see each other, so by the time I get back to Canada I will have the most extensive collection of outrageous self-portraits that anyone has ever seen! Grace and I were joking around about how we should put one of those on our resume or something. I'm pretty sure it would be a big hit!

Fun with Photobooth!

As promised, here are some of the pictures that Grace and I took at the coffee shop on Tuesday. She's got more funny ones too, that I haven't saved on my computer yet - in one of them I look like Quagmire from Family Guy (I will DEFINITELY post that one once she gets it onto Facebook so I can steal it!). Anyway, I think these pictures almost defy explanation, so I will just leave it to you to add your own captions in your mind! Haha.

(And in case you were curious, my Year 9 guitar class went extremely well! No behaviour problems whatsoever! It was amazing. I'm not sure if it was because I went to extra lengths to make sure that everything was orderly in the classroom, i.e. they were lined up outside the door and told the expectations before they ever entered the room, etc., but I was pleasantly surprised! It was awesome. And it's fun to think that I'm a guitar teacher! Cool beans.)

Tomorrow Grace and I are getting together at Te Papa museum in Wellington, where we will be meeting a guy named Paul from Wisconsin. He just got to New Zealand yesterday morning, and will be starting his internship on Monday. Jill, our supervisor, e-mailed us his phone number and suggested that we get together with him for coffee or something so that he's not alone all weekend in a new city, in a new country, anticipating his internship with nobody to talk to. I called him tonight, and he seems a little overwhelmed but quite nice, and easy to talk to. It will be nice to have another person in our age range to hang out with while we're here. And another visit to Te Papa never hurt anyone! :o)