Just as I'm thinking it's all good & I can do this, God throws a spanner in my works. For 2 days in a row I left home in time to brave the peak hour city traffic but it's QPAC & by now we know our way in there pretty well & can mostly do it on automatic pilot. Star doesn't need to feed me sugar at well regulated intervals or reassure me as I have yet another meltdown in car & traffic. She plugs in her earphones & leaves me to concentrate on the erratic Queensland drivers who have yet to learn why indicators were fitted to their vehicles or that amber lights mean, Prepare to Stop not, Hit the Aaccelerator Hard.
So there I am toddling onto the highway happily enough when Star happens to glance out her window. Her bobbing & singing grinds to a stunned stop.
"Oh. My. Gosh." She breathed. Behind her a glowering sky roiled & fumed trailing waspy tendrils & sparking electric fury in bullwhip cracks. It was the sort of sky to make my heart quail. I glanced at my watch calculating the minimum amount of time needed to negotiate Brisbane traffic on a Saturday afternoon & the speed of the rabid, bruised clouds threatening to hail on our parade just as soon as possible. Within minutes twilight descended & cars switched on their headlights. A little wind gusted dead leaves before it & the air was ripe with the smell of coming rain.
It was a good time to pray ~ & I did. A second trip bumper to bumper in zero visibility I did not need.
We got the edge of the rain but it was not enough to halt the flow of traffic & I scooted down Grey Street & into the QPAC parking with a mighty sigh of relief. We were early. I can't say enough nice things about QPAC. I didn't even have to ask for a pass last night. Someone had obviously made a note & I got handed one nicely peeled & ready to stick on my jumper. Star dumped her music, make~up & Blacks then we went & got her an icecream & I waited in one of the shortest lines I've ever seen at Max Brenners for a Dark hot chocolate to take with me into the Green Room.
I found my usual spot in front of the monitors because by 7.30 most people are either in the pit or on stage & I virtually have the place to myself. Both monitors were tuned to the footy & while I occasionally watch Union if the Wallabies & the All Blacks are going head to head I'm not interested otherwise & have no idea which teams were creating all the havoc & noise.
As the studio calls came through & people departed for their various nether regions I hunted round for the buttons & flipped one of the monitors over to the ballet stage because ~ Opening Night. I wanted to see how it had all turned out. Besides, I can gauge where we are & when Star is likely to arrive demanding food & whether or not I had spotted her hooded form & why does her choir like me better than her. Sometimes I feel like the company mascot! Unfortunately the sound defeated my technological expertise so I watched the ballet to the howls & whoots of the footy teams annihilating each other ~ which made for interesting viewing indeed. It was exhausting so I went to sleep & woke just in time to see Arthur being carted off to Avalon ~ which meant we were nearly done & Star would arrive any tick of the clock ~ which she eventually did towing another young choir member & wanting to know if we could give her a ride home. Goodbye 11 o'clocker, hello last boat of the night.
Last night Star found herself the only child to begin with. Everyone else was at the eisteddfod. She was also the only 1st alto in the entire choir ~ which meant she had to hold her part all on her own & had to sing alone for a sort [very short] segment. She wasn't overly happy. I have heard & I have heard how the chords just sound wrong ~ even though they aren't~ & how her part always sounds weird in her ears so I know that to sing it all on her own required a huge amount of sang froid & confidence. Luckily very little rattles Star.
It was after 10pm when we left town & once we are out of the city the traffic thins to a trickle, then to nothing at all. We made really good time but got lost once we'd dropped our passenger in the unlit back streets & paddled round in the dark trying to figure out where we were! I was too tired & grumpy to find it funny. Still we got a park right at the jetty which meant we could sit warmly in the car & wait for the next boat while Star regaled me with all the backstage gossip ~ most of which is unrepeatable in polite company & unmodified because Star looks 20 rather than 16. Sometimes the only thing to do is laugh ~ & we have a well developed sense of humour!
1 comment:
My, oh, my!
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