토요일, 6월 19, 2004
well, i'm up surprisingly early today, seeing as i managed to get to sleep only past five this morning. heck, some people who slept as normal (i.e. when the birds were not chirping, and the sky not light) aren't even awake yet. the computer room is totally empty, save for (literally) one or two early risers like myself whom i didn't see at the survivor's photo this morning at five.

the theme for this term's summer ball was the hollywood ball, and i reckon that this story should start right from the very beginning. henceforth, i shall proceed.

the ticket: the issue of 'the ticket' really didn't come up at all until the past week or so because at the time there were tickets going begging, i was too out-of-it and stressed up and convinced that i was broke to care about going to a silly ball really. but the end of the exams and discovering my bank balance were two things that turned my decision around. anyway, the ticket was sniffed out by my expert sleuthing skills, but not so expert as to notice that my college daddy would have given me one gratis, if only i had asked earlier. but no harm done, because that's the way it went in the end. hence, 'the ticket' was in my possession. great man, my college dad.

the outfit: i'm not a person who goes out and buys a whole new outfit that i probably won't wear again because of a ball, so voila, i whipped one of my dressier dresses out of storage and managed to grab some accessories from faz and renu (legends that they are) to help complete the whole ensemble. without them, the whole trying-to-be-glam thingy would not have worked. my heels were killing me halfway through the night (after treading them for about six hours -- hey, everyone's human), and i managed to get back to the house and change to much comfier flip-flops. ah, the joy, but still my feet hurt. once again though, black ruled the whole outfit. must have been some inspiration from the term 'black tie'...

the nosh: absolute nowt. we only got ents tickets, so thank God for the burger van, although they were often too swamped for words anyway. to be quite frank i would like to get some proper food to eat this day (saturday). lucky people who got to go to meals were alright though, and we just... moseyed around, trying to ignore the growly feeling in the pits of our stomachs. oh, and drinking as well, but that doesn't belong in this section. after some chips, gummi bears from the bar and all that rubbish, we managed to make it back at five a.m. for the survivor's photo (long story) and had a champagne breakfast. more about the champagne later, but the croissants were so bloody old it was like biting cardboard, and i swear that they could talk to you -- they were that old.

the drinks: lots of them. four or five rounds of drinks, each time i had a brandy and lemonade. that plus the few glasses of champagne before and after the whole thing meant that my face probably looks suitably merry in all the pictures i took, which is annoying. damn. despite drinking water at various pitstops during the night, i still feel parched at this moment in time. the standard of champagne dropped significantly from the time of the initial champagne reception (very very good) to the champagne breakfast (abhorrent), so we can see where our money went, thank you very much. what's good was that i actually stood my ground the whole time, and managed to stay standing right till the end. this spells the end of alcohol of any kind for the rest of the month. knowing the tolerance of my liver, (it's probably very low) i wouldn't want to risk it.

the event: there were fake oscars all around, and caedmon was done up really beautifully. it wasn't half as nice during the winter ball, and the red carpet treatment all round (read: literally) including mountains of ferrero rocher (which chris nicked and stuffed into his coat pockets. and he nicked the tray as well), they were 'really spoiling us'. ha ha! anyhow, the bands brought in were splendid, although the cheeky girls were a force to be reckoned with. after a while even i couldn't take that much bad music. the highlight of the night was definitely the boys kicking in chris's door because he managed to lock himself out. yeah, no kidding. the whole doorframe is currently resting by his bed, begging to be repaired. indeed. the night was exceedingly cold though, and at some point it seemed like november all over again. no question, of course today it's cold as ice -- whatever made you think otherwise? great durham weather, i say it again.

the people: absolute legends. absolute, absolute legends.

the date: like the ticket, the issue of the date didn't turn up until embarrassingly close to the event itself -- like, try slightly under an hour. however, i got one all the same, so it was all cool; and easier than i had expected. this was the truly beautiful part of the whole enterprise. strange though, that the old gables people (pete specifically) were giving me funny looks when i mentioned him (date). apparently some sort of word has been going round, because i bloody well didn't say anything... it's all quite confusing, and the resurgence of a certain chart that rob has/had plied even better questions. (me and the brake? very odd!) but i digress. brings to mind something that a certain faiza said some time ago, "people are not blind you know." i can't remember what happened exactly, but there's an all-round feeling of warmth and bliss and being nice to small animals currently swimming around in the pit of my tummy. we spent most of our time together, and neither of us minded it one bit.

so, the ins and outs of the night. all in all, i really enjoyed it, and this has easily been one of the nicest balls i've ever been too, because everything was in place. for the first time ever i had a proper date, proper dress, the works. for the first time, i felt like a real-life princess, so ignore the goofy grin on my face if you see me; it's just me reminiscing. :)