Wow. The past few weeks have been a blur, but a good blur if that makes sense.
Two weeks ago, after almost a year of what felt like endless rehearsals and costume fittings, my school FINALLY put on it's production of Grease. And let me tell you, it was FABULOUS! I mean, my school is normally infamous with doing dark comedy and depressing plays with no sense of plot.
This all changed last year, when the school play reins was handed over to the music department, who put on a brilliant version of "Bugsy Malone", which was raved about for months!
But what we did for "Grease" completely blew EVERYTHING we did for "Bugsy" out of the water! Everyone was perfectly cast, the costumes and props were awesome... and the singing. MY GOD. I seriously had no idea that there were people in my school with such talent! I know this is very cliche or whatever, but I don't think there was a single person who was crap during those four performances.
On the last night, the amount of tears and emotion was astonishing. Not just because we'd finished what took most of our school year, but because the wonderful girl, and dear friend of mine who played the pink lady 'Marty' in our production, was leaving for Uni.
I don't think I'd ever seen so many people crying in one room (I, suprisingly, was not one of them, but I did hug a lot of people) and I thought to myself, why is EVERYONE crying? True, it's emotional and we're going to miss her loads, but the majority of the people in the cast didn't even speak to her!
To be honest, the only people I thought should have been crying were me, the rest of the principle characters, and the girl's parents. Not the entire ensemble who hardly spoke to her!? Maybe I'm wrong, and most of the time I am, but personally, if I don't know a person that well and I hear they're leaving, I'm not going to burst into tears and collapse all over them! Personally, I think it's a little strange. But maybe it's just me?
Anyway, the Friday after was my school's annual "Whole School Walk". Where everyone walks 14 miles from Lewes to a place called Stanmer Park in Brighton to raise money for the school and for a local charity. 7 miles there, and 7 miles back. I never, ever, walk the whole 14 miles! I'd normally walk the first 7 miles, then attaine an "injury" of somesort and take the bus back with all the other lazy fat kids. Except this year! This year I decided "it's my last year at walking this, I'm going to get off my arse and do something productive!".
I arrived on the friday at school, in my all in one Penguin suit (they encourage you to dress up) and set off walking the first 7 miles with everyone else. And I did! Did I also mention it was one of the hottest days of the year? I ended up just taking my penguin suit off after the initial 5 minutes. After a break for lunch, I started to walk the other 7 miles back to school.
Except after the first couple miles, I decided I wasn't going to walk anymore, I was going to RUN. And I actually RAN ALL THE WAY BACK! The good news? I actually ran about 3 miles. The bad news? I arrived home, took off my shoes and what did I discover? A BLISTER THE SIZE OF AN EYEBALL ON THE HEEL OF MY FOOT. AND TWO BLACK, BRUISED TOE-NAILS. This now means I can't actually walk properly, I'm just limping about like a helpless puppy.
I'm considering popping this massive blister right now, as I kid you not, it's the size of a golf ball.
If I survive that ordeal, I guess I'll be here next time,
-Maia x