I Am Growing Flowers…

in the darkest parts of my heart, for if light ever enters, it would know where to start. ~Noor Unnahar

On Sunday evening, S and I went to The Tannery to watch one my favourite musicians, whom I first stumbled upon busking in Queenstown some 5 years ago (he busking not me) at live music venue, Blue Smoke. Of course, Graeme James was absolutely phenomenal – people like him make me wish I was at least slightly musical. On the contrary, S and I were not in top form.

You see, since his arrival, things have been pretty difficult. Getting used to one another’s presence after six months of separation takes work. Funnily enough, and I hope he doesn’t mind me sharing this, Lifa (my Israeli brother with the beautiful Japanese wife) contacted me with a very resonating message a couple days ago:  “Are you guys still madly in love?” he asked, followed by: “When Aki came to meet me in Israel she suddenly wasn’t sure anymore…I would blame it on me coming late to pick her up from the airport but you know…doubts started and all. Eventually we passed that but what I’m saying is that surprises can happen.”

In my case, there have been no doubts, none whatsoever at all. Just disappointments. Allow me to explain: for 6 entire months I had looked forward to his arrival. So much so, that I had booked and cancelled 3 different cafe’s for our first place to go to after the airport (I couldn’t decide which would impress him the most). Next, I’d planned our weekends, and week nights, and basically, every minute of which I was not at work. We’d missed out on so much, now that he was finally here, I wanted us to do it all! But as the old yiddish proverb goes: “man plans and god laughs.” At first S was extremely jet-lagged, then poor guy fell sick due to climate change, then I became sick (both physically and emotionally) due to overly attached girlfriend shenanigans (haha). And, it’s also winter, which means everything is just that much harder to begin with. So, with my grand schemes down the drain, and my expectations unmet, I found myself rather disappointed.

And this is where we chose love. Realising that if we wanted to be more than picture-perfect happy, we needed to put in the effort. So, as kindly as we could, we communicated our feelings, and as selflessly as we could, we acknowledged one another’s. It was an arduous process. It is an arduous process. I can’t say I’ll ever master it. But what I can say is that it was the rain (and shine) which made our relationship blossom. For the sincere way S offered me solace, made me fall in love with his beautiful soul all over again. In the words of Abdu’l-Bahá: “where there is love, nothing is too much trouble and there is always time.”

What To Expect From Angus And Julia Stone’s 2015 Summer Tour

Last night, my sister and I watched Angus and Julia Stone perform at the newly restored Isaac Theatre Royal and it was (insert word which is similar to but greater than “amazing”, “incredible”, “breathtaking”, “wow”). In fact; they were so freakin’ good and by good I mean the former unborn word, that I would kill (okay maybe not kill but you get the picture) to rewind time and see them all.over.again. For all you lucky Australians yet to experience their suave, the following is a list of what you can anticipate from their current summer tour.

Note: I don’t see the following as spoilers but rather mere observations and/or pointers from personal experience which I hope, will enhance your overall concert experience.

1.Annoying late comers
There’s nothing worse than late comers at a seated concert (actually, being seated next to a sweaty (and so; smelly) individual would be worse or sitting behind a person with a fro…). Anyways, not that I was counting or anything but I had to stand up and sit back down 12 times in order to allow a latecomer to reach their allocated seat (i’ll take that 12 off my next squat set shall I?).

2. Julia will say something sweet about your hometown (In fact; Julia will do most of the talking during the night.)
During their 2 days in Christchurch, Julia recalled having walked through the gardens and eaten at a place where “burgers fell from the roof” – for those of you who are yet to experience C1 Espresso’s oh-so-futuristic why-didn’t-I-think-of-it-first pneumatic sliders, they’re nothing short of genius (PS you’re seriously missing out). In truth, these adorably cute bite-size burgers had made such a huge impact on Julia that I heard her telling a fan about them again at the signing table post-show. In short, pneumatic sliders are sitting on the same fence as garden when it comes to the “garden city” (for Julia, at least) – look’s like I’m not the only one obsessed with food.

3.That token obnoxious drunk
No concert experience is quite complete without an obnoxious drunk. I mean, there’s nothing quite like a bogan screaming out something entirely random/useless (in this case: “shut up Colin”) mid slow song.

4. “Marry me Julia”
Often it’s the girls yelling out “Marry Me (insert male name here)” but not in this case.  Julia, oh Julia, she stole the show. With her bright eyes, lush hair and smooth dance moves; even I wanted to marry her. In response to “marry me Julia” (most likely emitted by said token drunk) Julia replied: “but you don’t know anything about me” and shortly after: “I hope you have a ring” – good sport Julia, good sport.

5. A song that will make you cry 
Okay, so maybe I wasn’t truly honest with you as this one’s a bit of a spoiler. Before singing “For You” Julia expressed she had initially written the song for a lover and sent it to him via email (as we do). After patiently awaiting a reply,  TWO weeks later (typical), mystery man replied with a song of his own. Unfortunately, Mr. Wrong was in a death metal band at the time and his song titled “go to hell” didn’t gel too well with Julia. In saying that, she explained she still loved performing the song and proceeded to make everyone cry:

If you love me with all of your heart
If you love me
I’ll make you a star in my universe
You’ll never have to go to work
You’ll spend every day
Shining your light my way

6.Angus being all gentlemanly and humble
I haven’t said much about Angus yet have I? That’s because he stayed in the backdrop most of the time, humbly giving his sister 80% of the spot-light, which in my opinion, simply added to his insane charm. In fact; nothing I’d like more than to take a ride on his big jet plane. No, that is not a sexual reference – yes, you would know that if you were an actual fan. Go away you creep.

7.Terrible Clappers
I’m against clapping at any concert and/or performance in general. Main reason being most people have zero co-ordination/rhythm. Prepare yourself for cringe-induing claps, at least two or three times during the night.

8.Sweet merchandise
Dope t-shirts and back-packs which you’ll need cold hard moolah for. ATM’s seem to disappear the moment you need one so i recommend you fill your pockets (preferably ones with zips) pre-show.

9.Legitimately loud and long cheers and claps shall result in the most epic encore. 
Two words: in-credible.

Lastly, enjoy the damn thing! Call me Captian Obvious but so often we tend to get wound up in taking pictures and videos, Instagramming them and/or checking-in on Facebook and the like that we forget to live in the moment and enjoy the NOW – I mean, if anything, Angus’s beard is worth each and every second of your time AKA eye-candy at its prime.