I had my school formal last night. It was fantastic. Most of the photos are still filtering through, but I figure I should write it up now while it's all fresh in my mind.
First and foremost, I took a
girl to the formal with me. We only decided to go together at the last minute because neither of us had a date, but I'm glad I can say I went with someone.
I should also talk about how fantastic my suit was. I managed to find a second hand, 3 button Italian suit for $40 that looks as if it were tailor made for me. I was originally going to wear a cravat tied in a bow, but on the night my bow tying was atrocious so I had to settle for my nicest tie. I looked amazing, especially with my beard.
Lots of people, especially girls, take the Formal very seriously. I think most people ended up catching some kind of fancy limo in to the venue. One of my friends decided that we should take a bus. After formal there is traditionally a student-run afterparty, ridden with alcohol, cigarettes and drugs. Some of my close friends weren't allowed to go, and what started as a bus eventually became an alternate afterparty for my group. Rather than going and getting smashed, we hired a local hall and stayed up late watching movies. From the stories I've heard about the afterparty, we definitely made a good choice.
We all showed up at a friends house early, and stood around for what felt like thousands of photos. Given how many parents were there keenly snapping photos of their daughters I wouldn't be overly surprised if it was literally thousands. The bus in was fun, filled with loud crappy music singalongs and waving out the window to other people on their way to the Formal. One of my friend's dads drove, which gave the whole thing a nice personal touch.
The group. I'm the one with a beard. I think I must have just made a smart arse comment here.
The event was fantastic. All of the guys looked sharp in their suits, and none of the girls stood out as looking awful. Most of them looked fantastic, but a few poorly done fake tans stood out in the crowd. Some of the people appeared to have changed race overnight. The meal was nice, photos were fun and I ran out onto the dancefloor to do the Timewarp with about 20 other people, most of who are friends. Everyone else just gave us funny looks, especially when we all collapsed at the end.
I was included in the photo of The Guys from my group of friends, after almost being forgotten. I wasn't really sure if they would have wanted me, but it was silly to question it. We rustled up all of the music students and teachers for a photo, as well as getting some private shots with the head of music. I was also pleased to arrange a photo of inaugural members of the Brighton Secondary Flexagon Comity. These photos are all going to be uploaded somewhere soon, hopefully.
The bus ride back was even more fun than the one on the way into Formal. One of my friends turned 17 today (the 4th), and about 3 minutes before midnight we played Sixteen going on Seventeen. It was followed by a very, very loud happy birthday and blasting Gangnam Style for the remainder of the trip.
At the hall we sang choir songs while setting ourselves up, then watched Pitch Perfect. One of my friends and I ended up with a bowl of popcorn near us, and mindlessly devoured way more than two people should eat. We got to bed at sometime after 3am. I didn't get to sleep until closer to 4am. I slept intermittently, but woke up at 7am finally. Most of us were awake by 8, which was really weird. Noone really got up until 9, though. We cleaned up and headed back to a friend's house for the final leg of the >12 hour Formal slog.
Our final act of the party was to watch School of Rock from beginning to end. In music lessons when a teacher is sick or unavailable, School of Rock is the Music teacher's goto DVD for burning a lesson. Because the longest lessons until this year are only 1.5 hours long, we've never managed to watch the entire thing. We made a big deal of finishing it off, including taking some photos with the finishing credits. It was fantastic. We told the teachers our plans last night at the Formal, and they told us they were embarrassed to be teaching us!
Us with the finishing credits!
Also, we had pancakes for breakfast.
These last few hours is the most fun I've had in a really long time. I needed this. I feel really refreshed, and I'm keen to get back into a more normal routine than the last few weeks of chaotic stupidity.
Also, also, I'm writing this at 7pm after waking at 7am from ~3 hours sleep, so excuse any weirdness in here.
To finish off here is a grainy photo of me pulling a stupid face with a friend.
