I watched this play a few weeks ago, and was terribly affected by it for a while.

The despair, hopelessness and loneliness hit me pretty bad.
It was kinda like when I watched a few George Carlin clips and it made me feel like a hypocritical self-serving asshole.
I mean, it's true, but you don't feel so bad about it until Carlin exposes all the bullshit we say and do.
And then I went back to feeling 'normal' and didn't change anything about myself, other than the fact that I have a little self-awareness than before. Basically, I know I am too lazy and inert to change for the better.

This production was brought in from Dublin, but I didn't know anything about how it was going to be. X and C had bought tickets already and I jumped on the chance to get a student ticket.

The SOTA theater is small and intimate, but the colorful seats were a little distracting.

Anyway, I'm writing this now because I recently borrowed Peter Hall's Exposed By The Mask. This man is a great theater director and he unpacks a lot of interesting and difficult concepts in this slim volume. I like how he expresses the ideas very succinctly, making it accessible, without being annoying.
He directed the first English-language production of Waiting for Godot in 1955, 2 years after it premiered in Paris, and the play raised a storm of controversy.
Even when I watched the play on 23 Nov, the audience beside me didn't seem to get it. They didn't applaud when it ended and the actors were doing curtain calls.

This review lists the names of the actors of this production, which was very sparse and well done.
At first, the situation unfolding on stage was baffling but once you get into the swing of things through the amazing rhythmic (Irish accented) dialogue, everything started to fall into their absurdist place.
The abstract beauty of Beckett's words, being brought to life, was very special to experience.
The actors also did physical comedy quite well, using their bodies to express the unspoken closeness between Didi and Gogo, or the obvious power imbalance between Ponzo and Lucky.

Big props to the power of theater.

Le Viaduc des Arts - the old railway viaduct


We were wandering around Paris, as you do (okay, we were actually lost), and saw signs for "Viaduc des Arts". 
I thought it might be some old road surrounded by public art so I decided to check it out.
It totally was not that, instead it was a very long raised walkway that cut through some nice real estate.
Now I know that it was originally built for rail transport.

We went up and totally missed the ateliers that occupied the eaves of the viaduc. I guess that is where the "arts" came into play.
But it was very lovely upstairs.

Had a unusual view of the surroundings.

It's a bit like a park, with some flowering plants and garden ornaments.

Quite lovely for a public area.

This was my favorite bit - a pond overhung with fragrant lavender, capped off with rose arches.
I learnt to love the lavender there.

This neighbourhood is more modern and less scenic than the previous one.

We walked along the viaduc to this awesome bridge.
The green below seems to be part of a larger park, which I think might have been a waterway, since it was much lower than its surroundings.

I met my lovely friend E today (thanks for reading this nonsense!) and she gave me some advice that I took to heart.

Firstly, it is normal for a bra to cost $70.

Secondly, why not apply to work at Starbucks?

Thirdly, always be careful.

Being a cheapo, I was flabbergasted at point number 1.
I don't think I have ever spent more than $30 on a bra in my life. So when she said that the '2 for $70' deal was not bad, I went to the nearest departmental store, which turned out to be Robinsons, where I first saw that offer.

There, I looked at the ones on sale. The sales lady picked out a few in my size for me to try. They looked hideous on me because they didn't fit. Typical.

I thought she would give up, but much to their credit, she went to get another colleague to help me.
This other lady handled the fancier underthings that were not "2 for $69.90". Their retail price was $89.90, but they had a promotion - buy 3, get 1. Normally I would baulk at such numbers, but I decided to become a sensible adult and finally get some proper undergarments.

I got to use the posh changing room equipped with a dressing table, for some reason.

She got 4 Triumph Maximizers for me to try. 2 were pretty damn nice. When I complained that they didn't fit, she told me to push everything into the bounds of the wire, and wow, that seemed to work.
Then she got some other designs, and made me wear each one of them on the spot. Geez.

After that was done, she tried to push the "buy 5 get 2" promo on me, but I wasn't very willing to part with my money. So, yay, I spent $269.70 for 4 bras. /omg

And then, I went to the Starbucks that had the "opportunity!" sign, joined the queue, asked the guy about the hiring situation, received a simple form to fill, then joined the queue to pass it back to him, where he passed it to his manager, who disappeared for a while before coming to tell me to come back for an interview with her manager tomorrow.
They seemed pretty chilled, which is nice.