Unexpectedly awesome day!

I had this plan about today. It was very serious and proper.

Instead, I had a text message yesterday from the lovely pollymel saying 'Lord of the Rings Symphony! Spare ticket! Interested?' Only, you know, polite and literate … so I texted back, and before we knew it we had a date and she even cut me a discount due to the lack of people paying on bloody invoices (I am giving up on publishing and choosing busking!) and I had a Friday night plan.

Except that then I remembered that the one part of my Friday plan I was committed to was going to ukulele practise, but she assured me that she would not giggle if I turned up late and with a ukulele.

So, I did a few useful things around the house, had lunch at the new Erko cafe, had a great chat with the people in the cafe where we discovered a mutual passion for ukulele, then dashed home to pick up the actual instrument before heading off to my lesson.

This involves catching the 370 bus, which is more of a metaphor for life and the importance of a Zen attitude than a functional piece of transport infrastructure. One was due in 2 minutes, which is why 20 minutes later I saw a man perform an amazing piece of Ninja Driving to avoid running into the wally in the 4WD/SUV who lunged out of his parking space without looking, where the good driver with a half-second's thought, slipped through a brief break in the traffic on the opposite side of the road to skip up the driveway outside the smash repairs business onto the empty pavement and come to a stop with a good six inches to spare before he hit either the building or the road signs. This sounds nowhere near as impressive as it was to watch, but there was about a 1 in 100,000 chance he could avoid that accident and he nailed it.

And then he got out of his car, and instead of shouting abuse, raised his hands in the air in the universal gesture of 'WHY? Why would you do something so STUPID?' and then quietly got back into his car and waited until the road cleared enough for him to get off the pavement. He saw me looking at him as he got back onto the road, and I gave him two thumbs up, which he responded to with the look that says 'I KNOW! Talk about lucky! And I am SO glad someone saw me do that!'

Ukulele was as fab as it always is, and afterwards a 370 actually came to get me back to a train station and head off to Circular Quay and the Opera House, which is always lovely. When I got off the train, I saw an old friend I haven't seen in five years. We caught up briefly, all good news! I ran off, having been unable to correct his mistaken impression I was playing at the Opera House.

I was meeting pollymel and sinden in the bar and knowing only their voices, assumed they would be the hot chicks at the fun table. I was totally correct in this. They also had brilliant friends, who were all enormous fun to meet and chat with, and made sure I did not feel like a shag on a rock (insert traditional joke here), despite being a random internet chick. The ukulele was very handy for being recognised, though when I went dashing towards the Opera House in a bid to get there in time to cloak it, I was given a look of undeserved affectionate respect and sympathy from the security guard, who apparently sees late-running musicians all the time. I felt very unworthy, and couldn't go back downstairs to meet up with the girls in case I saw the same security guard.

Then we went to the actual symphony, which was the score to The Two Towers played by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra while the film played on a big screen above. And it was BEAUTIFUL. I had forgotten how moving and involving the music was, but hearing it live lifted every moment, especially the choral sections which had wonderful voices all round and sterling soloists. sinden is a terrible influence when it comes to bad elf and Viggo jokes, and together we are the Death of Maltesers, which thinking back I should probably have shared around more generously, I am a Bad Person when it comes to Maltesers. Then more chatting afterwards, which was totally fab. I have never had a bad Meet A Flistee experience, instead they've all been champion!

And then on the way home I was able to help a group of very young things with their very drunk friend and impress upon them the importance of rehydration. ('Do you think we should feed her Maccas?' 'No, I think you should feed her water and a half bottle of half-strength sports drink. You're sure she's already chucked up most of what she drank? OK, keep an eye on her. And tell her to eat before drinking next time.' 'Good tip! Thanks, lady!')

Then I walked in the front door and found Mr Brammers had spent the evening making apple and cinnamon cake! I would say that this day had been gold from start to end, but I don't want to upset the IOC, so instead, I'll just give it two thumbs up!

And now off to bed so I can go down to Sydney Park and see the farm animals at the City Farm Open Planning Day tomorrow (10-2 for any locals). This could be the beginning of a beautiful weekend, and is certainly another step in rocking friendships!