I have a favourite musical. Actually technically I have two. The problem is I have trouble defining which one holds the ultimate trophy of ‘favourite’. Does the coveted award go to the one I saw on stage, or the other on TV. My earliest exposure to music as storytelling was the classic film Oliver. It was one of those movies that seemed to be on nearly every second Saturday afternoon and I could not get enough of it. Mum and Dad even bought me the book when I had my first hospital visit and I have still have it to this day. Oliver held a dear place in my heart until as a young teenage gal I discovered Sunset Boulevard. A tale of divas, desperation and disillusion, ah the sight of Joe in his crisp white suit belting out the dangers of doing what it takes to make it in Hollywood; it made my creative soul soar….
There you have a typical thought pattern in the life of Amnesty. I was contemplating the above predicament as I tried to remember the lyrics to Oliver’s opening song. Magical, marvellous wonderful or magical wonderful marvellous?
Aki had taken us to a seafood restaurant on Waikiki. I was torn between feeling blessed by his genorosity and astounded at the eagerness at which the management and staff hovered over our dining experience, motivated by the fact they knew Aki had money to spend. For every meal we ordered an extra dish would appear ‘on the house’ or ‘compliments of the manager’. The forced multiplication of dishes meant that waiters were rearranging tables to place on the end of ours to accommodate this seemingly forced gluttony. Still, it was an amazing experience and one that I know I would have little chance to have again. We fed on an absolute banquet of seafood and local Hawaiian cooking. The beer and shochu flowed freely and Taiki and Ryoko received the most amazingly decorated cocktails in hollowed out pineapples. I’ll post some photos of them this weekend. Ryokko loved the cups that they served our coffee in and after a few enquiries made by Aki the staff were wrapping up their own personal supply to sell to him.
And of course, we weren’t done yet! After thankfully waddling towards the door dreaming of a nice quiet walk back along Waikiki Beach I found myself being unwillingly pulled in the opposite direction. Apparently I was neglecting the extremely important and quite urgent issue of after-dinner drinks at the Westin Hotel, a tradition of the Ikemizu family each time they go to Aloha land. With my stomach howling for mercy at the forced over indulgence we fought our way past children busking with their stage-hungry parents and eclectic sideshow entertainers to the Westin Hotel which is right on the shore of Waikiki. Despite my reluctance to imbibe any more liquids, I must admit I absolutely love this hotel. It has a strong luxurious colonial style and I’m a sucker for a shiny chandelier. We took a few happy snaps in the foyer and recreation rooms. This was Taiki’s last night in Honolulu so we made the most of it. He had to be back in Tokyo for the new university year. He’s beginning his master’s in opera at Tokyo’s top music school. I’ll never complain about the complexities of learning an Asian language again. He’s concurrently studying French, German and Italian the clever little maestro!
On our way back to the hotel Taiki and I had the immense pleasure of becoming acquainted with sports very own superhero Basketball Man. Check him out at mysapce.com/iambasketballman. He was good at what he did but I wasn’t blown away. When collecting his tips at the end of the night he used a cute little phrase which I play over in my head lately. It’d be a nifty song lyric if it was blatantly plagiarised from a street performer!
“There’s no nation like donation, there’s no city like generosity”
Still, deep down I held a strange admiration for the quirky man who was pursuing his dream, knowing that in the depths of my bag I had a book asking me what that very dream in my own life is. I was somewhat envious of a dude who wore a foam helmet as a mark of his dream, bizarre the world is sometimes ain’t it!?!
Pondering this thought…..
Amnesty
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