There Is Always A Duck

My Dear Princess and Dear Friends,

Yes. You know what this is about. 

Hamil-Mania subsided in me after about three months from first seeing it. Although it may have been prolonged a little by first Lemon and then Princess Normal seeing it, sending me into a Hamil-SPIRAL of madness all over again.

I was triggered again last month, when I visited the city of Hamilton with Fazzi. I mean. How could I not?

As Fazzi mentioned, I may have brought this up in our group chat at work, which caused HER to attempt to watch it with me ON HER PHONE.

I mean. Seriously. On her PHONE? In an AIRPORT?

HOW ABSURD.

I refused to be a part of such a venture. But Fazzi maintains she was enjoying it and liked The Schuyler Sisters song very much.

"I don't get it. What are you talking about? Why are you not throwing away your shot?" asked Shenée, when we got back. 

To explain, I showed her this clip from the Graham Norton show.

Now. Let me tell you something about Shenée that you may think you already know. She is effusive. 

That doesn't say enough. 

She is demonstrative. 

No. Still not enough. 

She is unutterably honest. She doesn't hold back. You know how she feels. She will TELL YOU.

It is one of the qualities I find most appealing about her. She is not unexpressed. Honesty is at her fundament.

So she watched the clip and her mouth LITERALLY dropped open. "OH MY GOD!!!!!" she said, with at least five exclamation marks.

"I AM WATCHING THAT TONIGHT!" she went on.

"Or.... Or..." I said, brain whizzing, "...you COULD come over and watch it projected on my wall with speakers BLARING."

She high-fived me. Actually she gave me ten. 

I'm not normally a fan of the high-five. It is foreign to me. But I forgive it in Shenée. Because from her, it is genuinely genuine. 

The result was a meeting invitation to Fazzi, Ellie, Shenée and Craig to come over this weekend and do all the things I had promised. But Fazzi couldn't make it because of her children and Ellie dropped out for the weirdest reason I'd heard in a while:

"Singing makes me nervous. Seriously. I watch people singing in The Voice or The X-Factor and I break into a sweat."

It's a thing. Look, I don't judge.

So tonight it was just Shenée and Craig who are just the most adorable couple you have ever met. They've been together six years and are still all over each other. Check that. Shenée is all over Craig. 

He bore it with feigned resignation. She literally climbed all over him. "Come ON Craigy... give me a kiss... "

He resisted.

"Symon will give me one," she insisted.

"Good heavens!" I said, becoming as English as possible. 

Shenée is very different with Craig than she is at work and honestly it is a joy to see. She is so very happy. She sloughs off all of the responsibility and frustration and turns into Happy Chicken Lady. 

Craig told me all about the farm they run together with her chickens and a piglet and their horses and she just GLOWS when he talks about it. 

It is her happy place and probably the source of all of our happiness at work too. I don't think Shenée would be Shenée without animals. The love we feel from her at work has its source at the farm. It is chicken-powered.

Still. I was worried about the evening. "Craig doesn't like musicals," Shenée had told me.

"You do KNOW this is literally two and a half hours of just SINGING, right?" I asked her. 

"Oh, he'll watch his phone or something," replied Shenée.

Okay. I had what I needed. I had my excuse. And I effing RAN with it. With Caro away, there were no brakes, no controls and no limits to my Hamil-sanity. I printed POSTERS, I wrote an entire PROGRAMME giving the historic context, the cast, their characters and the story of each song. And I put together a VIP package which included a bowl of sweeties* and a free packet of Hamil-Hankies for the sad songs (see extra).

Plus I made nachos and bought profiteroles. I rigged up the projector and the speakers. I edited together Lin-Manuel's appearance on Drunk History as a prologue. And I merged together sections of The Hamilton Mixtape with footage of theatre curtains wafting, to give them that sense of anticipation and excitement that you get in a theatre, waiting for the performance to start.

Me and the cats had a DRESS EFFING REHEARSAL on Thursday night. Just to make sure it was PERFECT.

"Oh my god!!!!," said Shenée when she saw the curtains projected on the wall.

"They're wafting too. Can you see?" I replied.

"NO. Stop it!" replied Shenée.

Can I say that these two made the most perfect guests? They indulged all of this madness with appreciation and not even a raised eyebrow.

They were full of good humour and graciousness. Craig explained that - due to animals - they didn't often have the time for nights out. And it occurred to me that this is the perfect friendship. I have time. And I love spoiling guests. And I loved having them there.

And - oh hey - did I mention that Shenée is effusive? Let me remind you. 

OMIGOD! I LOOOOVE THIS!!!
THIS IS SOOOOO GOOD!!!!
OMIGOD THANK YOU SOOOOO MUCH!!!!
THIS IS A-MAAAAAY-ZING!!!!

She CLAPPED. She GASPED. She LAUGHED. She LOVED.

The whole thing.

And Craig?

Shenée was full of it. Craig does like musicals. This one anyway. 

So the evening was a lovely success. 

I really want to do it again. I so enjoyed having this pair over. They made me laugh after the show was over by sharing Stories of Shenée. 

It turns out she is very different at home from the organised boss-lady I know at work. "She gets distracted so easily," explained Craig. "She's always losing things or forgetting things."

Wait a minute.

This sounds strangely familiar.

"I think I"M the Shenée in my relationship with Caro!" I said. "Maybe we are related? Maybe it's an Irish thing?"

(Shenée has an Irish surname).

 "And then there was that time she managed to burn RICE," said Craig, warming to his theme. "Because there was a duck."

"There was a duck," explained Shenée. "I had to go and see."

"There's always a duck," retorted Craig.

Shenée is a woman with a head full of animals, it seems. And if it makes her who she is then I'm grateful to the horses, the piglet and to the chickens.

And I'm profoundly grateful that wherever she goes, whatever she does, there is always a duck.

S.

* "Lollies" - I have finally acclimatised to NZ-speak.