Woke up with a massive hangover this morning. Been a while since I've hit it hard on a weeknight.
Work had it's inaugural anniversary function, despite being a company that has being trading for almost 200 years. The hoopla in the workplace was building up as the date crept up, but I didn't expect it to be such a great celebration.
The Thursday started with 450 people walking around Albert park as a team for charity, then taking a choreographed aerial group shot of a much used company image.
After a morning tea of Krispy Cremes, I had to rush to the bus for rehersals in the mystery location, which was a tightly kept secret. As we drove towards city and parked at Crown, I was singing with glee. The event was staged at the paladium at Crown, and the company had set us up with rooms in the Crown Promenade. I had a king sized bed to myself in a SWEET room!
The event kicked off with a great number by a breakdance/acrobatic crew (which I happened to train with at one stage). The flips, dance moves and handstand moves created a huge energy in the room. It was the perfect start to the function with the crowd warmed up.
Next on stage was a comedy/light entertainment piece which ended up with a show of refined skill. It turned out to be the famous hand shadow man Raymond Crowe, doing his thing to Louis Armstrong's What a Wonderful World. Amazing stuff live.
The formalities then proceed over the next 4 hours, with the directors and leadership team preaching the word to the masses. I was impressed by the delivery and speaking ability of them all. In between the air was well looked after by the professional MC's Zara and Troy. Being a one-time MC for my sister's wedding, really gave me a true appreciation of what these guys do. As I was going to be on stage for this event, I was lucky enough to sit in on the rehearsals and observe how these pros conduct a run through. I wish I knew this before the wedding!! At my beautiful sister's wedding, my brother and I had to, half an hour before kickoff, scrap a lot of our two man bounce-it-off-each-other material into a mostly-one-man-intro, as the set up meant one person had to be in the back cuing the music. Also, we had very little rehersal on site, literally running through the material for about 5 minutes when the guests were arriving.
When I had a chat with the hired function MCs and organisers during the day and later that night, it was apparent they have a really rewarding job. But it is also stressful and you don't get much sleep! They had 1.5 hours sleep the night before - very similar to what my brother and I had pre-sister's wedding.
Back in the Paladium, I was starting to get tired and restless in my chair as the event ticked over 3.5 hours without a break. I was scheduled in as the second last act of the day so it seemed like the day was dragging out much longer. I was initially quite nervous about getting up in front of 450 people, I had constantly being thinking of what I should say, but the time lag literally bored the anxiety out of me!
It was exciting to get up - the stage was quite long, so I was introduced and had to pretty much do a cat walk to get to the centre of the stage (one of my mates "the Instigator", took his suit jacket off, draped it over his shoulder and did a suave catwalk - looked awesome!). The MC asked me a couple of questions and I got the crowd laughing a few times which was good. One of the questions was asking me about my role, and I answered the question, finishing it off with "I'm living the dream" which people were quoting me the whole night. It was good fun.
The show then wrapped up with a musical piece. I walked off stage and passed a couple of guitarists. As I was walking back to my seat, I was thinking "who are they?... are they the guys who supported The Who.... Dalllas Crane???? Or are they Eskimo Joe. Maroon 5?". The musicans come on stage, and I still have no clue who it is. On comes the music. Still don't recognise who it is. Then out comes Shannon Noll! haha. Nice!
The crowd was pretty timid for the first song, but then one girl really got into it, stood up, started dancing and clapped which made Shannon laugh. The HR director also got out of her seat and started dancing and clapping, which made the other directors try and get everyone into it. Soon enough the room was relaxing and getting into it, with a small crowd gathering at the front of stage.
The Science and Tech director tried to get me get me out of my seat, and I agreed if he did too. I ended up pulling my whole row to join me, and when I was in front of the stage I looked back, seeing the S&T director back in his seat. haha.
We were having a great time dancing and letting loose in front of everyone. Because it was so intimate and close up, a mate "the Instigator", dared me to touch Shannon's arse, which I flatly rejected to keep it professional. Being the instigator, he then upped the stakes and offered me $50. No way! But he wouldn't give up. Soon enough he convinced 2 other people to put in, and the kitty was sitting at $150. Not being able to resist a challenge or dare, I reluctantly agreed. I felt the buzz as I headed toward Shannon. My mind was ticking along on how to touch his arse without blantantly shaping my hand into a claw and groping him mid-song.
I took my phone camera out and got up close. I signalled to get him in range, and Shannon came close where I could put my hand around his shoulder and take a 2 man self-directed photo. As he shifted into position while singing, I positioned the camera to take the shot while simultaneously tapping his arse. Shannon started laughing mid song but kept going. I heard my group bursting into laughter. "The Instigator" said he never laughed so hard this year and he pretty much paid up straight away.
But that wasn't the end of it. Both of us ended up getting up on stage with others in a back-up semi-circle and sang the Moving Pictures cover "What about me" with Shannon. With the group swaying and harmonizing with Shannon, and the stage lights beaming, we were having a ball! He even put the mic in front of me a couple of times, and let the crowd have the final "what about meeeeeeee". It was his last song, and as he left the stage I gave him a double handed high 5. Go Shannon!
After settling from the high that was Shannon Noll in a guy from finance room's mini-bar, we got dressed for the dinner and drinks, which turned out to be downstairs of the Regency theatre on Collins st. Very nice venue. The food was gourmet but average tasting, but the drinks were free flowing and people were having a good time. Spoke to a lot of people that night, and it felt like the night ended waaaaaaaay too early. Only got to dance for a little while.
The unofficial after party formed in the casino bar. Scotches were surprisingly cheap. It would have been a solid 3 hour drinking session, but before I knew it, there was only my group and a few others people left. I looked at my watch and it was 4am. Time literally flew. I stumbled to my amazing room and tucked into the minibar on my king sized bed. I went to bed a very happy camper. With all the lows of the work week, this has got to be one of my favourite work memories to date. What aaa boutt meeeee eee
