365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 37 (Saturday 6 February 2010) : Wrinkled LIke a Sharpei Before its First Botox Treatment

Am I mad or just doggedly determined?

That question was ricocheting through my head like a pinball with a case of ADHD as I stood in line for an hour at the Open Air Cinema at Mrs Macquarie's Point (after a lovely drive in a Prius from the Cathedral car park - a Toyota promo trip very much appreciated on a very wet night) in pouring rain, my umbrella trying valiantly to protect, along with the OAC-issued white poncho - don't we look just fabulous?! - as the water started soaking up my jeans centimetre by centimetre.

We were there to see "North by Northwest" and as is our custom got there an hour before the gates opened to make sure we got good seats, and a great table to eat at under an umbrella. It turns out that we needn't have bothered turning up quite so early as the usual long and rambling line of eager cinema-goers was reduced to an uncharacteristically small rump. The people that were there at least were a fun bunch (bar the couple behind us who did not smile once even as the rest of the line joked about how made we were etc), and there was a spirited humour-laden debate about whether we were mad or brave. I think the consensus fell somewhere inbetween!

Thankfully due to some fast footwork by Warren, Ian and Fahmi, we managed to get one of the few tables fully under an umbrella - some were covered by umbrellas partially but as the rain built up on them, there were periodic 'waterfalls' of water of the surface drenching those unlucky to be on the border of umbrella and unprotected floor - and sat there till 8.15 when the screen rose and the badly edited years-old movie-theme medley started up.

We were fortunate that the rain slackened off somewhat during the movie - which by the way was excellent; to my surprise I hadn't seen "North by Northwest" at all - and we got some patches of non-rain during the ongoing downpour. My beautiful guy and I were planning to go and meet some of his friends visiting from Brisbane after the movie, but by the time the screen went dark, it was 11.10 we were sweaty (from the ponchos) with dirty wet lower jeans legs, and hands wrinkled from all that water, and so wisely went home, had  a warm shower and went to sleep in a dry bed!