Saturday night often finds us fresh from the shower, in our pyjamas, feet up watching a movie or drinking tea and reading. I know right. Crazy, party animals.
But this Saturday night was different - we were going "out".
We had our table booked at the local - well, one of the "locals". I swear there is a pub on every corner of Ballarat. These "locals" would often compete against each other offereing crazy promotions or stunts to get people in - to the point of painting up white horses with black stripes and announcing exotic animals for the whole family to see. (Mind you, that particular stunt dates back to the 1850's)
These days, the crowd enticing stunts vary, but we fell for the "kids eat free on a Saturday" and "karaoke until late"!!! (we have really been wasting our Sat. nights!!!!!)
We were pretty happy with that deal, and Ellie was looking forward to the mother/daughter duet we would perform later that night.
It was fairly early in the night and ours and another family were the only people occupying the many tables.The other family had two little girls and the constant choruses of "Let it Go" revealed the fact that they were also there for the karaoke.
The official competition hadn't actually begun, and Ellie approached the 'karaoke man" asking if she could see his list of songs that were available for her to sing. He apologised to her and explained that anybody under a certain age was unable to enter the competition.
Every little girl in that room erupted in tears.
Ellie had literally changed her outfit four times, and had worked herself into a lather just thinking about the fact that "tonight could be the night that launched her career and eventually made her a household name".
Such a let down.
Under the pressure of girls in tears, the "karaoke man" did the only thing he could do. He gave in and told the girls they could all sing just one song.
"Let it Go" was sung with great enthusiasm, followed by much applause and two bowing young girls. Ellie quietly took her place after choosing a Katy Perry song, looked at me with a "half scared/half excited beyond words" look on her face and proceeded to give quite the stage performance. She was given a standing ovation (by me and Nev) and a loud cheer and clap from the other family.
Ellie glowed all the way home explaining she could now cross that off her bucket list and move on to her next goal.
Harri, who had been very quiet throughout this whole process, and even shed a few tears of his own, later confided in me that he was terrified it would all go wrong and nobody would clap for her. As he went past Ellie, he reached out his hand and said "good job Ellie, you did great up there".
Sigh.
*No record deals have been offered just yet, but Ellie is still waiting hopefully.
No comments:
Post a Comment