Katie Holland: If life were like a musical ...

What if life was like a musical?

DOES anyone else sometimes imagine life turning into a musical around them?

Walking down the cereal aisle at Countdown this week I was happily singing and bopping away to a Shania Twain song on the instore speakers, when I made eye contact with a tough looking young dude doing the same thing.

It was a weirdly joyful moment. Someone shared my penchant for singing and bopping as they shopped. The best thing was, he didn't seem embarrassed to have been caught and I certainly wasn't.

I had a sudden image of all the shoppers and checkout staff suddenly rocking out to a synchronised dance around us, while he and I shimmied country style down the aisle (me wearing a red and white checked shirt and my shopping basket under my arm, him in a cowboy hat and piece of straw in his mouth).

I had a big grin on my face all the way around, as I hopefully eyed up my fellow shoppers. They didn't seem up for it, sadly.

Life would just be so much more fun if you lived in the middle of a musical don't you think? It would sure liven up an otherwise boring day of errands.

The men and women at the recycling centre would be cheerily tossing and clinking wine bottles in time as they sang, folks at the library would be singing in a cheeky whisper, until a saucy librarian in glasses popped up with a theatrical but kindly "sssssshhhh".

As you stood in the queue at the post office, gradually, one by one the people in the line would start tapping their foot, then clicking their fingers, before peeling off one to the left, one to the right to perform a fantastic dance routine.

A walk down Tutanekai St could be a whole musical number in itself. The waiters on Eat Streat would be jinking between tables, spinning their trays and leaping legs akimbo on to diners' tables as we sing our orders to them.

As we passed Pukaki St the lawyers and accountants would be striding three abreast in their suits, swinging their briefcases, before one steps forward to sing an authoritative solo. Past the courthouse - cue a West Side Story-style scene.

Some may want the City Focus removed, but then where would the big dance scenes be held in our imaginary CBD musicals? Those loitering youth would be breakdancing, as Michael Jackson's Bad plays from speakers in the sky. The hairdressers would stream outside singing into their hairbrushes, while the tourists sitting outside Starbucks would abandon their coffees to join in.

As a grand finale we'd run through the fountains outside Central Mall getting wet, but without a care in the world. We'd hold hands and bow as the imaginary crowds cheered.

Such fun.

Hold on, no one else ever imagines they're in a musical? Really?

Nah, neither do I obviously, that would just be weird.