The ABBA Show is in town and it's ABBAsolutely fABBAulous

The ABBA Show - CC Emperor's

Relive the ABBA Concert experience

That's exactly what we did! The ABBA Show is a real treat. It's on at Emperor's Palace until 10 February.  Who does not know the music of ABBA? We all grew up with it. Even Gen Xrs know their music. Hubby and I had a great date night on Friday. I made sure I had all the ABBA on our sound systems before we did the drive to the South, and it was more than worth it.

Win tickets to the Mozart Festival - for the whole family

#JIMF2018

The upcoming Johannesburg International Mozart Festival, in it's 10th year, is a musical smorgasbord for the whole family. It will be running from 26 January until 4 February. The Mozart Festival combines classical music concerts of the highest international standards with vital education initiatives and community engagement projects.

There is no better way to introduce our kids to classical music, than this opportunity. We like the fact that some of the events are for free, and some asking only for a donation.  Two readers of this blog can also win family tickets (4 members each) to attend the family concert on 4 February.

Best night at the Phil Collins Tribute Show

We had such a great evening on Friday at the Phil Collins Tribute Show at Emperors Palace! One More Night is a brand new tribute show that features both the story, and the music of legend Phil Collins.

Vocalist and drummer Victor James Chapman does a great job capturing the music and the icon that is Phil Collins! Backed by a 10-piece band, they all contribute to a great evening with favourite hits such as Another Day in Paradise, Sussudio, Groovy Kind Of Love and You’ll Be In My Heart.

Phil Collins is part of our history! (Maybe just mine, but judging by the crowd on Friday night, I am not the only one!) The eighties was my high school and university years! It was part of growing up and becoming a person!

The two hours went by in a flash! It is definitely worth the drive to the East Rand!

On stage at the Theatre of Marcellus for three weeks from 17 November to 4 December. Great for a date night and great for the whole family as well!

The show is performed at 20h00 from Thursdays to Saturdays, with 15h00 matinee shows on Saturdays and Sundays.
Tickets are priced from R150 per person (regret no children under the age of 4).  Bookings can be made through the Emperors Palace Box Office on 011 928 1297/1213 or by visiting www.emperorspalace.com.  Tickets are now open at Computicket online 

Disclaimer: We got 2 tickets for Friday"s VIP night!

Pic Nic in New Town

Pic Nic at Workshop New Town 

We had such a great time doing an urban Picnic at The Workshop in Newtown on Saturday!
We are always searching for something different to do on a weekend, and this is is definitely ticking all the boxes!

The whole family are able to sit on grass, in-between train tracks, beneath shades and having lunch from The Potato Shed or Town at The Workshop. With live music for the whole afternoon!

There's jumping castles, swings and a colouring station for the children.

And there's craft beer!

We will be back!
It's on every Saturday from 11-4pm.

(There's safe underground parking at Newtown Junction)


Disclaimer: I received an email about the launch on Saturday, but we paid for ourselves!
                   We really had a great time!

Wordless Wednesday #294 - First composition for Flute

Mamma Mia! - Great show

 I was lucky enough to win two tickets to the opening night of Mamma Mia! at Montecasino on Tuesday. It is a bit difficult in the middle of the week to attend shows, especially when it is two and half hours... (we only got to bed after midnight). But it was extremely enjoyable!

The international cast is very professional. They have been to 77 cities in 36 countries and have been seen by over 4.5 million people.

The highlight was the three "older" ladies in the roles of the mother and friends of hers!  Also of course 22 of ABBA's songs. The audience really loved singing along, especially when they performed some of the songs again at the encore at the end! The ladies in the audience also got a lot of eye-candy from the male dancers/singers in the show! An all-round feel good entertainment!

We were sitting in the middle, but had no problem with the view or sound. There was a short break in the beginning, when they announced a technical glitch, but it was quickly sorted. I wish I could have taken photos during the show, because the lighting and characters are very colourful!

The obligatory selfie, me with a red nose because of a cold

Radio 2000, M-Net and Fairlady presented the show here in South Africa. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Fairlady celebrated it's 50th birthday. Every second seat had a Fairlady magazine.

Fairlady has been one of my choice magazines since I was a young girl. My mother used to buy one every week. Then I bought them when I went to university. We had a standing movie day on a Wednesday where we went to Johannesburg to watch a movie, but also to buy our magazines to read them in the afternoons... (*sigh* - those were the days!) 

I still buy a Fairlady when I have something left on the budget (or Not!...).

I highly recommend Mamma Mia!
I don't even like musicals, but with the music and the great performances it makes it worth seeing!

Currently...

I found this on Cat's blog: Juggling Act of Life

Listening to: Hozier - Take me to the Church
And I love this ballet version




Reading: Library Advocacy Unshushed MOOC, but struggling to keep up...

Thinking about: My wonderful Hubby who made Valentine's special with a date and movie, and he even bought flowers for the girls!

Looking forward to: Our trip to Texas in the middle of the year. Very scary, but also very exciting!

Anticipating: A very good and busy year! We are doing it!

Planning: The overseas trip (well, we should be starting...!)

Wearing: Cool summer clothes. It is the best time of the year!

Drinking: Coffee. A bit too much!

Eating: A bit more healthy. I am kilojoule counting with My Fitness App on my iPhone 6. Loving it! It seems it is starting to work as well!

Thankful: For being invited to the first International iPad Summit in South Africa the previous two days. My head still spins with all the possibilities. I am also feeling a bit more optimistic about South Africa's educational future with all the bright teachers that attended the conference!

Wishing and praying: Always my children. But it seems they are sorted this year. Little Miss has settled in nicely at school, and waves us goodbye with smiles in the morning. The Student is also enjoying her business classes this year!

Not looking forward to: My birthday! (Getting too near a big number... AAArgh!)

Dreaming about: New possibilities! In my career, mostly!


What's happening currently with you?

Peace Concert - what a surprise!

When do you still get a concert with great names for free? If it sounds too good to be true...?

Well, it wasn't! It was amazing!

The Peace Concert stems from an independent organization Peace Starts that promotes International Day of Peace on 21 September. The tickets are for free. All you need to do is sign up for it. (Watch out for this next year!) It is really worth it!

It was held at the beautiful Heia Safari, and we were welcomed by buck and giraffe driving into the ranch. (We will definitely be coming back here!)

The music was superb, with  Josie Field, WonderBOOM, Prime Circle and Andra being some of my favourites!

The morning started off being chilly, but we could not do without an umbrella. Hubby drove back to fetch ours.

We explored a little near the dam...

It was a lovely summer day! Hot! 

A selfie while hiding beneath a blanket waiting for the umbrellas
#PoseforPeace

Now Little Missy can't complain we don't take her to concerts!
She had a great time listening to the music picking up rocks!

Holi Festival of Colours - worth putting it on your bucket list!

It was fun! It was full of colours! It was loud!
It was MUSIC!

I am glad we had the opportunity to attend the a Holi Festival of Colours in Joburg. I had won it over on Jenty's blog. The Student booked some early bird tickets, and we crashed their party! No!

We got some photos evidence of being splashed in colours and we ate and we drank and laughed at all the outfits and antics! And did some jigging!
And threw the colours!

The first colours at 2 pm

Colours at 3 pm

The evidence

Photo bombed 

Hubby and me also got a chance for an extra date night when we left the party for a quiet dinner and drinks! 

It was a lovely experience altogether!

(And after washing all those whites yesterday, we managed to salvage most of our white clothes for summer! Win-win!)

Holi smokes! We are going to the Holi Festival of colours!

Does it say something about me that I am very excited about it?

The Holi Festival of Colours Joburg is on the 23rd of August.

I won the tickets over at Jenty's blog.

I saw yesterday on Facebook that the general age group falls between late teens and young adults!

Ouch! We are going to skew the numbers!


Never growing old! Never!


A question to somebody who have been there: I have hard contact lenses. Can I keep it in, or would it be better to go with my glasses? Or should I wear a diving mask?

Santana - an unexpected weekend

FNB Stadium

We got the Santana tickets on Friday from a colleague who could not go any more! 

As I was eyeing the concert since it was announced (but did not have the budget), and trying to win some tickets, we were more than excited!

Luckily The Student was home for the weekend and she could baby-sit Little Missy. They were both not impressed. The Student and Little Missy wanted to go as well! But I don't think Little Missy would have lasted for the whole evening...

It was rainy and it was cold! 

But it was more than worth it in the end!

Johnny Clegg took up the stage before Santana, and it was my first time that I saw him life and in action! We have been listening to him since we were at school, and he is still rocking it! He also got two acts with Carlos Santana in his show. Amazing!

Carlos Santana performed most of his well-known songs with two male singers on stage, accompanied by great musicians! Stunning! Stunning!

Our view from the stadium

Yes, we have evidence!

That was an unexpected treat for a rainy weekend! 

How was your weekend?

On the red carpet

Little Missy has been asking us to also go to a musical event. She gets very upset when she sees that we have been to a show and that she was not there.

I took her along to an Afrikaans music show on Friday. I thought that she would enjoy it, especially since she is always complaining that "hulle praat nie my taal nie" (they do not speak my language). We are being asked to translate the English songs playing on the radio.

She loved it! But sitting quietly for one and half hours is not a strong point yet!
It was an exercise in patience and "shhh..." on my side. Especially when she asked whether the artist is a boy or a girl. Very loud!

She was also very interested in the artist in the wheelchair, and why are his legs not working?

I was thankful for a packet of sweets and chewing gum in my bag. Next time I will remember to bring water  along as well. I had to distract her for longer than an hour because she was thirsty! (She had a drink just before the show).

I also had to dislodge chewing gum from her fingers, and mine, when she was finished with it. I ended up chewing the gum, and dislodged another piece of a tooth which needs to be fixed now!

I breathed a huge sign of relief when the show ended!

We will be going to more shows! But next time we will be sitting in the corner, near the isles, and not in the middle of the theatre!

A Saturday night at Chicago's Piano Bar

                                   

We were on our way to get a pizza, when I thought about this place! We had been driving past it for a couple of months!

The Chicago's Piano Bar is on Beyers' Naude Drive, and it turned out to be a huge surprise.

"Walk into the 1920's with a cigar and drink in hand, stop by a card table and try your beginners luck, dress up, dress down and get ready for Jozi's biggest jol! 
Ladies: flapper dresses - sparkly outfits - feather headbands= free champagne!Men: moustaches - bowler hats - suspenders bow ties= free champagne!"

Little Missy always wants to watch musicians, especially since she has seen us going to "functions" (what we call it) which involves musicians. She has been nagging me that she wants to go with us.

We were there at six on Saturday night, when it still looked quiet, with only a few customers around. But by eight the place was buzzing!                                

                                          

She looked like this until she got her food! 

We had the best seafood, and Missy did a few steps under the disco lights!

We had to go at eight! But this seems to be a great place to chill, to listen to music and to meet your friends!

I definitely think we will be back, even especially with Little Missy in tow! 

Wordless Wednesday #190 - Date night at Crowne Plaza Rosebank with #BlindTigerSessions and Arno Carstens

An app that makes us smile - Petting Zoo by Christoph Niemann

Petting Zoo by Christoph Niemann
(Screen print)

We have been playing now for over a week with these 21 imaginative creatures of Petting Zoo from author and illustrator Christoph Niemann.

I can't remember where I saw the link, but it mentioned specifically that it is now also available in the South African iTunes store. There is a fee of R15 involved, which is totally worth it!

It is a combination of quirky animals mixed with sound effects and music.

As soon as I think we have found all the ways the animals can move or react, Little Missy makes a new discovery.

You can also spend hours with the music incorporated in some of the animations. The crocodile loses his teeth to the most beautiful sounds, and the octopus can be played like a harp.

It is fun, and I am sure it will keep a little one as occupied as an eighty year old!
Very smart!

https://itunes.apple.com/za/app/petting-zoo-by-christoph-niemann/id618703130?mt=8

A screen print from the app on iTunes

Movie clip Monday #29 - 4 year old dancing to jazz music

The first Movie Clip Monday of 2013. She caught me taking the movie, and said "enough" at the end.
 (I have to sneak in a photo or movie clip nowadays...)

We had a great weekend, which started with a picnic and jazz evening on Friday night.

After I had spend an hour stuck in a lift on Friday afternoon, the rest of the weekend was pure joy!
I did not think I would become claustrophobic, but standing in the pitch-dark, and not knowing what is happening is quite frightening.

We had a power outage at work, and it's not fun when a lift door finally opens to only reveal a wall...
Not knowing on what floor you are coming from the tenth floor...

I have learnt that it helps tremendously if you know in  which lift you are climbing before you enter.
(Both of us in the lift did not know in which one we were.)

But it definitely helped that I had my cellphone with me. We could both phone and text our offices, and made sure that security and maintenance knew about us.

Because we only got a very harsh reply (maybe we pressed it too much?) each time we pressed the elevator button: "There's a power failure! Please be patient!"

---------------------------

Hope you had a great weekend?

The Script - the Teen is smitten

The Script in Joburg (twitpic)

The Teen wrote a small review of  attending The Script performance at the Coca-Cola Dome in Johannesburg.

An Irish group of friends loved playing their instruments and singing. Never knowing they would become very famous, they started small and went BIG TIME!!

Yep, I’m talking about The Script!

My friends and I had the privilege to go and watch them on the 24th of June, at the Coca-Cola Dome!

It was an awesome evening! First we had a local band perform, The Arrows. They got the crowd hyped up and excited!

Then The Script came to the stage! Ah, the crowds went wild, because they sang their songs that made #1hits on radio stations all other the country!

Danny, the lead singer, walked off the stage into the crowd. The girls went wild, because he started taking phones and cameras and taking pictures of himself with it!

He gave me a kiss on the cheek and gave me his guitar pick!

Gorgeous man!
 
Apparently, we were their biggest crowd to date, with a huge number of 18 300 people! Johannesburg was also the coldest airport they have landed in, but it’s only because we aren’t geared for this cold weather!

The band was so happy and impressed that we knew their songs and could sing with them! They have songs like: For the first time, Nothing, The man who can’t be moved, etc.

It was an amazing evening and I would love to go and see a show of them again!

Cellphone photos by the Teen