Stage musicals I've been to

Childhood

• South Pacific

University years

• District 6
• Madam Butterfly

Old Mutual years

• River Dance
• The Buddy Holly Story

London (1997)

• Phantom of The Opera
• Jesus Christ Superstar
• Miss Saigon

London (2000 - 2005)

• Chicago
• Les Miserables
• Starlight Express
• The Mikado
• Mama Mia
• Joseph
• The Lion King (with Niki)

Australia

• Pricilla Queen of the Desert (with Ally & Kerri)
• Jersey Boys (with Lizzy)
• Chorus Line  (with Dani)
• Anything Goes (with Sue)
• Evita (with Christina)

Cape Town visits

• Annie

"Anything Goes" at The Opera House

Beautiful birthday presents from Sue: a book and a show.

I met Sue at her house where she gave me an unexpected birthday present.  It was a a copy of Wild Life by Brad Wilson, a book of animal portraits that I was so entranced with at the bookstore that I was in tears. Sue was with me at the time.  Being the amazing friend she is, she went back and got it for me.  I was touched beyond words by her gift.  It's now my most prized book.

We then went together to Circular Quay on the ferry and had a nice meal overlooking The Harbour Bridge.

Then to The Show which was great fun with lots of fantastic songs.  We had great seats, overlooking The Stage.  Cole Porter sure was a musical genius.

Such  great evening I will always remember, a big thanks to Sue.

Wild Life by Brad Wlison

Just some of the wonderful photos.  Eyes are the windows to the soul.  Animals have souls just as rich and important as our own.  If there is a spiritual reason why we exist, then it encompasses animals just as much as us.

Mamma Mia!

This musical has been on our life lists for over a year. And it didn't disappoint. The star of the show, apart from the fabulous music of course, must surely be the script writer. Very clever how she wove such a fun and entertaining story line around the songs. By the end of the show, we were on our feet, joining in the encores with unabashedly loud voices. That's Abba for you - absolutely irresistable. In my experience, only the coolest movies and shows get to use Abba as a sound track. Priscilla and the Desert. Muriel's Wedding. Now Mamma Mia. Colleen and Steve enjoyed the show as much as we did.

Picadilly Circus at dusk

It was great to meet up with Colleen and Steve again in London. They're both doing well - just returned from two weeks in Egypt which they loved.

A great day out in London

London Bridge

We decided to spend Saturday doing touristy things in London. One of Ally´s life goals was to walk across London Bridge so that was the first thing we did. Caught the tube to Tower Bridge and it was a short stroll from there. It was a gorgeous day; close to 30 degrees.

Another View

Another view of London bridge. I borrowed our camera from work (a £900 gadget with all the trimmings) so it was nice to have some optical power. The zoom on my little camera is a little limited - but then it is a tenth of the size!

Big Ben

No tourist trip through London would be complete without a photo of Big Ben so here it is - snapped from the top of our double decker bus as we whirled past (we used one of those hop on - hop off tourist buses to get around.)

Hamleys

Ah, aint the little one adorable! The little doggie is also quite cute... As you can see, next stop was Hamley's in Regent's Street. 6 floors of wonderful toys, enough to bring out the child in anybody.

The Royal Coach

We visited the Royal Mews where they keep all the horses and coaches for use in the Royal processions. The highlight was this Golden Coach immortalised in such grand processions as the Queen's inauguration and the 50th Jubilee. It was very impressive.

The coach is so heavy it can only be pulled at a walk by eight horses. The 24-foot long, four-ton coach, was built in 1760 for the then-astronomical sum of £7,562. Despite the expense, it's apparently not very comfortable if this BBC article is anything to go by.

Dinner with Sally at Belgo´s

After our sight-seeing, we met up for dinner with Sally in Covent Gardens. I haven't seen dear Sally in a while so it was great to catch up. She's working at the moment at Kew Grill as their "dessert specialist" (chocolate and almond spring roll is her most recent creation - mmmmm!) having completed a cooking course in Ireland.

Lobster!

Belgo's specialises in lobster, along with it's other Belgian delicacies like muscles and waffles. I haven't had lobster in years so succumbed to te temptation. Delicious and fun digging all the flesh out of the legs and claws with the special tool they give you.

Go, go Joseph!

After dinner, Ally and I went to watch "Joseph and his Technicoloured Dream Coat" at the New London Theatre in Covent Garden. Watching Joseph has been a life goal of Ally ever since she listened to the record as a little girl. I'd already seen the musical a couple of times but was delighted to see it again as it is one of my favourites; especially since I got to play the part of Pharoah in a school play. The show was fantastic and we both loved it. Joseph was played by H from the band, "Steps" who Ally thought was deliciously cute...

Visiting Sanjay

After Joseph, we went to visit Sanjay - a good friend who I met hiking in the Himalayas in Nepal back in 2001. He's a wonderful guy who always makes me laugh. Sanjay is a doctor specialising in Pediatrics at a local hospital. It was great to see him as always.