The Who – What an awesome show!

The evening began at a restaurant nearby the venue where Derek, my English footballer friend, and I met up with fellow blogger Anne-Marie and her new hubby Austin.

During the 5 minute walk from the restaurant to the ACC it began to snow lightly. Upon arrival, we took our respective seats in different sections of the 100 level. Wow! What seats we had too! While we weren’t close – we were smack in front of stage centre and had a perfect view of the boys with all their sophisticated lighting and video screens … but I’m getting ahead of myself.

When we first entered the venue (a huge concrete and metal “fish bowl” usually used for hockey and backetball), Chrissie Hynde with low key lighting and stage effects had just begun rocking. What an incredible surprise bonus --- to see one of the original female rockers before one of the original British Invasion bands. I was in pure heaven! Being the singer that I am was mouthing all the words to the songs she was singing – especially Ohio and Chain Gang (a personal favourite).

After a short break while smelling “nostalgic sweet smoke" wafting above the crowd and admiring all the "hunky" roadies on stage, the lights went down and Roger, Pete and the boys took stage and opened with “Can’t Explain”. (bonus, a kid is in front of me and when he stands, I can see perfectly over his head while sitting down).

Wow! Here I am at a Who concert! My mind was whirling back in time to those teenage parties listening to The Who while taking my first sips of various potent potables and first puffs of that “now nostalgic smelling smoke”. I was also drifting to memories of a 1970s Who concert and my “sweet sixteen” birthday party where we listened to the entire “Who By Numbers” album!

But, now almost 30 years later, as a mid-lifer, I was in an arena listening to the Who live once again along with thousands of other mid-lifers probably feeling exactly like I did. Sorry Pete, I don’t want to die before I get old – however I felt like I had died and gone to heaven – thank you Pete and Roger!

The concert had a good mix of old and new music and they did a masterful job at controlling the energy of the crowd – well except after they played Baba O’Reilly when we the crowd went so wild that Pete had to ask us to sit down so they could get on with the show. (My favourites were the show opener, Baba O’Reilly, My Generation … oh I can’t really name them all because there were so many !!!)

The chemistry between Pete, Roger and the band were great. Pete also talked about the chemistry he has had with the city of Toronto and the affection for her.

They played for just over two hours!!

After the show, we regrouped with Anne-Marie and Austin and then departed ways with Derek who had to shlepp to the Eastern part of the city. A and A-M drove me home and had a quick drink (of juice because it was a week night) at my place while we relived the concert and looked at pictures from Austin’s camera.

Today, I’m very tired because I went to bed at 1:30 and had a very difficult time sleeping last night. Actually, I was so keyed up I found it pretty difficult to sleep at all. And while I left some extra time in the morning to sleep in, my cats had other ideas and were purring in my ears at 6:00 !! Oh well …. It was worth it .... worth every expensive little penny.

I shall remember this for a long time.

To bring in the month and the official start of my holiday season I hosted my first dinner party Last night. I live in a small place so only had three friends over, but it was fun.

I had the fireplace going, lit the place with candles, had my usual Christmas decorations up (including about 20 birds, which began a string of jokes mostly at my expense), and had Christmas music piping in the background, including a CD that I made with a choir back in 1992)

I began the meal with a cream of broccoli soup. (I thought I had made too little, but it was perfect for four).

I then brought out the main course, which included pork tenderloin stuffed with apples, pancetta, pecans and a few raisons, carrots glazed with my own maple butter, green beans garnished with toasted almonds/butter and light/fluffy mashed potatoes. I also made red wine gravy for the pork.

For dessert, I let our local baker help me out by providing a light and fluffy dark chocolate mousse cake.

I’m a real ‘fine pottery’ nut and last week went to a huge craft show, entitled One of a Kind, [for Koos' benefit - the name of the location] and bought a number of Christmas gifts for others (not yours Dale) and myself - including wine goblets and casserole dishes. Last night I was able to showcase my new pieces with the meal (yeah).

At this time of the season I really get an entertaining bug and love having friends over for fun and a bite to eat. Sometimes dining at home can be way more fun than having a meal out. [sigh] Think this is one of the things I miss about having a man in my life, because I love to make fancy meals. Guess this year it’ll be friends who benefit from this crazy passion.

Hope you all have a great December of 2006!

More Photos! ! !

Anne Marie, A married woman

I just came home after attending the wonderful wedding of Anne Marie and her new husband Austin. What an honour it was to attend and represent the blogging world.

The ceremony was short, quaint and perfect. The gentleman officiating the ceremony did it with gusto and flair perfect to the tastes of the married couple. There were several chuckles thru the ceremony however the words that were spoken by the officiator, thru the two readings and the personal vows of Anne-Marie and Austin were sincere, thought provoking and very poignant - beautiful actually.

News has it that Austin was extremely nervous before the ceremony while Anne-Marie was as relaxed, cheerful and normal as could be.

I didn't have a clear view to take good shots, but I'm posting what I have, after making some very quick and not so perfect photoshop adjustments (to eliminate people's shoulders or heads!)

Currently, Anne-Marie is still at the beautiful historic Old Mill with her new husband and family. By now she's probably feeling like a movie star with all the photographs she's having done.

In a couple of hours I will be rejoining her, along with all the other guests for a night of food, drinks and celebration.

Feel free to leave your comments here for Anne-Marie. When I see her again, I'll be telling her that I've posted this blog so I'm sure she'll be checking in sometime soon to see what type of post I've done and comments that have been received.

Being thankful

Friends are something really special. As people living south to me celebrate thanksgiving, I am thankful for the friendships that I have. I don't have a husband and/or children. So friends in my life are extra important. And, to have caring and loving friends like these, makes me feel incredibly blessed and thankful.

Highlight of my week-end, having nothing to do with the activities that were done.

On the weekend, I traveled to a tiny horse breeding farm south of Ottawa to spend the week-end with a bunch of girlfriends. While I’m relatively new to this group, it has been meeting approximately every two months for about six years.

The group began after one of the girl’s husbands suffered a terrible tragedy due to her husband committing suicide. At that time, the seven founding members of this “group” took turns to look after her. They realized after a while that the 24-hour support would have to stop – but they didn’t want to completely stop giving her support. These women, whom are mothers, grandmothers and career women with busy lives, didn’t want to get caught up in their own lives and lose touch with Linda so they formalized this group.

Every two months a pot-luck dinner is hosted by one of the women and the gang all stay overnight so they don’t have to worry about driving home. Each dinner has a theme and fun is had.

I feel very fortunate to be best friends with two of the original seven members and am honoured to be part of their extended “sisterhood”. These get-togethers have nothing to do with gossip or “hen pecking” but have everything to do with love and caring for others in days of happiness and sadness. Linda, I’m happy to say is with a new man and this group has supported her every step of the way just as everyone in the group has supported each other.

I have had more than my share of tragedy in my life, but am thankful for what I have.

Have a good Week-end

I'm off with friends for an artistic adventure!

Photography, pottery, art on canvas

then
off to the spa for.....

body wraps, facials and back massages !!

I'm leading the photography and others are leading the other arts - quelle fun!

What will they think of next?

Today at work I was doing a media audit of stories on plastic bags and came across this story out of Japan. What do you think about this new invention?

JAPANESE women looking for a place to hold their melons while shopping may soon have an alternative - their bra.

In a bid to discourage the shopaholics from using plastic bags, a lingerie maker has unveiled a bra with cup padding that unfolds to become a handheld shopping bag.

The bra-turned-bag is made of recycled polyester fibre with straps that can be tied onto the bag as ribbons.

Japanese shops hand out some 30billion plastic bags a year but almost a third are thrown away without being reused.

A spokesman for Triumph said: "In this context, what deserves the most attention is the significance of each and every customer understanding the importance of not using plastic bags."

The company has sought a patent for the eco-bra, although there are no plans yet to put it on general sale.