Freaky...

As I was saying yesterday, but in a not very eloquent manner (hence the deleted post just in case you were wondering..), I've been working on that thing called work-life balance.  So far, so good.

Last week I actually went out, twice. In this post I'm going to rave on about the second event, because it was last night and because it was awesome! 

Source

As I tend to just hibernate in winter, I had no idea that the Christchurch Arts Festival is in full schwing. Even Quaky Town must allow artists their art. Last night I headed off with Mamasana and The Programmer to see He Reo Aroha, the description of which I will swipe from the website:


A wickedly funny tale of small town love & big time dreams with an irresistible mix of music, drama & comedy. 

It's a very kiwi tale about Kaia, a singer who faces that eternal dilemma: stardom or love?? and Pascoe, a fisherman that developed a serious girl problem. His girl went off to find stardom and forgot to text or email or anything (how frustrating!). It messed with his mind, but he managed to get on with life and make a go of it. He got a boat, took on his cuzzy Rangi as deckhand and then just as it's all coming together for him, what happens?  Yes, you guessed it. Kaia gets a visit from a dead nun and starts pining for home. 

Because.. everyone comes home eventually. :D

There are maybe six characters in the whole play and they are all brought to life by two actors, in this case Kali Kopae, who was a finalist on NZ idol, and Tola Newbery. Tola is my cousin, which is appropriate to the play as nearly every character was related by cuzzy-dom. I think Tola was taking the role of Pascoe in Christchurch only. That's Kali and Tola in the pic above.  

Although the music was fantastic and the acting was by turns hilarious and moving, the most exciting part of last night's show was the addition of special effects courtesy of Mother Earth. Apparently the ticket price included a complimentary adrenaline rush.  Just as Pascoe and Rangi are wrestling with their imaginary boat in rough seas and turfing excess flounder off the side, the earth gave an obliging rumble and the theatre shook with a large aftershock. Even without rehearsal, the timing was perfect. The actors paused for a second, glanced up at the swaying lights and then launched into the next scripted line, which was 'that was freaky!' 

I swear, that was the actual line. I checked with Tola later and he tells me they didn't change a thing. However, he is an actor and you just can't tell when they are lying.

After the show we kidnapped the star and went to The Coffeehouse for beers, wines and various foodie bits then wandered around Hagley Park, which is festooned with happiness-inducing coloured lights for the festival. My toes were turning to lumps of ice and my lips were so numb I couldn't make words by the time we got back to car, but I didn't care. It was all fantastico. 

Tomorrow I'll try to post about the film festival movie Netherwood, which is the quirkiest slice of kiwiana I've seen for a while. I've also got a massage booked for the morning, which I'm hoping will set the tone for next week... relaxed and blissed out. 

In the meantime, for those of you that read this blog because it's about health, here is an update on my experiments with molasses:

I think I can make this work, but they were still a bit 'intense'. I'll post the recipe once I've figured out how to tone them down a bit.  Still, The Programmer ate two, so that indicates they do not taste like they dropped off the weird food tree in weird food-ville.

Lastly, tonight I set my oven on fire, somehow.  The original blaze was far more impressive and I was seriously tempted to dive for my camera. However, it would have been hard to explain that my house burned down while I was fiddling with my shutter speed (flames are bright, dammit) so I smothered the photo op with a fire-proof oven mitt. I'm sorry, I'll never make a photojournalist.