Saturday 14th December

Woke early but stayed in bed for a few hours.
Finally surfaced around 9am and found Abby cooking up a storm in the kitchen.

She was making crepes and presented me with this.
It was delicious.
Stuffed with strawberries and chocolate 🙂
Perfect start to a Saturday morning.

I found this mug out in Oxford yesterday and instantly knew I had to get it for Bri.
And yes, she laughed immediately – I knew it would appeal 🙂

Louisa rolled up at 10:30am.
She was taking me shopping.
First though she had to show us her birthday present from Roger!!
It’s a 2013 Peugot 308.
Pretty darn cool eh – turning 50 is a good thing 🙂

Hey Roger – it’s my b’day next month – hint, hint 😉

We zipped over to Lincoln Road and sussed out where we plan to have dinner.
They don’t take bookings so we plan to be back early.
Then on to The Colombo to return my dress to Annah Stretton.
They had sent me out a replacement as the one they originally sent was flawed.
We only went there to take it back but an hour plus later we had tried on heaps of gorgeous dresses, been wrapped, accessorized and assisted by Angie and her wonderful girls and came out with some gorgeous dresses and a seriously dented credit card.
Was great fun though 🙂

Starving hungry so we went across the all to Underground and had a yummy lunch and a good chat.
Then we stopped by Industria before hopping back in the wonderful car and driving over to The Palms.
We were at the Ticketek counter getting Louisa a ticket for tonights concert when suddenly there was shouts from just behind us that a man had collapsed.
Louisa threw her bag at me and ran.
He had just slumped to the floor.
It was amazing because Louisa was literally just metros from him and she is the Clinical nursing director at the Bealey Ave 24hour surgery,  plus a guy was right there who was an ambulance paramedic.
We soon had a wheelchair for him and the security folk were getting information from him as to the whereabouts of his car as his wee dog was inside.
They were so lovely, took his car keys, got his dog and looked after him in their office while an ambulance was called.
We were no longer needed so left him in the care of the paramedic and headed back to the car.
Louisa dropped me back at Bri & Nicks.
They had been babysitting 16month old Gerald while  Damaris & David went out for lunch.
They were back and were all sitting chatting outside.
I had a wee rest and then got myself dollied up for our night out.
Louisa arrived back to pick me up just before 5pm.
We drove over to Mosaic by Simos for dinner.
We got ourselves a table outside as it was such a pleasant evening.
Got the food sorted – ordered far too much – it was all most delicious.
We were very glad that we had arrive ed early because there were soon crowds arriving, most of them show goers.
Some left disappointed, others joined the queue which was out the door for a while.

Wayne & Emma finally arrived around 6pm, ordered their dinner and joined us at our table.
We had a very pleasant hour before cruising off down the road and merging in with all the other traffic heading to the CSB Arena.
We met up again inside.
So glad I insisted on being a little earlier as the crowds were already thronging the stalls.
I quickly got a programme and then we went to buy some water.
Wayne learnt how to use my iPhone camera – had to delete quite a few shots but he sorta got the hang of it 😉

We were wondering who we could ask to take a photo of the four of us when out of the masses appeared Croisella.
I had no idea she would be there, but she knew I was so was looking out for me.
I was so thrilled to see her.

So before we headed upstairs to find our seats she took one of us all.

So excited – waiting for the show to begin.
Leonard Cohen 2013 World Tour 🙂

We had all booked separately but our seats were within sight of each other.
Croisella was only just 2 rows in front of me!!
Louisa was not far behind me and Wayne & Emma’s seats were just across in the next block.
But when they went to find them it appeared there had been some mix up with the bookings and they were double booked, so they were taken to some other seats much further away.
They were good seats so all was well.
I was close enough to the stage that I could see well without having to rely on the screen.

Leonard came on stage at 8:10pm and immediately launched into ‘Dance me to the End of Love’.
This is a very poignant and meaningful song for me so I was enraptured from the first note.

The Webb sisters accompanied him along with his 6 piece band and Sharon Robinson.
The girls were amazing.
Such glorious voices.

It was an amazing concert.
So many wonderful songs, great poetry and incredible music.
The only song I had not heard before was ‘Lover Lover Lover’.
Leonard was on stage for way over 3 hours.
He came back for so many encores I lost track.
We thought he had finished when he sang a very rollicking version of ‘Closing Time’.
And a lot of folk began to leave, but he came back on again, and again, and….
Finally he sent us off to ‘Save the Last Dance for Me’.
It was like a massive jamming session.
His musicians were incredible and he gave them limelight and credit.
He improves with age – incredible show.

We all met up outside afterwards.
The others were fair buzzing.
Finally had to leave so said our goodnights and Louisa dropped me back at Bri’s.