M*A*S*H

I don't think there is anyone who doesn't remember this programme.
You either loved it or hated it.
I remember watching it in the late 80's in the US, at that stage you could, if you really wanted to, watch 5 episodes a day, although the 1 shown at 11pm was a repeated the next day at 10.30am, so really only 4 a day.

However, the reason I am having this little walk down memory lane is because sadly Harry Morgan has passed away today.
"Who was he again?" I hear you say.
He had the wonderful pleasure of playing Col. Sherman T Porter.

He was 96 when he died of pneumonia and he had lead a full life.

I looked up M*A*S*H on the computer and found some useless little facts about the show.

• Did you know that all the paintings in Col. Porter's office were actually painted by Harry Morgan.
• Ron Howard, Patrick Swazye and John Ritter all had small parts in an episode at some stage throughout the 11 years of the show running.
• The dog tags worn by Jamie Farr (Max Klinger) were his own actual tags from when he himself served in the U.S. Army in Korea in the 1950s after the Korean War. Alan Alda also served in the U.S Army in Korea.
• The outdoor sets for the show were built in Malibu, California
• The last episode aired on Feb 28, 1983 and was apparently watched by over 125 million viewers.

I am lucky enough to have the complete set of M*A*S*H on DVD at home, and still enjoy sitting down and watching a few episodes.
Now it is even funnier to watch as I am a theatre nurse by trade so interesting to see how they did things in the OR during the show.

I Close My Eyes

Drew back the curtains,
To see for certain,
What I thought I knew,


And I can tell you for certain that I knew the boys would love going to see 'Joseph and His Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat'.
Ben loved every minute of it, especially when Joseph ran up the aisle towards the end slapping high 5's and he managed to be one that got a high 5. He was even more excited after that.

Alex was not 100% sure on the whole thing. Seemed to love the first half but then decided at the interval that in fact it was time to "go home now" and it took a lot of discussing to get him to realise that we were not leaving yet!
However the 2nd half proved to be lots of fun and he was clapping and dancing just like everyone.

Unfortunately some stupid person me taught them the main song and so we have had 2 little people running around the house singing the following....

"A crash of drums,
a flash of light,
my golden coat flew out of sight,
the colours faded into darkness I was left alone..........!
May I return...to the beginning"

That is all they remember for now, but obviously they enjoyed the show enough to remember the song.
The production was awesome, I have seen this show several times over the years and this was a great one. Even Steve was well impressed with the production.

But then this show never dates and can be enjoyed time and time again. Sadly it may be several years before it comes back to Hamilton because it was the local Operatic Society that put on the show and I know they won't be repeating it for at least 10yrs given all the wonderful shows they could put on instead. (They last did Joseph in 1987 and next year they are doing 42nd Street) So maybe a big international company will bring it to Auckland one time and we can have a weekend away watching it up there? Can live and hope.

Thanks

A very big thank you to Grandma (my mum) because without her, Steve and I would not have been able to have just had the weekend away for a belated anniversary present.

We went up to Auckland to see the stage show Mamma Mia.
Now we have seen it before, about 5 years ago, and it was fabulous. So of course as soon as I saw it advertised I decided 'Yep, we are going' and we did.
I managed to rally a few friends and we ended up with 7 of us going to see it.

Because our 1st wedding anniversary was 3 weeks ago then we treated it as our celebration and booked 2 nights in a hotel. So while everyone else drove up on the Saturday for the show, we had gone up on the Friday after work.
We went for a quiet meal on the Friday evening, followed by a leisurely lie in on Saturday morning. We met a friend for coffee on Saturday and did a small amount of shopping. Well Steve suddenly decided he needed some new shoes (he desperately needed them actually) so I wasn't saying no to a little retail therapy!

We spent Saturday afternoon in a bar with the other couple who was up with us and for the rest of the day we had a blast. Laughing and joking with some dear friends and not having to worry about any of our children who were all at home with their respective Grandma's.

The show was good, although sadly not as good as the last time. I think the movie had something to do with that. There were a lot of kids at this showing and I think the show actually went on a little too long for their liking, plus of course the stage show was a little different to the movie. But it was a great night out, so I am not really complaining about it.

After more trips to a bar, a very late night and a long casual breakfast with friends we finally headed home.
To find that Grandma had done all the washing in the house and had it all hanging up and blowing in the sunshine. It was a beautiful sight.

So a very huge thank you to Grandma, I know the boys had a great time, especially when they inform you they had ice cream twice in one day!

Birthday Presents

For Steve's Birthday last year, I know sounds really bad but you have to remember that his birthday is actually on Dec 26, so not that long ago!

Well I got him tickets to see Billy Connolly. Yes the one and only, comedian extraordinar.

I had never seen this guy live before and after a little prying last year, I discovered that Steve had actually seen him on stage before, but I knew that wouldn't matter.

I bought the tickets last November (they sold out within days) and we finally got to see the show last week.

It was a blast, very funny and so on the ball.

He spent most of the night relating to New Zealand and seeing as he has been here many times in the last couple of years, he knew what he was talking about.

A few places had me laughing so much I was crying, but overall a wonderful night out with a lot of laughs.

Hi 5

During the recent school holidays we got to take the boys to the Hi 5 Circus Show.

Ben has been into Hi 5 since he was very little and each year that they come over to New Zealand, we keep on talking about taking them, but have always felt that they are too young to enjoy it.

We finally decided that it would be ok this year, so all 4 of us shuffled off to see the show.

The boys were not as active as some of the kids there, although Ben was clapping all the time, but never left Steve's side. Alex spent most of the show jumping on my lap. Neither of them was interested in going down the front to be closer, both just perfectly happy to stay standing by the seat.

But afterwards we asked Ben if he enjoyed it and we got a positive answer.

When asked if he would like to go again next year? We got a very quick and simple "Yes"

Guess it was a hit and guess he liked it.

Guess we might see them next year if they come this way....

Hi 5 Are Coming to Town

Ben loves Hi 5, the Australian Children's Group.

We must have at least 2/3 of their DVD's and he knows most of the songs.

What I am surprised at is he hasn't picked up on all the adverts on the radio for Hi 5 who just happen to be touring NZ this school holidays!

Yes we have tickets to go on Thursday, and neither of the boys know anything about it.

I think it will be a great time for Ben, not sure how Alex will take to the show as he is not too bothered by them and could quite happily take them or leave them.

Will let you know how it all went later......

Night Away

Yes we have just had a night away from the boys.

We all drove, in the pouring rain, to Auckland on Friday and after leaving the boys with a friend for the night, Steve and I had a night in a hotel and went to see the show with some friends.

We saw Priscilla Queen of the Desert.

It was amazing. The costumes were fabulous and the whole thing had been done so well. The even changed some of the words to add kiwi humour into the script.

It was an enjoyable night out.

A & P Show

We have taken to this country living with no problem at all.
Cambridge is a small town about 15 minutes drive from us. Very famous within New Zealand for being the horse capital and where all well known horse breeders live and train.
So you can imagine that if they hold an A & P Show it would be good.
Well it was small and cosy and we spent several great hours there.
The boys got to ride on tractors, or at least sit on them whilst I took their pictures.
We got to see lots of demonstrations from animals and lots of horse shows.

We got to sit and watch some wonderful show jumping, which the boys thought was great, even more fun when they kept knocking the poles down!
And we also saw some displays of ClydesDale horses which were magnificent.
All in all a good day out for free.

Awesome Show

As a birthday treat and because we really wanted to see it, we drove to Auckland on Tuesday and experienced the stage show 'We Will Rock You'

It was fabulous and so worth seeing.

We had no idea about the story line before we got there, all we knew was that it contained loads of Queen's songs and it was written by Ben Elton.

I have never laughed so much for a long time.

It you ever get the chance to see this show, I highly recommend it.