Wow, what a show this was!
As I’m of proud Irish decent (albeit a bit removed as these things go via Liverpool England) I just had to make my way to ANZ stadium the other night to join the many tens of thousands of fans in their excellent entertainment choice.

Now, I was hoping for a nice sit down meal at one of the many restaurants around the Homebush Bay area but to my disappointment, all were booked out. The only option left was to join the hard-core take-away crowd.

So, I joined the enormous queue and muttered three Hail Marys and a Our Father as I awaited my fate to who knows what greasy, artery hardening, grossly wayward offerings were on the menu?

As I made my way through the queue I could see that Dagwood Dogs were the order of the day. Honestly, just the thought of the kind of ingredients that made up these deep-fried yet cold missiles left me wondering what kind of internal damage was being done to the consumer. One can only imagine what Jamie Oliver, the naked chef would have made of it all. Weapons of Mass destruction had nothing on tonight’s dinner! Absolutely Bleurgh!

Anyway, back to the entertainment.

U2 were the main act but I always like to experience the pre show and take in the atmosphere.
Jay-Z the rapper was the special guest and his set was pretty exciting, especially when he did In New York. I enjoyed the later part of this performance more as it became more musical to my ears.
Perhaps I was also feeling less queasy as my digestive system was starting to settle down after the earlier treacherous assault on it via the Dagwood Dog. *cringe*

As the sun went down and lights got brighter the anticipation was growing and everyone was very excited with the thought of seeing Bono and the lads take the stage. I’ve been a big fan for their whole career but have never made it to the show before. So kindly armed with a recommendation from Amy Monroe@Twitter I knew this was going to be a sensational experience. Still in lead up to the show, I played You Tube footage of U2 live at Slane Castle and I did wonder how an international U2 show would compare with that level of Irish tribalism.

The set was just incredible and looked like something out of a Sci Fi movie from the likes of War of the Worlds.

The ground of the ANZ stadium where footy is usually played had been filled in to hold more people. ANZ stadium really was holding a capacity crowd.

The countdown came and went… U2 made their grand entrance with the classic Bowie “Space Oddity”. I guess it was an appropriate mental link to the spaceship theme and that magnificent set.

Click to view slideshow.U2 played all the usual faves and more, so many excellent songs Beautiful Day, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Mysterious Ways, Pride (In the Name of Love) and Discoteque to name a few.
The crowd on the floor went wild not to mention a very enthusiastic guy a few seats away jumping up and down like Skippy mmm or maybe more like Iggy Pop, who knows?
The encore was so very awesome. Set to the beautiful and haunting “With or Without You” the spire on top of the spaceship now sported a disco ball that projected lights all around the stadium. What an incredible ending, it was such a magnificent sensory overload and provoked such an emotional response.

I can recommend this experience to anyone that likes a great sound awesome set and an atmosphere in an open stadium like no other. I managed to sneak out during Bonos last speech to the fans and hop on to the shuttle bus to the carpark and beat the crowds.

I’m still buzzing and singing their songs to anyone that will hang around long enough to experience my sensational vocal repertoire. Unfortunately I’m a little low on fans at the moment but surely that’ll build up when I get some voice lessons.

Now to plan my exciting camping trip to the Woodford Folk Festival over the Xmas and New Year break.

Merry Christmas to everyone and thanks for reading my blog all year.
I very much enjoy reading other ladies blogs/journals and so this is my contribution to the blogosphere.
I hope you have had as much fun reading my blog as I have putting it together for your pleasure.
Speaking of pleasure hope to see some old friends and make some new ones too in 2011.

Karen x

Getting back to Whispering Jack, we arrived in time to see his special guest in country sensation Melinda Schneider. I must confess not to be an enormous country music fan, so I was surprised that I enjoyed her performance so much. While Melinda Schneider mostly performs her own original material, she also does some tremendous covers of Doris Day, she even looks a little like her. Perhaps a trip to Tamworth with a special friend to the music festival could be on the cards…who knows?

Finally the lights dimmed and we had the pleasure of a tremedous Aussie talent stepping on to the stage and boy did he belt out some great numbers – 61 years old and geez what a vocalist! The band (many of whom have performed with JF for years and years) were polished professionals as were the back up singers.

All time great Australian pop songs such as Pressure Down, Age of Reason, Touch of Paradise and You’re the Voice were crowd pleasers. In the song “You’re The Voice” there was a brief appearance by four kilted fellows playing the bag pipes… nothing like a Scotsman to get you excited I say.

The crowd loved John so much that throughout the night people were running down and shaking his hand, some with panties and bras in hand. Maybe if I had have been wearing some I could have participated too – but that’s another story.

It was a wonderful evening and the final song was a surprise choice but what an excellent a version of the ACDC hit “It’s a Long way”- boy was that a cracker!

Thanks to Mr C for another terrific evening. I saw Richard Wilkins, and a couple of promoters make an early exit before the mad crush and the lady in the next aisle seemed to be having a wild time as she kept falling over while dancing …whatever she was on made for some unexpected extra sideline entertainment. All that was left to do was fight through the crowd get into the car and head to the Hilton for some rock and rolling of my own.

It’s times like this that you really appreciate the talent that Australia has to offer and how lucky I have been to experience it once more.

When the invitation was announced that it was to be formal costume I went into perfectionist panic mode. Ideally I would have liked us to dress up in 17th style costumes with professional costumes makeup and wigs but that would have took some major arrangements on my part. Unfortunatly, I was finding myself attending to a few different commitments and didn’t have the time to make it *my idea* happen. I sorted out some basic masques and we wore formal costume and as it turns out that was all that was required.

Arriving at the red carpet at the Sydney Town Hall was a glamorous affair. The photographers were decked out in retro blues brothers type gear with big flash cameras.

The inside of the Town Hall itself had been majically transformed from the church like pews that it’s usually set up with into a visual feast. It had a French circus type vibe with street performers in costumes and on stilts.

The props and the lighting were very imaginative and extremely well done.

We found our table and chatted with some of the guests as our drinks were served. There was a short presentation from the company thanking the marketing manager who was taking a position at another firm, he certainly did a awesome job putting the event together. Then the entree arrived, king prawns closely followed by the main, steak or chicken. More speeches and some fundraising for the the childrens burns unit. The irony of having to wear a mask through the experience of having a deforming burn highlighted.
There were a couple of glow bars set up at the venue serving a choice of Mojito or Cosmopolitan with donations being contributed to the burns unit. We bought a couple of cocktails at our table to help out.

All to soon it was the end of the evening and the Enormous Horns were playing their amazing and massive organs. They really are a very professional and slick outfit and do Sydney corporate events proud.

I think I enjoyed the Village People set the most. It takes a bit of front to come out topless in an Indian outfit Ha! =D Plus, I’m really looking forward to seeing the original Village People myself in a couple of weeks.

With the conclusion of the ball we made our way back to our five star accomodation and created a little fantasy of our own.

*This blogs’ music choice inspired by my friend werewolf@werewolf’s Lair.

One of the most scenic places in Sydney has got to be Circular Quay. There’s something very magical about the location, being right on the harbour and of course there’s Opera House, so why not take a stroll to the Dendy Movie theatre like we did and partake in a mystery movie.

But before we got to that, a delightful seafood meal was waiting for me. Unfortunatly by this stage the wind had picked but the romantic in me suggested we dine outside overlooking the glorious view anyway Thankfully there was a outdoor heater and Mr MB was so brave. (He must have been freezing but didn’t complain once, well perhaps once- but nicely). I did notice he had to lift his hoodie up to cover his head from the gale force wind chill factor sent directly from Antartica that prevailed upon our romantic evening.

It goes without say, I don’t think my future as a outdoor event organiser was gaining any momentum.

After a delicious but windy meal and with time still some time left, I directed my fellow diner to the Guylian Café where we had the most delicious pot of hot chocolate made from real chocolate. If you haven’t ever been, its the kind of place where they have their own specialist pastry chefs and the array of desserts is mindblowing. It was lucky in one way we had just finished dinner because the spread of deserts that surrounded us would have been extremely tempting under any other circumstances.

The time had come for the main feature (no, not that, that’s later …) the movie which was called the Ghost Writer and if I don’t say so myself was quite a thriller. It even starred Ewan McGregor – gawd, he was so good in Moulin Rouge.

Mr Movie Buff wasn’t living up to his name as he dozed off a few times, leaving me somewhat deflated but somehow I don’t think it was entirely my fault.

Well the thriller was over and we strolled back to our 5 star accommodation where I suggested we make an action flick of our own.

It didn’t take much to motivate the movie buff to put his directors hat on and call the shots.

What else is left to say here, but “ it’s a rap”

A degustation indulgence was our recent mission as Mr Equine Investor and I headed out to one of Sydney’s finest establishments, the Astral Restaurant at Sydney’s Star City Casino. And gee, what a treat lay ahead of me
Mr EI had arranged that we meet at his hotel (Sofitel) and after some interesting conversation we headed to the Astral restaurant, I must say he dressed very sharp.

We settled easily into our window seats overlooking the magnificent Sydney views. It seemed very fitting that we toast our new friendship and our evening with a fine glass of Krug champagne. After that no time was wasted with the first of many courses hitting our table quickly. The first was amuse–bouche or a lovely appetiser, then oysters accompanied by the first light white wine. As I said, the courses were coming out thick and fast, there was smoked salmon, scallops, pumpkin risotto and that was just entrée all with the accompanying complementing wine.

The conversation was easy, we shared interesting experiences from both our lives and I was feeling very relaxed. So much so, I suggested we take our shoes off and play some footsies, perhaps this was the wine talking but we both enjoyed some under table action.

By now I was holding Mr EI’s hand too, I suppose I was feeling very touchy feely with another Cancerian for company.
Well time for more courses, out came the aylesbury duck breast.
Next the angus beef with hollandaise, king mushrooms, miso seeded mustard & fois gras. By now the complementing wine was red, robust and full flavoured. I was pretty much in heaven (with the company, conversation and great food contributing to all the essential elements of a great evening).

The dessert was just exceptional, it was a mandarin sorbet, compressed segments, lemon balm & hibiscus jelly. The dessert was just the most toppermost of the poppermost of desserts. It was an awesome visual and oral sinsation. It arrived in a puff of smoke and had this crackling, popping sound when it hit your tongue. How erotic! It tasted incredible too. WoW, VERY SexXxy.

There was a cheese platter still to come but Mr EI had other ideas in mind so we headed to the taxi rank to h
ail one of Sydney’s best. It was pretty entertaining watching the different members of the public. The Casino crowd revelers were impatiently lingering at the taxi rank, chatting amongst themselves about their night that had just passed.
Both Mr EI and I were very full and feeling cheery.

As the sun warmed the day, we couldn’t imagine having breakfast after the feast of the previous night. We decided to skip on that and whip up a smorgasbord of our own. Needless to say we worked off most of the delicacies that the Astral had to offer.
A most memorable experience. I can only wonder where my friendly clients will take me next – who knows maybe an overseas adventure? Ha!

And so it was that I found myself invited to the WWE Smackdown pre-party function last weekend at the Acer Arena.

After the VIP party, the event followed – naturally with premium seat allocations- thank you very much

Not knowing too much about the wonderful world of wrestling beside the “Half Nelson Hold” (which I sometimes try to incorporate into my evening activities) – I was keen and eager to learn. Thankfully Mr Useful was on hand to explain who was who (as many of the guests knew the wrestlers by name) and if they were good or bad guys.

This red carpet affair was decorated by some of the colourful characters from the smack-down contingent of the WWE. It was pretty exciting because we were going to see them in live action later on. There was an opportunity for autographs and photos that was really well received by the 150 strong crowd – especially the kids.

I thoroughly enjoyed all the eye candy (man, those wrestlers are fit) and the free drinks, nibbles and show bags which added to the atmosphere of the evening.

When the party finished, we headed to our VIP premium seats that placed us in the perfect position to view the ring. I checked out the other seats around us and noticed a few celebrities – hell, I’m shallow – even that within itself was pretty cool!

Now what took place next was super exciting – how can I describe it to give it the energy it warrants?

The music, lights, pyrotechnics and drama is simply an event within itself.

The “larger than life” characters (pardon the pun) are engaging as is the support from the crowd, who loved what they saw. I can safely say before this experience, I wasn’t a big fan but I can now appreciate what the fans see in this gladiatorial event. The fitness and unbelievable moves of the athletes fire up your imagination and while you might think this is a different kind of entertainment, you have to see it to believe it.

As with anything, all good things must come to an end.

So with the glitz, glamour and excitement over I accompanied my client back to his five star stadium and hopped into the ring for several rounds of championship wrestling of our own.