Travels With Norm: Lots Going On

Wow!

There's a lot of stuff to cover with this post.

I'll give you a list first and then the details for each event.

1) A few weeks ago we had a neighbor dinner.
2) The celebration season opened with a theater trip for Anne's birthday.
3) Rick and I rescued a bike.
4) The wind blew the awning off the house.
5) We put the awning back on the house.
6) The birthday season continues with a theater trip to see Flash Dance.

Neighbor Dinner

I decided to cook some Spanish themed food for a neighbor dinner following our recent trip.

The main course was a pork chop stuffed with chorizo and corn bread, with patatas bravas on the side.

The recipe I used was provided by an American chef which she found in Canada, go figure!

It turned out really well.

We had Tapas outside in the yard to start, pinchitos morunos are my personal favorites.

Check the bar sign provided by Joni and Charles.

We had entertainment, of course.

On this occasion it was provided by Maria, our Au Pair girl who looks after Missy.

She sang "The Spaniard Who Blighted My Life" and accompanied herself on the castanets.

The chorus line, Charles, Joni, Jim and Marjorie were heavily involved in the "Oh Yes - Oh No" parts.

I was not, as my singing voice is not what it was.

Nah! I never could sing.

I tried out for the church choir once and the following week someone commented to the vicar that the organ needed to be tuned!

So much for that idea.

The Birthday Season

I saw that Schubert's Piano Quintet, The Trout Suite was being performed in Orange County and decided to get tickets for the start of the birthday season.

For those of you on the other side of the pond, the Trout Suite is the theme music for the TV series "Waiting For God".

When I saw most of the audience, I thought "How apt"

We booked brunch at Scott's in Costa Mesa before the show, when we arrived we found that they had a jazz performance during the meal. The show was hosted by a local jazz DJ Mr. Bubba Jackson, and a really nice guy is too..

It was quite a surprise to find that Scott's is closing in January, as Mr Jackson said, it;s all about the money!

Back to the plot.

We walked along to the Samueli Theater which is part of the Orange County Performing Arts Center.

A very nice venue for a chamber orchestra recital.

The music was introduced and led from the piano by Orli Shaham,sister of Gil Shaham, a world famous violinist, not that it matters if you aren't a music buff. Just thought that I would throw it in.

Of course, as always, the piece you want to hear is performed last, so that you have to hear a couple of other things that you may or may not enjoy!

OK, not everyone's idea of a fun afternoon but we enjoyed it.
The venue was great,the musicians fantastic and the composer dead a very long time, my favorite combination.
They make it look so easy.
Note the guy sitting behind Orli Shaham, he is the music page turner.
The other guys have to turn their own pages, but she plays in every part of the piece and needs the pages turned when she nods.

Bike Rescue

After a couple of fruitless trips to the end of the earth looking for bikes for Rick we went over to Fountain Valley, about 5 miles from home and picked up a Kawasaki 500 Ninja with really low miles.

It was an easy pick up as the bike started and was able to be ridden on to the back of the truck.

Rick is very happy with the bike so far.

Awning

As we were loading the bike on to the truck in Fountain Valley, one of the neighbors came out to chat, as we were talking I commented about the sun umbrella on his front yard. When he looked around he was very surprised to see it there as it had been in the back yard a minute before.

The wind had blown it over the roof.

A short while later, Anne called to say that the wind had blown down one of our awnings.