Centre of the Universe

What a weekend that just passed! The family gathered for the first time in an age to celebrate my grandmothers 80th birthday this weekend.

This might not sound like major thing, but here is the kicker – while my family is relatively small, we are dispersed around every corner of the globe. Claudia, Cole and myself had to only fly 2 hours from Cape Town to Johannesburg, but my mother and brother came from the Netherlands, my sister and her boyfriend from Mtubatuba, a sleepy little town (using this word loosely) in northern Natal, and my uncle all the way from Australia.

I can’t leave out my uncle and aunt living in Johannesburg where we were staying, but then they don’t count as they didn’t have to travel any further than from their bedroom to the lounge.

It has been the first time in over 10 years that the whole of my mother’s family had been in one place at one time, and I must say, it felt as if it things just picked up right from where they left off.

This was also all a big surprise for my gran, as she had absolutely no idea that any of us out-of-towners would be there at all, especially not my uncle from Australia. She was just so taken aback, although I must say, it was a big strain on all our parts not to spill the beans.

Now, thoroughly exhaused from the frenetic weekend jaunt, I must say it was a memorable weekend.

Christmas time is here again officially. I heard Boney M heralding in the season at the mall today. The season of reindeer, Christmas parties, presents, and general merriment.

There is another side of it though that as adults we tend to forget. Children are not as patient as adults are when having to wait for things – such as Christmas day.

Think about it. Every day, children see shops brimming full of expensive cool toys (ever notice that the cooler the toy, the more expensive it is!) and know that they have a stash of presents waiting for them under the tree, but Christmas day seems so far away when you have the latest Ben 10 action figure staring you in the face at the local store.

We had a few issues with Cole this weekend with this. He grew quite huffy when he realised he could not get a toy or computer game, even when reminded that it is less than 2 weeks to Christmas, and thanks to a generous Aunt and grandmother, he has quite a few nice goodies coming his way.

Sometimes us adults struggle to contain ourselves too, but at least for the most part, we can control ourselves…….until the day of unwrapping .

I adore opera music. I really do. And I have my mother to blame for that.

You see, when I was 6 years old, my mother took me to see a ballet, The Nutcracker Suite, and ever since then I have had a love for all things theatre, and that includes opera.

The downsides of this of course is that opera is not exactly seen as an “in” art form. People tend to give you strange looks when you sitting next to them in traffic with an Aria from Carmen or The Magic Flute playing loudly in your car.

Well, I, unfortunately, have repeated the mistakes of my mother. I have introduced Cole to opera and ballet, and he now loves it too.

This raised it’s head this weekend. Cinema Nouveau have over the next few months planned to show several recorded versions of operas at the cinema, and I was planning on taking Claudia to go watch a few. Cole, however, told me in no uncertain terms that I dare not leave him out of it. How many 7-year-old’s willingly want to go watch a full opera?

Maybe opera will never die….