Hoodwinked

So Monday turned out ok in the end.

Quinn was dropped of at school in time for his concert, I did kata box etc and had a very speedy shower and dried myself on a tiny but clean sweat towel - must have looked hilarious! -and changed back into my clothes and shot back home to collect Griff, Rich and my Dad, and we went to the Chinese restaurant a block away from Q's school. 'Ma Ma's Kitchen'.

We had been to this place once years and years ago, and couldn't remember much about it. It is not a classy seeming place. It is basically a take-away joint in a side alley. They have closed over the alley and turned it into a little restaurant. Very small and unassuming. The clientele seem to almost all be Chinese though, and I always take that as a good sign.

We decided to order 3 'Set Menu 1's, and hoping we'd have enough to share with Griffin, else we'd order more. It was R44 per set menu.

Well this is what we got each:
- 1 medium to large spring roll
- 1 medium bowl of chicken sweetcorn soup
- Chicken Chop Suey
- Sweet & Sour Pork
- Fried Rice
- A large bow-tie
- Jasmine Tea
- A Sliced Orange (unusual, but very nice)

Then we got another free spring roll because we had kept half of one for Quinn and they took it away, then we got the original one back too. The kids got big Chuppa Chupps lolli-pops at the AND and we got large nice mint sweets too (one of the yuck boring ones).

We all ate as much as we wanted, including Quinn, who I popped out to fetch at 20:15. Granted he had eaten something at 18:00 so didn't eat a full meal, AND we took home a full large container of chicken chop suey, and a whole spring roll.

This may just become my new standard eat out place (instead of Panarottis LOL), although the play-area would have to be playing in the traffic! ;)
-------

It was really great to see my dad again, and was nice to spend some time with him. He was down for work, and he stayed for 2 nights instead of one, so the boys got a chance to be with him a bit too. They are very fond of grandpa. We spent Sunday afternoon going for tea with my gran, who is turning 87, but is still sharp and spritely.

Then Richard and I made roast chickens with all the trimming for dinner, while my dad and the boys played in the lounge in front of the fire. Quinn played chess with grandpa,and they almost drew the game, but at the last minute grandpa managed to Queen a pawn and win. I used to love playing chess with my dad too. We shared a bottle of wine over dinner and stayed up far too late.

It's a pity we don't get to see the family often, or have Christmas etc together, but I think we appreciate the time we do have together more now.

Unfortunately my dad's visit was planned late, and I didn't know he'd be with us on Monday, else we would have taken him with us and gone to see the concert on Monday. Instead he was back in Pretoria watching my sister's son's school concert on Tuesday, while we watched Quinn.
-------

We went to watch Quinn's concert last night and it was gorgeous! It was the foundation phase concert, so covered grades 1-3, and there are probably 350 children in total in those grades.

It was called Hoodwinked, and was loosely based on the Robin Hood story, embellished in places.
The school went to so much trouble to make the show appeal to children as well as adults, and tailor the script to include good in-jokes about the school (how brilliant it is) and the teacher's fund (which Robin Hood should see as a worth cause for his pilfered goods).

Each child was in the concert each in a stunning costume.The Grade 1 roles were restricted to singing and dancing in groups, so none of them had speaking parts. The grade ones were Dwarves (a la Snow White), Frogs, Teddy Bears and Monkeys. Quinn was a monkey, and completed his actions beautifully on time as rehearsed.

Some of the boys are really good actors even though they are 10 and under, and some of the show had me in stitches. It was very well produced, and to co-ordinate 350 kids (and one live rooster!!) to be dressed, on time and in the right place doing what they were meant to be doing and saying is no mean feat, so hats off to them.

The last performance is this afternoon, so hopefully tonight will be an early night for us all, and life should return to some semblance of normality now.
Yay!