Sing A Song

Last minute ticket, not too bad a seat!

Last evening, I had the opportunity to spend some treasured mother and daughter time with Lara. Elliot had auditioned successfully for the school's Arts North choir. The grandparents were still around at that time and happily went to watch him perform at the Sydney Town Hall. Lara had also auditioned successfully to be part of the combined choir for the Festival of Children's Music concert. The choir comprised of children from  choirs of local public schools. Select performing arts groups such as dance troupes, vocal ensembles, string ensembles and bands also took part in the concert.

With both sets of grandparents away, mother had to step up to the plate! I was too happy to arrange to leave work early. The two boys were eager to stay at home with the promise of having chicken nuggets for dinner. Seeing as Lara had to be at the concert venue by 6pm, we took it as a valid excuse to have dinner out together.

We took the train from North Ryde station and alighted at the next stop...Chatswood. We walked around to find the Japanese eatery that took our fancy the most. Lara settled on a new ramen house that we had not tried before. As we were only the second table in the house, the food came very quickly! We munched away happily whilst playing around with the various photography apps on my iPhone.

Lara's choice of dinner venue

The funky interior. Playing around with iPhone apps! This one taken with pudding cam

Lara's dinner...Chashu ramen. Puddingcam again

Kaarage-don. Yum! Plain old iphone camera this time!

It was then time to cross the road to The Concourse, where the concert was going to be held. What used to be a collection of old and dingy buildings had been turned into a wonderful complex consisting of a concert hall, theatre, library, restaurants and shops. It was a far cry from what was there when I was a teenage girl!

The Concourse

After dropping Lara off with her teacher, I had time to give myself a treat. ZenQ was conveniently across the road from the concert hall. Ah...it was bliss to enjoy some dessert with husband or children getting in the way! I went for my favourite grass jelly, milk pudding and pearls. With my stomach sated, I strolled in to the concert hall.

How doesn't love grass jelly, milk pudding and sago pearls!?!?! Instagram photo

I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the performances. Most of all, I was proud of Lara for singing with so much gusto. My only regret was not having a video camera to capture all the shoulder heaving, head movements, wide open mouth and those oh so expressive eyes! She really took our family motto of "singing with glory" seriously!

The concert stage and the wonderful children. The band from Pymble Public School was awesome! LOVED the drummer.

The two hours flew by and we were picked up for a ride home. Stay tuned for more concert news...