Elton John! YAY!

 Above the opening number,  Benny and the Jets

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So here we are..!

On the 17th of January 2023 at Sir Elton John's Farewell Yellow Brick Road concert.

It was at the brand new Allianz stadium in Sydney's Moore Park.

The weather was absolutely glorious, unlike the next night where it rained. So I chose the date very well those several months ago, when I bought the tickets on the day they went on sale.

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A confession.

NSW Health gave me a bonus for my work during the coronavirus crisis, and I spent nearly all of it on 2 tickets to see Elton John in concert. I love this guy, I listen to his music on my playlist nearly every day, and when I heard it was his last tour of Australia,,,,

I said, "Well, we are sooo, going to that Graham!".

 I would sincerely like to say a big thank you to NSW Health, its a lovely monitory reward for all the awful stress I went through during those first covid years. It also puts my and your money back into NSW's economy paying all the staff that run this great venue, and what goes around comes around.

Because of the kind money gift from my big bosses in the government,  I bought the tickets that were the closest to the stage that I could afford.

We were 6 rows from the front!

 Above:- This is a more realistic photo of ourselves, aged in our early 60's, than the glamour portraits we had taken on the cruise. Although, I'm wearing the same blouse, my new favourite. Whoever the guys are behind us, I bet they have lots of photos of the said same blouse, because we have lots of the tall bald bloke who sat in front of us!

Anyway, we ate our very expensive fish & chips, plus even more expensive tiny glasses of wine & beer.

And then, suddenly, there he is!

 No big entrance, he just hobbled on stage like some ordinary old guy who just happened to be wearing a wig and a sequined tuxedo.

What he may have lacked in body,  he made up for in talent, as he was was absolutely amazing,  his voice and piano playing are almost the same. He just can't hit the high notes, but that is to be as he is expected, he is 75.

 Some of these photos are mine and some are Grahams.

I'm not very good at photos with my phone and once it became darker the quality of the photos went a bit grainy. Although, I made have accidentally changed the settings in the dark, who knows? I'm surprised I didn't phone someone by mistake.

 The live vision feed and then putting it up live on the big screens was amazing. I couldn't see the cameras at all. None of this old fashion stuff of camera-people wearing black running around with cameras on their shoulders. 

There must be a huge backstage production crew, just moving the sets must be a major issue. How do they move all this from city to city? I want to see the backstage and how all this works. I wonder if they will do a tour film. I wonder if he's brought the kids to see a bit of Australia.

These next two photos aren't ours but I want to give you some perspective of the stage and the stadium so here are some snips I've taken from you tube with thanks to Paul Knight. He filmed the opening number from further up in the stands.

I can pinpoint the backs of our heads in the above snip!

If you would like to see the whole of Benny and the Jets from the 17th January 2023 here is the link.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQZk7QC_efQ

Now, back to our photos, this below is with the large overhead screen, plus the stage screen. 

I think this is Rocket man.

 I have also learnt how to fix your photos. This below is the finale of Rocket Man (I think) which was originally totally washed out and now with a bit of a fiddle with light, colour and clarity is much more presentable!

And bang goes the piano lid as a cue to cheer and applaud!

Saturday Nights all Right for Fighting

 During our recent cruise there was always a parking lot of mobility scooters and walking frames outside the dining room.  The reason I mentioned this was that I wondered if there wasn't something similar in the wings just off the stage!

 

Only kidding!

They are all remarkable for old blokes and have far more stamina than me.

Below is I'm Still Standing.

Then the finale, where we got covered in yellow confetti. 

My handbag was open and it filled up with the stuff.

Then he came out for an encore - which we expected as he hadn't sung Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. 

He'd left it until last.

Then he was transported backstage and was last seen on screen 

wandering off down the Yellow Brick Road...

It was a bit sad, as this is his last tour and the end felt very final.

It was amazing! So glad I did the impulse buy and spent the money on this great experience..

Monday 2nd January - Sydney

Hello, this is my last cruise post!

I was hoping to share with you some brilliant photos of Sydney Harbour at dawn, 

but bugger.  Events became out of my control..

Our docking time at White Bay was set for 6am, so we set the alarm really early, but for some reason we were both awake at 2am. (Probably due to all the time changes?).

I lay there and wondered why the ship was so still, and in my stupid sleepy state I thought we must be outside the heads waiting for the Pilot. Doh, the ship wasn't moving Kim.

And  in the photo above, this was our early morning view, White Bay! We arrived early. Every other port we docked nearly right on time except for the one I really wanted to photograph.

I'd lay money that we were in port around 2am, which is why we woke up.

We were so disappointed and I had planned lots of lovey shots going under the bridge, blaaah..

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Our disembarking was very well organised, we were in the lime group, (thank you to the very organised Holland America Line). 

We took a shuttle bus  to Sydney's Central Station and then a quick taxi ride  to the Pullman Hotel Hyde Park, and fortunately (as our actual arrival time at the Pullman was 9:30am instead of the usual 2pm check-in)  our room was ready, so rather than just dropping off our bags, we went to our room and made some very needed cups of tea....

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So that's, that, then.

 

I've reviewed these Christmas Cruise posts  and I've noticed a few non-deliberate typos so I'll go back and do some editing. (Yes I do make deliberate typos, haven't you noticed?).

 

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Graham is nearly back to normal, health wise, and I didn't catch his germs,  so YAY! 

Another week of our leave and YET there is one more adventure is left to come!

We are back on a flight to Sydney, this time we are  following the Yellow Brick Road.

 

 

Ohoo, I caught that kiss thanks Elton and I slapped it on my cheek!

 

The doggies are a bit peeved off that they are off to the kennels again...

 

 

Sunday - New Years Day- At Sea

Its our last day.

So, we have to say goodbye to everyone and everything on the ship.

Including, as above,  our gorgeous Steward heroes,

 Alim and Gede (G'day, he loves that Aussies call him that), 

I miss them!

 I took this  photo just outside our cabin door, we were right near the forward  elevators, 

which is nice and close when your feet are hurting, 

not so good when everyone leaves a show at the World Stage  at once. 

then you can't get a spot in the elevator!

("Um Graham, lets go and have another drink in the bar and wait unit he crowd clears", says Kim)

 Our cabin was 6044. Upper Verandah deck.

Here below is my card with its pink sparkly lanyard.

 Above, this is in the elevator. 

Oh dear, I do take photos of  reflections of myself , and there I am once more,,,

  (Notice the mask I'm wearing.  We had to wear masks in all areas, unless in your room. Or if eating or drinking, which I thought was a conspiracy to increase the guests booze bill ).

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So, its goodbye to the observation deck

When we were on one of our fist sea days  we met a lovely couple in the observation deck, Toby and Suzie from Canada,

Suzie and Toby have been on this ship for over 80 days. 

Really, 80 days, geeze? 

And they were on this ship in 2020 when no port would let them land due to the first round of covid.

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Goodbye to the Lido deck,

Goodbye to the Lido Market...

Then the crew said goodbye to the guests

With a song.

Goodbye cabin..

Our last entertainment of the cruise was the final classical performance in the Lincoln Centre.

For these performances, you had to make sure you arrived early or else you couldn't get a seat.

This was the musicians last performance as their contract finishes at the end of the cruise and they will be returning to their homes in various parts of the world.

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The Noordam will sail again the same day we arrive in Sydney, back to NZ but a shorter cruise and going the opposite way around. Then I believe they do NZ again and again and again,  until they cross the Pacific to Alaska for the northern summer. 

We'd very much like to do a cruise to Alaska, maybe one day.

Saturday - New Years Eve - At Sea

New Years Eve, and all the action was on the Lido deck.

Lido, I think, is Italian for beach, Which is why the pool deck on so many cruise ships are named Lido

But, the first thing for the day was Captain Marek Zoll, with ask the Captain question's, with a huge audience in the big theatre and a slide show about how the ship works. Here is the Captain above with the cruise director, the lovely Daniel. Apparently the ships currently on cruise control,  and those first couple of sea days weren't rough at all, not compared to some of the seas the Captain has sailed on.

Apparently, it wasn't that rough on the first leg of our voyage, ha ha ha. Not rough for him I suppose.

Those cheeky towel magicians left us a bulldog today!

[Those are my spare pair of  glasses being worn by the dog.  I leave on my bedside table because they are better for reading, than my multi-focal's).

Back to the dining restaurant, with it beautiful glass flower ceiling, and covering two decks. 

Here is the NYE menu,,,

and crab and jumbo shrimp....

Also the Five Spice Duck,

and finally the Chocolate Countdown.

And finally the countdown to midnight back on the deck. Although I wasn't really sure what the time actually was!  Somewhere in between AEDT and NZ time. The clocks on board go back another hour tonight, then we will be back on the same time as home.

Last full day tomorrow.