We flew to Sydney on Friday morning to join the Walsh family and celebrate Mum's birthday.
A few weeks ago Mum decided how she wanted to spend her birthday and spent a lump sum of money on tickets to the "Beatlemania" show at the Taronga Zoo Twilight Concert Series (which runs twice a week for all of February and March each year). As part of the ticket, you had access to the Taronga Zoo from 2pm that same day.
'Mother' Walsh had it all sorted, however, Mother Nature had other ideas... It was forecast to rain all night... Normally you'd expect that to deter people from attending outdoor events like the zoo and a concert under the stars... Not us! Mum spent the whole morning and the early afternoon telling us she was happy to go home, but, with James in his fully waterproof and toasty warm stroller, and the rest of us in raincoats and ponchos ($2.50 ponchos too!!!) we weren't going to let a little rain ruin our plans!
'Mother' Walsh had it all sorted, however, Mother Nature had other ideas... It was forecast to rain all night... Normally you'd expect that to deter people from attending outdoor events like the zoo and a concert under the stars... Not us! Mum spent the whole morning and the early afternoon telling us she was happy to go home, but, with James in his fully waterproof and toasty warm stroller, and the rest of us in raincoats and ponchos ($2.50 ponchos too!!!) we weren't going to let a little rain ruin our plans!
So off to the zoo at 2... We had our fill of wild African and Asian animals... James was most excited by the tigers as you will see...
Here's some pics...
Here's some pics...
Checking out the lizards...
Looking at turtles with Nanna
The Giraffes were beautiful (and wise for staying undercover!)
A very testosterone filled young chimp. We watched him ask a lady chimp out, only to be rejected and then chuck an almighty tanty!!!
Kate and James with the TIGER!!!! Is that not a threatening pose?!!!
"Finally, something my size that I can touch!"
Gorillas...
More Gorillas...
The majestic and graceful zebras... (a bit of a favourite)
James in the sky safari gondola ride back to the top of the zoo! Yay!!!
THE QUEUE...
More 'nutters' lining up for the concert
And our location... That's Matt in the middle, and on the decking that's our Collingwood umbrella covering our bags where we were sitting. (You can see Dad in his blue poncho and Mum in her yellow one). We were one of the first in and picked this location as it had the best vantage point. It was a pretty spectacular location with Sydney Harbour Bridge framing the stage on the right...
For one downpour before the concert started, James and I did a runner and stood under the shelter near the canteen. We snapped a photo of the rest of them enduring the rain!
We had a big laugh at this... (Jacqui under the black umbrella, Dad under the blue tarp, Kate peeping over from the back, Mum under the tarp and rainbow umbrella and Matt at the front...)
James laughing at the others in the rain
Before crashing to sleep in Dad's arms
AND THE 'BLUE'
As you've probably noticed by now, it was wet. And umbrellas were the new black... Everyone participated in Umbrella Ballet as the rain started, changed direction and then stopped, with all umbrellas moving in Swan Lake kind of rhythm...
But, a lady sitting behind us (who was comfortably dry and warm with her location under the shelter - which was at the very back of the concert area therefore you'd expect an impaired view of the concert) decided that we shouldn't be allowed to use our umbrellas as they blocked her and her husbands vision.
So she sent her husband down to sort it out... The story goes like this...
Man: "If I stand right here (standing in front of Mum, Matt holding James and Dad) and block your view, would you like it? No, you wouldn't, so put your umbrella down"
Dad/Mum/Matt: No, we'll put it down when it stops raining.
Man: (storms off in a huff).
...30 seconds later...
Woman: (in high pitched, extremely annoying voice) "Put your umbrella down"
Team Walsh: "No"
Woman: "Yes, put it down"
Team Walsh: "No"
And with that the tantrum started... The woman grabbed the umbrella and started to pull, twist and shake the umbrella with the clear intention of breaking it to achieve her wish. Dad, being the calm person, and not wanting to overdo the reaction, reached out and grabbed her hand to try to restrict the amount of damage she could do...
But wait, is that a bird, or a plane? No, it's SuperKate!
Kate leapt up, bear hug tackled the woman and spun her on her axis about 2m from where the incident started. I was right there with her and Kate's spin tackle resulted in me shirt fronting the woman and Kate and I held her there until security came, removed her from our area and warned her with eviction should she approach us again...
Then we sat down to take stock of what had happened. Kate - used to breaking up midnight Sydney blues between her boy mates and other boys, and me - well I wasn't going to let any woman potentially hurt my baby!
Meanwhile poor Mum, celebrating her birthday, sat and watched her 2 youngest daughters smash-tackle a drunk, tanty throwing 70-something woman, and be praised by security...
For the rest of the night, nearby onlookers casually remarked about the incident, telling us they couldn't believe it happened and they hoped it didn't ruin our night... Ironically, on the contrary - it made it all the more memorable!
Happy Birthday Mum!!!
5 comments:
Well, the comments put a great smile on the face and make it sound even better. You write well. It was an eventful and memorable night. Guess that can be Sydney. Who needs sons to protect them.
I can't stop laughing!!!!! I keep re-living the moment and end up with tears in my eyes from laughing so much.
You've described it so well and in such a nice way! I still can't believe that woman and to think she thought it would annoy us when she came and stood in front of us at the end of the night during the encore- we were all at least a foot taller... and we were on the steps!
It certainly was a night to remember!!
PS- Interesting looking Gorilla sitting in the middle of the other two!!
GREAT post...
I was cracking up all the way through and have tears in my eyes too, starting with Kate the Gorilla - Locke was saying "what mum, what is it, tell me".
I just have this picture of the Walshes + lanky Matt standing blocking the view, umbrellas or not!!!! Soo funny.
Bugger it rained, but how cool of you all just to go along and make the most of it anyway, thats what it's all about. Nice to see Leon still had his glass of red!
Oh and Wishing you a very Happy Birthday Mary, thats one to remember :)
Oh and one more thing - If the Walshes and Tinklers are all going to be in Hobart for New Years Eve, try to stay out of trouble...
Tears running down my cheeks (laughing)! Fantastic post Jane, well done.
I could picture it, but I'm sure it was even funnier in real life. What a memorable night. Looks like you all had a ball!
Some great photos, Kate is such a crack up!
The vid of James with the Tiger is awesome, he looks so excited.
Jane you look gorgeous! Even with your $2.50 poncho on :)
Happy Birthday Mrs Walsh!
Did the crew of Beatlemania give you back stage passes considering you saved them from an unwanted groupy! Kate I'm thinking of going to see the Wiggles in concert with Alicia... care to come and keep an eye on us?
Happy Birthday Mary!
Cheers
Sylvia & Danny
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