Show Time

It was a beautiful, sunny day as we drove into town in the early afternoon last Saturday. I felt a little bit like the country mouse going to the city as we drove through the bustling, narrow streets of Vancouver. Although I partly grew up in this city and even worked downtown for a bit, now when I go back, I see so much more than I ever did then. I love how the trees have grown, the old multi colored three story houses with their slapped on paint and little ' attic rooms for rent' along 1st Avenue and, as you come closer into downtown, the magnificent view of Canada Place and the Science World Globe.

We drove past GM Place and found some underground parking at Pacific Center. For several hours we enjoyed browsing and shopping – we ran out of time, so we scrapped the fancy dinner idea and had fish and chips on a little sidewalk patio along Pender Street. This gave me a good chance to just watch all the people hurrying by on their way to the show.
After dinner we joined them with excited anticipation of what the night would hold, our “Christmas gifted” tickets for Il Divo, safely tucked away. You could say it had been a long wait but well worth it!

I learned that Il Divo is a group of European/American males who perform an updated classical/pop version of classics from the past few decades, a number of Italian or French love songs and others that are new to us. Their names are Urs, Carlos, David and Sebastian. Guess which one is the American? Actually I kept thinking he looked like Kevin Bacon and we had a little laugh about that.

If you have never heard Il Divo, they sound very much like four Josh Grobans. And if you have never heard Josh Groban, you’ve really missed something!
It was wonderful to sit back and enjoy the amazing vocal harmony and orchestra conducted by Dr. Calvin Dyck. Yes, when they introduced the maestro, I felt like, “Wow! - OUR very own Calvin Dyck!” (our claim to fame here is that Dr. Dyck took our daughter through her Grade 10 Royal Conservatory in violin.) Simply said, we’ve never heard or seen anyone who exudes such a contagious joy when he performs! Obviously, from as far back as we were sitting , I couldn’t see him, but he made a difference - I’m sure.
I think my favorite songs were “Can’t live, if living is without you”, Amazing Grace and Alleluia. Oh, and a song dedicated to all mothers, was Mama!
It was a wonderful evening! The only thing that would have made it even better, would have been if our kids could have been there with us!

Addendum: On Sunday morning, I came downstairs after my shower and my Hon had me come outside where he had set our new little Bistro table for breakfast. It was the first time we had breakfast on our patio. Can you believe it? I must say that being empty nesters is not all bad!

This is true romance . . . do the women swooning over Il Divo really know?