Sunday 31 March 2013

Art In the City 2013

 
A couple of weeks ago  was ART Week in the U.A.E. That means that there are so very many wonderful events across the Emirates that you cannot possible get to all of them. A dilema and tooooooo dreadful for words.

I took the easy route and stuck to the same thing that I did last year. Click here for lasts years’ experience.

I asked Bryan to book us onto the Art Bus for Al Quoz. He booked us onto the Art Bus for DIFC/Downtown. No worries it is a small deviation and the principal is the same.

We had a lovely surprise when we clambered on board our bus to find that one of the ArtBus guides was one of Bryan's Theatre friends who we are ,coincidentally, having dinner with this week - our guides had the unenviable task of looking after a bunch of people hell bent on Art. Herding cats my dears, that is all I can say.
Our first stop was The Pavilion Downtown Dubai


Hanford Site of U.S. Department of Energy Southeastern Washington State - Radioactive waste storage

Here we saw two great, interesting and informative photographic exhibitions by Taryn Simon entitled "An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar" a beautifully put together exhibition and "Contraband" a fly on the wall pictorial record of what the US customs officials confiscate at their nations borders. To be honest more informative than artistic but hey I am not complaining it is beautifully presented, really interesting and well curated.



The Pavilion - Bus Companions -checking out the contraband - I am in the left hand corner keenly peering at banned substances.

The Ara Gallery is in a spot Downtown that is a great alternative view of the fountains and the Burj Khalifa.



The ARA Gallery Entrance - Downtown -loving the graphics

The newly opened Alif Art Gallery showing Timur D’Vatz’s work, was on reflection, my favourite stop for a particular Artist’s work. I loved the style and colour of all his pieces and would have moved into the gallery for a week or two just to be able to absorb the art.



Alifart Gallery. Golden Forest Hunt - Timur D'Vatz
 
The XVA gallery exhibition was art in capital bollocky letters. I say that because I can't see all that well without my glasses so to have an exhibition that is predominately shadowy out of focus pictures is ANNOYING and a reminder of one too many episodes of trying to thread a needle / read street directions that I can't see.




arrrrrgh



XVA Gallery the one thing that was not out of focus.....

Another fave of the day was Zena Assi showing at Art Sawa. Bryan said he got it because he has read  Franz Kafka The Metamorphosis. I am so not going to that head space..... I have not read Metamorphosis but I still  loved the Art. More on my shallow take on art later....




Loved this -bugs life



Art Space Gallery

Roberto Lopardo of The Cuadro Fine Art Gallery was a warm and welcoming host. It is a large gallery and we did not have a lot of time. I wish we could have had a bit longer in this gallery for two reasons, there were a few exhibitions running and we really did not have time to see them all properly and secondly because listening to Roberto talk about each artist and their work was a delight There was an exhibition of work which was in essence scratched paper, mostly scratched white paper. Lots of it. I could not help but think of Jasmina Reza’s play - ART. I loved the scratched paper. We both loved Roberto’s photographic montage of Beirut. Here the artist takes a picture a minute for 24 hours as he wanders about the city. No photo-shop here darlings. An amazing undertaking beautifully rendered and the picture here does not do it justice. Some things you have to see big and bold.


Our tour had a lunch break of about an hour and really DIFC is a lovely area to have an out-door café style lunch at this time of the year. The stunning architecture and the sound of running water has a strangely calming effect for such an urban environment. Bryan and I shared lazy relaxing meal at Café Bateel of a platter of antipasti , followed by a pasta before strolling back to our tour for an afternoon of more Art.
 
At Ayyam Gallery we were treated to an show from Afshin Pirhashemi. His work is a sort of photo realism / hyper realism meets Sara Moon. sounds dreadful but is WONDERFUL and evocative.


Ayyam Gallery - foreground our lovely guides - background " the Wrong Woman Exhibition" - Afshin Prihashemi.
Picture taken from tweet by Dubai Calendar.

Another whistle stop tour was at The Moving Museum  where we saw an eclectic mix of art.
 
Watch this clip of Tall Painting. To be honest, the process is much prettier than the  dry end result....
 
 
 
A treat was in store for us. I have seen  pictures of Evan Penny's  work and been  intrigued so imagine my delight when  I saw his work up close and personal. I could not believe from the pictures that the "sculptures" could possible translate into how they were described. But the work lives up to the hype.





The Moving Museum - Evan Penny and Bryan.....

On our bus was a lovely lady from Dubai Calendar, who very kindly gave us two comp tickets to Art Dubai so when our tour ended we had a wander around the Exhibition Hall OOOO -ing and Ahh- ing at what was on offer.
On a small rant, I really do not like it when prices are not shown for work that is for sale. If you are in the business of selling it is a good idea to show a price. Only the very foolishly wealthy (and I don’t think there can be many financially successful people like that about) don’t care what something costs. Haggling in a souk is all well and good but if you are going to haggle at a Prestigious Art Event or Gallery at least lend the negotiation a bit of dignity by giving the punters a starting point. That is my rant of the day done. Oh who am I kidding…. There is nothing more pretentious than a well-heeled buyer of art as opposed to a deep pocketed lover of art so maybe I should just wind my neck in. Most artists, of every stripe, the world over talk about how art needs to be accessible how it should be for everyone and yet to see the way the way some gallery representatives defensively pose and posture around their tiny territory forced to putting up with the art lovers that are clearly not going to buy the art is sad. Share the beauty darlings.  


Art Dubai - Sorry



Art Dubai - Nightmare or Dream?



 
Crochet Bus  ( not the Artbus) at the end of the day outside Souk Madinat - My heart was singing Look at the smile on the bus... Bryan not so keen to pose.

I think, quite often, after an event such as this that I should attend some of the talks and then I remember that I am not much interested in why an artist felt moved to draw, depict, make a statement  through or about their work. I just like pretty / beautiful  things. Sad, shallow, and true.  I come from a family of creative arty farty types whom I love dearly so I may incur the wrath of all of them by having said that and by saying this.... I have noticed that while an artist believes that the motivation makes their art I have seen works unloved by the artist that I adore (and must have) and I have seen work that the artist finds deep and meaningful to them that I think is rubbish on many levels. Does this say something about me, or artists, or maybe both?
We had a really lovely day on our Artbus tour, as I knew we would. I will be back next year, of course.


Thursday 21 March 2013

Fishy food tales in Dubai and an experience at Bu Qtair


 
Last week I received a lovely surprise from one of my office colleague’s. I was getting ready to go home when she said “Penny I have cooked you a traditional UAE dish. Fish and rice.” Well you could have knocked me over with a feather. In true Arabic hospitable style I had delivered into my arms a great platter with a succulent looking fat aromatic fish on a bed of fragrant slightly spicy rice. I was overwhelmed both by the gift and by the size of the meal, which could easily have fed a family of six. Being the greedy people that we are we managed to eat the lot with gusto, even if it took us a few days. It was delicious.
I told one of my library cohorts about my lovely meal. She said that she had an Arabic recipe that she cooks often that sounded intriguing so I got the recipe to share with you. It is at the end of this blog piece. I will be trying this out in the next couple of weeks. I am a bit fished out at the moment because on the back of all these fishy food thoughts I remembered that on my list of things to tick off as “Done in Dubai” is having dinner at Bu Qtair.
I have lived in Dubai long enough to know that no matter how long I live here I will never want to spend time outdoors, voluntarily, in summer. There is a small window of opportunity open for dining al fresco and March is right at the tail end of that. If I did not get to Bu Qtair in the next couple of weeks it would be too late, as you can't step outside again 'till October. I was cutting it fine. With this in mind I trawled the internet for reviews and a map. The more I read the more nervous I got. Reviews of the porta-cabin shack canteen vary from delicious to dreadful so I was wondering if I really should be listening to Anthony Bourdain's advice on his “No Reservations – Dubai”. But my list is there, Bourdain's picks included, and having recently not done something on the list I felt I could not fail twice in a row.
I sent Bryan (the Driver) a map. I told him that the venue was not easy to find so “best he study the route”. One hour(!!!) of driving around later…… In all fairness there was a traffic jam on the way but still, can you believe we went as close as it is possible to travel in circles on a straight road….. I am just saying.
From my readings I felt it would be wise to warn Bryan that we would have to queue for our meal and that everything would be very rough and ready. I also knew that it would be a very good idea to empty bladders at home before we went out as there is no loo at Bu Qtair. Although honestly if you were desperate you could take a short walk on to Beach Road and find ablution facilities in one of the Petrol Stations or Fast Food outlets. Going to Bu Qtair is - after all - an adventure and no one should let a small thing like worrying about where to pee stop you from going.
 
It looks a bit disorganized when you arrive but there is a working system in place. You queue to pay for and choose your fish. I was a little distressed that the bulk of the fish is Hamoor, and we are all being told that we should avoid Hamoor on account of overfishing. With that in mind we chose a plump medium sized Shari and some shrimps.
Once you have chosen yours from a mound of fish that have very recently taken their last gasp, your name is scribbled on a piece of paper which is sent with your picks off for cooking. You then go back outdoors grab a plastic stool from the stack in the “waiting for your dinner area” snaffle yourself a soft drink from the fridge or make yourself a cup of tea and wait. Or in our case wait and talk to the fellow punters. We struck up a delightful if not somewhat awkward at times conversation with a happily racist old Henna'd Indian man. He told us gaily that we Europeans cannot handle the heat and that in New York black men steal car tires. He asked where in England we came from. We told him we came from Zimbabwe. I don’t think he knew what to make of that - we did not fit into his stereotyped world. We asked about his life in Dubai. He has lived here for 40 years and comes to the restaurant with his family regularly. There was another family group behind us who had visitors to Dubai with them and they were having a lively discussion about living in Dubai and what that entails. I, of course, chipped with a few helpful, uninvited and not needed words. After that attack of friendliness we were called by the manager by name (remember the piece of paper) and escorted to a rickety plastic table and served up our mighty fine fish. Healthily deep fried to a black crisp with super succulent fresh flesh beneath the spicy crust. H.E.A.V.E.N.L.Y. With our fish we ordered some flat bread and a curry dipping sauce. Our salad was some coarsely chopped cabbage with a bit of onion tossed about on it. I have not mentioned the shrimp. Word of advice. Decide if you are having a night of shrimp or fish. They are cooked together. So whilst our fish was perfection the shrimp was slightly overcooked which is a dreadful shame because I could see other diners with the yummiest looking perfectly cooked piles of shrimp on their plates.
 
As our bellies filled and our hunger subsided (remember that we had driven around semi lost for an hour and then the process of ordering and waiting takes another ¾ of an hour) we noticed more of our fellow diners. The table next to us had a group of 20 odd hip young peeps hell bent on having a great evening out with much banter about the venue, how they all knew each other, and what fun this was. They had an “organizer” with them. I love organizers. She had ordered everyone’s food was fully in the know on how everything worked. Knew who would get on with whom and made sure they sat near each other and generally fussed about like a rather elegant mother hen making sure her brood were all having a lovely time. And how could you not. The evening was warm and barmy, The food delicious, and the company delightful.
 
If you really can’t face the notion of the plastic chairs and tables and the general lack of interest in décor and form, then order your food as a take away and take it down to the beach or home. I am going to make a picnic of our next outing. I will take a home-made salad, a bright table cloth and maybe a candle or two.  I will still eat with my fingers at the plastic tables.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Chrissie’s MAHLOUBI (upside-down) recipe
Fish fillet
1 onion, 2 or 3 garlic cloves
Long grain rice
Pine nuts
Chicken or vegetable stock cubes
2 Tablespoons Arabic Mixed Spice or less if not needing too spicy (see the recipe for Arabic Mixed spice below)
Boiling water about 1 pint depending on size of pan
Wash rice leave to drain. Fry pine nuts in a dry pan till a little brown.
Chop onion finely and garlic, fry in a little oil add spice. Sautee fish.
Place washed rice on top of fish.
Pour stock over rice till is ½ inch above rice add salt to taste.
Cook slowly until water is absorbed.
Turn pan upside down onto a large plate or dish
Sprinkle nuts on top
Serve with Yoghurt and salad.
 
Most supermarkets stock Arabic Mixed Spices sold in bags but if you can’t find this, here is the recipe:
2 tablespoons ground black pepper  
1 tablespoon Ground coriander   
1 tablespoon Ground cloves
 2 tablespoons Ground cumin
 ½ teaspoon Ground cardamom
 2 teaspoons Grated nutmeg
¼ teaspoon Ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons of chilli powder
You can make this up and keep in  an air tight container
If you want to use beef or chicken instead of the fish then fry or grill eggplant and place on the bottom of pan under the rice.  You could, if you choose, add a can of chickpeas.

Tuesday 19 March 2013

The last (late) word on Short+Sweet Dubai



On Sat 2nd March, in the evening, after my Shift in the Library had ended I hunted down Bryan at More Café in the Mall. He was sitting on a sofa drinking espresso whilst reading Wolf Hall and silently screaming Urbane Chic, or he would have if he had been reading his book on his i-pad or  a kindle and not a dog eared paper back tome, but that is another chain of thought. I picked him up and we confidently strolled into DUCTAC to get tickets for the all singing and dancing grand finale of Dubai’s Short + Sweet Festival. They were SOLD OUT. I kid you not. We went home tails between our legs missing out on the opportunity to see the best of the best of the festival.

So it is all over till next year. I loved it all.
 
I avoided, as much as I could, blogging about the productions. Now that it is all over I can rabbit on a bit.
 
For the full list of Festival Winners have a look here:Gala Final Winners-2013
 
I have taken the info from each play from the Short and Sweet Organizations web page so click here if you want full details: Top 20

I must  I confess ,straight up, that I was  especially rooting for the locally written productions simply because it is so very hard to write material to perform that I  just had to mentally cheer those productions on. I was moved by Arjun Burman’s “Cold Call” he wrote and acted in a sad twist of irony play. I mentioned “Yeki Bood / Yeki Na Bood” in my last blog. A Comfortably put together play that was a delight  to watch. In no small measure because you  really did not have to understand what was being said. Dana Dajani , who was in Yeki Bood/ Yeki Na Bood, also delivered a very smart  clever bit of writing in a rap style with  Jibberish  ( yes that is someones name) in “MiC Prophecies”  which she and Jibberish performed in a tight  well put together piece.

I was pleasantly surprised by  the breadth of material delivered in the festival.  From the fantastical “Because the world needs Unicorns”, which wins my vote for best costumes with their Unicorn and Dragon costume I so wanted to put the dragons tail,   to the social conscious “A Spoon Full of Hope” loving produced and directed by Ankita Manikantan and supported by the Back stage crew. There were productions that  showed a tongue in cheek ( I hope)  window into life in Dubai “ How To Win Friends”.   I adored “Borys the Rottweiler giving us  a loyal view of a dogs lot in life.  Maha Hussain was a sympathetic and endearing character. At no time did I feel uncomfortable with the idea that he was a dog. I loved the simple trail of illogical logic that only a dog could have followed through on.

I thoroughly enjoyed  The Drama Dubai Workshops Improv “ Dearly Deported #1”. Jonathan Siklos  and the gang put on a quick flowing ten minutes of good improvisation. It was great to have that in the mix BUT it was really not what I would have called a ten minute play. Not by any stretch of my definition of the term. Which brings me to a point. It would be lovely if next year the Festival has a breakdown of categories. I did not like to judge the Improvisation together with the scripted plays. I also did not like to judge the school productions against the adult productions as invariably they have a different dynamic to that of an adult production. Just a thought. I also did not like it that we only had one vote  each per show set. If you are attending to support someone then changes are that you will vote for them out of loyalty.  Unlike me who did not vote for my husband’s play - I thought another  play was better. BAD MOVE ON MY PART. Anyway this means that many people do not vote for the best play they vote for their friends play. Then there is the issue of big casts getting big votes because they get big support. So I am just saying that if each attendee got to vote two or three times on the same sheet it would level the playing field a bit. Just a bit. And of course I would have a husband that does not looks at me  like I have shot him  with my cruel lack of support or like I deserve to be shot for my cruel lack of support, alternatively, depending on his mood and desired outcome. There is nothing for it, at the end of the day, for the sake of my maintaining a good marriage, the voting and rules must change. Oh and whilst I am on a rant there were people that auditioned in the initial stages most of whom did not get parts whilst people that did not attend auditions were given parts. I remember back in the day in a previous life of Drama Darlings how this was a very contentious matter. If you hold auditions you must cast from that. If talent does not attend the auditions then they should not be considered.  Alternatively don’t  hold auditions and cast from who you know and once you have cast the parts that you can from your pool of peeps then hold auditions for the rest of the roles.
Back to the productions. Overall my winner was The Others. A slick presentation by Theatrewallas productions who, I am told usually, work in Hindi. It was not my favorite play, but it was, for me, the Best Production. The pace was great. The atmosphere menacing, the voices clear when they needed to be and bone rattling discordant when appropriate. The cast was focused the script good the ending spookily eerie. My runner up production was Perfect Stillness. Heart-warming and bitter sweet. Rohit Prakash played a grieving husband having a conversation with his dead wife, Aswathi Menon. Lovely performances.
I am a fairly shallow person when it comes to entertainment.  Coming from a third world country I really have had my fair share of moralizing tales of an uplifting  ( or not) nature. Being a drama darling I have also encountered  a hunk  of serious ACTING In big shouty words. What I like to watch is usually witty and clever and light. Considering tastes it is good for me to be  taken out of my comfort zone and have my cage rattled a bit. Short + Sweet did that. So thank you to everyone involved for creating a forum that made  me watch things I would not rush out to see.

The writers, directors, actors and organizers  all worked so hard to put together two weeks’ worth of good value entertainment.

See y’all next year.

Monday 11 March 2013

The Emirates Airline Festival of Literature - Whoo Hoooo!

 
 

From 4th to the  8th of March Dubai was host to the 5th Emirates Airlines festival of Literature . The event is always a wonderful think fest and creative thought breeding ground for readers, literary types and anyone interested in current affairs. I always feel as if I have been given a very special treat by being there  and having the opportunity to listen to clever, eloquent, people talking passionately about things they know lots about. This year was even better for me.  I have been to a couple of years’ worth of Festivals but this was the first time I was a volunteer and this meant that I got to rub shoulders, ever so briefly, with a myriad of authors and media personalities from all over the globe. IT WAS HEAVENLY.

The best thing for me ,as a volunteer, as it turned out, was getting to see sessions that I would never have chosen to see because they were happening in the room I was assigned to help look after. I feel enormously privileged that I got to see some of the children’s authors. I am so looking forward to telling the children that come into the library all about what a sweet shy man Nick Arnold ( Horrible Science series) is when he is off stage and what a delightful inspiring science teacher he was on stage. Giles Andreae ,  who wrote “Giraffes Can’t Dance” and “Rumble in the Jungle”  but who is probably better known to you as the creator of Purple Ronnie and  Edward Monkton was a delight and interacted so kindly with his audience, young and old alike. Philip Ardagh creator of the Eddie Dickens series of books, was charming. At the opening ceremony when asked why he was so tall by a young fan ( he cuts a rather distinctive figure towering over the rest of us) he responded by saying that if he were any shorter his beard ( quirkily long and thick) would brush the floor. A couple of nights later he was entertaining a very adult audience at “The Lighter Side - Tales from a Writer’s Life” dinner event with lively, witty, grown up banter.


I discovered that the illustrator of “Winnie the Witch” Korky Paul was originally from Zimbabwe and  Rosie Goldsmith who was one of the International Moderators spent a couple of years there in her childhood. Now you may be wondering why I am making links back to my homeland, well, that is a little short story that fell into my Festival Experience. Let me take you back to over 35 years ago to Mabelreign Girls High school to form 1A2 where I happened to be in the same class, as a girl called Sonia Sime. We had a sewing teacher that used to trill “Sonia Sime and Penny Panas your names sound like bells.” I cannot speak for Sonia but I hated that. Flash forward to a few days ago. I was sitting outside in the lovely spring weather overlooking the creek, passing the time with a library chum and then having a quick bite to eat with Bryan before we went to listen to a discussion called “the English Language: Hero or Villain”. This, by the way, was brilliant, and too short. Anyway I kept noticing out of the corner of my eye a woman that looked terribly familiar - yes you know where this is going and no, I will not cut this short. I was busy gobbling up some spaghetti bolognaise. Do you know how long it is since I had a basic spags bol? Too long. So there I was sucking up stray spaghetti and thinking I swear if that woman was a bit older I would say she was Sonia. I kept sneaking looks at her and thought “Oh my god she must think I am some sort of weird stalker.” Then I thought “Well you know maybe it could be Sonia maybe she aged very well????? You never know???????” I told Bryan. He gave me the look he gives me when I am recognizing perfect strangers as people I knew a million years ago. I cannot let things like this go. The worst that can happen is that I get a withering “you are a weirdo look “and that is that. So I round on the poor woman and say “Are you Sonia Sime?” And she says “Yes! Are you Penny Panas?” YAY I found an old school class mate! She was at the Lit. Fest,with her two lovely children, to see some of the authors. Us Zimbos are just the most enthusiastic readers! Now I do not know how many of you are part of the “scattered to the four corners of the Earth band of people” but  if you are there can’t be many of you who can say, as I can, that I have, from  my Mabelreign  Girls High form1A2  three  class members in Dubai. I am not talking same year, or same school I am talking SAME bloody CLASS. Pretty awesome don’t you think? Note to self -arrange a class reunion in Dubai. And Sonia has aged very well. Or I have not. But we don’t need to go there right now do we?  I think I need to book a facial. We have exchanged numbers.

 

Back to the festival I volunteered my ass off on Friday and Saturday. I was an assistant Room Manager working with a lovely team of other volunteers and backed up by the amazing Production team and Literary Festival office staff. As always my feet took the brunt of the constant up and down and running about that the role entailed. I swear the Princess and the Pea is nothing on me and my delicate feet. I was born to be carried not to walk. I am sure of this or rather my feet are. At one point on Friday I just knew that my feet were going to leave me. They really had, had enough and they make no effort whatsoever to buck up. It is frustrating and I cannot seem to get them to work with me. Ah well.

On the grown up circuit I listened in on  Eugene Rogan (who was part of the session I had enjoyed on the previously mentioned English Language Hero or Villain discussion) talking about his book “The Arabs – A history”.  This was followed by  Tony Buzan of Mind Mapping fame presenting “Maps, Minds and unlocking Creativity”. To be honest not really my thing but his presentation was enormously popular on both days that I was involved with him. The hardest thing was finding enough colored felt tip markers for 450 odd people…… I am so glad that I got to sit in on a discussion between Shobhaa De and Anupam Kher ( who you may remember  him from Bend it like Beckham more recently Silver Linings Playbook) talking about Celebrity and Success. Bottom line. Shobhaa  De( author and journalist) finds celebrity a delicate balance and Anupam Kher loves it and embraces it. And of course best for me was listening to Ben Okri read his poetry. He was very Zen and collected. I could not resist asking him if he was familiar with  the late Dambudzo Marechera's work. He was!

I volunteered on a few prize giving events covering poetry writing, reading champs and a writing competition. It was pretty cool to listen to Arabic poetry being read. Given that I don’t understand Arabic it sounds so lyrical and expressive.

In all a very well rounded experience for me. I skipped about for a few days wearing (thankfully) flattering black with a name badge smiling as if my life depended on it and fell flat on my back into bed late on Saturday night. I lived on snatched up biscuits and sips of water with a notable lapse of good judgment on Friday. Should I tell you…… What the hell. Here we go.

So on Friday I was room managing a dinner event. Best thing to do as the “production” side was being handled very ably by Royal Shakespeare Company director Philip Breens and the event was attended by most of the Lit Fest Office. So really all I had to do was make sure that the table clothes hung properly and the decorations looked good. I was somewhat flagging around 10.30pm as really things were going well and there was not much for me to do. I think the Lit Fest peeps took pity on me and said go home. Which, I should have done. …But no, I did not, did I.

 Bryan was next door at the Belgian Beer Cafe having met up with some of his Theater buddies. So I joined them. Now, I had not consumed much in the way of food or drink all day. A beer was put in front of me. A promise of “don’t worry we have ordered mussels, they will arrive just now” had me throwing back the beer. Well the rest, as they say is history and predictable. I woke up very late on Saturday in a panic of “Oh my giddy Aunt, I have to get to the Lit fest NOW” Bryan ( he had work stuff to do) and I   were tearing about the house in a panic with no time to think of small things like the hammering in our heads and the fact that Bryan did not have his wallet. In short order I realized that my head was very sore and Bryan released that he had lost his wallet……

All’s well that ends well. I took some pain killers and loved Saturday and Bryan got a call from the taxi company (we love you RTA) to say that the taxi cleaner had found Bryan’s wallet on the floor of the taxi.

Roll on Lit Fest 2014!!!!
check out  some of the pod casts: Talking Books

PS There were fire works.Yay. Don't know if they had anything to do with the  Lit Fest or  was something else that was going on at Festival City. But it was a treat.


I love the bling.

Monday 4 March 2013

mahoneyjoe.com for quirky peeps and wine lovers.



I adore Mahoney Joe. this is why....




Now I am not saying you have to get it, but if  you do. ENJOY....

You have to love the badass rabbit.


This is my favorite - Yoga For Wine Lovers



Story # 45 - the joy of wine