I have written before about the benefits of experiences versus stuff, particularly in relation to children’s gifts.

On the weekend I bought tickets to a show.  It is a musical called ‘Pete the Sheep’ and is based on a book of the same name by Jackie French and Bruce Whatley.

It is being staged at a local venue at the end of April and is suitable for 4 – 9 year olds so I decided that this would be a perfect Easter ‘gift’ for our 2 granddaughters.  I do not think an overdose of chocolate is necessary nor over-the-top presents so this seemed like a perfect opportunity.  I am sure they will remember an evening of musical theatre long after the chocolate wrappers are in the rubbish.

It was not all about the grandchildren, though.  On Saturday afternoon, The Duke and I had an opportunity to see a screening of ‘Philomena’ by the Maleny Film Society.  Enjoyable is not a word I would use, however, it was challenging and thought-provoking.  It was perhaps not Judi Dench’s greatest role but I am glad I saw the film.  We took the opportunity to become members of the society and look forward to seeing many more of the really interesting films that they bring to our community.

I have saved the best, or most exciting, till last.  We have booked our tickets to see ‘Les Miserables’ at Queen’s Theatre in London when we are there in August.  For years, The Duke has always said that he wanted to see Agatha Christie’s play, ‘The Moustrap’ if we ever went to London.  A couple of years ago it was staged here in Brisbane and naturally we went to see it.  So, he is now feeling a bit like ‘been there, done that’ about it.  We trawled the internet to see what else was going to be on while we were in London and the standout for us was ‘Les Miserables’.  We saw the Australian production back in the early 1990’s in Adelaide and of course, the recent movie with Russell Crowe’s cringeworthy performance.  I love the story and the music and am really excited to be seeing it again.