Singing in the rain

If you're not of these shores, I would guess that you wouldn't recognise any of the three musicians in the picture above. If you are native to Nuzziland you probably can recognise at least any two of them, and probably all three. You'll definitely have heard of all three.

Left to right we have the leader from the band OpShop, Anika Moa and Dave Dobbyn. And they were all playing yesterday at the Mud House Winery as part of a summer winery tour. And we went along.

We went with Si & Bek, Al & Naomi, Al & Ruth and Sarah and it rained. Quite a lot. But we knew it would. We have waterproofs. And a tarpaulin or two. So we coped. It wasn't heavy rain, but that constant drizzle that just permeates all but the most waterproof of waterproofs.

On the plus side, I now know that my coat is most definitely waterproof.

It's quite a strange experience going to a gig where almost everyone around you knows most of the songs really, really well. And you're just hearing them for the first time. This is especially true of Dave Dobbyn, who is a real Kiwi legend. He was playing these iconic Kiwi anthems and I was oblivious. I was just glad that four others in our group are Brits too. At least I wasn't alone.

Despite the weather I think we all had a great time. It's just good to hang out, y'know. And I do now feel I understand a bit more of this whole Dave Dobbyn phenomenon. There were a couple of songs that didn't do anything for me, but most I really liked. And he does put on a real show.

OpShop were good too, and given they're relatively new kids on the block I recognised half of their songs. Anika Moa played some good stuff (although she swears too much, especially since it was meant to be a family show) and I really loved the reggae version of one of her songs that she ended with. Sometimes I forget how much I enjoy reggae. Bouncy.

The concert was only one part of what's been a hectic weekend for us. It started on Thursday with dinner out for Jo's birthday (excellent food; small portions; too much garlic in the veg), continued on Saturday morning as we caught up with Marvin & Tianhao and their (relatively) new arrival Eden at Monika's (good news - the PT Cruiser is still running smoothly!) and ended with us having Dave & Julia and John & Joan over for lunch after church (no comment in brackets for this).

Joanne's off playing indoor netball at the moment so I thought I'd take the opportunity to get this all down. It never stops, eh?