This Is Christmas at The Palms

I have been given tickets to see this by the good people at Cavanagh PR

Anthony Callea and his band will perform favourite Christmas classics, accompanied by spectacular dancers to celebrate and reminisce through the music that we all love, on The Palms stage at Crown Entertainment Complex!

Christmas classics and soaring ballads are a great fit for the powerful voice of Anthony Callea, whose 2013 album This Is Christmas charted in ARIA’s top 40 and featured Silent Night and Amazing Grace. The album celebrated his 10^th anniversary performance at Melbourne’s Carols by Candlelight.

Anthony Callea is a passionate supporter of charities and recently performed at The Million Dollar Lunch at the Palladium at Crown, which raised nearly $2million for the Children’s Cancer Foundation.

Book a booth or lamp-lit balcony table and enjoy the intimate atmosphere of the state-of-the-art cabaret venue as Anthony Callea and his guests add excitement to your end-of-year celebrations.

Popular performer Rhonda Burchmore’s guest appearance at This Is Christmas at The Palms comes hot on the heels of her lead role in The Production Company’s season of Jerry’s Girls in Melbourne.

Rhonda Burchmore was awarded the OAM in 2014 for her service to the performing arts and community. In 2002 and 2012 Rhonda won Female Vocal Performer of the Year at the MO Awards and ACE (Australian Club Entertainment) Awards.

Highlights in her 30 years in showbiz include lead roles in musical theatre productions Mamma Mia!, Calendar Girls and Guys & Dolls, television credits with Spicks and Specks, Hey Hey It’s Saturday and Carols by Candlelight, and the recording of five albums.

Also making a special guest appearance at This Is Christmas at The Palms is internationally acclaimed violinist Patrick Roberts, whose flamboyant style fuses contemporary with the classics.

Patrick recently played at the Palladium at Crown as opening act with Fashion Aid, and other headline shows this year have taken him across the seas to perform on cruise liners. The proceeds of Patrick’s most recent album, Vision, were donated to Vision Australia.

Reserve your seats now and see Anthony and his guests perform the Christmas classics live at This Is Christmas at The Palms.

TICKETS NOW ON SALE – THREE SHOWS ONLY

This Is Christmas at The Palms with Anthony Callea and friends

VENUE            The Palms at Crown Melbourne

ADDRESS        Crown Entertainment Complex, 8 Whiteman St, Southbank

DATE               10-12 December, 2015

TIMES              Doors/pre-show bar opens at 6.45pm, show time 7.30pm

TICKETS           Ticketmaster 136 100 or www.ticketmaster.com.au

WEBSITE         www.crownmelbourne.com.au

Baby Bok Boks!

We got our four Isa Brown Bok Bok Pussybirds almost a year ago. They have been fabulous to have around, keeping the weeds at bay and providing lots of delicious eggs.

On and off the whole time one of them has been broody. We never worried too much about it, it lasted for a couple of weeks at a time and then she'd be 'normal' again. We took the eggs out from under her, because as we have no rooster, there was no way there could be baby Bok Boks.

Chyken was chatting to a friend about it and she said that the next time she went broody we should get some eggs from her chickens where they DO have a rooster.

This is exactly what we did and for the last three weeks she has been patiently sitting on her babies. About a week ago, another of the Boks went broody in solidarity in the nesting box next door.

Yesterday (while we were away for the weekend, didn't time it very well!) five beautiful little baby Bok Boks hatched!

The other broody chook has moved into the nesting box with them and they have a strange co-parenting arrangement going on, but it seems to be working. If we get what they consider to be too close, they bite us.

They are a completely different breed to our chooks (these are little fluffy-footed bantam silkie ones), but that doesn't seem to matter to the bitey mothers.

Now, can you all pray that they all turn out to be girls? I am in love with them already and we can't have roosters in the town...

Golden Syrup Dumplings

This is the actual best dessert in the history of forever.

If you have a food processor, you can use it to rub the butter into the flour and then add the egg and milk and it's even easier.

Make the balls before dinner and then cook them while you're eating and they'll be ready at the perfect time!

 

 

 

Golden Syrup Dumplings

For the Dumplings:

1 cup SR Flour

1 Tablespoon butter
1 egg
Little bit of milk

For the Sauce:

½ cup sugar

1 cup water
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon golden syrup

 

Rub butter into flour until it looks like breadcrumbs

Add the egg and enough milk to make a fairly stiff dough.

Roll it into small balls and set aside.

Put all the sauce ingredients into a saucepan and bring to the boil.

Drop the balls into the syrup, turn it down, cover and simmer for 5-10 minutes.

Serve with cream and/or ice cream.

Nom.

 

Progress photo...

Chocolate Chip Biscuits

Chocolate Chip Biscuits

Ingredients:

250 grams of Butter

1 ½ cups of Icing Sugar

1 Egg, Beaten

2 ½ cups of Plain Flour

1 teaspoon of Bicarb Soda

1 teaspoon of Cream of Tartar

2 teaspoons of Vanilla

250 grams of Choc Bits

Method:

Preheat oven to 180 degrees (Celcius)

Cream butter, sugar and vanilla until pale and light and fluffy.

Beat in the egg. 

Stir through sifted dry ingredients and choc bits.

Put teaspoons-ish sized balls of mixture on oven trays lined with non-stick paper.

Bake in oven for 10-15 minutes.

Nom.

Win Tickets To See CATS the Musical!

The winners of the Cats the Musical competition have been decided by our judge... They are Pamela and Marita! Well done and have fun at the show! Thanks to everyone that entered and check back at the blog for more competitions soon!

It's no secret that I love cats. We have four of them, and it is a lot of cat.

Do you know what's almost as good as real cats? People dressed as cats who sing and dance!  It's true!

CATS is one of my very favourite musicals and it is currently on a tour around Australia.  I was so excited that I purchased tickets to see it with my very own money the very day they were released. Then I was contacted by the lovely people at Cavanagh PR who are sending me and Chyken to opening night and have given me some tickets to give away.  Read on to find out how YOU can win some of them!

If you've never seen CATS, well, shame on you! It tends to be one of those musicals that people either love or hate, I am firmly in the love category! Pussycatties AND a musical? What's not to love!?

Basically though, it's based on T.S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book Of Practical Cats, it has music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and it is set in a junkyard. The performers act like cats, it really is extraordinary to see, they never break character and if you know cats at all I guarantee you will see familiar movements going on.

The Jellicle Cats come out to play on one special night of the year, for the Jellicle Ball! They all have a chance to tell their story to Old Deuteronomy who is their leader and who will choose just one cat to ascend to The Heavyside Layer and be reborn into a new Jellicle life.

The cast includes Delta Goodrem, and although I was initially hesitant when I heard this announced, I have watched a couple of videos since the show started in Sydney, and I think she's great as Grizabella, I'm really looking forward to seeing her. CATS really is an ensemble show though, and although you might not know the names of those that make up the rest of the cast, I bet you've seen them in other shows.

CATS is currently in Sydney and the reviews I've read have been excellent, I'm pumped for it to arrive here in Melbourne!

Sydney, Capitol Theatre from 30 October, 2015
Hobart, Derwent Theatre from 10 December, 2015
Melbourne, Regent Theatre from 18 December, 2015
Brisbane, Lyric Theatre from 29 January, 2016
Adelaide, Festival Centre from 18 March, 2016
Perth, Crown Theatre from 16 April, 2016

Tickets start from $69.90 plus booking fees and all the information you need to buy them can be found by clicking this link!

Buttttttt... Remember I said I had a giveaway?  Well, I do! You can win one of TWO double passes to see CATS the Musical in the stunning Regent Theatre here in Melbourne on Friday 18th December at 8pm.  These tickets are valued at $119.90 per ticket, so that means $239.80 per double pass.

Entries close Sunday 15th November at 5pm AESST and I'll email the winners and announce them back here on this post and on my Facebook page shortly after that.

All you need to to to enter is like Chickens and Bees and CATS the Musical on Facebook and then fill out the form below telling me why you want to win!   

I'll choose a winner based on the answer that tickles my fancy the most.  

(Hint: I'm a sucker for a poem, but only ones that rhyme.)

Good luck!