By courtesy of $27 Grabaseat fares, I recently got to trip up to Auckland with the flatties, which coincided happily with the Simon and Garfunkel concert I was going to with Rachael and our pa. Here are a couple of videos snaffled off others on YouTube, as a picture paints a thousand words, etc.
This is the wonderful Clooney where we ate on Friday night.
A dining experience that was, for me at least, right up there with Tetsuya's two summers ago. We were well looked after by head chef Des Harris, who is lovely and so humble for his astounding talent. Two especially amazing dishes were the ostrich carpaccio (thoughtfully created, melting and beautiful) and the citrus bombe glace (sharp, cold, sweet, clever). All splendid.
And this was the second highlight of the concert. My favourite S&G song, Paul Simon's microphone failing, the crowd coming to the rescue, making it all far more memorable than if everything had gone like clockwork.
After this, Paul said, "That was really cool. I'll never forget that", and Art, "That's the nicest thing an audience has ever done for us".
But the first and ultimate highlight of the concert - and the whole weekend - was having the privilege to be with my father when he saw Simon and Garfunkel live in concert for the first time. He has loved them since always, Rachael and I grew up on their music and later learned to play their songs on the guitar and piano, so it was really very moving and quite indescribable to watch him watch them.
Awesome-o weekend.
