It's been a while since I wrote an update about the music that is having an impact on Opeie but I think it's really important as his love of music gets him through the confusing emotional things going on in his life. When we are at home we have music playing most of the time, it has always been an important part of my life and the love of (all kinds of) music has definitely rubbed off on Opeie too. So here's 10 tracks that he's been listening to recently. Hopefully he can look back on these and remember what an absolute dude of an 8-year-old he was.
While driving home one afternoon we were listening to absolute 80s on the radio, it's the station that is always tuned in for when the iPod isn't in the car. An absolutely shockingly awful song came one and I cant for the life of me remember what it was now but what did stick out was the DJ announcing that the song was released in 1984. Me and Opeie were chatting while the radio was on and I explained that the song was released when I was his age, This had Opeie asking what songs I liked when I was his age. I couldn't answer because honestly I have no recollection of being in to music at all back then.
Our conversation that day started a little game one night with us and Mrs M, to go through all of the big hits of 1984 and pick our 5 favourite tracks each. I was quite shocked to find that some amazing songs had come out that year and it ended up being quite difficult to narrow it down to just 5. Here is what we came up with though.
Opeie:
Last Christmas - Wham!
Radio Gaga - Queen
You spin me right round - Dead or alive
Against all Odds - Phil Collins
and...
Mrs M:
Karma Chameleon - Culture Club
Purple Rain - Prince and the New Power Generation
I Just Called To Say I Love You - Stevie Wonder
Last Christmas - Wham! (clearly a popular song choice)
and...
For Me:
Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now - The Smiths
Against All Odds - Phil Collins
Hot For teacher - Van Halen
Purple Rain - Prince and the New Power Generation
and...
It was interesting to see that we each picked one song from the other two lists. Music is such a huge thing in our house, we sing and dance a lot and Opeie is building quite an extensive and eclectic collection on his iPod. We briefly started working on the year Mrs M was 4 too. It'll be fun to see what 1990 has to offer, Stay tuned (see what I did there!).
Inspired by our recent house sitting weekend at our friend Chris' i spotted a framed picture in his bedroom. He writes over at Gingerjamphoto and last year he started a 52 week project taking a photograph each week of the year, I followed the project through the year but it wasn't until I saw the framed picture with all 52 images in that it gave me an idea.
I decided I'd have a go at the project myself but being a huge LEGO fan I thought i would use the minifigures of us and see what Adventures we could get up to. This weekend gave us a great excuse to start the project and hopefully I'll be able to keep up with it weekly. So here's week one, our London trip and the day we met queen Elizabeth II.
Seth is really in to knights and castles, if he has a sword, a shield and someone to battle he's a very happy boy, because of this a meal out at 'medieval times dinner & tournament' was one of the things Seth was looking forward to most. Seth is very much like Mrs M, he wanted to fully research every place we were going so has spent the last few months watching videos on YouTube and looking at pictures. The videos can't really prepare you for the awesomeness that is medieval times. Thanks to Visit Orlando we were there as press. We were booked in for the 18:00 show and we realised at the condo at 17:00 that they advise you are there an hour before the show, oops! We rushed out and after the 45mins drive to get there from where we are staying we realised it wasn't a neccessaty, 15 mins before was fine. (Just want to point out that 45 mins drive does sound like a like a long time but driving in Orlando is so much nicer than driving in the UK and you don't really notice the distance)
On arrival we were handed crowns and got to have our picture taken with the king and queen before being shown to our seats. The dining arena was fantastic and Seth was clearly impressed, there's nothing more rewarding than seeing your children with huge smiles on their faces and full of excitement.
As with pretty much everywhere in Orlando the staff are amazingly friendly and can't do enough for you and our medieval waiter was no exception, Nicholas was a great chap and very friendly. What stuck out for me was that medieval times had been the only restaurant we had been to that had been able to accommodate both Mrs M's and Opeie's dietary issues without offering just a salad, I was really impressed and it was obviously no big ask from them either, it's a shame more restaurants aren't like this.
One of the things I loved most about the experience was that everything was very authentic, the knights looked like knights, the king looked like someone you would expect to be ruled by and the food was very in keeping with what you would expect from dining during that era, big pieces of meat (to eat with your hands), rustic bread, soup and potatoes, lush!
The show was like nothing I've ever seen before. Six brave knights ready to do battle and a bad guy that caused the lights to drop and smoke to appear every time he entered the arena. Being able to sit and watch while pulling half a chicken apart with my hands and eating made it a real experience (sorry Mrs M and other vegans out there).
I won't give to much away about the show in case you are reading this before you go (although the show is changed every so often) but there was jousting, sword fighting and medieval games. The arena is sectioned into colours and you each get assigned a knight to cheer on during games and battle and obviously you get to boo the other knights which was great as you really feel like part of the show. Ours was the red knight a valiant warrior who when he wasn't battling for the kings acceptance was flirting with the ladies in the audience. Mrs M was to busy yapping to a staff member when she was hit in the side if the head from a flying rose, courtesy of the red knight, very romantic.
The experience from start to finish was around 2 hours and if you can go I can't recommend it enough. Seth informed us that it was his favourite part of the holiday so far and hearing Opeie shout 'come in you can do it' at the knights was great to watch. The whole experience was made even more enjoyable by our host Nicholas who was so helpful throughout and was more than happy to stop and chat to us after the show despite the fact we were keeping him from his work. A great knight was had by all (hahaha).
On the way out Seth purchased the red knights sword and shield from the armoury so that the medieval fun could continue back at the condo (even if he did fall straight to sleep in the car).
Thanks Medieval times dinner and tournament and thanks Nicholas it truly was a memorable evening and something we as a family can look back on and smile, a Knight to remember (I'll stop now). Good Knight. (Hehe)
