Kia Ora Everyone!

I'm back home on Aussie shores. What a great holiday I had across the ditch. New Zealand truly lives up to it's reputation and is now my equal favourite place (other than home) sharing it with Seattle. Firstly I would like to thank Mesh for taking care of the babies while I was gone. I can't see any redesigns and everything is where I left it so things must have gone smoothly J Thanks mate!

Just to take a moment to thank a few other people; my mate Jo who looked after me and did a stellar job. She didn't lose me and put up with my quirky sense of humour.

I had the opportunity to go to Starship and let me just say these people need our help/support. The stuff they do with the little they get it AMAZING. Andrew Young, Bobbie Brown and the rest of the team are SUPER and I was totally overwhelmed. Children's Hospitals are emotional for me and this trip was no different.

Some time ago I decided that AUSXIP will be affiliated and have Starship as the official charity and I'm so glad I did.   Seeing it close up gives me a greater understanding of how important it is. I can also understand why Lucy supports them.

September 21 sees Lucy Lawless Feel The Love Day(leading into a week of charitable acts in Lucy's name) and let me tell you folks, if you want to do something awesome, then donate to Starship. They need the money and it would make you feel good and support the Lucy Lawless Feel the Love Day (Week).

Now this leads me to the reason I crossed the ditch. The Starship Supernova. It was SPECTACULAR. Lucy was on fire. Her voice was so strong and her stage presence was something to behold (you can see it on the you tube videos). She truly owned that stage. Good on ya Lucy! Lucy wore a gorgeous Liz Mitchell blue dress (I'm a fashion tragic so fashion descriptions isn't my thing and it's a miracle I remembered/knew who designed it.) and then that absolute gorgeous Alec design dress we saw on Celebrity Duets. Her duet with Peter Urlich was so fun! Our girl did good. Roll on February and I want to see more Lucy in concert. I don't care what style it is; swing, rock, folk, blues, jazz..whatever it is, I want to hear Lucy do her thang.

The rest of the performers surprised me - I was not aware of the Lady Killers and rest of the performers but man they were fantastic! I love Swing and if I didn't have two left feet I would have joined in the dancing when it was opened to the VIP peeps. Alas I wasn't blessed with rhythm so I sat in my chair and did a pretty cool chair boogie.

Starship raised around $100,000 which was FANTASTIC! I sure hope they continue to do these because I can see many more trips across the ditch to support them! I know that's going to be very hard but it's a sacrifice I'm prepared to make J

I also got the chance to meet the Spartacus cast at the concert! What a great bunch of people. Many thanks to Andy, Jai, Lesley Ann, Viva, Peter, Katrina Law and her partner Keith for being so cool (sure hope I didn't forget anyone). Those guys came to support Lucy and that in my book is MEGA cool. Andy has such a presence, he's a quiet bloke but there is something about him that tells me this guy is going to be one hell of a Spartacus. Peter has the most gorgeous smile and so tall and before anyone says that everyone is taller than me, pfft J. Jai what a cutie...I seriously wanted to run my fingers through his curly blond hair (I did resist the urge). I didn't meet Manu but admired from afar when he was dancing. Lesley, Viva and Katrina are very beautiful women (they have that something that I can't put into words; their pictures don't do them justice) but they were also so sweet and down to earth. Damn, Rob Tapert sure knows how to cast people that are stellar.  I'm looking forward to seeing these great actors on screen.

Okay this report is longer than I thought and turning into one of my novels! 

Boogie On!
MaryD