Date Night, Venue Scouting, Old Friends and Lukin Joshua - Live @ The BAAA

dsvg

It's really not often that things come together so magically, but gosh, was date night with @zakludick spectacular on Thursday. So, as we're both pretty practical, as well as romantic, we do try to get as much done as we can on a night out, and this time the universe played along nicely!

This date night celebrated our 1st official date, four years ago. And when I say 1st official date, I mean like a proper dinner date. I wish to god I had taken more photos of that evening as Zak had the restaurant (a lovely sushi spot) prepare a table for us and arrange a gorgeous bunch of flowers for me. I only took my phone out when load-shedding was already active, so all you can see are blurry faces and some candles. But the memories are there. I still remember we had those early day jitters and were still very much getting to know each other. I really think it's so important to remember to celebrate your love, no matter how long you've been together, and to treasure memories as the years go on.

The other reason we were out, was because of a dear friend that I'd made contact with at my recent dreaded, but actually lovely high school reunion who has been nagging us to come and play at this venue. So we made contact with the owner and off I went with my notebook like a total nerd, ready to ask and answer questions about sound and spacing and rates and all that jazz and appear like I knew what I was talking about. @jasperdick normally handles this bit, so I was a bit nervous to be in the driver's seat per se. Although I did actually make one or two notes, we had to laugh that my book served as a coaster for most of the evening!

Then we bumped into a very dear very old friend of mine. He was part of the staff at my 1st waitressing/ bar job when I dropped out of school at the tender age of 15. Chris was a mixologist when that wasn't even a thing here in Cape Town and he trained me to make my 1st cocktails. He also neglected to train me that long island ice teas are made with half tots of the 5 white spirits... not whole tots 😂 no wonder there was never any space for the coke, or for a Californian iced tea (my old favorite) which is made with lemonade(Sprite instead of Coke) and Bols blue (blue curacao instead of triple sec) - there was no space for the lemonade! No wonder I was so popular behind the bar 😂😂😂 Between him and a few other really special friends, I got to go to some incredible VIP parties, including one on the top of a skyscraper in the center of Cape Town that they'd converted into a beach theme, complete with sand and fake palm trees called "Long Beach." When we spoke about it, the memories came flooding back. Because I was so young, sometimes I wonder if the memories were real, but yes they were. And I was truly blessed, in my very unconventional life, to have been surrounded by such incredible friends who took me under their wings and treated me like their wild little sister... allowing me to be totally free, but also making sure I was safe all the time. One of our friends used to let me party so hard that I couldn't walk and he'd throw me over his shoulder and walk me home like that, for Truly one of the most inexplicable and magical times of my life.

Then, the cherry on the cake was that our most favouritest live artist was on stage at The BAAA! First of all, what a cool venue name. I mean, who wouldn't want to play there? Also, what a fabulous selection of refreshments and there is a full menu available from the co-owned grill and restaurant downstairs. They also have a fabulous range of tequila! These people definitely know what they're doing. Lukin was just absolutely ON FIRE. We managed to catch all three sets, although we were a bit late for the 1st one, but were so thrilled to have such a warm welcome as he totally gave us a shoutout as we arrived. He also played a snippet of "A Song of Hope" for me which was such an awesome shoutout!

The crowd was lovely and the evening seemed to roll on pretty organically with Lukin taking breaks where he needed to and then commanding the room so naturally when he was performing. He's got a way of engaging the audience where they feel entertained, and relaxed and kept just a little on their toes as he loves to spice things up and improvise! He really is a fabulous showman.

I got an extra special surprise when he invited me to sing Creep with him right there on stage, in front of the owner! Talk about a great way to audition! It was definitely a different experience, and I needed to let go of my "sing it like it is on the album" mindset, and once I stopped panicking and staring at the mic, things really started to come together beautifully! I watched his body language for cues and he even let me lead a bit with adlibbing and it was really like a dance. What a great experience. And I think we scored some noddy badge points from the owner as the whole bar was singing along and got up to cheer us at the end!

We've pitched a date, so watch this space!

The BAAA