A Sunny Birthday. Day 3

This morning dawned with blue skies and sunshine and it stayed a lovely bright sunny day albeit a cold one. Early on in the day the sickly knee was not too bad but then I hadn't done anything strenuous apart from opening cards and presents. It really didn't like sitting in the cinema Saturday night. I've been trying a natural medicine from the First Nations people (Indians to us Brits!), called Lakota Joint Arthroformule Care but I'm still having to top up with chemical painkillers. So I'm not sure if it's really working! It ought to, It's expensive by my standards costing 50 bucks for 300 capsules.
We're off to the River Rock Casino in Vancouver for an all you can eat buffet lunch, then when we're thoroughly stuffed off to Ikea then in the evening to Vancouver to see Jesus Christ Super Star at the Fort Center Theater.

River Rock is a vast Las Vegas style casino. The gambling section is cavernous . There's no natural light to distract gamblers with the time of day! At lunch time the casino is buzzing with people at the gambling tables and its noisy. Machines flashing and chinging all the time.

This isn't the main entrance, that's much grander. This is the entrance to the Casino
from the parking lot.

Below we are posing by the seasonally decorated trees that are planted in the foyer of the main entrance to the hotel.

The Casino is having major refurbishments ready for the Winter Olympics next year so the restaurant upstairs isn't as big as I remembered from last year. It's a full house and we have to wait for a table. We were told half an hour but 10 minutes later we were seated and ready to go fill our plates! The choices were great with a mix of Chinese and Caucasian foods, seafood, salads, breakfast brunch choices, roast beef and veg, and a dazzling mix of desserts. I actually managed to stop eating before I was stuffed and uncomfortable! How did I manage that?
Nancylee, John and Dave went off on a tour round Ikea. I never did find out what they wanted at the store! It must be a popular Sunday afternoon pastime, the store was heaving. Nancy and I elected to sit at the exit and people watch.

After a wash and brush up and a short refreshing snooze ( well we are seniors!) we headed back to Downtown Vancouver to see the musical, Jesus Christ Superstar by Andrew Lloyd Webber. The Fort Centre Theatre is quite new and modern it's style is kind of a modern take on Art Deco. The decor is all taupes, and creams very light and airy. The four story stair well is an elliptical shape and one wall of the elliptic is just a wall of mirrors.

This is a touring production of the show. Maybe a strange show for the Christmas season as its associated is with Easter not Christmas. Oh well, its an excellent musical anyway. The starring role of Jesus of Nazareth is the same star who played the part in the film, Ted Neeley. I think, as he by was born in 1943 and is the same age as us, he just might be a tad old for the part, as Jesus was supposed to be 33 when he was crucified, but I'm just being picky. He could certainly still belt out the songs. The show was choreographed by Arlene Phillips of 'Strictly Come Dancing' fame. The stage set was very simple and dark and the show relied on the music, actors and superb lighting for effect.
On the way back to Richmond we decided we needed food as we hadn't eaten anything since lunch. Unfortunately the Wine Bar was closed and two pubs we tried had stopped serving food so we went home and ordered in Pizza. Ten o'clock at night we were eating pizza, spicy chicken wings and drinking wine. A birthday cake was magically produced from the trunk of Nancylee's car. All squidgy meringue, fresh cream and fresh fruit. Not exactly food to go to bed on but Mmmmmm.......... it was good, but not for the waist line! Oh well you only have a birthday once a year.


Good job Nancy only had 3 candles. 65 may just have melted the cake!