I had no plans for today at all, except relaxing after my exciting night out to Cirque de Soleil, however Mirai came in to my room mid morning to announce that she was hosting an impromptu tea party and had invited Clara and Skwerlie over to join us. So, I quikly got dressed and ready and helped Mirai prepare the devonshire tea. Clara arrived looking beautiful in blue check and gave us a boquet of pink carnations which we put in a vase in the table, Mirai picked Steph up and she wore punk lolita!

We had tea, chatted and shared news and then spent the evening playing with our dolls, karaoke and looking at cute and pretty things on the internet. Clara had to go home but Steph stayed for dinner and we sat up late talking. It was really fun to have such a casual get together with no real planning involved.

I also had a chance today to take a photo of Claire’s beautiful gift! She is a Franklin Mint Marie Antoinette doll and she is just exquisite. I love her detailed outfit, with matching shoes and jewelry. Her coiffure with its tiny gems and feathers and her painted porcelain face which looks so true to the many paintings and busts I’ve seen. A thoughtful gift, thank you Claire!

I dare anyone to get bored at a Cirque du Soleil performance, I just don’t think its possible. There is so much to look at, so much colour and movement and sound you can emmerse yourself in it. Varekai is related to the story of Icarus, or rathe what happens after Icarus falls from the sky. I love the prevailing theme of wings and birds and clouds, there was even a great helium balloon! I did feel the story aspect to this performance lacked much depth though, I would like to have seen it incorporated a little more, rather than just something that ties the acts together. I thought to begin with there was a bit of a nature vs. technology theme going on, which was interesting but I may just have been imagining it.

The costumes were wonderful! Very colourful and vibrant and exotic. You could see influences from tropical fish, lizards, birds all made some how foreign and different. My favourites were the white “birds” with their gossamer feathers and the woman in the cobweb-like gown with a huge collar that cast her face in shadow, when she carried a lamp it lit up her sleeve like veined amber.

The vocalists were wonderful! I think they always pick such great singers, and I love the live element they give to the music score. The acrobats and performers were of course, amazing. I feel like they have tried to go back to the core basics with this show, demonstrating the pure skill and abilities of the performers without the need for showy props and settings to impress. It had a very natural feel to it.

My only dissapointment was the clowns, I found them a bit tacky. The last performance I saw, Alegria, had incorporated the clowns in such a beautiful way that they fitted the story and didn’t seem like a seperate act. There were two clowns like this in Varekai as well, but then there were another two clowns that seemed to have nothing to do with the show and were rather bawdy. Part of me was left wondering if they were some local duo that Cirque had invited to join the show for the evening.

Our seats were excellent too! We were in the second row so we got to see the details of the costumes and the expressions on the performers faces, its a magical experience and I was glad we had the chance to see it up close.

All in all, a wonderful evening’s entertainment. It transports you to another world.