Pirates and a Revolution!

I Love Twitter, have I said that recently? I win contests on Twitter when I enter them, it appears that this is something I do not have a lot of competition in doing. Scanning posts of companies I follow, I have won a book and tickets to The Pirates of Penzance at Stratford theatre this week!

Wednesday I won the tickets to Pirates of Penzance and I sent my 15 year old daughter a text message that we were going to see it at Stratford Thursday night. She replied OMG YEAH!! I didn’t know when I entered the contest that this would make my daughter so happy. I really didn’t know much about this play or what to expect. All I based entering the contest on was that it was for Thursday night which is my day off and that it was at Stratford. I had a look at the description for Pirates and Penzance and saw that it was a musical and it appeared to be a comedy. As soon as I saw Musical I knew Megan would love it. What I did not expect was that I WOULD LOVE it too!!!

 The Pirates of Penzance at Stratford theatre in Ontario this summer surprised me completely. The colours of the costumes, the quality of the actors, the voices of the singers, the energy on the stage, the perfectly timed comedy throughout the show. I loved this night! I walked out of there feeling happy and wanting more!  As I woke up this morning I realized this was the most fun I have ever had at a theatre show. I have seen Rent, and 42nd street in the last 6 months with Megan. They were both good shows and I enjoyed them, I enjoyed the songs and and storyline of Rent. I enjoyed the tap dancing in 42nd street and my toes were tapping along. The music in 42nd street was wonderful and Cynthia Dale was a wonderful actress to watch. But no show has brought it all together and had me feeling like I was walking on cloud 9 as I left the theatre. Well done Stratford Thank you so much for the contest and the amazing prize which I will never forget!! Thank you @StratfestChris!

I also won a copy of The Next Best Thing by Jennifer Weiner. I have wanted to get out to find a new book to read for the last couple weeks and I have just not had the time to get to the library or the money to go buy a new book. So I am truly looking forward to cuddling up with a story and getting lost in it over the next few nights! Thank you to @YMCbookalicious for this!!

On the Revolution Front things are being stirred up again! I received an email from the Jamie Oliver Food Revolution crew asking me if I would like to be the Team Leader for London Ontario for the Food Revolution. They will be ramping things up after the amazing success of the May Revolution Day and they are looking for ideas to keep the movement going forward. I told them about my plans to start Ignite Health this fall with 5 minutes talks on Health related topics. Whether that is Food information, Exercise information, supplement information, doctors, specialists, spiritual those topics all come together to make us healthy. I need to start looking for a venue, speakers, a date and work with existing Ignite organizers to arrange this quarterly event.  There are so many wonderful organizations in London Ontario that I am unaware of. I met with Investing in Children on Thursday and they focus on helping kids with Literacy, Dealing with Poverty, Full day Kindergarten, Healthy Eating and Exercise. They bring together companies that focus on these topics to improve society for London’s children. They will help me advertise any events I do moving forward and I know that we will find other ways to work together in the future.  So this revolution will move forward and I have lots of other ideas that I am not ready to share yet.

I am off on Thursdays , Saturday and Sundays. I am on Call on a rotating basis and I do take additional shifts to help deal with my financial troubles. So I have to figure out my finances before I step too far into the next phase of the revolution. I am commited to finding a way to make both things happen.  I will find a way to keep things balanced just give me a bit more time.

Hugs and my next blog will be about Sunday which is my daughters sweet 16. We are going to Toronto for the Royal Ontario Museum, and the Art Gallery of Ontario! This should be a great day that I look forward to sharing with all of you!

Inspired by Ignite Culture and Ignite London …Ignite Health!?

I am so impressed that one of my contacts on Twitter created Ignite Culture. She did it by word of mouth and it was hosted successfully in Toronto last month. Now it is getting a headline in London Ontario and being presented April 3, 2012.

I tried to think of something I could add to an Ignite Culture presentation and really came up with a blank. I don’t have any artistic talents, I am the product of a very dysfunctional family and can’t really look back in my family tree to point out any interesting cultural stories.

 My daughter is far more well versed in Culture topics. She is history fanatic, she loves classic movies, she loves the theatre, she sings, she loves to act. All of the things I may have been if my childhood had been remotely normal.

So as I realized that I could not create a topic that was specific to Ignite Culture I had a lightbulb moment.

What if I created Ignite Health! Same format 5 minute topics related to health and wellness. A focussed session that you can attend to learn about the body, alternative medicine and healthy living.

I know it would be popular, I know I have a number of contacts in London already that have dealt with illness in their families or illness in their lives. I know I am meeting incrediible people like Kresimer Jug who would be a great speaker on the benefits of Chiropractory. What if we combined all those skills and all that knowledge to improve everyone’s knowledge of their own bodies and the impacts we inadvertantly have on our bodies with the choices we make in everyday life.

I am inspired and wondering where to start…I will sit down with Jenn Nelson soon to understand how she created Ignite Culture. I will talk to Jennifer Murray and Gavin Blair about Ignite London and see how that was started too.

I think that having 8 – 10 speakers talking for 5 minutes each on an aspect of Healthy living can only improve the health of our community!

 

Do you agree or do you think this is overkill for another separate Ignite??