Babysitter night - Concert with Juanes
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April 28th, 2006
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Long before we had a child we decided that when the time was right we would have kids, and continue to have fun. We would not give up our hobbies, friends, workouts, travel, vacations, restaurants,and instead find a way to combine everything. So far so good. After Daniel was born we got the advice from a friend to have a babysitter on a regular basis to spend some time alone, just the two of us. This sounded like a great idea since we don't have family anywhere near our current location in Stockholm. For the past year or so we've had our awesome babysitter Sabine come by our place once a week while we head out for a night of fun. Our nightly adventure last week was concert with the Latin star Juanes. If you haven't seen or heard him you're missing out on some excellent music. (Click on images for larger sizes).
A few words about the artist. Juanes is a big star in Colombia but not a mainstream name. He only sings in Spanish and his music style is similar to pop but with a distinctive style. Not only is he an excellent singer and performer but he's also a very good person. He sings and talks a lot about family and children and is also involved in raising money for the not so privileged. He is especially focused on helping people in his homeland Columbia who have been affected by the horrible land mines. He recently became the first artist ever to perform in front of the European Parliament in Brussels and his country was then given a $2.5 mio grant by the EU president Josep Borell to help victims in Columbia. His performance at the Parliament was apparently very popular and it was even picked up by large shows like the Today Show in NYC.
Back to our concert. It was a sold out performance at the old Berns Hotel in the middle of Stockholm. It's small hotel dating back to the mid 1800 and it filled with beautiful architecture. We felt like we represented the UN when we arrived. It was me (Sweden), Sandra (Mexico), Esther (Venezuela), and Michael (Finland). Juanes performed in front of around 1000 people and the atmosphere was great. It was cozy, kind of like a MTV Unplugged event, but still with enough people to make it feel like a "real" concert. Juanes doesn't perform with 25 supporting dancers and a huge light-show. It's just him and a small band which suits his style perfectly. I definitely prefer this kind of setting instead of standing in line for hours and fight for good seats with 50 000 other people. Since Juanes is very much pro-family he had instructed the guards to give the best seats to people who really need them, like pregnant women and handicapped people. So we went from the back of the line to the front where Sandra showed her huge stomach and we were immediately taken up to the balcony where she was given a chair and well taken care of. A very nice touch that impressed all of us.
The concert was excellent and about 90 minutes long. We had a few drinks and just enjoyed ourselves. Juanes played hits like "La Camisa Negra", "A Dios le Pido", "Para Tu Amor", "Es Por Ti", "Un Dia Normal", and some other favorites like "La Paga", " Volverte A Ver", "Hay Le Va", "Fotografia", and "Fijate Bien". The crowd was in a great mood and it looked like all hot Latin women in Stockholm were present. the evening was great but the best part was of course coming home and give a sleeping Daniel a kiss on the cheek:-)) I give our concert night out five out of five stars.
In case you want to listen to Juanes you can download his music on the internet for free. There are many ways to do this but the easiest and most secure is Bittorrent. No need to be concerned about the incompetent idiots at RIAA. It's extremely difficult to track who is downloading what on the Bittorrent network because you are simultaneously downloading fractions of the files from many different users. All done automatically and at high speed. Use a free Bittorrent program free of virus and spyware, like BitComet, Azureus, or uTorrent. You can download Juanes last three solo albums "Fijate Bien", "Mi Sangre", "Un Dia Normal" and some extra material by clicking on the Bittorrent tracker here. The music is not stored on my site and clicking on the tracker will start your Bittorrent program and start downloading the albums.
But please support Juanes if you enjoy the music. That may mean buying his albums, going to a concert, or buying merchandise. Sorry about the poor picture quality. I didn't bring the EOS 20D with all the lenses and only had the tiny SD500. Plus I was a bit drunk…..
Concert sounds great, my friend. And Juanes seems like a very cool guy. I’ll have to check out some of his music. Can’t remember the last time we went to a concert. Hmmm…might have to put that on the summer “to do” list.
Have a great weekend!
Hi AD, I’ve been reading for quite a while and would love to visit Sweden some day. :) Life there seems so laid back and relaxed, and the best thing, there’s 4 seasons! I’ve never been to Europe before. I like the way how the pictures blow up once clicked. Could you share how you did that? Any html code for that?
sounds like a ton of fun!!
- Jon
- Daddy Detective
- http://www.daddydetective.com
Nov 2nd, 2006 at 3:57 pm
[…] Posted on Thursday 2 November 2006 Last night was surreal. A huge snowstorm blew into town in the afternoon and people had major problems getting home after work. There was not much snow but the streets and highways turned to ice and all cars were stuck since most people had not switched to winter tires yet. My embarrassingly short commute of 15 minutes by bus took me over 90 minutes and I had to walk the last mile in my suit on the snow filled streets. The city had basically stopped, I've never seen anything like it. Keep in mind that Sweden is a Nordic country, we're no sissies, and used to massive amounts of snow and cold weather. As I walked into our place at 6.45 pm. the house was quiet. Too quiet. I looked at my wife with puzzled eyes and she just told me that the children were already asleep. What? At 6.45 pm? Happy days! We proceeded by having a few steaks, opened a couple of bottles of nice wine, and talked for a while. We're pretty good with taking time off from the kids, except the past few months with our newborn, and I was once again reminded of how important it is to relax and spend some time with the spouse. Without the children that I love more than anything in the world. I've mentioned this on my site many times before and also talked about it at The Blogfathers. It's in my opinion one of the the largest mistakes parents make after having children. They stop living and instead only live for their kids. You and I know that kids are great but we also need to keep parts of our pre-children lives. I need some time alone regularly from both wife and kids and I also need some time alone with my wife. Without it I go crazy and become a miserable asshole. We used to have babysitter night once a week before Annika was born and plan on doing that again as soon as she can survive a little longer without breastfeeding. Our children are good sleepers, at least I think so. Daniel sleeps from 8 pm -7.30 am without waking up and Annika now sleeps from 7.30 pm - 3 am before having some food and then sleeping in until 8 am. That means that it's just the wife and my every night after 8.30 pm. It's time that we both treasure and it gives us time to relax. I have friends who's kids don't sleep until 10 pm which means no private time for mommy and daddy during the week. Personally I can't handle that unless the children are sick or there is an emergency. My advice to you parents would be to schedule time away from the children every week. And all you fathers, step up and give the mother some time away from you and the kids. Encourage her to go out with friends for dinner, work out at night, or whatever she feels like doing. Take charge of the household every now and then before or after the kids are asleep and let your wife relax. If you're a SAHD you know how hard it is to handle the kids day after day, if you're not you should at least experience it for a while. Then you will realize why it's a good idea to send the wife to the spa or just away from the kids on a regular basis. Don't just think about it. Make sure you do it. I promise you it will be great for your relationship, the family, and the children. The two hours extra we had last night were soooooo refreshing. I felt it and I noticed it on Sandra this morning as well. It doesn't take much to recharge, give yourself and your wife that opportunity. Think of it as another part of improving on your quality of life. […]