New Year’s Eve at Navy Pier Fireworks at Navy Pier. Annual Resolution Gala The annual Chicago Resolution Gala is the “it” New Year’s Eve event at Navy Pier. With more than 30 bars offering unlimited drinks, tasty buffet stations and access to the Grand Ballroom and the Lakeview Terrace, there are plenty of places to mingle and dance the. Only persons 18 years and older are permitted to gamble. National problem gambling counselling toll-free helpline 0800 006 008. Tsogo Sun Gaming casinos are licensed casinos. New Year’s Eve at The Palace. Event Date & Venue. R1 950 per person. Ring in the New Year in Opulent African. Montecasino Announcement: New Years Eve Carolyn January 1, 2018 0 Comments As an active member of the Fourways community we take residents concerns very seriously. Each year Montecasino celebrates New Year’s Eve throughout the Property. This year, we will continue with this great experience and will once again be providing entertainment throughout the Complex. Due to the nature of these events please be aware that Montecasino might be noisier than usual as there will be a band and DJ’s performing from.
Happy New Year! OK, enough pleasantries.
While my goal is to post a new blog more often than one of the Kardashian clan gets a divorce, sometimes life gets in the way. And sometimes I don’t feel like it, so I don’t. In this case, however, it was definitely the former. With Christmas, the New Year, and trying to explore more of our surrounding area, I just didn’t have time. While we live in Pretoria, we went down to Johannesburg several times over the holidays.
So hold onto your butts- here’s what we did over the holidays:
Garden of Lights at Emperors Palace in Johannesburg
First, let’s get this out of the way. That wasn’t a typo. While there absolutely, unequivocally should be an apostrophe in Emperors Palace (either before or after the “s”), they’ve chosen not to follow any sort of grammatical rules. I spelled it correctly in the heading up there. At least correctly according to their incorrect use of their own bloody name. But this is Africa, and rules be damned.
In my last post I lamented the fact that people here don’t really do Christmas lights. In our quest to make it feel like the holidays, on Christmas Eve we headed to the Garden of Lights at Emperors Palace. I admit it felt a little odd to be dressed in shorts and t-shirt at the end of December, but we were excited to have a real Christmas outing. While my expectations were incredibly low, we were all pleasantly surprised by the garden. It had everything you’d expect, including angels, Santa’s workshop (see, Emperors Palace, THAT’s how you use a freaking possessive apostrophe), and beautiful Christmas trees.
And these. Because nothing says Christmas like a boatload of traditional Christmas mushrooms. |
Surprisingly for South Africa, the Garden of Lights ran very efficiently. Tickets were sold ahead of time for entry on each half hour. Once you were in, you could walk around at your leisure, and it never felt too crowded. As we wandered, I could hear strains of music playing over the loudspeakers hidden throughout the garden.
“At Christmas time, we let in light and we banish shade. And in our world of plenty we can spread a smile of joy. Throw your arms around the world at Christmas time.”
Beautiful. And then, “while you’re having fun, there’s a world outside your window, and it’s a world of dread and fear, where a kiss of love can kill you, where there’s death in every tear.”
Wait, what? That escalated quickly. OK, so they decided to put “Do They Know it’s Christmas” from Band Aid 30 on the playlist. I guess that makes sense. We’re in Africa and all. OK, what’s next?
“It’s Christmas time, and there’s no need to be afraid. At Christmas time, we let in light and banish shade…”
Again? Seriously? Whatever. Must have been a glitch. Until the next song came on and, you guessed it, same frickin one. The entire playlist was “Do They Know it’s Christmas.” I wish I was kidding. No carols. Nothing about Santa. Just the constant reminder that we’re living in a giant privilege bubble while people are suffering and dying all around us. Kind of a Christmas buzzkill.
“Are you enjoying these lights? Yes? Good. And just a friendly reminder, everyone who isn’t here right now is literally dying. Merry Christmas!” |
As we exited the Garden of Depression Lights, we were forced to walk through a mini carnival. Tickets were crazily expensive, and more time was spent waiting for operators to fix the rides, which kept breaking down (because of course they did) than actually on the rides. The kids still had fun though, and our overall experience was great. We think this may be our Christmas Eve tradition while we’re here. While the Garden of Lights didn’t really hold up to Canyon Lights at the Capilano Suspension Bridge or the Festival of Lights at VanDusen Botanical Garden back home in Vancouver, it was a perfectly acceptable substitute.
Gold Reef City
Pictured: not fat pieces of crap. |
I won’t rest until I’ve puked from the top of this. |
The Great Moscow Circus at Montecasino
Whoever called it a ring-tailed lemur instead of a kangaraccoon is an idiot. |
The circus started at 1pm, so we cut our visit short and made our way over to the tent. The whole thing reminded us of Cirque du Soleil lite, but we had front row tickets and settled in for a fun little show. What commenced blew us away. The Catwall Acrobats started the show off and set the bar high. Bouncing and flipping like a bunch of acrobats bouncing and flipping all over the place (I know, I know, I’ll work on my analogies), they put on a high energy show that immedietely showed us we were watching a world-class circus.
Nothing like watching a bunch of chiselled, high-performance athletes right after eating like a moron the entire holiday season to make you feel like a bloated whale. |
We continued to watch jugglers, trapeze artists, clowns, tumblers, and all the stuff you’d expect at an event like this. And every act was top notch. In fact, we were so impressed that Vicki bought tickets for her and her mom to see the circus again when it goes through Cape Town in February. I took a ton of video hoping for one of those crazy accidents to happen (don’t judge me- you all think the same thing), but the performers were all consummate professionals and managed to blow our minds without even killing themselves.
I hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year. Vicki’s mom arrives in 2 more days, and we’ll be spending a week with her and the kids in Kruger National Park, which we’re all super excited for! Expect a butt-ton of animal pictures in an upcoming blog. For now, enjoy these videos of The Great Moscow Circus.
(If you liked this post, don’t forget to sign up to the mailing list here so you never miss another post again! While you’re at it, you can like the Maple and Marula Facebook page here, the Maple and Marula Instagram here, and follow Maple and Marula on Twitter here)
Happy New Year! OK, enough pleasantries.
While my goal is to post a new blog more often than one of the Kardashian clan gets a divorce, sometimes life gets in the way. And sometimes I don’t feel like it, so I don’t. In this case, however, it was definitely the former. With Christmas, the New Year, and trying to explore more of our surrounding area, I just didn’t have time. While we live in Pretoria, we went down to Johannesburg several times over the holidays.
So hold onto your butts- here’s what we did over the holidays:
Garden of Lights at Emperors Palace in Johannesburg
First, let’s get this out of the way. That wasn’t a typo. While there absolutely, unequivocally should be an apostrophe in Emperors Palace (either before or after the “s”), they’ve chosen not to follow any sort of grammatical rules. I spelled it correctly in the heading up there. At least correctly according to their incorrect use of their own bloody name. But this is Africa, and rules be damned.
In my last post I lamented the fact that people here don’t really do Christmas lights. In our quest to make it feel like the holidays, on Christmas Eve we headed to the Garden of Lights at Emperors Palace. I admit it felt a little odd to be dressed in shorts and t-shirt at the end of December, but we were excited to have a real Christmas outing. While my expectations were incredibly low, we were all pleasantly surprised by the garden. It had everything you’d expect, including angels, Santa’s workshop (see, Emperors Palace, THAT’s how you use a freaking possessive apostrophe), and beautiful Christmas trees.
And these. Because nothing says Christmas like a boatload of traditional Christmas mushrooms. |
Surprisingly for South Africa, the Garden of Lights ran very efficiently. Tickets were sold ahead of time for entry on each half hour. Once you were in, you could walk around at your leisure, and it never felt too crowded. As we wandered, I could hear strains of music playing over the loudspeakers hidden throughout the garden.
Monte Casino New Years Eve Events June
“At Christmas time, we let in light and we banish shade. And in our world of plenty we can spread a smile of joy. Throw your arms around the world at Christmas time.”
Beautiful. And then, “while you’re having fun, there’s a world outside your window, and it’s a world of dread and fear, where a kiss of love can kill you, where there’s death in every tear.”
Wait, what? That escalated quickly. OK, so they decided to put “Do They Know it’s Christmas” from Band Aid 30 on the playlist. I guess that makes sense. We’re in Africa and all. OK, what’s next?
“It’s Christmas time, and there’s no need to be afraid. At Christmas time, we let in light and banish shade…”
Monte Casino New Years Eve Events 2019
Again? Seriously? Whatever. Must have been a glitch. Until the next song came on and, you guessed it, same frickin one. The entire playlist was “Do They Know it’s Christmas.” I wish I was kidding. No carols. Nothing about Santa. Just the constant reminder that we’re living in a giant privilege bubble while people are suffering and dying all around us. Kind of a Christmas buzzkill.
“Are you enjoying these lights? Yes? Good. And just a friendly reminder, everyone who isn’t here right now is literally dying. Merry Christmas!” |
As we exited the Garden of Depression Lights, we were forced to walk through a mini carnival. Tickets were crazily expensive, and more time was spent waiting for operators to fix the rides, which kept breaking down (because of course they did) than actually on the rides. The kids still had fun though, and our overall experience was great. We think this may be our Christmas Eve tradition while we’re here. While the Garden of Lights didn’t really hold up to Canyon Lights at the Capilano Suspension Bridge or the Festival of Lights at VanDusen Botanical Garden back home in Vancouver, it was a perfectly acceptable substitute.
Gold Reef City
Pictured: not fat pieces of crap. |
I won’t rest until I’ve puked from the top of this. |
The Great Moscow Circus at Montecasino
Whoever called it a ring-tailed lemur instead of a kangaraccoon is an idiot. |
The circus started at 1pm, so we cut our visit short and made our way over to the tent. The whole thing reminded us of Cirque du Soleil lite, but we had front row tickets and settled in for a fun little show. What commenced blew us away. The Catwall Acrobats started the show off and set the bar high. Bouncing and flipping like a bunch of acrobats bouncing and flipping all over the place (I know, I know, I’ll work on my analogies), they put on a high energy show that immedietely showed us we were watching a world-class circus.
Nothing like watching a bunch of chiselled, high-performance athletes right after eating like a moron the entire holiday season to make you feel like a bloated whale. |
Monte Casino New Years Eve Eventsts
We continued to watch jugglers, trapeze artists, clowns, tumblers, and all the stuff you’d expect at an event like this. And every act was top notch. In fact, we were so impressed that Vicki bought tickets for her and her mom to see the circus again when it goes through Cape Town in February. I took a ton of video hoping for one of those crazy accidents to happen (don’t judge me- you all think the same thing), but the performers were all consummate professionals and managed to blow our minds without even killing themselves.
I hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year. Vicki’s mom arrives in 2 more days, and we’ll be spending a week with her and the kids in Kruger National Park, which we’re all super excited for! Expect a butt-ton of animal pictures in an upcoming blog. For now, enjoy these videos of The Great Moscow Circus.
Monte Casino New Years Eve Events 2020
(If you liked this post, don’t forget to sign up to the mailing list here so you never miss another post again! While you’re at it, you can like the Maple and Marula Facebook page here, the Maple and Marula Instagram here, and follow Maple and Marula on Twitter here)