Kathy and John AND ELTON 1-17-09

John's brother, Jay, has a friend that is head of the lighting crew for Elton John. His name is Kevin (Stick). Jay arranged with him for us to have tickets to the Elton John concert in Sao Paulo. Most of you know John and I never stay up past 10 so this was a real stretch for us. We stayed at the Holiday Inn right next to where the concert was. This was really a blessing. We saw the crowds lining up when we arrived at the hotel at 2. We later found out that most of them SLEPT on the sidewalk because it was a standing concert. 30,000 people standing from 6:00 (when they opened the gate) until 12:30. Towards the end of the concert they started passing out like crazy. I am sure it was due to exhaustion, excitement and maybe a bit too much alcohol. Thanks to Kevin we had the only two seats in the place. He was a wonderful host and for this we are most grateful. The first person to perform was an Englishman also. His name was James Blunt. Then Sir Elton John. I was amazed that at 61 years old he could perform for 2 hours and 15 minutes. His jacket was of the Amazon with the brightest colors of green, yellow, orange and blue. The Brazilians sang along with James Blunt and Elton John on most of their songs. Many times Elton John would stop singing to listen to them. Kevin even got us drumsticks signed by Elton's drummer of almost 40 years. We had fun on our adventure and enjoyed stepping "out of our safe surroundings" for a night. Thank you Jay and Kevin!

(Pictures: #1 some of the crowd of 30,000 #2 Kathy & Kevin, #3 Kathy in one of the two seats #4 Kathy & John #5&6 view of Sao Paulo from our hotel room)