Mamma Mia

I took my mum, best friend, sister and two daughters (eleven and nine) to see the musical Mamma Mia in Sydney just before New Year (that's me in the hat).

Mum is in her late seventies and thought the show was far too loud and a little raunchy in parts, but otherwise enjoyed herself!

Adorned in my hot pink feather boa - my kids sporting pink and purple cowboy hats with glued on tiaras - I thought I was fairly obsessed, as ABBA fans go. Then l I sat down beside a little old man who had driven up from Bathurst for the show.

‘I’m eighty-nine years old,’ he revealed. ‘I was wounded in action at Bougainville in 1945. I love ABBA! They were the best band I’ve ever known. I used to run a car workshop, and I’d play ABBA all day...

Then he started telling me about a water dam project in Arizona and got a little bit off the track, but when the lights dimmed, he proceeded to clap, tap his feet and sing throughout the show and, as I dragged him to his feet so he could dance with the rest of the audience for the final rendition of Waterloo, it occurred to me that we can learn a lot from his unbridled enthusiasm.

So what if he was the only World War Two veteran in the audience? So what if the men were completely outnumbered? He had a ball!

Is there something you’d love to do, that you’ve been putting off because you’re ‘too old/young/responsible/unfit/busy/etc’?

Does the phrase, ‘what would people think?’ ever get between you and flinging yourself at life ‘like nobody’s watching’?

Think of something that you can do this week to ‘spice up your life’. Then go and do it, no matter how big or small it seems, whether people are watching or not.