Dance pony, dance!

A couple of weeks ago Nick was having a nightmare three weeks at work, and out of fear that he was terrifying me (he really wasn’t) he arranged a surprise night out for us in an attempt to make up for the stress. I told him that it was entirely unnecessary, but I got a good outing out of it so I wasn’t going to be too negative about the plan!

            I received a calendar invite to hold the evening, just with the title line “A Surprise Night Out”. This was never going to work. I hate surprises, and that includes surprises that you know are coming. I had a little think about what it might be, and what there was on in town that I wanted to see. We had already gone through a session of ticket bookings, so the list of what was left was pretty limited. The only thing I could think of was the horse ballet / acrobat circus show that had recently opened up in a Big Top next to Marina Bay Sands (the boat building) and that we had thought about buying tickets for, but decided not to as they were pretty pricy. I asked Nick if this was the surprise and he instantly confirmed that yes, a night at Cavalia was indeed the surprise. Panic over, I got ready for a really lovely Wednesday evening out on the town!

When last night finally rolled around, I legged it out of work and over to the Lantern bar on the rooftop of the Fullerton Bay Hotel for a quick pre-theatre glass of wine before we took a leisurely walk around the marina and arrived at the Big Top just in time to buy some candy floss and popcorn (another incredibly healthy dinner!)

Then came the horses, they were incredible. It was a combination of all the different sorts of performance you can imagine with horses – there were horses being herded by a chap with a stick who looked like he really wasn’t doing anything at all (although my sister would be able to tell you all about the intricacies of where he was standing and what that told the horses), there were cowboy horses being ridden upside down / standing up / whilst performing acrobatics, there were dressage performances, Roman chariot style racing, a girl with six horses lashed together who stood astride the back two horses and drove the lot of them over a waist high jump.

            I had expected a bit more of the performance to be up in the air acrobatics as the show was started by the same team that produced the original Cirque du Solei shows, but other than lacking a bit of aerial performance, it was an incredible show and a very impressive night out.

After the fairly short show it was only 9:30, so rather than heading home we made our way over to the Supertrees at Gardens by the Bay. 18 story high structures with plants bedded along the full height on them, the tallest tree has a restaurant and bar perched at the top of it. We headed up there for a quick cocktail to round off a near perfect night, and then returned home in a London style cab (white, not black) that Nick had searched out and pre-arranged just for the occasion.

            It was an incredible night out, and one that won’t be forgotten for a while. I’m glad that none of it was a full-blown surprise (other than the London cab), and it was most certainly all the more enjoyable for it. My sister has banned me from using the phrase ‘date night’, but if I was allowed to, I would say it was one hell of a date night!