Grano Italian Restaurant

When we were originally inspecting the house that we are about to move into, the real estate agent John, popped in to say hello and to deliver some contracts and forms. John reminds us of a cross between Keith Roderick & Gerrard Reed. A great character with a wicked sense of humour and sarcasm. He looks very much like a cross between Hale and Pace and it just so happens that he is also a Pom. John has helped us out a lot and is going to be a great landlord for the time that we are here.

When John found out that I was a singer he straightaway said "great I have a birthday party coming up in a couple of weeks and you can be the entertainment". He thinks himself quite the entrepreneur and was pretty excited about the fact that he was hiring me for my first North American performance. Funnily enough though he hadn't actually heard me sing yet, but was more than quite happy to book me anyway.

His birthday party was going to be held at Grano Italian Restaurant, with a couple hours of a cocktail style party and then a more formal dinner to follow. I was to sing some background easy listening music for the first part and then do a set of traditional Italian arias just before dinner.

The day of the party I met one of my carers at a nearby music store to hire some sound equipment. Even though I was getting paid to sing at the party, I knew that hiring the sound equipment would be a cost I would have to bare as I haven't bought any of mine with me. This gig was more about networking and hopefully being able to secure a regular gig at the restaurant. But I could not believe my ears when the sound technician told me that to hire all of the sound equipment I needed, was only $30 for the night. It is incredible the differences between Canada and Australia when it comes to the cost of things.

Anyway we set up the equipment in this beautiful Italian restaurant that is completely decked out like a traditional Italian home. Although having never been to Italy, I am just basing my assumption on the educators of educators, TV.

Roberto was the owner of the restaurant and he and his family live upstairs and have raised three children in the 30 years they have lived there. The staff were lovely and there was very much a sense of homeliness about the place. A lot of the staff had been there for 10 years and obviously love the place as much as Roberto.

As the guests filed in I serenaded them with some Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis and of course the Canadian himself, Michael Buble. While I was singing, Mel spent a lot of the night socialising and getting to know some of the people that are going to be a part of our circle of friends over the next year we are here. A lot of them live not too far away from us and we have already had a lot of invites for dinner, bbq's and gatherings. They are all lovely people and it was finally nice to converse with other people more deeply than just saying hello on a bus or at the supermarket.

The dinner itself was beautiful, as 20 of us sat around a long table sharing salads and antipasto, lots of wine, laughing and cheering as John entertained us all with his renditions of my Italian arias where he changed the words to some traditional Pommy rugby songs that I probably can't repeat on a public blog. Let's just say O Sole Mio will never sounded the same in my head now.

One of the gentlemen that was sitting next to Mel and opposite me was another Englishman. He was also a musician in a past life and was a very philosophical guy. The longer the night when on the deeper the conversations got, until he accidentally let out that he actually went to school with Sting! Yes that's right, we were now 1 degree of separation from one of our favourite artists, especially as we had just seen him two weeks earlier. Much to Mel's disappointment, he said that if we had met him two weeks ago he would have been able to get us backstage and meet the man himself. He told us all about the boy he knew as Gordon Sumner and actually played in the band with him where he earned the nickname Sting. We got on really well with Michael and his wife and we are going to catch up with them again soon, not necessarily to try and get closer to Sting, but will keep it in the back of our minds in case.

John was thrilled with how the evening went and is now thinking about changing his career from real estate agent to my personal manager. He is already planning a Christmas function for me to sing at which will be an interesting experience singing out in the snow. Glad I packed the thermals.

I hope it's not the last time I sing at Grano. It is a beautiful place and we hope you enjoy the photos below.