Travel around Miami

Poor old Santa Eulàlia. She’s now demeaningly referred to as Barcelona’s ‘winter’ patron saint, although in fact she was the original one. Still, there’s a fair-sized weekend party to celebrate her anniversary, including the traditional correfoc around the Barri Gòtic – a noisy parade of fire-breathing dragons and fireworks. Equally dramatic is the human tower competition in Plaça Sant Jaume. Other features include kids’ games and live music in the new Rambla del Raval, plus free entry to most of the city’s largest museums on the Sunday.

Everyone has a hard time when they’ve got the builders in and the British Museum is no exception. Problems with the stone supplied for the rebuilding of the south portico notwithstanding, on Thursday the museum’s Queen Elizabeth II Great Court will open to the public. The £100million development, designed by Foster and Partners, transforms the space surrounding the former Round Reading Room of the British Library into a vast, covered public piazza and provides space for the new Clore Eduction Centre (scheduled to open next year). Previously only accessible to those with a coveted reader’s ticket, the restored nineteenth century reading room, which rises through the centre of the billowing bagel-shaped steel and glass canopy enclosing the court, is to become a new, free reference library. See Major museums

If your kids all motivated to become great stage actors following their end-of-year school concerts, this magical holiday tour of Johannesburg’s Civic Theatre for the aspiring little thespians may be an ideal choice. They’ll get to go backstage and see how the pantomime magic really happens during a fascinating hour-long tour. Bookings are for a minimum of four people and must be made a week in advance. Price is R10 per person.

New York City is infamous for its underemployed aspiring actors, who generally find work in the service sector of the economy and struggle to make ends meet while they try to get their career moving in the right direction. In real life, actor Mark Setlock is no longer in that position as his most recent starring role turned out to be his big break. He and playwright Becky Mode drew on their experiences to create the 40 characters in the one-man comic drama ‘Fully Committed’. The smash in Manhattan is now playing in Boston.