Wine, wine and more wine!

Hi all,
the last two weeks, whilst Chris' ma and bro have been here, seem to have centred somewhat around the topics of food and wine. I think that I have possibly consumed more wine in the past few weeks than at any previous time in Australia. Of courese I'm not complaining!

The biggest consumption of alcohlic beverages has to have been last Saturday when we were treated to a wine tour, courtesy of John and Yarra Valley Wine Tours. They picked us up in a little min-bus and sped us down to the Yarra valley where we met up with 7 others. Much to our amusment 5 of these 'others' were also Brits!

For full details rgarding this trip you can read John and Rosie's blog but here are some of the highlights:
Domain Chandon- which, I realised, is part of the Moet Chandon group. It is only about half and hour from our home- why had we not been there before? Drank far too much bubbly at this one and bought a bottle of pink sparkling for Christmas.
De Bortolli- we had lunch here. The menu was limited and a bit posh for my liking, which is why I ended up with rabbit spaggetti. I thought that I would be able to pick the rabbit out but it was minced rabbit. To be honest it would have been ok if I had been able to stop myself from thinking of our childhood rabbit Flopsy each time I had a mouthful!! Thankfully their a cheese shop at this winery so I was able to fill up on a cheese tasting plate after the meal. The rest of the family also tried the entire fortified wine menu but I was already feeling a little queasy so gave that one a miss.
Balgownie Estate- This winery was smaller than the other two and, to be honest, I thihk that I had kind of lost the plot by this point. However,we must have liked something there cause I just checked the cupboards and we have a few bottles of their Shiraz! We are also intending a return visit to this place as they have rooms and a spa!! Mix it with good food and wine, what more could you wnat!
Acacia Ridge- This was my favourite winery of the day. Infact I think it was everyone's favourite winery- not least cause the wine maker was our host and he gave us the bottle and said to pour as much as we wanted. THe guy was about 80 years old, with 2 hearing aids. At first we all thought he was a litle insane but we soon realised he was actually an excellent sales person. Our group of 11 people must have bought 2 or 3 dozen bottles from him between us. 1 couple bought a dozen just for themselves! But my favourite thing about this guy was not his wine, nor was it the cool little hut with the big open fire, no it was the field full of beautiful labradors that got me. They were all gorgeous and both Chris and I left the wine tasting after a while to go play with them. We really need to get a dog soon!

When we got home that evening we were all a bit worse for wear. Rosie fell asleep on the ofa about 5 minutes after getting home. The boys consumed a curry, (munchies I think!) and I nursed a bad headache in the bath!

An excellent time was had by all! Rosie and Jon may have over done it on the wine buying though. Their excess luggage payment was $240 ! Oh dear! Love Helen***

Being autistic!

Hi all,

For the last few weeks I have been working in an autistic school, which has proved very interesting. The autistic spectrum is very broad and whilst some of the children can read, write and follow instructions others can not even toilet themselves. Others, who appear pretty intelligent and 'with it' can flare up at any moment and have an almighty tantrum with kicking, biting and scratching being quite normal behaviour! Today I have 2 red, bruised marks where some 'lovely' children pinched me when they weren't getting their own way!

Autistic children see the world through different eyes to the rest of us. It is almost as if someone is holding up a filter so that what we see as important and interesting, autistic children find dull, whilst, for them, something as trivial as their shadow can cause hours of entertainment! One dayI told a little girl that it was time to go to the bus and she promptly turned around and told her shadow it was time to go. She was most excited when this'new friend' follwed her to the bus que!

But one thing I have learnt is that the autistic point of view is not necessarily a bad one. Yes, in our society few of these children will ever pass as 'normal' but they are not unhappy about this, or even aware of it, in most circumstances. Most of the children are happy just to 'be'. Wouldn't it be lovely to be content just examining a stick or having a conmversation with yourself in the mirror for a hour or so. Best of all, wouldn't it be great to not be able to interpret other people's snide looks, negative body language and rude behaviour. Maybe we all need a dose of the autistic gene to help us appreciate the simple things in life and to give us a thicker skin! I know I do!

Love Helen***

A very tough game...

Check this out, i found this a few months back and it is one tough son of a gun!
Have fun...
C
http://www.zipperfish.com/mediabase/popup.php?Active=GameFiles&&ID=1294

How warm is it in Melbourne today???!!!

This is unreal - taken from http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200610/s1763651.htm

Melbourne temperature

near record high
Melbourne has recorded its hottest October day for almost a century. The temperature has risen above 36 degrees Celsius, with other areas including Avalon and Mildura reaching more than 37 degrees. Weather bureau senior forecaster Richard Carlyon says it could still get hotter. "We've reached 36.6 degrees at 4.24 (AEST) and the temperature's still hovering around 36 degrees," he said. "The hottest October day on record is 36.9, recorded way back in 1914."
He says they are the kind of conditions normally seen in February.

So, being the romantic geezer that I am, made it home from work at a good time, stopped off at the shops for some supplies (smoked salmon and fillet steak), made some butties. I quietly waited for Helen to trundle home and whisked her away, down to our favourite beach for the last few hours of sun. It was actually a lot cooler by the sea, although sadly the heat has sparked the flies in motion again!

As usual, our beach was practically deserted, save for a bloke with his young daughter. The sea was very choppy today as it ad been very windy earlier in the day. I even tried flying the kite but there was just not enough to keep it going! Anyhow, I got a lovely pic of the two of us...

apologies for the tree growing out of my head ;o)

Cool, so it's now T minus 36 hours till the troops land, and we still have to clean the bathroom - better get moving!

Take care

C

Buono estente....

Just saw the weather report for singapore this week - nothing too out of the ordinary:


In the immortal and truly descriptive words of Poala Fisch on the Fast Show: "Scorchio, heh heh! Nio dudupos, sminki pinki tenuros tomano... Graba da bols!! Scorchio!!"

And new name is.....

So Helen has decided to name her car 'Bluey'

It has a very aussie feel to it thats for sure. Shame it's not a ute then it would really fit the bill.

On another note, the countdown has begun for the first of our distinguished guests over the next 3 months. Mum and Jon arrive in less than 5 days now! They will be starting their adventure very soon with a couple of days in singapore on the way out here staying at the Ritz Carlton (copy me copy me;o)) in total luxury, then will touch down in MEL for 12 days of living it large! Cant wait to see you both....

Ok, time to do some work....
C

As if Helen wasn't clucky enough.....

....and our friends go and have a beautiful baby girl!

Cherie Mountney gave birth to Ava Elizabeth on Monday 2nd October at 5am, weighing at a very healthy 8lb 10oz.

I just got back from a quick visit and to get a few snaps.... isn't she gorgeous???


So there you go mum, more wood on the fire!

C

Whoever said pigs couldn't fly???

We made the trip this weekend to the melbourne show.

This was amongst the first things we did when we first arrived in oz last year, and we both have bittersweet memories of that event - it was cold and wet, not very busy and we kept seeming to miss all the good stuff. I think we went on the worst possible days last year.

However, this year was superb. First off, the weather was perfect. Clear blue skies, very warm in the sun, but a lovely cooling breeze. And they have completely renovated the showgound - many new pavillions, completely revamped the arena too. The main food hall that showcases local produce - ice cream, wine, cheeses, healthfoods, chocolates, etc, etc. was a brand new millenium-dome like structure that was vast - we had so much fun going from stall to stall trying all the local red wines. And they are very generous with the free samples!

We tried a barrage of different cheeses too, and I really got to appreciate the mix of wine with cheese - they all tasted so wonderful! And I got to try something different - one stall asked me which wine I had just tried, and matched it with a local honey of all things. Wow, it was a taste sensation, mixing the fruity aftershock of a Gippsland Pinot Noir with a rich Leatherwood honey was almost divine!

Next, we visited the dogs section. The show runs for a week, and during that time, there are competitions of pretty much every breed under the sun, but on the saturday, all the group winners compete head to head for the best in show awards.

There is a huge hall with probably 1,000 stalls for al the dogs and their owners, and the public are allowed to wander around and coo over all the cute ones. We spent nearly an hour wandering around stroking the dogs and we saw the most gorgeous boxer we've seen since Jemmy!

We have a movie of her, but is a bit blurry, but suffice to say she had virtually the same boisterous nature as the jemster, it was lovely to see. She had actually won best of breed in the competition.

After further cooing over various breeds, including the stunning Weimaraner (my favourite breed by the way) we headed towards the agriculture pavillion, and on the way we found what was billed as "Pig Racing and Diving". What was this, I thought. The show was ten minutes off, so we grabbed a couple of seats and I went on a drinks pitsop. The show started with a very surreal show consisting of giant mechanical koala bears playing in a band. Very odd indeed. However, this turned out to be just the warm up. In front of us was a large 'U' shaped circuit with a set of stalls similar to thos you'd see at a greyhound racing track.

The meastro came on, and after many minutes of bigging it all up, introduced the pigs! they were fairly young, and were uncerimoniously herded into the stalls, and after much hype, they were positively chomping at the bit and at the blow of the whistle shot out of the cages and it was over.... or so we thought. A minute or two later, the meastro came back out and described the strange looking contraption in front of us, inside the 'U' shaped track. It was a long plank, leading up about 8ft in the air, about 5 feet from a large water tank. Suddently, a little pink flash shot along the plank, didn't even hesitate, and leapt off the edge over five feet and dived head long into the tank! It was so fast, I barely cought it on camera!

And with that, the piggy show was over! Very surreal really.

We then headed to our inteded destination, and went to the farm animal nursery, where there was a huge pen with dozens of sweet little lambs, piglets, chooks, and so on, and we could go in and pet the animals, whilst trying to avoid them crapping on you! what fun! There was one lamb that was very cool - he looked like a lamb, but old and wise at the same time - helen and I both thought he was worth a pic - check out his beard!

The evening was soon upon us, and having already devoured our bacon butties some hours ago, we decided to find some grub, and settle down to watch the evening events - namely the monster truck, freestyle motorcross, daredevil acrobats, outback adventure, and fireworks! Suffice to say, they were all very good fun, except perhaps the acrobats.

They consited of a Father-Daughter combo, and she started procedings. With the use of a very large crane, she was suspended at the height of 150ft on a trapeze, and wowed the crowd with her highly flexible body swinging and swirling through the sky. this lasted a few minutes, then the crane was lowered for ther father to join her. His performance was simply breathtaking. attched to the top of the crane was a 5 meter pole-vaulters pole with a special hand grip on the top. He climbed to the top and swayed all over the place as the crane reached the dizzying heights again. With his daughter below counterbalancing him, he performed all manner of gravity defying trick - standing atop the pole, he swayed from side to side - a massive 10ft either side of upright - first while standing, then amazingly on one hand! Please note here that these people had no safety nets, no security wires, nothing to stop them from falling to their certain death. I was captivated and amazed, while helen just couldn't watch! I was genuinely on the edge of my seat. The truly amazing thing was that the father was no spring chicken - he's been doing these death defying stunts for over 60 years - he was 71 years old! Stunning. Have a look at their website - there is a breif video of their act.

http://www.flyinglotahs.com/crane.htm

So that was the end to a great day out, we'll definitely go again... if only to see the flying pigs

C