The Basement

We finally made it to The Basement after 8 years! Fiona arranged a girls night out to see the double bill of Axle Whitehead (of Australian Idol and getting-naughty-bits-out-on-stage-while-drunk-at-award-ceremony-and-getting-the-sack-from-Channel-10-fame) and Brian McFadden (of Westlife and shagging Delta Goodrem fame).

The venue itself is near Circular Quay tucked away and obviously downstairs under ground. We went with the dinner option for some extra cash which also means you get a great table close to the tiny stage and waiter service for drinkies :)

The venue is pretty small considering, I couldn't tell you how many people it holds but it's more like a big bar and couldn't be more than a couple of hundred max which gives it a really intimate feel. The food was good value and tasty for the price, I'd certainly go for that option again.

There was even an acoustic support act who was really good while we waited for the "headliners" to appear. Axle arrived on the ickle stage around 9:30 and performed a pretty lengthy and high energy set before Brian belted out tunes new and old from about 10:30pm. Both the boys, regardless of your opinion of them (probably the same as mine) put on a really enjoyable show and made the most of a great venue.

San Francisco

I managed to get approval for a trip to San Francisco with work to attend TUCON - the annual Tibco Usergroup Conference. Tibco BusinessWorks is the platform that my team looks after at work and it seemed a good idea to take a look at what Tibco are up to in terms of their products, future direction/strategy and also find out what their other customers are doing.

I went with my boss Pete on the Sunday flying Business Class with Qantas. It was the first time I've flown business class and even though it is ridiculously expensive it was worth it! The seat, the service, the food, everything is so superior. To the fact that you can recline the seat until it's flat, to the little white table cloth they put down before you eat, proper crockery/cutlery and freshly cooked food and a chance to pre-order your bacon and eggs - nice one!

We arrived before we left due to crossing the date line and got to the hotel at around 11am Sunday morning (even though we left Sydney at 2pm Sunday). I took the chance to freshen up before meeting Kathryn (who I haven't seen in EIGHT years!!!) that afternoon.

After the initial shock of actually seeing each other in person, we met up with Pete and took a cab up to Fisherman's Wharf for the usual tourist look around. We walked around and took in the sights on a great warm day (apparently the best of the year so far!).

Kathryn & I at Fisherman's Wharf (Alcatraz in the background)

We took a walk over the Golden Gate Bridge and I was able to get some great photos like the one below as the fog hadn't descended onto the city yet.

The Golden Gate Bridge without fog

We were also lucky enough to be in town when the Giants were playing. The Giants are the San Francisco baseball team. Pete and I were also lucky to have Kathryn with us as she actually understands the rules being a big baseball fan - we were able to question her throughout the entire game which made it far more enjoyable given it was bloody freezing!

San Francisco Giants vs Colorado Rockies - Giants go down 2 - 3 dammit!

We were also treated to a baseball 'must do' which is have a big serve of Garlic Fries (they come complete with a mint when you've finished!) - yummy!

Garlic Fries. Mmmmm garlicky...

Pete and I enjoyed the conference and attended the keynote presentations and many seminars, presentations and breakout sessions over the course of the week. But that's boring so I'll go onto the interesting stuff. Once the conference finished on Friday, I met up with Kathryn again and we headed out to dinner with her good friend Cara (who picked a great restaurant for dinner). I also had a bit of time to do some shopping in Union Square hitting Nike, Abercrombie & Fitch and G-Star the hardest!

We also found these houses on Alamo Square...

Pretty houses on Steiner Street (of Mrs Doubtfire fame)

The Saturday (my last day) we decided to drive into wine country up in Sonoma County. Another perfect weather day meant we took a leisurely drive, enjoyed buttermilk pancakes for breakfast and ended up in Healdsburg. Such a lovely town full of great wine and food, we took a good walk around taking in the sights. We then headed out into the country side where we found Sonoma Lake and we took a drive around.

Sonoma Lake on a beautiful clear day

Kathryn drove us back to San Francisco via Sausalito (north of the Golden Gate Bridge) which is a very expensive part of town and very picturesque - we almost got lost on the way to the airport but thank god for the iPhone and Google Maps!

Matchbox 20

Thanks to Donna we managed to get tickets to Matchbox 20 at the Entertainment Centre. It wasn't until we walked into the place that we realised that we had 3rd row from the front seats and the best view ever!!

When we arrived, Thirsty Merc were doing their thing to get the crowd going and doing a pretty good job of it too. They went through their hits such as 'In the summertime', 'Someday Someday' and '20 Good Reasons' - the whole time I was pestered by Julie to air guitar along!

Thirsty Merc do their thang...

Once Matchbox 20 stepped foot on stage as predicted the whole place went nuts and Rob Thomas launched into what would be a 2 hour performance of hit after hit. They rolled out the new (from Exile on Mainstream) and old and the crowd lapped it up.

Rob Thomas mid performance

As much as Donna & Jo wanted to, unfortunately there was no getting past the security guard to get to the front and once he spotted Donna's camera he made her put it away so I'm lucky to have these shots at all. Apparently they decided to play a different Australian song at every one of their gigs down-under and we were treated to a INXS cover version before they wrapped up their show with a great performance of Long Day.

Matchbox 20 take a bow

Kirsty & Craig's Wedding

Today was Kirsty & Craig's wedding. Kirsty is a good friend of Jo's as they worked together at IBM. We went to Kirsty's hens night a few weeks back and now it was time for the big day. We met Fiona in North Sydney and drove over the Harbour and Spit bridges to Freshwater (Harbord) where the outside wedding was taking place in a small reserve overlooking the beach.

Nice day for a white wedding...

The ceremony was beautiful in such a wonderful setting and on a day of perfectly clear and sunny weather. Our good friend Donna was the wedding photographer and she took some great shots including the ones above and below, I'm Kirsty and Craig won't be disappointed to have these in their wedding album!

The happy couple

After a glass of Champagne we all made our way to Shores at Middle Harbour for the reception. Another great setting overlooking the water the party got started after the round of speeches with the band grooving from the word go.

Paaaarty!

Downstairs there was also the 'Barefoot Ball' taking place (which we gate crashed a couple of times throughout the night!) where all the men were in Tuxedo's on the top half and boardshorts/thongs on the bottom! The girls were all in dresses and no shoes and everyone was dancing around to a great live band on the beach. The night went on with a fantastic three course meal followed by plenty of drinks and dancing to the band...

Billy Elliot liiiiike!

There is something distinctly odd about watching a Musical performed entirely in Geordie accents but that is what we experienced last Friday when we went to see Billy Elliot at the Capital Theatre.

I am a big fan of the movie so the musical was the next logical step, it's been playing in Sydney since last November and it finishes up next week so it was lucky we managed to get tickets.

Overall, I thought the show was excellent. The young actor who played 'Billy' was outstanding and was supported by an equally good cast. The show kept true to the original story line and embellished certain areas in true musical style (the Priscilla-inspired dancing dresses and the Maggie Thatcher fairground were additions that I don't recall from the movie!) that added to the humour as well as the seriousness.

The show started with some Pathe news reels of history and set the scene for the the miners strike of Maggie T's Tory era and the class war that followed. We watched as Billy 'F' and blinded his way through boxing, ballet, watching after his Nan and his families struggle with a year long strike and their working class son's love of dance not dirt.

As someone who spent many a year in Newcastle (ok, the story is set in Durham and true Geordie's can tell the difference between a Newcastle, Gateshead, Sunderland, Durham, Middleborough and Northumberland accent) I felt more qualified than most to judge (and understand!) the accents being spoken and sung. Most did pretty well I thought and there was definitely enough swearing to make it authentic!

I believe if there was a 'crowd favourite' award though, it would've easily gone to the young lad who played the camp cross-dressing Michael - his parts where hilarious and had the crowd in stitches!

Hen's Party

I'm not well versed when it comes to Hen's Parties so this was going to be a bit a challenge for me (especially as it would be the second time I've met the "hen"!). We raced around on Saturday afternoon trying to make it to Circular Quay for 3:30pm to meet Donna and catch the ferry to Manly - we made it with about 2mins to spare!

The first part of the Hen's Party was at the Manly Wharf Hotel which has a great deck and view. We met up with the "Hen" Kirsty (who Jo used to work with at IBM) and Fiona (another IBM-er) and got a round of drinks in. Over the next few hours, the other invitees arrived, photos were taken (until Donna had to go to a RSVP event in the city that she was hosting/photographing) and plans were discussed. We moved onto the dinner destination and place of the arranged 'entertainment'. Now, we had all been speculating as to what the 'entertainment' would be and as it was a hen's party, a stripper seemed the most popular guess.

L-R: Fiona, Donna, Me, Kirsty, Jo

As we approached 'Artichoke' (they cafe for dinner) things became a bit clearer. It's an ART cafe, when we arrived and went upstairs there was a big cosy chair in the corner, pencils on the table, paper attached to drawing boards....oh god. It's a nude model.


I actually found the whole thing quite relaxing, and even if I do say so myself my sketches (Alex, the model, did 4 poses in a 40min session) were pretty darn good! Hehehehe.

You can't escape a feather boa when Donna is around

After dinner and some drinks we moved on to "In Situ" a really nice little cocktail bar in the backstreets of Manly for some cocktails (well, Fiona had Cosmopolitans, I had a coke). The place had a really nice atmosphere and is far removed from the awful Manly pubs frequented by drunken yobbos so I'll have to remember it for the next time I find myself in Manly on a Saturday night.

Looking forward now to Kirsty's wedding on the 11th April.

Easter Long Weekend

Another long weekend, another dreadful weekend of weather.

We took off on Friday to Newcastle to spend the weekend with Ryan and Tanya. Ryan had a bad crash on his scooter last week (which saw him undergo surgery and have metal pins put in his arm) so we thought we'd give him some company and sympathy. His arm is about 8 times it's normal size and he can't really go out and about too much.

Due to the predicted crappy weather, we spent most of the weekend relaxing inside with good home cooked food, wine and Sex and the City DVDs.

Jo had not discovered the pure genius that are the 6 seasons of Sex and the City but this weekend we managed to watch all of Season 1, season 5 and half of season 6. We've got some back-tracking to do through seasons 2 - 4 before we find out what exactly does happen with 'Big' and of course before the movie comes out later this year.

We did manage to squeeze in some exercise though - Tanya is on a self-inflicted bootcamp regime that saw us up and out early on Sunday for a 6km run. Now, Jo has been doing bootcamp twice a week for the last 10 weeks while I have not. I was quite impressed with my effort of around 36mins for the full 6kms without a break.

Zhanna - too cute

I just wanted to add these pictures of Zhanna because they are so gorgeous!!

Melbourne

We decided a while ago to take a long weekend and head down to Melbourne with Ryan and Tanya. The time had come and we were up early to catch our flight at 8am. We got to Melbourne and met up with Ryan and Tan at the apartment. We'd booked into the Medina apartments on Flinders Street which turned out to be fantastic! The place was brand new with 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and plenty of space and in a great location.

Jo and Tanya getting ready for a night out

We kicked off as we intended with a trip to St Kilda for lunch. Ryan had been telling us about this place called 'Claypot' for ages and we decided that was the go. We ordered a tapas style entree with bread, dips and antipasto type dishes follwed by a whole flathead (cajun style) and a gumbo claypot. Mmmmm, the food was fantastic as was the service. We thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience and it set us up for the day.

The weather in Melbourne was beautiful and we had to head back to the apartment to get ready for the night. We arranged to meet some of Tanya's friends in the city around 4:30 who took us to the Marrakesh Bar. There was a $5 cover charge however they did $1 Corona's. Yes, $1 Corona's!!!! You can imagine how the afternoon went! After we poured ourselves out of the bar we walked to Fifteen (of Jamie Oliver type fame) for dinner where we also met up with Ryan and Tanya's sister Nalufa.

Jo and Ryan - cute couple!

We were surprised to find that all the wine on the menu was pricey as with nothing under $65!! However, lubricated by the $1 Corona (and probably averaging out the savings) we ordered 2 bottles to start. The service and food at Fifteen was excellent. I had the buffalo mozzarella salad to start and the slow cooked pork belly (4 hours to cook!) for main. We were all too full (of Corona most likely) for dessert which in hindsight was a shame.

The next morning started off fairly slow as you can imagine but we picked up pace and head to Prahan and Chapel Street for some shopping. We stumbled upon an Industrie sale where I picked up some shorts for $15 and a top for $5. Jo did the same buying 2 pairs of shorts and about 6 tops all for $5 each! In the evening on a recommendation from a Chef friend we tried a tapas place called Movida for dinner. It was conveniently very close to our apartment just of Flinders Street and the food was wonderful (well, mine was!). The dishes were very different and the flavours beautiful. Some of the dishes that Tanya and Ryan had were a bit hit and miss but overall if was a good experience. We finished off the night with a walk down Southbank, a drink watching a band and then a dip into Crowne Casino and the Roulette tables (no visit is complete without it!)

Ryan and I between courses at Movida

On Sunday we went to catch up with Nalufa in Richmond and ended up doing a photo shoot with her two beautiful kids William and Jade.

William, Lufa and Jade in quintessential family shot

After a very busy weekend we headed home very full and committing for a miniumum two week detox!

Pip's 40th

It's been a month of 40th Birthdays so far. We celebrated Donna's 40th in early Feb, followed by Anthony's and now Philippe's.

Birthday Boy!

We met up with Philippe, Guy and Troy after work on Friday and headed to the Minus 5 bar at Circular Quay. This place is a bizarre concept where you rug up in Ugg Boots, gloves and a huge jackets and then enter a bar made entirely of ice! The hefty $30pp (for 30 minutes no less!) includes a vodka cocktail (in a glass made entirely of, you guessed it, ice!). All goes well for the first 5 minutes then after the cocktail has finished and you have to amuse yourself in an ice cave overlooking the best sunny harbour in the world it loses it's shine somewhat. It should be called "5 Minute" not Minus 5.

Troy and I posing at Minus 5

After that 'experience' we all got cabs to Surry Hills where we had a table booked at Cochin, a Vietnamese restaurant. Now, I'd like to say that it was fantastic however, it took the ONE waitress around 15 minutes to bring the menus and then she hovered over us trying to take our order straight away! Odd!!

When the food did arrive, it was pretty good but the atmosphere seemed tarnished by the obvious lack of wait staff. Guy, Troy, Jodie and I bought Philippe a really nice Pierre Cardin watch for his birthday. Philippe was over the moon with it and took off his old watch to replace it straight away! We did enjoy the food and a few drinks but I can't say I'd rush back.

We made our own entertainment at the restaurant

We all headed out to Oxford Street post dinner and this was the night before the annual Mardi Gras so everywhere was packed. We tried to find somewhere without a queue that ran the entire length of Oxford Street and finally find a place and settled down for a few birthday drinkies. We ended up getting talking to a nice selection of random strangers before heading home and leaving the partying crowds to it.

Anthony's 40th

Backing up from Donna's birthday, Anthony had arranged for a party at his place for his 40th. Now when I say party, I mean PARTY!

Jo and Anthony enjoy a pose in front of the camera

The man had a bar (complete with bar staff), the entire party catered by Simon Johnson, a professional photographer and a chef to cook us all a seafood paella in front of us in what must've been the world's largest frying pan!

Simon Johnson cheese board. Honestly.

Jo and I arrived at 6.30 to see the final finishing touches being made to the cheese board before the party really took hold. The party did have a theme of 'Carnivale' but I'm afraid Jo and I were all fancy dressed out after Donna's birthday and our drag escapades.

Well ok, not quite all fancy dressed out

Nathan and Anthony however did look fantastic (see pics). I'd love to have some more pics to publish but my bloody camera broke that night. Grrr.

Anthony & Nathan all dressed up

The party started off fairly slow as you can imagine and as the night went on we met some great people. It seemed not many people knew others apart from Anthony & Nathan so we were all in the same boat. We hit it off with "Amy" the photographer (I can't remember her real name but towards the end of the night she had her make-up done by someone else and she looked exactly like Amy Winehouse!).

It's Amy Winehouse!!!

I'm not really sure how it happened but we did end up on Oxford Street until about 3am and whilst walking to get home all I can remember is people shouting out "Amy! It's Amy Winehouse!" Hahahahaha.

Alishia & Sienna

Here are some pictures of our neighbours twin girls; Alishia and Sienna. We've known their parents Lisa & Christian since we moved into our apartment and they lived next door to us (they now live across the complex but still close by) so that's over 3 years now. We've seen their twins grow up and they are just so cute!

Bath time! Hmm, that water looks funny!

That's why the water looks funny, check out their mucky faces!

Dinner was good, the bits that went in my mouth were anyway.

All clean. Complete with humiliating hairstyle, thanks parents.

Donna's 40th Birthday

The day had finally arrived, the day of Donna's 40th birthday party. For those that don't know Donna, she is the party planner of all party planners! No detail too small, no expense spared and this was obviously no exception. The invites had been sent and the themes were; "Tight & Bright" or "Uniforms". Jo and I deliberated over what to wear for a while and no doubt most people I'm sure expected us to take the uniform option. So we didn't. We headed to House of Priscilla on Oxford Street (think 'Priscilla Queen of the Desert) and found our outfits in a surprisingly short space of time. After a few changes, we'd found the perfect get up and made the booking. We were going in drag.

Two weeks later on the day of the party we went to pick up the costumes, made a slight adjustment by choosing wigs instead of a headress, bought some ridiculous false eyelashes and obligatory glitter before heading home to a marathon dressing up session. It took hours but we finally got it together for a pre-party photo shoot.

Connie and Carla

We when got the party about 6:30 (after having to hail a taxi and walk through the entire pub in this get up) Donna's face was an absolute picture of hysterics! As the night wore on, the amount of effort that everyone had gone to became apparent. Everyone looked awesome and of course the birthday girl looked totally fab in her tight & bright air-hostess uniform!

Birthday Girl Donna, Ang & Trish pre-dance routine

Donna and Trish had rehersed a dance routine for mid-party fun and it was brilliant! Beautifully choreographed complete with flight crew bags and in-flight meals :) We all had a great time, although my feet after a night in those platforms might not ever be the same again!

Honestly, the eyelashes are good aren't they!?

Karen, Paul & Phamish

Jo's cousin Karen and her partner Paul came down from Coffs Harbour to stay with us for a few days and to enjoy the sights of Sydney. We did what we usually do with Karen & Paul (and most weekends!) - enjoyed some good food and good drink!

Jo & Karen at Phamish

We ended up going to a place called Phamish, a Vietnamese place in Darlinghurst that I had been told about years ago but never got around to trying. We managed to put our name down and took a walk up and down Victoria St before settling down to some excellent Salt & Pepper Calamari, a really tasty Satay noodles, some lemongrass and chilli chicken and a beef dish that I can't quite remember. Great food, great value and a really nice atmosphere in a quiet residential street away from the crowd of Darlinghurst Road.

After dinner we took a long walk through Kings Cross, through Potts Point and down to Wooloomooloo Wharf on a beautiful clear night. As per usual we had a great time with them both and can't wait until they can make it down again (or we can get up to Coffs).

Rottnest Island

Our last full day in Perth saw us do the obligatory trip to Rotto. The weather had turned somewhat and a wet and windy morning saw us at the wharf to catch a Ferry over to the island.

After standing around for an ice age while the mongoose doing the check-in practically hand-drew maps for each individual person with places of interest written out in their dialect of choice, we finally boarded and headed down the Swan River towards Fremantle and then to Rottnest. The island was so named as it was discovered by Dutch explorers who saw the native Quokka's (small wallaby like marsupials) and thought there were large rats and names the island 'Rat's nest' or 'Rottnest' in Dutch.

A local cute Quokka

We had an hour to wander around before some lunch and then a 2 hour coach ride around the island. Thank god the sun came out after lunch as I have to say the Island is spectacular in the sun when it lights up the water and makes everything look so blue, if it was cloudy I think I would've come away with very different impressions.

Views along the coastline

The afternoon went really quickly and the coach trip around the island was a great way to see the different landscapes it has to offer. You can stay on the island and there are resorts, cottages and camping options. The more you see, the more you think that it would be a great place for a long weekend to swim and relax.

More beautiful water views

Perth

Perth.

Perth, Perth, Perth.

I'm a bit confused by Perth I have to say. It seems it will be nice when it's finished, but in the meantime it's a bit, well, crap. It all looks to be run down and badly in need of a facelift and lessons in style. And Fremantle. Don't even get me started on Fremantle!

When we arrived in Perth it was 39C and we were all melting. Still, we only had so much time so we wanted to see what Perth had to offer the discerning traveller. Not much is the answer. After walking down to the Swan River and dying of dehydration this area that the guide book describes as 'bustling outdoor cafes with water front views' was nothing more than an odd glass tower thingy, a dodgy chinese and a pub called 'The Lucky Shag'. I kid you not. There's photographic evidence below. Still, a pub's a pub right? Right?

The "Lucky Shag" pub. Yeah, right.

We were so strapped for ideas and evidence of anywhere nice to go that I had to call Nicci for advice on where to go for dinner! She came up trumps though and we went to JoJo's at Nedlands - right by the water and obviously somewhere that no tourist would ever find by themselves.

Mum and I have a laugh at Perth outside JoJo's

Things did get a little better though as we looked around Kings Park (absolutely huge and has great views over the city) and finally found a slice of civilisation in Subiaco. Can't say I'll be heading back to Perth in next 5 years or so, give then a chance to finish things off a bit.

The Grand Hotel. Perth-style.

Margaret River

After we got back from the Hunter, Mum & Barry headed up to Brisbane for a few days before then travelling down to Adelaide. Mum has a cousin who lives near Adelaide that she hasn't seen for years and years so it was wonderful that they could catch up after all this time and they had a great time together. We met Mum & Barry at Perth airport on the Sunday were we picked up our car and drove the 3.5hours down to Margaret River (another famous wine region!).

I had booked our accommodation months before via the internet so I wasn't quite sure what to expect but when we arrived at Losari Retreat we were blown away. Set on acres of land are 6 cottages all spaced out surrounded by horses and wild kangaroos. We drove up to reception to check-in and then the lady had to drive by car and we followed her to get to our cottage as it was so far from reception! And when I say reception, I mean another cottage that the owners live in with an office at the front!

Losari Retreat "reception"

We spent 4 great days exploring the region, first by heading down to Cape Leeuwin on the south coast and then visiting all the beautiful beaches along the coast line. The weather improved over the days and was mostly hot, sunny and great for the humble fly it seems, there were everywhere!

Stunning Hamlin Bay

We headed up the coast as far as Busselton where we stopped off to take a look at the Jetty (it's 2km long!) and as it was such a hot day we enjoyed one of the best thirst quenching beers I've had in ages!

Barry and I enjoy a cold one!

Margaret River wasn't without it's surprises though, we managed to get Mum into the Indian Ocean on very hot afternoon and managed to pry Barry away from the BBQ at our cottage one night so we could eat out at one of the restaurants in Margaret River town. After the Hunter we didn't go to many wineries but we did make it to a brewery! The Colonial Brewery has some great beer and Barry and I shared a 'tasting palette' of their 5 different brews - yum!

Dinners, baby showers, footy and more!

It's been a busy few days....here's a bit of recap....

Thursday Night I went to a work dinner in Surry Hills, first to the Clock Hotel for a few drinkies beforehand and then onto Aree's Thai across the road for dinner. It really made me realise what a good Mgmt team we have a work and what a great bunch of people I work with each day.

Jo went to and IBM 'hat' party in the city (even tho she's done with IBM she still gets invited to all the parties). It was a Donna Flynn special that went off with a bang!

IBM Hat Party

Friday Night
Jo's cousin Karen, her partner Paul and three kids (Luke, Matt, Cameron) returned from their 2 week trip in Vietnam to stay with us for the night. In true Karen style, no sooner were they back they were back out this time off to see Billy Elliot in the city! The next morning we awoke to literally 27 bags (most of which were North Face bags from Vietnam) lined up in the kitchen taking up the whole floor! They were flying back to Coffs Harbour on Saturday morning....just in time for Paul's 50th birthday party that night! Madness!

Saturday
Off to see the Swannies kick Richmond's ass in the AFL at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG). Complete with full on packed picnic with cheese, dips and crackers!!

Hunter Valley

After a few days in Sydney we took a trip up to the Hunter Valley for the weekend. We drove up after work on Friday and arrived at the Crowne Plaza at Lovedale around 6:30pm - just enough time to check in, unpack, change and head out for dinner. The Plaza is a fairly new addition to the Hunter and it has a nice feel to it. Spread out rather than built up give it a really spacious feel and the decor is modern and fresh.

We went to Harrigan's Pub for a glass of wine (surprisingly CRAP wine list for a pub in the middle of Hunter Valley wine country!) and a bite to eat. All in all, the pub was beyond average with Jo having to send back a very sorry for itself Moussaka. Still, the waiter did apologise as he knew it was so crap and he gave us a complimentary bottle of wine to make up for it. I can't say I'll be back.

View from Tallavera Grove Winery

The following day we booked into a wine tour, we were picked up on a wet and breezy Saturday at 10am to be taken around to 6 wineries in the local area. We started off at Lucy's Run - a very boutique winery that only produces around 800 cases a year. The winery is named after the owner's dog and is a really small operation. We sat in a tin shed while he talked about the wine he produces along with olive oil and dukkah (a spice mix) and we got to sample all three. Mum enjoyed it so much should bought a great bottle of Merlot and some dukkah to go.

The "Lucy" from Lucy's Run

From there we headed to Ivanhoe, where we tried a few varieties I've not tried before including a great Gewurtztraminer and a very nice but unusual Chambourcin (looks like a red, tastes like a white and served chilled). Although, the Semillon is the variety that the Hunter is most known for it's not my favourite (I prefer a Semillon Sav Blanc) and we all agreed that the stand outs for the day were the dessert wines (or 'stickies' as they're sometimes called). Fantastic, all of them!

I sample some red at Ivanhoe Winery

From there we headed to Tallavera Grove and then onto a pub for some lunch. After lunch we did three more wineries, a chocolate place and a the cheese shop! To say that we were stuffed was an understatement!