Travelling Post 19 - "if anyone orders Merlot, I'm leaving. I am NOT drinking any fucking Merlot"

For the uneducated in film amongst my readers, the above quote comes from the film Sideways, about an engaged man and his friend going on a week of wine tasting before his wedding. This expletive containing quote is the appropriate title for my post for two reasons and none of them being that I nor my friends are engaged but firstly because a week ago yesterday (Monday 15th Jan) I went on a wine tasting day in the Hunter Valley (where Lindeman's comes from) and secondly, whilst there I tasted Merlot and it is a bit crap.

The day started like any other getting up at 6am to be at the coach pick up point for 7am. Eleanor, Stacey, Sam K and I all went on the tour entitled 'Wild Wine Tour' - wild not because of the fun we'd be having on the coach after the wine tour (lots of sleep actually) but because our first port of call was the Australian Reptile Park. After taking a photo under the giant lizard entrance we wandered into the park where we went straight to the Koala Bear enclosure to stroke the marsupial and have our pictures taken. This was totally unexpected and a great start to the day, normally it is $15 or so to have you picture taken with a Koala in a zoo, but this was included in the very reasonable $85 cost of the tour. Next up we wandered to the picnic area for tea and biscuits where Kangaroos and Emus wandered about freely. The guide gave us puffed wheat to feed the Kangaroos, again an unexpected surprise, and an hour to look around. The rest of the Park was interesting, although our visit felt a little rushed and, ironically for a reptile park it was the marsupials which I found to be the most entertaining and memorable part of the park.






























After a look around the park it was off to Hunter Valley. We arrived at our first of three wineries, Ivanhoe Wines, at midday. Then we went to lunch, followed by a tour of Drayton Family Wines then a tasting session at the end and finally a third tasting session at Tulloch Wines. Throughout the day I tasted 11 white wines, 3 Roses, 6 reds, 3 ports and one chocolate liquor. At least I think that was what we tasted, I forgot to take notes at the last winery so have had to go off memory. My favourite wine would have to be either the Gewurztraminer from Ivanhoe or the Treminer Riesling from Drayton Family Wines. Both were sweet desert wines, The Gewurztraminer would probably have been a bit sickly after a few glasses, but i will never know I ended up not buying anything from Ivanhoe as it was the first winery we visited, I did though buy the Treminer Riesling from Drayton Family Wines and will let you all know how easily it went down when I drink it. Ivanhoe definitely had the best Rose, and Tulloch probably had the least favourite of all the wines I tasted, the Merlot - I think I prefer port to Merlot. Ivanhoe also had the best tasting session as we were sat outside on the patio with a beautiful view of the valley.
















Above I look for clarity and consistency, below I taste it.















The whole day was fantastic, I really enjoyed myself and am thinking of going to the Barbarossa Valley on another Wine Tasting tour when I am in Melbourne or Adelaide. It is at Barbarossa where they produce Jacob's Creek.

The following Wednesday Ed and I visited the Australian Natural History Museum. The idea was to visit the Eaten Alive exhibit, about predators but that was actually for pre-teen children, even big kids would have difficulty enjoying it. We did have a look around the rest of the museum and was most impressed by the Wildlife Photographer of the year exhibit (done in conjunction with the BBC) and the skeleton exhibit where I met one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
















Yesterday I revisited the Powerhouse Museum during the day to look at the Great Wall of China Exhibit - which was impressively detailed and informative. In the evening Eleanor, Stacey and I went to watch Stranger than Fiction at the Open Air Cinema at Mrs Macquaries point. Expected a field, similar to an American Drive In Cinema, there was in fact a grand stand and surround sound. It was brilliant, what you would expect to be distractions, the lights of a plane high above, or the sound of a boat coming close to the screen before turning around and leaving us only added to the atmosphere, making it one of the best cinematic experiences of my life. The film was also one of the best I have seen in a long time, with a spot on cast, superb direction and a witty, original script it is well worth going to see, open air or not.




























































Above, the screen opens up with a great moonlight background.

Travelling Post 18 - and into the New Year

And so on to New Years Eve. I was working all day until 6pm with Sam K at the cafe. The other 6 housemates had gone to Mrs Macquaries Point at 10am to get a good seat, with the plan being that Sam and I would join them after work. Sadly Mrs Macquaries point has a limited capacity of 25,000 and at around 5pm 10,000 stormed the joint meaning that we could not get in when we arrived at 8.30ish. After much pondering over what to do next we thought we would head over to the rocks. What would normally take about 15minutes to walk took over an hour as we pushed our way through people holding on for dear life and only stopping for breathers and to stare at the 9pm fireworks. When we finally arrived at the rocks, I queued up for beer and we sat down to wait for the fireworks.

The atmosphere was amazing and on the whole pretty friendly, I don't recall a time when I have been any where with so many people about. At midnight the fireworks went off, I tried to film them on my camera but realised I was missing out so put that down and just enjoyed the show. Easily the best fireworks display I have ever seen. T he view I had placed the Opera House in front of me, the Bridge to my right and the skyscrapers to my left. The fireworks were timed so well, so that when they stopped at the Opera House they started on top of the Skyscrapers or the Bridge. With a dozen or so other points where the fireworks were set off you can see they had some precision work going on there.

There was no 6am drinking for me, after the fireworks it was straight home to bed as I was shattered after a long day - it took 2 hours to get home anyway so it was not exactly an early night.

On New Years Day morning I rang the Mason's Arms and spoke to friends and family, in the afternoon I watched the Barmy Army get defeated by the Fanatics (Aussie Cricket Fans) in a life-imitating-art kinda 20/20 at the Coogee Oval, then watched a couple of DVDs in the evening. This was made all the better because I was supposed to be working that day but at 8.30am Sam came and woke me up (a habit that many people in the house seem to have) saying that Issac (our boss) had text saying he was not opening the Cafe today, not quite believing her I turned on my phone and received the same message, along with half a dozen text messages from Britain wishing me a Happy New Year. Quite Simply a great start to the year (if only the Barmy Army had won.)

After working the rest of the week, I spent a relaxing Monday off walking around the Chinese Gardens at Darling Harbour with Sam K and Stacey. For a very reasonable $9.50 we got entry into the gardens with tea and scones at the end. The Gardens had been built for the Bicentennial celebrations and designed by members of the Guangdong Government of China. This was one of the most relaxing days I had spent in Sydney and this is thanks to the highly deliberate nature in which the gardens had been designed. I suppose you could call the gardens picturesque, but not in an English countryside way, but in a very different manner. I went in expecting the extravagance and colour you see in Chinese buildings and dress, but their gardens are not like that all. They are simple, elegant and purposeful full of greens, browns, water and stone as opposed to reds, yellows and all the colours of flowers you might find in a British garden.

Above - various views of the Chinese Gardens.

Last Friday I visited the Powerhouse museum in Darling Harbour. The two exhibits that stuck out to me as being the best were Designtech and a display by Chinese-Australia artist Guan Wei. The work by Guan Wei was a Chinese interpretation of Australia, and was pretty magnificent, with large wall covering muriels and art that I could appreciate, there was also information on the Chinese Treasure Fleet of the early 1400s, explaining how Chinese explorers had landed on the Australian shore long before the Europeans but had abandoned it, and their abandonment of their exploration of the oceans in favour of following traditionalist ways. If they had not abandoned this exploration then the world could have looked very different. The second display that I found intriguing was Designtech, a celebration of the genius of New South Wales students in their ability to design objects from clothing, to furniture to a patent pending tracheotomy device. Never before had I seen a museum celebrate the youth of the area in which it is situated so well.

Anyway that is all for now, in my next chapter you can read all bout my exploits in the wine producing area of Hunter Valley.

Travelling Post 17 - Christmas and up to New Years Eve

Christmas 2006 was the first Christmas that I spent away from my family so i was determined that if it was going to be different then it had to be very different.

At just before midnight on Christmas Eve, Alison, Ed, Eleanor, Sam W and I brought in Christmas Day on the beach with a paddle in the ocean and a beer in hand. In the morning I was rudely moved out of one of my favourite positions in life (which is sleeping in my bed) for the opening of our Secret Santa presents. The present I received is far too rude to put upon this public forum. After the opening of presents ended I hid in my room whilst the girls organised a roast turkey lunch. After lunch it was time for something a little different, the beach. I was determined to go swimming in the ocean no matter what the weather, for no other reason than to boast to all that "I've been in the ocean on Christmas day in Australia." Luckily for me the weather improved from Christmas Eve, and from a miserable Christmas Morning to a glorious afternoon and so at around 4pm it was time to put on the Santa Hat and go for a swim. In the evening I couldn't be bothered to cook so went out in search of a takeaway, unsurprisingly the only places that were open were the Indian and Turkish owned takeaways - I ended up going to the Turkish for Garlic Pida, which is Turkish garlic bread.















Never wanting to go unnoticed, I'm the silly bugger wearing the Santa hat, and I wasn't even drunk. and below who is that handsome bloke that you may have forgotten about?





















And so Christmas Day ended, there was very little excitement, but it was different, just didn't feel a whole lot like Christmas. I've not been a fan of Christmas for a long time, there are all these expectations attached to it that make me plain uncomfortable and so I don't think that I'll miss not having a real Christmas. On the other hand I do wonder what will happen next year, I don't even know where I'm going to be yet.

I worked Boxing Day from 9am until 9.30pm, and so after a shorter day on Wednesday 29th myself and Sam K went to the cinema to watch Happy Feet (excellent go see it) and then as we left I managed to convince her to go into another film pretty much straight away, so we saw The Holiday (very good, made me almost homesick for dry stone walls, cobbled roads and the British countryside even if i do live in the suburbs, go see it if you like Working Title films). Whilst in Australia I want to do things I wouldn't normally do, and so when I saw an opportunity to go see two films in a row, something i thought i hadn't done before, I took it. Afterwards though I started to think and when I went to France with Aunty Catherine, Uncle Don and Andrew and think Andrew and I went to see two films in a row in the Ferry's cinema (The Matrix and Entrapment I think) - although I don't remember having to pay and I'm not sure it was straight after each other, so it was still different.

The Following Day I wasn't working until 3.30 so I spent the morning visiting Paddy's market, where I bought dad's Christmas Present (a boomerang, as he lost the one I bought in Scotland when I was younger) and my brother-in-law's present (a couple of T-shirts) Paddy's market is a cross between a tourist venue and a market for locals, its pretty odd but everything is cheap, and if i had the money I could have bought something from there for everyone i know.

After Paddy's market I headed to the Maritime Museum through Darling Harbour, an area that screams class and expense, the walk just between the two attractions made the day out worth something. I hadn't been to a maritime museum since Paris in 2004. From what I recall, that one was a trifle stuffy, however the Sydney Maritime Museum was excellent. I only had time for the free section, and i had to rush around that, but what I saw was really interesting, not only did it have information on the Navy but there were also displays on Aboriginal ocean history, surfing and swimming. I will have to go back at some point to look at the paid attractions.

Before I go I am a bit behind with my blogging but that is because I am having fun, I will update New Years Eve and other stuff soon. To compensate I have however updated some photos on My bebo of my birthday, some views of Sydney at night and my trip to Toronga Zoo - so go visit http://rhino-rob.bebo.com/

Travelling Post 16 - Cricket

We lost the cricket today, that is the first five nil defeat in over 80 years.

Rob is not a happy traveller.

p.s. will up date on the all the Christmas and New Years revelries very soon (maybe) it includes swimming and fireworks and things that will make you jealous.