3 August 2009

Today was another lovely day, so i decided to go straight to Darling Harbour, and wonder around there.Instead of getting a Travel card for the day, which allows you travel on Trains, Buses and Ferry's (which costs $17.50) I decided to just get a return ticket, which is just travel on the train (which costs $7.90) so MUCH cheaper - and didn't need to go on the ferry to get to Darling Harbour so seemed like the right choice.So I'm finding my way around nicely.

There was a boat show at Darling Harbour this weekend, so got to see some beautiful boats (though didn't purchase tickets to roam the boats) they were good enough from my free view.Dad you would have been in awe.

I made my way to the Maritime Museum, where you could board the, HMAS Vampire - Darling class destroyer and the HMAS Onslow - Oberon class submarine which was very interesting.

5 August 2009

Today was a beautiful hot sunny day, so I got up early, and made my way to Circular Quay, where I then got on a ferry to Manly beach.I arrived at Manly beach for around 1pm (quite a journey after leaving the house at about 10.30, but its more so the waiting between the train and ferry)Anyways, it was well worth it.Once I got my lunch, I made my way from Manly beach to Shelly Beach, which is about a 10 min walk.I placed myself nicely on the grass patch, where I had my Sushi, with a glass of bubbley (you can't smoke or drink on the beach).After this, I took myself down to the beach, and lazed on the beach reading my book.What a life hey …. I could definitely get used to this.

I spent all afternoon at the beach, and left to get the 5.15 Ferry back to Circular Quay, to make my way back to the farm

6 August 2009

Today was my first day working on the farm, as a picker.Wow, a 7.30am start …. Really shocked the body, but I was there, bright eyed and bushy tailed, ready to go.I was introduced to the ladies, and then taken by my mentor to one of the shed's where I was shown what needs to be done and how.

Basically, there are many sheds, with crates of mushrooms growing.The trick is to pick the 'leggy' mushrooms, and thin out any clumps, for the next 24 hours growth.All mushrooms are picked, the stems cut, and then placed into separate boxes according to size and quality.Each box must be packed to weigh roughly 4kg's - so you get to learn roughly how much to fill the boxes as you go on.You are required to get up to picking approximately 18 kg's an hour (blimey Jo, some of these girls just fly through the shed's they are soooo quick - but then again they have been doing it for years) and then finally, it is also required that your presentation is up to standard i.e. your top mushrooms must be placed in the box, stem down.

For my first day, I must admit it wasn't too bad, and well, getting my head around it.

This evening, we went round to Leif's sister Jean, and her husband Mike for dinner.She cooked a lovely lamb curry, which was great.They left South Africa about 15 years ago, so they have really made a life for themselves here now, and well their kids have grown up here and married to Aussies (like you with SA dad),

7 August 2009

Today I worked until about 1ish, after which, we set off for the Hunter Valley for the weekend.Seeing that we didn't have a lunch break, and got ready and set off as soon as we could, I didn't have lunch.So no doubt half way through the journey my tummy started to grumble, so we stop at services, and got something to eat, with a LARGE Cappuccino yum.

We finally arrived at our destination - 'Harrigans'.So we checked in, dropped off our bags, and hit the bar straight away.I went straight in for the kill, and got myself a bottle of bubbely (we'll sparkling wine really - but very good) - because we all know I'll land up drinking a bottle, so why pay by the glass when its more expensive hehe.

We were planning on having a lovely meal there (and the food did look great), but because of our 'pit-stop' neither of us were hungry, and were rightfully in the mood for drinking.Needless to say we left the bar when they kicked everyone out, and headed back to the room, to have a couple more drinks, before bed - how stupid…..

Check-out was at 10.30am, so we got up, had some breakfast, and hit the road again onto our next booked accommodation - 'Amandas'.It was lovely, with 3 self contained cottages having 2 double rooms, log fire, bbq facilities, etc.How cool is that?

On the estate was the 'Windsor's Edge Cellar Doors', where you can enjoy free wine tasting, so of course we hit it.Tried various lovely wines, and some not-so-nice wines.We had a look through a few books there at various tours you can do, that they take you to a number of different Cellar's, so you can drink all you want, and not have to worry about driving.However we had left it too late (bad planning) so we had missed the tours. So Leif was designated driver.He didn't mind too much, as he's not really a wine drinker, and had a few small sips of some of the wines, but not all.Me on the other hand, I tried ALL the wines.We bought a couple of bottles, and then hit the road.

Next stop was no wine tasting, but purchased some lovely cheese and nuts, and biscuits.

From there we went onto 'The Hope Cellars'.Again, a lovely place where I tried ALL the wines, but stayed away from the wines I didn't enjoy.

We then set off, and made our way to 'Brokenwood Cellars'.This was my favourite place (maybe because of all the wine I had already drunk - hehe) no, the girl who helped us was so clued up about the wines, its was great, and extremely interesting.Of course we landed up buying a few more bottles of wine.My favourite red wine of all the tasting I did is definitely 'Brokenwood Cricklewood Shiraz' - it was absolutely gorgeous - so I'll definitely keep an eye out for that.

After our days outing, we headed back to the Cottage, to get ready, and head out for dinner.We went to Amanda's restaurant, and it was soooo the right choice.The food was amaising.All fresh, just lovely.

The Hunter Valley is just great.You just drive around MANY MANY MANY Vineyards and stop at which ever Cellar you want for abit of wine tasting.It is awesome.Bet it would look amaising in the summer time!

The next morning we checked out, and hit the high road for the journey back to the farm.However this time, the SAT NAV sent us on a very long yet scenic route.It was great, though at some points I was very weary (maybe watching too many movies), I was waiting for the spikes to come out across the road at any moment as there was nothing but mountains, and scattered farms hehe.We stopped at this Café, and ordered a hamburger.Well, I think they went and caught the cow, killed it, skinned it, slaughtered it right there, because it took so damn long.There were a few irrate customers, who 'tried' to get their money back and cancel the order … well you can just guess how that went … they landed up taking it away.But hey it gave us some excitement, while we waited.Once we finally got our burger, and finished eating, we continued our journey home.

15 August 2009

Today was my day off and the weather was lovely so I decided to get up early, and get a ferry to Manly beach.When I arrived at Manly Wharf I got myself some sushi, and hit the beach.I prefer Shelly beach to Manly beach, so instead made my way there from Manly.

After eating the very delicious sushi I spent the afternoon on the beach, reading my book and people watching of course.It was absolute heaven, very relaxing.I could do this every day hehe.