The deluge known as the spring rains has lifted, albeit briefly. Today was a sunny day! See? Blue skies over my backyard!
Almost forgot how blue the sky can get…
Which means that it will be a dry evening. What’s for dinner?
Yeeeeeah! Meeeeeeeat!
Continuing on the “let’s grill some meat” theme started in Oz, here’s dinner via the first grilling of the season!
A “natural” New York Steak, 1 inch thick and looking deeeelicious!
The grill fired up just fine. A bit surprising since the charcoal bag got soaked when the basement got flooded a few months back…
erm..Fire. Yeah, that’s hot.
A few minutes on the grill
Then, perfection!
That’s called “medium rare”. Burp.
Which is more that can be said about the Giants’ Opening Night last Friday (7 April). I got a last minute phone call from a couple of friends about an extra ticket and a pre-game party.
Hey, I’m only human! I braved the rain (that was coming down in buckets) and the traffic (nothing worse than a San Francisco driver except a San Francisco driver in rain…) and the “great parking space hunt” to get downtown for free dogs, beer and snacks. And a game ticket.
and a two hour rain delay ! Look at that drenched tarp!
The worst thing was that there was the delay and then the jints decide to walk 8 runs during the top of the 7th. It was 2300. It was time to go home.
Sooo cold and miserable and wet (because it had started to rain again), we made our way home. The Giants need pitching reeealy bad!
The All Blacks!
Saw this on the train ride over to Katoomba.
They’re everywhere!
Puzzling…
Why is it when I return back home, it’s not the same?
There is a lot of fun and adventure out on the road. Life is out there! And it IS worth it!
But when I return home, it feels cold and wrong. Especially this trip. What was supposed to be a warm welcome home wasn’t. Bummer.
Shoulda stayed in Oz…
UPDATE 9 April: Am over it now, feeling MUCH better. Amazing what a lot of good vodka and carousing about does for your outlook. And that wish and shooting star thing? A MYTH! But it was neat to see…
More Wine!
As if three days in the Hunter Valley weren’t enough…
I come home on Thurs, had a good dinner with someone nice and then spend all day at the Dr’s office on Friday. Whew! Tiring! What should I do?
I know! Head up to Napa on Saturday for MORE wine tasting! Heh. hic
These are shots from the main building in the Beringer Winery just outside St. Helena. That’s a lotta wine in those barrels…
And, of course, no visit to Napa is complete without stopping off at V. Sattui for some cheese (and wine too)!
I picked up three bottles of wine and a really soft french bleu and crackers for snacking. What a hard life!
Rules, Rules, Rules!
In one of my earlier entries, I said that Sydney reminded me of a mix of London and Singapore.
It felt like London because: CityRail is often late, anything in a bottle (alcoholic or otherwise) is expensive and they’re really big into meat pies here (which isn’t dat bad…).
I got that Singapore vibe here because of the architecture (lots of old shophouses that wouldn’t be out of place in non-CBD Singapore) and rules and fines if you break the rules.
I mean, check these rules out! You need rules for this? Ha ha ha.
Rain Rain Rain
It was cold and rainy when I left SF to go to Oz.
It is STILL cold and rainy when I returned yesterday.
According to the people that keep track of these things, it’s been raining for 24 days in March. A record!
So it’s not just me that’s whining about weather here, it really has been wet! And cold too.
Hunter Valley Dawn
This is what you see when you get up early. And then go back to sleep.
Got a long day today. Am off to SYD for my flight back to the states. 15 hours on UA! Ergh…
Hostel Perks
One perk of staying in a hostel is that you have access to a kitchen and you can make your own food.
Sometimes you can get lucky when your hostel has a gas-fired barbeque!
It’s my last night in Oz, so I figured I’d do a shrimp steak on the barbie! I drove into town with a couple of the fellas and got beer and a steak.
Rubbed it down with a little salt and pepper, and fired up the grill. They do things differently here. Note the spanners (pliers) for the steak below:
Kidding! Here’s the implements of torture for da meat! Best and cheapest meal I’ve had here.
View image
Note the spatula thingy. Bigger than a CD and has a bottle opener on the neck.
Oz meat DOES taste different from US meat. US cows are fed corn while Ozzie cows are fed grass. Something for bar trivia!
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Shots from the Hostel
This is Mia.
She lives here. She will come up to you as you’re eating, put her paw in your lap, tilt her head and look at you with puppy dog eyes until you give her something to eat. According to Andrea, Mia has had wine soaked crackers, all kinds of cheese and the night I got in, chops and sausages.
Mia eats better than Andrea and Bessy do.
Sunset from the deck. See the grill back there? That becomes important later.
First thing you see coming into room #10
First thing you see coming OUT of room #10
Reception
as seen from the parking lot
It may look all bright and glamourous now, but at night, it’s dark. Hella dark. It’s soooo dark that the stars in the parking lot are really bright. I even saw a shooting star out here.
Kanna tell you what I wished for. OTW it dun come true. I think it’s a law.
Hunter Valley Wineries
It all worked out, having to get the bigger car because of the two Lisas and their baggage. There was four of us driving to the wineries, comfortably! Plush! “Most of the time, things work out“. The backpacker’s credo. I need to remember that!
Apparently, according to Bessy, Australia has a list of “giant things”. I’ve seen one of these in personam, the giant fork that I took a picture earlier.
She knew about the fork. Where it was and everything. Interesting…
Anyhoo, to add to the collection of giant things, I present to you, gentle (if not slightly bored) reader, the giant wine bottle.
This giant wine bottle is part of a complex that has a winery, food and book shops, picnic areas and a restaurant. We were here to grab lunch. Wine tasting started at 1000 and we’ve already visited three wineries. Food is in order. We all is hungry. Must eat or kanna taste anymore!
This is a schnitzel burger. Bessy is getting ready to attack it.
Gee, this is really big
Bessy: I tink dis is biffer den by mace (I think this is bigger than my face)
Burger: ooouch! My ass! (ooouch! My ass!)
strangely enough, these burgers (I had one too) don’t count as “giant things”.
We continued on the wine trek, visiting more cheese shops and wineries, purchasing some wine and cheese for dinner and some liquid omiage for some people back home.
A fun winery.
When we all got back, there was a bottle of yardstick, cheese, good company and 70 or so bugs. Now that’s a nice evening…