161. Nugan Estate Mankuna Grove Durif 2003

It’s amazing how quickly you can get bored of wine. We’re not bored of drinking the wine but we are a bit bored of the grape varieties. Shiraz-this Merlot-that. Of course there is quite a taste variation from one Cab Sauv to the next but all in all one Zinfandel tastes similar to the next.

So as I was perusing the shelves of a local wine shop I came across this treat. Durif! I’d never even heard of this grape before so I snapped up a bottle. As usual it was raining and I had quite a lot of blog catch-up to do on the computer to I cracked open the bottle and got stuck in. This was certainly a find. People always talk about reds being “earthy” but this was like biting into the grape while it was still on the branches and sucking the soil up from the ground, through the vine and into the grape itself. Very very tasty and for once I actually understood what the blurb on the label was going on about.

159 & 160. Star City and Priscilla Queen of the Desert

It’s been a while since the two of us have done anything together so we decided to get tickets for a show and as Priscilla had been showing for several months and was about to finish it’s run, there was only one choice. Many people I had spoken to recommended it and they certainly we’re wrong.

It was showing in the Lyric Theatre which is part of the newly built Star City which is glorious in its Las Vegas style tackiness. There’s a casino inside which seems to be fitted out in Flintstones-esque décor although we couldn’t see much through the doors so it may well have been totally different inside. Outside there are fountains and waterfalls all of which are lit up and add to the Belagio feeling of the place. Aside from the cheese-factor this place does have a couple of things going for it.

The first is the view. The skyline at night from the steps outside has to be one of the most breath-taking visuals of Sydney. There’s neon everywhere and above it all the Sydney Tower seems to float like a UFO. It is truly stunning.

The second thing that makes Star City worth visiting is the theatre. It’s an ultra-modern affair which is glaringly obvious by the fact that there are no pillars anywhere. Everyone, from the people in the boxes to those in the Gods have a perfect view of the stage. We were in the second row of the stalls close enough to see the make-up induced acne on the faces of the players and the experience was fantastic. That combined with a riveting, spectacular, comedy musical performance made the night wonderful.

The only down side was that there was several acts that involved many muscle-bound men prancing around in bondage or Budgie Smugglers and we were a bit too close for comfort. That said, Isla had a massive grin on her face betraying her enthusiasm for those parts of the show. Oh well, I like to think that I compensate for not having a body like Jean Claude Van Damme with my superior brain power! Haha, who am I kidding?

The Shortest Day

It’s just passed the Summer Solstice but of course that’s the shortest day here and not the longest. It almost marks the half way point of our trip and the Challenge and I note from the count down that I’m sorely behind in terms of making the 365 mark. Desperate times and all that…

Over these winter months the rain has been ridiculous for such a supposedly dry continent. We’ve also been saving for our tours of Oz later in the year and so days off have been spent reading and watching movies. Seems like a bit of a waste of time in comparison the other opportunities that you would expect Sydney to offer but it fills the time between our adventures. Probably a bit of a way to cheat the 365 but no worse than listing beers and wines I suppose!

Books I’ve Read (128 – 135)

1. War of the Flowers by Tad Williams
2. American Gods by Neil Gaiman
3. Cars by Jeremy Clarkson
4. Who Moved My Blackberry™? by Martin Lukes with Lucy Kellaway
5. The Devil’s Teeth by Susan Casey
6. The Know It All by A.J. Jacobs
7. Perfume by Patrick Suskind
8. Into a Dark Realm By Raymond E. Feist

Films I’ve Watched (136 – 158)

1. Spiderman 3
2. Shooter
3. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End
4. Cars
5. The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift
6. Night at the Museum
7. 28 Weeks Later
8. The History Boys
9. Déjà vu
10. Blood Diamond
11. The Last King of Scotland
12. The Reaping
13. Sunshine
14. 300
15. Hot Fuzz
16. Nacho Libre
17. Rocky Balboa
18. Clerks II
19. The Brothers Grimm
20. Land of the Dead
21. Shrek the Third
22. Transformers
23. Hotel Riwanda

126 & 127. Richmond Grove Black Cat Shiraz 2003 and Cockatoo Ridge Cabernet Merlot 2004

A few years ago I drove to Ullapool in the north of Scotland with a couple of my mates. It was New Years Eve and we were on our way to a massive party on the Isle of Lewis however, despite leaving Glasgow at 10:30am it took us almost 7 hours to get to the Stornoway ferry in Ullapool. As we travelled up the centre of Scotland to Aviemore the snow that was falling became worse and worse. There were cars strewn all over the roads and as we crawled through each of the summit passes they systematically closed behind us. When we reached Aviemore we were sure that we were going to have to call it a day and spend New Year there. Luckily we bumped into to another mate from University whos family had hired a local hall for the nights festivities and they said we were welcome to join them.

Despite this kind offer we decided to soldier on and within a few minutes we were sure we had made the wrong decision. There was snow everywhere and it drifted into large banks which swallowed cars easily. We were in an old 3 series BMW which was rear wheel drive and that made our journey even more interesting. At one point we had to make a pee break and even though we were only travelling at 25mph it took the whole length of the lay-by to come to a halt. It was a nightmare to get the car moving again but eventually we did.

It turned out we had made the right decision to carry on moving since as we approached the west coast the snow turned to rain. However, the rain became heavier and heavier and as we pulled into the car park in Ullapool it was biblically torrential. We had to walk about 200m to the ferry terminal and over that short distance the cases of beer we were carrying were destroyed by the sheets of lashing rain. When we got onto the ferry the boxes were so battered that we had to dump all the beer into a bin and then pull the liner out and carry them Santa style for the rest of our journey. None-the-less we made it to Stornaway in one piece even though we had to share the ferry with 250 drunks. Due to the weather the 11am ferry had been unable to sail and so passengers had spent the last 6 hours drinking in the ferry bar waiting for a break in the storm. It didn’t take long for us to catch up with them and at 7pm we finally set sail for the Island. The next 72 hours were as much of a blur as the drive up but one of the most memorable New Years ever.

Without a doubt that was the worst rain that I had ever been in. The worse rain ever until last week! After a drought ridden summer Sydney was suddenly flooded. When I say flooded I don’t mean a small amount of rise in the water level, I mean proper Bangladesh-style flooding. Part of the Pacific Highway collapsed killing 5 people, the Hunter Valley is under water and wine crops are ruined, schools and roads were closed and a massive tanker has washed up on Nobby’s Beach in Newcastle.

The rainfall has been monumental to say the least and so it has put a bit of a stop to our exploration of the local area. So by the third day of the storm we were at our wits end – freezing, wet and bored. In an effort to warm us up I braved the freaky conditions and headed out to the local Thai takeaway and bought the hottest curries on the menu. That was followed by a trip to the bottle-o where I bought these two huge wines. They cut through the heat of the curry and the icy temperatures of the rain with no trouble and they made the weather seem much less traumatic.

125. Yum Cha

I’ve eaten my fair share of Chinese food in my time but I’ve never had this. There’s a huge restaurant in Chatswood called Kam Fook Restaurant that’s right next to the cinema and every time we walk past Isla says “I’ve eaten in there and it’s great. We need to go there some time.” So we did.

It’s a really strange affair and it reminded me of the 1930’s Hong Kong club at start of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. The décor was what I imagined the Chinese version of “Colonial” would be like – all reds and golds and it was rammed full of people chowing down on a variety of strange looking foodstuffs and to be honest I really didn’t want to know what some of those things were.

We were shown to a small table near the back of the restaurant and it was a real struggle to get there. Not only were the tables packed together really tightly but there were loads of little Chinese ladies pushing dainty metal trolleys between the tables and hawking their contents. Each trolley contained different helpings of Yum Cha which included spicy pork rolls, spring rolls, prawn dumplings, BBQ pork, chicken claws (I avoided that one), spinach dumplings, egg noodles and deep-fried-don’t-know-whats to name a few. Within minutes many of the ladies had talked is into trying what was on their trolleys and not long after that we were full.

Everything was great as was the experience especially the hustle and bustle of the place although I hate to think what all that saturated badness did to my arteries. Just to be on the safe side I didn’t eat anything else that day!!!