Winery

So. We've finished our tasting for our Hunter Valley trip. We visited sixteen wineries over four days (technically five days, but the first day we only went to one). We purchased a total of 7 cases of wine (give or take), plus an extra case for Tanja's mother (who gets a mixed dozen of wines from all over the Hunter, tasted by her personal experts, without having to leave her house, the lucky devil). We've dined at some lovely fancy (and also some lovely proletarian) restaurants and cafes. We tasted cheeses for the first time, coming home with some mixed sheep's-, goat's- and cow's-milk cheeses, and a new cheese knife set.

Some observations:

• Many of the fancy restaurants have changed their signs to read “Restaurant and Cafe” in order to not seem too intimidating or expensive.
  
• Many of the people operating the cellar doors seemed more eager to offer older vintages that weren't on the tasting list if you showed an interest. For example, if they offered a 2008 Semillon and a 2003 Semillon, and you said you preferred the 2003, they would likely pullout a 2001 or 1999 Sem they had under the counter. Tanja and I discussed this and decided it was either A) the financial crisis driving them to push high-end stock, B) that we simply showed taste beyond your average punter and they figured we were in the market for the older, more expensive, higher quality drops, or C) some combination of the two.
  
• Several of the wineries (specifically Peterson's Champagne House) seem to be geared towards the bus-loads of women on Hen's Night or Bachelorette trips. They have purple couches to sit on, are pushing their sweetest styles, have pre-mixed cocktail mixes or pink plastic martini shakers for sale, and, in one egregious case, sprayed bubbles from the ceiling. Yech.
  
• There were quite a few younger couples on their own like we were, and tons of Canadians and Americans.
  
• Lots of high-end cars on the road. At last count, two Ferraris (one vintage, one new), a Maserati, a Ford GT, two Porsches (one Carrera, one SUV), a supercharged and customised Ford F150, and a large number of BMWs and Mercedes (to be expected).
  
• Leaving your proper camera at home sucks, but frees you up from dragging it around or bothering your partner by making them wait for you to get a picture.
  
• Apart from the Champagne house, we tasted only one sparkling wine, and bought none. Go figure.
  

Standout wineries were:

• Keith Tulloch (the only place we bought a full case at)
  
• Margan
  
• Pigg's Peake
  
• Tower Estate
  

We visited all four of these wineries last trip(a year and a half ago) and bought sparingly. On the flipside, the wineries we bought quite a bit from last time impressed us with only two or three varietals, and sometimes none at all.

So yes! All done with the Hunter for a little while.

CD Rationing

So I go back to work tomorrow (as my lovely holidays are over) and take my money out Wednesday( as I have $20 to my name). I've spotted at the local record store that there are several offerings on offer that I would like to buy:

[-]the new one by the Breeders.
[-]the new one by The Saboteurs
[-]the new one by The Black Keys
[-]the new one by Nine Inch Nails (Ghosts I-IV)

(noticing a trend here? New things)

While the NIN one I can get as a download (either 9 songs for free or $5 for all four albums worth as oppoed to $29.95 for the set), the others I'd like. However, looking at them today brought up a relavent observation. Whenever I buy more than 2 CDs at a time, they get ripped onto iTunes, added to my iPod and I somehow miss hearing most of them. It's happened before. Sometimes I buy as many as 4 CDs in one go, or get like 40 mp3s, and I only listen to a few. I then think "oh, I got that one ages ago and never really listed to it." and then add it to a playlist of Must-Listens (example The Kooks, example Joydrop, example UNKLE until i forced myself). Then i don't listen to that playlist because it's hard work listening to 50 or 60 songs you've never heard before.

See my problem?

So I have a solution. I will buy the CDs (except the NIN one) one at a time, one per week. That will be the only thing I listen to for that week and I will thusly form An Opinion, good or bad. If this works, I might try it on old albums I've overlooked. Hmm. Food for thought.

Interviews and Spitfires

I'm on me holidays this week and next, and I've been using my time constructively (wandering around in my PJs, watching movies (including the awesome Band Of Brothers miniseries, all 12 hours of it). I've also got onto seek.com.au and started applying for jobs and building my profile. Well, this morning I get a call from a place wanting me to come in this afternoon at 3 and apply. Well, great. Then I get another call not five minutes after telling Tanja about the first and they want me to come in at 4:30 and apply too. They saw my resume and were "very impressed". Shit, I know my resume, and I'M not impressed. Oh well, who am I to argue. So I have two interviews this afternoon. Get out the cheap suit once again.

However, isn't it always the way, when something goes right, another goes wrong? I spent most of yesterday cutting a really cool stencil of a Spitfire fighter plane, and when I went to paint it this morning on a cool dark grey shirt. But, of course, the grey is too dark for black, so I painted it in white. Mistake. The stencil was of the shadows and now it just looks wrong. Shoot. I haven't screwed up a shirt in over a year now. Ah, well.