Barossa & Adelaide Hills Weekend

Last weekend I was treated to a long weekend at the Barossa, it was about 18 years ago that I last visited and it was indeed a treat.  We flew into Adelaide and made our way to Adelaide Hills and the well known Bridgewater Mill for lunch and tasting of the wonderful Petaluma Wines.   Next Next we wandered to Shaw & Smith and enjoyed a fleet of wines with matching cheese, the wines were superb and the highlight was having a good discussion with Michael Smith who introduced himself when he overheard a reference to Shanghai -- a place he had just returned from.

Our destination was the Barossa Valley -- renown for fine wines and gourmet food; and we were not disappointed.  The Barossa Shiraz wine's are amongst the best in Australia and we tasted many great drops. Amongst our favourite vineyards were:

• Rockford
• Torbeck
• Charles Melton
• Henschke

Two Hands was easily the worst we visited; however they had some really great wines to compare against.  The only saving grace was that Two Hands had a series of Shiraz from 4 different regions: Barossa, McLaren Vale, Heathcote and Padthway.

We also visited Trevor Jones, Penfolds and  Jacob's Creek -- each of these were good but not great.

But for my birthday dinner, Anna booked us into Appellation, perhaps the finest restaurant in the Barossa Valley.  The food was superb and very much a take on the 3 Michellin star -- Chateau Cordeillan Bages from Pauillac, it was really good but never reached the heights that the Bordeaux classic inspiration must have instigated.

As we had brought various gourmet food items from the Barossa Farmer's market and Maggie Beer's Farm, meant that the experience would linger for many more months after this trip !!!

The Bledisloe Cup

Last weekend I took my two sons to the Rugby - a tradition and the most revered game between Australia and New Zealand. It was a special event that I had planned and we had not seen a "Bledisloe Cup' together for at least 12 years.

Having been starved of live rugby for many years, I was looking forward to this game and hosting my boys more than I realised.   The weekend together was really great and we spent some time with Anna  doing some walks and of course lots of eating.

Anna prepared a feast of 'tapas' and then we made the short walk to the Eithad Stadium, which is just less than 10 minutes away.

We sat in Gold tickets and the view was good, but we wondered how liberal the definition of ''Gold' was applied to the seating arrangements. The Rugby game itself started perfectly with Australia scoring from a freakish kick chargedown, however when NZ scored the same try within 2 minutes ;  it was clear that this was not going to be an easy evening.

If I summarised the game, the kiwis were playing a new style of game and trying new tactics.  These tactics worked well and Australia simply had no answer.   It was hard to watch as NZ were just so good, and as much as the Wallabies tried it was to no avail. 

In the end the real winner of the evening was myself -- who had managed to get my two sons down for the weekend. 

Lessons from my Dad

All of us have inherited both good and bad traits from our parents. In my case I was fortunate to be adopted by my birth uncle at a very early age of two years old.  Thus I grew up with an extended family of two mothers and a father, during these formative years I picked up notions and some of these have stuck.  In a similar fashion I can see some of these in the DNA of my own kids -- well not really DNA but more of nurture.   

1. Kindness
2. Respect for education
3. Pride (and love) for his family
4. Passionate about adventure - love of travel and food
5. Always see the positive in everything

Kindness - Dad was very generous. He was generous with his time with the community as President of the Red Cross,  Darwin Chinese Chung Wah Society and a active member of Rotary.  We always had parties at our home and if there was a Navy ship or submarine in town, then they were all invited for a dinner and a night of entertainment.  My Dad had a soft heart and I remember a time we were in Hong Kong on holidays and he saw a dirty & homeless man on the street - he crossed the road and gave that man money, despite the protests of my mum to be careful.

Respect for education - my father had been sent to college in Western Australia. David had studied accountancy and served as an electrician in the Australian Air Force.  However he was a really poor book-keeper and could barely change a light bulb.  David did really value education and he taught me how important this is.

Pride (and love) for his family - no doubt all Dads love their kids.  My Dad was however at the best of times a little embarrassing and he would always be talking about how great his children or grandchildren were to others (as if we could not hear). We would often cringe and shirk away, so now I am very conscious when I hear myself do the same thing !

Passionate about adventure - David always loved to travel and dine out. The choices that were available in Darwin weren't great, but we would often try new places in town. I remember this even being roadside diners which had just opened.   I was instilled at a early age the joys of exploring and trying new tastes -- to this end my own kids have this bug.

Always see the positive - My Dad was obsessed with buying Lottery Tickets.  I'm not sure that he ever won anything of significance, but he had boxes of Sydney Opera House Tickets,  House \ Car packages in the Gold Coast etc   He always was convinced he would win big and then he had a script how he would spend this, give some to me etc.   The funny thing is that despite this obsession with lotteries that he did not 'gamble'


These are lessons that I learnt from my Dad - some of these I have managed to pass onto my own kids.




 

Marvellous Marvin Hamilisch

Marvin played last weekend with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra - he is an incredible talent who has been a past winner of  Academy, Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Awards.

We expected a great entertainer and what we got was Marvin the storyteller who played the piano, conducted the orchestra, joked and entertained us. Marvin played some of his best themes and songs, plus he performed songs that he "wished he had written".

Marvin played a medley of songs from the great american songbook - Cole Porter and others. As he related "I do this as you just can't hear this kind of music anymore"

Other highlights of his performance were "A Chorus Line" and that songs from James Bond - " Nobody Does It Better "; that Carly Simon sang.

Marvin was Marvellous indeed !

Team Amelia

Just a few weeks ago I was proud to participate in Team Amelia and walk for cancer and charity.  I'm sad to say that Amelia has passed away this week at the age of 20.  Soon after that event she returned to hospital, I guess she stayed strong to make this happen.  In this BLOG I recently talked about my old friend John Luani -- when I compare this to Amelia,  I actually did know her very well, and we only knew her through her parents - Pam and Craig.

I'm sure you have heard it before but when someone dies at an early age -- it is hard not to ask why?

Taking a clinical view of this Amelia had in her DNA at birth a propensity to get cancer. It sounds cruel but that is the fact and there is nothing that could be done. It was pre-determined at birth.

All of us have the same pre-determined attributes and while we can have through behaviour, attitude and habits influence this outcome.  You have to wonder what time bomb you have in your body and life?  But hey.....why sit there wondering  -- go and enjoy life !!!

Global Iconic Dishes @ Top 10 City

"Eating can be the best part of traveling, and travel authority Lonely Planet has come up with a list of the top 10 cities across the globe to enjoy iconic dishes."  

Seems I only score 6/10 !!!!  How did you go with this?


1. TAPAS IN BARCELONA, SPAIN



2. PASTA IN NAPLES, ITALY



3. DONER KEBAB IN ISTANBUL, TURKEY



4. STEAMED DUMPLINGS IN SHANGHAI, CHINA



5. FEIJOADA IN RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL



6. GUMBO IN NEW ORLEANS, USA



7. COUSCOUS IN CASABLANCA, MOROCCO



8. NASI GORENG IN PENANG, MALAYSIA



9. CURRY IN MUMBAI, INDIA



10. HOT DOG IN NEW YORK CITY, USA

John

I can still recall the first day that I met John, he was much larger than we were and with dark skin and curled cropped haircut -- was hard to miss.

John had an infectious smile, and was a gentle giant. There were times that he did lose his temper and you could see the rage in his eyes and it was terrifying. He was always first to say "hello, how are you?", while he was a quiet person he was never a party animal -- John always commanded respect in his own way.

Rugby was his passion and he was really good at this. His body was built to be a prop forward, it was god's will and John himself was a devout christian. You would hardly ever hear John swear, he however was very passionate when he played rugby and I do recall players from our own team being hurt by John as he flew in the rucks with his full force.

Touch Football was the safest place to play against John, however while he was a big kid - he was agile and very difficult to "tag". John had some background in Judo or Martial Arts and I only once saw him use this. That was on me...John had taken offence to me using a 'swear' word and before I knew it, he had flipped me over using technique and not brawn. Suffice to say I never used bad language around him again.

Lamingtons -- John loved these and would always say a 'touch of paradise' as it reminded him of his beloved Tonga. I was one of the lucky few who caught up with John years after we had left Newington. He was bigger and unfortunately not in the best of health -- John was always a great person who would listen and I'm sure that was an attribute in his Governor role.

Alcohol -- as I said John was never a party guy. However I do recall in the Boarding House that he created Jungle Juice using a fermented Watermelon. That was the only marginal thing I ever saw John do, amongst us he really was an angel and a large one at that !

Girls -- However John did have a pin-poster in his locker, it was I believe an African American girl. John used to smile and say "black power", look at her

John was a man with a good spirit, kind and someone that you could be around comfortably without trying him ever trying to impress you. I always imagined that I would get a chance to travel to Tonga, at some stage in my life and see John and his tribe of kids.  Unfortunately that never happened.

He was a good mate and will be missed.

Here's to you John !