More Yarra Valley Wine Tasting @ Easter ;-)

Easter Monday - lovely weather, given that its now Autumn here so we headed back out along the Yarra Valley to a Vineyard at TarraWarra Estate. They had a Museum of Modern Art there too which was......mmmmmm.....well...interesting, but at least the building was great! The Art? Seen better art on peoples fridges! Still only $5 so no complaints there plus more tasting.

We also spent the day deliberating (as every day this last week or so) over some house properties we have been viewing and doing some more drive by's during the weekend to try and reach a decision. Good job the vineyard was so relaxing!

Luckily the wine was probably the nicest we've found yet and much much better than the art - maybe they should stick to home brew! Bought our most expensive bottle of wine yet - Happy Birfday Liis!!

Some piccies from today........

Bits & Pieces......

Here's some bits & pieces from Easter Weekend when we went along the Yarra River valleys about 30Km from home to a Farmers Market @ the oldest Vineyard in Victoria, Yering Station a multi award winning vineyard at Yarra Glen.

Bought lots of organic Sauces, Dips & Honeys to enjoy and had a nice snackette overlooking the vineyard which is a huge complex of old & new. The fancy modern building houses a Restaurant up top with views inside to the cask storage underground and fermenting tanks.

The view across at the fancy building was from an old barn/shop where there is a Cafe, art exhibition and a free tasting bar......FREE tasting - as much as you like! :-)

The Rental Home & Surrounds

Well as it says here is the Rental Home. Looking a bit bare. Apologies in advance for the (really really embarrassingly) cheesy grin from the Leffe drinker!! (Maybe too many VB's before hand??)

Note the new Garden Furniture (bar type table & chairs - nice & easy to fall out of!), new Microwave and the odd new iPod gadget (mmmm cheaper than UK......Thank goodness!).

Also the GIANT inflatable bed - surprisingly comfortable - lasted 6 weeks so far and going strong.....absolute bargain!!













And here are some shots of the close by Tunstall Shopping Square - 75 specialty shops as well as a 24hr Supermarket - how they manage in one place without all the individual bakers, butchers, deli's & fruit stalls going out of business with the supermarket is beyond me but it's great that it all works together.

As you can see the supermarket even has its own decent fruit and deli area. The shots of the car park show a monthly weekend Market.

The shot of the beer fridge ?? - Couldn't resist such a reminder of Hayrick Close!!! Leffe, Duval, Chimay!! Woo-Hoo!! ;-)

It''s one of our local off-licenses so Tim there's a cold one waiting for you!

The 2006 Commonwealth Games

Here are a selection of photo's from our time at the Games.






Just before heading over here we managed to get some tickets......Rugby 7's, the finals of the Athletics on the Saturday before the Closing Ceremony and the Closing Ceremony. We had brilliant seats throughout. At the R7's we were in the first section by the pitch with near level views across the pitch and located conveniently close to the bar ;-) which sold Light (why would you?) Medium (huh?!) and Heavy Beer (proper!) - Bring it on!











For the Athletics Finals we couldn't believe it - we were 8 rows back directly in line with the Start / Finish line !! In fact so close we were too close to take photo's properly as we had fitted Zoom lenses to the cameras and had to walk further up the stands in order to try and get the athletes in the image! Mind you that also put me closer to the bar......which sold the same beer as R7's but (as you might expect) no Malibu!! Oh no?! Whose going to drive ?? :-)))) I like this sport lark!






















The Closing Ceremony? Think the images speak for themselves - quite spectacular and again great seats - this time up in the higher regions of the stadium giving an excellent all round view. If only we could have recorded Dame Edna and kept it for the web and sharing with our American 'cousins'!