Day dawned! Thank "The God of your choice" for that! Looked out the window to see glorious sunshine, then realised that it was only because the rising sun was shining under the heavy grey clouds that stretched from horizon to horizon. Rolled over and went back to sleep! Later. Arose from my slumbers and performed the usual morning sh's (shower, shampoo, etc). OJ, Coffee and breakfast. Took all the goodies from the fridge (here are some we prepared earlier) and loaded the car, then set off to pick up the Cookie-monster (Noxter69, PSA for the day). Made the first meeting place in good time, no tickets. Met up with ZXTT-1 (Jack) and his portable car alarm (Sam), and convened a "Where's Mikey" meeting in the roadhouse over another coffee. RZM (Mikey) phones up at 0930... they've closed the Domain Tunnel (again) and he's got lost on the detour. Arrives at 0940 with his PSA (Ellie). Gee, she's cute! Tries to rain. Off to second meet at Kilmore to collect IB/Judy (on hols from Canberra) and Wykked/Blondie. There's IB standing at the roadside to take a pic of our mini-convoy of 2xRedZeds and 1x BlackZed. Into the Coles carpark for a meet and greet (Jeez you meet some great people via this Forum), and there's Tigga, too (IB/J's black spaniel), bouncing around all over the place. Now all we need for the complete set is a Wykked/Blondie combination. Where the Hell are they! Sitting in the carpark, one row away, laughing their butts off, in their new, bright red (at least the colour is right) 180... MERCEDES Apparently it's Pete's Mum's car. Who needs a hand-me down? (Puts hand up) Hugs and kisses all round, then into Coles to pick up some perishables (bread, etc... no, come to think of it, it was only bread). Tries to rain again. Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho, it's off to booze we go! Set out through Broadford (an interesting old railway town, if you've got time to look at it... we just barrelled straight through) to Avenel and the first winery on the list (Plunketts). At this stage the wheel police noticed something amiss with the RZM-mobile. Mikey has got some new tyres (Fuldas, report to follow), but because his wheels are polished, the little 'L' and 'R' have been removed and two of the wheels are on the car backwards. Oh, well, Mikey, back to the tyre shop, 'cause the Fulda's are directional, aren't they?. We fight our way through a mini cyclone of cherry blossoms to the cellar door. Sip and spit, sip and spit. OMG, wine-tasters are pigs. Decisions made and purchases transacted, then off through the quaint little township of Avenel across country to Mitchelton. A bit different to when I previously visited just after it opened... they've actually got their own grapes growing now! Place is full of bloody tourists, so we decide to have lunch first, then do some tasting. Down to the picnic and BBQ area (the facilities here are really quite good). Grab a vacant table/chair set and set out all the goodies we brung. Mmmmmm, food! Bloody rain! So we commandeer a rotunda for a bit of protection from the weather. Jack tries to pass off a red blotch on his throat as a mosquito-bite. We believed him, but then, we're an understanding lot! Chicken, ham, curried-egg sangas, salads, and gormet sausages from the ACT, home of the best porkers in Oz! Throw in a cold bottle of white and it all gets very salubrious. Engaging conversation ensues to the point where the total time I had allowed at this winery was taken up just with lunch. We decide to skip 12 Acres. Meanwhile all the bloody tourists had jumped on a boat which took them to the winery at Tahbilk, just up the Goulburn River. So we clear away our mess and head for the tasting-room. Still raining! Seems that the Mitchelton wines are very "oakey", so there were a few upturned noses. Jack bought a bottle of something. Highlight was spotting a 6 litre bottle of Chardonnay, but there was nowhere to put a straw so we didn't buy it! Now we're off to Tahbilk, which is the only place which IB/J had wanted to go to anyway! Entry road is gravel, so we took it slowly. I tried to spray RZM with some of the stones, but the damn NA wouldn't spin-up the rears. Parked the cars outside the tasting shed, a huge mud-brick affair. Mikey decided he would use his front bar to level out some of the undulations in the car park, but the owners didn't need a contractor right now, so he backed off and parked elsewhere. Cleaned the clay from his SMICs and rejoined the group. Now, seriously, this was a very interesting winery to visit. It has been in operation for about 150 years, and all the original plant and equipment is still in place in the tasting shed. You're allowed access to the original cellar where they have these HUGE vats of the next seasons wines... they must have a capacity of several thousand litres each. One of them looked like it was about to split open, so I sat under it with my mouth open for about half-an-hour, but nothing happened. Bugger it! There were a couple of musicians out the front of the shed playing (German folk?) music on a piano-accordian and a banjo, which vastly added to the ambience of the place. Anyway, they had a break while we were there, and all they wanted to do was to talk to the three dogs, Tigga, Sam and Ellie (Oh, didn't I say? Mikeys friend is the most beautiful Weimarana you've ever seen!) Tasting, tasting, tasting! Yummy. IB/J stacked their purchases in the back of the Sportivo. That'll kill it's performance, Judy! About this time, Pete and Jen had to leave, to get back to Cranbourne to pick up the kinder (Damn this German influence). So we all decided to wend our weary ways home. On the way, it began to rain fairly heavily, and I was able to demonstrate to Ngoc that the windscreen of the Zed is self-clearing, ie no need to use the wipers when you are travelling at highway speeds. He was quite amazed! Summary: Good wine, good food, good company, great day Pictures to follow when the official photographer (Noxter) gets off his bum and does something about them. Keza: You shoulda come, mate! (Memo to self: Must explore the potential of the Yarra Valley wineries!)
BlackBaz will really want to know more about that 6 litre bottle of Chardonnay Doug:LOL: Sounds like a great day - Karen and I love that sort of trip. Looking forward to some pics. Cliff
Re: 6L bottle Cliff apparently this was a special order made for someone called Jerry Beohme, but was never picked up. AS for photos, just as soon as Noxter gets them to me , I'll post some with a few smart-alec comments. You really can't get good help these days. I mean, here it is almost 24hours after meeting point 1 and the guy still hasn't sent me a cd with the pics:LOL::LOL::LOL::LOL:. Next time I'll remember to take my own camera. (Ngoc, do you know any martial arts? If so, PM me and I'll change the above statements:thumbsup A really great day, tho. It's definitely the people who make these thing memorable.
sounds like it was a fun day... pitty I couldnt make it, but unfortuneatly had other things planned.. Where are the photo's??? PPft, slackness or what. If it was me, they would have been up the same night.. Cheers
Great day actually --- even had some decent company as well (the dogs of course) - only joking. Good to see Judy and Ian again as well. Picked up some very nice whites so it wasn't all bad. Many thanks to Douggie for supplying some major portions of chicken, and I promise to read the posts more carefully in future, especially the bit that says "bring food". see ya - Jack My only shot for the day - the entrance to Plunketts. Can't wait for that plum tree to get into fruiting.
Thank you dougy for...>>> An excellent day and all of the company was exceptional as usual (tigga, sam and ellie)... No only joshin, great to see judy and Ian as per usual, lovely people and I agree, the forum does have the added advantage of meeting some pretty lovely people. But thanks dougy for organising the winery trip, we managed to pick up some nice bottles from Tahbilk and I (blondie) managed to pick up something even nicer... after our stay at one of the nicest B&B's I have seen in a long time (Bindley House in Kilmore). Nieman Marcus sure looks different than I thought, I could have swore he was American...(great cookies Ngoc).
Thanx Dougie... for organizing the cruise, for taking me along for the ride and for letting me doze off on the way home. I guess it was because of the wonderfull lunch and of course the wines. I couldn't have appreciated all the wines like I did if I had of driven myself, being small in stature I get inebriated quite easily.:wacko: It was nice to meet up with Ian and Judy from Canberra who provided some really nice sausages. :thumbsup: CD of pics is on its way Doug. See ya all next time PS. the Cookies were fun to make and I'm glad everyone enjoyed them. Signing off, Noxter (aka Cookie Monster)
Great post Doug .... Well organised cruise followed by a well written report :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:. I didn't take any pics on the day as I figured Ngoc was doing a great job, look forward to some of his appearing soon! I enjoyed the food, and will enjoy the wine at a 60th birthday I'm attending Saturday week. The curried egg sandwiches must have been a mild batch - not enough after effects! I'd better add a bit more curry powder next time . Good to catch up with Ian and Judy again, and I think Elly must have had a good time as well. On the way home she decided not to be a regular PSA, but become an alternative PSA instead. What, you say??? She left the passenger seat and 28kg of Weimaraner somehow stretched herself onto the parcel shelf behind the fire extinguisher and she slept there almost all the way home. Thus, a parcel shelf accessory - the original nodding dog come to life!!! So far the Fulda Extremo tyres get a good report. They were only fitted the day before - for the first time I didn't do my own "wheel police" check, and sho 'nuff, Detective Dougie was onto me - getting that straightened out on Saturday. Running them at 32psi on the street seems to give a much better ride than the 36-40lb I was running in the Yokies. Driving in the rain yesterday wet grip seemed excellent, but I guess a full-on test happens at Calder next Monday, YEE-HAA! One point of note - there are some horrible pot-holes on my route to/from work, and occasionally 1 catches me out. Saturday's wheel alignment showed no dramatic changes from the one before Wakefield except .... the toe-in on the left rear was 18.2mm!!!! - now back to a regular 0.5mm. I'd love to know why local/state governments think that not maintaining roads to acceptable standards can't be deemed as negligence!!!! Cheers - looking forward to the next one, RZM.
Bugger you, you old >> plonko.:LOL: Sounds as if it was a great success, even with the Rain.:| And if you mention Chardonnay again, you'll have Black Baz drooling. You'll have to give us some notice next time mate, & hopefully I won't have to work on that weekend. Cheers Kerry
red .. what a brilliant, fun report ..has to be the best in my short 9-10 months with the forum ... just laughed and laughed ..and to me sitting up here in QLD, that i can sit here and enjoy, envision and laugh with you guys/girls/dogs on your day out just says heaps for this forum ...!!! and to the important stuff .. just love the thought of jerry b .. 6 litre ..!! oh, such,so much bottled joy ..!! just hope that you also got to try mr tahbilk's SHIRAZ ..otherwise known as black baz's joy juice ..!!! pure jammy pleasure ..yum.. yum ..!!! congrats on an obviously great day ..god, i am mucho jealous ..!!!:thumbsup::thumbsup::zlove::zlove::|:|
It's easy, Baz! Just get a bit of Ethanol on board, turn up the verbosity quotient and let it rip. I have almost as much fun doing the write-up as on the day itself. I'll post some pics when I figure a way to get each of them less than 1MB each. (I've tried emailing them to myself several times, reducing the size each time, but the smallest I can get them is 904KB... too big for dial-up (and the space I have left at my host site)) Here's a couple more you might enjoy: The Doug sits on the Tuckerbox Tech Day at Wykkeds
both were fun reading red .... !!!! looks as if we, north of the border(s), are going to have to do something about our tech day write ups to match that talent .. we just do not match them ..!!!:LOL:hint, hint ..!!!:wacko::wacko:
Here are some pics of Doug's Winery Cruise... As Doug had some trouble resizing images for dialup friendly viewing, he kindly allowed me to post some pics of the trip. Kilmore Coles where Mikey decided to adjust something under the bonnet. It was also where we met up with Ian, Judy, Peter and Jenny (with new red 180). Plunkett's winery. Michelton BBQ. Food was yummy and there was more than enough to go around for everyone, wasn't there Elly, Tigga and Sam??? Michelton Tower. Wine tasters (L to R): Mikey (RedZedMikey), JS (Blondie), Peter (Wykked), Doug (red32), Jack (zxtt1), Judy, Ian (IB) and Noxter (behind camera).Hey Doug you're meant to have just one glass in hand not the whole bottle matey. :0 :LOL: Jack, Mikey and Doug on the Hume just in front of my work place, the Ford head offices. Never intended to have the building in the center of the picture, but as it turned out, it did. Me at the Tabhilk cellar with the VATs along side. Well there you go, some memories of the trip which I enjoyed thoroughly, the company was good, the ride was good, the day not so bad, the stories were FUN and of course the wine was great! When's the Yarra Valley Winery trot Douggie???:thumbsup:
Thanks for that Ngoc. Yarra Valley trip... hmmmmm, now let me consult my calendar... Then there's the Mornington Penninsular, Clare Valley, Barossa, Hunter Valley... Arrrggghhh, it's all getting blurred.
you guys/gals are nothing less than absolute piss pots .. you just finish one winery cruiZe and your tongues are hanging out for the next 5/6 booze ups .. just terrible to see the forum reduced to such complete decadence .. MODERATORS PLEAse ...!!!!!:wacko::wacko::wacko::wacko:
