'Citing stuff

And then there was life once more in moistie blogland.

Howdy all, I'm back at work having had a very pleasant eleven days off work. So what happened?

Prelude

Well, the Shaguar arrived on the Wednesday night, having driven the 4,000 odd km to Gero from Melbourne in three days. The third day she drove about 1,700km, departing around 5.30-6am and getting in at past 9pm that night. Needless to say she was knackered and proceeded to fall in a heap in my huge and incredibly comfy King sized bed.

I got up at seven and went to work the next day, but from all reports the Shaguar didn't surface again until 11.30am. Even then she was delerious.

I got home that night, packed my big and small backpack, then wielded the big stick over the Shaguar on just exactly how much we could fit into the car to go on holidays. That meant about two small boxes got left behind, with Sharons two suitcases, small backpack and multiple bags of shampoo/conditioner/other femaley type stuff coming along for a ride.

Friday

We left around 11am got in mid afternoon, checked in to our hotel, showered, got dressed and went to the Sparrow restaurant in Northbridge for some phenomenally cheap Indonesian food. We both had vegie spring rolls for entree, a nasi goreng (not the Chinese Emperor) between us, Sharon had a marinated steak doohickey and I had a chicken curry and we both had a can of drink. We were stuffed an it cost us $30 all up.

Following that we went and saw Roger Waters in concert. Let me just say it was absolutely 'effin brilliant. My personal favourite of the night would have been Time, in particular the drum solo at the start. Not far behind was Great Gig in the Sky, which was the Shaguars' favourite of the night. The woman who did it was just perfect.

Other highlights for me were Have a Cigar, Wish You Were Here and Comfortably Numb.

And just to rub it in, here's the set list.

FIRST HALF: In The Flesh, Mother, Set The Controls For the Heart Of The Sun, Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Have A Cigar, Wish You Were Here, Southampton Dock, The Fletcher Memorial Home, Perfect Sense parts 1 and 2, Leaving Beirut, Sheep.

SECOND HALF: Dark Side of the Moon.

ENCORE: The Happiest Days Of Our Lives, Another Brick In The Wall (Pt 2), Vera, Bring the Boys back Home, Comfortably Numb.

Saturday

The Shaguar and I caught up with my cousin Dave, his wife Tracy and their two month old daughter Kate for Yum Cha at the Golden Retriever (Century). They were in great form, in particular at starting to have a social life once more now that Kate was becoming more portable. Bub didn't even make a squeak the whole time we ate, and DID WE EAT! Ooooh, stomach dragging along the ground territory, it was.

After that we drove to Busselton, checked into our hotel then went to the Busselton Underwater Observatory. It involved a one mile walk to the end of what was in places a rather rickety pier. Once there it was a walk downstairs eight metres to the bottom of the ocean.

Lots of fun, and as a picture is worth 1,000 words and I want you to not be bored to death reading my blog, heres some photos to give you an idea of what we saw.

On the way down.

At sea level

One of the support pylons half way down.

At the sea floor.

Blurry Angel Fish

School of blurry Fish

Sunday

We did a gentle cruise towards Margaret River, stopping off on the way at Cape Naturaliste and we checked out the lighthouse. On the way up we saw the worlds first media tart Splendid Blue Wren. It loved having it's picture taken, giving us poses in many positions.

Then we climbed the relatively short 19m high light tower (built in 1904) which I suprisingly forgot to take a photo of and took photos.

A view over Bunker Bay

A view of Sugar Loaf

Then we cruised off to Sugar Loaf and had a look.

Mmmmmm, polydeformed rock. Just with the naked eye I could see at least two cleavage planes.

After this we cruised to the Ngigli Caves and had a look at some Stalagmites, Stalactites, Coralloids, Shields and Trays. It was quite a good cave with an upper and lower section. So here's some random photos from in the cave.




It was quite hard going in the lower levels of the cave due to the high CO2 content, but it was brilliantly set out with walkways and lighting displays that could be activiated by the viewer.

After this we went to Margaret River and settled in.

Monday

We did SFA. It's a holiday, so sue us.

The day consisted of a sleep in, wandering around Margaret River, with me buying another stubbie holder to add to my collection and the Shaguar exploring the local op-shops. We bought some really edible gourmet food, which included steak, coffee (for the Shaguar of course), chocolate and fudge. And let me tell you that the meat we bought was Japanese export quality ('effen $$$, but sooo worth it), so I'm telling you it was seriously good.

Then we siesta'ed and settled in to watch Foxtel and Top Gear.

Tuesday

We explored, going to a local olive oil production place that was marked on our tourist map. We cruised down a dirt track onto a thinner corrugated dirt track, despite the distinct lack of signage. We then cruised on thinking we'd missed it before it materialised with a big CLOSED sign on the gate. Sod 'em, I thought.

So we went to a small town antiques/second hand shop where the Shaguar happily perused while I checked out their collection of Harry Secombe, Kahmahl and Oompah band records.

After this we went to a local brewery where I sunk a beer and had a stare through an upper story viewing platform window at a dreadlocked worker poking at something in a vat with a stick. It's amazing how the merest association with beer can make even the most mundane tasks seem interesting. I wasn't really in the mood to drink to excess so we cruised home and relaxed once more.

Wednesday

A big day for "serious gourmet shit" as they say in the classics.

Despite to the previous days disappointing olive oil experience we cruised to another place and this time it came up with the goods. We had a most enjoyable tasting before settling on a big assed bottle of Big Nev. I can't remember the reason why it was called that other than it had something to do with the Spanish olives used in it which gave it a real olive taste. They also had parmesan and chili flavoured oils as well as four other types of extra virgin olive oil, which we tasted multiple times.

The Shaguar went nuts and bought an olive pitter, some bagged nuts, olive shaving cream for me along with the Big Nev.

After this we cruised to a winery which, in it's advertising blurb, had a "make your own wine and label" package. It was also the local coffee wholesaler, so the Shaguar was in seventh heaven and following a coffee and the purchase of a bag of white chocolate coated coffee beans, we wandered into to the winery shop to ask about making a wine.

They told us we should normally book, but they'd ask if we could be squeezed in. After a short break the serving girl came out and said the guy could squeeze us in. He came out (it turned out he was the owners son) looking pissed or stoned. Actually, from experience I'd say it was likely that it was both.

Gotta love the afro, and although you can't see it he also had the wispy porn mustache. He was also a funny bugger who was quite happy to show us around the production facilities and give us the tour. This was mostly because he told us with gusto that there was a bus tour due that he was avoiding because he was taking care of us.

The Shaguar chose a sparkling Shiraz (not Champagne TM- no, most certainly not!) from the fridge. It had it's tip which had the slug of added sugar frozen then sucked out in a funky machine, for which the Shaguar had to get kitted out (blurrily) in safety gear.




After that it was mixed with other wines.

Then our guide told the Shaguar to continue to top it up, top it up, top it up... then said "Whoa, dude! You've over filled the bottle. You'll have to knock the top off it."

So she did.

The guy who helped make up the wine told us he was also responsible for their spirit line. So we then had a tasting of limoncello, coffee and chocolate were all quite tasty. Given the Shaguar had already have several wine tastings previously she was bouncing off the ceiling. She then went nuts and along with her bottle of sparkling shiraz bought a bottle of Coffee liqueur and a bottle of Limoncello for me Mum.

After this we drove to a self serve organic vegie farm and picked the Shaguar a punnet of strawberries before retiring home for another relaxing night in.

Christ, this is taking a long time. I'll finish off part two tomorrow.