On Tuesday 17th March we worked a full day at one of Leasingham’s vineyards. We got talking to a couple of people who worked at the Leasingham winery, Sarah, Luke and Alice.
Sarah was from Ireland and her partner Luke came from Manchester. They told us about how they had been working in China for 2 years as teachers and then decided to go travelling around Australia. Alice was a local. After work they invited us to go for a drink with them at Sevenhills Pub to celebrate St Patrick’s Day. Ned the landlord at the pub had got into the Paddy’s day spirit by flying the Irish flag and adding green food colouring to the beers. This was the first time we had been into the Sevenhill pub and we really liked it. It had a friendly atmosphere. We soon got chatting to Ned who seems to know most people in the valley and was able to help Christophe find somewhere to stay as the 1 hour drives from Jamestown to get to work were getting a bit much. Ned made a couple of phone calls and had managed to sort out Christophe to stay with a woman called Keeda who lived in Auburn and only wanted $70 a week for the room. Christophe was delighted and so to help our French friend out we drove him to meet her that afternoon. That evening it was Adam’s turn to cook and we had promised Brian and Yvonne Fish and Chips.
So Adam used his chip shop experience to whip up a batter and deep fried the Garfish that we had caught. This tasted fantastic and Adam is the best chef in the world (he made me write this!!).
My Birthday. Unfortunately we had to work on my birthday and it turned out to be the worst day at work I ever had. When we arrived at Jim Barry’s vineyard we were told that we would be picking grapes that would be used for their $180 bottle of Armagh Shiraz and so the 2 teams would be split. Our team would pick only the good quality bunches and the “Asians” who were the other team would come behind us and pick everything else. The other supervisor, Angie (who everyone thought was drunk) didn’t seem too happy about this and questioned what they were going to do whilst they waited for our team to pick, the winemaker quickly responded and said, “just wait, you’re paid by the hour aren’t you!”. This obviously enraged Angie and a little bit later as we had started picking tension mounted and Angie and Woolly (our supervisor) soon became involved in a slagging match as Angie complained that we were working too slowly and leaving too many good bunches behind. Woolly proceeded to swear back (this is all in front of us and the winemaker) and this continued for a couple of minutes. I stupidly opened my mouth and was about to suggest that to speed things up why not have the Asians pick good bunches from the other rows and then both teams could do a sweep of everything else after, well as soon as I said “Woolly I have a suggestion” he turned around to me and told me to shut up! At the induction when we first started we were told to suggest any ideas we had, this was obviously not the case. Later on I had the winemaker picking next to me so I asked him if there were a few shrivelled grapes on a bunch whether or not to cut them off or just disregard the bunch, he told me to cut them off. So as I started doing this I fell a little behind to which Woolly then questioned what I was doing. I proceeded to explain what the winemaker had told me to which the winemaker then said oh just leave them – grrrrrr. I was glad when we finished at midday. Adam had told me that for my birthday he was organising a day horse riding as it was something I had always wanted to do. So after work we drove to Burra to sort out the trip. On the way back home we stopped off at Mintaro, which is where Martindale Hall was built in 1879.
We decided to have a look around this huge country house and so proceeded to pay the $7 entrance fee. It had an interesting history, but the house was now used as a B&B which made the place look tired. We were also disappointed that you were not allowed to take photos. We had thought about visiting The Mintaro Maze but having spoken to Leigh and Alex they told us it was more for children and so not to bother. When we got home, waiting in the kitchen was the Mill family who had baked a birthday cake and bought me a present. It was unexpected but a lovely surprise. With the help of Daniel I blew out my candles and opened my present which was a book about Greek Mythology (a little interest of mine).
After freshening up Brian, Yvonne, Adam and I made our way to a local restaurant called Salt ‘n’ Vines where we met Christophe and enjoyed dinner. The meals were nice but I thought it was a little expensive for what you got. After dinner Adam dropped Yvonne and Brian home and then met Christophe and me at the Sevenhill pub for a nightcap and a couple of games of pool.
As we were not working on Thursday we had arranged my horse riding trip. So we drove to Burra and met Graham who was the owner of Burra Horse Trails and his helpers Tom and Phil. We got booted up, strapped on our helmets and went to meet our horses. Graham gave us a brief introduction on horse riding and then we got straight into it.
Sarah was from Ireland and her partner Luke came from Manchester. They told us about how they had been working in China for 2 years as teachers and then decided to go travelling around Australia. Alice was a local. After work they invited us to go for a drink with them at Sevenhills Pub to celebrate St Patrick’s Day. Ned the landlord at the pub had got into the Paddy’s day spirit by flying the Irish flag and adding green food colouring to the beers. This was the first time we had been into the Sevenhill pub and we really liked it. It had a friendly atmosphere. We soon got chatting to Ned who seems to know most people in the valley and was able to help Christophe find somewhere to stay as the 1 hour drives from Jamestown to get to work were getting a bit much. Ned made a couple of phone calls and had managed to sort out Christophe to stay with a woman called Keeda who lived in Auburn and only wanted $70 a week for the room. Christophe was delighted and so to help our French friend out we drove him to meet her that afternoon. That evening it was Adam’s turn to cook and we had promised Brian and Yvonne Fish and Chips.
So Adam used his chip shop experience to whip up a batter and deep fried the Garfish that we had caught. This tasted fantastic and Adam is the best chef in the world (he made me write this!!).
My Birthday. Unfortunately we had to work on my birthday and it turned out to be the worst day at work I ever had. When we arrived at Jim Barry’s vineyard we were told that we would be picking grapes that would be used for their $180 bottle of Armagh Shiraz and so the 2 teams would be split. Our team would pick only the good quality bunches and the “Asians” who were the other team would come behind us and pick everything else. The other supervisor, Angie (who everyone thought was drunk) didn’t seem too happy about this and questioned what they were going to do whilst they waited for our team to pick, the winemaker quickly responded and said, “just wait, you’re paid by the hour aren’t you!”. This obviously enraged Angie and a little bit later as we had started picking tension mounted and Angie and Woolly (our supervisor) soon became involved in a slagging match as Angie complained that we were working too slowly and leaving too many good bunches behind. Woolly proceeded to swear back (this is all in front of us and the winemaker) and this continued for a couple of minutes. I stupidly opened my mouth and was about to suggest that to speed things up why not have the Asians pick good bunches from the other rows and then both teams could do a sweep of everything else after, well as soon as I said “Woolly I have a suggestion” he turned around to me and told me to shut up! At the induction when we first started we were told to suggest any ideas we had, this was obviously not the case. Later on I had the winemaker picking next to me so I asked him if there were a few shrivelled grapes on a bunch whether or not to cut them off or just disregard the bunch, he told me to cut them off. So as I started doing this I fell a little behind to which Woolly then questioned what I was doing. I proceeded to explain what the winemaker had told me to which the winemaker then said oh just leave them – grrrrrr. I was glad when we finished at midday. Adam had told me that for my birthday he was organising a day horse riding as it was something I had always wanted to do. So after work we drove to Burra to sort out the trip. On the way back home we stopped off at Mintaro, which is where Martindale Hall was built in 1879.
We decided to have a look around this huge country house and so proceeded to pay the $7 entrance fee. It had an interesting history, but the house was now used as a B&B which made the place look tired. We were also disappointed that you were not allowed to take photos. We had thought about visiting The Mintaro Maze but having spoken to Leigh and Alex they told us it was more for children and so not to bother. When we got home, waiting in the kitchen was the Mill family who had baked a birthday cake and bought me a present. It was unexpected but a lovely surprise. With the help of Daniel I blew out my candles and opened my present which was a book about Greek Mythology (a little interest of mine).
After freshening up Brian, Yvonne, Adam and I made our way to a local restaurant called Salt ‘n’ Vines where we met Christophe and enjoyed dinner. The meals were nice but I thought it was a little expensive for what you got. After dinner Adam dropped Yvonne and Brian home and then met Christophe and me at the Sevenhill pub for a nightcap and a couple of games of pool.
As we were not working on Thursday we had arranged my horse riding trip. So we drove to Burra and met Graham who was the owner of Burra Horse Trails and his helpers Tom and Phil. We got booted up, strapped on our helmets and went to meet our horses. Graham gave us a brief introduction on horse riding and then we got straight into it.
We mounted our horses and off we went. The trip lasted 3 hours and we trekked across some of his 1200 acres of fields and hills. We even had a go at trotting which we regretted the following day. My first experience of horse riding was very enjoyable and it is definitely something I would like to try again. Thanks Adam for a very special birthday prezzie! Xxx After horse riding we ventured into Burra and had a look around the shops and stopped for a bite to eat at the local cafe called “The Cook A Burra” (get it!). Then on our way home we also stopped at a local apple wine/cider winery. It tasted like cider but they had to call it a wine because of the alcohol level, Adam was not impressed and so that too will not be appearing on the tables for our reception.
Saturday was going to be a chill out day. We decided we would do a little more towards the reception and so would cut some of the corks that would become place card holders. I decided to use Adam’s very sharp Leatherman knife to slice the corks in half but in doing so managed to slice 3 of my fingers. At which point I called for Adam who started to put plasters on my fingers when I suddenly fell faint and then passed out. Luckily Adam caught me before I fell to the floor and quickly sat me on a chair with my head between my knees. Yvonne commented on how she didn’t think I could go white – but I had. After an eventful morning we met up with Leigh and Alex for lunch at the Taminga Pub. I didn’t think the food was as good as what we had at The Middle put the free ice-cream was a bonus. After lunch they invited us back to their house where we chatted for a while and Leigh even did Tarot card readings for us.
We had been invited to Beryl’s 70th Birthday BBQ. Beryl is the mother of Brent whose birthday party we went to and the grandmother of David who had been kicked out of Bingo. We met Christophe and made our way to the park which was next to Knappstein winery. The whole family was there including Gwen and Wayne a couple who were in our grape picking gang and were David’s in laws and lots of other people that we had met previously at Brent’s birthday. We enjoyed the food and someone had even brought a tv to watch the Clipsal 500 V8 supercars in Adelaide. We ate lots of food, talked to various people and even had a go on the swings and slides in the playground (I know we’re big kids).
Saturday was going to be a chill out day. We decided we would do a little more towards the reception and so would cut some of the corks that would become place card holders. I decided to use Adam’s very sharp Leatherman knife to slice the corks in half but in doing so managed to slice 3 of my fingers. At which point I called for Adam who started to put plasters on my fingers when I suddenly fell faint and then passed out. Luckily Adam caught me before I fell to the floor and quickly sat me on a chair with my head between my knees. Yvonne commented on how she didn’t think I could go white – but I had. After an eventful morning we met up with Leigh and Alex for lunch at the Taminga Pub. I didn’t think the food was as good as what we had at The Middle put the free ice-cream was a bonus. After lunch they invited us back to their house where we chatted for a while and Leigh even did Tarot card readings for us.
We had been invited to Beryl’s 70th Birthday BBQ. Beryl is the mother of Brent whose birthday party we went to and the grandmother of David who had been kicked out of Bingo. We met Christophe and made our way to the park which was next to Knappstein winery. The whole family was there including Gwen and Wayne a couple who were in our grape picking gang and were David’s in laws and lots of other people that we had met previously at Brent’s birthday. We enjoyed the food and someone had even brought a tv to watch the Clipsal 500 V8 supercars in Adelaide. We ate lots of food, talked to various people and even had a go on the swings and slides in the playground (I know we’re big kids).
The funniest thing was when Adam got stuck in the dolphin ride and couldn’t get out; I couldn’t help as I was too busy filming making sure I got it all on camera – poor Adam. We got talking to Matt, Brent’s son; he was the green keeper of the local golf course. He invited us back to his for a few drinks and poker.
0 comments:
Post a Comment