we want the finest wines known to humanity

This encapsulates for me that great moment where the Australian day slides from sunset to true dusk. And don't be so cynical about my romantic language... there is a difference between sunset and dusk!

I took this photo soon after arriving at Jodie's parents winery Catherine Vale in the Hunter Valley, pre-engagement-party.........

The aborigines say that this mountain range was formed in the dreamtime, when a giant goanna lay down to die. Since the symbol of Catherine Vale wine is an aboriginal drawing of a goanna, I thought that was pretty cool.

Much much food and wine followed this photo. After assuming the party would be more of a BBQ+beer situation, what we actually got was the Australian version of the wedding (Jodie is getting married in Belgium next year)... a 5 course sit-down meal in their new fabulous tasting room, with 3 different exceptional bottles of wine for each course and an enormous spit roast sizzling on the verandah outside. What a party...

Was kind of like a little SBS Youth Orchestra reunion actually, only these days everyone is getting married/having kids blah blah blah. Not me of course, but hey, what can you say? I think it was pretty special for all of us to be there together actually. A group of us camped together for the night: StevieB and his lovely Lisa (their 1 year old baby Josh was staying with his grandparents so all wine drinking was hereby ON for the night!), Rachel & Andy, Ben Walton and I (we were relegated to the couches not having the partners with us an' all). We all stayed in this weird little schoolhouse down the road from the vineyard, whilst other people crashed in caravans, on floors etc etc. 34 people at the party and it went on all weekend. The place we stayed at was $50 for the whole thing for the night and it not only slept 6 people, but came complete with pie-warmer in the kitchen (it doubled as the school tuckshop apparently). We fairly waddled back there after about 9 hours of solid eating and drinking and I woke up at 10am curled in my sleeping bag having fallen asleep in my posh top the night before with that tell-tale stiff shoulder from passing out all night in one position. None of us even remotely had a hangover though, which we've put down to a night of only good-quality alcohol. A new sensation. So this is how the other half lives!

Was a slightly embarrassing moment in the morning when we spent 20 minutes freaking out over losing Rachel's car keys... until I realised that they were in my bag where I had very responsibly put them at 3am going "Don't.Lose.Car.Keys." Hmm. I felt sheepish.

All in all it was such a great weekend. It felt like we were all 17 again and on an orchestra tour somewhere. Even nicer though to know that we can still hang out like this now 10 years later and it's still a total blast. I've missed my friends so much. It's been so great to see them and see them happy.

Anyway... moment of misty-eyed nostalgia aside... I drove home in Tim Hollo's little Toyota Corolla (I wonder how he fits in it? The roof was pretty low) and zoomed through the Hunter Valley past all the huge posh wineries. *sigh* Have vowed to go back there in January and explore a bit more. Too many wombat road-kills along the way. Poor wombats :( the roads are just so windy at night that I think it's pretty dangerous to drive up there after dark actually.

On the way back I drove past the sign to the Wandin Valley Estate which was to have been the site of our wedding, but thinking about that particularly after seeing everyone again and having to explain to them why we didn't get married was a little painful, so I didn't really want to think about it and kept driving. Also had meant to purchase some Catherine Vale wine, since Bill & Wendy had been so generous with all their giving of top nosh the night before, but the next morning I just couldn't face any more alcohol, so shall have to return next time and buy some of their amazing Semillion Savignon Blanc and desert wine...

It rained today for the first time since I got to Australia. This is definitely not like Holland...