Tulip Farm - 2 October 2011

We went to a Tulip farm about and hour outside of Melbourne. The tulips are only in full boom for a limited time, so there is always A LOT of people at the farm to see the tulips in full bloom. 


It was quite difficult to get photos of only the tulips! But it was an experience.

There was a jazz and wine show on too so we got to taste some wine, listen to jazz and eat some Dutch "poffertjes".

This guy was trying to make a video clip of him "running through the tulips" - and wouldn't get out of the way...

Poffertjes.

Just how serious are the Australians about Footy??

AFL = Australian Football League

Photos of Albert Park taken whilst running...

Some sights from out and about.

Shri Shiva Vishnu Temple - a Hindu Temple.

Brighton Beach Houses.

Weekend Away - 24th to 27th September 2011

On Saturday we made a lovely egg and bacon breakfast, before we hit the road to travel along the Great Ocean Road. The route was very scenic. We stopped at a few small towns along the one and stayed overnight in Apollo Bay.

The start of the great ocean road.

Erskine falls.

On Sunday morning we headed for the 12 Apostles which is a well-known land mark along the Great Ocean Road. There are no longer 12 Apostles anymore as the sea has eroded them away. There are now only 6. We then drove on to a small town called Port Fairy and had great fish and chips for lunch. We stayed overnight in Warnambool.

12 Apostles.

Us with the 12 Apostles behind.

London Bridge.

On Monday we headed inland. We first stopped at an extinct volcano and then to a small town called Dunkeld. We had lunch in Dunkeld at a 5 star restaurant called the Royal Mail Hotel. Strange to have a 5 star restaurant in the middle of nowhere! The food was very good though!

Wallabys soaking up the sun.

Can you see the baby in the pouch?

We then headed into the Grampians National Park which consists of a series of mountain ranges.  We stayed overnight in Halls Gap. On Tuesday we had to drive the long way round to see some sights as some of the roads were damaged from floods earlier this year. We then headed back home and had the car washed before heading to bed for an early night…

The Balconies.

We thoroughly enjoyed the time away and being in nature. The scenery and vegetation reminds us a lot of South Africa…

Photos from out and about

View of the bay.

A park.

I am fascinated at the parks here, they always look so interesting and all of them are different...

Beautiful blossoming tree!

 

 

So pretty!

Weekend - 16 September

Fish and chips was the dinner menu on Friday night - from the Fish and chippery just down the road... 

Saturday was a relaxing day. I booked accommodation for us to go away the following weekend - looking forward to that! Sean has taken 2 extra days off.

On Saturday night we went to a 30th Birthday party at one of the "hotels" a few kilometers away from where we stay. A "hotel" is a bar, pub or nightclub here. I think that most of them were boutique hotels a long time ago, so they have kept the name, but not the rooms... It was quite an interesting evening - got to meet new people, had many laughs and lots of 80's music was played! We walked to the venue so obviously had to walk home too - but by the time it was home time my feet were so sore from being in high heels all night! So it was then off with the shoes and I walked home barefoot...

On Sunday we went to the Chadstone shopping centre. It is supposedly the largest shopping sentre in Australia as well as the Southern Hemisphere. And yes it is very LARGE. I don't really like such big shopping centres as it takes to long to get from one place to the next!

We then went to another shopping centre which is a Direct Factory Outlet (DFO), to try and find work shoes for Sean. I have been shopping for shoes for Sean since we got here, and have brought home many pairs and none of them have fitted him! Big sizes are not common here... So after trying on a few pairs at the DFO Sean finally found 2 pairs that fit! Happiness! So now I don't have to be frustrated with returning the shoes all the time...

Then it was home time and we bottled our beer.

Our beer bottled.

So now we have to wait for 2 weeks for it to be ready for consumption! In the mean time I'm going to look for more bottles so that we can brew another type to compare the 2...

Weekend Activities - 9 September 2011

On Friday the weather turned cold and windy... We went out for dinner to a restaurant close to our apartment (in the wind!). We had a lovely meal. Some restaurants have degustation meals. Below is a few definitions and meaning of degustation:

Definition of DEGUSTATION

: the action or an instance of tasting especially in a series of small portions

de·gust·ed, de·gust·ing, de·gusts

To taste with relish; savor.

Degustation (French for 'tasting')

Degustation is the art of tasting food. Modern degustation probably comes from the French kitchens of the early 20th century and is different from earlier meals with many courses because these meals were served as full-sized meals at each course.


We had the degustation menu which consisted of 5 courses. It was delicious!

Belle Zain Restaurant

The weather was even worse on Saturday - cold, windy and rainy! So we decided to spend the weekend indoors.


We made pizza dough from scratch and went to buy a pizza stone to use for cooking it in the oven. It was quite an event making the pizzas some they were very yummy!


On Sunday we went off to the shops to buy a home brewing beer kit... And then started the process of brewing our own beer at home... The process takes quite a while - it has to ferment for a few days and then you bottle it and leave it for almost 2 weeks. So we will be bottling our own beer this weekend and then waiting for the end product... 

Our beer brewing...

All in all it was a fun weekend doing new things indoors!