A Tale of Two Cities

We have now been living in the M.I.A for one whole month! Time flies when you’re having fun I guess. We have been busy, busy, busy. Shaun’s enjoying working on the farm and has decided he loves working for himself. I now work day and night which makes the days go faster and also adds to our growing bank balance. The more money the longer the next leg of the trip. Now that is what I call motivation. During the day I work for a winery, in the office, it’s really interesting finding out how it all works from the vine to the bottle. I have also taken an interest in Wine Drinking! I can wholeheartedly recommended Jacob’s Creek Cool Harvest range. It is very light and I think even those of you who don’t drink wine might like it too. At night-time I am still working away at La Scala although they will be shutting over Christmas, New Year till mid January. I do like working there, everyone is easy to get along with I feel like the odd one out not being Italian or related to anyone but they have all been more than welcoming.

My second day at the winery the BIG bosses came across from Head Office in Adelaide and we had a massive luncheon with all our grape growers. It was great to meet every one and hear their stories. Farmers do really have a hard slog on the land. Talking about the Farmer’s plight we also attended the meeting for the Basin Plan to do with the Murray Darling Basin. It was interesting to hear both sides of the argument, it certainly is a very complicated issue. 

Last weekend we headed over to the Nation’s Capital, Canberra. WOW! That was disappointing. It was so cold (weather was surprisingly warm) looking and there were hardly any people around. We went to the wedding of one of Shaun’s school mates and had a nice time. It was fantastic to catch up with some of our best mates, Brendan and Kurt. We miss them so much. While in Canberra I also caught up with an old work friend, Lauren. It was lovely to see her. She is doing so well for herself. I hope she enjoys the rest of her exciting adventure in Canberra. We did all the usual things in the big smoke; went shopping, went out to dinner, completed most of our Christmas shopping and relaxed. We also went up and checked out Parliament House and Old Parliament House. There wasn’t much time so we didn’t get a chance to do any of the tours or anything like that. The hotel we stayed at was Rydges Capital Hill it was clean and location was convenient, however I remember the days when Rydges used to be prestigious – we were far from those days that is for sure. All in all we won’t be rushing back to Canberra anytime soon.

From Canberra, our mates Brendan and Kurt made the journey to Griffith. Shaun was working most of the time they were here so I showed them around the Farm and they entertained themselves with cricket. They seemed to have a good time. On the Tuesday night, I took the night off from working at La Scala and we went out to dinner – at LA SCALA. Well it is the best restaurant in town. Shaun’s Mum and brother had also journeyed down to Griffith so we invited a few of Shaun’s cousins and had a ball. It was an awesome feeling to be dining out instead of waiting on others. It really was a fantastic evening.

We are now in the downhill run to Christmas with 3 sleeps to go! We are really looking forward to Christmas with my parents in Melbourne.

On that note, Readers please have a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS. If you are travelling anywhere stay safe on the roads, take care and most of all be FESTIVE.

Bye for Now