ADELAIDE

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Hi everyone, what a great day yesterday. Stu, Chris, Rosie and I drove to the Barossa Valley which is the wine region, just for a change ! ! Beautiful stunning scenery, we could live there !! First we met up with Ella in a place called Tanunda, it was great seeing her again, Ella is the sister of Debbie and Mick who we stay with up on the Norfolk Broads. Ella has been out here since the 80's - 90's and we last saw her in Bali a couple of years ago. We all had lunch together, caught up with the latest and then Ella went off with her daughter's dog, Dexter, whilst we went wine tasting. It's all got to stop when we come home !! I said to Stu 'we can't carry on like this', he said 'I can'. It's like talking to a brick wall !!! So let it all begin, loved every drop we tasted!! We visited Jacobs Creek winery, bit glam, obviously making a lot of money and very popular wine. Stu buy's a bottle, Chris and Rosie buy a crate ! Off we go to the next winery, this one is called Rockford, very nice wines again, it was a cute little 'cellar door' ( this is the name of the tasting rooms). Reminded me of a little old fashioned pub, Stu and Rosie, all deciding what was good and not so good, but there didnt appear to be a bad one amongst the lot !! Another bottle brought by Stu, crate brought by Chris and Rosie, but they could have brought it for someone else. Off to the next one called Grant Burge, again all beautiful views overlooking the vineyards. Weather a bit dull, infact very dull ! But the vineyards had the most amazing colours of golds, reds, burgundy's and green's, helped no doubt by the rain !! Off to the next one called Artisans of Barossa, where we tasted a 140 dollar wine, very nice but all agreed was it worth that much money, we all agreed No, but what do we know about wine !! Stu buys another bottle (not at that price), so I said 'what exactly are we going to do with all this wine, he said 'were drink it'. After wine tasting, which happened to be the end of the day, we sat in this same winery and had a coffee overlooking the views and the sun came out, gorgeous. Came home, got ready and went out to meet Rosie's sister, Reiner, her husband Eugene, their friends Sue and Alan. We all had dinner at a pub called The Hackney. In Australia, a lot of places are named after English places, but different states also use the same names, and because we have travelled around a lot, sometimes you forget what state you're in, well I do !!! Stu had another steak and can I just add that he had one for his lunch and we added up the weight of his steaks which he consumed that day and it was 750 grams ! Oh yes !! he said 'wish I had time to round it off'. So we then go into the Pokies room, which is a very popular thing over here. Basically it's a room full of jackpot machines, reminded me of Las Vegas, so we played 'couples' and whoever won, then splits the winnings with the other couples to play again for the Big Win ! which can I say never happened !! Also Stu and I did the lottery out here, guess what, won didderely squat !! So we're be seeing you all when we come home !! Bit of background, Stu came out to Rosie's and Chris's wedding 16 years ago, when he got back he met me straight away.

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