Margaret River region

So many wineries, so little time! In fact, the choice of which wineries to visit is made easier by factoring in additional requirements: for the morning visit, there has to be a cafe to provide coffee, and for the early afternoon visit, lunch has to be available. On this basis, we visited Hayshed for a tasting plus coffee, and Cullen for a lunch platter and a little more wine. Hayshed excelled: although we limited ourselves to the reds, there was quite a range and we even tasted their $70 offering! And coffee in the stylish cafe rounded the morning off nicely.

We then headed to Driftwood, but didn't go inside when we saw a sign saying that the restaurant was closed “until further notice”. Pity, because I would have liked to replace the Driftwood cap (obtained some years ago) that I inadvertently left behind in Xian. But it was not to be. So we headed down the road to Cullen, where we had a nice up-market platter for lunch. Cullen are very much into the organic/biodynamic scene; all very commendable, but when plantings are said to be influenced by the zodiac and account is taken of which way the water swirls, I wonder if things are being taken just a little too seriously.

Following this, we checked out Margaret River itself, for a quick look around and a coffee. I can't say that I find this town particularly attractive as it's primarily a service centre.

After freshening up we headed into Busselton for dinner,and ended up eating Indian (which was fine). After dinner we walked part of the way out along the 1.7 km Busselton jetty, taking care not to become entangled in any of the lines being held by the many fishermen.

Busselton

Flight to Perth, then drive to Busselton.....bit of a long day, but all went satisfactorily, and now we're all set in a pleasant studio at the Sebel resort, with direct access to Geographe Bay and the sound of the gentle waves in our ears.   We had dinner at a nearby restaurant on the foreshore and then went for a short walk. It's peaceful and rather quiet here (I guess it's not a busy time of year), but it is definitely very relaxing.

Possums on the balcony

Ducks in the pool

Rabbit on the foreshore (one of many)

Mothers' Day

We had a lovely Mothers' Day lunch at the College Lawn in Greville St Prahran.    The food was good, the little extras the venue provided to mark the day were a nice touch, the atmosphere and service couldn't be faulted  and of course the company was great.  We must remember this place
- if only the parking wasn't such a pain!

We're now off to Western Australia for a week, so I'll do my best to post some reports from the West.

"Dear Neighbour...."

It's quite common to get a little note in our letterbox, along the lines of, "Dear Neighbour, we're having a party, we won't make much noise, but apologies if you do hear something....". 


All very nice and civilised I think.   But never an invitation to join in!

St George's Day

In the Orthodox (Julian) calendar, last Tuesday was 23 April  and the feast of St. George, the fabled dragonslayer and patron saint of many Serbs.

According to the legend, St George came upon a kingdom beset by a foul, plague-breathing dragon. To appease the dragon, they began to give it a daily sacrifice of livestock, and later even their children. When the saint came along and killed the dragon, the grateful citizens embraced Christianity.

In Serbian folklore, the feast of St George is the beginning of hayduk season - guerrilla resistance to Ottoman overlords that had conquered Serb lands in the 15th century. The season traditionally ended on the feast of Saint Demetrius (Mitrovdan), 26 October.

 
We attended Nata's slava, as St George is her family's saint.   As usual, there was lots to eact and drink.   A lot of self-restraint was needed!

  

Internet Explorer

The Australian Government's "Stay Start Online" website has suggested changing your browser so as not to use Microsoft's Internet Explorer!   This occurred on 29 April, and is because Microsoft  issued a security advisory warning about a critical vulnerability affecting all versions of Internet Explorer,  known to be targeted by cyber criminals.
Apparently, the vulnerability can be exploited if an attacker gains access to your computer, or if you visit a malicious website using one of the affected versions of Internet Explorer.

But for an Australian Government site to suggest (albeit gently) that we ought not to use a Microsoft product?  Very interesting!



Edit:  I understand that Microsoft has now issued patches for this problem, including in respect of Windows XP, notwithstanding they are not now supporting it.

Paringa Estate

We had Sunday lunch at Paringa Estate, and were impressed.  The food was excellent, being thoughtfully conceived and well-presented (the web-site says, " exciting and imaginative" and, yes, I'd agree with that).  The staff, too, were knowledgeable and explained each dish when it arrived.   The restaurant has a chef's hat.  I guess I can see the basis for that, as it has the seemingly obligatory "trendy" ingredients, for example, my snapper came with "beach herbs".   However, there weren't too many ingredients in this category!

Scallop carpaccio

The winery's geese

We drank Paringa wines;  not cheap, but very acceptable.  Of course, on the Mornington Peninsula, you expect a good outlook, and in this respect Paringa is right up there, even if the world outside was cold and showery. 

Queen's Inn

I attended the annual Queen's Inn dinner at Queen's College, where the speaker was Justice Marcia Neave.

I have to say that the College under the leadership of the present master, Prof David Runia, seems to be travelling impressively (at least, from what I can see, from afar).   In particular, it appears to have successfully handled the transition of Melbourne University to the so-called "Melbourne Model".  This involves professional entry degrees all being post-graduate.   In the case of law, this is the JD.

For Melbourne's colleges, with their traditional focus on under-graduates, this has required a bit of a step-change in order to appeal to a greater range of post-graduates.   We were told that, this year, Queen's has 10 students in residence undertaking the JD, which seems quite good.




Justice Neave's speech was directed at the mostly under and recent-graduate audience, and appeared to hit the mark.  Her main themes were women in the law (basically, they started from a long way behind, there's been progress, but there's still more to be done) and some reflections on her life in the law.  She also reflected on the fact that more people are graduating in law than will ever work as lawyers (see my post here on this aspect). 

EDIT:  For completeness, here's my post on this dinner in 2012.

Union Dining

There appears to be a range of  views about Union Dining.  There are some rave reviews but others  aren't so good.  We passed on the appetisers and entrees (perhaps a pity, as there seemed to be some interesting choices here, but it was a group decision to forego having a couple as shared plates, as suggested).   The mains were mostly pretty good:  the goulash hit the mark for me, although I was told the duck seemed overcooked (apparently duck replaced the chicken listed on the autumn menu).   My observation of the duck dish was that there was a lot of duck but not much else on the plate!    The sides were all good, as were the deserts.

But it's noisy (trendy, I know, but still) and we had an issue with the service.  The waiter spilt a little wine and, yes, it was cleared up.   But then he appeared to abandon us;  was it a light-hearted comment one of our group made when ordering, or did our response to the wine spill offend?   Be that as it may, once our mains arrived, there was  no further wine service, no top-ups of water and no replacement water glass for the one that was taken because it was in the wine.   By the time we'd finished our mains, we made our feelings known, and from them on we were attentively looked after by another member of the wait staff and a gentleman who appeared to be in charge.

Our other issue was with the wine list;  yes, interesting, but heavily weighted towards the upper end of the price range (although wine is also available by the carafe).

Perhaps Union Dining deserves another chance (edit, in view of the gushing review it gets in the Good Food Guide).   But being in Swan St, if we go in the evening, the only practicable transport for us is by car.....and of course parking is a problem in that area.   It might be a good place for a long lunch, when public transport would be viable.  On the other hand, there are so many restaurants, many of which are closer to us,  and only a limited number of opportunities to eat!  So for now, our feelings about it remain mixed.

The Salvos

After enduring some delays on the trip in as a result of the massive train disruptions that morning, I attended the breakfast launch of the Salvation Army's Red Shield appeal.   550 people were present in the Sofitel's Grand Ballroom.   Obviously a worthy cause, although it's clear that the Salvos run an impressive operation and are well-connected in the business community.   They are also clearly quite particular about their "brand" (have you ever seen a scruffy Salvo officer?)

The child abuse issue was addressed head-on (remorse, never again), which of course is the only viable approach, although not every institution affected seems to have fully grasped this.  

Interestingly, it was said that the the Salvation Army's support in Australia is strongest in Victoria.  I wonder if there are historical reasons for this?