Jenny's Birthday Hunter Adventure

Yet another weekend spent up at the Hunter.
Only this time it was with Leanne's family. It was Leanne's Mum's (Jenny) birthday last week, and she decided to head up to the Hunter in celebration.
Jenny and Allan hired a cottage at Millbrook Estate, which was very lovely. Not only was it pretty, but the wine was awesome.
Ross may remember it - we went there in the Kombi with Connie and her friend, a thousand moons ago.
We arrived up in the Hunter on Friday night, but didn't do anything interesting (Leanne and I stayed at the Cedar Creek house - Mum came up, but didn't arrive until midnight or so. In fact, we barely saw Mum on the weekend, and Leanne's parents didn't at all. Bit of a shame.
Jenny & Allan came around on Saturday morning, and we drove down to Wollombi in the hopes of visiting the Horse Heaven Gallery. They were meant to be open, but unfortunately they were closed. Which sucked. So we decided to try again the next day.
So we drove up to Stonehurst (Cedar Creek), and tasted their wines. Jenny and Allan bought a case of wine at the 50% off sale (all storm damaged cases are 50% off).
We then drove to Jenny and Allan's place at Millbrook Estate for some more wine tasting.
It was really nice (possibly better than Cedar Creek... shhh...). He makes them all on-site, which is nice in itself. So I bought some wine, and as a birthday gift to Jenny, paid for the bottles she wanted. This totalled over a case between us.
By now I was feeling a little tipsy, and was very keen for lunch, as we all were.
So we drive over to Country Farm Delights in the Hunter Valley gardens. They are now called something different, but it's the same owner, and the food is actually even bigger now. I used to always get their Savoury Mince; two slices of toast, flavoured mince on top. Craving it, I ordered it this time. Only now it's 4 slices of toast, mince and a ton of bacon. Check it out. Crazy awesome.
So we were all so full afterward, and not looking forward to dinner.
Oh yes, dinner. We planned to go to The Australia Hotel in Cessnock (more specifically, the Swill & Grill within The Australia Hotel), but, as has never happened to me before, they were booked out. I blame the concert. So that was a bit of a shame. Instead we went to Harrigan's Irish Pub. I'm very glad that Leanne and I decided to share dinner, because there was altogether too much food.
In the mean time, Leanne's brother, Aaron, and his girlfriend, Kate, were heading up to meet us.
We met them at my house, and bummed around there for a little bit (I showed them the place), then went to meet Jenny and Allan, and head off to Harrigan's for dinner. You already know that we ate there. It was good. We were full.
Afterward we went back to Jenny and Allan's place and had cheese and dessert wine. Mmmmmm.
Then Aaron, Kate, Leanne and I went back to mine and bummed around again - we were too tired to drink, and I had a headache from drinking that day anyway.
Earlier in the day, Philippa from Cedar Creek told us of the Wollombi Ball that was on that night - and we had all intentions on going - only after Harrigan's we were so full and tired, and it was already 9:30pm, and it was so far away... so we didn't. Shame. It would have been good.
So, Saturday night wasn't the event we thought it would be, but it was fun nonetheless. Unfortunately, Aaron had to be in Sydney by 1pm, so he left around 10am, so we didn't get to do anything with him on Sunday. Another shame.
But Jenny and Allan came over, and we went back down to Wollombi in the hopes that Horse Heaven was open. Wasn't. Bitch.
So we drive back to mine, and were side-tracked by Lavender Gate Farm; a lovely little café on the way home. We popped in there for a light lunch, and ended up getting a lot more than expected.
We ordered a pizza and a mezze platter, and it was plenty. Unfortunately (so many unfortunates...), they burnt it, but bless them, they didn't charge us for it. Plus I get a locals discount of 10% off. Great days.
Jenny and Allan headed back home after that, but Leanne and I stayed up at Cedar Creek and waited for Mum and Pete/Talan. They had to come up to drop Pete/Talan off at College, so we went out to dinner with them, and Pete/Talan's friend Sharon. We went to the Swill & Grill. Good food. So full.
We then had to drive to Maitland to drop them off, and then back to Cedar Creek to pack, and then back to Carlingford, and then Mum had to drive back to Newport. Poor dear.
Me being the big old nerd that I am, decided to map the way from Tocal (Pete/Talan's college) back to Cedar Creek. I really wanted to do it from Cedar Creek to Sydney, but the GPS reception on my phone is so poor, that I have to hold it up to the window the whole time, and couldn't be fucked doing that for a further hour-and-a-half. What's groovy about my phone is that I can export my journeys to Google Earth. So I did as such and had a good ole gander at the journey. I need to look into the ways it can be represented though.
Anyhow.
So. That was my weekend.
I was so fucked Monday morning, that I took the day off, and ended up getting that much needed haircut (those following my Jaiku stream would already know this). There are some photos here, if you want to check them out. It's hot. I also posted to the Haiku channel about it here.
And I think that's it.
Have fun, and keep it real.

Listening to: Cradle of Filth - Thornography (Album - super hot metal. The caffeine injection I just had helps with the awesome)

A Volcano in the Hunter

The weekend that I was at one point so negative about turned out rather well, actually.
In all, a good amount of people came (Leanne, Mum, Denise, Ben, Carly, Leanne's workmate Nick, and his friend Ben), and there was much merriment. Stonehurst (aka Cedar Creek) are still selling damaged stock at a 50% discount per case - so we ended up all buying cases. Fantastic. We ended up paying about $9.50 a bottle, for wine that should be about $25 a bottle in stores. Fucking awesome.
Nick's friend Ben is a bit of a pothead, and owns a Volcano. A fantastic little device that extracts THC from Marijuana without having to actually smoke it. If you follow the link above you can get an idea of how this wonderful machine works.
Not only is it incredibly easy to "smoke," it's also incredibly efficient. I bought a 50, and we used maybe 1/3 of it between the 7 of us. Fucken A. So I guess this means a few more gatherings are in order.
So the night consisted of wine, weed, music and general shenanigans. All was happy. We bought a fuckload of fish n chips, and Denise brought plenty of munchy food, including awesome cookies (I will attach a pic soon). Ah yes. Fantastic.
Sunday had a lazy beginning, so lazy in fact that we missed the awesome Bacon & Egg roll place in Cessnock - they close at midday on Sundays, as is typical for most places in Cessnock. So we went to The Carousel Cafe instead. Tasty, tasty, tasty. I had another puff on the bag before we went, so my memory is a little hazy and I'm not sure if we paid or not. I hope we did, they're nice people. But they don't have hash browns. The nerve - and a distinct plus for the awesome bacon and egg roll place. But still, for breakfasts, nothing beats the place at Peats Ridge. It's just so hard to time it all right for breakfast.
But yes. After breakfast everyone went their respective ways, and Mum, Leanne and I went back to Cedar Creek. We watched Here Comes Mr Jordan, which was not bad, and then we went home.
The end to a lovely weekend.
Yay!