Good Karma

I had an interesting week. On Sunday Taph and I were in the queue at the local Aldi getting our groceries.

A lady asked is she could jump ahead of us as she needed to buy one of the Aldi trolley tokens. Following my free range money challenge, I have managed to collect 15 of these little buggers tokens, so I offered her one, and suggested she pay it forward.

Later that evening, Taph reminded me that my parents wedding anniversary was coming up, and what was I going to get them. At the time I had no idea, so I said, I don’t know, however, something would turn up.

The next day I was in Salvos at Belconnen, when I spied this vase on their shelf.

This vase, along with another vase I had picked up earlier were both Johnson Brothers Summer Chintz patten, and would match thier dinner setting. I figured these would be great presents for their anniversary.

Later, when I mentioned this find to Taph that she said that Karma had decided to repay my previous good dead in full.

And the toy car? Dad collects the old matchbox toy cars, and I just gave it to him. .

Some days you can get so lucky

Over the past few weeks, it felt like every weekend involved a trip to Tinys Green Shed in-order to collect some more free clothes. This last weekend was no different.

With the Thrift-mobile filled we headed for home, but the car made a detour via the Narrabundah Vinnies.

While Taph was busy going through their knitting and sewing patten, i had a quick flick through their mens wear, and continued looking at their suits. I picked out this one suit and had a look at it. Fine wool and in a size that should fit me. I tried it on, and it idid fit me. Not only that but it came with two pairs of trousers.

Now, I do own a couple of suits, however they came from Lowes, so they are a little cheap and nasty. Here was a perfect chance to upgrade.

The suit cost $35 and this got us a discount voucher for our next visit to a Vinnies.

Later that day we were down at Gungahlin and we paid a visit to that Vinnies. We found another suit there that fitted me, and they only wanted $10. However, we could not find any labels on it that said who was the maker, the style and size.

However when we looked at the lining in the strong light coming in through the window, we saw those magic words in it. Pierre Cardin.

In disbelief, we checked the Price again. It was still $10. We checked the other stuff in Taphs hands. They came to $10. This means we could use the discount voucher we had been given earlier in the day, and bring down the purchase price to $15.00.

So for $42.50 we got a Pierre Cardin suit and an fine wool suit. Both suits need to have the legs on the trousers altered and one suit needs the sleeves shortened, but still they are bargains.

When we were outside Taph and i looked at each other and said "Cue maniacal laughter".

Yass and Yarrh

In my house the October long weekend does not mean footy finals or car races. Nope it usually means the Murrumbateman Moving Feast.

The idea of the moving feast is simple. Those vineyards that usually do not offer meals have a weekend where they can offer one main and one dessert. These they match with a sample of their wines.

Some places do have the idea down well. McKellar Ridge vineyard do a beef and wine pie that has some of their wine in it. Serve with a little salad, a glass of their Cabernet Sauvignon, and you get the idea.

Our first stop was to Yass, however after stopping to go to use the toilets, the Sub-Zero refused to start. The NRMA people said it was a dead battery (well it was 3 1/2 years old). After a 2 hour wait for a new battery to be put in, and a quick visit to the local op-shops, we set off for the moving feast.

However before we got there, we drove past this farm. We had to turn around and take this photo.



Torchwood Yass, i can hardly wait for the new season of Torchwood to start. Torchwood London, Torchwood Cardif, Torchwood Scotland, and now Torchwood Yass.


Our first visit was to Mundoonen Winery to try their offering. It was Charcoal Grilled Lamb, served with a salad that had a Mundoonen Shiraz Vincotto Dressing. This was matched with their Shiraz, however while waiting for our meals i sampled all their wines and decided to have their Rose instead.

Our next stop was to the Yarrh winery. We were not planning on stopping, but as we had to drive past it, and the Sub-Zero just wanted to go that way. We sampled their wines, but as their food all was Beef or Cheese, we did not have any there.

While tasting his wines the winemaker said he chose the name Yarrh as that was the original name for the region. He also said that he may do something special for next years Talk Like A Pirate Day.

We pressed on to Yass Valley wines. They were offering a Rabbit and Chicken Ragu (matched with their 2008 Barbera) and for desert a Chilli Chocolate Cake matched with their 2009 Traminer.

I am sorry, but i forgot photos of the food, but i was so impressed by their Barbera, that l left with a bottle of it.

Just next door to Yass Valley wine is Clonakilla. They have been getting rave reviews for their wines, so we paid them a visit too. I hate to say it, but after tasting their Shiraz Viognier 2009, i left their vineyard much poorer in cash, but carrying four bottles of their wine.

It was getting late by this stage, so our final stop was at Doonkuna Estate. They had finished serving food for the day but we were still able to try their wines. As there was only us and one other couple there, the manager took us out back and showed us the production shed (silly me, apart from a photo at the tasting bar, i forgot photos again). He also showed us the changes he was planning, including a Restaurant, and a Micro Brewery doing english style beers. I think we will be going back in a few months to check out the changes, so stay tuned for updates.

After this we headed home, and polished off another of our $2 bottles of wine.