This years show didn't fail to please. We had another awesome weekend. We've talked of nothing else but! We are already talking about next year, and the ways we can maximize our visit.
I went out on Friday night, but without my scrapping stuff. I had dinner with Barbi, sat and chatted until after 10pm and then headed home. I pottered around home, packed a few things and then went to bed. I got up at about 6.45am and finished packing, showered, got ready, got kids organized, hung out two loads of washing, raced around tidying, sent kids off with Peter to chemist for Sammy's drops as his eyes were playing up again, and then waited for Peter to come back from dropping our kids off at my parents' house. Unfortunately the pharmacist was as slow as a wet week, and we left a half hour later than we'd planned.
We arrived in Brisbane, and checked into our hotel - which was an old boarding house. It was old, wooden, but spotlessly clean and cheap. We took a cab to the convention centre and luckily it was pretty easy picking up our tickets. I'd booked them late, so opted to pick them up at the venue, as it was too late for posting them. There were lots of people already there. I think there were many more than last year. We headed into the show, we'd missed Matt Moran's show, so we rebooked for a later one. We also lapped the centre, to find our free wine tasting glasses. We tasted a few wines, and ate some chocolates. We sussed out the Lindemans Early Harvest Restaurant and later one we went back and bought vouchers for our food. We visited the Grinders stand which is where we nearly bought the coffee machine last year. Andrew wasn't there, but he still works for the company. We bought a coffee from them and found little bits of food to nibble as Max was quite hungry. Vicki and I checked out the wine stalls, which was an interesting exercise as her taste in wine is far different from mine. She wanted the sweet wines, while I prefer a drier wine. By lunch time we were all quite hungry so we headed over the restaurant. That was a real hit. The food was amazing. Vicki and I had entrees, of potatoe, spinach and cheese terrine with prosciuotto and the boys shared an antipasto platter. The guys both had main meals, Max's was a Lamb with Chilli Jam, and fennel and Peter had a grilled chicken with capers and dill, and a yummy dressing. Vicki had dessert, coconut cake thingies which she let me taste, and they were divine. The food was cooked by the chefs which were the focus at the show. So each famous chef had an entree, main or dessert. All the food was accompanied by a matched glass of Lindemans lower calorie wine, which was surprisingly really nice. It was really nice to sit down and eat delicious, and good quality food. Last year we ate egg sandwiches, which tasted like army rations, and I'm so glad we did it different this year.
After lunch we headed around some more. Like last year, we were quite aimless and just stopped and backtracked, and circled and came back again, no doubt missing heaps again. We tried rums, cocktails, mouses, puddings, lots of yummy stuff. The boys were loving the red wine, and drank far too much!! We went to the Wyndham estate Truck again, and enjoyed the presentation - it was matching wine with chocolate, so that was a huge hit, the chocolate being Nestle Noir - yummo!
After that, it wasn't long before the show ended. Again I couldn't believe how quickly it had gone. There is just far too much to see in one day.
We left the convention centre to find that it was raining - and quite heavily. Nothing was under cover, so we zigged and zagged our way to find the eateries. We ended up at a chinese restaurant with Australian, overpriced chinese food, but it was fresh and tasted good. After dinner we caught a cab and headed back to the hotel. We sat in Max and Vicki's room for a while and then we headed back to our room, showered and went to bed. The room was small, but clean and comfortable. I didn't sleep particularly well, but I wasn't uncomfortable either. In the morning we headed into the valley and sat in a cafe to a delicious cooked breakfast. We looked at a few of the market stalls and then headed home. We picked up our kids who had a lovely time, but were nonetheless happy to see us. Sammy was probably his normal restless self, but I am hoping that one day he will learn to cope with this restlessness. Needless to say we've had a quiet afternoon. Peter snoozed on the couch for a bit. I did two loads of washing, and headed out to the supermarket to buy a few things. The kids played well all afternoon.
I have been on the net looking at frypans. I am very disapointed to acknowledge that I have killed my Scanpan. I have no idea how! I have never cooked it on high, and felt I did all the right things. It's not non stick anymore, and I don't like using it anymore. It was a $150 pan, and hasn't lasted any longer than a $50 one! I have been reading reviews and trying to figure out what to buy next. There was a Eurolux stall at the food and wine show, but the guy was so rude and arrogant, that it didn't matter how good he made his pans look - we wouldn't have bought one. Max is also in the market for a pan - so he potentially had two customers. The show was sponsored by Swiss Diamond, but we couldn't find a stall for them, which was quite odd.
