Travels down river and Roo Stew too!

Aussie word of the day: Beanie = stocking cap, "he wore his beanie this morning because it was cold."

Thank you Daddy Editor, I made the changes to last weeks blog as requested. I've had a pretty cruisey (Aussie for easy-going, laid back) week and enjoyed SM's visit. We headed down to Margaret River, a popular tourist town known for its wine region about 3 hours south of Perth, on Friday afternoon. Last weekend was their wine festival, where you could buy tickets for $15 a person to get into the outdoor festival and taste the wines from 23 area wineries. That's A LOT of wineries, especially because that number didn't include ALL the wineries from the region. There were plenty that didn't participate in the event, but the wineries that were there were very good with several wines available for tasting!

We also took a wine tour bus around to six other wineries in the area who did not have stalls at the festival and tasted various gourmet cheeses, meats and, of course, more wine. By 5:30pm, when the festival was kicking drunken patrons out and closing it's doors, I was more than ready to go and have a nice long nap. Instead, we ate some dinner to absorb the wine in our bellies and tried to sober up a little. Finally, we made it back to the beachside resort where were staying and fell promptly to sleep at 8:30pm.

The next morning, surfing was on the agenda, but far from our thoughts as our heads pounded with the throbbing reminder of the events from the day before. We decided to skip surfing and instead treated ourselves to a light gourment breakfast at the cafe next door. The day was overcast so we didn't do too much until the evening when we joined SM's grandparents for a home-cooked meal at their place in Busselton, a nearby resort town.

Margaret River is full of cafes, pubs, art galleries, and unique boutiques as well as being surrounded by area wineries. Although Marg. River is reminiscent of California's Napa Valley - a place I had the pleasure of visiting on my travels home last December - it lacks the vastness and breathtaking views and valley's of Napa. I'm taking my parents to Marg. River when they come to visit Perth in July and I'm already looking forward to going back and taking in more of the local arts and shopping in the area.

The rest of the time spent with SM on his week off was relaxing as expected. On one of his last night's here we visited his parents at their home in 'the hills'. It's always calming to drive out to the 'country' and away from the busy city life. I met his dad for the first time, who tried to impress me by shooting a roo in their paddock (pasture, field). He cut the tail off for me to make into a stew - what else could I do but politely accept it. Although I've eaten kangroo meat before and like it very much, I've never actually cooked it myself. So Roo Stew it was for dinner last night. SM used my mom's beef 'n veg soup recipe as a guide and it honestly turned out great! We slow cooked the tail all day so the meat would fall off the 'bone' resulting in a shredded beef effect instead of chunks of meat. I tried to help cook it, but SM wouldn't have it. He's always cooking for me. We ate it with garlic bread... per mom's veg soup recipe, and red wine. Delish!

Now, I would have loved to taken photos of me faking a bite into the hairy roo tail (before skinned) or of the yummy stew it made, but I still haven't gotten my hands on a camera yet. All the photos I have for this week are of me and my friends during our surfing lessons a few weeks ago.

Here we are in the photo at the right, standing in front of our beginner boards with our instructor in the full wet suit at the end. I'm standing second from the left.

At the left, Anne and I struggle to turn our boards into the surf as Debbie attempts to stand.