Last weekend we travelled up to the Hunter Valley to celebrate Kelly’s birthday with her sister Tara and her partner Cam.
As the Hunter Valley is a primo wine-growing district, and as Tara and Cam are both oenophiles, frequent stops for tastings were mandatory.

I’m pretty much colour blind when it comes to wine tasting so I just faked my way through the smelling and the swilling, and tried really really hard to pick up the fruits and woods that were being described.
Luckily, a couple of the vineyards also had chocolate tastings. Now, those are flavours I can really get my tongue around.

Our primary reason for the trip was to see the John Butler Trio, and Missy Higgins performing at ‘A Day on the Green’ event at one of the vineyards.
It was a great concert, but a really long day under the baking cloudless sky.

I super enjoyed John Butler, but by the time he came on at 8 pm, I was totally seared and shagged and over marinated in too-many-birthdays sauce.

One thing that stood out was that despite there being, oh I don’t know…say over 10,000 people packed in very close proximity, there was a really good vibe, and everyone pretty much got on with everyone else.

To get out from the thick of the crowd, say to go to the toilet or to get a drink, you pretty much had to step on, or right through an area where other people had set up their picnics for the day. Like about 100 times out and 100 times back again.
Yet it was very all very social and nobody minded at all.

“Oops, excuse me….sorry.”
“No worries mate.”
“Whoops.”
Um… sorry about standing in your hummus.
“No problem dude…would you like some chips with that?”

When elected world dictator, my first executive order will be to totally abolish borders and countries and political boundaries, re-distribute all the wealth, and just give everyone on the planet a blanket, some camp chairs and an Esky full of yummy snacks.