Mudgee holiday

First, my most exciting news of the day is that I have a new mouse! I had been using my old ball mouse for about 6 years now. But recently, I read in a geek mag about the Razer diamondback which is a high precision gaming mouse. I couldn't find it while I was in Singapore but lo and behold, my hubby pointed it out to me today at the Electronics Boutique and it was 25% off. So I am now the official proud owner of the official mouse for the World Cyber Games. All future opponents in RTS games such as Warcraft 3 should fear now!! ok ok I shall stop rambling on now :)

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Now onto a subject which I wanted to share that is almost a month old. June 12th was Queens Birthday holiday. Australians love long weekends so even though is it not the current Queens Birthday (it is the previous) and I am not sure if it is the exact date either but they try to make it fall on a Monday so Aussies can go on their beloved mini-breaks.

As you know we went to a wine growing region known as Mudgee with our dear friends Casey and Clare of Eatstuff. The first two days it was incessant dripping of rain, however, it did not dampen our spirits. We were there primarily to have a good time and also to do stuff like tasting the food and wine of the area. The area is also a popular one for olives. Hence we also got to sample olive oil and products such as various tapenades.


The town of Mudgee is pretty historical and thus their buildings are quite pretty. The photo shows an example of their architecture. The building on the left used to be the Town Hall (looks like the one from back to the future, I reckon). It is now the city library and the other building is now a law firm.


There are lots of cafes and boutique shops to explore. This photo shows the archway leading to a cafe and a shop or two. I love the cobblestone path leading up to it.


An exciting discovery was a vietnamese bakery which made see (sp?) mi. This is a vietnamese pork sandwhich similar to the beloved banh mi found in vietnamese bakeries of the big cities such as Sydney and Melbourne. The difference is that the pork is a steamed pork ball which is that warmed and smashed slightly into the roll. All the other condiments are similar such as the pickled grated carrot, shallots, cilantro and sauce. This was the first time I had tried it and had to ask about its name from the lady. It is interesting that she chose to make it as most vietnamese bakeries in country towns stick to Aussie things such as the meat pies, apple pies, cakes and slices. Nonetheless, I enjoyed it very much and we returned the next day for another one.


We stayed in some cabin style cottages. The original plan was to stay at a Bed and Breakfast but there was a shamozzle with our booking. Fortunately Richard found us this place that was about 20 minutes out of Mudgee. However, it was only 10 minutes to the wineries. It had one bedroom and an attic. C & C who had thier cat kiri with them took the bedroom (as it would be impossible to confine Kiri to the attic). And we took the attic which was warm and cosy.


The first day we visited a winery as well as a cheese factory and ate out at a local pub for dinner. The cheese factory had a great selection, of mostly fetta style cheeses as you can see in the picture. The best thing was that they talked you through each and every cheese and you got a small sample on a paddle pop stick of each. Those who have read my blog last year know that I have confirmed my aversions to blue cheese so I skipped their blue selection. Everything else was very tasty and it was hard to make up our mind what to buy. I decided on a hard goat's cheese and the pesto fetta.

We then went back to the cabin that night and shared our spoils as well as played Taboo until the wee hours.

More about the next day in my next post. I am having problems with blogger again to upload the pics but hopefully they will be up soon!