a day at hunter valley

we turned down lina's invitation to go to hunter valley on black saturday. we thought that we would be busy on good friday for a picnic and catching up with friends that we wouldn't have the energy to go out the next day. our plan didn't pan out quite well and we ended up relaxing in most part of the day. by late friday afternoon, we agreed to push through the plan to join my friend and her family.

a coach was booked to give us a private tour of the area. the place is located two hours away north of sydney and is very popular for its wineries. according to james, our driver, there are about 170 wineries in hunter valley and about 40 plus varieties of wine. i confirmed the fact that wineries are not really that profitable to embark on. why, the number of competitors in the area, the temperamental weather in the valley, the bottling plus the agricultural expenses and labour to maintain a vineyard are just so big an outlay. i can only imagine!

we went to a couple of wineries in pokolbin (one of the villages in the valley) : bimbadgen, cellar door, towers, roche estate. pinot noir, semillon, moscato, pinot gris, shiraz, sauvignon blanc were some of the wines i had the pleasure of tasting. apart from my all time favorite moscato, i found another love in pinot noir. i would keep it in memory to come back to bimbadgen and enjoy this wine with the hint of earthiness and sweet spice.

in front of bimbadgen entrance

 
i'm not really a wine fanatic but having a good wine to pair with a nice meat is something i appreciate from time to time. as the quote from the magazine goes, "one's life is too short to keep drinking a bad wine". that's true, somehow. but you see, if you have a true love, it's like also having a good wine... it gets better with time. i decided to stick with my true love. =)

with my true loves

 

we stopped at hunter valley chocolate company for a sweet treat. the place was packed with tourists hoping to get their fair share of chocolatey fudgy goodness. i bought a gluten free nougat for a dear colleague at work who celebrated her birthday the day before. i was thinking to buy the blue cheese salad dressing (yes, they also sell dressing, olives, oil  and chili paste) but after checking the ingredients, i agreed with francis that it's doable at home. other than that, we're just ok looking around and keeping kaela's hands busy so she wouldn't grab anything we're passing by.

 chocolate tasting

at the entrance of hunter valley chocolate company

we had lunch at amanda's. it's a restaurant with the feel of a cottage house and al fresco dining. we were served with ciabatta and butter for starter. kitt liked the beef eye fillet with potatoes. i ordered lamb rack with spinach in filo pastry. the spinach was overbaked and the lamb was dry. the slow service didn't help the hungry tummies at half past one. the price tag... well, that's something you don't ask when you're in hunter valley. you pay for the experience.

amanda's restaurant provided a good cottage house ambience

making a good use of the waiting moment by taking a group photo

the roche estate, which we went to for wine tasting, has also a small stall where cheese, bread and gelato are sold. a lady was kind enough to let us have cheese tasting despite having no booking in advance. the pesto cheese was nice but i decided to go for garlic and herb fromage frais. francis stayed with kaela in the van and i bought him forest fruit gelato, which was very good for the the hot temperature in the parking lot.

cheese tasting at roche estate

 a view of roche estate with its pleasant and very modern architecture

 what will you do if you have a room filled with cheese?

before we ended the day, we went for a cup of coffee. james took us to an old convent, now converted to a winery - the peppers convent, next to roberts circa 1876. the manicured garden with benches was a good spot to enjoy a hot drink to cap the afternoon. much to our disappointment, the place just closed for the day. we traveled back to hunter valley chocolate company to get our caffeine fix.

coffee fix with the whole group

 

 with lina's niece, kellen

the large parcel of land behind the restaurant served as a grazing area for cows. kaela and i attempted to go to the cows but the fellas tending the area whistled at us to come back. we just moo-ed at the cows from a distance, as mighty as we could (kaela must be thrilled to have a nanay as young at heart as her!).

an escape to the cows

we came home with a happy heart, full of good memories to share and tell. will we come back again? only time and moolah can tell!

to five years and beyond

we celebrated our fifth year in melbourne, the foodie capital of australia, in the company of our dear friends.

it was consistently sunny during our short vacation, a sweet surprise given the irreverent weather in melbourne.

we had a few places in mind where to go to. amongst on our list were rod laver arena, federation square, royal botanic garden, national gallery of australia, shrine of remembrance, sea life, brighton beach and werribee mansion. we were lucky to go to most of them and so much more.

located at one of the strategic locations in the melbourne cbd,  the shrine of remembrance stands tall and proud. 

at flinders station

national gallery of victoria.

next to claude monet's piece (right) 

at federation square,  enjoying the breeze on a sunny day. 

degraves street. i wish i could have as much coffee as there is.

the royal botanic garden offered us the shade and chill we just needed on a hectic pasyal day. (do you notice how kaela adores her tatay?) 

kaela had her share of the moment at sea life

we were welcomed by ampel and harold for lunch in bear brass at southgate.

thereafter, we had a simple anniversary dinner celebration with our friends, the barcenas and the islas, along with tita yolly, at tgi friday's. we headed to lindt cafe after to have our daily dose of caffeine.

on our last day, our friends (still the same crowd) treated us to a hole-in-a-wall filipino restaurant at melbourne central.

i was in heaven to find the truffle oil in QVM. i can't get enough of this place.

anniversaries may be deemed as a celebration between husband and wife. this exclusivity won't work with us, though. as we celebrate the highs and lows in our relationship, we can't discount the fact that we wouldn't be where we are if not for the help and support we got from people who made sure we would have a smoother sail in our journey. no, we wouldn't have it another way.

happy anniversary to us. and cheers to all the love and friendship we have!

best christmas ever

we had high hopes of having time for ourselves when we were planning our christmas vacation in the philippines. afterall, it's nine long years of not coming home for christmas! so we decided to stay for three days in cebu and to spend at least an overnight at sofitel in manila. we just needed this little piece of relaxation to reward ourselves after months of working abroad and raising kaela all by ourselves. come on, we deserved more than a pat on the back.

neither of the plans happened.

we reached manila at the height of the storm. it took us almost three hours on the road from naia 3 to vito cruz. we had to pass up staying at our condo in makati (we have yet stayed there since we bought it in 2012 and it must have been nice to spend even a night after three years) and went straight to my in-laws' place.

two days after we arrived, we attended my brother's wedding in bulacan. the next day, kaela was down with fever and coughing badly. two more days after, i got the same virus. to make it worse, mama was also not in her pink of health as there was some accident during one of her dialyses. not a pleasant way to start our most awaited vacation, eh? you thought so!

fast-forward two weeks....

• i had bonding time with mommy and kimm.
• papa spoke a few words to me. it was pure bliss!

• mama spent time with me and kaela in a mall nearby and we had chats in some mornings and evenings despite the sparse times she felt restless.

• we went to bataan and nueva ecija to visit francis' relatives. it's good to see nanay (francis' grandma) who, to my surprise, can still read tagalog novels without specs!

• most of my relatives on papa's side visited us on the 26th dec.

• we met up with our godparents (in marriage) - ninang chit, ninong frank, ninang lina, ninong cocoy, ninang lita and ninang marietta whom most of them we've never seen since we got married. we also had gone to ninang lulu and ninang olang's house. they were very short visits and yet, ours is the honor of spending these precious times with them.

• we met with kaela's godparents - our dear friends yel, pat, christine,  johnny,  boc and michelle. it's always nice to catch up with these amazing people. i wished we had more hours to kill.

• i had spent time with my highschool friend,  dada.  she also just embarked into a lifetime career of "motherhood"  and it's good that after all these years we still find a common ground.

• flor and hiram were generous enough to reserve their precious time, coming from paranaque and cavite, just to have time to talk and bond.

• most of the dlsu-itc friends turned up at Mama Cata's place. it's so nice to see and be friends with them through these years despite the rare chance that we gather almost everyone together in the same roof.

• our cousins,  together with kitt and i, went to a coffee shop to bond. we ended the night being quizzed by a six year old,  only to realize that intelligence doesn't always go with age.  (main highlight -  ano ang tagalog ng pond? everybody fell silent!) 

• francis got a taste of mama's traditional 'paagaw' on new year's eve. 

• we managed to spend time (mamasko,  in our common term during christmas) with our grand parents -  lolo enteng,  lolo pete and lola beth. we also went to inang chayong,  our aunt,  and never hesitated to bug her during her bedtime.  it's definitely worth being with the old-and-wise in the family. 

• it was nice to have a chat with ate cora. it's been years since we had one. 

• whenever we went to manila,  kaela bonded with her cousins. 

• i had little time talking about serious business with my brothers but they spared some time on our last day discussing our plans for 2016. (what a shame that mike wasn't even in this pic) 

we may never had time for ourselves but nothing was lost. everything seemed to have fallen into its perfect place. we enjoyed our vacation,  surrounded by people whom we love. it's more than what we asked for.

we will come back again for christmas.

by the time we flew back to sydney,  to come home to an empty house,  our hearts were torn again.  but that's for another blog.