American Invasion – Page 3 – Beauperi Investments

Posted on May 30, 2017May 30, 2017 by beauperi

The (Not So) Great Ocean Road

Sunday, 16 April, 2017

Today we get on the road with the ultimate destination The Barossa Valley and beyond. Julie is doing the driving and our first destination is to be the Great Ocean Road. I thought Julie would turn off towards Apollo Bay, Nope. Then I thought she would turn off to Forrest which is the most direct way to the Coast, Nope. Instead we ended up in this place.

This is the first stop on a route called:

The people at this cheese factory obviously have a sense of humour with the name and:

The visit turned out to be a real winner. They gave us tasting of 11 cheeses, some of which we really liked e.g. their Bleu was stunning. We then decided to have a cheese platter for our road snack.

As we left we bought some of the Bleu Cheese which we enjoyed for quite a while on the trip. We took off and went to the next stop on the Gourmet Trail:

The guys were not that impressed so did not stay long but found a little treasure outside.

Note the garage sale at the back from which Jan bought two books

We decided we had enough gourmeting for now and head down to the coast. That is where our problems began. As we arrive near the 12 Apostles, there are people and cars everywhere. We park and have to walk well over a kilometer to get to the visitors centre and then the 12 Apostles.

The 12 Apostles – some have been worn away by time

Just a small example of the crowds we faced

Julie walked back to pick up the car while we waited at the Visitors Centre.

We drove onto Loch Ard Gorge and things got much worse. We were directed into a car parking area to the right. After fighting like fish upstream we got to the end with no parking spots available. We drove out again fighting fish from our original direction. All up we were in there about 45 minutes with no gain whatsoever. We decided to give up on the Not So Great Ocean Road and went back in land, thereby missing out on Loch Ard Gorge, Port Campbell, Bay of Islands etc. Google them!

12 Apostles information site

But we did end up at another place on the Gourmet Trail that obviously quite pleased Hugh.

We stopped at Port Fairy for a quick look around and a coffee.

We then drive onto our final destination for the day, Portland Victoria. We are staying at an Airbnb place and drive straight there but have trouble finding the correct driveway. Eventually get in and the people are really nice. The place where we are staying is like a big barn next to their big house. Turns out the barn was there first and they built a living area to reside in while the main house was being built. It was perfect for us with two bedrooms, a big lounge etc.

We told the guy about our adventures today and he said words to the effect, but not the letter of: “You weren’t so stupid to go along the Great Ocean Road on Easter Sunday?” Yes, we were.

These nice people had booked us into a restaurant for tonight. Naturally, Julie walked there but I drove the three of us.

The following are some of the dishes that we had.

Our Airbnb Hosts were also eating there that evening, showing up around a half hour after us. We have a bit of a chat and go back to the ranch to end our eventful but not totally successful day.

Our Airbnb host

Posted on May 27, 2017 by beauperi · 1 Comment

Whiskey and Music

Saturday, 15 April, 2017

Today is the last day in Melbourne before we hit the road tomorrow. Jan, Julie and Hugh head out to see some of the sites of Melbourne.

The MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) is our major Sports stadium. It was the main stadium for the 1956 Olympics. It currently holds about a maximum of 100,000 for Cricket or Football. The all time record crowd? Around 160,000 for — Billy Graham.

Looking down the river to the old Railway bridge which is now a pedestrian bridge

At this stage, it appears that Hugh departed from the Girls to go do his special exercise class at Melbourne Central. The following scenes are from Jan’s Camera.

Eventually Jan and then Hugh return home. We are to go out in Hawthorn that late afternoon but first another stop – a Whiskey Bar! Hugh has been pressing for a visit there for some time. So we take the usual Fitzwilliam walk and catch the 16 tram, going one stop further to Burwood Road to The Kilburn.

Kilburn Whiskey Bar Link

The bar used to be a famous Cigar Bar call Barrenows. Apparently it took ages for the new owners to scrub out all the cigar smoke wall taint and smell.

Note the large range of whiskeys in the shelves behind the bar. We are the first ones in the place today and talk over what we would like to try with the bartender. We settled on two different paddles of choices by the bartender.

Intense Concentration required for the job at hand

All that was good fun. We then go to Gibson’s Wine Bar to listen to live music. It was not that long a walk but Julie stops by to pick us up after she has earlier picked up our friend Brenda. We are regulars seeing this group – the Pardoners which is comprised of Sam See and Glyn Mason two veteran Australian musicians.

Glyn Singing – you can just see Sam’s head in the top right

The Girls Dancing – you can see Sam better here

When the music ends, Julie drops us off at home before taking Brenda home. After a quick meal, we got to bed relatively early as we are “On the Road Again” in the morning.

Posted on May 25, 2017 by beauperi

27th Good Friday Fish Bake

Friday, 14 April, 2017

Yes, it is Good Friday, a major public holiday in Australia as is Easter Monday. Christain background driving this country?

Any way, it has been our tradition to have a “fish bake” on Good Friday which most of the time has meant a whole salmon on the BBQ. This year we are doing something quite different, we are making a Seafood Gumbo. As well, friend Gary is making a Thai Red Curry Salmon based upon a recipe I got from a Tassal Fish Shop (RIP) cooking lesson. Gumbo is not a complicated dish to make but it does involve a lot of cutting up of vegetables and proteins. In this case I had able assistants in Jan and Hugh and we screamed through the preparation process.

Me in the cooking stage, Jan doing snacks

Selecting one of the last bottles from Gary’s former restaurant

Gary had his salmon already cut-up and ready to go which he cooked in our oven. The dishes were all put into bowls and placed on the counter.

A Warming Fire – Lucky Phil in the background

And so ends another memorable Fish Bake. Seafood gumbo was popular as was Gary’s Salmon. The Pavlova was certainly something new for our visitors.

If any body is interested in more details about making the Gumbo, send me a note through this website and I will pass along the recipe. It is a 38 pages PDF, mostly with lots of big photos and some variations.

Posted on May 22, 2017May 23, 2017 by beauperi · 1 Comment

Healesville Wildlife Sanctuary

Thursday, 13 April, 2017

The other place that I always take our overseas visitors is the Healesville Wildlife Sanctuary at which visitors can view Australian Native Wildlife primarily in an environment similar to their natural one.

Firstly, Julie and I get up early to go to the Vic Market to pick up supplies for the Good Friday feast, tomorrow. After our return, Jan, Hugh and I hop in the car to drive out to Healesville which is about an hour’s drive.

When we get there, we run into a horrible issue – it is school holidays and there are 50 million obnoxious, snotty-nosed, loud kids (OSNLKs) everywhere. The parking lot is full and the overflow parking lot, which I did not know existed, was also full with cars driving around looking for a spot. Eventually we drive down the road almost 2 kilometers away to park and hike back to the sanctuary.

We are able to get in for Senior’s rates even though Jan & Hugh did not have a Senior’s Card. But we quickly discovered that all the “extra events” like the up close with the animals or the bird show were completely booked out by the OSNLKs. Most of the following photos of the animals were taken by Jan.

Australia has some of the most colourful birds in the worl

After complaints from b***** Lois, this is not a Kookaburra

You may have heard the African jungle sounds in movies, e.g. Tarzan, with a bird’s long chilling cry. Well, that is actually this Australian bird making those sounds.

The Wicked Wombat – eats, roots and leaves

#####The Devil is facing extinction because of a horrible face virus or fungus. The Sanctuary is leading the fight to isolate and breed the devils without it. See the following scan which is a good reflection of what the Victorian Zoo scene is all about.

I highly recommend any visitor or even locals to visit the Sanctuary. There are lots of other views not in our photos like the Platypus, small little animals, Snakes – Australia has the most poisonous snakes in the world, Eagles / Hawks, etc. We had a nice Thai Red Curry Pie for lunch and continued on the wander but eventually got tired and departed. We still had the long walk down to the car and the drive back to town.

Back at home, Hugh had some of the beers Julie had bought.

Julie had got home from work ahead of us, surprise, and after a quick dinner, construction of dessert for tomorrow’s festivities commenced. The chosen artifact was a Pavlova, Australia’s invention (or New Zealand’s depending on who you talk to) which involves beating up egg whites and sugar to make a base crust. We do not do things simply around here, instead of a nice, efficient electric beater, Julie uses an old hand driven one that needs the strength and endurance of a blacksmith.

Enough, it is a big day tomorrow with a number of guests.

Posted on May 21, 2017May 21, 2017 by beauperi

A Gaol, A Meal, A Casino, A Tram and a View

Wednesday, 12 April, 2017

Since we haven’t been doing much over the first several days of their visit (??), it was time to get really busy. So our first stop of the day is the Old Melbourne Gaol (Jail for those of American background).

We were going to do this originally on Monday but our good friend Peter Fewster, who is a tour guide for the Gaol was not working that day but was today.

We have some discussion with Peter and have an informal look around before the tour begins.

[As an aside, you will note the initials PoME. This stands for Prisoner of Mother England. English people are known unkindly in Australia as Poms or Pommies. One theory of the nickname is the PoME above. The other is that all Englishmen have mottled red complexions i.e. look like a pomegranate.]

Thr Tour begins – Peter discoursing in the exercise yard

Melbourne Skyline from the Exercise Yard

Peter telling the story of Ned Kelly and the platform from where he was hanged in the Melbourne Gaol

After this we went to a tour of the Police Watch House which is attached to the Gaol. In this tour there is an actor/actress who plays the part of the Sergeant welcoming the new prisoners, us, into the watch house. They did not allow many photos but here are some.

Jan and Hugh in the Watch House waiting area

With Jan’s Dody Goodman look, hands-up how many know to what I am referring, she would not have been allowed to keep those shoelaces since they were considered contraband as prisoners might have hung themselves. Imagine the ignominy of hanging yourself with pink shoelaces! So we finally escape from the Watch House. The following are scans from an informative visitors guide for the Melbourne Gaol.

Note that the area marked as 2 in the above is the Gallows where Ned Kelly met his end that we showed in an earlier picture. Any way, we decided we had “done enough time” so decided to go have some chow, literally. We go to Melbourne Central, at which Hugh has had a lot of experience already with the exercise classes, actually to its extension being the Emporium, to our favourite Dumpling place, New Shanghai.

New Shanghai dumpling place in the Emporium

Dumplings are all hand made in front of us

Chili Dumplings on left, Soup Dumplings (Pork and Crab) on the right

So after that quiet (?) start to the day, we return for a bit of a rest before the real action starts! Later that afternoon we head out to public transport again, but this time up Edgevale Road to catch the 109 tram which goes directly to our destination.

We had planned to go look at Crown Casino, where I had spent an enormous amount of time before it opened 20 years ago, after dinner. But as we were early, and I had misjudged the starting time of the next event and it was on the way, so we went into Crown now. I am conscious of not taking many photos inside so we did not take any until we got into the retail mall after going through all the Pokies, Tables, etc.

Atlantic Restaurant in Crown, impressive seafood

Crown Casino Website

We then walk around to our major destination for the afternoon – the pick-up for the Melbourne Tram Car restaurant. We meet Julie there and wait for our trams to arrive, which are older style trams done up as a restaurant inside.

We had met the owner of these tramcar restaurants several years ago and asked him about the food quality. Basically, he said that it was a restricted environment and they could not do raging gourmet. Thus it appeared that our choices were frozen foods heated up in a microwave, beef or chicken.

Our tram journey takes us through the streets in South Melbourne and we end up in Acland Street, St Kilda – a bit disappointing as we were here yesterday. I had hoped that we had been going to traverse new parts of Melbourne. Apparently the dinner ride would have taken us through the City before heading down to St Kilda.

Tramcar Restaurant Website

In any case, we are eventually dropped off at Tram stop 125 from whence we commenced. Pretty good really, decent amount of wine and drink. Glad we did it, I am not sure that there is anything else like that in the world, readers may want to comment.

I had decided that since we were no longer going to Crown that we should go to another high rise to get a view of Melbourne – the Rialto Tower. However, I got overruled without a vote that we would go to the Eureka Tower which is currently the tallest in Melbourne. I was very grumpy because it was a long walk whereas Rialto was right on the 109 tram line. It cost us a bit of coin to go up Eureka and the most popular part was booked out. I guess the view was worth it (??) but any way, there we were.

The Eureka at a distance as we walked and walked

After a pretty eventful day we return home for the predictable crash.

Beauperi Investments – Wine Consulting

Category: American Invasion

The (Not So) Great Ocean Road

Whiskey and Music

27th Good Friday Fish Bake

Healesville Wildlife Sanctuary

A Gaol, A Meal, A Casino, A Tram and a View