Sophisticates

Thursday morning Saggy, Rachel, and I hit the market and selected an expanse of fine cheeses, then we picked up the rental car, picked up Nichole from work and hit the road. In a further expanse of the Cleveland/Beddes level of sophistication we spent Thursday roaming the Yarra Valley sampling the wines of this lovely region. Nichole started the day quite concerned about blowing off her thesis and drinking wine all day, but this slowly dissipated glass by glass. That evening we had planned to do a tour of Melbourne’s bars, but we were in Vino and cheese mode and decided to continue that back at the flat.

Friday morning we strolled through the entire market so the Cleveland duo could find some souvenirs and check out the Queen Victoria Market. Being the astute observer I am, I didn’t even notice them picking up the massive pie for my birthday. Nichole being the person that knows me like no other nailed my birthday. Of course, she had a high standard to live up to after her perfect birthday two months ago. When she got home from work, Saggy came out with a Moose Drool (Nectar of the Gods for the uninitiated) and Nikki came out with the monster meat pie with “Happy 30th” written in Ketchup! How friggin’ cool is that? Then the ideal gift… a personalized beer brewing. This place called Barley corn brewers let’s you go in and make your own beer then pick it up two weeks later when it is done. Now, I have been suffering through overmalted Aussie beer for 10 months and then I get a 6 pack of the greatest beer ever created followed by my own creation. That is a pretty good gift.
And to finish off a very good birthday, we met up with Angie, Kane, Alana, and Marc for a footy game. And what a game of footy it was. It came down to the very last kick. Bad news was the Doggies came up 2 points short. Oh well, it was close to a perfect day, and in stark contrast to the previous few days it affirmed we still had balls.