Newmans Horseradish & Rusticana Wines

We here we are again : A trip to South Australia and a little time spent on the  Fleurieu Peninsula. 

This time I write a little about my experience that is not so savory or pleasant

I will not allowing my first experience be the only one I accept, particularly when the products are so good.  Namely the Newmans HorseRadish and other product that they have available at their cellar door, like Franck Food which is absolutely fantastic.

A return visit within the same year and wanting, needing and expecting a much better experience

but no

A customer experience that had none of these : welcoming, warmness, friendliness, conversation

no

It was an experience that made me want to leave rather quickly 

Which I did 

without a purchase 

Franck Food lost out because I had my eye on several of there products as well as a couple of bottles of wines and a large jar of there own flagship product.

I know who was representing the business on the day and I am extremely disappointed with that attitude.

There product is so good and this person is not, this type of attitude damages the image of the area and other peoples business. Think about the people around you, not just yourself.

IF YOU WANT A FANTASTIC EXPERIENCE 

GO TO

 The WineHouse

Great Staff, Great Wine Selection, Great Service

and most importantly

Great Fun !!

And yes I bought loads to take home 

Life Miles 

Have done it again

LifeMiles is the frequent flyer program for Avianca and TACA

Condition : you must be a member prior to 19th December 2014

If you were a member you would got an email on 1st December offering a sweetener, for that day only if you purchased you would receive a bonus 25% on top of the 100% offered

A purchase of 66,000 miles netted 128,500 miles

Now that's getting in a nice position for 2015 

Here is what LifeMiles has done for me so far

The past year I have redeemed equivalent to 255,000 miles using miles (150,000) and pay (105,000) method allowing me to travel the following flights in business class

(taking a companion on one flight)

1 seat : Singapore (Singapore Airlines)  Shanghai (Air china) Sydney

2 seats : Tokyo (Lufthansa) Frankfurt (SAS) Oslo (SAS) Tromsø

1 seat : Copenhagen (Swiss) Zurich (Swiss) Tokyo

Frequent flyer Points (Miles) 

A deal to be had

Being a new comer to the world of Frequent flyer Points or Miles as they are known in other parts of the world, here is my first jump in the deep end and see what happens when you buy into a deal that you read about online. 

I have been reading many blogs and websites relating to building a bank of miles either by earning them through multiple avenues or buying them when a deal is on offer.

Yes a deal came around where I could buy bundles of 1000 for a price and the offer was get 2 for 1. So I did, I purchased 50,000 and got 100,000 credited to my account. Still cautious as to the thought that I have just paid for frequent flyer points (miles) from the national airline and flag carrier of Colombia : Avianca. A Star Alliance member at least when you know nothing about the airline itself.

Yes I have trialled the use of these lovely miles and they do work. I purchased an award ticket from Singapore to Shanghai to Sydney in business class and it cost a little over A$800. The first leg was with Singapore Airlines and the second leg with Air China.  It's not just the business class seats that converts into a flat bed and french champagne, It's the priority treatment at the airport, It's the lounge access in the terminal before you even get on the airplane.

So when the offer pops up again I'm in for every miles or Point I can get...

If you decide to have a go please let me know how it went for you.

Cheers and happy traveling at the pointy end...

 

 

Location and setting : Just near the Cairns airport turn off : to access if you are coming from the city you must pass airport turnoff and turn right into the access road just after to get there. Near new AFP building
Food  / Menu : Worth the effort - typical Japanese nosh house with pretty good food. Gota try there Okonomiyaki next time I stop by.  
Drinks : Simple
Special : Just has good food
Service :It's a self service order at the counter type of deal - So if you do it well you will get good service.

Here is the link to the menu page : Take a look for yourself

http://sushido.co/menu.html

 428 SheridanStreet

Location and setting : Just near the Cairns airport turn off : to access if you are coming from the city you must pass airport turnoff and turn right into the access road just after to get there. Near new AFP building
Food  / Menu : Worth the effort - typical Japanese nosh house with pretty good food. Gota try there Okonomiyaki next time I stop by.  
Drinks : Simple
Special : Just has good food
Service :It's a self service order at the counter type of deal - So if you do it well you will get good service.

Here is the link to the menu page : Take a look for yourself

http://sushido.co/menu.html

 428 SheridanStreet

Location and setting : Beach front Palm Cove northern end. A simply styled shed with plastic chairs a real beach shack feel and no scary flashiness. Love it..
Food  / Menu : Only went here this time for dessert as the place we went to for lunch did not give us the opportunity to tuck in. I have always wanted to go to beach Almond but it's always closed when i want to go.. my problem. We were not disappointed - 2 desserts were had (there was 2 of us) a creme brulee and there sticky rice and banana  
Drinks : A glass of dessert wine & glass of Champagne - great wine list
Special : Location - a walk down the jetty after lunch give you a spectacular view back on the coast. 
Service :Even though it was only dessert and one glass of wine plus a coffee I was thrilled with the service. Great staff, personality and knowledgeable and know when to be at the table. I didn't have the opportunity to go thirsty which was a pleasant surprise. Now i am just planning when to go back for dinner to really try the menu to the fullest.

 beachalmond.com 

45 Williams Esplanade

Palm Cove QLD 4879

O'sheas - Machans Beach, Qld

Location and setting : Great position, plenty of parking and right on the beach. Well there is a road between you and the beach but really no traffic to contend with. So uninterrupted views out to sea. Nice relax layout, nicely done.
Food  / Menu : A quick lunch was  the plan and I had never been to this place before, always seen the signs on the highway - So there advertising is working.. well it did for me. small menu, easy to choose as it had some old fashioned dishes that just suited the place. The two meals ordered were seafood basket & garlic prawns. The food was very good loaded with fresh juicy seafood. The seafood basket was not as expected and a pleasant surprise : cooked and natural items in the basket. Garlic prawns were Yum.
Drinks : A glass of wine each ; very very average wine list
Special : Location and relaxed feel about the place. Very comfortable place to spent a few hours if you wish
Service : Nice and friendly staff, food & drinks order was taken when we wanted it which was nice and drinks were back on the table pronto. H2o was automatically put on the table which is great. I always like a 2nd drink with my lunch if I'm going to have wine, but I will not wave my arm around to get it. If your glass is empty I would expect it to be asked if I would like another or something else. We waited, the meals were finished, we waited and not even an inquiry as to the need for another beverage. So again another missed opportunity of more revenue in the restaurants register!!

Why oh why: thirsty again - Guess its more money to spend elsewhere. 
Off to the Beach Almond for dessert with extra cash to spend there.

 169 O'Shea Esplanade, Machans Beach, 4878

www.osheasrestaurant.com

NuNu Restaurant 

1 Veivers Rd,Palm Cove

Location and setting : Just moved into the Alamanda Palm Cove (formerly Angsana). It has the best position beach front and no road between you and the beach. NuNu have done a little bit of work to the place before moving in. 
Food  / Menu : A quick lunch 1 course lunch. Three of u,s all different dishes and I got the winner. commentary from the table and i also tasted all dishes with or without their consent! Pork was a mismatch of flavours, Veal was very small and also had a taste issue and mine the prawn, pumpkin, noodles & ponzu  was a pleasant tasting dish
Drinks : A glass of wine each, Mine was a Lake Breeze Reserve Chardonnay - a winner
Special : Location location location
Service : Very nice staff and everything arrived as you would expect. a few things were a bit flimsy, asking for cutlery, over compensating with friendliness when they had to ask who had what. not what you expect for the price you pay and how busy it was.

 Name from when they were down the other end of the street

Name from their new website (which is under construction)

 http://www.nunu.com.au/

 http://www.lancemore.com.au/alamanda

Lime Tree Bar & Grill

 28 Trinity Beach Road, Trinity Beach

Location and setting : tucked away just off the main road into trinity beach overlooking a lake. A tropical oasis with a rather comfortable feel about it.
Food  / Menu : I came here for dessert today but while I was there had a look at the lunch menu and I will be back tomorrow as it read so well. My choice of dessert was easy - there special was an Eton Mess (made popular by MKR-igged). I was extremely happy - it was YUM.
Drinks : Coffee - Made well, right strength and arrived when I needed it.
Special : its an unobtrusive relaxed setting and really quite pleasant place to sit
Service : Spot on - great staff, efficient and friendly. they got me to a table, order taken and were knowledgeable about the food. timing was also good with delivery of my dessert.

 http://www.lime-tree.com.au

Fratelli on Trinity

 47 Vasey Esplanade Trinity Beach

Location & Setting : Brilliant location right on the beach. the place has been renovated and a really nice job done with a relaxed feel yet a little groovy 
Food  / Menu : Nice reading menu - Calamari, Pomegranate & Chorizo Salad  was my choice today. Fresh tasty a great light lunch dish
Drinks : Lunch time so a glass of Pirramimma Reisling was in order
Special :The setting and restaurant feel
Service : Off to a good start. Drink on the table in no time and water without asking. service was swift both to deliver and clear my main meal and the staff were good and professional. Then I sat, finished my water and waited - I was wanting desert and coffee. Waited for 15 minutes, still no offer, they were not busy, I was the only one eating. So I up paid and left. Still wanted dessert!! Had a look at Lunico's menu - not for me today. On to Lime Tree AH.. yes the special of the day.

http://www.fratelli.net.au 

Le Crouton

Bakery

Location and setting : 227 Kamerunga Rd, Freshwater Just near the train station if your catching the scenic Kuranda train
Food  / Menu : Patisserie and Bakery - lovely French pastries 
I had a cherry danish - The BEST pastry flaky, light and truly just out of the oven
Drinks : Great Coffee made very well and what you would expect when ordering a flat white.
Special :delightful pastries and ready made savory baguettes
Service : Straight forward order at the counter and it's brought to you at the little tables

Macaron Cafe - Cairns

Location and setting : 19/62 Grafton St - nice setting just near Rusty's Market
Food  / Menu : Patisserie and Café specializing in French pastries - had a berry danish that had pastry without a flake to be seen - not freshly baked
Drinks : Coffee - If you wanted it the way they made it, it was OK.  I asked for a third little less milk in the cup to keep the strength of the Coffee up, they checked with me and confirmed but still a full cup arrived and weak coffee. Why do people pretend to listen. this is not a barrister
Special : was once
Service :Got me what I wanted and then back to there gossip session. I was the only one in the cafe at 8:30am

On my way towards the northern beaches of Cairns I made a detour to  :

Le Crouton a French Bakery at 227 Kamerunga Rd, Freshwater QLD 4870

Now were talkin - Fresh, flaky, delightful, a superbly made Cherry Danish 

Anyone in need of ideas for there next home? Link to other ideas below

One flight of stairs is too many
up is no fun 
BUT
down could be great fun
http://www.viralnova.com/dream-home-items

Champagne Jean Jacques Lamoureux is a champagne house you should visit if you are in the Côte des Bar and anywhere near Les Riceys


I am still in Côte des Bar (September 2013) and this was on our last day before we had planned to leave for the Marne Region. I had read a bit about Jean Jacques and his training and Champagne making style and wanted to visit his house if possible. No need to make an appointment as his cellar door was open until 6pm. I thought I had ample time to get there but we ended stay at the previous house way over our expected time. You have to love your TomTom GPS it got us there just in time and I'm glad it did. The Champagnes were superb and this was one of my favorites and chosen ones to bring back and have at home.

 

Champagne Jean Jacques Lamoureux 

As the Champagne houses are small in Côte des Bar, some that I wanted to visit are open by appointment only. I had per-arranged 2-3 visits per day and some visits lasted for 2 to 3 hours so a day goes very quickly and the region is very large which involves a lot of driving to cover the whole region. 

If you favour a champagne or two head to the  Côte des Bar

I just came across an interesting website 

Take a look 

 

http://www.getairhelp.com

Now to move towards one of my favorite letters in FBP and that is B for Booze but in this case the one in particular I would like to pop the cork on is Champagne and a Champagne house I visited in 2013 in a region I had not yet visited  : Côte des Bar. There are certainly more than one Champagne houses that I found  to my liking but I have to start at one (not in any specific order of preference) other than this one is a most recently consumed bottle.

The House was Champagne Gaston Cheq located between Meurville and Bar sur Seine.

The bottle that came back with me was the Special Cuvee 2007 and it was indeed very special. It had all the things I like in a Champagne

If you have free time in July there is a festival on in Côte des Bar

More info here :- http://2014.routeduchampagne.com 

Champagne Gaston Cheq  location map

Today and nearly a week has passed since Piper's surgery - you can see by the pic all the redness has gone and the stitching and wound look a lot better. We had to make him a cone head for a few days because when we were not looking he would lick the stitches

 He is showing a slow improvement in mobility, starting to put the foot on the ground and allowing it to take a little bit of weight.
 

www.keen2travel.net.au

keen2travel.blogspot.com

It has been 2 full days at home for Piper the Boarder Collie after having his surgery to replace a crucial ligament. He seems to be dealing with the very unattractive haircut he has had and did come home also with a plastic cone head look so that he could not lick the wound or stitching but I have removed this and so far he has been rather good at withholding from the temptation to lick. caught him twice and that seems to be enough to know it's not an allowable thing to do.

 Lincoln his buddy who is rather intrigued by all that has happened is keeping a close eye how he is progressing

Today the 'P' in FBP has turned into 'P' for Pet. I have a 11 year old Boarder Collie who has just injured a cruciate ligament in a rear leg which has made it unable to be used or carry any weight. This was confirmed with an Xray taken which showed the ligament was torn completely from the bone. As the Vet explained this is a straight forward yet long operation to repair and the dog would be walking again in no time.

This took me to doing a little research into pet insurance and noticing that all policies I have seen have a 6 month waiting period for accidental injury relating to cruciate ligaments and also if on leg has a pre-existing injury or condition which there can be two of,  it will be considered as a Bilateral Condition. I have included a cut and paste below from definitions out of one policy's PDS.

I have another Boarder Collie who is 1.5 years old and he will be getting pet insurance at about  9 years as he is a highly energetic hound and when the cost of this operation is between $2200-$2500 the insurance will be worth having in his latter years.

 Bilateral Condition means any Condition affecting body parts of which the   Pet has two, one each side of the body (e.g. ears, eyes, knees, cruciate   ligaments). For the purposes of your Cover under the policy when applying   a Benefit Limit or exclusion, a Condition arising in one such body part will   be regarded as a Bilateral Condition and will therefore be considered as a   single Condition. For example: If your Pet has been diagnosed prior to being   insured under the policy [or prior to the end of the Waiting Period (if applicable)],   with a Condition on one side of the body, future occurrences of the same   Condition arising on the other side of the body will not be covered. In other   words, if a dog has been diagnosed with a cruciate tear in his left leg before     the    end    of    the    Waiting    Period,    a    subsequent    cruciate    tear    in    his    right    leg    will      be excluded as a Pre-existing Condition.

Haruka Edge Hill Queensland

Location and setting : tucked away in a small row of shops
Food  / Menu : Bento - great value & quality lunch. good selection in the Bento and fresh
Drinks : Asahi on tap perfect with Japanese   
Special : simple style with no fuss
Service : Really nice staff and they are a bit of fun 

Pharrell Williams

Is he still in Australia?

A perfect photo opportunity .....

Location is Palm Cove Queensland, a little islanad just of the coast affectionately called Scouts Hat

Heli Pharrell in : the man in the scouts hat on the BIG scouts hat. We love big things in Oz

 

Dropped in for lunch yesterday..
Great afternoon on the deck
Live music - a lovely elderly couple were up dancing - nice to see

Location and setting : Such a great view over the marina and out to sea
Food  / Menu : Food was as expected, nice and tasty 
Drinks : A bottle of 2010 Salinger 
Special :Hadn't been there for a long time and forgotten how nice a setting it is
Service :Table service and the staff were very prompt and efficient a afternoon that was made with good service. Cheers

Free Again - HumanHeadline.com.au

Derryn Hinch has conviction in what he does.



look what he says about what he saw inside a prison (in his words)...  "But this was like a rustic country club.  It has a tennis court and a pool



It kept nagging me that there are heaps of pensioners not
living this well. The men in my unit would eat more meat in a week than a
pensioner would in a month.




And I felt for the prison guard whose wife works in aged care
and whose law-abiding residents get the choice of two meagre dishes a
night. In this jail prisoners get four."



Free Again - HumanHeadline.com.au

 Yesterday I went to a Cafe : Osmosis on Collins Street Edge Hill Cairns Queensland


Location and setting : Great
Food  / Menu : neither good nor bad. Try for yourself but not high on my list to return
Drinks : coffee - nice sized cup but for me to milky for a flat white
Special : table numbers - a jar with fresh flowers with a number hand drawn on the side that you are given to take to the table
Service : Counter service to order then delivered to your table

Just recently I spent a week in Strathalbyn South Australia and while I was there I went to one of my must visit wine regions. It's under 15 minutes drive away : Langhorne Creek. First stop was a tasting room called the Winehouse which presents a bunch of boutique Langhorne Creek labels.

One of my favourite wines is a Durif but I was not aware if this wine was produced in the area. I asked at the WineHouse and they sent me to Newmans HorseRadish Farm as they had Rusticana Wines  and they made a Durif which was available for tasting. In the car 10 minutes away and a tasting was done and a purchase was made. Holiday tasting is always fraught with danger (tastes good while on holidays but not so good when you are at home) and that's why you must take one home to try!!

While I was at Newmans HorseRadish Farm I spotted another product/brand I have not seen Franck Food and they make the best Pâté I have tasted - As they say "Do yourself a favour" and try it : beautiful

There is so much more to this short week that is good food good wine and interesting people  but another day for that..

Please go here and help out

Aussie Farmers blog

A new blog called Aussie Farmers

Please go across and take a look 

More importantly please lend a hand any way you can

 Aussie Farmers blog

FBP..
wondering what this is?
Food Booze Places

I'm a newbie at all things blogging but I'm here to give it a go and deliver as well as 
(I hope) receive some interesting information that could be of value.

This blog will be (if I work out how to use if effectively) my diary of all things from the past, present and future relating to FBP