Another day in paradise

As you will have read, Mollie has shown an interest in pursuing a career in wine making.

Never one to miss an opportunity that holds a personal benefit I subsequently tracked down the only Scottish winemaker in Australia and offered to drive Mollie to meet her.

Unfortunately it was 5 hours away. And 5 hours back.

So one day a couple of weeks ago, we set out on our journey, just the two of us, to meet Jane Wilson of Lowe Fine Wines in the Mudgee valley.

This would be the equivelent of driving to Birmingham and back for the day. But with far more interestsing scenery and less traffic.

Having stopped on the way for a McDonalds Breakfast, and then sometime later a McDonalds lunch, we finally arrived at the most fantastic wee vineyard set in the most glorious setting.

We spent a couple of hours watching them make the wine and of course sampling their wares.

Mollie was absolutely delighted, inspired and probably a bit pissed, but we stopped off at a McDonalds for our tea on the way home to sober ourselves up.

The biggest market for their wine is infact Scotland and sell to more of the up-market restaurants such as Martin Wisharts and Kinnaird House!

One of the odder co-incidences was that Jane had met an old colleague of mine and TV star, Guy Grieve, on a boat to Oban last year and had lost his contact details.

I offered to forward his details, she offered Mollie a job during the summer.

Payment in wine.

Fair swap I reckon.

I flew back to Scotand yesterday to attend the funeral of Neil Adams a dear friend.

Living so far away and not attending would not have given me the closure over such a distressing loss.

Yesterday, Spade was celebrated with music, laughter, friends, drink and a bucket full of tears.

So today I fly back to Australia more content that I have stood in a bar with all of our friends and his family and sang to the roofs at the top of our voices about a man who will always have a special place in or hearts.

And you  know what, I reckon he was in that bar with us.

God bless you Spade.

 

I’ve had a lot of people contact me over the last few days by phone and email, wishing to comment on some of my ramblings, more specifically around Spade.

For some reason, my blog wasn’t allowing them to post comments on this and other postings.

And it’s not been the first time this has been said.

I discovered this morning that my settings were set to only allow people who had registered with WordPress, to comment!

Well I’ve now fixed the problem, I hope, and they’ll be glad to hear they can go back and vent their feelings on any of the topics I’ve covered without having to worry about such shenanigans.

I loook foward to hearing from you.

At last.

 Except in front of your teenage daughter with a camera.

Winter has arrived in Wahroonga, with the temperatures plummeting to 16 degrees.

So yesterday we sent the twins out to collect some kindling to light the fire.

That evening after our dinner we all sat down in front of a roaring fire to watch “Jimmys Farm” in our jammies with a glass of red and enjoy the heat.

It was then we discovered we had a visitor who had travelled in with the wood which was now lying in a pile on the hearth.

Well actually, Haggis, the labrador spotted the visitor first and had to be dragged off a scorpion while everyone made for the door!

Tee saved the day by using a plastic pot dropped over the top of it and throwing it out the door.

I was busy. Somewhere else.

To think the kids had been happily collecting wood in their arms cuddling a scorpion!

Jimmy thought he had problems with animals - not a patch on our wild life

 

I’ve spent the last few days in a fog.

My days seem to be spent in a haze that are full of utter, utter sadness.

This feeling of grief is not just for my sense of loss of a dear friend, but for the rest of my friends and Spades family and the pain they are going through.

It’s made worse because I’m not there to help them as well as actually grieve with them. 

But today I came across a saying on the web today that gave me some comfort.

“This too, shall pass”

The origin of this saying appears to date back to a story told about King Solomon.

“It was said, that when the king was feeling sad, he asked his advisors to find him a ring he had seen in a dream.

“When I feel satisfied, I’m afraid it won’t last. And when I am sad I’m afaid my sorrow will go on for ever. Find me a ring that will ease my suffering”

Eventually an advisor met an old jeweller who carved into a simple gold band the Hebrew inscription “gam zeh ya’avor” - “This too, shall pass”

When the king recieved his ring and read the inscription his sorrows turned to joy and his joy to sorrows, and finally both gave way to equanimity.”

I wish I could give my friends and Spades family such a ring.

 

Neil Adams, a friend of mine for over 30 years died of a heart attack today at the age of 47.

He left behind a beautiful family, Ali, Libby and Jack.

He was one of my guardians throughout my life who saw me through the challenges of adolescence, adulthood and came in and out of my life when we both had kids.

A talented musician and part-time member of the Gods of Glam, he had a colourful and exotic life.

He was travelling the world as I was struggling to get the bus into town from Musselburgh, he came back and bought a flat in the city as I was struggling to buy a pint, he had women swooning for his David Essex looks, and I got to chat to the ugly mate.

He came to Sydney last year on business where we met up for a beer and a laugh and strangely enough the topic was around our health, blood pressure, cholestorol and growing old.

Given our youth I think we were both surprised to have got this far.

Even up until a couple of months ago when we were emailing each other our favourite funeral songs.

In the manner of black humour, mine was to have them play “Burn for you” by John Farnham, another discussed was at the moment of the coffin going behind the curtain, them to burst back open and for the music to strike up-open playing “There’s no showbusiness like show business”. And finally just as the coffin was going down we were to ring eithers mobile which was in the coffin.

All in good humour, but the last track he sent me was his favourite by Warren Zevon - “Keep me in your heart for a while.”

Warren wrote it for his wife when he discovered he was dying.

How appropriate that he chose this.

I’ll miss you Spade.

 

My life has just been a whirl of spreadsheets for the last month culminating in our annual board presentation on Monday.

Sitting in front of a computer all day every day estimating rates and volumes, predicting outcomes and calculating risk wasn’t really why I got into advertising but unfortunately a necessary part of my life now.

I’ve been working late and at weekends all in preparation for the big day last Monday.

And thankfully now it’s all over.

For someone who’s more passionate about creativity and ideas and needed a tutor to pass basic arithmetic, I have to admit to struggle with the process of the last few months.

Needless to say, I’d be quite happy never to see an excel spreadsheet again.

Hopefully now I can get back to the fun bit.

And see the family too.

 

Looking through Google for some insight into medical conditions can be scary.

I kept finding diseases that I have the symptoms for!

For instance, It would appear I am pregnant.

I have a swelling belly, eat a lot and have mood swings.

Not to mention the Ebola virus…

I have this overwhelming desire to take the family camping into the outback.

Hotels are pretty thin on the ground outside the cities so if we’re going to see a bit more of the country I felt we should really get the kit.

So, I dragged the family off to the local camping and caravanning show to have a look, full of enthusiasm and persuasive skills.

Needless to say it was full of characters from “Deliverence” the movie which was slightly off putting.

However, I persevered until this part…..

Then we went home.