Manly Wine and Food Festival

Today was the Manly Wine and Food Festival. It turned out to be a pretty good day. I started the day with a nice long sleep in, (I'm still feeling the effect of my Singapore trip or I'm starting to get sick) then I went for a Surf. I haven't been surfing in like three weeks due to my wet-suit being sent to the factory for repair (one of the sealed seams split) then my business trip to Singapore, and this week I've been exhausted, so I've tried to get as much rest as possible. It was a challenging day on the Board, three weeks is long enough to lose any timing you thought you had and for your shoulders to get out of paddling shape. But it was fun to be back in the water. It is also much colder than it was 3 weeks ago. I guess I should be comparing it to December 5th, in which case this still feels like summer (compared to Montana in December).

One of the neatest things I've experienced happened today, I was on my surfboard waiting for a wave, and a school of fish or minnows came through. They were like 3 inches long, but they were jumping out of the water. I think there were about 25, all jumping out of the water (much like I've seen dolphins on TV do when they swim with boats, except these weren't dolphins, there 3 inch long minnows). This school of fish, basically went right though me, so there heaps of fish jumping in front and behind me. And in like 4 seconds they were gone. It was a pretty cool visual.

After my surf I went to the Manly Wine And Food festival (http://www.manly.nsw.gov.au/minisites/main.asp?ms=28) , which is basically a chance to try food from all the local restaurants and wine from some nearby vineyards. They block off about 4 blocks along the water front road across from the beach and there several booths serving food or wine. I would imagine there were at least 30 booths. It was mobbed with people so I would guess there several 10's of thousands through the festival over the course of the day. I had a crab & some whitefish I don't' remember fritter and cup of seafood chowder, from Manly Bay Seafood restaurant. Very Good!!. Then I also had a cheese plate from one of the gourmet deli's that had set up a booth. I also stole a few bites from Zach and Carolyn (my friends who I went to the festival with) pastry plate, which was fantastic.

Over the course of the afternoon, I also tried several wines:

Tower Estate: I had a verdehlo.
Frog Rock: Creek Cabernet Sauvingnon
Brickman Vineyards: I had a Semillion, (which was Fantastic!)
Draytons Family Wine: I had the Pioneer (Tawny) Port.
Calais Estate: I had the Pinot Noir.

I think my 2 favorite wines were the Brickmans Semillion and Calais Estate Pinot Noir. (If I ever make it to Hunter Valley, I'd put a visit to these vinyards up on my list)

It was also a gorgeous day, sunny and around 65 degrees F. So it was a very good way to spend three hours of the afternoon, to walk around the festival listening to live music eating and drinking on Manly Beach. It is a 2 days festival, and I would definitely like to go again tomorrow, but I have tickets to the Sydney Swans versus the stowaway Saints (from Melbourne). Which is one of the bigger games of the Australian Rules Football season so far. They have a premiers, similar to English Soccer, and St. Kilda is currently in first place, and I think unbeaten. Sydney is currently 7th (out of 16 teams in the premiership), with a 5 and 5 record. There is a huge rivalry between Sydneysiders and Melbourne. Melbourne is also much more Aussie Rules country, in fact about 40 years about all 16 teams, were located in Melbourne, they have all slowly relocated to other parts of the country since then, but I still think Melbourne has like 4 teams. Anyway, there should be good atmosphere at the game, which should make it fun to be there live.