Showing posts with label chirstmas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chirstmas. Show all posts
Thursday, December 30, 2010
And back...
Sadly... he he he.
A week before Christmas, Kathy and I were invited to go to Hunter Valley for her company’s Christmas party. We had heard about the beauty of the valley, the good food, awesome balloon rides and the spectacular wine; but with almost none point of reference but Italy I was finding hard to believe how wicked it really is.
The 17th of December a co-worker and friend of Kathy picked us from home and started our journey to these lands that is just one hour and thirty minutes away from our home (yes, we live in the north shore... really, really north).
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| Would you take us to Hunter Valley? |
I must confess (and really home that she doesn’t read this...) I felt a bit uncomfortable because the night before we had very little sleep and I was fighting my eyes to keep them open.
I don’t know if we were rude or something, but we travelled really quite, up to a stop for lunch where life seemed to come back to our bodies to share a nice moment.
After another 40 minutes in the road we start seeing the vineyards and the wineries but everything pales in comparison to the resort hosting the event.
The resort is called ‘The Vintage’ which gives you an outstanding view of golf courses, vineyards, prime properties (I really want one... do you think people will send me money if I launch a website ‘a dollar for Rod’s home in the valley’?), spa, excellent restaurant and the list goes on and on and on.
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| Welcome to the Vintage |
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| Our room was a mirror of this one |
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| It was cold, but we really wanted to jump in the pool |
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| And this is why we wanted to jump in the pool... The view |
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| From the restaurant |
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| Another picture of the restaurant... from the outside |
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| Our chef |
We headed to our room with expectation what was on the other side of the door, Kathy’s friends asked to us if we wanted to do anything, but I wanted to crash in the bed for at least one hour.
Our room had this disgusting view...
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| (Quoting Matt Preston...) Disgustingly GOOOOD! The image is huge... It also contains stitching issues... |
The room was beautiful as well... I blinked twice before realising Kathy was already in the bathtub getting relaxed and the bed was all for me.
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| Ooooooh YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!! |
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| Our bed... before I took possession of it. |
After a well deserved nap and Kathy’s relaxation process completed we dressed up and head towards the Christmas dinner to find these gorgeous dishes with good wine.
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| Decorations... |
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| First dish, Salmon pastrami with Pyengana crisp, pickled cucumber, salad burnet and herbs jus |
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| More wine... |
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| Second dish, Four spiced bbq quail with a salad of green mango, toasted coconut, asian herbs and line caramel |
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| I swear in gods name that I did rotate this image... Google keeps rotating it 90 degrees... Anyway, third dish was Double lamb cutlet with roast lamb loin with dried tomato tapenade, braised spring onion and black garlic |
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| Dessert, Blue cheese mousse with spiced pear puree and fruit toast |
And then the Kris Kringle (Secret Santa) with funny presents
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| Well yes... someone got a rubber chicken! |
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| Kathy got Aussie-Slangs! Woohoo! |
The next day our friends took us to visit some of the vineyards and buy wine...
Long story short... Hunter Valley is a must know place if you ever come close to Sydney (or New South Wales). Spend a couple of days, eat a bit and enjoy it.
Cya!
Monday, December 31, 2007
I
got a story about something happened to my wife and I the December 24, between 12:00PM and 2:00PM in “Plaza Venezuela” station of “Metro de Caracas” subway…
My wife and I were coming back home from last minute shopping when, all of the sudden a man engaged us asking
I was kind of stunt and amazed because of the question, especially here in Venezuela, the people isn’t prepare to speak English at all and it is weird that at a public place a lonely man look for assistance... I said “yes?” more questioning than answering.
“Thanks god! First merry xmas, I am from Brooklyn and I really really sorry to bother you. I am in a rush; I was robbed and dumped in Altamira a moment ago…” (4 stations from where we were) “… I need some directions and some money to get to the embassy or going back to the hotel in Puerto Cabello…”
“Police?? Oh yeah, sad story… when I got there and tried to tell ‘em I was rob, then entire police dept started laughing… turn their head back pointing at me, and laughing even more… pretty much depressing, uh?... Seriously, I wanted to study a little bit more your culture because I am a professor... Sociologist as the matter of fact, but I don’t want to stay here any longer, just want to go home; if god let me I will be having Christmas in new York tonight… I asked for assistance in the street and what I got was a ‘go home Yankee… a cab to Valle Arriba (where the embassy is) cost Bs. 25,000 to 35,000’ but then the people vanished and I got in the sub as a cheaper way to get to the U.S. embassy…”
I watched at the same moment my wallet… just Bs. 30,000 in there ($15 bucks), so pulled out Bs. 25,000 (odd $12 bucks) and gave it to him saying…
“What you need to do is go back to Altamira, where the Caracas’ Palace Hotel is… Ask in the lobby for assistance, in order to get a cab, DO NOT TAKE ANY CAB BECAUSE THEY ARE AS DANGEROUS AS THE ROBBERS… ” (Sad thing, Venezuelan taxi cabs take advantage of foreign visitors, stealing their money, bags, suitcase, etc…) “… ask the receptionist for help too, you need to get to the embassy as soon as possible. I am really sorry for the inconvenience you had suffer…”.
“Do not apologize because of what happened… I was staying in Puerto Cabello for the last days and I can tell you, I was in a paradise, I shouldn’t have come to Caracas but I wanted to study the behavior of your city… Plus, you are the only couple who are willing to help, thank you very much for everything and thank god for put you two in my unfortunate today path.”
got a story about something happened to my wife and I the December 24, between 12:00PM and 2:00PM in “Plaza Venezuela” station of “Metro de Caracas” subway…
My wife and I were coming back home from last minute shopping when, all of the sudden a man engaged us asking“Hi, do you speak English?”
I was kind of stunt and amazed because of the question, especially here in Venezuela, the people isn’t prepare to speak English at all and it is weird that at a public place a lonely man look for assistance... I said “yes?” more questioning than answering.
The guy told me back:
“Thanks god! First merry xmas, I am from Brooklyn and I really really sorry to bother you. I am in a rush; I was robbed and dumped in Altamira a moment ago…” (4 stations from where we were) “… I need some directions and some money to get to the embassy or going back to the hotel in Puerto Cabello…”There was nothing more to say or to hear, I knew at that very moment that no one can fake the new Yorker accent and isn’t weird that the personal security in Venezuela is pretty much damaged. So I asked him what could I do to help him, if he needed money, how much does he needed and if he already tried to go to a police station… He’s answer was:
“Police?? Oh yeah, sad story… when I got there and tried to tell ‘em I was rob, then entire police dept started laughing… turn their head back pointing at me, and laughing even more… pretty much depressing, uh?... Seriously, I wanted to study a little bit more your culture because I am a professor... Sociologist as the matter of fact, but I don’t want to stay here any longer, just want to go home; if god let me I will be having Christmas in new York tonight… I asked for assistance in the street and what I got was a ‘go home Yankee… a cab to Valle Arriba (where the embassy is) cost Bs. 25,000 to 35,000’ but then the people vanished and I got in the sub as a cheaper way to get to the U.S. embassy…”I watched at the same moment my wallet… just Bs. 30,000 in there ($15 bucks), so pulled out Bs. 25,000 (odd $12 bucks) and gave it to him saying…
“What you need to do is go back to Altamira, where the Caracas’ Palace Hotel is… Ask in the lobby for assistance, in order to get a cab, DO NOT TAKE ANY CAB BECAUSE THEY ARE AS DANGEROUS AS THE ROBBERS… ” (Sad thing, Venezuelan taxi cabs take advantage of foreign visitors, stealing their money, bags, suitcase, etc…) “… ask the receptionist for help too, you need to get to the embassy as soon as possible. I am really sorry for the inconvenience you had suffer…”.He looked my wife and I and told us with a grateful smile:
“Do not apologize because of what happened… I was staying in Puerto Cabello for the last days and I can tell you, I was in a paradise, I shouldn’t have come to Caracas but I wanted to study the behavior of your city… Plus, you are the only couple who are willing to help, thank you very much for everything and thank god for put you two in my unfortunate today path.”We saw him jump in the next train and comeback to Altamira station… After a few minutes my wife and I were terrified, 
why didn’t we help him more? We should have call the taxi cab instead and send him straight to the U.S Embassy… Once home we wanted to call the embassy to know some status of the man odyssey, but realized we didn’t had any name, just the look-like description and the brief information, sent an e-mail asking for his status but no info had come back…
why didn’t we help him more? We should have call the taxi cab instead and send him straight to the U.S Embassy… Once home we wanted to call the embassy to know some status of the man odyssey, but realized we didn’t had any name, just the look-like description and the brief information, sent an e-mail asking for his status but no info had come back…This story could give you one series of reasons, why we want to migrate… Dangerous city, poor police effectiveness, poor security… And the list goes on and on…
Monday, December 24, 2007
Our dear wishes for this holydays. We wanted to wish you all the best presents you could ever have which are health and caring from your beloved ones.
Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah 2008. We hope Santa, baby Jesus or these 8 days brings you the best you deserve. Happy holydays.
PS: If you are Jewish, sorry that I didn’t wished Happy Hanukkah before the Dec. 21. The meaning is what matter, isn’t it?
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