Long time no see. Hope
you all are ok? I am good at the moment, have been a lot of things the past
four weeks or so and back from my blog break that was not intended but happened
by pure accident, meaning lack of time and energy. Heaps of stuff to update again
and don’t know where to start, from Christmas exactly but if feels like ages
ago.
But anyways Christmas.
Ho ho ho and so on? Not really, almost 30 degrees and like any other weekend on
a loooooong holiday. Very hot, no snow, people getting excited about BBQ and
prawns and drinking heaps of beer. That’s not Christmas. That is more of a Juhannus
without the naked football part. Christmas comes feeling like it or not and we
had planned to have a good dinner cooked by Dad. He promised to create a menu
that doesn’t have even a hint of traditional Finnish stuff in it, goat cheese
mushrooms and Thai prawns, apple crumble and cheese plate was the end result.
Tarja had bought a tiny Christmas tree from IKEA with little led lights to
light up our evening, not that we needed it because Christmas eve was sunny and
pretty (I actually still have the tree on my bookshelf waiting for the battery
of the lights to run flat...because I don't know how to turn the lights off
*blond*) but it reminded us that the evening was somewhat special. Calls back
home were emotional and I was even more grateful Dad was here, it’s been a
while since I’ve had the chance to spend Christmas with him and loved the fact
that I could share my first one here. Made me feel less homesick. To balance
out the tears we of course had a lot of bubbly and good wines to match the food
and at the end of the evening around 3.30 am came to a conclusion that a box of
bubbly and 2 bottles of wines is JUST right for four people. Ugh. So when the
Australians were waking up to Christmas day and starting their drinking I woke
up with sore hair and couldn’t even think about starting the new tradition of
bubbly Christmas Day brunch. And there we covered also Christmas Day, hangover
and bit of a leftover picnic at Kangaroo point. Done. Ho ho ho.
Boxing Day was finally
the start day of our much awaited road trip towards Hunter Valley wine country.
First stop was Byron Bay, just perfect for a late morning beautiful sights,
walking down from the light house and enjoying a tasty midday brekkie at
Twisted Sista. Dad and Tarja loved Byron, no wonder, and it was a great kick
start for our trip. Next
stop was Coffs Harbour, pretty much the only logical stopover place between
Brissie and Hunter Valley to spend a night. When sharing our plans with few
colleagues and asking what to do at Coffs Harbour I got an instant answer: Big
Banana. Wot? Yes, visit the Big Banana. What is it? A big banana with lots of
banana stuff on sale. Okie, sounds like a-must-see thing on East coast of
Australia. So about 200km before hitting Coffs Harbour I was all excited about
the Banana. What’s it like? How big is it? Is it vertical or horizontal banana?
Can I take a picture of myself with it? What kind of Banana items they sell
there? Banana shakes or splits maybe? Banana toys? Outfits even? Maybe
something for the little people? So many questions with a single banana. To
keep you from excess excitement the banana was a big banana, horizontal one,
closed for Boxing Day and therefore quiet if one can say quiet of a big
artificial fruit. We took our pics and I think Dad was ashamed of my
excitement…but seriously, that was THE most exciting thing at Coffs Harbour.
Well, we also had a big spider named Bob in our cottage but that was more scary
than exciting. A bit of sleep before getting on the road again.
Tuesday 27th was the
game day as we arrived to Hunter Valley after some 6 hours of driving. The
scenery is totally different from anything I’ve seen so far in Australia. Wine
yards after wine yards and tens of little signs wishing people welcome. With
our wine lover hats on this definitely was a right place to be. The concept is
following: a) name a dedicated driver if you are not planning to walk a bit
tipsy tens and tens of kilometres, b) pick a winery and pop in c) see a list of
wines on tasting that day and say “I’d like to taste THESE”, d) sip, enjoy and
compare the wines and do not spit away if you are not the dedicated driver e)
buy a bottle or two if you think the wine is worth 20 AUD (that was pretty much
the common price for basic wines), f) pick another winery from the map and ask
the dedicated driver kindly to take you there. Nice! So this is what we did for
1.5 days :) Our absolute favourite winery was Ernest Hill, recommended by
dear Marijke. The atmosphere was more peaceful than in most of the places, we
got our own Barrel and got to sit there and take as much time as we wanted and
no one was pushing around or making any hassle. The owner and his son were
actually running the tasting and telling a bit of history and stories around
each quality and gave a nice extra layer and emotional stamp to the event. If I
recall right we bought 7 bottles, a bit of each! Ernest Hill has 16
blocks of grapes and on average year they are harvesting 10 for their own use
and sell the bad stuff for big wine houses like Tempus Two (yuck). Grapes are
always handpicked which of course makes it more expensive to produce but comes
out as a good quality. Ernest Hill makes approx 77 000 bottles per year,
compared to the bigger wineries who make 50 000 per hour. There is a
difference, a big one. I liked pretty much everything they offered (surprise
surprise) but the winner was the ‘easy rose’ which is done “over 6 pints of
beer” (meaning the grape skins are kept only 6 hours to give a nice light red
colour and taste) and perfect for hot summer days (already imagined myself at
my balcony drinking the rose all day and reading a book or something). Ernest
got new friends, loyal too if only I could find their stuff online or at the
local liquor store. Second prize went definitely for Peterson’s Champagne House
and their nice brekkie...well, it isn’t champagne for obvious geographical
reasons but their cuvee is very close to champagne and has good price quality
ratio. Third prize goes to Lindemans Sparkling Shiraz, quite an exciting wine
that at first feels very controversial to senses. We learned that Bubbly Shiraz
is popular in Australia and growing fast with the sparkling boom and tendency
to prefer cold drinks during hot summer. Hot or not, we loved it. Rest of the
program at Hunter was mainly following the beautiful sunset at our balcony,
testing the newly bought wines with good selection of cheese (extra portion of
wine for the dedicated driver) and playing cards till late. And while at a wine
country you don’t get any hangover either ;)
After two nights at
Hunter we decided to visit Sydney too, as we were only some 160 km away. There
is something magical about Sydney, it has such a different vibe compared to
Brissie. Sydney is a big city. We had nice lunch at a cosy Bossa Nova bistro
after some 19h of dieting (the thing with Dad is that he’s never hungry and we
somehow managed to skip brekkie with the driving and lunch with the checking in
to our hotel ending up being extremely low on energy and blood sugar and
extremely snappy too) To summarize the “conversation” from 17 to 19 hours
without food: “Mikä fiilis?”
A: No *ituttaa. Niin nälkä et
*ituttaa. Period. *silence* After finishing our plates I was sorry for using the v-word
and Tarja and I decided this is the last time we are skipping dinners. Hunger
is a female thing, I know, but damn I was angry. All good we continued towards
the Opera House and through the Botanic Gardens to the cbd to do some sale
shopping and finally having a bit of burritos for dinner at Darling Harbor.
Overall good ¾ of a day at Sydney, 2 meals too which is definitely better than
just one (rest of the trip the definition of a good day was based on the number
of meals we got). Next morning we started our journey back home to Brissie,
some 900km ahead with a stopover at Coffs Harbor again. Arriving on new year’s
eve with trunk full of good wines from Hunter we were happy and tired: 6 days,
1900 km, 4 new places, constantly changing scenery, heaps of wines and good
food, sunsets and long evenings playing cards, sightseeing and sight seeing. Road
trip rules. So no surprise the year turned in fairly easy going mood, dinner
and wines, midnight fireworks and trying to call home (didn’t get through) and
bottle of sparkling shiraz at my balcony before heading to bed. Thank you 2011
for the courage, welcome kind 2012 :)
2012 has started with no
big hassle and zero resolutions, still it has turned out to be good to me, or I
have put an emphasis to be good to me. I’ve done a lot of walking, some
running, twice a week yoga at Den studio at West End and Pilates too. I have
had less coffee (even coffee free days), a lot less alcohol (let’s not here
talk about the amount of wines over holidays) eaten at home more often and
pushed myself to bed early if feeling tired. Looking back 2011 was an exciting
and exhausting year, a marathon really from starting the year with dear friends
at Barcelona to ending the same with family and friends in Brisbane. Big
opportunities, big decisions, variety of emotions, leaving behind, starting
new, living day by day and making things happen, slowly finding a corner of so
called comfort zone, new project and everything around it, new people, new life
situations, new ways to communicate, learning, learning a bit more, and maybe
the most about myself. No question New Year plays an important role in my life;
it is an opportunity to reflect the past, make my summary around it, accept it
and cherish it no matter how tricky stuff the year might hold and then turn a
new page. New Year and new page isn’t escaping the past for the sake of better
future, for me it is about seeing the bigger picture and my growth in it. No
right or wrong either but life that unfolds exactly the way I have guided it.
All that happens is for good at the end of the day, sometimes we just need more
time and perspective to realize and accept it. Anyways on last day of 2011 I
was happy to look back and realize how much life has unfolded and how much I
have accomplished. It would’ve been a bit surreal without Dad and Tarja here,
but they somehow reminded me of the distance being only a matter of having
holidays and booking tickets and the thing between family ties staying the same
whatever the continent or environment might be. I felt proud, content and
happy...future looked bright, it still does. Marijke and I decided that Twenty
twelve will be a year of goodness, letting the accomplishments of last year
carry on and focus on quality of life rather than building up a life. That’s a turning point. According to Dad there
is also a big difference with the Ansku here compared to the Ansku back in
Finland. Marijke asked him how he sees my life here and dad answered with tears
in his eyes that it is great to see how all the tension from me is gone and I
am so much more calm and peaceful and happy here. I was kind of surprised to
hear that and especially from him but thinking closely it is true. Despite all
the hard work and tiredness of starting fresh and missing nearest and dearest I
am a lot more content here and the change is of course more obvious to people who
can make the comparison between real life Ansku in Finland or in Australia....I cannot do
the comparison clearly either, I am in the middle of living it. The weeks here together with Dad were fun and
I feel I grew closer to him. I believe he left Australia with peaceful mind
knowing I am ok and people around me will take care of me too.
So according to the
goodness plan last weekend was dedicated for recovery. I was dead tired, I
looked like sick people do, couldn’t think of anything better than wearing
pyjama two days in a row with no commitments or plans. I hadn’t had a free
weekend in 2.5 months, not that many free evenings either and that’s a lot for
a girl who used to have heaps of me-time back in .fi. I seriously decided to do
nothing, say no to any offers, do what I (capital I but that is capital
already) want to do…be it laying on the sofa or sleeping whole day. I almost
decided to update this blog too, but felt I needed to be fully on "now" rather than reflecting the past few weeks. So I slept, ate
healthy food, read Riikka Pulkkinen’s Totta from front to cover (beautiful
beautiful book, recommend it warmly), watched a movie, had naps, went to market
to have coffee and pancakes under the fig tree, skyped with dear friends and
crawled early to bed. No magic happened with winning the tiredness over a
weekend but it was a good start, kick-start in a relaxing sense. You need to
start somewhere, right? I’ve continued the routine of goodness this week too.
Twice on a yoga class, three times on a long walk, yesterday Pilates over a
lunch break, healthy food and less coffee, no commitments for evenings, 8 hours
of sleep per night and feeling a lot better. I think Wednesday Yoga was a
turning point, I left the class feeling calm and energized, woke up on Thursday
with no tiredness on the back of my eyes and felt the world is smiling again. I
felt I finally had control over my own life again and really managed stop on
physical and mental level, managed to be. Just be.
My recovery continues
over this weekend, done a lot of being and a will do the same tomorrow too.
Part of the recovery contains ice cream on the sofa and Australian open from
telly, with ice cream there is always an excuse :)
Love,
//Ansku
PS: Caramel, date, pecan ice cream..mums mums
