OMG - It's Thursday already!!!! ARRRRGGGH

This is my second attempt at typing this blog - grrrrrr This laptop holds a Windows Vista programme and SOMEHOW the damn thing deleted itself. FAR OUT!!!! So, this may be a shorter version than the last one.....!!! lol



This morning was kind of a non-starter - my plans had been to walk to the local mall where Walmart was located but for some reason my sleeping body decided to take advantage of my dozy state and refused to get up at six thirty and only resurfaced around 9am and in my slowly awakening state I decided I would accept the offer of a lift from my American friends!! lol



Drove to Walmart while they shopped at the local supermarket "Albertsons" - and apparently I took so long they did their shopping, delivered and unpacked it at home and still returned while I was trying to manoeuvre my way through the gigantic aisles of Walmart. Embarassing but true!! lol



I went to a little coffee house and had an iced Latte - I tell you, Cafe Bambino still does the best Trim Lattes this side of the black stump!!!! There is NO kick to their coffee - very bland and they don't seem to know the meaning of the word trim milk!! lol "You want soy ma'am??" NOPE....just trim milk .....lol



Anyway, they were lovely and the owners son had just been out to New Zealand and had the best two weeks of his life with a host family there according to his dad - so it's nice to know our reputation precedes us.



Dropped in on Carole and Tiffany today and they are just amazing ladies!! Wahooo.....we went off to a couple of spectacular wineries....oh it was just soooo cool!!! We had lunch at the Crooked Kilt before we set off on our wine journey - and it was great. I had the calamari again and asked for a side salad - thinking that an appetiser of calamari with a little greens would be okay!!! The salad was served in a bucket sized bowl and even though I invited the entire table to share the salad there was an enormous amount left at the end of the meal - so asked them to doggy bag it!! Oh yikes!! lol Yep, the cautious kiwi comes out again - I know I probably won't eat it - but couldn't bear to see the waste.



We travelled in style in Carole and Tiffany's new Mercedes.....man, it was POSH!!! rofl and so lovely - The first vineyard was one where the garden was full of the most beautiful sculptures by a local guy called John Jagger - yep, got Matt to use my camera (he is a much better photographer than me and actually remembers to stop and take photos!! lol It was a lovely winery and bought one of their wines called Statuesque. The winery was called Sculpterra - so obviously themed with the sculptures in mind. The land has been in the family for some time and is owned by a doctor. The doctor's son has now just graduated from Cal Poly doing viticulture and has been studying with another local winemaker (IRISH!! lol who has been making wine for the vineyard.



The next stop was to a very unusual winery called something like Coultiere....I can't remember now exactly except that the wine wasn't terribly good - only one white and the reds were too earthy for my taste. The hats and wigs were hysterically funny though so we tried lots on - well, I tried lots on and I have the photos to prove it!! lol



The last winery....mmmmmmmmmmmhmmmmmmmmmmmmm Bianchi - YUMMOOOO - we didn't get there till nearly 4.30 but it was really awesome. Specialised in whites and the Sauvignon Blanc was gorgeous as well as the champagne and the Pinot Noir...Honestly, they were accusing me of favouritism because they had used kiwifruit in the ones I REALLY liked!! lol



Got back to the hotel and we started the bottle of Statuesque before Carole and Tiffany had to go and meet friends for dinner - have arranged to see them tomorrow though and before I leave. It sounds like they are moving to San Diego and as I love the reputation of the zoo - was saying they should come to the Wairarapa and do the wine trail and then I can go and stay with them and visit the zoo!



We then went on back to Jason and Shawna's to pick up the cord for the laptop - which I am using now to do this post. We stayed for a while and they insisted I should meet Monty their Ball Python.....eeek. They were being a little mischievous as well - when I went to the loo and returned they told me to be careful as they had let Monty loose and he was under the couch where I was just standing. Yup, I got out of the way very quickly before they revealed Monty's hiding spot - he was hiding under Matt's