Last week Ange and I had a mildly adventurous road trip out to the Yarra Valley. As is customary for our little jaunts, Ange had printed off whereis.com.au's street-by-street directions for getting from her place to our destination: Yering Station.

It was when we ended up driving down a long dirt track, jammed into divots cut deep by the tyres of Christmas past, that we began to question the accuracy of the directions. It was once we hit the halfway mark and we saw a "No Thru Road" sign that our suspicions were realised.
After doing a u-turn at the end of the road, and somebody's frontyard, we eventually got back on the main road and used a bit of guesswork to get to the winery. At a t-intersection we had a 50% chance of choosing the right direction. Of course we chose the wrong one.

Once we got to Yering Station we had a great time. The wine was fresh, the food was fantastic and so were the views. Food wise we started with a shared plate consisting of braised lamb chops sitting on finely chopped chorizo with a lemon and thyme foam. The main for me was three small tubes of kangaroo fillet wrapped in pancetta, sharing the plate with small wheels of eggplant zalouk and potato fondant. The potato was a bit too firm and crisp for me; I prefer mine soft to the touch. I can't fault the kangaroo though. Lightly cooked so it still held a deep red colour and so juicy the knife melted through it.

Ange chose the ocean trout fillet. There's not a lot I can say about it, so I'll let their menu describe it:

ocean trout fillet, pithiviers of goats cheese and capsicum relish, almond, raisin and balsamic reduction

I did try a piece of it and found it to be quite tasty. Not too dry but not drenched in liquids either. As an aside: Yes, I am aware I suck at describing fish, but bear with me, I’m new at this seafood thing. We also shared a bowl of herb potatoes which were nice, and which you can see in the photo above.
I washed by meal down with a glass of their Cabernet Sauvignon. Ange chose a glass of their sweeter Sauvignon Blanc.

Once we were stuffed from lunch we wandered down to the tasting house and I snapped a few more photos while Ange tried some of the wines on display. And, after a small mix up involving her credit card, we loaded the car with five bottles of their finest wares and headed back home.

This lunchtime I had a real nice surprise. I'd gone to Melbourne Central with Ange to put some money on my Wii preorder. When we got inside the first thing that caught my eye was the Wii display set up in the middle of the atrium. The display consisted of four televisions hooked up to individual Wii consoles, playing three different games (one had been turned off and I forgot to ask them why it had been). Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Wii Sports and WarioWare: Smooth Moves were the games available.

WarioWare was the only one that didn't have a massive crowd, in fact it didn't even have a line at all. I was watching a kid play it, and was just about to ask if i could play with the remote on the inactive console when the Nintendo rep asked if I wanted to play. Of course I jumped at the chance.

I'll start with my impressions of the hardware:
The remote itself is a lot sturdier than I thought it would be. That's not to say that it's heavy, just you could easily break a window with it. The remote easily fit into my hand and I was able to reach all the buttons with ease. Even with my stubby fingers.

The sensor bar is a lot smaller than I thought it would be. I had an idea that it would need to be long enough to cover the long edge of your average television, say 90 centimetres. From what I saw, the actual bar is about half that size.

Now on to the game itself:
I've been a big fan of the WarioWare series for a while now. I own both WarioWare: Touched and WarioWare: Twisted for my DS, so I had a rough idea of what to expect.

At the beginning of the demo you're asked to select your primary hand then the game begins. You're given a random selection of minigames from the megamix selection that sit at the bottom of the screen. When a new game is about to start you're shown a small black and white image of how you should be holding the remote, but it's not so detailed that it gives everything away. Sadly the minigames themselves didn't have any names, but I'll list the ones I played based solely on the action:

• Crank the handle.
• Jog.
• Hula (this got a few laughs from the gathering crowd.)
• Pump up the balloon.
• Try and catch a fish. (in Animal Crossing no less!)
• Bounce the ball on a racquet.
• Drive a car - the Boss Level.

I had an absolute ball playing this game and I'm a little surprised that something so cool isn't a launch title. Not to worry though as it's released just a few weeks after the Wii hits Australian stores.

After that experience, I ran downstairs to EB and placed another $100 on the preorder.
I'm thinking I might go back tomorrow and see if I can play one of the other games there.

A big Happy Birthday to my girlfriend Ange, who turns 28 today. This'll be the first of her birthdays we're celebrating together so it's a little more special as well.

Tonight, after the customary giving of presents, we're off to Escagrill in Moonee Ponds for what will mostly likely end up being a seafood dinner. I'd originally booked Grossi Florentino, but once she'd found out Ange torpedoed that idea as being too expensive. (I still get the points for it though!)

In a couple of weeks time we'll be "slumming" it at the Mansion Hotel in Werribee as part of the half-yearly Harvest Picnic. I can't wait.

Happy Birthday, baby.

I had great fun last night at the "Six year anniversary party" as well. I met a lot of new people (some that I'd heard about, others less so). We even managed to have an impromptu Flickr Meet, which was great for a laugh. I made all the right choices with the meal as well. Seafood risotto and medium-rare steak. Yes indeed, I won dinner.

Of course I couldn't go without mentioning the surprise Mike and Justine had for everybody.

They both stood up in front of the seated guests, noticeably nervous, and announced to the room that it wasn't an anniversary party they were attending, or even an engagement party. Mike and Justine and gotten married the previous day.

As Mike revealed, through the wonders of post-dated blogging, he and Justine were married two days ago in the Old Treasury Museum. Mike had approached me a few months back and asked if would act as best man, and of course I said yes.

The ceremony ran smoothly enough. Both Mike and Justine looked very happy together. And I was happy because I got to play semi-professional wedding photographer again!

Congratulations to you both. You've had six years to get used to each of your idiosyncrasies, so now all you have to do is sit back and enjoy the marriage.

Well Justine and I have come to the end of our little competition.
I set out to improve the way i eat and I think I've done just that. Unhealthy snack foods, franchise take away stores and hot salty chips are now a thing of the past.

Like Justine I don't think I've lost as much weight as I could've. Thanks to the Sydney hedonism my current weight is now just slightly over 94kgs. Meaning I've lost around 3kgs.

So who won? It's close, but I think Justine pipped me at the post.

Day 55
Breakfast
Slept right though breakfast.

Lunch
Two sausages in multigrain bread.
Can of Sprite.

Dinner
Chicken kebab with onion, lettuce and garlic sauce.
Two Chicken hand rolls.

Exercise
Wandered the CBD. Walked to the train station (15 minutes).