Clare Valley

Went for another road trip on Wednesday to the Clare Valley, another wine producing region in South Australia and bought more wine!! hahaha... It was very fun with breathtaking views from some lookout points.

Taylor's winery, looks like a castle!

George, the resident dog at O'Leary Walker wines Look at all the barrels of wines! Nice Autumn leavesUs infront of the sevenhill church which is one of the oldest wineries around that was started by Jesuit priests and still makes sacramental wine today.

Us at the spring gully lookout

The breathtaking view from Spring Gully lookout

Look what we found in the bushes! hahaha

The view from Quarry Hill lookout

The haul!

Road Trip!

Went to McLaren Vale again today with the Singapore Association people to taste wines and visit a lavender farm where they showed us how they distilled the essential oils from lavender.. It takes flowers from 35 bushes just to distill a small bottle of lavender oil! Drove a minibus there and the engine was so weak.. You could hear the engine groaning and straining when going up slopes.. I could only go 60 in a 100 zone.. Can't wait till I have my own car..

Look at the nice rolling hills with all the grape vines... and look how brown everything is because of the drought.. Tasted some excellent wines and bought some to add to my little wine collection.. haha...
So everyone do drop by Adelaide! There's lots to do and see!!

Pure Heaven

Yummy!!!

Poofed

Woah.. Haven't updated in months.. Wonder if anyone still comes here.. Been so busy with school! starting at 8 everyday and finishing mostly at 5.. argh.... Went for a road trip last weekend to McLaren Vale, another wine producing region.. It was very fun!! with the weekend market and the wine tastings! Bought a plant that looks like a stone, they call it the living stone.. It's so cute! haha will post up a pic soon.. and the expressway to McLaren Vale is so cool.. it is only two lanes and in the morning it goes one way and in the afternoon it switches to the opposite direction! haha..

On the way to McLaren Vale..

A reverse hump.. haha

Grape vines as far as the eye can see

Lavender Farm..

Adelaide is also freaking crowded now... the World Police and Fire Games are on and there are so many police and fire men in town now for it I think Adelaide is the safest city in the world now haha.. Also saw the contingent from the Singapore police force roaming around the city.. The Fringe is also on with lots of buskers around every corner..

'Adelisa' drawn on the pavement of Rundle Mall

Eternal Embrace

Isn't that sweet? It's a little morbid but I think it's a really touching picture.. A couple locked in an eternal embrace for 5-6,000 years.. Wish there was a way to find out their story. What brought them together like that and all that.. Oh well..

Multiple personalities disorder

Just went to watch Multiple personalities disorder by Hossan Leong and it was damn funny! It's been a while since I've been to the theatre and i've missed it! I remember the first time i went for a theatre performance 10 years ago, 5 men on stage singing a capella.. haha was the most boring performance i've been at.. maybe we were 13 then and did not know how to appreciate their kind of music yet. haha
Anyway, Hossan Leong was hilarious, first time i've seen him live.. his costume changes were lightning fast and i especially like him as Joseph Extra'da.. haha.. really funny.. everyone should go watch this!

Taste for salt can begin at birth

NEW YORK - Some people with a penchant for salty snacks may have been born with it, a new study suggests.
In a study of 41 children and teenagers who'd been born prematurely, researchers found that those who'd had low sodium levels in their blood at birth had a particular fondness for salty food.
In tests where the children could choose from salty or sweet snacks, those born with low sodium levels reached for a salty snack more often. They also consumed substantially more sodium each day, based on interviews with children and their parents.
The study also found that children with the most severe sodium deficiency at birth weighed 30 per cent more, on average, than their peers born with the highest sodium levels.
High salt intake is considered a marker for the risk of obesity, possibly because it signifies a person's consumption of calorie-dense processed foods.
It's too soon, however, to say that sodium deficiency early in life is a risk factor for obesity, according to study co-author Dr Micah Leshem of the University of Haifa in Israel.
'There is insufficient evidence for parents to take a preference for salty food resulting from early sodium loss, of itself, as a predictor of weight gain in their children,' said Dr Leshem.
All of the children in the study had been born prematurely, which increases the chances that a newborn will have low blood sodium levels.
Low birth weight itself is thought to promote excessive weight gain later in life, Dr Leshem pointed out, and this may offer a 'better explanation' for the link between early sodium deficiency and childhood weight.
He and his colleagues report their findings in the American Journal of Physiology - Regulatory, Integrative, and Comparative Physiology.
Premature newborns are at greatest risk of sodium deficiency at birth and soon after. -- REUTERS