Midge bytes

Over Easter I went for a three day tramp with the Alpine club, around Cass Hill near Arthur’s Pass.  It rained the first day and was foggy throughout the six hour hike, so it was a lovely surprise when the second day dawned sunny and blue skies.  It turned out that we were staying in a beautiful twenty person hut surrounded by mountains (Hamilton Hut).  We took it fairly easy the second day, only hiked for about an hour, then spent the afternoon swimming in a river (snow fed, brrr) and relaxing.  The second nights hut was hand built in 1975 and quite shack like, but it was fun for a night!  I do like the huts, it’s really nice to know you can find shelter for a night.  However we were a long way from the pub lunches I take for granted in England, being in a beautiful, unspoilt, remote mountain region has its’ downsides! 

The scenery was really lovely <http://flickr.com/photos/smidgley> and the company was fun, the Alpine club are a nice bunch.  My hiking muscles were surprised to be used again after about a year off from serious walking, but I think a few more long walks and they’ll be back up to full speed…I hope so anyway! 

I have been given several bottles of wine for helping out in wineries   I’m storing it under my bed, for a little while at least! 

I spent ten hours helping press Chardonnay for sparkling wine at the uni winery on Friday afternoon and evening.  It was a fun, messy job!   Very sticky.  My new gum boots (people laugh when I call them wellies) have been well and truly christened.

Apart from that…I went to a farmers market in Lincoln this morning, and bought lots of mushrooms, which I straganoffed for dinner.  It was yummy, I used some red wine vinegar and veggie stock in addition to lots of mushrooms, onions and garlic and paprika.  I also bought strawberries and a pineapple, which are lovely, despite the absence of clotted cream.

This cooking is prevarication from essay writing, which is a slow and painful process.  I’m very glad I had fun in the winery, because it renewed my sense of why I’m here, the academic part will hopefully slot into place, but at least I’m gaining a good understanding of the job I want to do! 

My first couple of weeks have gone well and amazingly fast!  I have my own row of Pinot Gris to tend, with a partner…who happens to come from Somerset, which I found quite amusing.  So far we have leaf plucked (to expose the grapes to sunshine to aid ripening) and calculated possible yield (about half a tonne or 500kg if you prefer).  This is a huge crop for a single row of 72 vines, so we weren’t too irritated by a wax-eye (small hungry bird) which we had to chase out from under our bird net yesterday.  We only need about 85kg for our micro-vin project (making wine out of same grapes).  I’m really enjoying having lectures and popping up to the vineyard for some viticulture in between (or herbology as I’m thinking of it!)  I definitely feel like I’m at Hogwarts!

Winemaking and viticulture aside, the course is pretty fast paced science so my brain is definitely getting a work out, they are making me study economics and engineering, neither of which actually work very well in my head…I may have to pay someone to do those bits in future!  Hopefully I will be able to get the hang of them though!

We’ve been on three field trips to five different wineries so far, which have been informative and fun (we did get to try some wine).  I’ve also had a play up in the university winery today helping two former students bottle some 2006 Chardonnay.  I got to do the screw capping, quite a satisfying machine!  They kindly gave me a bottle, which I shall comment on in a month or so, as they suggested I left it in bottle for at least a month.

I actually left Canterbury for the first time last weekend and traversed the country all the way to the West coast, to Hokitika, where there was a Wildfoods festival.  Wild is definitely the right word as they were serving grubs and grasshoppers and mountain oysters amongst many other scary things.  I tried the mountain oysters, which is a euphemism for something not very nice at all, definitely involving tubes!  Luckily it was barbequed and surrounded by bread and onions so mostly disguised!  The festival was only a small part of the weekend, the main focus for Kiwis being drinking, which they do abundently and messily.  I enjoyed the scenery and tried to avoid being vomited on.  We made friends with lots of people, mostly from the Christchurch area, it seems that there was a mass exodus to the other side of the country!  The drive over was gorgeous, we crossed the Southern Alps at Arthurs Pass, going past all the closest skiing areas…very pretty!  It took about five hours to get to the other coast.
 
We camped in the garden of a backpackers hostel…was quite glad not to be inside as the owner had taken out all the beds for the weekend and just laid wall to wall mattresses down…which looked a trifle too cosy with strangers for my liking!  However the tent did get washed away by rain so not much sleep happened in any case.  We spent Saturday night by a bonfire on the beach, there were fires right the way along the beach, which was very pretty, despite the occasional rain shower.

I got a job today, in the university bar ‘Mrs O’s’, which I start tomorrow!  I’m very pleased about that, they seem like nice people to work for, at the ‘interview’ this evening I was fed and they will pay me for it   Which was a nice surprise! 

I think that about sums it up for the moment, we’re having a party on Friday, to which we invited some of the people we met at the festival and I have a huge and slightly alarming amount of reading and writing to do…all about wine though, which seems to help!

More photos are on Flickr: http://flickr.com/photos/smidgley

I’ve arrived in New Zealand!  Got here on Monday night, to find by bedroom already occupied by two French backpackers, which alarmed me a little…they were friends of my new flatmate Amandas’ though so all was fine.  Have settled into my flat, it’s a nice little log cabin affair, just like a ski chalet, although a trifle mouldier and more beaten up than any chalet I’ve stayed in.  There is a visiting cat and a possum, who I haven’t seen yet but have heard clog dancing on the roof.  I have three flatmates, two Kiwis and one Californian, all girls.

My time so far has mostly been occupied with registering and going to on campus orientation talks and parties, quite fun but rather full of drunk freshers.  I have taken the bus into Christchurch, which is about thirty minutes drive away and seems a lot like Exeter so far…more on that when I’ve explored further.  Lincoln is a nice little township, there is one very scary pub, which is fun but I’ve decided not to work at as the blood and alcohol were mixing in the wrong place.  It is definitely a "bring your own wellies" place!

The Uni is on the Canterbury Plains, which are very flat (big surprise!)  The Southern Alps are beautiful in the distance and I’m really looking forward to playing in them!  I’m going to borrow a bike from a very kind person who has given up cycling, so I should be able to whizz around campus and into Christchurch on days off.  Campus is very nice, with lots of good lawns for sitting on and looking contemplative and some nice eat and drinkeries.  They are very proud of the library (which I shall take a photo of soon) it’s a pretty building with arches and twiddly bits, not many like that round here, they are mostly very functional with corrigated iron roofs (that word looks wrong somehow).

Australia was a good break, Louisa and Mikes’ house is lovely, the veranda around the house is up in the tree canopy so I spent a lot of time birdwatching on their swing seats.  The pool was fun too!  Did a lot of beach and rainforest walks and revisited Corrumbin Wildlife Sanctuary, which was worth a second look.  High points were seeing a Tawny Frogmouth night jar sitting on my bedroom windowsill in the afternoon, watching a strange gig by a performer called ‘That one guy’ who played a synthesizer made out of a bent drainpipe and also a saw and a boot!  Sitting in the pool watching rainbow lorikeets fly overhead was really nice too and going riding with Louisa was good fun.  She nearly bought the horse she rode as he was a nice baby (three year old).  I made myself a bit useful by lining some curtains for Lou and Mikes bedroom, which actually look rather good

More soon when the real term begins, brain coming out of mothballs!

I seem to have rather got out of the habit of blogging, but want it to be alive for my travels next month.  So, a round up of the recent past.

In December I left my job at the Nobody, drove to Manchester for the weekend for MUGSS doing Bugsy Malone, which I really enjoyed.  I then drove to Winchester to stay with Louisa’s friends Will and Felicity and work for Mike’s (my brother in law) cousin Simon at Stone, Vine and Sun wine merchants.  Then I moved to stay with my sisters in-laws in Surrey for the rest of the month while I worked in Winchester.  I went back up to Manchester to the MUGSS Christmas ball in the Museum of Science and Industry, before returning to Surrey to complete my months work in Winchester, then I drove home for Christmas.

All that leaves absolutely no impression of what the month was like apart from busy and travel heavy, here’s a snippet of an email I sent a friend after getting home, it might be more descriptive:

"I drove home last night after work, which was grotty [freezing fog and ice], but it’s nice to
be here.  The past month has been exhausting, but I have learnt a bit
and made lots more contacts, so mission accomplished.  They also asked
me back for a week in January, which I’m mulling over…home has an
even stronger pull on me when I’m about to leave it for nine months!

I went to see Robin’s panto in Englefield Green, which is pretty close
to Frimley, where I was staying.  Was just sitting in the audience
before it started, quietly reading Wyrd Sisters because I had no one
to talk to, when I suddenly realised that John and Cathy had turned up
and were sitting next to me!  It was really lovely finding myself able
to actually bump into friends in an entirely new place!  The MUGSS net
is a nice fuzzy village type thing!  The panto was exactly as I’d
expected, Robin was very good as the dame and there were toffees."

All this travel was only possible because my lovely parents had bought a Tom-Tom which they lent me, otherwise with my joyous lack of sense of direction I’d probably still be driving around the Manchester ring road, trying to work out where they keep Winchester!  It gave me the confidence I needed to just drive off into the unknown to go and watch the panto for instance.  I’d love to say that my New Years resolution is to improve my direction finding, but I don’t think that is going to happen somehow!  I’m fine when I have a map and am not driving, but the second I try and map read and drive it all goes horribly wrong.  Hurrah for sat nav! 

I have been intermittently sad about the recent news about Mr Pratchett and rediscovering the joy of his books.  Before I heard I went to Will’s Gods and Goddesses party dressed as the Goddess Annoia (see ‘Making Money’ and ‘Going Postal’), with a whisk as a necklace and a spatula in my belt, which was fun.  He is wonderful.

I owe a lot of people room in my future vineyard / house / tent (depending on circumstances) after all the help and hospitality I’ve received recently.  I’m looking forward to the first party in my own vineyard, hopefully this will turn into reality one day!

Christmas was a pleasant day, we had both of my Grandmas and two Aunts for lunch, Beef Wellington cooked by me, which was fun and very tasty!  Louisa and Mike were missed, but the mood was determinedly upbeat.  [No actual relatives were eaten in the writing of this blog.]   

I went up to Manchester again for New Years eve at Will’s house.  It was absolutely lovely having all the girls together!  We toasted the New Year in with some Serge Matthieu 2002 which I was given whilst in Winchester (good perks!) it was a good end to the year for me.

I now have three weeks before I go to Australia, I’m really looking forward to seeing Louisa and Mike’s new house!  Also looking forward to many other things, I’m planning on having a very good year!

Mine, donchaknow!  It was lots of fun, Mahinda, Jen, Will and Paul all came down to play with me for the weekend in Devon.  I baked scones, we walked around the canal path and quay behind my house stopping off at The Double Locks, a Youngs pub, which met with Mindys approval, then we returned home and I force fed everyone scones with jam and clotted cream, (being a Devon speciality).  Then we chilled out for a bit, before eating again, this time beef casserole or veg chilli with some nice Bordeaux courtesy of Mahinda (Thank you) and some Asti, from Asti, from either Jen, Will or Paul or possibly all of them as they all went there on holiday…thanks to all of you anyway.  My loving mother had made a lemon drizzle cake so we had that for pudding…too much decadence   We then spent the rest of the evening talking, drinking and playing a slightly evil game called Snatch, which is a scrabble analogue but far more violent.  Obviously Mahinda wiped the floor with the rest of us.  Not a very rock n roll party but I enjoyed it, it was so nice finally getting Manchester friends back to my stamping grounds. 

On Sunday we all went for a long walk at Exmouth in a bracing wind, then I corrupted my dear friends in my favourite farm shop, Darts Farm.  It is top farm shop in Britain according to Food magazine and has everything from pink Agas to climbing gear plus the best food hall ever and a superb selection of drinks, including many good ales…thus there was much clanking of bottles on the way home!

I got some lovely presents, which I enjoyed contrasting to last years (a packet of softmints and a Bounty bar from lovely Madagascar friends).  Jen and Will made me a beautiful album to remember my friends by when I’m away, which I love, Mahinda gave me a diary to record my more private / less universally interesting (well, I might do something interesting one day, a girl can dream) New Zealand experiences, being the shy blogger that I am   I always take a fresh (and pretty) diary when I go away for a long time so I’m really touched by that too!  I’m also the happy wearer of a leather coat from my parents and various clothes and earrings from other relatives, all very pretty

So, 24 here we go!  I anticipate a good year!

On a different note, I have a new job, starting mid November I’m going to be working in Winchester for a company called Stone, Vine and Sun.  Mail order wine business, I’m going to help out with their Christmas rush.  They also do winetastings and anticipate some famous wine bods turning up, so my networking might stepped up a notch!  I hope I meet Oz Clark! 

I’m not looking forward to handing my notice in though, I feel a bit of a heel…I expect I’ll get over it though, the job I currently do means I’m rather replaceable I think (trained monkey territory)!  This monkey is moving on, opposable thumbs and all.

My name is Sarah Midgley, I’m in my early twenties, my hometown is Exeter, in Devon, England.  I studied Biochemistry at UMIST, (which turned into the University of Manchester while I was there) graduated with a 2:1, then decided to become a winemaker.  I’m currently in the process of following this ambition.  Whilst in Manchester I joined Manchester University Gilbert and Sullivan Society (MUGSS) and peformed in several shows, as well as gaining a few stage technician skills by working for Paradise Green Promotions (PGP) at the Edinburgh Festival three years running.  I also enjoy travel and conservation, I went to Madagascar on a biological survey last year (2006).  I also have a horse, through no fault of mine (or his) he is called Scampi, despite this our relationship is good.

Does that make me stealthy?  That was from an online dictionary.

I’ve booked my plane ticket, I’m leaving on Feb 3rd, flying from Heathrow to Singapore, then on to Brisbane.  I’ll stay with Lou and Mike, who will hopefully have a house by then, until Feb 18th, when I fly to Christchurch.  That’s exciting!

The past few weeks have been fun, I finally seem to have settled down at home again and started to enjoy my time here, just in time to move away again, faintly ironically.  The Crediton operatic and dramatic society (CODS) concert went well.  The theme was ‘ABC’: Songs / shows / composers / composers aunts beginning with A, B or C.  We sang, we jumped off stage to serve dinner (roast Beef, followed by Apple and Blackcurrant Crumble) we took our pinnies off exposing evening dress and sang again, all good fun!  The music was an eclectic mix ranging from ‘Castle on a cloud’ (4 part harmony, very weird!), to ‘catch a falling star’, ‘Blue Moon’, stuff from Cabaret and Carousel, ‘And the Glory’ from The Messiah…lots more, all a little odd but I think we did them well, it was all much better than I anticipated, I did worry it was going to be one of the things you wish you hadn’t done, but it wasn’t. The ‘third half’ (Devon logic) was cabaret acts and a dance floor, I didn’t sing but did dance a bit.

Last week I went up to manchester for Leila and Wills’ birthdays, found out when I got there that Wills was fancy dress so cobbled togethera costume, the theme was Gods and Goddesses, I went as ‘Annoia’ (from the latest P’terry offerings) Goddess of things which get stuck in drawers.  I wore a spatula in my belt and a whisk as a pendant.  It was lots of fun, very relaxing spending time with everyone.

Excuse me, this account may continue later, I have just been offered fresh coffee, a chocolate swizzle stick and dessert wine (Hanepoot Jeripigo from South Africa).  This requires my full attention .

Ummm, sorry everyone, I have been a bit of a dingbat as far as comments go…never actually looked in the ‘for moderation’ box, just thought people were only commenting via facebook for some odd reason…sorry!  I’ll try and switch on the comments so I don’t have to moderate them, thus allowing you all to abuse me about apostrophes and such whenever you fancy in the future. 

Ps. I avoid apostrophes at almost all costs so I may be safe  

Pps. It’s really nice to see that some people have actually read my blog!  Thanks, I’ll respond to comments from now on, now I can see them.