What We Did this Weekend

Larry knows a guy who had to unload his concert and accommodation tickets for this weekend.  Concert:  INXS (Train, Baby Animals, and Sean Kelly).  Accommodations:  Vineyard Hills Retreat in the Hunter Valley (Australia's wine country).  Nicole came along; due to her recent fainting episode, I didn't want to leave her home alone.

Vineyard Hills Retreat's "architect designed villas" were more like "girl-scout designed cabins" and were definitely not for arachnophobes.  We killed 8 spiders upon arrival and another 4 in the morning.  They were small and spindly, but still 12 spiders is 12 spiders.  The whole experience was like my idea of camping.  (Those of you who know me know I don't camp.)  But we received freshly baked croissants in the morning and it was set it the most beautiful landscape:

After feeding Nicole a Macca's meal of chicken mcbites and fries, Larry and I headed to the Bimbadgen Estate for the open air concert.  This is a working vineyard that has an open air stage and concert venue.  Throughout the year, they have quite a variety of acts come through.

We parked in the vineyard before walking up the hill to the concert.  And I do mean in the vineyard:

Silver Reserved Seating - Not Bad

Waiting for INXS.

We grabbed a quick bite to eat and a bottle of the Bimbadgen Chardonnay (very nice) and settled in to watch the end of Baby Animals.  Train came on next and played for 90 minutes.  Then, the headline act, INXS, with new lead singer JD Fortune.  You may or may not remember the tv show RockStar INXS, which was the group's way of auditioning for a new frontman and having the world vote.  (Larry actually appeared on the show in the audience at one point because Microsoft was a sponsor and had tickets.)

JD Fortune is not Michael Hutchence, but he gave a great concert.  There were times when his voice eerily recalled the late great singer, and he could certainly slink across the stage with the best of them.

I actually have a video of him at the concert, but the blog site won't let me upload it right now.  For those of you wondering how good the band could be - listen to a few tracks from Switch and see what you think of JD.  Tracks 2, 3, and 4 are our favorites.

On Sunday morning, we hit Newcastle for a couple of hours.  The beach was gorgeous, and we walked the Farmer's Market.  Well, Larry and Nicole agreed to the Farmer's Market to humor me. 

What a great way to wrap up the "summer" before Nicole starts back to school in the morning at Pymble Ladies College.