Manly Food and Wine Festival 2007

Last weekend saw Manly put on the annual Food and Wine Festival. I can't believe a year has gone since we were last there.

It is a great weekend, and loads of our mates head over to Manly for the fun and games. Kirby made an early appearance on the Friday as he came and stayed with me. We spent the evening propping up the bar at the new 'Shore Club' before gorging ourselves in 'Rib and Rumps'.

Saturday had 'all dayer' written all over it. The first glass was tasted in the early arvo and the day went from there as we walked around from place to place, drinking wines from different Hunter Valley wineries. Once darkness fell and the stalls stopped selling the wine it was time to get on the Coopers, so off to the 'Shore Club' we went again. I'd also organised a table for 16 of us on the Saturday night at 'Alhambra' tapas restaurant. As you can imagine, the meal was a lively affair and I was on hand with my trusty camera to cover the clapping, dancing and plate playing! The restaurant has a couple of live Flamenco dancers and I had heard that they like to grab people from the tables and dance with them. I knew I was in for it when one of them clocked me as soon as she took to the stage. After a couple of songs I was grabbed. I have no idea what I was thinking as I did some sort of ballet dance (not that I can flamenco, obviously!).

And I have no idea why this happened outside the restaurant afterwards.

So, from there a few of us headed in different directions. I ended up having my first proper night out in Manly, and I ended up in 'Ceruti's' and then the 'Shore Club' again, for the fourth time in three days. It was a quality night out, and given the fact that a fair few of us live in the area, I expect we’ll have many more Saturday nights out there in the future.

Sunday was a chilled out affair. I wasn't up for the crowds so instead I spent most of the afternoon sat on the beach with Kirby, Annabel, H and Katie. Which was nice!