Day 17 - Birthday & Co

Those who know me know that I love Schmandkuchen, and for my birthday, we wanted to bake one. After endless searching, we had all the ingredients together (which wasn't easy in Australia). The result was, contrary to all expectations, almost at Frau Winkler's level; I was thrilled. Unfortunately, our planned trip to Brisbane on the weekend fell through. We had extremely many orders at work and had to work on Saturday as well. Oh well, good money and one more day for farm work. But we managed to go the following weekend. And it was totally worth it! We bought a new, better solar panel to better operate our car fridge in the future, and then we visited the most interesting brewery I've ever been to. 10 small 50l brewing plants for experimental batches, a huge selection of different self-brewed beers, and a brewery shop next door with various malts from all over the world (even half of the German Weyermann assortment). And not only that, but also several wooden barrels in which special beers were aged for 6 months to 5 years. Every brewer's wet dream. We tasted half of the assortment, and after a long and very interesting conversation with the brewer, I decided to buy a bottle of Barleywine, 16.7%, aged for 3 years in Octomore Islay Reserve Whisky cask. At 27 dollars, it was the most expensive beer I have ever treated myself to, but worth every penny. Full-bodied and malty with an aroma of dried fruits, nuts, and a hint of pepper rounded off with a smoky oak note, indescribable. We also took 9 other bottles for a good $120, to be tasted one by one. Afterwards, we met Sean and his Brisbane 'friend' Lynette at a light show in the university district. However, Lynette had to leave, and we went with Sean to Fortitude Valley to grab the birthday special at 'Ribs & Rumps,' just like we did for Clara's birthday. On Sunday, we took Sean to a small street market and went for a walk by the river. Then we went back home because Monday awaited us with a new week full of tomatoes. And the best part was, at that time, due to the large amount of orders, I was permanently assigned to packaging instead of picking in the greenhouse.