Day 2 of our annual refresher into leadership in Adelaide – a very interesting experience to say the least as I had to introduce my session on quality and safety today. Very ironic.

The day progressed reasonably quickly and we moved on through the sessions we had. At lunch I went and picked up a Bangkok Lonely Planet condensed guide, and a few CD’s at Borders in Rundle Mall.

Got a taxi to the airport and then caught the flight back to Sydney (unfortunately no business class seats – but it wasn’t full – so noone sitting next to me). Home late and really needed to sleep. Prefer not to be going back to work tomorrow.

The program for the leadership refresher has started in earnest and I must say I am still well behind most of these people on the program – but nothing new there. The day’s presentations were very interesting – but I still find so little in common with most of them.

The day was probably highlighted by the fact that my CEO was sacked today in response to an investigation going on in the organisation. Here I am at a conference on leadership and quality and the CEO that I report to has been sacked by the Minister for offending in exactly those areas. Oops. The irony continues when you find out that I have been allocated to introduce the speaker who is presenting on exactly that topic tomorrow. That will be a fun introduction for sure.

By the end of the sessions this afternoon I was becoming quite tired – we did have to end with a presentation on computing!

While everyone else went out to dinner and another presentation – I spent some time trying to work on my PhD proposal – which I need to get moving very soon. I am so not the social animal. Packed before bed so I can sleep in. Fun day coming up tomorrow.

Woke up early and did a little work before getting started for the day. Our aim was to visit six wineries in the McLaren Vale region just outside the city and then go to lunch at The Star of Greece restaurant at Port Willunga. Much to get done.

We all met downstairs at Quest Apartments in order to board our bus being run by Des’s Minibus (I wonder if someone should tell him that they don’t need the extra ‘s’ on Des’).

First stop was Hugo Wines which has a truly brilliant tasting room which has panoramic views. If you head there.. the feature wine is the 2001 Reserve Shiraz. Next was the less fancy looking Kangarilla Road Vineyard and Winery where the 2002 Shiraz is worth a look. The woman running the tastings was doing a great job and the dog’s were really friendly.

From there back into the bus and then off to Shottesbrooke Wines which proudly boasted being established in 1994 (despite looking about 100 years old). They had this really interesting Merlotte which even I liked. Followed this by visiting Wirra Wirra Vineyards with a fantastic fence made of giant tree stumps and a tiny little tasting room. It was pretty popular with many of the tasters.

A drive up the hill to Hugh Hamilton Wines which has a round tasting room with fantastic views and some of the best wines we tasted. The Menage a Trios Sangiovese Blend was by far the most popular – along with some of the grape based preserves. Some great photos there. We drove off heading to Fox Creek (a late addition to the trip) but were turned away at the cellar door because we hadn’t booked and they were expecting an ‘international visitor’. So we headed on to the really quaint looking Penny’s Hill. Had everyone had enough to drink? Well no.. there was dinner as well.

From there we were desperate for lunch and headed to The Star of Greece for lunch. I had some chargrilled octopus as an entree and the whiting as a main. Unlike everyone else – I guess I wasn’t that satisfied with the food – but the company and the view was fantastic.

Back in Des’ bus and headed back to the CBD. Everyone was tired and one of us actually fell asleep. It had been a long day.

I settled in to download my photos and waited for one of my former colleagues from Melbourne who now lives in Adelaide to come over. We just ordered a pizza from Pizza Hut and chatted a while. Later she left and I got stuck into my freelance for the evening. Might get some photos done tonight as well.

Up early and working on catching up on a few journal entries and packing for the trip to Adelaide in the afternoon. I am not sure of how formally I am going to have to dress on Monday and Tuesday – so that was a bit of a challenge in itself.

In reading the morning papers (online of course), I noticed that News Limited and ventured into the debate about RWCs cutest player that we discussed last week. Given some of there portrayal of at least one player I hadn’t heard of before – I have changed my mind and identified my top three (although I think that the reporter working for whichever of News’ papers that put it together has got pretty weird taste).

Hmm. Some very pretty meatheads around eh?

Australia play Romania later today but I missed it because I was on the plane – which is a bit of a pity – because the Wallabies ran in 13 tries to win 90-8. Would have been a great game to watch. It wasn’t even shown here in Adelaide.

On the plane I upgraded to Business Class again and there was a bit of drama on board when a crockery cup smashed as one of the flight attendants was pouring herself a cup of tea (I only know because I was standing in the crew section of the cabin waiting to pee – while a guy was in the toilet for about 15 minutes).

I hadn’t noticed last time I flew in here that you almost fly around these tours on the way into town. There was another of the people on the course on the plane so we chatted on the way into the Quest Apartments in the middle of town. It is a pretty odd little place I must say. The other problem is that Adelaide seems to shut down at 5pm on Saturday with even the supermarkets closed. Grrrr.

Got a bit of work done – but also hit bed pretty early. What fun!