I’d always thought it’d be worthwhile to see Circue du Sole. Turns out I was right. Shelley had secured tickets for all of us, so we headed up to sunny ol Brisbane. The theme for this tour was South American. To be honest I didn’t fully understand the story (I’m assuming it was a story). But I sure did understand the precision acrobatics, clowning and neatly disguised technology that was brought together to form a remarkable show.

PAX turns 20 this year. This was the 11th year in Australia and I’ve been to every one of them except during the pandemic. This time around we decided to stay at the Crown Promenade, which was a good choice. A CIV VII developer panel, music panels of course and the long standing tradition of the make-a-strip and Q&A sessions. Jerry and Strawberry were as charismatic as ever.

Wolfie made an appearance twice, having traveled into the city for the occasion. We went to an Italian place called Di Francesco which was really quite nice.

It also happened to be Shelley’s birthday. I’d spotted a place called The Atlantic a few weeks earlier and decided to give that a go. Anchovy on a dark rye toasts and spinner crab tarts with celeriac, calamansi and cos, along with some oysters and prosecco set us up for the Morton Bay Bug pasta, which was great. We got a bottle of Chablis to go along with all of that. Chablis and seafood. Do it.

We also decided to do down to the Yarra Valley for a winery tour. I’ve never been in that area before, it’s really quite nice. On the bus we had five couples and one charismatic Vietnamese-Australian kid called Danny as our guide. I don’t come across too many wines from the region – not that they’re hard to get – but it was good to actually get on the ground (or the terroir, as they say in the game) to see what it was all about. Similar to Canberra in terms of temperatures but a lot more rain. So, cool climate wines, generally light, but in the examples we tried certainly not lacking character. A standout winery was Yering, I guess you’ve got a reputation to uphold when you’re the oldest winery in Victoria. We ordered a box of six wines and had them shipped back home. They’re all gone now.

We also visited an oddly sited chocolate factory. I was unaware of it’s fame and quality products, and can recommend attending especially if you’re after a Willy Wonka kind of experience in regional Australia.

We also finally managed to catch up with Elroy for a succulent Thai meal, somewhere in the ‘burbs of Melbourne. The same ‘burbs that also have, hidden away, a massive pinball collection that is open to the public. I haven’t come across this many machines in such good quality since the Australian Pinball Expo in Penrith, way back in 2015. So if that’s something you’re interested in, do check out The Pinball Parlour.

And with that, another southern adventure was complete.