SHOULD I BECOME PETEY?

Last night we were entertained at the Stephen Fleming Charity Dinner as guests of friend and business associate John (thanks John). It was a really good night with some entertaining talks from some of the cricketing greats (Shane Warne and Ravi Shastri were very funny). Martin Crowe was there as well with 'mad' hair. He has reinvented himself as Marty Crowe and has had some kind of hair implants put into his previously gracefully ageing skull. That and marrying a former beauty queen suggest that he is suffering from mid-life crisis (sports cars are cheap now Martin).
His hair looked like some roadkill had been glued to his scalp. It was the only entertaining thing about him as he is a pretty dour and up-himself type.
I'm more than middle aged and am rapidly getting a shiny scalp. I wonder if I should get a rug and call myself Petey?

Anyway, the wine and food was OK. Sky City convention centre always delivers well when catering to very large groups. The wine was all Yealands 2008 from Marlborough. The best was the Viognier which was zingy and fresh. The Sauvignon Blanc was as per normal racy Marlborough SB. The Pinot Noir was typical Marlborough cherry and strawberry with savoury notes (but best to leave Pinot to Waipara or Martinborough though). As said the 3 wines were all 2008 - very young and fresh. It was nice to see Yealands as Gold sponsor and getting his wines out there. Peter Yealands I guess is proof of that old adage "to make a small fortune in the wine industry - start with a large fortune". Certainly they are spending up large and getting good media coverage (with clever marketing ploys e.g. using guinea pigs to crop the grass in the vineyards. Hawks and falcons of course eat the guinea pigs even faster than they can reproduce (which probably keeps them away from the Marlborough bird population thus disadvantaging the competition. Yealands told the media that he would need several million guinea pigs to adequately crop the grass. Instead he is now looking to import midget sheep from France! These apparently (if real - see Richard's Bass Bag for meaning of Reality ) are too short to eat the vine leaves and grapes. OK what a good story. It sounds a bit like the 'Turkeys in gumboots' spoof story that Town and Around did many years ago, but, if true it beggars belief. Firstly the idea of propagating Guinea pigs in a rural environment and allowing them to run free is like the dickheads who imported rabbits in the nineteenth century. Secondly I cannot believe that our sheep industry would allow French midget sheep to be established. I guess it must be a good spoof story.