Day 1 – Friday, 19th September 2025
Coinciding with this weekend is the spring tulip season, so it’s a great time to spend a bit of time here. Everyone arrived by car between 2:00 and 4:00 p.m., and as Dormie House is part of Moss Vale Golf Club, most of the rooms overlook the 1st tee and practice green. The renovated rooms were very nice indeed.
Member Mick McNamara and his girlfriend Sue—who lives very close by and is also a member of the golf club—were both here as well, and talked some of us into entering the 5:00 p.m. putting competition. Tatiana, Whispers, Jenny, Gordon, Bill, Mick, and Sue represented our club versus Moss Vale Golf Club’s finest.
The competition was fierce, with only Whispers making it into the second-round knockout. I suspect it was rigged, as Whispers’ next playoff was against the golf club’s president. Well, we had a go, and the rest of us had some fun watching.
After a few drinks to celebrate our poor form with the putter, we all enjoyed a very nice dinner in the lounge—for the next three and a half hours.
Day 2 & 3 – Saturday & Sunday, 20th–21st September
Saturday started with breakfast in the dining room, with the 14 of us booked in for a wine tasting at Eling Forest Winery in Sutton Forest, just off the M31. It was quite fresh outside after a low of 5°C overnight, which was very noticeable when hopping out of the cars at the winery. Fortunately, we were mostly out of the wind while tasting, and Bill had also booked us in for lunch there, which everybody really enjoyed. Most of us were feeling very full and approaching a food coma after lunch.
After we were all safely returned to Dormie House, some went for a look around, some for a rest, and some to purchase wares from the Gumnut Patisserie—in my case, once a day for three days.
Gordon and Narelle organised a pre-dinner round of trivia before we all headed out to The Scottish Arms Hotel at Bowral for dinner—another great meal—returning to Dormie House just in time to watch the second half of the Cronulla/Raiders game.
The following day, we all had breakfast together again and said our farewells before making our way home—via The Gumnut Patisserie at Mittagong, in my case.
A weekend of great food and wine, very nice accommodation, and entertainment with a great bunch of people.
