[Music]
well hello
and welcome to season two of the wine
and wisdom show we are in 2021
and this is our first episode for the
year i am so
pleased that you are here with us right
now
and wow what a show i have for you if
you are returning
thank you for being here again uh but if
you’re here for the very first time
i i just wanted to give you a bit of an
idea about this show
you know it might seem that it’s all
just about wine and wisdom but in fact
it’s actually about connection and i
think if there’s one thing that we have
learned from these last
12 months is that as humans
we want to connect with other fabulous
humans who
bring a smile to our face and warmth to
our heart
and some wisdom to our brain and we’re
certainly going to get that tonight
but before i introduce you to our
wonderful guests
i would just like to acknowledge
the traditional custodian spread across
the
many traditional lands that we’re all
located on today
i’m personally coming to you from the
lands of the Birrabirragal people
and that’s in this kind of balmain birch
road
birch grove area i pay my respects to
all these traditional owners
who under custodial law are charged with
nurturing and protecting this wonderful
country
that we all get to work live and play in
i’d also like to extend my respects to
the elders
past present and emerging
now over my life i have been very lucky
because
i’ve been surrounded by courageous
and resilient people who are doing
unique things in the world
to make a real difference in the world
and tonight
i don’t just have one of those people i
have actually two of those people and
i’m going to bring them up for you
right now let’s have
hello jim and christina mr and mrs roman
hi cheers
how are you both very well thank you how
are you
very well thank you uh mr and mrs
romance jim and christina butcher and i
we all have a love for buttery
chardonnays and in fact
it has brought us together on a number
of occasions
definitely it was definitely how we
bonded in the beginning and we’ve found
many many connections since then we
certainly have
um and we’d love to know if you are
sitting at home right now what is in
your glass
is it a red a white a bubbles a beer a
gnt
a whiskey a rum what have you got we’d
love to see what that is if you could
pop it in the comments and let us know
that would be
fabulous but tonight our
topic is is our australian travel
industry going to
bounce back from this pandemic
ah do we have enough resilience in this
country
travel wise that we are going to be able
to
re-emerge and reboot what we
are all hoping will happen and uh there
is no one better to tell us this
uh than christina and jim who are travel
and lifestyle bloggers
they have a monstrous following
around the world in normal
lifetime worlds uh they are being paid
to travel around the world and bring us
the best
insights on destinations and
places to stay and what to eat what to
drink there what to see
ashley oh you’re having a white in south
australia
oh good to see you ashley thank you for
being here
but you know what um better than me
saying
what you guys do i think it’s best for
you to tell us all
the positiveness that you are sprinkling
around the world could you tell all our
listeners please
well um as far as travel in
australia goes i think he’s looking
positive he’s looking positive i mean
it’s been a hard time
for uh for the world travel
travel anyway but i think
um for
for us personally i mean the way that we
the way that we travel
um we and the way that we live our lives
generally as well is that we we look for
for the romance in
in all the small places you know all the
small ways it doesn’t have to be
these big gestures um it doesn’t have to
be you know
these sort of gaudy silly sort of
unnecessary sort of thing it’s the small
things and i think
um when you when you think of romance it
could get a little bit cheesy and that
doesn’t really need to be the way either
um it’s definitely not the way that we
travel
um though we do like cheese
so with um jim is the main writer and
i’m the photographer behind
mr mrsromance.com and we hope to try and
entertain
um educate and inspire people to travel
better
and to drink a little better as well as
they go wow
well i’m happy to be a part of both of
those things um
i know i know that one of the things
that you really do is help people find
attainable luxury because
you know no matter what budget we’re all
on because you know luxury is relative
to
what we’ve got right and so when i
remember as a backpacker
when i was living off 10 bucks a day
luxury
was that there was only another three
people in a room rather than 30 people
in a room you know that
so library is very relative depending on
where you’re at
um and it’s something i know you guys do
really well
is just help people you know find those
kind of
off the beaten track uh attainable
luxury destinations and
places and and really dig deep into
what what is great about it and that’s
why i mean i love
to get all across your socials and your
newsletters
about where we can go to get that
attainable luxury no matter what that
means
for you or for me or for the next person
absolutely and i
more and more the term luxury has just
come to me personalization
that is true luxury something that is
exactly the way you want it
and that doesn’t necessarily need and
that might be
you know all shiny surfaces six star
hotel but
it could also be a remote location um
complete privacy no no mobile phone
service
that is luxury so that’s and that’s
what’s so exciting i think we always
like to
i think before we even became travel
writers we always were traveling
and always deciding to go like oh what’s
past that next corner what’s
what’s around here that um isn’t in the
book that we want to read about and want
to
share when we get back yeah i mean you
mentioned the beating track before and
i think although we’re not on
that track we’re not you know we don’t
tend to go
sort of super off road or anything like
we’re sort of maybe you know
two two strings back from the track and
that’s where you find the real goal
it really is yeah and i think um i mean
i’d love to know
those who are listening uh where where
in australia perhaps that you
would love to visit that you haven’t
visited before and i think we’ll
continue to ask that as people come on
to
um our show tonight about you know
we we all aspire to going overseas we’ve
all done that
of course we can’t right now but what a
lucky country we’re in that we have just
the most incredible travel destinations
for us
to get to and uh you know i
had many years ago had the opportunity
to go to lord howe island
and it’s certainly on my list to go back
there um
it’s on our list
oh my gosh truly it is one of the most
spectacular places i’ve ever been
on this planet it is so incredible
ashley
you’re on still where would you like to
go and
while we’re hearing from people um
christina and jim you know i think
your your job is something that people
think oh my gosh it’s got to be the best
job in the entire universe what were you
doing before you were mr and mrs romance
to get to where you are now like what
was there a defining moment
that got you to hear or oh ashley’s
saying broom yes that is
magic oh my gosh good place for us
absolutely brilliant
uh well interestingly we were in quite
different places before we were both
working online
and i a defining moment i think
happened to me that i i um my father
passed away from cancer and
i think it was such a huge any time
there’s a loss or there’s grief you
really do reflect and you realize
how short life is and i was working in
um i had a background in design and i
studied art history and photography i
was working
in corporate property um in the sort of
interior design aspect and i
wasn’t loving it i was just passing the
time
and i realized at that point that um
actually my sister had some great wise
words that she’s like you’ve been
complaining for a really long time now i
think
what would you do if you could do
anything and i knew i really wanted to
do more photography so i picked i
decided to quit my job
i had some savings i had gym support to
try and
chase my dream of photography and at the
time i started a blog when blogs were
very small
from that yeah from that blog which was
hair romance which i blog still blog
about hair and beauty
um that was sort of the seeds of where
romance media started
and then together we created mr and mrs
romance and
built romance media as what it is a
company that we
co-founded and that is what really sort
of changed our
trajectory and i think uh the
solidifying factor in all of that was
the fact that
travel really brought us together in
first place um
i was traveling when i met chris and
then we traveled a lot together when we
were
young do you remember that
[Laughter]
but it’s it’s just been um a solid vein
running all the way through you know our
relationship i think so
it’s probably gone from right from the
very beginning of when we first got
together
all the way to now and i hope it will
continue for us
for as long as somebody can yeah jim
used to be a teacher before so i think
he’s always had that great
skill of sharing knowledge but was like
a secret writer writing
creative writing and writing always and
his skills of just of writing are
amazing that’s what i
wish i could write like and so we always
were looking for a way we could do
something together and
if this sort of idea formed itself once
we sort of started we started with one
view and
it’s really grown um to be like a
broader lifestyle travel site yeah
yeah i look i love it and you know i
know we’re gonna hit those um
wonderful places that you’re going to
recommend that the hot spots for
australia
um but before we do that i i really i
think it’s really important that we
address the the the topic of the fact
that
without international travelers coming
into this country
uh the travel industry is in trouble you
know it is in trouble right now
and i i read a statistic about
that australians need to spend
equivalent of the 70 that they would
normally spend
overseas on their overseas holidays
right here in australia if we are to
keep that travel industry of ours alive
what are your thoughts on whether we can
do it are we a nation
a travel nation that is going to be
resilient enough to come out the other
end of this without any international
travelers
being allowed in i think it’s hard i
think what we’ll probably see
is certain industries really suffering a
lot that would
only normally operate with international
travelers
but i think there are a lot of um
industries still alive and going really
well
thanks to domestic money and i was
talking to someone today about
how much money there actually is in the
uh in the the domestic
pocket and it’s still quite a lot it’s
it’s like
in the billions yeah yeah we spend well
in that if we if we spend the money that
we’d normally
take to europe take to south america
take to asia
here then there’s no reason why it
shouldn’t it shouldn’t prosper and i
think we’ll probably see
elements that may not have had much time
in the sun
in the past i really think that sort of
more
um more of the um
i don’t know like the aboriginal stuff
really coming to the fore
um and seeing more um
guides and knowledge being shared that
way
i think that’s good i mean that’s the
the oldest culture in the world that we
have
in here in australia and we travel to
europe to see
architecture but we can travel australia
and hear those stories i think that
and we also have this really unique
space jim and i were talking that
australia usually the main hotspots all
are overrun with international tourists
so australians often don’t choose to go
to those places or we’ll think
we’ll do it when we’re retired we’ll do
it later we don’t have the time to do it
but
we realize now working remotely maybe
you can take a longer trip within
australia
maybe you can go for three weeks work
from a hotel with wi-fi while you’re
there checking yeah
and still be able to travel longer in
australia
and with that available to us we have
the opportunity
to see some of these sites and some of
these locations with the smallest
numbers they’ll ever have
so yeah i really think if people are
wondering whether they should just
keep saving for next year or not i’ll
spend it here spend it here
and we we recommend the best way to
support the travel industry is to book
with an independent travel agent
and um to book directly with the hotels
and places that you’re going to
otherwise
that way you really support um travel
agents can do
so much they’re the ones that are really
struggling um and with their sport or
closures and things like that they’re
the ones that will help you
and help you get your refunds back and
if you’re planning a smaller trip
um just booking directly instead of
using one of the large expedia type
sites
they’ll survive this um the if there’s
this way
more money’s going into the operators of
the country pubs and country hotels that
you’re booking into if you just book
direct and that’s that’s a better way to
spend your money now
absolutely thank you ashley the venice
of
australia who would have thought that
that could ever be a statement
we actually have a very funny story
about way way
i’d like to hear it but i wouldn’t i
would like to put a bit of a challenge
to you both
to do a blog based on that headline
i actually think they should i’m writing
i’m writing that one down actually
borrowing that one we’re using that
venice of australia
is coming to youtube with mr mrs romance
all right i love it that is just so
great
and yeah does that mean you’ve got a
great story about wayward does that make
it one of your favorite places in
australia to travel because we all do
want to hear
from those who have a true personal love
for travel but also
of course the business side of it you
have this great meld
of you know understanding like the
the personal travel side the business
travel side
what okay christina you get to have
three jim you get to have three
top spots in australia girls first
okay uh well i’m gonna this is a joint
one for us but i know um the kimberley
uh yeah north west western australia it
is
a true highlight of a place you can
visit on the planet like
out of this world amazing uh tasmania
i think tasmania is an incredible chip
because you can see
you can see the landscape change so
quickly and
you can see so many different things
down there absolutely beautiful nature
and great wine and food and
my third one i’m gonna pick port stevens
just a couple of hours north of new
south wales
as a little personal favorite of mine
it’s the place i absolutely go to to
relax my family’s been going there for
years we have a holiday house up there
this is not going to go down with the
nova castrons by the way they really get
upset when you’re yeah we should i
know you don’t want to share all the
small places but
yeah there’s like so much i never always
see dolphins when i’m there
um whale watching them when they’re
migrating um
koalas the wildlife there is just a just
abundant it is
it’s just a relaxing sleepy little spot
that i love it’s got mountains sand
dunes beaches
yeah and it’s close to home for us so
it’s always a little escape
yeah wonderful okay jim all right
well um i’m gonna go really broad and
say
country new south wales but i think the
reason i like going to
country new south wales towns is because
they’re just
just so unique we were talking about
this earlier and
it’s it’s just i don’t know i feel like
i really understand
um regional towns in australia you know
i’ve been to quite a lot of we both have
and every time we go to one it’s you can
tell that it’s a new south wales town
but it’s just got something different we
were in tuscany
a few years ago and there are lots of
hillside hilltop towns
um and you think oh it’s just going to
be another walled hilltop town pretty
but the same as the rest of them
and you go there and it’s it is very
similar to the last one but there’s
something unique about it
and that’s the same with new south wales
town we were in
you know victoria little country towns
there and you’re like this isn’t a new
south wales town it’s really strange
and the people are just so friendly
a little bit but yeah so that’s that’s
my number one um
before you go on to your number two i
just like to tell everybody that
i’m going to share they and they don’t
know that i’m about to say this
that’s not why jim has said this but
they have actually got this great blog
about the 15
best new path wales country towns
and i’m going to share that because it’s
a beauty
it’s so good
who are here i know there are people all
over the place but um
you know this is what we want to know
where can we just drive to
because when we can drive to
extraordinary places and have these
incredible experiences it fills us
up and and it’s so good for our mental
health
and you know we get to connect with
these small communities who are doing it
tough
and that makes us feel good just by
doing that right
absolutely 100 you couldn’t i couldn’t
put it better you should write for me
all right number two uh number two um
i i just uh it’s probably not fair
i i before i met chris i’ve been doing
the backpacker thing as well
and i just loved the the east coast the
australian
east coast especially like the sort of
north north queensland
um coastline just phenomenal there
cake tribulation cairns you know that
whole area
um magnetic island you know unbelievable
if you haven’t been to maggie island
then you’re missing out it’s
it’s magical yeah yeah absolutely
stunning
i have not been there so i’m putting
that on my list absolutely there you go
and the third one i think um probably
because
that’s where i landed first is uh
west west australia like perth and the
southern parts that are having so much
trouble with the fires at the moment
um you know if if you can get to
it when it’s safe if you can get to to
person for the
to the southern south western parts of
wa they’re going to need our support
more than more than anything the same as
victoria new south wales did in south
australia when
you know the start of two thousand and
twenty years ago yeah
yeah um yeah exactly um so yeah really
important
but i think for the both of us i think
probably need to put in a sneaky seven
um like the northern territory
is just the most
spiritually uplifting place you can
probably go in this country
yeah it’s unique beyond unique
and their tourism uh they do it
beautifully it’s so
ah like there’s no big banana in
no big pineapple there no no no it is
classy tourism there and but as you said
very spiritual
and this gorgeous link um to
the our indigenous communities and oh
you’re i haven’t been there for a long
time but i the
holiday i did get to have was truly
remarkable so
for those of you who have not been to
northern territory i
i agree with mystery mrs romance this is
the place to go
romance yourself in the northern
territory
absolutely right yeah i there are a lot
of people who are complaining
at the moment though that uh prices have
gone up
incredibly in the different regional
areas
um are there places that the hot spots
that you know that we can actually go to
and book somewhere
um you know not with about eight months
notice and not without having to
re-mortgage our house
uh apart from perhaps the ones that
you’ve said what are what are those
hotspots that you can recommend
that we look at well i think
the country towns is where you go
everyone is going to the
places that all come to the top of your
list like your nooses your byron bay
all of these kind of coastal towns but
if you want to head inland a little bit
that’s where you’ll find
savings and that’s where you’ll find
real great communities as well
and um like you a place we were recently
in tamworth and around there you’ve got
nundell
and all of these sort of smaller towns
and you go a little bit further north
and
across from there and you’ve got the
most beautiful waterfall way
and that is a drive that is just
sensational
and there are lots of little towns along
the way there that you can
book ahead you don’t need to spend a
fortune and
you can just and a lot of activities are
free because you’re driving and you’re
outside so you can definitely save a lot
of money spend it in
on food instead and and uh souvenirs and
you’re shopping and
um that is a great place to go yeah and
wine right
spend it on good long line yeah from the
hunter yeah so you can stop
if you’re from sydney you can stop the
hunters a perfect spot
on the way through pop into the
scarborough if flight hasn’t built it
all
at all
and then i would also say uh south
australia we didn’t give a mention in
our top there but
uh we love going around mclaren vale um
adelaide hills
there’s so many everything around all
the wine regions
very close to adelaide are just
beautiful and there are so many little
small places to stay
um little country uh hotels airbnbs that
you can book at
and um support the small wine makers
there as well
though sorry i was surprised that um we
were talking to
some other travel writers and and uh
friends of ours i know
it was quite funny because what you were
saying about you know places being
booked out and
you spend a fortune trying to get a
place um some of the some of our
favorite country towns
are now inundated with with
with australians which is really good
yeah but it does make it a little bit
hard to find places like you know majin
orange now
you know it’s it’s a real boom town
which is great
they’re both fantastic places magic is
probably all my favorite
like you know new south wales country
towns but you know
you’re gonna have to do a bit more
research now because things have changed
in the last and
so now instead of going there maybe stop
a little bit um further and go
yes valley that’s a really undiscovered
place
some great wineries starting to come up
around yas valley but
uh that’s not on the radar for a lot of
people so that’s a new one yeah
i mean i love you know we’re on the
weiner wisdom show and i’d love for
those who are watching right now
to put in the comments about a wine
region they have
traveled to in the past that they really
enjoyed i mean i
i have been to the barossa and i’ve been
to the hunter and i’ve been to the
mornington peninsula
and they have been incredible
experiences but i’d love to
hear from those listening where have you
been in the past
uh that you have had perhaps a little
vino or two
and you could recommend to others who
will be watching the show either now
or later on which often happens with
these lives so
let’s get some recommendations going in
those comments please
uh we all want to know the hot spots
around australia to travel to
uh while our borders are closed
now you guys uh you have been
working and living together pre-covert
of course
um but because of covert that has
obviously
oh natalie thank you margaret river i
just want to go there so much yes
oh not right now i can’t get in but
i will eventually
you’ve been working and living together
in and out of each other’s pockets
especially in this last year
many couples are not surviving covert
having to work and live in each other’s
pockets
what are you guys doing that keeps you
happy in marriage and smiling in this
new world that you can continue
to work and live together i think first
of all
we’re lucky to have married a person we
like i think that’s probably
good yeah
and i think as well when it comes to
working together we
uh we really respect each other’s uh
strengths and we really play to them
so within the business itself we have
very different roles so we’re not
necessarily overlapping on the same
tasks on the same thing so we work quite
independently
and i think that helps avoid the um
clashes that can happen when you’re
working on a group project whatever that
is
yeah any kind of group work so we have
quite independent roles and then we
collaborate on a plan and an over
overall strategy but
we do our own job yeah we stay in the
lanes yeah
right good but do not overlap that is
that new
well the good thing is i mean we’ve got
we’ve learned from each other as well
which is probably another reason why we
do
still like each other that we are you
know we’re humble enough
that we can we can do that um is saying
that you’re humble make you does that
make you not humble i think that’s what
i’m humble no you’re not anymore mate
um you know we’ve learned that you know
if i can’t write some copy for chris
she’s very capable of doing that really
well herself
and if if she’s not around and i need to
take a picture i can still
set up a you know basically frame a
photo and
kind of get by
saying he’s really good but we both we
both i guess respect what each other
does and so
and when we do what we do best it seems
to flow faster whenever i try and have
to sit down to write it’s definitely
like
it’s my hardest task and it’s a real
struggle but otherwise when we’re
focused on what we love we
really kind of get through and there’s
always the parts of the business that
aren’t fun
all the admin all the rest but we have
our own jobs and that sort of works and
i think we were lucky we had a lot of
practice of um
reading each other i think when couples
everyone being working from home
understanding when everyone’s cramped in
and
trying to share the same office space
you’ve got to kind of know where each
other
at i know i am i i’m more of a morning
person
but then i lose it in the afternoon and
jim gets into a really good flow
and as long as i try not to distract him
too much in that point he has a really
good day so we know when to like sort of
get out of each other’s way
so that they have a better workflow
brilliant
i know when she sets the office up for
it for a studio shoot yeah
i do one because it’s still worth it no
it would not be it would not be
and thank you rebecca for telling us
that it’s a great show we appreciate you
saying that very much
this is kind of like a truth and dare
thing next but you don’t get to use dare
because
i really want the truth because you guys
are travel bloggers
and the last 10 months 11 months have
you know it’s dramatically changed
your day to well maybe not your
day-to-day life but certainly your plans
your strategies
what you look forward to i know how much
you loved getting on planes and
discovering new cultures and new places
and destinations
and having these incredible experiences
together and sharing them with the world
so that
we could all learn from it i mean i this
time last year i was in cuba
but i had been on to your site and read
all about your tips for cuba
and that was so helpful so
how are you feeling and how are you
adapting to the fact that
this has changed quite dramatically for
you
honest we’re not going to lie it’s been
hard it was a total
stop from everything we had planned
everything we were looking at
uh a lot of our income changed
dramatically
um but i guess what inspires us is
seeing how everyone else has managed to
pivot and change and adapt and
and we have as well so we’re very lucky
that as much as we write about travel we
also have a big lifestyle focus
and jim’s been incredible at creating a
whole
whole lot of more content about staying
at home and how we’re managing what
we’re doing
and recipes everything like the stuff
he’s created
was amazing cocktails yes
cocktail happy hour at home if you’re
interested in sweet food the rocky road
recipe is
wonderful it’s our neighbors we’ve
stolen it please okay
and uh and also jim has just recently
posted a cafe de perry butter for when
you have a steak oh my god
it’s very good all right we will point
everybody
again it has been it’s been such a
like a pivot and i think one of the
things that um
we all do is just try and create
something useful
like we always thought we were useful
but now people aren’t traveling how can
we be more useful again
and so for us that was about working on
lifestyle stories
um over on hair romance i created a
video course of how to braid so
uh and was creating a lot more content
about when you can’t see your
hairdresser and what you’re going to be
able to do
when you’re at home and i think we’re
all just trying to
focus on the questions that we’re all
struggling with as well
yeah yeah i love that how can we be
useful because
there’s so much noise right you know you
don’t want to just add to the noise for
the sake of it
how can i be useful i mean i love that
it’s beautiful thank you
which which leads me on to this the
second last question actually
um and that is you know what are you
doing personally to ensure that
your resilience bucket is strong and
sturdy
so that you can continue to deal with
all the challenges and the changes that
are happening
all the time daily we we’re having these
changes
what are the habits that you both have
put in place to ensure that you can
stay strong and sturdy and and be useful
and and continue to sprinkle all the
beautiful positivity and
wonderfulness that you do for everybody
who follows you
yeah i mean it’s hard isn’t it i mean i
think uh work wise
for us because we were able to sort of
move things
out in a different direction slightly or
make things a little bit easier on each
other and
you know maintain a presence without it
being some taxi
that wasn’t too difficult but i think
personal life is
much more difficult um i think
technology has been a really
big help i don’t if this had happened 20
30 years ago i don’t know what
i think we’ve been in the worst place
but yeah
for me um you know i’ve got family
obviously in the uk
i’ve also got a brother in brisbane but
we haven’t got to see him even
um and just being able to connect
with uh you know groups video group
chats and
and things like that it’s just been it’s
a real game changer i hate that word but
it has been
it’s that has kept us kept our bucket
nice and full
absolutely family and friends are really
important to us and
we always relied on having friends
around the world and we would visit and
that was
always something that we really relish
but um having like
virtual happy hours you know
sending whatsapp group chats video calls
these are all things that have
really we know that we need to give up
and have
have been the real moments of joy in
sometimes really monotonous days
reaching out having those conversations
has made sure that we haven’t
lost contact with everybody especially i
really feel for people who are home or
live alone
through this because it has been very
isolating but
those video chats do really really help
and also i
hate picking up the phone like i am not
a person to phone anybody
but i am choosing to have voice calls
now
yeah those ones really make a difference
just hearing someone’s voice instead of
a text message that sort of thing really
really helps yeah
um a system a couple years ago which
we’ve sort of maintained um a gratitude
jar actually i have it just here i’m
gonna show you
oh we have a mason jar it’s got a pen
we’ve worked out as well a pencil
doesn’t fade because it’s by the window
sometimes the pen would fade by the end
of the ear
i’ll let jim explain it so well just all
the nice things that we
would happen to it doesn’t have to be a
big momentous thing you can just be
you know maybe have a nice call with you
know your best mate or something like
that
you just write it on a little sticky
note and pop it in the jar
and then and what you do is at the end
of the year
you read through those those notes and
you get a bit of a buzz from it and
that’s
oh i love that is that filling up over
the years
it makes a lot of it definitely it’s
generally one of the it’s one of those
like stupid pinterest ideas that you
think who does that and then we did it
it was so good we did
we we thought oh we’ll try it and it
absolutely is fantastic sometimes it’s
good to
we’ve found one of the things we didn’t
do was uh remember to write in it enough
so having like a reminder in your
calendar
to put something in there was a good way
that we fixed that
as in subsequent years and when you read
all these at new year’s eve or at the
end of the year whatever you do
it is such a boost and uh and then often
i will actually
write them up into a list that goes in
the next year’s diary for me so that
i can look back on all the little
milestones from the year because
especially when you work for yourself or
generally in anything you don’t
celebrate the wins enough
and making it time to note them down
when they’re happening
because as you look back you think oh
you know i got
someone so commented on something that i
put you know that’s something that’s
the thing that’s a real moment but you
forget that later and that was
it yeah i love that thank you for
sharing that it’s beautiful yeah that
would help i mean
there’s actually a lot of science behind
gratitude
and writing it down and then you know
it’s kind of
really i don’t like i don’t know what
the right term is but it just
allows us to kind of set it like it’s
like
set it in concrete and in our memory
that something beautiful has happened
and even when there’s lots of challenges
going on
i can still scan my world and extract
something positive
and write it in my gratitude jar i love
that thank you
i i wasn’t really into it to start off
with and then um
i read it i was like oh that’s actually
quite good yeah yeah
that’s quite annoying chris was right
again
you should just like you know give in to
that actually jim don’t you know
what will i learn
[Applause]
isn’t that like life we’re still
learning oh my god you’re all right
all right i’m going to ask you the final
question for tonight uh it is
the wine and wisdom show
and i’d love you to share what has been
the most
impactful piece of wisdom that somebody
else has shared with you that you have
been able to take into your life and
action
that has actually caused perhaps a
ripple effect of
wonderful things i’m not sure but what
is the best piece of wisdom that you’ve
had
you have some great i’ve got two because
one was from
that the other one was from mum and the
one from my dad
was always keep beer in a cold place
and if you ever tell a lie make it a
great big one so if anyone
later on you can say it’s ridiculous i
love that
this
wow the one from mum was
always keep a little bit back for
yourself
and i think um it
what what that means is you know you you
can sometimes give too much of yourself
and the potential to to lose all of that
is too great you shouldn’t ever put
yourself on the on the line like that
so keeping a little bit back of yourself
for yourself is very important
and i’ve put into play all three of
those things in my life so far
so especially
and i would yeah that’s an important the
most important one probably
um i would imagine especially being such
influences in uh the travel industry and
well and the hair and nail and lifestyle
uh
you know keeping a little bit back for
yourself is really important i know
when you started off uh christine you
were just
no one’s going to see my face i’m not
going to know my name i
you know you are really no no i’m going
to be a
someone that they’re never going to see
or know that has changed i know that and
and
it kind of has to change for the kind of
world that you’re working and living in
but
what are do you do that do you keep a
little bit back well it’s funny i think
that advice from jim’s mom is so amazing
because it’s it wasn’t
an internet world that she used that
advice for it was almost more like
the same advice of put your mask on
before helping others like it’s
it’s that same thing that you need to
look after yourself and um
there’s a lot of mental health stress
with being online and
i think that thing of keeping a little
bit back for yourself is your protection
online and it’s incredible advice like
it she means it more from
in a family sense and in a friendship
sense and
in just making sure that you are looking
after yourself
because um both actually i’d say both
jim and his mom are very similar they’re
incredibly generous giving open people
and
when you are that kind of person it can
be very easy for you just to keep giving
until
you’re an empty cup and her advice to
kind of make sure that you still keep
something for yourself is
is vital but i love it as online advice
where
you don’t need to share everything you
can share from a place later you don’t
need to share in the moment if you’re
not feeling ready to
you can create your own space that way
yeah
no i love that i think it’s very wise
for
right now even though she was saying it
to you at a time when
she did not have this kind of time in
mind at all of course
and yeah thinking similarly to that
online the advice um
i got from an old boss actually was uh
don’t take criticism from people you
wouldn’t take advice from
oh which i still and i think
in the times where people can happily
leave a comment with and go off on their
day
that can really really leave a mark when
you’re
when you’re feeling down you like those
those offhand comments can really take
really hit you hard but would
people can doubt sometimes when you’re
building a business or
um following a passion or a dream
because that’s
we’re often taught that it’s unrealistic
to be able to do something creative or
to be able to make something that you
love your job
and people can be a bit dismissive so i
think
if they’re if you wouldn’t necessarily
take their advice on how to create that
then you don’t need to listen to the
criticism at that time you can
you can put it to the side and kind of
keep moving forward
no that’s very wise words thank you very
much and
we’re going to finish up now and i am
i’ve just thought of a question that i
really want to ask
that i’m going to ask to everyone
listening and to jim and christina and
to myself even we’ve had
actually a lot i often ask this when
i’ve had people around in the last few
months
if the borders were opened and you could
only travel to one
more place in the world only one more
it can be somewhere you’ve already been
or it’s somewhere that you may still
really want to go to
where is that i’d love to hear from you
who are watching
where is that place in the world is it
somewhere you’ve been before
or somewhere you still want to
experience
well i can see the clocks the ticking
going in your mind there the little
where would they be like oh my
god one
[Laughter]
why you’re thinking i’m going to start
it off hard yes
like i so desperately need to say too
but um
i’m going to just pick one because
that’s what we’re allowed i if
yeah i would go back to the greek
islands i would have the
sun on my skin i’d have a cocktail in my
hand
my feet would be in the water there
would be
beautiful fresh octopus on my plate and
greek salads
yeah and yeah that would be my
experience
ashley newport r.i.e
rhode island yeah oh rhode island thank
you very much
ashley is that somewhere you’ve been or
somewhere you want to go
yeah oh god i’m just doing it
it’s a tough question right heidi this
is like the question that’s broken us
i know i’m sorry i wasn’t terrible
i really even if you gave me a month’s
warning on this i tell you what i could
not pick because
i am impossible at picking favorites i
don’t have a favorite color
i don’t have a favorite food like i
like my favorite food is is japanese or
italian like i can’t even do that like
they’re not even a dish
christina you are stalling with the
question
like going on about food when we’re
talking about a destination
our mandy peru and the inca trial oh i
can only highly recommend that and when
you get to do it
please speak to me because i have oh my
gosh the most
i had most amazing experience come on
guys
you’ve got one ashley you’ve been there
in the winter thank you for telling us
exactly what summer does that mean
you’re wanting to go in the summer yeah
that’s my question natalie wants to go
to peru too oh
i have you guys got have you got have
you been to peru have you got um
writing on that ah so i’m gonna come to
you
you need to come and let us know about
something yeah yeah um
okay the first thing that popped into my
head honestly was japan
i have been before and i
just adore it i i could happily go back
twice a year every year wow i’ve never
been
i absolutely love japan there’s so much
to love about it
um yeah but also then you know what the
other idea was if i said because we’ve
been talking about supporting australia
and i the other thing that popped into
my head was esperance i haven’t been
down to south west western australia
jim’s been um
you’ll recall i only gave you one i know
but i i gave you this prayer
internationally i told you okay
okay
i think i think i i really really want
to go back to puglia
in in in south south east italy
we went there with a mind to be there
for
like a couple of days and we
ended up traveling from barry all the
way around the the hill of italy this
the stiletto
point and it was just we ended up
spending like 10 days there
we’re supposed to be going through loads
of other places we just didn’t bother
just
in puglia so i think i’ll probably go
back there the food’s amazing the people
are amazing
it’s one of those places that um it
started
really heating up as a destination um in
like 2016.
um and i was really worried the tourist
trail would
ruin it as it always does but it didn’t
seem to do that
it was still too far from from the crazy
crowd to
to make it really bad so i think it’s
it’s always going to have that
just natural beauty thank you can we
choose that
all right
[Laughter]
well thank you to both of you it’s been
amazing to chat with you
i love learning about the places that we
definitely
need to visit around australia i think
the the the
northern territory is what’s shining
through as your biggest gift to all of
us to get there
if there’s anywhere to go it’s get to
the northern territory
i’m going to put everybody various links
in uh the comments after we um
come off christina and jim and i will
have a
little drink and a chat together once we
finish the broadcast
and then i’m going to put all those in
you will be able to go onto their
socials
i highly recommend you subscribe to
their e-news which is
beautiful beautiful words from jim and a
lovely
gorgeous photography from christina of
all these places that we can actually go
to right now
and also and just some that we can we
can dream about so
um thank you for your insights it’s been
absolutely superb to be able to
tap into your knowledge and your wisdom
to share
a buttery chardonnay with you
again yay and to everybody who’s been
here tonight
thank you for sharing your destinations
um that has been wonderful
uh heidi it’s been an honor to be
sharing a chat with you
and a chardonnay as always thank you so
much
thanks for everyone and good night
everybody we will see you in two weeks
for
another guest if you would like to
know who is coming up each time i’m
going to put a link in
that you can just get a notification to
find out who our
resilient courageous wonderful inspiring
guests
are going to be and thank you to all of
you who have been here tonight
good night happy vino uh happy 2021.
cheers to that thank you bye thank you
bye
[Music]
About Christina and Jim Butcher:
