Will our Travel Industry Bounce Back?

Since COVID-19, Australia has taken a big hit with the decline of international travellers visiting our country. In this episode with award-winning travel and lifestyle experts, Christina and Jim Butcher, we discuss:

1. If Australia will bounce back from the lack of international travellers? 
2. lf Australians will spend enough to keep our travel industry afloat? 
3. What the secret hot-spots to travel to this year are?
4. And so much more.

To watch this inspiring episode, click the video link below, or if you would prefer to read the full transcript click the blue button under the video.

[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]